New Technology Roundtable series

We've just posted the first three videos in the <a href="http://research.google.com/roundtable/" id="icld" title="Google Technology RoundTable series">Google Technology Roundtable Series</a>. Each one is a discussion with senior Google researchers and technologists about one of our most significant achievements. We use a talk show format, where I lead a discussion on the technology.<br /><br />While the videos are intended for a reasonably technical audience, I think they may be interesting to many as an overview of the key challenges and ideas underlying Google's systems. And of course they offer a glimpse into the people behind Google.<br /><br />The first one we made is "<a href="http://research.google.com/roundtable/LSS.html" id="gzhc" title="Large-Scale Search System Infrastructure and Search Quality.">Large-Scale Search System Infrastructure and Search Quality</a>." I interview Google Fellows <a href="http://research.google.com/people/jeff/index.html">Jeff Dean</a> and <a href="http://singhal.info/">Amit Singhal</a> on their insights in how search works at Google.<br /><br />The next title is "<a href="http://research.google.com/roundtable/MR.html" title="Map Reduce">Map Reduce</a>," a discussion of this key technology (first, at Google, and now having a great impact across the field) for harnessing parallelism provided by very large-scale clusters computers, while mitigating the component failures that inevitably occur in such big systems. My discussion is with four of our Map Reduce expert engineers: Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean again, plus Software Engineers <a href="http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/%7Ezhao/">Jerry Zhao</a> and <a href="http://lafstern.org/matt/">Matt Austern</a> who discuss the origin, evolution and future of Map Reduce. By the way, this type of infrastructure underlies the infrastructure concepts in our recent post on "<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/intelligent-cloud.html">The Intelligent Cloud</a>."<br /><br />The third video, "<a href="http://research.google.com/roundtable/HLT.html" title="Applications of Human Language Technology">Applications of Human Language Technology</a>," is a discussion of our enormous progress in large-scale automated translation of languages and speech recognition. Both of these technology domains are coming of age with capabilities that will truly impact what we expect of computers on a day-to-day basis. I discuss these technologies with human language technology experts <a href="http://www.fjoch.com/">Franz Josef Och</a>, an expert in the automated translation of languages, and Mike Cohen, an expert in speech processing.<br /><br />We hope to produce more of these, so please leave feedback at YouTube (in the comments field for each video), and we will incorporate your ideas into our future efforts.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[Cross-posted on the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-technology-roundtable-series.html">Google Research Blog</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.]</span><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alfred Spector, VP of Research and Special Initiatives</span>

New Technology Roundtable series

We've just posted the first three videos in the Google Technology Roundtable Series. Each one is a discussion with senior Google researchers and technologists about one of our most significant achieve…

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The VP debate: Candidates, questions, and queries

If information is the currency of democracy, as Thomas Jefferson allegedly said, then during last Thursday's vice-presidential debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin a lot of people used <a href="http://www.google.com/" id="j7vg" title="Google Search">Google Search</a> to get a bit wealthier, metaphorically speaking. Using <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends" id="wltu" title="Google Trends">Google Hot Trends</a>, we can see some of the more interesting things that people were researching, and you can do the same to follow along yourself during tomorrow night's second presidential debate (9 PM ET). But first, here's what people were curious about during the <a title="VP match" href="http://debates.org/pages/trans2008b.html" id="ypcz">VP match</a>.<br /><br />Many people were simply interested in understanding the meaning of particular terms. Governor Palin called Senator McCain a "maverick" several times, sending many viewers to Google to query <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=definition+of+maverick&btnG=Google+Search" id="ixbn" title="definition of maverick">definition of maverick</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=what+is+a+maverick&btnG=Search" id="vogk" title="what is a maverick">what is a maverick</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=define%3Amaverick&btnG=Search" id="m05t" title="define:maverick">define:maverick</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VAZb-PSWTstYH-Qe7feoP-4y-56GORTBQdExdsnTNwb4P7qPDSYEkDI359DmhSLInyWnZ9bnllHysJSmjmMPe5dz1_wnE2u98tJkyalIhC_tknjhNe9EneTT1Wf9tPFucROZf0REkuGk/s1600-h/debate_2_election_topics.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253905684780428146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9VAZb-PSWTstYH-Qe7feoP-4y-56GORTBQdExdsnTNwb4P7qPDSYEkDI359DmhSLInyWnZ9bnllHysJSmjmMPe5dz1_wnE2u98tJkyalIhC_tknjhNe9EneTT1Wf9tPFucROZf0REkuGk/s320/debate_2_election_topics.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">As the debaters spoke, voters queried for more information.</span><br /></span></div><br />When Biden mentioned that the "theocracy controls the security apparatus" in Iran, users searched for the <a id="ftz8" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define:theocracy" title="its meaning">meaning of theocracy</a> — as they did when he spoke of the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=windfall+profits+tax&btnG=Search" id="s1b1" title="windfall profits tax">windfall profits tax</a>.<br /><br />Getting these definitions got a bit tougher when the candidates couldn't even agree on pronunciation. Discussion about a certain type of energy caused a flurry of queries: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=nucular+vs+nuclear&btnG=Search" id="ehv_" title="nucular vs nuclear">nucular vs nuclear</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=nuclear+pronunciation&btnG=Search" id="t90e" title="nuclear pronunciation">nuclear pronunciation</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=palin+nucular&btnG=Search" id="xpdd" title="palin nucular">palin nucular</a>, and even <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=nukular&btnG=Search" id="plzw" title="nukular">nukular</a>. And when Senator Biden talked about the "7,000 <i>madrasses</i> built along [the Pakistani-Afghan] border", the queries ranged from <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=madrass&btnG=Search" id="hm9h" title="madrass">madrass</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=madrases&btnG=Search" id="y1mf" title="madrases">madrases</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=madrasa&btnG=Search" id="sua3" title="madrasa">madrasa</a>, and even <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=madras&btnG=Search" id="ny2t" title="madras">madras</a>, a major city in India that's most definitely not on the Pakistani-Afghan border.<br /><br />Governor Palin's claim that "Israel is in jeopardy of course when we're dealing with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran" led viewers to try to learn more about this leader even if they could not spell his name. They searched for [Achmadinijad], [Akmadinijad], [Akmadinajad], and the correct <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=ahmadinejad&btnG=Search" id="qte-" title="ahmadinejad">Ahmadinejad</a>. Some did not even try, instead looking for [president Iran] and [Iran leader]. The Governor also referred to <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=General+McKiernan&btnG=Search" id="tg03" title="General McKiernan">General McKiernan</a>, the U.S. military leader in Afghanistan, as "McClellan", sending viewers in search of <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=McClellan&btnG=Search" id="lq0t" title="McClellan">McClellan</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=general+in+Afghanistan&btnG=Search" id="y_5i" title="general in Afghanistan">general in Afghanistan</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=General+McClellan+Afghanistan&btnG=Search" id="y546" title="General McClellan Afghanistan">General McClellan Afghanistan</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=general+Afghanistan+surge&btnG=Search" id="nmap" title="general Afghanistan surge">general Afghanistan surge</a>. Some searchers eventually did find the correct general, but not that many.<br /><br />Historical references abounded. When Senator Biden claimed "This is the most important election you will ever, ever have voted in, any of you, since 1932", some people wanted to know what it was about the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=1932+presidential+election&btnG=Search" id="ga4l" title="1932 presidential campaign">1932 presidential campaign</a> between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt that was so special. And twice as many them wanted to know about that "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=that+shining+city+on+a+hill">shining city on a hill</a>", a phrase from <a href="http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/farewell.asp" id="g411" title="Ronald Reagan's farewall address">Ronald Reagan's farewell address</a> that was originally coined in 1630 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_hill" id="w4yl" title="John Winthrop in 1630">by John Winthrop</a>.<br /><br />When Senator Biden offered a civics lesson ("Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch") many people checked, and learned that <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlei.html" id="nx95" title="Article I of the Constitution">Article I of the Constitution</a> describes the legislative branch of the U.S. government. The executive branch is described in <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articleii.html" id="jwm6" title="Article II">Article II</a>. Others just searched directly for the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=role+of+vice+president&btnG=Google+Search" id="ogz1" title="role of vice president">role of vice president</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=vice+president+duties&btnG=Search" id="h6z:" title="vice president duties">vice president duties</a>.<br /><br />People searched on <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=clean+coal&btnG=Search" id="o-o-" title="clean coal">clean coal</a> and took a look at Senator Biden's position (as the candidate asked them to) with queries like <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=biden+clean+coal&btnG=Search" id="hvu7" title="biden clean coal">Biden clean coal</a>.<br /><br />These are some of the more interesting queries, but which were the most popular ones? Among the candidates, Senator Biden was a big winner. Searches on him soared more than 70-fold, compared to a week earlier. Governor Palin, much more of a search favorite in the weeks leading up to the debate, only saw a 6x jump, but her volume outpaced Senator Biden's.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAXd9TYhq_VmyJFdMHTMEAJ9GyV3Io07imZdY-oPQnc2SlNaJu5s_RJivrOIttViEn3sYFAHqhgL4DB_EdS-5hujtv1J75uNWP8TLRCeIEYeZpsvutzlOAiiLUsdtrOhQ6Uws5w60-VH6q/s1600-h/debate_1_minutesin.PNG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253905100953917698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAXd9TYhq_VmyJFdMHTMEAJ9GyV3Io07imZdY-oPQnc2SlNaJu5s_RJivrOIttViEn3sYFAHqhgL4DB_EdS-5hujtv1J75uNWP8TLRCeIEYeZpsvutzlOAiiLUsdtrOhQ6Uws5w60-VH6q/s320/debate_1_minutesin.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Searches for the VP candidates peaked near the debate's end</span></span>.<br /><br /></div>Beyond names, two search terms which triggered the most searches were [nuclear] (a 130x spike compared to a week earlier) and [maverick] (70x). [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=register+to+vote" id="vzge" title="Register to vote">Register to vote</a>] was also quite popular; we even have a <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/mapplets/elections/2008/us-voter-info/us-voter-info.xml" id="orei" title="special site">special site</a> for that.<br /><br />The <a href="http://debates.org/">Commission on Presidential Debates</a>, which hosts the debates, has stated its objective as providing "the best possible information to viewers and listeners". From Google's perspective — the little search box on viewers' and listeners' computers and mobile phones — the vice presidential debate did a pretty darn good job.<br /><br />We'll give you an update on tomorrow night's debate later this week. In the meantime, keep an eye on the most recent queries yourself on <a title="Google Hot Trends" href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends" id="nhro">Google Hot Trends</a>; they change frequently and will start to reflect the debate's talking points soon after it finishes.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeffrey D. Oldham, Software Engineer; Fred Leach, Customer Labs Analyst; and Betsy Masiello, Economics Analyst</span>

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The VP debate: Candidates, questions, and queries

If information is the currency of democracy, as Thomas Jefferson allegedly said, then during last Thursday's vice-presidential debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin a lot of people used Goog…

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Amazon conservation in San Francisco

For most of us, today is another Saturday. For a chief of the Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, it's a unique day, because San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a proclamation declaring October 4th as "Chief Almir Surui Day."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiheg8T-DXqG7TGgZczKl5QSHNEUMI9hhJyc411841lmrVugaknkoKmBYR1a1x-ybIX0evdEifcEIY_6x1yVHz2WykxQkKIpnSG5Q0WmYu7QJw_6BNHmnDdCLKQ8nYUSuBeGcMBksgYsGKs/s1600-h/Almir_SURUI_final.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253127720091144194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiheg8T-DXqG7TGgZczKl5QSHNEUMI9hhJyc411841lmrVugaknkoKmBYR1a1x-ybIX0evdEifcEIY_6x1yVHz2WykxQkKIpnSG5Q0WmYu7QJw_6BNHmnDdCLKQ8nYUSuBeGcMBksgYsGKs/s320/Almir_SURUI_final.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br />Chief Almir and the <a href="http://www.amazonteam.com/" id="oja:" title="Amazon Conservation Team">Amazon Conservation Team</a> will be in the Bay Area to attend the <a href="http://mvff2008.inticketing.com/filmevent.php?eventid=27824&browse_type=etitle&browse_value=Children%20of%20the%20Amazon" id="jc8i" title="world premiere">world premiere</a> of a documentary film by Denise Zmekhol called <span style="font-style: italic;">Children of the Amazon</span>. They'll also participate in a <a href="http://mvff2008.inticketing.com/filmevent.php?eventid=27978&showdate=20081005&browse_type=edate&browse_value=2008-10-05&page=1&ssl=6JNNqd4u7M56zgN" target="_blank" title="unique panel">unique panel</a> tomorrow, October 5th.<br /><br />In June, a team of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/ragogmakan-google-goes-to-amazon.html" id="r9tu" title="Googlers went to the Amazon">Googlers went to the Amazon</a> to train indigenous people including Chief Almir's Surui tribe on how to use Google Earth, You Tube and other Internet tools to show the world what's at stake with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/09/29/amazon.rainforest.destruction.ap/index.html" id="h82l" title="deforestation in the Amazon">deforestation in the Amazon</a>. The tribes are using this knowledge to preserve their history, culture, and develop a long-term sustainability plan to protect their rainforest and create economic opportunity.<br /><br />Filmmaker Zmekhol joined us on the trip and filmed dozens of hours of footage. Out of this footage has come a story about cloud computing from under a lush canopy of Amazon rainforest, where a group of emerging technologists are eager to share their story about their culture and their plan to preserve their forest and their way of life. (Learn more about our trip <a href="http://earth.google.com/outreach/amazon1.html" id="qqan">here</a>.)<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PqE9RQTRMvw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PqE9RQTRMvw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach</span>

Amazon conservation in San Francisco

For most of us, today is another Saturday. For a chief of the Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, it's a unique day, because San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a proclamation declaring Octob…

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Browse what the world is saying on Blog Search

Did you know that millions of bloggers around the world write new posts each week? If you're like me, you probably read only a tiny fraction of these in <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a>. What's everybody else writing about? Our Blog Search team thought this was an interesting enough question to look into. What we found was a massive mix: entertaining items about celebrities, personal perspectives on political figures, cutting-edge (and sometimes unverified) news stories, and a range of niche topics often ignored by the mainstream media.<br /><br />Today, we're pleased to launch a <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/">new homepage for Google Blog Search</a> so that you too can browse and discover the most interesting stories in the blogosphere. Adapting some of the technology pioneered by Google News, we're now showing categories on the left side of the website and organizing the blog posts within those categories into clusters, which are groupings of posts about the same story or event. Grouping them in clusters lets you see the best posts on a story or get a variety of perspectives. When you look within a cluster, you'll find a collection of the most interesting and recent posts on the topic, along with a timeline graph that shows you how the story is gaining momentum in the blogosphere.<br /><br />In this example, the green "64 blogs" link takes you inside the cluster and shows you all the blog posts for a story.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0am_OqX9J-s9788Rb0g3AEuPp9JNZoECvS-_cOkUmpVTJLKvQ8ZXeAiwgnlDLI_FneMPuSEeIZwkbMbABhzzWPsS2NwmYZBsF29vdTrwNnJTzunWdyHweKnlyBhk4kSXUR5tzxytJU18/s1600-h/Blogsearch_image.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251872658980326306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0am_OqX9J-s9788Rb0g3AEuPp9JNZoECvS-_cOkUmpVTJLKvQ8ZXeAiwgnlDLI_FneMPuSEeIZwkbMbABhzzWPsS2NwmYZBsF29vdTrwNnJTzunWdyHweKnlyBhk4kSXUR5tzxytJU18/s320/Blogsearch_image.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br />We've had a great time building the new homepage and we hope you enjoy using it. Please give it a try and <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-blog-search">let us know</a> if you have comments or suggestions. We're launching in English only today, but plan to add new features and support for more languages in the coming months, so stay tuned.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Michael Cohen, Product Manager </span>

Browse what the world is saying on Blog Search

Did you know that millions of bloggers around the world write new posts each week? If you're like me, you probably read only a tiny fraction of these in Google Reader. What's everybody else writing ab…

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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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 <span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><a href="http://m.google.com/elections" id="u7:v" title="m.google.com/elections">m.google.com/elections</a>.)<br /><br />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 <span style="font-family:Arial;"></span><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.<br /><br /><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><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><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><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Elections Team</span>

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 ear…

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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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />To get there we need to move immediately on three fronts:<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less</span><br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C)</span><br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid</span><br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, and Jeffery Greenblatt, Climate and Energy Technology Manager, Google.org</span>

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 accomp…

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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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><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><span class="byline-author">Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations</span>

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. T…

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