Search experiments, large and small

In my <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-quality-continued.html" id="ydhu" title="previous blog post">previous post</a>, I described the components of your web search experience and the principles behind creating a great search experience. There are complex algorithms underlying simple features such as spelling correction and the two line snippets that describe each search result. We figure out what works by running experiments - tiny tests for a small number of users which help us determine whether that feature helps or hurts. <br /><br /><br /><br />Experimentation is a very powerful tool, and we use it very widely to test potential changes to search. At any given time, we run anywhere from 50 to 200 experiments on Google sites all over the world. I'll start by describing experimental changes so small that you can barely tell the difference after staring at the page, and end with a couple of much more visually obvious experiments that we have run. There are a lot of people dedicated to detecting everything Google changes - and occasionally, things imagined that we did not do! - and they do latch on to a lot of our more prominent experiments. But the experiments with smaller changes are almost never noticed. <br /><br /><br /><br />For example, can you tell the difference between the two pages below?<br /><br /><br /><br />Choice 1:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbp7OBMFq4enVdvdPVzB6Iq9ZDXUCpTBqQR7Ro5XgKq3TKmfmqcc5lmSjIyOXVkaXNnhWXHeFoWYxnAItfkT5tJLr6KKuGOsBYZLCwMW16fnvAS8IGrt-SsLza7aHXAStY7pe3dPyXyKV0/s1600-h/Gomes_1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1lXC3kfdZVjGDcsjWj2Eb9UeG1vY-yOJJaq8zT5qdIS22JR1EQGTe3lQtuM42orduR7Q_UOYzpln7zDm6aC8uomJ89Q_ubJjDQQIxkqe9eEXHSU0WWfl7bs-O8VzyvoNEWFIT3FmHEOZo/s320-r/Gomes_1.gif" /></a></div><br /><br />Choice 2:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtM_EEhk2JQmdQBDQ6aM8q-8I1uA0L32gca7q4XZyAdQ-GHS7cYie3LFTMRmhzbFhPwzBqe0MEo7KxDHubpjOf0gETHK4F50sOJwth5UE-LJYzmfhLyuZH-rsdbkECpiJiE8g-IbnxyKhh/s1600-h/Gomes_2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYCVLfgwgZ8yCkcLInmwmW0aZud2Yy3ieBdWtCCT-s9fsZ15DOMvtCotoYWb5niBD2Ba22HqHrcQ4i9GXRSVPKssOXP9mrDrEkz5b3NbLc_Rsrf_UT12QaaOjU5gIYGyhfOG8DD7Nc9JhM/s320-r/Gomes_2.gif" /></a></div><br /><br />I'm pretty sure I would not be able to tell the difference if I were to see each of them on their own. But apparently you can! At least in the aggregate, there is a measurable difference with a change like this. In case you can't tell after staring, the white space around the first search result has changed, which makes the first result in Picture 2 slightly more visually prominent. This visual prominence conveys the fact that according to our ranking signals, the first result is a substantially better match than the next result. On the plus side, it helps you focus on the first result. But if you were looking for one of the other results, it can disrupt your scanning of the page. An experiment helps us determine which effect is more prominent, and whether a change would help you search faster. <br /><br /><br /><br />Another change, almost as minimal visually, is between these two results:<br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div id="bk7m"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7H1NSOpGTVoiixOeYMIA1z4DP9C9ygEqgCkolBFNk5CGm7QbHZjDBzE8K8jqgJsnreSM-JPKcdhOTb_QFOcsT39tnsq6w_anlT-axXPHhYL7qTuDr59g3g945xwMizeQpSDSInC75YUy/s1600-h/Gomes_3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ56W398v5CJlmllGTivY4LXx3fcHBahvk5IHpskqzyDiAAHZ2GjzR5Ipdx_xmUeeJa7vU7WLUvFfxQy_QMXzsLFsvpZapQXDoxfxzmVCOjOurEpGGysiCuYOs-9HxQpFv8q9bSeApjCTM/s320-r/Gomes_3.gif" /></a></div><div id="bk7m"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhablNJ1mQb34wRLm66CpsaWh38Z2KQJHxrVk_ko-cAHObPB6rAPVQ_OLCwa25VYqaS4VY7rhPdv4nEXhqEs-qu9pXR5zVYrrBOYOF94K44002ldRtMv4BOB0Y8l9yz6lhyphenhyphenGu5ZHbKnJ1DN/s1600-h/Gomes_4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOEByVS8JlLtlvj4gPIHRD_O8KdSqJmGhsxBEVg91Avo9shUocx1py0mc2uF92cx3IdFNaCRQqyVXCMQ76BHgi5Ym4xG38IJUZZWGjKjtCzo4-4s5ejNynHAljbBeupaCE30lrJTIpcZlC/s320-r/Gomes_4.gif" /></a></div><div id="bk7m"> </div><div id="bk7m">In this case, the difference in user interaction is so clear and marked we could tell extremely quickly which one worked better: the difference is in the thickness of the plus box next to the stock quote. Now, coming to the conclusion that one is "better" is tricky, and there's many a possible slip on the way there. Does more interaction with the plus box mean that it is better? How about if users then miss good results because they are distracted by the more prominent plus box? Keep watching Google to see which version won! If we've done our job right, almost without your noticing, things will work just that little bit better for you. The world will seem rosier. Birds will sing. Or maybe not - but at least you will have the best-designed plus box we can come up with :)<br /><br /><br /><br />Okay, so not all of our experiments are insane eye tests. My main point in highlighting the above experiments is that we test almost everything, even things that you would think are so small that we could not possibly care (nor could they possibly matter). In fact, small changes do matter, and we do care. <br /><br /><br /><br />Another class of experiments have to do with changes that are not purely visual, but rather involve changes to the underlying presentation algorithms. For instance, the algorithm that is responsible for the titles and snippets of result pages now highlights stems and some synonyms of the original query term. For the query [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=hp+printer+drivers&btnG=Google+Search" id="h1cc" title="hp printer drivers">hp printer drivers</a>] we will also return results that include and highlight the word "driver".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-3PkmzfAAhutzHnK2VCXehUdiqD6fFLexvVPPZCd9va0LtHorddr_V0rwAICyHBtZjIKUByByGTU7VVuzIWfhJCXyw1DTNzPArkiOpLq4V8qYL5DosUR7hOluGPPWTyGXgkJbl6iENMRm/s1600-h/Gomes_5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPaLdl-p2jTmuwoAzv6LgIeALP8g6rk-aKlR0DV9ZrGxkBf7MyIrmWkhoFncWLrQcRR2UCoD8-FMx3erK98rz77A1Xo6AFVrxb3ZyYgxLvLad1fkIT2VKwiyIw-TvILFnCRgCbpkiRxlq/s320-r/Gomes_5.gif" /></a></div><div id="z2ml" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: left;">This sort of "stemming," as it's called, is generally a good idea, because it helps you better identify results that match your query, but not always. Experiments of this sort help us verify (or, occasionally, overturn) our assumptions regarding changes in these algorithms. <br /><br /><br /><br />There is a further class of experiments - the kind that are hard to miss - which introduces fairly prominent features. Even with these larger features, the goal of experimentation always remains the same: are we adding something that really helps people, or is this just another distraction? Google does not really come with a user manual (actually, there are some nicely-written help pages, but we're pretty sure most of you don't bother to read them!). So features need to stand on their own feet, without the help of a careful explanation. Part of the goal of an experiment is to understand just how a feature will be used, which might be quite different from what we initially intended. <br /><br /><br /><br />Here's an example of an experiment that lets you comment on search results and move them around on the result page:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70-9FyRBx96tLE34dyYi0VyTjGoFu4lf_P8t4cTN4t_G8SMccJW1C_x2gq35PTUdcqYdNlHTxJZDbO1DQJFqyUOTBhPBMaZPhJqA_z_RY-mfPjtFOBJnKv-Uv0sO7vFJefA4NMzoH9TAT/s1600-h/Gomes_6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3dQRlXLRHYHryA0hPHvzscbel3QeG0SxAohn9XlU4NKxiVoP2T7HCI_O9bxEsaru0q2g3XkhNIRwdltFMHIrphtssu2UoDh993-Lq-NVaLKscOz25iIWGCQQuIl-GNhJF-dc0UR9HzjrT/s320-r/Gomes_6.gif" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br />At this point, I can't say what we expect from this feature; we're just curious to see how it will be used.<br /><br /><br /><br />These are a small sample of the kinds of experiments we run as we test everything from the barely visible to the glaringly obvious. So the next time you use Google and it seems a little different - well, maybe it is. Just for you!<br /><br /><br /><br />Posted by Ben Gomes, Distinguished Engineer

Search experiments, large and small

In my previous post , I described the components of your web search experience and the principles behind creating a great search experience....

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At a loss for words?

Have you ever been stumped in finding the right words to search for? Back when I was planning my wedding, I had a list of wedding songs in mind, but the problem was that I couldn't remember any of the artist names or song titles. So I started typing into the Google search box parts of the lyrics that I did remember -- and like magic, I saw suggestions with the artist name and song titles that I wanted! (I was opted-in to the <i>keyword suggestions</i> Google Labs experiment at the time). At that moment, I was so proud to be working on <a href="http://labs.google.com/suggestfaq.html">Google Suggest</a>, a search feature that provides real-time suggestions while you search.<br /><br />Today we're excited because Google Suggest will be "graduating" from Labs and available by default on the Google.com homepage. Over the next week, we'll be rolling this out so that more and more of you will start seeing a list of query suggestions when you start typing into the search box.<br /><br />We find that by providing suggestions upfront, we can help people search more efficiently and conveniently. Below are some great ways Google Suggest can help simplify your searching.<br /><ul><li><b>Help formulate queries</b>: Instead of just typing [hotels in washington] - did you want [hotels in washington dc] or [hotels in washington state]? Don't remember that song title or person's name? Let Google help you search (and yes, I ended up choosing "From This Moment" as our wedding song).</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibarN4sZPXY9I_YZa5F6XpFmmgV1Ab_QWNc-gk-CMau0svI4Y6bfog9-E4abDHUNNhrQ391dDcg8z84UCu08dGg6B90b7rrOo8aojmYWwqQwhhdv23vf7l5tsqtiWASdmCASDERCxhNJ2r/s1600-h/Suggest_1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-jmew1ww-R9M71_TVoPWk35ogG-GTmCy_Wlcz9WrIGn7FQ1MZKfhmjh4dDavDgmXrDi_IoHiWbr9zGxOPVcqKVjgOR78h8P6cYQY9g_nOi2HhB9dXP6pyFXOiYPx6QxTxtPsh9h4b2bdY/s320-r/Suggest_1.gif" /></a></div><ul><li><b>Reduce spelling errors:</b> Since suggestions are spell-corrected using the same "Did you mean?" feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, misspellings and typos can be corrected ahead of time. Instead of wasting your time with a misspelled query like [new y<b id="wxz0">ro</b>k times] or [tomo<b id="skcn">r</b>ow never dies], search the first time with the correctly-spelled query.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzUKP-HlkZU0Kro7AGxRAjU8lUTJG2Xvx3746HPR3Ka7ib03SM2NMaW47WcHPzdR1jPFzvLo7V0jm67bmxyqIT5r_0t5dbmPr-vKtToG_Dn4kvkeVdZBA8MO8hG5WjL_8J5cB8O2nYcYT/s1600-h/Suggest_2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVNJP6_qjlnWq7zMmBlhNk1kIyCFFEvF6w7sp4RLIoRTNSTnSgEzjsmjHDcVO8o9RW3W0RaqlW_wlNTBppr5hpBpTNyzU-goOnCbmoeJk6cQoP5gLT71n9ykKMWv6P8tapZ_sZIGIjMdEr/s320-r/Suggest_2.gif" /></a></div><ul><li><b>Saves keystrokes:</b> Who wants to spend their time typing [san francisco chronicle] when you can just type in "san f..." and choose the suggestion right away?</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9SHtsLIA86NvOb6QSs8AG8qFmaY2OE8Tztg45Fn_elx-U8kUe_7aQr9ym12UTbEN8hCYxgQm39gv7rPrlZhx1c367vHQUYPbrUga7_OPsKyZOZAU9hCKIziddbdFwazkn4y5I4Bw1Gy1/s1600-h/Suggest_3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFavVb7aRzf-NPPRZ8KDEQH3BUw5OqMpBo8WGSgehTqYP3PUnglXSPcCkxP8xhZ17VUn2V8CIT9JDqE6UyKxVAfJkvq-hc2t0gD_sXKhRtwY0tylybPVZCJQqAgkOggwVYt8_epK40s63/s320-r/Suggest_3.gif" /></a></div>The Google Suggest feature originally started as a 20% project in 2004, and has since expanded to Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox search box, Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com. Special thanks to my teammates Miki Herscovici (Tech Lead) and the rest of the engineering team in Haifa for their hard work in making this happen.<br /><br />So what are you waiting for? Give it a try. Start typing in a query on Google.com to see Google Suggest in action!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update:</span> Corrected team mention.<br /><br />Posted by Jennifer Liu, Product Manager

At a loss for words?

Have you ever been stumped in finding the right words to search for? Back when I was planning my wedding, I had a list of wedding songs in m...

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Election season in high gear

As many of you know, the 2008 U.S. political conventions--two weeks of party business that begins for the Democrats in Denver today, and for the Republicans in Minneapolis next week--marks the beginning of the general election season. To help you stay informed and engaged in the upcoming election, we're launching a one-stop shop for political information: <b id="g.ta"><a title="www.google.com/2008election" href="http://www.google.com/2008election" id="ayrk">www.google.com/2008election</a></b>.<br /><br />Can't make it to Denver or Minneapolis? Go to our <a id="vguz" href="http://www.google.com/2008election/convention.html" title="conventions site">conventions site</a> to view the latest news, videos, photos and blog posts. See what the candidates are saying about the issues that concern you by using <a id="zb-f" href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=www.google.com/ig/modules/elections_video_search.xml" title="Elections Video Search">Elections Video Search</a>, which lets you search across all of the candidate speeches and videos by word. If you want to see what the Obama or McCain campaigns and other political journalists are reading, check out <a id="z1q_" href="http://www.google.com/googlereader/powerreaders/index.html" title="Power Readers in Politics">Power Readers in Politics</a> and subscribe to get daily snippets. You can also interact with a wide variety of political mash-ups in the <a id="d595" href="http://maps.google.com/elections" title="Google Maps Elections Gallery">Google Maps Elections Gallery</a>. If you're a teacher, inform your students about the political process with our <a title="Election Toolkit for Teachers" href="http://www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html" id="m48y">Election Toolkit for Teachers</a>. If you happen to be running for office yourself, or are blogging about various campaigns, go to our <a id="a9jw" href="http://www.google.com/campaigntools" title="Campaign Toolkit">Campaign Toolkit</a> to find out how you can use online tools to raise money, follow the campaign trail or spread your influence.<br /><br />And as election day grows closer, we're working on ways for you to find local voter registration sites or polling places on demand -- stay tuned for more details on that.<br /><br />We're excited to be a part of this exciting election season, where technology is playing a groundbreaking role in connecting candidates and voters.<br /><br />Posted by Rick Klau and Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team

Election season in high gear

As many of you know, the 2008 U.S. political conventions--two weeks of party business that begins for the Democrats in Denver today, and for...

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Bring the political process to life in your classroom

It's back-to-school season in the U.S. and social studies teachers everywhere are excited about the November elections and all of the ways that politics has evolved since even just four years ago. Technology is advancing. Internet fundraising has brought all kinds of new small donors into the political process, social networking is helping campaigns and citizens organize themselves in new ways, and YouTube, which didn't even exist four years ago, has <a title="swept the political dialogue" href="http://www.citizentube.com/" id="klsa">swept the political dialogue</a>.<br /><br />With technology producing such dramatic changes in American politics, we want to make sure it's easy for teachers to bring some of the best Internet tools into the classroom to help students get engaged. Working with the <a title="National Student/Parent Mock Election" href="http://nationalmockelection.org/" id="y3vy">National Student/Parent Mock Election</a>, we've pulled together a site called <a title="Elections Tools for Teachers" href="http://www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html" id="vck4">Elections Tools for Teachers</a> where you can find descriptions and suggested learning activities for tools like YouTube, Google Maps, Elections Video Search and Power Readers, which we announced here yesterday.<br /><br />We want students to walk away from their engagement in this election with a sense of excitement about our democratic process and with the belief that their voices matter. As Gloria Kirshner, president of the Mock Election has said, "In the classrooms of today are the Presidents, Senators, Congress members and, most important, the voters of tomorrow. Whether we are sending these children to the White House or to the polls, we hope to send them with a deep understanding of 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.'"<br /><br />Please <a title="let us know" href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pTM7o25sgF7ywCqyk_gZzXA" id="iktb">let us know</a> if you find Elections Tools for Teachers helpful in your teaching, and we hope you'll <a title="enroll your students" href="http://nationalmockelection.org/EnrollNowPage/revisedForm/css/revisedForm2.htm" id="ezew">enroll your students</a> in this year's National Mock Election on October 30th.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Galen Panger & Cristin Frodella, Google Educators Team</span>

Bring the political process to life in your classroom

It's back-to-school season in the U.S. and social studies teachers everywhere are excited about the November elections and all of the wa...

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Google in Tamil

The global nature of <a title="our mission" href="http://www.google.com/corporate/" id="yu3:">our mission</a> is reflected in the phrases the "world's information" and "universally accessible." To this end, you may have recently read about our <a title="40-language initiative" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/hitting-40-languages.html" id="v_23">40-language initiative</a> and <a title="the story" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-in-your-language.html" id="x.2b">the story</a> of a community coming together to develop Google search in the <a title="Maori language" href="http://www.google.co.nz/" id="wlp2">Maori language</a>.<br /><br />Following on this theme, we'd like to highlight a few new products that enable a better online experience for Tamil speakers around the world.<br /><br />First, we just <a title="announced" href="http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-news-now-in-tamil.html" id="hiur">released</a> <span id="qxqj" style="font-size:100%;"><a id="de0f14" href="http://news.google.co.in/news?ned=ta_in" title="http://news.google.co.in/news?ned=ta_in" target="_blank">Google News in Tamil</a>. Like other Google News editions, we gather stories from the various Tamil news sources on the web and present an automatically- generated summary with links to the most important stories in each section.<br /><br />We recognize that it can sometimes be hard to enter Tamil text with existing keyboards. Our transliteration technology enables the conversion from English text to phonetically equivalent text in Indian languages. For example, using transliteration, you could type "vanakkam" and we would convert it to Tamil script as வணக்கம். We have embedded this technology in several Google products to make it easier to enter text in Tamil.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/ta/">Google search in Tamil</a> enables users to start typing in English and automatically get query suggestions in Tamil. If you wanted to enter the query "ponniyin selvan" in Tamil, just start typing it in English - e.g. "ponni" and we will show the Tamil suggestions:<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeMyLPTsyWGgkEwcZRtoMYcp9Y1pdEzD8WtOAIEfBmNvyJZI6K-B0QuOyBNG9viMJHmp1Bz_IiU-xGNxImvR15PAWv8YT53F0M07SICxqThua6vur83VF_uROuD0Ldty8rNs-lJyIZCu9/s1600-h/Tamil_ponni.GIF"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234078225168628818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeMyLPTsyWGgkEwcZRtoMYcp9Y1pdEzD8WtOAIEfBmNvyJZI6K-B0QuOyBNG9viMJHmp1Bz_IiU-xGNxImvR15PAWv8YT53F0M07SICxqThua6vur83VF_uROuD0Ldty8rNs-lJyIZCu9/s320/Tamil_ponni.GIF" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span id="de0f25"><br /><a href="http://blogger.com/indic/ta" id="now1">Tamil transliteration in Blogger</a> is designed for bloggers publishing content in Tamil when using the English keyboard for text entry. It's our hope that this will make Tamil content more popular and more easily available online.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx" title="http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx" target="_blank">Tamil transliteration in orkut</a> makes it easier to communicate with friends and family by exchanging scraps in Tamil.<br /><br />We hope that each of these products will help to bring the benefits of the Internet to the millions of Tamil speakers in India and elsewhere.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Vinodh Kumar R and Naren Manappa, Software Engineers</span></span>

Google in Tamil

The global nature of our mission is reflected in the phrases the "world's information" and "universally accessible....

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Follow what Obama, McCain and leading political commentators are reading

We're reading a lot about the candidates and the media this election season. But what are <i>they</i> reading? At <a href="http://google.com/powerreaders" target="_blank">google.com/powerreaders</a> now you can track the news sites and blogs Barack Obama and John McCain read (from Drudge to The Daily Show) and follow articles catching the eyes of leading political journalists. Both the McCain and Obama presidential campaigns and leading political journalists are using Google Reader to keep up with their favorite new sites and blogs as well as share articles that interest them. You can follow shared articles and blog posts, or you can add participants' reading lists or shared news feeds to your own Reader account.<br /><br />We're pleased to include the following contributors in our launch:<br /><ul><li>Obama and McCain campaigns</li><li>Mike Allen, POLITICO </li><li>Chuck DeFeo, Townhall</li><li>John Dickerson, Slate</li><li>Mark Halperin, TIME </li><li>Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post</li><li>Ruth Marcus, Washington Post</li><li>Jon Meacham, Newsweek</li><li>Patrick Ruffini, The Next Right</li></ul>Visit <a href="http://google.com/powerreaders" target="_blank">google.com/powerreaders</a> to stay up to date on what the political gurus are reading -- so you too can become one by November.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing Manager</span>

Follow what Obama, McCain and leading political commentators are reading

We're reading a lot about the candidates and the media this election season. But what are they reading? At google.com/powerreaders now...

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Time to "Free the Airwaves"

For quite some time we've been <a title="talking about" href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/05/larry-page-talks-about-googles-vision.html" id="r56t">talking about</a> the potential of the unused airwaves <a title="between broadcast TV channels" href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2007/12/today-tv-static-tomorrow-broadband.html" id="q_tw">between broadcast TV channels</a> ("white spaces") to provide affordable, high-speed wireless Internet connectivity nationwide. For this to happen, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must allow unlicensed use of this spectrum.<br /><br />If you care about the future of the Internet, now is the time to take action. The FCC has completed its field testing and is expected to make a ruling in the coming months. With this in mind, today we're launching <a title="Free The Airwaves" href="http://www.freetheairwaves.com/" id="pocj">Free The Airwaves</a>, a new effort to bring users together around this important issue.<br /><br />To help you to learn more about the tremendous promise of these airwaves, people from around the country have filmed <a title="video testimonials" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/freetheairwaves" id="ihd4">video testimonials</a>. <a title="Matthew Rantanen" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=houUIkCmP_Q" id="yls0">Matthew Rantanen</a> of Tribal Digital Village explained how freeing the airwaves would bring new opportunities to the Southern California Native American community, currently underserved by today's broadband providers. <a title="Wally Bowen" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfKyvJxk6ts" id="pw5y">Wally Bowen</a> of the Mountain Area Information Network discussed the potential of these airwaves to bring broadband access to rural communities. Many others have also weighed in, and we hope you will too.<br /><br />At its core, Free The Airwaves is a call to action for everyday users. You don't need to be a telecommunications expert to understand that freeing the "white spaces" has the potential to transform wireless Internet as we know it. When you visit the site, you'll be invited to film a video response explaining what increased Internet access could mean for you, to sign a petition to the FCC, to contact your elected officials, to spread the word, and more.<br /><br />When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web. There's no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the Internet. That's certainly good for Google (not to mention many of our <a title="industry peers" href="http://www.wirelessinnovationalliance.org/index.cfm?objectid=A25E1FC0-F1F6-6035-B3635EA7D5386BE0" id="hgl4">industry peers</a>) but we also think that it's good for consumers.<br /><br />That said, we can't pretend to speak for you. To learn more about what's at stake and to get involved, check out <a title="FreeTheAirwaves.com" href="http://www.freetheairwaves.com/" id="n9k6">FreeTheAirwaves.com</a>. We hope that once you've explored the facts for yourself, you'll want to make your voice heard.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Minnie Ingersoll, Product Manager, Alternative Access Team</span>

Time to "Free the Airwaves"

For quite some time we've been talking about the potential of the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels ("white spaces...

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