Is your house haunted by high energy prices?

Halloween is nearly upon us; the days are getting shorter and Google is gearing up for one of our favorite holidays. But as the temperature drops, the price you pay each month to power your home might start to make your blood run cold. Fear not! We've created a handy <a href="http://www.google.com/hauntedhouse08/index.html">energy saving calculator</a> to help you see how simple steps can help you save money for treats -- and ward off scary carbon emissions. We've also put together a <a href="http://www.google.com/hauntedhouse08/tips.html">webpage full of tricks</a> to help you save energy -- and money. (For inspiration for this idea, we want to thank the U.S. Department of Energy.)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYtf-kxKQOX-nQt0pjkGeQzE6NPrsqlqvT2IG2XEmxKi5nblAtAWPiCYiq6qTJnwBG1Ia2I2KE94OcXyrWN1RFP9wE4K6NK4sDM81NdXmH01BkIxhHDXfuCaNEXpGUrnF3fuEP1UgdxW8/s1600-h/treepumpkin.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259640287363844722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYtf-kxKQOX-nQt0pjkGeQzE6NPrsqlqvT2IG2XEmxKi5nblAtAWPiCYiq6qTJnwBG1Ia2I2KE94OcXyrWN1RFP9wE4K6NK4sDM81NdXmH01BkIxhHDXfuCaNEXpGUrnF3fuEP1UgdxW8/s320/treepumpkin.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>It's the perfect time of year to talk about efficiency since many of the energy-wasters in our homes are named after the ghouls of Halloween. Our living rooms may be infested with "vampire" electronics that suck power even when turned off. And open chimney flues let the "ghosts" of winter steal our heat (not to mention the "monster" furnace that lives in the basement). By taking small steps to ward off these ghouls of inefficiency, you can save cold, hard cash. By <a href="http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Seal_Fireplace_Damper/">one estimate</a>, if the 80% of Americans who leave their fireplace flue open all winter all simply closed the damper, we could save over $6 billion a year. That's a lot of candy corn!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by David Bercovich, Project Manager, and Dan Reicher, Director Climate Change & Energy Initiatives, Google.org</span>

Is your house haunted by high energy prices?

Halloween is nearly upon us; the days are getting shorter and Google is gearing up for one of our favorite holidays. But as the temperature drops, the price you pay each month to power your home might…

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A Googlicious time

For a lot of us who work here, there's one thing that defines the culture more than anything else: the food. We have a passion for every edible item offered, from the ubiquitous organic fruit to the rotisserie leg of lamb with smoked shallot marmalade, mahi-mahi with coconut milk & lime in banana leaf, or the oysters with cilantro mignonette (and yes, the meals are free). But we're also accustomed to having our amazing culinary team do the work while we try to deploy our ingenuity in front of computers (and in devising new ways to work off the extra weight).<br /><br />So last week some Googlers decided to see if the creativity that they bring to their jobs could be applied to other arenas. Charlie's Patio on our Mountain View campus was the site of the first-ever Google (Free) Bake Sale. More than 30 teams used the cafe kitchens and worked with our chefs to create delectables in five categories: cookies, cupcakes, confections, dessert bars, and pies. Everyone who stopped by was given 5 marbles to vote for their favorites.<br /><br />What did we discover? Most Googlers prefer <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257918691310136594" target="_blank">a hands-on approach</a> to their endeavors. Some put their efforts into looking the part, whether that meant dressing as <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257918552167987842" target="_blank">the bakers</a> or as <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257918934641030818" target="_blank">the food</a>, while others chose to focus on the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257920795711410610" target="_blank">presentation</a> of their creation. Pastry designs ran the gamut from <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257920079594422658" target="_blank">the elemental</a> to the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257921190092036066" target="_blank">slightly fishy</a>, from the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257920169347105410" target="_blank">basic</a> to the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257920993257595570" target="_blank">elaborate</a>. It can never be said that Googlers don't eat our own <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257919813714378322" target="_blank">dogfood</a>. At the very least, the people who attended the event left with a smile on their faces and enough ingested sugar to turn their blood to cola.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftr6QB6IniM6C79q6tr-ZmQazq7aQJtFbn4ziKYVeofn_5j85_J5fedXxUnLwNSGoo8qPh3qHPmBmiIWpvzF8ocJUe5imA-GxXYhP5h3qdfXE7PAo_oWFZiRRP6OqkSuLTM-WFPOfuzBL/s1600-h/desserts_googlicious.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258953975367941090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftr6QB6IniM6C79q6tr-ZmQazq7aQJtFbn4ziKYVeofn_5j85_J5fedXxUnLwNSGoo8qPh3qHPmBmiIWpvzF8ocJUe5imA-GxXYhP5h3qdfXE7PAo_oWFZiRRP6OqkSuLTM-WFPOfuzBL/s320/desserts_googlicious.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>More importantly we learned that, even in a skittish economy, it's possible to find ways to keep morale high -- and nothing does it as well as chocolate. With a little creativity, some motivation, and a culture that embraces fun (and food!) as a necessary component of our work, inspiration will flow, and spirits (and blood-sugar levels) will run high. One proof point: <span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/googgman/GoogleFreeBakeSale2008#5257920741789306178" target="_blank">Recession-Proof Brownies</a></span>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Ben Bayer, Master of Space and Time, Google Research</span>

A Googlicious time

For a lot of us who work here, there's one thing that defines the culture more than anything else: the food. We have a passion for every edible item offered, from the ubiquitous organic fruit to the …

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Give your gadgets some space

This week we launched a set of new features to all <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle</a> users in the U.S. These features were designed to make it more powerful and bring more information to the homepage.<br /><br />At the heart of this release is a feature we call "canvas view," which gives you the option to maximize your gadgets into full-screen mode. To use the Gmail gadget as an example, previously, you could only get a quick snippet of your Gmail messages on iGoogle. Now you can maximize Gmail to fully read and reply to your messages.<br /><br />Comics. Games. Feeds. Photos. All of these get better when you give them some space. And to give you fast, one-click access to maximize your gadgets, we've introduced a new left-navigation model. This is a good way to navigate to these new, richer applications, and it makes space for more features you'll see in the coming months.<br /><br />We invite you to <a href="http://www.google.com/help/ig/tour">take a tour</a> of all the new features, and hope you'll give us a chance to show you why we're excited about the evolution of iGoogle.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jessica Ewing, Group Product Manager, iGoogle</span>

Give your gadgets some space

This week we launched a set of new features to all iGoogle users in the U.S. These features were designed to make it more powerful and bring more information to the homepage.At the heart of this relea…

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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 title="20% time" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/googles-20-percent-time-in-action.html" id="yrod">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 id="eycd" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/hitting-40-languages.html" 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3NqKwQsrkNrQznPXEOOZC-6qxsYl1EfsxrSeGDJ5OSmktp0cXto2TSe5YuWFeO77Jhn9W416mdB2akvVN60JjvwufDJHgwQlk8Qc_v3h9bL1L28_BTp2lwfOrcsGvULYkygmTV2neckdC/s1600-h/Arab-engineers.JPG"><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><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Some of our engineers working on Arabic products (L to R): </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Mohamed Elfeky, </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Adel Youssef, </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Amgad Zeitoun, </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Ahmad Hamzawi.</span></span><br /></div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Ahmad Hamzawi, Engineering Manager, MENA</span>

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 decide how to use it. Being of Egyptian descent and having lived…

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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><br /><br />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>.<br /><br />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>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztDbr0DcHqPheXghRK31-dycWIPvk4OGwaCphwtHfYrVHnnXguzk8i2l2-vD87E88xK3f6l6qF8za1SHTASttqP9USxDXfeq6o5FXR3vTJ2_vNggShYqFe1SpQ66pZXcf9na7cqZDHk6j/s1600-h/debate3_2queries.gif"><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>.<br /><br />And finally, here's a summary of sorts: these queries show the biggest overall spikes in search activity throughout the entire 90-minute debate.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh799trmPyf0qk3PYKlRHjU36rbej8vzRyeOWGvUXzI8o6DkxCe5vINs-o54yWa_F2MUuNEZm-oriq3xh40cOhi2LqpMajajBQWwwpKbN0N8KZwzOIJs088x232vi0m9xlbnyQk_Pc7x40o/s1600-h/debate3_largest_spikes.PNG"><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><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeffrey Oldham, Software Engineer; Fred Leach, Customer Labs Analyst; and Jennie Johnson, Communications team</span>

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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 2008 U.S. presidential debate. CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer modera…

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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.<br /><br />Not all of our gadgets have canvas views yet, but here are some of the best:<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">News - </span>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><span style="font-weight: bold;">Games - </span>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 <span style="font-style: italic;">Garfield</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Doonesbury</span> 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>.<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Entertainment -</span> 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 <span style="font-style: italic;">The Office</span> 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><span style="font-weight: bold;">Google stuff -</span> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATgKERHF_I_qElM4fZcO2ceKujofKmr8vZhhpHo4TNyqrJrMcOQvn2ytCfreyhzfVWdGIHrhxsjdzbBFdaJVj0Y1V08Ndf-XIkrJq_lO5LOBxaM2RWAQmoQqbmH91AGvAxaILqZRkFPR6/s1600-h/iGoogle+comics+canvas+view-+final.JPG"><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><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matt Gundersen, iGoogle Engineer</span>

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,…

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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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br />“Be conservative in what you send and liberal in what you receive.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Updates:</span> Corrected PIR mention; added <a href="http://www.isoc.org/awards/postel/memory.shtml">Internet Society's roundup of tributes</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist</span>

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 hence. It seems ironic that a man who took special joy in natur…

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