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High-powered search for Arabic-speaking engineers

When I first started working at Google in 2006 I was amazed to see that the fabled <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/googles-20-percent-time-in-action.html" id="yrod" title="20% time">20% time</a> really existed, and that it was up to me to decide how to use it. Being of Egyptian descent and having lived in Canada and the U.S., I became increasingly interested in Google's international work. Based on my interests and background, I helped assemble a team of Arabic-speaking engineers and we began to spend 20% of our time on developing Arabic-language products. Over time this has become a more formal effort, so I'm really happy to tell you that today we're stepping up our commitment to users in the Middle East by hiring full-time engineers familiar with the Arabic language and its engineering challenges. The reality is that in many countries across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) there is only single-digit Internet penetration rate. On the other hand, there are over 330 million Arabic speakers worldwide, many of them hungry for the information, interactivity, and opportunities that the Internet can provide. As more Arabic speaking people come online -- the vast majority via mobile phones -- our team wants to help provide effective and useful products in their native language. For example, despite the fact that there are millions of Arabic speakers worldwide, only approximately 1% of all of the content online is in Arabic. We want to build tools to make content creation even easier for our Arabic-speaking users, encouraging them to connect, share and interact with each other, and with other users around the world. This isn't easy. Creating an Arabic-language product is actually significantly harder than for most other languages. As mentioned in a previous post about our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/hitting-40-languages.html" id="eycd" title="40 language initiative">40 language initiative</a>, Arabic is written from right to left. An Arabic speaker searching for [Ramadan TV series schedule 2008] (a very popular query during Ramadan) would type [مواعيد مسلسلات رمضان 2008]. Part of the query will be <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/searching-rght-to-left.html" id="qr.221" target="_blank" title="written in one direction">written from right to left in Arabic</a> while the numbers will be written left to right. Sometimes the right-to-left difference can mean having to change the entire layout of a page, as with Gmail. As you can see, just delivering products in Arabic is challenging, but we also believe the differences mean that the capabilities of the products can be different. There are a large number of new, innovative features and products that need to be created to properly serve the Arabic markets, many of which have fundamental computer science challenges. Intrigued? Google is looking for the best Arabic engineer minds to join the first dedicated team focused on tackling these engineering challenges. Our goal is to put together a top-notch Arabic engineering team. I am passionate about building an exceptional global team of engineers whose job it will be to design and develop innovative products and features that meet the needs of our Arabic speaking users. I was initially attracted to this challenge because I knew that my work at Google could easily have an impact on tens of millions of people around the world. It especially excites me that for a language that has been underserved to date, we'll be making product innovations that can have a material effect on the future of the region. Google has been formally recognized in <a href="http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/best/list-uk.htm">the UK</a> and in <a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0801/gallery.bestcos_top50.fortune/index.html">the U.S.</a> and publicized worldwide for our unique work environment. The first question I always get from people after they find out I work here is, "Is what we've heard about Google really true?" The short answer: Yes. Two of our offices have slides, and one actually has a firepole between floors. We have numerous gourmet cafes that are free. We have massage therapists available in many locations. And the list goes on. It is truly a fun and rewarding place to work. But what I think what is most exceptional about Google is that we bring our own unique culture to every country we open an office in, and blend it with the uniqueness of the local culture. Interested in joining our effort? Well if you've heard anything about our interview process, you probably know that simply put, it's tough, but for good reason. When I interviewed two years ago I went through many intense interviews. You're expected to be well versed in areas such as coding, data structures, algorithms, designing large scale systems and, depending on the role, you might be asked leadership questions. Having a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science definitely helped, but it was still grueling. The interview process was less about what I had memorized from the past (fact-based questions) but instead included questions that showed my ability to apply what I had learned to problem sets that I had never encountered before. I came out of the interview with a deep respect for this style because Google hires the best of the best, and it shows in the rigor of the hiring process. Are you a great engineer familiar with Arabic speaking skills? We're looking for engineers with the regional knowledge and Arabic language expertise to make Google products more relevant to this important population and to build new products for the global market. If you're interested, please visit <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=intl.html&jobslc=addlocationsemea" id="yo_d" title="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=intl.html&jobslc=addlocationsemea">our job center</a> and apply for one of the open positions. You could be a part of a team that will positively affect the lives of millions of Arabic users around the world. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3NqKwQsrkNrQznPXEOOZC-6qxsYl1EfsxrSeGDJ5OSmktp0cXto2TSe5YuWFeO77Jhn9W416mdB2akvVN60JjvwufDJHgwQlk8Qc_v3h9bL1L28_BTp2lwfOrcsGvULYkygmTV2neckdC/s1600-h/Arab-engineers.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257186178036495970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3NqKwQsrkNrQznPXEOOZC-6qxsYl1EfsxrSeGDJ5OSmktp0cXto2TSe5YuWFeO77Jhn9W416mdB2akvVN60JjvwufDJHgwQlk8Qc_v3h9bL1L28_BTp2lwfOrcsGvULYkygmTV2neckdC/s320/Arab-engineers.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> <div style="text-align: center;">Some of our engineers working on Arabic products (L to R): Mohamed Elfeky, Adel Youssef, Amgad Zeitoun, Ahmad Hamzawi. </div> Posted by Ahmad Hamzawi, Engineering Manager, MENA

High-powered search for Arabic-speaking engineers

When I first started working at Google in 2006 I was amazed to see that the fabled 20% time really existed, and that it was up to me to dec...

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Search findings from the third presidential debate

Last night, Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama met at New York's Hofstra University for the last <a href="http://debates.org/pages/trans2008d.html" id="wpf7" title="2008 U.S. presidential debate">2008 U.S. presidential debate</a>. CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer moderated the format of two-minute candidate answers followed by five minutes of discussion. This format gave Senators Obama and McCain more time to debate each individual issue — and gave viewers more time to <a href="http://www.google.com/" id="toou" title="search Google">search Google</a> for information than they did for either for their <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/presidential-debate-expanding-town-hall.html" id="j_6o">previous debate</a> or the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/vp-debate-candidates-questions-and.html">vice presidential debate.</a> Searches also clustered around [abortion], a question Schieffer posed earlier. In fact, of all the search queries emerging during the debate, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Roe+v.+Wade&btnG=Search" id="vkou" title="Roe v. Wade">Roe v. Wade</a> was the most popular. Senator McCain's state-based approach to the issue sent many searching for more information on <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=federalism&btnG=Search" id="lz5r" title="federalism">federalism</a>, and subsequent discussions of <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=partial+birth+abortion&btnG=Search" id="w8yl" title="partial-birth">partial-birth</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=late-term+abortion&btnG=Search" id="n53v" title="late-term abortion">late-term abortion</a> prompted queries too. The conversations around nominations to the Supreme Court inspired many to search for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=litmus+test&btnG=Search" id="qbsm" title="litmus test">litmus test</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Justice+Breyer&btnG=Search" id="pi1c" title="Justice Breyer">Justice Breyer</a>. While the volatile global economy and high energy prices may dominate news headlines, viewers sought more information about the topic of the evening's last question: education. People dug deeper into the issue of <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=charter+schools&btnG=Search" id="jgt0" title="charter schools">charter schools</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=school+vouchers&btnG=Search" id="wi_k" title="school vouchers">school vouchers</a>; some searched explicitly for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=school+vouchers+vs.+charter+schools&btnG=Search" id="cfp." title="school vouchers vs. charter schools">school vouchers vs. charter schools</a>. Senator McCain raised the example of Washington, D.C., schools, prompting many to explore the issue further, searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Michelle+Rhee&btnG=Search" id="h4lp" title="Michelle Rhee">Michelle Rhee</a>, who is D.C.'s Chancellor of Public Schools. Other education-related searches included <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=No+Child+Left+Behind&btnG=Search" id="xnp6" title="No Child Left Behind">No Child Left Behind</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Troops+to+Teachers&btnG=Search" id="i4_t" title="Troops to Teachers">Troops to Teachers</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Head+Start&btnG=Search" id="w1-x" title="Head Start">Head Start</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Teach+for+America&btnG=Search" id="d13y" title="Teach for America">Teach for America</a>. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztDbr0DcHqPheXghRK31-dycWIPvk4OGwaCphwtHfYrVHnnXguzk8i2l2-vD87E88xK3f6l6qF8za1SHTASttqP9USxDXfeq6o5FXR3vTJ2_vNggShYqFe1SpQ66pZXcf9na7cqZDHk6j/s1600-h/debate3_2queries.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257875926007503458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztDbr0DcHqPheXghRK31-dycWIPvk4OGwaCphwtHfYrVHnnXguzk8i2l2-vD87E88xK3f6l6qF8za1SHTASttqP9USxDXfeq6o5FXR3vTJ2_vNggShYqFe1SpQ66pZXcf9na7cqZDHk6j/s320/debate3_2queries.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>A figure named "Joe" has been popular throughout the campaign: first there was Democratic VP candidate <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/learn/meet_joe.php" id="c5lp" title="Joe Biden">Joe Biden</a>, and then we heard about <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=joe+six+pack&btnG=Search" id="sbbk" title="Joe Six Pack">Joe Sixpack</a> from Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. Now there's "Joe the plumber," who figured prominently throughout last night's debate. Viewers responded in kind, searching heavily for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Joe+the+plumber&btnG=Search" id="loc-" title="Joe the plumber">Joe the plumber</a>. Some even found his real name: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Joe+Wurzelbacher&btnG=Search" id="mo95" title="Joe Wurzelbacher">Joe Wurzelbacher</a>. Other names that were dropped, discussed and then searched for large numbers: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Bill+Ayers&btnG=Search" id="i_:-" title="Bill Ayers">Bill Ayers</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&safe=active&q=Congressman+John+Lewis&btnG=Search" id="yk8t" title="Congressman John Lewis">Congressman John Lewis</a>. And finally, here's a summary of sorts: these queries show the biggest overall spikes in search activity throughout the entire 90-minute debate. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh799trmPyf0qk3PYKlRHjU36rbej8vzRyeOWGvUXzI8o6DkxCe5vINs-o54yWa_F2MUuNEZm-oriq3xh40cOhi2LqpMajajBQWwwpKbN0N8KZwzOIJs088x232vi0m9xlbnyQk_Pc7x40o/s1600-h/debate3_largest_spikes.PNG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257875244956460274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh799trmPyf0qk3PYKlRHjU36rbej8vzRyeOWGvUXzI8o6DkxCe5vINs-o54yWa_F2MUuNEZm-oriq3xh40cOhi2LqpMajajBQWwwpKbN0N8KZwzOIJs088x232vi0m9xlbnyQk_Pc7x40o/s320/debate3_largest_spikes.PNG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 201px;" /></a> Posted by Jeffrey Oldham, Software Engineer; Fred Leach, Customer Labs Analyst; and Jennie Johnson, Communications team

Search findings from the third presidential debate

Last night, Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama met at New York's Hofstra University for the last 200...

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What's new with iGoogle?

I'm an iGoogle addict. I check my news, email, stocks, feeds and weather there and sometimes even manage to squeeze in a game or two during the day. Having everything in one place is super convenient, but I often wish I could deal with all my stuff without having to leave my iGoogle page. With today's release, I can. We've rolled out an updated design for iGoogle to all U.S. users, which includes full canvas views for gadget and support for full feed reading. Not all of our gadgets have canvas views yet, but here are some of the best: <ul><li>News - New gadgets from <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=widgets.nytimes.com/packages/html/igoogle/topstories.xml">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100674619146546250953/wsj.xml">The Wall Street Journal</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=specials.washingtonpost.com/igoogle/%3Fnocache">The Washington Post</a> give me full-page views of what's new in the world. Nice.</li><li>Games - The <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.labpixies.com/campaigns/sudoku/sudoku.xml">Sudoku gadget</a> lets me play thousands of full-page Sudoku puzzles without squinting at 6-point type. The <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=images.gocomics.com/images/google/gc.xml">GoComics gadget</a> gives me my fix of Garfield and Doonesbury and lets me choose from all of their other comics. I've also spent many coffee breaks browsing through videos from <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml">YouTube</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=apps.current.com/ig/get.xml">CurrentTV</a>. </li><li>Entertainment - I've configured the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=widgets.tvguide.com/widgets/igoogle.aspx">TV Guide</a> gadget to my zip code and just used it today to figure out when the newest episode of The Office is playing. <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=igoogle.flixster.com/igoogle/application">Flixster's movies gadget</a> lets me access trailers, ratings, and theater information for any movie. I also use the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=ig.ilike.com/gadget/ilike/ig">iLike gadget</a> to browse news, concerts, and free MP3s from my favorite musicians. </li><li>Google stuff - The new <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/builtin_gmail.xml">Gmail gadget</a> lets me read my full email and perform simple actions like send or reply to emails without leaving iGoogle. Last but not least, a gadget that I authored and use every day is for <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/finance_portfolios.xml">Google Finance</a>, which provides full-screen finance charts and news of the stocks in my portfolio. </li></ul>Here's a <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/v2landing">full list</a> of our highlighted canvas view gadgets. We've also replaced the tabs at the top with a left navigation that allows for access to any gadget with one click. We're very excited about these changes because it makes iGoogle a more useful homepage and a <a href="http://igoogledeveloper.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-canvas-big-opportunity.html">better platform for developers</a>. And this is just the beginning: Expect to see more canvas gadgets created by developers and more new features on iGoogle soon. Not in the U.S.? Don't worry. We'll also be rolling out this updated version in other countries very soon. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATgKERHF_I_qElM4fZcO2ceKujofKmr8vZhhpHo4TNyqrJrMcOQvn2ytCfreyhzfVWdGIHrhxsjdzbBFdaJVj0Y1V08Ndf-XIkrJq_lO5LOBxaM2RWAQmoQqbmH91AGvAxaILqZRkFPR6/s1600-h/iGoogle+comics+canvas+view-+final.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257594480840179458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATgKERHF_I_qElM4fZcO2ceKujofKmr8vZhhpHo4TNyqrJrMcOQvn2ytCfreyhzfVWdGIHrhxsjdzbBFdaJVj0Y1V08Ndf-XIkrJq_lO5LOBxaM2RWAQmoQqbmH91AGvAxaILqZRkFPR6/s320/iGoogle+comics+canvas+view-+final.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Posted by Matt Gundersen, iGoogle Engineer

What's new with iGoogle?

I'm an iGoogle addict. I check my news, email, stocks, feeds and weather there and sometimes even manage to squeeze in a game or two dur...

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Remembering Jon Postel: Looking beyond the decade

A decade has passed since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Postel">Jon Postel</a> left our midst. It seems timely to look back beyond that decade and to look forward beyond a decade hence. It seems ironic that a man who took special joy in natural surroundings, who hiked the Muir Trail and spent precious time in the high Sierras was also deeply involved in that most artificial of enterprises, the Internet. As the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and the RFC editor, Jon could hardly have chosen more polar interests. Perhaps the business of the artificial world was precisely what stimulated his interest in the natural one. As a graduate student at UCLA in the late 1960s, Jon was deeply involved in the ARPANET project, becoming the first custodian of the Request for Comment note series inaugurated by Stephen D. Crocker. He also undertook to serve as the “Numbers Czar” tracking Domain Names, Internet Addresses, and all the parameters, numeric and otherwise, that were key to the successful functioning of the burgeoning ARPANET and, later, Internet protocols. His career took him to the east and west coasts of the United States but ultimately led him to the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) where he joined his colleagues, Danny Cohen, Joyce K. Reynolds, Daniel Lynch, Paul Mockapetris and Robert Braden, among many others, who were themselves to play important roles in the evolution of the Internet. It was at ISI that Jon served longest and as the end of the 20th century approached, began to fashion an institutional home for the work he had so passionately and effectively carried out in support of the Internet. In consultation with many colleagues but particularly with Joseph Sims of the Jones Day law firm and Ira Magaziner, then with the Clinton administration at the White House, Jon worked to design an institution to assume the IANA responsibilities. Although the path to its creation was rocky, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was officially created in early October, 1998, just two weeks before Jon’s untimely death on October 16. In 1998 there were an estimated 30 million computers on the Internet and an estimated 70 million users. In the ensuing decade, the user population has grown to almost 1.5 billion and the number of servers on the Internet now exceeds 500 million (not counting episodically connected laptops, personal digital assistants and other such devices). As this decade comes to a close, the Domain Name System is undergoing a major change to accommodate the use of non-Latin character sets in recognition that the world’s languages are not exclusively expressible in one script. A tidal wave of newly Internet-enabled devices as well as the increasing penetration of Internet access in the world’s population is consuming what remains of the current IPv4 address space, driving the need to adopt the much larger IPv6 address space in parallel with the older one. Over three billion mobiles are in use and roughly 15% of these are already Internet-enabled. Jon would take considerable satisfaction knowing that the institution he worked hard to create has survived and contributed materially to the stability of the Internet. Not only has ICANN managed to meet the serious demands of Internet growth and importance in all aspects of society, but it has become a worked example of a new kind of international body that embraces and perhaps even defines a multi-stakeholder model of policy making. Governments, civil society, the private sector and the technical community are accommodated in the ICANN policy development process. By no means a perfect and frictionless process, it nonetheless has managed to take decisions and to adapt to the changing demands and new business developments rooted in the spread of the Internet around the globe. Always a strong believer in the open and bottom-up style of the Internet, Jon would also be pleased to see that the management of the Internet address space has become regionalized and that there are now five Regional Internet Registries cooperating on global policy and serving and adapting to regional needs as they evolve. He would be equally relieved to find that the loose collaboration of DNS root zone operators has withstood the test of time and the demands of a hugely larger Internet, showing that their commitment has served the Internet community well. As the very first individual member of the Internet Society he helped to found in 1992, Jon would certainly be pleased that it has become a key contributor to the support of the Internet protocol standards process, as intended. The Internet Architecture Board and Internet Engineering and Research Task Forces as well as the RFC editing functions all receive substantial support from the Internet Society. He might be surprised and pleased to discover that much of this support is derived from the Internet Society’s creation of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to operate the .ORG top level domain registry. The Internet Society’s scope has increased significantly as a consequence of this stable support and it contributes to global education and training about the Internet as well as to the broad policy developments needed for effective use of this new communication infrastructure. As a computer scientist and naturalist, Jon would also be fascinated and excited by the development of an interplanetary extension of the Internet to support manned and robotic exploration of the solar system. This very month, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will begin testing of an interplanetary protocol using the Deep Impact spacecraft now in eccentric orbit around the sun. This project began almost exactly ten years ago and is reaching a major milestone as the first decade of the 21st century comes to an end. It is probable that Jon would not agree with all the various choices and decisions that have been made regarding the Internet in the last ten years and it is worth remembering his philosophical view: “Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive.” Of course, he meant this in the context of detailed protocols but it also serves as a reminder that in a multi-stakeholder world, accommodation and understanding can go a long way towards reaching consensus or, failing that, at least toleration of choices that might not be at the top of everyone’s list. No one, not even someone of Jon’s vision, can predict where the Internet will end up decades hence. It is certain, however, that it will evolve and that this evolution will come, in large measure, from its users. Virtually all the most interesting new applications of the Internet have come, not from the providers of various Internet-based services but from ordinary users with extraordinary ideas and the skills to try things out. That they are able to do this is a consequence of the largely open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet that has prevailed over the past decade. Maintaining this spirit of open access is the key to further development and it seems a reasonable speculation that if Jon were still with us, he would be in the forefront of the Internet community in vocal and articulate support of that view. A ten-year toast seems in order. Here’s to Jonathan B. Postel, a man who went about his work diligently and humbly, who served all who wished to partake of the Internet and to contribute to it, and who did so asking nothing in return but the satisfaction of a job well done and a world open to new ideas. Updates: Corrected PIR mention; added <a href="http://www.isoc.org/awards/postel/memory.shtml">Internet Society's roundup of tributes</a>. Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist

Remembering Jon Postel: Looking beyond the decade

A decade has passed since Jon Postel left our midst. It seems timely to look back beyond that decade and to look forward beyond a decade he...

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Information poverty

Today is <a href="http://blogactionday.org/">Blog Action Day</a>, an annual event that rallies blogs around the world to post about a common cause. This year's issue up for discussion is poverty, so we wanted to take a look at the relationship between access to information and social and economic development. The right information at the right time in the hands of people has enormous power. As someone who works for Google, I see evidence of this everyday as people search and find information they need to create knowledge, grow their business, or access essential services. But that applies primarily to the rich world, where economies are built on knowledge and presume access to information. What about the poor and developing countries where people are offline more than online? How do they benefit from the power of information? In much of Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, rates of economic growth over the last decade have exceeded 5% every year. Despite this trend, poverty in many countries has remained constant. In Kenya, for example, the official poverty rate was 48% in 1981 (World Bank, June 2008). According to the <a href="http://www.hackenya.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&Itemid=254&gid=519">Kenya Poverty and Inequality Assessment</a> released by the World Bank this year, 17 million Kenyans or 47% of the population were unable to meet the costs of food sufficient to fulfill basic daily caloric requirements. The vast majority of these people live in rural areas and have even less access to the information that impacts their daily life. Data on water quality, education and health budgets, and agricultural prices are nearly impossible to access. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on providing basic public services like primary education, health, water, and sanitation to poor communities, poverty in much of Sub-Saharan Africa persists. Where does this money go, who gets it, and what are the results of the resources invested? That’s where we find a big black hole of information and a lack of basic accountability. How do inputs (dollars spent) turn into outputs (schools, clinics, and wells), and, more importantly, how do outputs translate into results (literate and healthy children, clean water, etc.)? We simply don’t know the answers to most of these basic questions. But what if we could? What if a mother could find out how much money was budgeted for her daughter's school each year and how much of it was received? What if she and other parents could report how often teachers are absent from school or whether health clinics have the medicines they are supposed to carry? What if citizens could access and report on basic information to determine value for money as tax payers? The work of The Social Development Network (SODNET) in Kenya is illustrative. They are developing a simple budget-tracking tool that allows citizens to track the allocation, use, and ultimate result of government funds earmarked for infrastructure projects in their districts. The tool is intended to create transparency in the use of tax revenues and answer the simple question: Are resources reaching their intended beneficiaries? Using tools like maps, they are able to overlay information that begins to tell a compelling story. Google.org’s role, through <a href="http://www.google.org/projects.html">our partners</a> in East Africa and India, is to support, catalyze, and widely disseminate this kind of information to public, private, and civil society stakeholders that can use it to see more clearly what’s working, what’s broken and what are potential solutions. Leveraging platforms like Google Earth and Google Maps can help organizations disseminate their content widely and let people see and understand what was once invisible. Once information is visible, widely known, and easy to understand, we are betting that governments and citizens will pay more attention to leakages in the service delivery pipeline and feel empowered to propose solutions. You can’t change what you can’t see. The power to know plus the power to act on what you know is the surest way to achieve positive social change from the bottom up. And when we consider the magnitude of resources invested in delivering public services each year, a 10% improvement globally would exceed the value of all foreign aid. We believe that is a bet worth making. (Cross-posted from the <a href="http://blog.google.org/2008/10/information-poverty.html" style="font-style: italic;">Google.org blog</a>) Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.org

Information poverty

Today is Blog Action Day , an annual event that rallies blogs around the world to post about a common cause. This year's issue up for di...

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Quality scores and ad auctions

There's some interest in how and why "quality scores" are used in search engine ad auctions. In this post, we will try to describe "why" we use quality scores; a later post will go into "how," including more information about bids. When a user types a query into a search engine, it will typically return both natural search results and advertisements. Google and other major search engines use an <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-auctions-set-ad-prices.html" id="jj5w" title="ad auction">ad auction</a> to determine which ads are shown and how much advertisers pay for them. In the auctions, advertisers enter bids that reflect how much they are willing to pay for a click on their ad -- this is called their maximum <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=27646" id="ncvj" title="cost per click">cost per click</a> (CPC). Ads are then ordered by the product of the bid that is entered and the estimated ad <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10215&query=quality+score&topic=&type=f&%20onclick" id="u1bd" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" title="quality score">quality score</a>. People often ask why ad quality enters the formula -- isn't the bid per click enough? Why can't advertisers just buy their way to to the top ad position? To see why both components are important, let us look at a simple example. Suppose that two advertisers are bidding on the keyword "jet airplane." Joe's Jets is selling actual jet airplanes, while Moe's Models is selling models of jet airplanes. Since jets are expensive, Joe is willing to pay a lot per click. But not many people can afford to buy jets, so Joe won't get many clicks. Moe, by contrast, is willing to pay a lot less per click, but he will also get many more clicks. Which ad should be listed higher in the "sponsored links" section of the search results page? What matters in this decision is not simply an advertiser's value for a single click -– the maximum CPC that the advertiser is willing to pay -- but rather the total estimated value of showing that ad: the value per click times the number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive. The number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive depends on the historical <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6305" id="rjn2" title="clickthrough rate">clickthrough rate</a>, which is an important component of the ad quality score. Thus the bid per click times the quality score gives us an estimate of the total value of displaying an ad over time. Joe's ad may have a higher value for a single click, but if Moe's ad gets a lot more clicks over time, it could easily have a greater total value. In that case, Moe's ad will be shown in the more prominent position. (Click on the image to view larger.) <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36JYWIqj8J4QZtgJhFrLruKx6Y7B9VIBgF90NhJ50Rnmicjlrr0e4HY1qQX0gtsBKp-4XZaYra34q6LmT_eGdzrl5oQtRcp4dyssBpUJ5EUxEID-HnVAMbkLTMBYk2bIDHGskVJlb13SK/s1600-h/Picture+2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257398262704633186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi36JYWIqj8J4QZtgJhFrLruKx6Y7B9VIBgF90NhJ50Rnmicjlrr0e4HY1qQX0gtsBKp-4XZaYra34q6LmT_eGdzrl5oQtRcp4dyssBpUJ5EUxEID-HnVAMbkLTMBYk2bIDHGskVJlb13SK/s320/Picture+2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>The quality score gives search engines a way of aligning the incentives of the buyers, the sellers, and the viewers of ads. The search engine wants to sell ad impressions, but advertisers want to pay for clicks. The solution is for advertisers to bid on a cost-per-click basis, while the search engine estimates the total value of the ad over time: bid per click times the expected number of clicks. This is a neat way to align incentives, but it has a problem: since the advertiser only pays on a per click basis, it may as well seek as many ad impressions as it can so that as many users as possible will be exposed to the ad. Joe might well want to buy the keywords "rocket ship" even if he only has jets to sell. Why not? Joe only has to pay if someone actually clicks on the ad. This is where another distinct, but related quality issue arises: an ad that gets very few clicks shouldn't really be shown. It is just distracting from the viewpoint of users. The advertisers may not care much about annoying users but the search engine certainly does. Why? Because if it shows a lot of irrelevant ads, people will likely stop looking at or clicking on ads. They may develop a terrible affliction known in the trade as "ads blindness." Better ad relevance leads to a better user experience. So search engines often apply a "disabling rule" that inhibits ads with very low clickthrough rates for a given query from being shown. Or they might set a relatively high minimum cost per click for ads that don't attract much interest from users as a way to discourage advertisers from showing ads that annoy users and deliver few clicks. A high cost per click can easily be consistent with a low cost per impression when clickthrough rates are low. So why are quality scores important? Answer: they lead to a better auction by allowing advertisers to buy clicks, publishers to sell impressions, and users to see relevant ads. Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist

Quality scores and ad auctions

There's some interest in how and why "quality scores" are used in search engine ad auctions. In this post, we will try to des...

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Helping website owners fix broken links

Have you ever clicked on a link only to have it unveil an unfriendly "file not found" message? We know it's a bummer, so now <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/">Webmaster Tools</a> offers site owners a way to help all of us click seamlessly through the web. For years webmasters have been able to view the URLs on their site that are linked from various websites but actually don't exist. Today webmasters can fix these broken links through <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/webmaster-tools-shows-crawl-error.html">Webmaster Tools Crawl error sources</a>. Crawl error sources displays the source URL containing the broken link to their site -- no matter where it exists on the web. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dVxi6fu0pjWcFSYIG4JSM6eS_WoJXRNcEtpRch57hX7xWp1oAXJk27NpbTcfOLJHL-mIXzURArooPSTsiFNyjBJP3pVxBOVO481tKn9Zb6cynbzbNNqiCTMf9TIR539Mc7dHtnbHvhum/s1600-h/crawl-errors.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUP9qg_6wPtJbrzzo3IptDjHjPX3mJp1KYKGmH3IOkHRsNEMPkUvwiYLX6kB7_3MhaWxIOL_BMXNPY0Cav0NhGTQ5X-KpYgZoJGwnO4M4HPXH2RiWEkG6vEtN-3Wr6D9BjnwCknlY-taqi/s400-r/crawl-errors.png" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>What about any "file not found" URLs that haven't yet been fixed? Let's improve that, too: Webmaster Tools provides site owners with the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/make-your-404-pages-more-useful.html" id="iksr" title="404 widget">"file not found" widget</a>, (aka the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40132" id="kez1" title="404">404</a> widget). It's a small snippet of code that can change the message from this unfriendly one: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvbvqStjixo5_xXYlED24ACTWoLjc4yYfNQEVemW2iKUsh0NjNNproPysWSF9GpfnATDdQmfexTn5dZCGU8uIT33L4FjRmmI7rg3-kX520aIvESaqGl1uaKBjJ6Ifz2zJbH-Ako8PbSnK/s1600-h/example-not-nice-404.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAoLK22VRpjkmTl2ahE4smDKek8T1Col6dJ74LrYBdS3WeC-cevbrYXn8d-Q2Dre6uxhzTazOuZDkxnmYpRYIscGNI6Aphq5s7vgdZExwjlVTPHIHO3fzoBOzyuoZ4upS340bb9tv26Ct/s400-r/example-not-nice-404.png" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> To this helpful message (note the handy URL suggestion, search box, and link to existing sitemap and parent directory): </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1_xJhz7XnoiqIOz2Pk5FVpTeNuP45COgskUvdzF1OlFrOi0Clkv4kp_ZZGVKcy1t8qdFVS-rqt2WoEOCIEkzTYqYNvWNXaz_RXzcHefozU7oP0G4cnmKe_RlsqMDHMF-vbtxGpxpgfMy/s1600-h/example-nice-404.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgve3KKj-1iedH4YjB6Zs0Zu5xsbQHRQ-Y-L5tuX2zyRqMDFtHV1wOkhq1gK7CM-Y9H77HyI0Ab2g0fCLcYCQ1hFiew8p5RxNhzdKm1CFVVrXy0VJ_273zg1PQNEXKtrhlManB1AX4ZpylZ/s400-r/example-nice-404.png" /></a> </div> So, if you're a site owner, help us help you fix broken links and make your "file not found" pages more useful by <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&hl=en" id="fcar" title="signing up">signing up</a> for Webmaster Tools. Here's to an even better experience on the web! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Posted by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead

Helping website owners fix broken links

Have you ever clicked on a link only to have it unveil an unfriendly "file not found" message? We know it's a bummer, so now W...

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