Powering a Google search

Not long ago, answering a query meant traveling to the reference desk of your local library. Today, search engines enable us to access immense quantities of useful information in an instant, without leaving home. Tools like email, online books and photos, and video chat all increase productivity while decreasing our reliance on car trips, pulp and paper.<br /><br />But as computers become a bigger part of more people's lives, information technology consumes an increasing amount of energy, and Google takes this impact seriously. That's why we have designed and built the<span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></span> most <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenters/">energy efficient data centers</a> in the world, which means the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query.<br /><br />Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses "half the energy as boiling a kettle of water" and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.<br /><br />In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don't reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer (0.6 miles for those in the U.S.) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.<br /><br />We've made great strides to reduce the energy used by our data centers, but we still want clean and affordable sources of electricity for the power that we do use. In 2008 our philanthropic arm, <a href="http://www.google.org/">Google.org</a>, invested $45 million in breakthrough clean energy technologies. And last summer, as part of our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative (<a href="http://www.google.org/rec.html">RE<C</a>), we created an internal engineering group dedicated to exploring clean energy.<br /><br />We're also working with other members of the IT community to improve efficiency on a broader scale. In 2007 we co-founded the <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/">Climate Savers Computing Initiative</a>, a group which champions more efficient computing. This non-profit consortium is committed to cutting the energy consumed by computers in half by 2010 — reducing global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year. That's a lot of kettles of tea.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update</span> on 1/12 @ 4 PM:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Harvard professor Alex Wissner-Gross <a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Harvard-Prof-Sets-Record-Straight-on-Internet-Carbon-Study-65794.html">provided new details</a> on his energy research, in a TechNewsWorld article.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update</span> on 1/16 @ 1 PM: <span style="font-style: italic;">The Sunday Times</span> clarified <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece">its article</a> on the energy consumed by a Google search, accepting our calculation that a single search accounts for about 0.2g of carbon. That means a typical individual's Google use for an entire year would produce about the same amount of CO2 as just a single load of washing.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations</span>

Powering a Google search

Not long ago, answering a query meant traveling to the reference desk of your local library. Today, search engines enable us to access immen...

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Google's new favicon

Back in June, we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/one-fish-two-fish-red-fish-blue-fish.html">rolled out</a> a new favicon — the small icon that greets you when you access Google on your URL bar or your bookmarks list — and we encouraged our users to submit their ideas for this important piece of Google branding. We were impressed by the volume of submissions we received, and today we are happy to introduce a new Google favicon inspired by those submissions by our users. While the final icon is a reinterpretation of one contest submission, it draws on design elements and ideas from many of them.<br /><br /><table><tr><td valign="middle"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyHTmwwIaH1bopgOW8Mep73w0BuIUpXSML4LwQyVlo4Dp233DZr5PpZCT08k5aNqGVFU23DuJz6SFnlmoe62dCq9dIcQ69D1fnXFCb74rgqgg2av3QifJdZpimYWGMFaOmwtO7mQwyRban/s1600-h/Google+Favicon_0109.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289407625802896338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyHTmwwIaH1bopgOW8Mep73w0BuIUpXSML4LwQyVlo4Dp233DZr5PpZCT08k5aNqGVFU23DuJz6SFnlmoe62dCq9dIcQ69D1fnXFCb74rgqgg2av3QifJdZpimYWGMFaOmwtO7mQwyRban/s320/Google+Favicon_0109.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 29px; height: 30px;" /></a></td><td valign="middle" align="left">Google's new favicon</td></tr></table><br />André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, submitted the design that inspired our new favicon. His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google.<br /><br /><table><tr><td valign="middle"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIIiFNnquyTaaCPieSyWn3cBmvqUrU8Z8ZbkrVf_292j71S7sovDMoH23aCuvMDY0zVz9b7F2Ale5k4sP8hzeeKkuIdHOeB_HDYrMG5TKa_EYYr8yQq2fyvUAh_irEc4EmP75OWkFFgJUE/s1600-h/Favicon_Andre.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289408169798432594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIIiFNnquyTaaCPieSyWn3cBmvqUrU8Z8ZbkrVf_292j71S7sovDMoH23aCuvMDY0zVz9b7F2Ale5k4sP8hzeeKkuIdHOeB_HDYrMG5TKa_EYYr8yQq2fyvUAh_irEc4EmP75OWkFFgJUE/s320/Favicon_Andre.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 30px; height: 25px;" /></a></td><td valign="middle" align="left"> by André Resende</td></tr></table><br />Although we changed the color layout slightly and moved the 'g' off center, his submission formed the basis for our new design.<br /><br />Incorporating all four of Google's colors (red, yellow, green, and blue) into the four corners of the favicon was a theme we liked in many submissions. We also saw this idea in the designs submitted by Hadi Onur Demirsoy, Lucian E. Marin, and Yusuf Sevgen (pictured below).<br /><br /><table><tr><td valign="middle"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNshBhl2kwam8iqXtNaMkFi0-kKZOuCr7hCF82K5YYJ79YxMsr0v_1xVSxQRbnetpGDca_uj1vDQoWNcfxiqn4l5NK5dXp4S1lnyRyPa4wbRs_X9nKgDrIeW74uEKPvY9oTQINCwKEYT2e/s1600-h/Favicon_Hadi.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289408420949719970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNshBhl2kwam8iqXtNaMkFi0-kKZOuCr7hCF82K5YYJ79YxMsr0v_1xVSxQRbnetpGDca_uj1vDQoWNcfxiqn4l5NK5dXp4S1lnyRyPa4wbRs_X9nKgDrIeW74uEKPvY9oTQINCwKEYT2e/s320/Favicon_Hadi.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 24px; height: 22px;" /></a></td><td valign="middle" align="left"> by Hadi Onur Demirsoy</td></tr></table><table><tr><td valign="middle"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49do3WM67T-oRT9elSfE5jj5z3yzOi0S-s9s-xLq66P_c0zZktMMfi_bU6jGsPkhFSlN5n4FgwZp1s2YJC7RSs0zxOvoC4VmaEOeGzv9_9yohB6brXGZax7Sr-mERxle7hnsfNKh18rtA/s1600-h/Favicon_Lucian.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289408659845930994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49do3WM67T-oRT9elSfE5jj5z3yzOi0S-s9s-xLq66P_c0zZktMMfi_bU6jGsPkhFSlN5n4FgwZp1s2YJC7RSs0zxOvoC4VmaEOeGzv9_9yohB6brXGZax7Sr-mERxle7hnsfNKh18rtA/s320/Favicon_Lucian.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 23px; height: 22px;" /></a></td><td valign="middle" align="left"> by Lucian E. Marin</td></tr></table><table><tr><td valign="middle"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc4DdFGT7gA6qLqTwvcDEyMxLYAvV22N06oHb-7FV_etrHg95W2Tlqh5oujrKpojgKZX0BCvLdhKpRE-E6ri6YRo9fdjo81WpJc5fLLezJZq0CncX3YNpMtEpZl03pvnOWUVSUasu1mq0/s1600-h/Favicon_Yusuf.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289409484839633042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc4DdFGT7gA6qLqTwvcDEyMxLYAvV22N06oHb-7FV_etrHg95W2Tlqh5oujrKpojgKZX0BCvLdhKpRE-E6ri6YRo9fdjo81WpJc5fLLezJZq0CncX3YNpMtEpZl03pvnOWUVSUasu1mq0/s320/Favicon_Yusuf.png" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 24px; height: 22px;" /></a></td><td valign="middle" align="left"> by Yusuf Sevgen</td></tr></table><br />We hope you like the new favicon, which nicely integrates all of our original criteria: distinctive in shape, noticeable, colorful, timeless, and scalable to other sizes.<br /><br />While I'm sure we will update it again, we also hope our new favicon inspired by Andre is a warm, colorful beacon to Google on your browser tabs and bookmarks. A big thank you to Andre, Hadi, Lucian, and Yusuf, as well as all of the other people who helped us define our new look in a uniquely user-driven way!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience, and Micheal Lopez, Web Design Lead</span>

Google's new favicon

Back in June, we rolled out a new favicon — the small icon that greets you when you access Google on your URL bar or your bookmarks list — ...

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Cardboard creativity

A few months ago, the <a href="http://code.google.com/opensource/">Google Open Source team</a> had an offsite in our Chicago office, and we were looking for something fun, social, and geeky for the teams to do during informal discussions. Before that, my colleague <a href="http://www.azarask.in/blog/">Aza</a> had shown me a cool new thing that he was making called <a href="http://www.bloxes.com/">Bloxes</a> -- interlocking cardboard boxes that were something like giant legos that connected on all six sides. They were actually invented by Aza's father, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin">Jef Raskin</a> (who started the Macintosh project at Apple), and were originally intended to be used to build flexible workspaces (like easily morphable cubicles). Having seen some samples of what you could build with them, I thought it would be fun to order a bunch of Bloxes for the team to build things out of while sitting around chatting and brainstorming.<br /><br />We built a number of interesting things out of the Bloxes that week, but the real fun started after the offsite was over. Several of the Chicago engineers really took to the Bloxes; every week new, fun new sculptures would show up in the lounge. And every week, they would get knocked down (often by the same people who built them up). We decided to match the brown Bloxes with an equal number of white Bloxes, bringing our total to 360. Creativity took it from there -- from a <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes#5282488817741788034">conference room</a> and a <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes#5282489108497303698">giant archway</a> to <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes#5282489367991233714">living room furniture</a>, a pair of <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes#5282489198245989458">giant dice</a>, an <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes#5282490014580054098">office</a>, and <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/fitz/Bloxes">much, much more</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimceng1B1TA2O1PLor4XV4USyweCSYqzTxZ7T7az08n04qMVf_uNJmbjqQvzbrraHnLDSGoRQBZDxjUbOr5Wpn7u2KYUnJhCHja7Uon0_3d5JwE3PUWAWEhfJ2-LFI3SyESHv51tZp2p8J/s1600-h/IMG_0331.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288712419989484882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimceng1B1TA2O1PLor4XV4USyweCSYqzTxZ7T7az08n04qMVf_uNJmbjqQvzbrraHnLDSGoRQBZDxjUbOr5Wpn7u2KYUnJhCHja7Uon0_3d5JwE3PUWAWEhfJ2-LFI3SyESHv51tZp2p8J/s400/IMG_0331.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br />Frequently, engineers wind up building something while discussing a bug or a feature, and it's a great conversation starter when other Googlers walk by and see a work in progress. So, what started as a somewhat quiet lounge with a whiteboard quickly became a must-see stop on the office tour for visiting dignitaries, and even better, an ever-changing public space that's fun to construct, and even more fun to knock down.<br /><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, Engineering Manager, Chicago</span>

Cardboard creativity

A few months ago, the Google Open Source team had an offsite in our Chicago office, and we were looking for something fun, social, and geek...

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Google at Macworld

After months of anticipation, <a href="http://www.macworldexpo.com/">Macworld 2009</a> is finally here. Throughout the four days of the expo (from now until Jan. 9), more than 100 Googlers from several product teams will be available to demonstrate Google software for the Mac and the iPhone.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRneWmnxYhSYDvxCaUbGFhiBVMd8Dp-JrIV_pSfKYCVLLRtQDrE4xxeyBMIXyYTyMr_DnaejUHDKhl01mzMRRoNDvuySCM-dZcg2OQod6Fb1qia_s8Nqh-5eo6n8iWO_2g3ZpbJceIFEfb/s1600-h/2.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288293590403041058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRneWmnxYhSYDvxCaUbGFhiBVMd8Dp-JrIV_pSfKYCVLLRtQDrE4xxeyBMIXyYTyMr_DnaejUHDKhl01mzMRRoNDvuySCM-dZcg2OQod6Fb1qia_s8Nqh-5eo6n8iWO_2g3ZpbJceIFEfb/s400/2.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" /></a><br />Picasa for Mac made its <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-picasa-for-mac-at-macworld.html">debut</a> yesterday, and you can follow along on the <a href="http://googlemac.blogspot.com/">Google Mac Blog</a> for more details on what we have in store for the rest of the week.<br /><br />If you're going to Macworld, we invite you to stop by. And for those of you who can't make it, many of the demos are available via video at <a href="http://www.google.com/mac/macworld/">google.com/macworld</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Jason Toff, Associate Product Marketing Manager<br /></span>

Google at Macworld

After months of anticipation, Macworld 2009 is finally here. Throughout the four days of the expo (from now until Jan. 9), more than 100 Go...

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Introducing Picasa for Mac (at Macworld!)

Sometimes I find it hard to describe Picasa without sounding like a late-night infomercial for a multi-bladed thingamabob: "It's a photo organizer! A photo editor! A web-savvy photo sharing and management system in just one tiny package!"<br /><br />We try hard to avoid hyperbole around here, but it's true that <a href="http://picasa.google.com/">Picasa software</a>, working together with <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/home">Picasa Web Albums</a>, can help with <a href="http://picasa.google.com/features.html">nearly every aspect</a> of owning and operating a digital camera. And because many of us take pictures in order to share them, we try to make sure Picasa does a great job of getting your favorite photos online, where friends and family can enjoy them too. In Picasa 3, that means <a href="http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/09/closer-look-at-picasa-3-beta.html">powerful new features</a> like automatically syncing changes between the photos on your computer and what you're sharing online, useful privacy controls integrated into the software on your PC, easier notifications, and more.<br /><br />And today, we're releasing <a href="http://picasa.google.com/mac/">Picasa for Mac</a>. While we've previously offered both a standalone Picasa Web Albums <a href="http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html">uploader</a> and an <a href="http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html">iPhoto plugin</a> for Mac users, Picasa for Mac finally brings all of the advanced sharing and sync features of Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums. Not to mention the "it-slices-and-dices" feature list that covers everything from color balance to collages.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMSffk1U035sZeXJtgO2F29wIu6XxvYCIXMle34C0Qco2u0m2IMekpgl4fJekPWupcgHXM4kNa3Yp73z4qiwB2rHlGLLFjyg6dBSq27_6O134JMZJsUpw7Dio3lTPr6B5uzjD0GcZJd5gV/s1600-h/Picasa_Uploading_blogsize.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287922620079719842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMSffk1U035sZeXJtgO2F29wIu6XxvYCIXMle34C0Qco2u0m2IMekpgl4fJekPWupcgHXM4kNa3Yp73z4qiwB2rHlGLLFjyg6dBSq27_6O134JMZJsUpw7Dio3lTPr6B5uzjD0GcZJd5gV/s320/Picasa_Uploading_blogsize.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 237px;" /></a><br />Picasa for Mac looks and works much like Picasa on other platforms, and offers trademark Picasa features — such as non-destructive editing, and the ability to keep track of photos anywhere on your hard drive, then automatically account for new images as you add them.<br /><br />Right now, Picasa for Mac is still in Google Labs, but we very much wanted to get an early version out to folks attending Macworld (you can learn more about this beta release at the <a href="http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2009/01/announcing-picasa-for-mac.html">Google Photos blog</a>). To run Picasa, you'll need an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 and above. We hope you'll give it a spin, and give us your feedback in person — members of the Picasa engineering team will be conducting demos at <a href="http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-at-macworld-expo.html">Google's Macworld booth</a> all week (you can also check out the video tour below).<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NDKFjc3_wrk&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NDKFjc3_wrk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Susanna Leng, Software Engineer</span>

Introducing Picasa for Mac (at Macworld!)

Sometimes I find it hard to describe Picasa without sounding like a late-night infomercial for a multi-bladed thingamabob: "It's a...

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Google blogging in 2008

Every year right about now we round up our blogging activity across Google. Ready? Here goes.<br /><br />This is our 368th post of the year on the main Google blog, which is 23% more than in 2007. In addition to more posts, we are thrilled to know that we have many more readers now — 78% more, to be exact. The number of unique visitors jumped from 6,738,830 last year to more than 12 million (12,000,723) in 2008. And readers are coming from all over: the UK, Canada, India, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan and beyond. The top non-Google referrers are Yahoo, Digg, Reddit, Lifehacker and Slashdot.<br /><br />We posted quite a bit about new products (10) and new product features (56), but nothing caused as much excitement as our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html" id="i2dv" title="earlier-than-planned unveiling of Google Chrome">earlier-than-planned unveiling of Google Chrome</a>. This post alone had 1,735,093 unique visitors and generated 12% of our total-year pageviews on the blog! There was also the much-anticipated announcement of the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/first-android-powered-phone.html" id="cisc" title="first Android-powered phone">first Android-powered phone</a>. And people enjoyed reading about our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-makes-design-googley.html" id="drm:" title="design philosophies">design philosophies</a>. Who knew a little change to a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/one-fish-two-fish-red-fish-blue-fish.html" id="ebks" title="favicon">favicon</a> would generate such interest?<br /><br />But it wasn't all just product news; there was much else to cover in 2008. To mark Google's 10th birthday, we took a moment to reflect on the enormous impact the Internet has had on people's lives since our founding. Some of our in-house experts <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Google%20at%2010" id="l.5c" title="share their thoughts">shared their thoughts</a> on how various technologies will evolve in the next 10 years.<br /><br />Like many of you, we were on the edge of seats watching all of the U.S. election action. We posted 27 times about political subjects, providing information about <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/wrapup-google-election-info.html" id="g0x4" title="voting tools">voting tools</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/superdelegate-layer-in-google-earth.html" id="oonu" title="how the political process works">how the political process works</a>, and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/top-searches-on-election-day-part-3.html" id="m0-o" title="what was on people's minds">what was top of mind</a> on Election Day. It's clear that technology will be playing an <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/elections-in-internet-era.html" id="wdvh" title="even bigger role">even bigger role</a> in politics in years to come.<br /><br />Of course, we had some fun too: We kept our long-standing April Fools' Day tradition going with the announcement of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/announcing-project-virgle.html" id="bscl" title="Project Virgle">Project Virgle</a>; we covered <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/traveling-by-zip-line.html" id="nrcu" title="new ways to get around">new ways to get around</a> the Googleplex and the masterminding of a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/reinventing-wheel.html" id="t.ll" title="giant Ferris Wheel">giant Ferris wheel</a>; and we raised our glass to a couple who <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-got-married-with-google.html" id="wj_3" title="got married with Google">got married with Google</a>.<br /><br />And the Google blog network keeps on growing: 44 new blogs launched this year, for a total of 127 active company blogs. A few highlights: eight new developer blogs (the <a href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/" id="z3w9" title="Open Source blog">Open Source blog</a> is shining star, with 370,000 unique visitors since its start in February), and 22 new ads-related blogs, nearly half of which are in languages other than English (there are AdSense blogs in <a href="http://zht-adsense.blogspot.com/" id="nyxr" title="Traditional Chinese">Traditional Chinese</a> and <a href="http://adsense-ru.blogspot.com/" id="ou1v" title="Russian">Russian</a>; and AdWords blogs in <a href="http://adwords-da.blogspot.com/" id="xenz" title="Danish">Danish</a>, <a href="http://adsense-de.blogspot.com/" id="v-ib" title="Deutsch">German</a>, <a href="http://adwords-tr.blogspot.com/" id="mqe:" title="Turkish">Turkish</a>, <a href="http://adwords-fr.blogspot.com/" id="dja7" title="French">French</a>, <a href="http://adwords-ru.blogspot.com/" id="n3-1" title="Russia">Russian</a>, <a href="http://adwords-ko.blogspot.com/" id="um7l" title="Korean">Korean</a>, <a href="http://adwords-se.blogspot.com/" id="ye50" title="Swedish">Swedish</a>, <a href="http://adwords-no.blogspot.com/" id="xan1" title="Norway">Norwegian</a>, <a href="http://adwords-fi.blogspot.com/" id="btu6" title="Finland">Finnish</a>, and <a href="http://adwords-al.blogspot.com/" id="xef:" title="Spanish">Spanish</a>). There's even an Analytics blog in <a href="http://analytics-fr.blogspot.com/" id="nm7w" title="French">French</a>. And we also welcomed three new regional blogs, for <a href="http://googleindia.blogspot.com/" id="v3.o" title="Google India">India</a>, <a href="http://google-africa.blogspot.com/" id="djhv" title="Google Africa">Africa</a>, and <a href="http://google-ukraine-blog.blogspot.com/" id="oanb" title="Google Ukraine">the Ukraine</a>. Sharing information with people wherever they are in whatever language they speak is a priority for us, and each of these new blogs helps us get a little bit closer to this goal. If the total number of Google blogs makes your head spin, don't worry. We've developed a new <a title="blog directory" href="http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html#tab0" id="bvyh">blog directory</a> and <a title="gadget" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?hl=en&moduleurl=www.google.com/uds/gadgets/google_blogs/google_blogs.xml&source=imag" id="njop">gadget</a> to help you more easily track news and updates from us.<br /><br />We're looking forward to another robust year of keeping you informed of all the goings-on at Google. In the meantime, we wish you and yours a very happy New Year.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Blog Team<br /></span>

Google blogging in 2008

Every year right about now we round up our blogging activity across Google. Ready? Here goes. This is our 368th post of the year on the main...

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A grateful season

The holidays are a time for giving, and Googlers across the globe have found some creative ways to give back to their communities this season. From raising money and crafting greeting cards to building gingerbread houses and giving blood, Googlers from east to west have been busy spreading good cheer. We've highlighted just a few of these efforts here, and we're looking forward to many more opportunities to give back in the new year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">London</span><br />The UK engineering recruitment team started to plan its annual Secret Santa gift exchange. But as they began thinking about last year, they realized that hardly anyone on the team could remember what they'd received, let alone given. Instead of spending 10 pounds on gag gifts, they decided to use the money to make a difference. After discovering that a local children's hospital was in desperate need of gifts, they quickly raised enough money to buy a Nintendo Wii gaming console for one of the wards.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFyn3HehvUGeWbfnS2wnjwjLsUkqzYz87kd9jy_kUSfVweV_5sCGsudDW5o8rtek7y5SlUp61K-aTeE9B8WqK9tWuXjEoyO0cvCIpxpHkHvF3HcxCVFepT7oPaO796ZWRa1GnxtJHYKsB/s1600-h/charity1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283113547345885586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFyn3HehvUGeWbfnS2wnjwjLsUkqzYz87kd9jy_kUSfVweV_5sCGsudDW5o8rtek7y5SlUp61K-aTeE9B8WqK9tWuXjEoyO0cvCIpxpHkHvF3HcxCVFepT7oPaO796ZWRa1GnxtJHYKsB/s320/charity1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 260px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mexico City</span><br />In the past, Google has held a "Doodle 4 Google" contest in the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/we-have-doodle-4-google-national-winner.html">US</a>, the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/history-is-cool-for-school.html">UK</a>, and <a href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/2007/11/doodle-4-google-winner-is.html">Australia</a>, inviting kids K-12 to submit a homepage doodle inspired by a particular theme. This year <a href="http://googleamericalatinablog.blogspot.com/2008/12/doodle-4-google-una-mirada-mxico-travs.html">Mexico</a> held its first such contest (theme: "the Mexico we want"). For each doodle submitted, Google donated to a non-profit that works to eradicate childhood malnutrition in Mexico. In total, more than 70,000 kilos (154,000 pounds) of food and aid were donated. Winner, Ana Karen Villagómez, was recently recognized in a ceremony in Mexico City; her doodle (pictured below) will appear on the Google homepage on January 6.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCk4dyYpwc_IqV_ixuBxpw9rnZB3zIOJ9OOb8r9sLZDZrLAGN8zLc62dTxtb0KB1h8ErhrqBYHR1AnQd4h98gYpyo2Vt-2AArgMDWqATmbAnvQyE9eYyr66C1j0-NGykD39EMp-yqNcBsO/s1600-h/charity6.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283113758068957122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCk4dyYpwc_IqV_ixuBxpw9rnZB3zIOJ9OOb8r9sLZDZrLAGN8zLc62dTxtb0KB1h8ErhrqBYHR1AnQd4h98gYpyo2Vt-2AArgMDWqATmbAnvQyE9eYyr66C1j0-NGykD39EMp-yqNcBsO/s320/charity6.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 215px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Boston and beyond</span><br />Boston Googlers delivered gifts to some very grateful students at a local school and spent the morning reading and playing with the children. The Chicago office held its first-ever holiday blood drive, donating 36 units of blood. And the Ann Arbor office held a "CANstruction" competition, creating sculptures out of canned food, personal items and baby items, which were all later donated.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7LhYlq6MPNmWv1UV7FMMmKCfdgBsIOffYLDBN6OERusc-GGVo2cFgnYnI9Q181rL7lkqgPnA-X_6HYEZeaNshoVNW6A8uTyqtP-HPMa0rdsPfLfcRfEnm-VXZiQC-vujb42mDydHEzMw/s1600-h/Picture+1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283112215131956802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7LhYlq6MPNmWv1UV7FMMmKCfdgBsIOffYLDBN6OERusc-GGVo2cFgnYnI9Q181rL7lkqgPnA-X_6HYEZeaNshoVNW6A8uTyqtP-HPMa0rdsPfLfcRfEnm-VXZiQC-vujb42mDydHEzMw/s320/Picture+1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 239px;" /></a><br />We hope that your holiday season is filled with plenty of time to slow down and reflect on what's important to you, and that you too feel inspired to find ways to give back to your own community in the new year.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Eileen Duffy and Sarah Falck, AdWords Account Associates</span>

A grateful season

The holidays are a time for giving, and Googlers across the globe have found some creative ways to give back to their communities this seaso...

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