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Now's the time: Register to vote

Political participation is at an all-time high this election season, and a record number of voters have already started to cast ballots -- a few even camped out in Ohio to be the first in line for early voting yesterday. But roughly 1 in 4 Americans still aren't registered to vote, according to the most recent <a href="http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html">Census report</a>. Now is the time -- voter registration deadlines are less than a week away in most states. We're trying to help increase participation by making sure you have easy access to voting information. Google's <a href="http://maps.google.com/vote" id="lueq" title="U.S. Voter Info Guide">Voter Info Map</a> currently puts registration, absentee and early voting information in one place. (If you're on a phone, you can check out our mobile version at <a href="http://m.google.com/elections" id="u7:v" title="m.google.com/elections">m.google.com/elections</a>.) We're working closely with state and local election officials, the <a href="http://www.votinginfoproject.org/" id="ligk" title="Pew Charitable Trusts">Voting Information Project</a> and the <a href="http://www.lwv.org/Election2008/index.html" id="ygx9" title="League of Women Voters">League of Women Voters</a> to centralize official voting information. Stay tuned for more posts on the project and details on how you can help confirm your local polling place address. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbFDcx-rH9mvRuExL1mIBXkGMHgxJOkd6FkPsRS-jOgDiKxqgax3kaXPL4uFTK6aJqguQCDaPtorn7N0ewCE7W1p5m16CDAY-cdFOYtgOYK14fxwWTgCq2tlOm85VmFfo1ZKXnPWdPttO/s1600-h/1600Penn.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252258218474419410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbFDcx-rH9mvRuExL1mIBXkGMHgxJOkd6FkPsRS-jOgDiKxqgax3kaXPL4uFTK6aJqguQCDaPtorn7N0ewCE7W1p5m16CDAY-cdFOYtgOYK14fxwWTgCq2tlOm85VmFfo1ZKXnPWdPttO/s320/1600Penn.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Leonardo DiCaprio, will.i.am, Tobey Maguire, Forrest Whitaker and a few of their friends put together the first in a series of public service announcements to encourage young Americans to register to vote -- and they include a link to our Voter Info Map. <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VhDRVKDcXQo&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VhDRVKDcXQo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object> As the Internet plays a greater role in helping people participate in elections, we're excited to help out. And you can, too. Help make sure everyone is ready for election day by reminding your friends and family to register and vote. Posted by Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Elections Team

Now's the time: Register to vote

Political participation is at an all-time high this election season, and a record number of voters have already started to cast ballots -- a...

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Clean energy 2030

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. We are developing the technologies and know-how to accomplish this. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can reduce energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security. And we can put a big dent in climate change. With strong leadership we could be moving forward on an aggressive but realistic timeline and an approach that balances costs with real economic gains. The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/15x31uzlqeo5n/1#" id="t-lm" title="Our analysis">Our analysis</a>, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%. Al Gore has <a href="http://www.wecansolveit.org/" id="pewe" title="issued a challenge">issued a challenge</a> that is even more ambitious, getting us to carbon-free electricity even sooner. We hope the American public pushes our leaders to embrace it. T. Boone Pickens has weighed in with an interesting <a href="http://www.pickensplan.com/act/?c=Google&a=Pickens-Keywords&k=pickens+plan">plan</a> of his own to massively deploy wind energy, among other things. Other plans have also been developed in recent years that merit attention. Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/15x31uzlqeo5n/1#" id="mazg" title="Clean Energy 2030 proposal">Clean Energy 2030 proposal</a> is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment -- or offer an alternative approach if you disagree. With a new Administration and Congress -- and multiple energy-related imperatives -- this is an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action. Over 22 years this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs. Many of these high quality, good-paying jobs will be in today's coal and oil producing states. To get there we need to move immediately on three fronts: (1) Reduce demand by doing more with less We should start with the low-hanging fruit by reducing energy demand through energy efficiency -- adopting technologies and practices that allow us to do more with less. At Google, we've seen the benefits of this approach. We identified $5M in building efficiency investments with a 2.5 year payback. We've also <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/saving-electricity-one-data-center-at.html" id="v-5q" title="designed our own data centers to run more efficiently">designed our own data centers to run more efficiently</a>, and we believe they are the most efficient in the world. On a smaller scale, personal computers can also become much more efficient. A typical desktop PC wastes nearly half the power it consumes. Last year, Bill Weihl, our Green Energy Czar, worked with industry partners to create the <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/" id="o.sr" title="Climate Savers Computing Initiative">Climate Savers Computing Initiative</a> to raise energy efficiency standards for personal computers and servers. If we meet our goals, these standards will cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010. Government can have a big impact on achieving greater efficiency. California's aggressive building codes, efficiency standards and utility programs have helped the state keep per-capita energy use flat for years, while consumption in much of the rest of the country has grown significantly. Enacting similar policies at the national level would help even more. We also need to give the American people opportunities to be more efficient. The way we buy electricity today is like going to a store without seeing prices: we pick what we want, and receive an unintelligible bill at the end of the month. When homes are equipped with smart meters and real-time pricing, research shows that energy use typically drops. Google is looking at ways that we can use our information technology and our reach to help increase awareness and bring better, real-time information to consumers. (2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C) Google’s data centers draw from a U.S. electricity grid that relies on coal for 50% of its power. We want to help catalyze the development of renewable energy that is price-competitive with coal. At least three technologies show tremendous promise: wind, solar thermal, and advanced geothermal. Each of these is abundant and, when combined, could supply energy in virtually every region of the U.S. This year <a href="http://www.google.org/projects.html" id="lwhl" title="Google has invested">Google has invested</a> more than $45 million in startup companies with breakthrough wind, solar and geothermal technologies through our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative (<a href="http://www.google.org/rec.html" id="k.wh" title="RE<C">RE<C</a>), but that is a drop when we need a flood. We need to unleash massive private investment in clean energy. The government can have a big impact here as well. We must dramatically increase federal R&D and enact measures supporting the rapid deployment and scaling of clean technologies such as long-term tax support and national renewable energy standards. Tax credits for wind and solar have lapsed several times in the last 20 years, starving these nascent industries of the capital they need to truly enter the mainstream. We also must work both sides of the RE<C equation. Progress will accelerate when the price of carbon reflects its true costs to society. Putting a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or a carbon tax would help address this. (3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid Imagine driving a car that uses no gas and is less expensive to recharge than buying a latte. A "smart grid" allows you to charge when electricity is cheap, and maybe even make some money by selling unused power back to the grid when it's needed. Plug-in cars are on their way, with GM, Toyota and other manufacturers planning introductions in the next two years. At Google we have a small fleet of Toyota Prius and Ford Escape plug-in conversions, as a part of our <a href="http://www.google.org/recharge/">RechargeIT program</a>. The converted Prius plug-ins <a href="http://www.google.org/recharge/experiment/">get over 90 MPG</a>, and the Escapes close to 50 MPG. However, to successfully put millions of plug-in cars on the road and fuel them with green electricity, we need a smart grid that manages when we charge and how we're billed. A smart grid could also provide for the two-way flow of electricity, as well as large-scale integration of intermittent solar and wind energy. Much of the technology in our current electrical grid was developed in the 60s and is wasteful and not very smart. We are <a href="http://64.233.179.110/blog_resources/google_org_ge_energyfactsheet.pdf" target="_blank">partnering with GE</a> to help accelerate the development of the smart grid and support building new transmission lines to harness our nation's vast renewable energy resources. We see a huge opportunity for the nation to confront our energy challenges. In the process we will stimulate investment, create jobs, empower consumers and, by the way, help address climate change. Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, and Jeffery Greenblatt, Climate and Energy Technology Manager, Google.org

Clean energy 2030

Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energ...

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Saving electricity one data center at a time

Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great Internet services while taking our energy use very seriously. That's why, nearly a decade ago, we started work to optimize the energy efficiency of our servers and later set out to build the most environmentally sustainable data centers possible. We now believe that Google-designed data centers are the most efficient in the world. The graph below shows what we've achieved: our data centers use considerably less energy for the servers themselves, and much less energy for cooling, than a typical data center. We achieved this milestone by significantly reducing the amount of energy needed for the data center facility overhead. Specifically, Google-designed data centers use nearly five times less energy than conventional facilities to feed and cool the computers inside. Our engineers worked hard to optimize every element in the data center, from the chip to the cooling tower. As a result, the energy used per Google search is minimal. In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query. To learn more about our 5-step approach to efficiency, please check out our new <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenters/">website</a> about efficient data centers. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkQ-MqmBdYtRkjX2vN4yrzAXuJdDyBjm4OIjLbzwEqS1_ogyC8Zig3ZSh6XCKnFXzx41UKNEiUbIUyF5sdDnfR_Nxg3pUgKmjphSfnA5AOPzO6XyrCU4mzDRRKGooW9xycBUvOXsJ3Wkx/s1600-h/DC+Efficiency+Graph.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252182793232210402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkQ-MqmBdYtRkjX2vN4yrzAXuJdDyBjm4OIjLbzwEqS1_ogyC8Zig3ZSh6XCKnFXzx41UKNEiUbIUyF5sdDnfR_Nxg3pUgKmjphSfnA5AOPzO6XyrCU4mzDRRKGooW9xycBUvOXsJ3Wkx/s320/DC+Efficiency+Graph.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations

Saving electricity one data center at a time

Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great Int...

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2001: A search odyssey

Now that we're a decade old, we figured we're long overdue for some spring cleaning. We started digging around our basement and found all kinds of junk: old <a title="fish food" href="http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/#1999-fish-food" id="u745">Swedish fish</a>, <a title="pigeon poop" href="http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/#2002-birdbrains" id="de4:">pigeon poop</a>, <a title="Klingon" href="http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/#2002-tlhingan-majqa" id="l3o9">Klingon</a> translation books. Amazingly enough, hidden in a corner beneath Larry's and Sergey's original lab coats, we found a vintage search index in mint condition. We dusted it off and took it for a spin, gobsmacked to see how different the web was in early 2001. "<a title="ipod" href="http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=ipod" id="crn5">iPod</a>" did not refer to a music player, "<a title="youtube" href="http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=youtube" id="k5_z">youtube</a>" was nonsense, and if you were looking for "<a title="Michael Phelps" href="http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=Michael+Phelps" id="qi2j">Michael Phelps</a>," chances are you meant the scientist, not the swimmer. "<a title="Wikipedia" href="http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=Wikipedia" id="ijwy">Wikipedia</a>" was brand new. Remember "<a title="hanging chads" href="http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=hanging+chads" id="gva0">hanging chads</a>"? (And speaking of that election-specific reference -- if you're a U.S. citizen, it's not too late: please <a title="register to vote" href="http://www.rockthevote.org/" id="jnhb">register to vote</a>.) We had so much fun searching that we wanted to put this old index online for everyone to play with. We thought it'd be even cooler if we could actually see the full versions of the old web pages, so we worked with the <a title="Internet Archive" href="http://www.archive.org/" id="tel9">Internet Archive</a> to link to their cache of these pages from 2001. Step into the time machine and try a <a title="2001 Google search" href="http://www.google.com/search2001.html" id="lf-3">2001 Google search</a>. For more information on this search, please read our <a title="FAQ" href="http://www.google.com/search2001faq.html" id="e9_x">FAQ</a>. Posted by Shirin Oskooi, Product Manager

2001: A search odyssey

Now that we're a decade old, we figured we're long overdue for some spring cleaning. We started digging around our basement and foun...

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Your YouTube video: Hot or Not?

<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/insight-into-youtube-videos.html">YouTube Insight</a> has helped millions of you learn more about your YouTube videos and figure out when, where, and why your videos are popular. But what if you could learn not just which of your videos are hot on the site, but which specific parts of those videos are hotter than others? What if you could know exactly when viewers tend to leave your videos, or which scenes within a video they watch again and again? This information is now available to all YouTube video uploaders with an innovative new feature for Insight called "Hot Spots." The Hot Spots tab in Insight plays your video alongside a graph that shows the ups-and-downs of viewership at different moments within the video. We determine "hot" and "cold" spots by comparing your video's abandonment rate at that moment to other videos on YouTube of the same length, and incorporating data about rewinds and fast-forwards. So what does that mean? Well, when the graph goes up, your video is hot: few viewers are leaving, and many are even rewinding on the control bar to see that sequence again. When the graph goes down, your content's gone cold: many viewers are moving to another part of the video or leaving the video entirely. Here's an example of Hot Spots in action: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZaC_sniDEfe3gqrrVeGTJG65OJ12FBomHBNta_d0uQR7jZ9mhxprXM4KxhL3XEkJtrpuitprhZrS9G60BbOgWncYwgmRfJhe-Aa16PCFUTtoqChGJvUNCqTOTCIviPD8j4OSpXq_EXC5i/s1600-h/Hot+Spots+screenshot+2.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251872006263705970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZaC_sniDEfe3gqrrVeGTJG65OJ12FBomHBNta_d0uQR7jZ9mhxprXM4KxhL3XEkJtrpuitprhZrS9G60BbOgWncYwgmRfJhe-Aa16PCFUTtoqChGJvUNCqTOTCIviPD8j4OSpXq_EXC5i/s400/Hot+Spots+screenshot+2.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> You can see that many viewers are not impressed with the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgIeHNla80s">dance moves</a> of Michael Rucker, Associate Product Marketing Manager at YouTube; they're leaving the video at a faster than average rate almost immediately after the video begins. But the longer the video goes on, the more people tend to stay, generating a hot spot at the end of the video. Better late than never -- kudos, Rucker! We think you'll find Hot Spots useful in several ways. For example, users can figure out which scenes in their videos are the "hottest" and edit those videos, or include well-timed annotations, to keep their audience more engaged. Partners might similarly create better content -- like more exciting promotional trailers -- for use on and off YouTube, and advertisers and agencies can study the effectiveness of their creative, to make sure they keep viewers' attention throughout an ad. Now that Insight shows what parts of videos viewers are watching and skipping, creators no longer have to play guessing games. YouTube, the world's largest focus group, provides them with answers. You can find this new feature under the "Hot Spots" tab within the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_insight">Insight Dashboard</a>. As with all of Insight's features, we learn about <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=87725">the most creative examples</a> from you. We can't wait to see what you come up with next. Posted by Tracy Chan and Nick Jakobi, Product Managers, YouTube Team

Your YouTube video: Hot or Not?

YouTube Insight has helped millions of you learn more about your YouTube videos and figure out when, where, and why your videos are popular...

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The ONE News YouTube Election Debate in New Zealand

Over the course of the long U.S. Presidential election campaign, millions of people have checked out the candidates' YouTube Channels on our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/youchoose">You Choose '08</a> platform, and communicated directly with all those running for President. Thousands more submitted questions for candidates in the CNN/YouTube debates, participated in our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/youchoose08">You Choose '08 Spotlight</a>, or made videos for the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/2008conventions">Democratic and Republican conventions</a>. Outside the U.S., YouTube has also become an important part of leveling the political playing field. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, the 2008 New Zealand general elections were called, with Kiwis going to the polls in early November. Now, we're thrilled to announce the <a href="http://nz.youtube.com/">ONE News YouTube Election Debate</a> between Helen Clark and John Key, a history-making initiative with New Zealand's public broadcaster, TVNZ. This marks the first time the head of a national government and a challenger will face YouTube video questions in an official live TV debate. The debate will be broadcast live on TV ONE on October 14. <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-g1i7q-xdiY&hl=de&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-g1i7q-xdiY&hl=de&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> If you're a Kiwi, head on over to the <a href="http://nz.youtube.com/blog?entry=sj1JOSfiJic">YouTube New Zealand blog</a> for details on how to submit your own questions. Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics

The ONE News YouTube Election Debate in New Zealand

Over the course of the long U.S. Presidential election campaign, millions of people have checked out the candidates' YouTube Channels on...

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Ten years and counting

The Google doodle tradition started a long time ago (in <a title="1999" href="http://www.google.com/holidaylogos99.html" id="fzjy">summer 1999</a>, in fact) when Larry and Sergey put a <a title="stick figure" href="http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/#doodle-a-doodle-is-born" id="d_ee">stick figure</a> on the homepage to signify that they were out of the office at <a title="Burning Man" href="http://www.burningman.com/" id="ip7:">Burning Man</a>. Nothing against stick figures, but our logo designs have become rather more varied since then. Today you'll see a special design that commemorates our 10th birthday. We've incorporated a little bit of history by using the original Google logo from 1998. And since everyone keeps asking what we'd like for our birthday (besides cake and party hats) -- the first thing we thought of was a nice new server rack. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTxkSBYcnkJjHLqpO4cTdBDQ-S-nDC3d-YJ9UUG0e8d2UsvitLdKAs0GLp_BipdZuZ94MaGh77PJuIjO7j0CdQ2IwkUJp4t8IZVTVTj2IvpELgHznxstdPUw9eXSKkTl72OwIaIh9qNEM/s1600-h/birthday10th_comp_020.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250967521579133810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTxkSBYcnkJjHLqpO4cTdBDQ-S-nDC3d-YJ9UUG0e8d2UsvitLdKAs0GLp_BipdZuZ94MaGh77PJuIjO7j0CdQ2IwkUJp4t8IZVTVTj2IvpELgHznxstdPUw9eXSKkTl72OwIaIh9qNEM/s320/birthday10th_comp_020.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Update: Added image. Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster

Ten years and counting

The Google doodle tradition started a long time ago (in summer 1999 , in fact) when Larry and Sergey put a stick figure on the homepage to ...

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