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The rowboat and the cloud

Late last month a young man named Oliver (Olly) Hicks climbed into his boat, the Flying Carrot, and set out from Recherche Bay in Tasmania, Australia on the <a href="http://virginglobalrow.com/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);" target="_blank" title="Virgin Global Row">Virgin Global Row</a>, his attempt to become the first person to row solo around the entire globe. We jumped at the chance to offer our products to help Olly, both because we think this inspiring quest is eminently worth supporting and because we can't imagine how anyone else could more aptly illustrate the power of the web. You see, although he'll be alone throughout his two-year adventure, Olly's water-resistant laptop and satellite uplink will keep him perpetually connected to the "cloud." So the Carrot, though just 24 feet long, will fit countless millions of books, videos, photographs, songs and websites -- not to mention many of the world's web users. You and I, from the comfort of our own computers, will be able to map Olly's progress, read the blog items he writes, enjoy the pictures and videos he uploads, ask him questions and vote on which ones he should answer, and follow along in the <a href="http://earth.google.com/ocean/">newest version of Google Earth</a>, where his trip is part of an expedition layer focused on the world's oceans. And Olly, in turn, can rest assured that everything he does on the web will be safely stored there forever, even if his laptop happens to take a swim. The cloud will be there for him, as it is for everybody who lives, works and plays online. So, bon voyage, Olly. We're rooting for you, and we hope the rest of the world does, too. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9yFMmeyw9Vvn1ZPsRPynRSe9A5TQVW5dAdlxp5oEHG6o7oTTLCkFf7gX0iH_kvjXSZsUxblsOl3VbRKdMyUf7KKq9gTf2RwVAW1t7dMsY1YBgL1XlCQBeNJa9XlGElbd_FxNIIX-noM6/s1600-h/Picture+2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300885487349397970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9yFMmeyw9Vvn1ZPsRPynRSe9A5TQVW5dAdlxp5oEHG6o7oTTLCkFf7gX0iH_kvjXSZsUxblsOl3VbRKdMyUf7KKq9gTf2RwVAW1t7dMsY1YBgL1XlCQBeNJa9XlGElbd_FxNIIX-noM6/s400/Picture+2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 298px;" /></a> Posted by Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab

The rowboat and the cloud

Late last month a young man named Oliver (Olly) Hicks climbed into his boat, the Flying Carrot , and set out from Recherche Bay in Tasmania,...

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Students share their Apps stories

You might remember <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/appy-trails.html">reading</a> about our trip "<a href="http://www.google.com/apps/bus">App to School</a>," when we hit the road in our retro biofuel bus to visit ten universities across the U.S. One of our main goals of this trip was to hear from the technology experts themselves -- the students -- about how they are using tools like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Sites, and Google Talk in interesting ways to be more effective on and off campus. Luckily we had a video camera along for the ride, and we filmed a bunch of students telling their stories. We'll share one of these videos a week for the next few months on the <a href="http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/">Google Students blog</a>, so you can hear from the students themselves and hopefully learn a few new ways to use these products. Here's one student who uses Calendar to manage lab studies with his classmates: <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Auqou1zRZnM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Auqou1zRZnM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> If you want to make sure you catch all the latest videos and stay up to date about other news and tips for students, you can <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/GoogleStudentBlog">subscribe</a> to the Student blog. Can't wait another week to see more videos? Check out our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=655FDD3AF048626E">playlist</a>. And if you have your own story to share, we encourage you to upload it as a response. Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Students share their Apps stories

You might remember reading about our trip " App to School ," when we hit the road in our retro biofuel bus to visit ten universit...

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Calendar and contact syncing for iPhone and Windows Mobile devices

One advantage of storing information online is being able to access it from anywhere, on any device. Last year we released <a href="http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/sync.html" id="py8n" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);" title="a tool">a tool for Blackberry devices</a> to sync Google Calendar and Gmail contacts with the pre-installed calendar and contacts applications. Today, we're offering more people easy access to their information on the go with two-way calendar and contacts sync for iPhones and Windows Mobile devices, and two-way contacts sync for mobile devices that support <a href="http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=98258">SyncML</a>. This will be a particularly handy improvement for people who regularly use Google tools, like corporate employees, university students, and busy families. For iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, Google Sync allows you to get your Gmail contacts and Google Calendar events onto your phone. Sync uses push technology, which means that any changes you make to your calendar or contacts from the browser or phone will be reflected on your device within minutes. For phones that support SyncML, the tool will allow you to get your Gmail contacts onto your phone. For all of these devices, synchronization happens automatically over the air, without having to manually sync your phone. The connection is always on, which means your information is always up-to-date, no matter where you are or what you're doing. Getting started is easy. You can configure Google Sync directly from your device. The instructions and capabilities vary for different phones, so check out our Help Center for <a href="http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=139195" id="w9eh" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);" title="more information">device-specific information</a>. If you're a <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=official-google-blog-sync" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 204);" target="_blank" title="Google Apps">Google </a><a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=official-google-blog-sync" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 204);" target="_blank" title="Google Apps">Apps</a> user, Google Sync must be <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=135937">enabled</a> for your domain by your administrator. Following our credo to launch early and iterate, we're introducing Google Sync in beta. Before you begin, we encourage you to review a few known issues for the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=139635" id="yru2" title="iPhone">iPhone</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=139655" id="sa1_" title="Windows Mobile">Windows Mobile</a> devices. Also, please keep in mind that Google Sync will replace all existing contacts and calendar information on your phone, so make sure to back up any important data before you get started. You can find out more information on backing up your data in the Help Center. To try Sync, visit <a href="http://m.google.com/sync" id="s7qz" title="Google Sync">m.google.com/sync</a>, and check out our video tour below. <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kt_-qHczCMg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kt_-qHczCMg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object> Posted by Marcus Foster, Product Manager, Google Mobile

Calendar and contact syncing for iPhone and Windows Mobile devices

One advantage of storing information online is being able to access it from anywhere, on any device. Last year we released a tool for Black...

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Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye

Imagine that you need a refresher on how to tie a tie. So, you decide to type [how to tie a tie] into the Google search box. Which of these results would you choose? <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297226899518548434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3zxth2piK3LXkTi_GBpK47lDI5N86_bWUTURY5k8uzVuBoceKedp39isy1Rs3ZgclIxwvUThArfmrUBUzto3M8Vcfk7H9sM4y7vnsQ5P78GWDeV63aw2ihudo6MndmhAZgDLgUzCEMRu/s400/1-howtotieatie.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 382px; height: 400px;" /> Where did your eyes go first when you saw the results page? Did they go directly to the title of the first result? Did you first check the terms in boldface to see if the results really talk about tying a tie? Or maybe the images captured your attention and drew your eyes to them? You might find it difficult to answer these questions. You probably did not pay attention to where you were looking on the page and you most likely only used a few seconds to visually scan the results. Our User Experience Research team has found that people evaluate the search results page so quickly that they make most of their decisions unconsciously. To help us get some insight into this split-second decision-making process, we use eye-tracking equipment in our usability labs. This lets us see how our study participants scan the search results page, and is the next best thing to actually being able to read their minds. Of course, eye-tracking does not really tell us what they are thinking, but it gives us a good idea of which parts of the page they are thinking about. To see what the eye-tracking data we collect looks like, let's go back to the results page we got for the query [how to tie a tie]. The following video clip shows in real time how a participant in our study scanned the page. And yes, seriously — the video is in real time! That's how fast the eyes move when scanning a page. The larger the dot gets, the longer the users' eye pauses looking at that specific location. <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w29DrEEsqT4&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w29DrEEsqT4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Based on eye-tracking studies, we know that people tend to scan the search results in order. They start from the first result and continue down the list until they find a result they consider helpful and click it — or until they decide to refine their query. The heatmap below shows the activity of 34 usability study participants scanning a typical Google results page. The darker the pattern, the more time they spent looking at that part of the page. This pattern suggests that the order in which Google returned the results was successful; most users found what they were looking for among the first two results and they never needed to go further down the page. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297226902585795138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH5AuBvxX4x9tc6hjlMcoVB-rrWOqXh__FcYZDY-AxgHx09-F98z_Lp0xiUoMVDIArMWJYKL1w0lhrGeH8LxkS_zfEH62L_pY-zGVN61xC2aRngLBvA4bll1lmDewHLxrrMI-5DUskaEH0/s400/2-goldentriangle.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 374px; height: 400px;" /> When designing the user interface for <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html">Universal Search</a>, the team wanted to incorporate thumbnail images to better represent certain kinds of results. For example, in the [how to tie a tie] example above, we have added thumbnails for Image and Video results. However, we were concerned that the thumbnail images might be distracting and disrupt the well-established order of result evaluation. We ran a series of eye-tracking studies where we compared how users scan the search results pages with and without thumbnail images. Our studies showed that the thumbnails did not strongly affect the order of scanning the results and seemed to make it easier for the participants to find the result they wanted. The thumbnail image seemed to make results with thumbnails easy to notice when the users wanted them (see screenshots below — page with the thumbnail image on the right)... <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2q3FuqakUGfxLkKrz47Uk_oKuEh7ilNWFC6lBTxBnI1tLmoamtMDBtAAyCn_AKOZqEepNHsZU07n1p5NVQJOHANVmL3Z3FoiC2IeC30Y1uZTL4231V57Yb8p2d5EzHzsn5BCRk56YKCT/s1600-h/3-aninconvenienttruth.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299742939311627346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ2q3FuqakUGfxLkKrz47Uk_oKuEh7ilNWFC6lBTxBnI1tLmoamtMDBtAAyCn_AKOZqEepNHsZU07n1p5NVQJOHANVmL3Z3FoiC2IeC30Y1uZTL4231V57Yb8p2d5EzHzsn5BCRk56YKCT/s400/3-aninconvenienttruth.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 142px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Click the images to  view them larger. </div><div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div>...and the thumbnails also seemed to make it easy for people to skip over the results with thumbnails when those results were not relevant to their search (page with the thumbnail on the right). <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4dlQKPJZm8KK0ccza5j3tg0p2HzJycQRMC1s_rT_w5bZ66JiAPZ2Bc-ZF22UyUQypBoeqrwjQfYObRNDs6JEAgRebfVdLk2OdiiTBulM-FZRSY29iXE3JZahXpEr7mpS9Pjx-K6pSZQ4/s1600-h/4-bees.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299742942596031810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4dlQKPJZm8KK0ccza5j3tg0p2HzJycQRMC1s_rT_w5bZ66JiAPZ2Bc-ZF22UyUQypBoeqrwjQfYObRNDs6JEAgRebfVdLk2OdiiTBulM-FZRSY29iXE3JZahXpEr7mpS9Pjx-K6pSZQ4/s400/4-bees.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 155px;" /></a> </div><div>For the Universal Search team, this was a successful outcome. It showed that we had managed to design a subtle user interface that gives people helpful information without getting in the way of their primary task: finding relevant information. In addition to search research, we also use eye-tracking to study the usability of other products, such as <a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a> and <a href="http://images.google.com/">Image Search</a>. For these products, eye-tracking helps us answer questions, such as "Is the 'Top Stories' link discoverable on the left of the Google News page?" or "How do the users typically scan the image results — in rows, in columns or in some other way?" Eye-tracking gives us valuable information about our users' focus of attention — information that would be very hard to come by any other way and that we can use to improve the design of our products. However, in our ongoing quest to make our products more useful, usable, and enjoyable, we always complement our eye-tracking studies with other methods, such as interviews, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/art-of-field-study.html">field studies</a> and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html">live experiments</a>. Posted by Anne Aula and Kerry Rodden, User Experience Researchers</div></div>

Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye

Imagine that you need a refresher on how to tie a tie. So, you decide to type [how to tie a tie] into the Google search box. Which of these ...

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See where your friends are with Google Latitude

How often do you find yourself wondering where your friends are and what they're up to? It's a pretty central question to our daily social lives, and it's precisely the question you can now answer using Google Latitude. Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device. It's also an iGoogle gadget on your computer. Once you've opted in to Latitude, you can see the approximate location of your friends and loved ones who have decided to share their location with you. So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one's flight landed safely, despite bad weather. And with Latitude, not only can you see your friends' locations on a map, but you can also be in touch directly via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message; you can even upload a new profile photo on the fly. It's a fun way to feel close to the people you care about. Fun aside, we recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application. Everything about Latitude is opt-in. You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see. For instance, let's say you are in Rome. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere — perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls . Since you may not want to share the same information with everyone, Latitude lets you change the settings on a friend-by-friend basis. So for each person, you can choose to share your best available location or your city-level location, or you can hide. Everything is under your control and, of course, you can sign out of Latitude at any time. <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=u9H4xaTspaQ">Check out this video</a> to learn more about the privacy features. Finally, since we'd like you to be able to use Latitude with any of your friends, we've been working hard to make it available to as many people as possible. Today, Latitude is available in 27 countries, and we hope to add more soon. Ready to share your location? If you have a mobile smartphone, visit google.com/latitude on your phone's web browser to download the latest version of Google Maps for mobile with Latitude. Latitude is available on Blackberry, S60, and Windows Mobile, and will be available on Android in the next few days. We expect it will be coming to the iPhone, through Google Mobile App, very soon. No smartphone? No worries. Visit <a href="http://google.com/latitude">google.com/latitude</a> on your desktop or laptop to install the Latitude iGoogle gadget and share your location right from your computer. If you have <a href="http://gears.google.com/">Google Gears</a> installed in your browser (you do by default if you use Google Chrome), you can automatically share your location; otherwise, manually set your location to let your friends know where you are. Visit the <a href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/02/locate-your-friends-in-real-time-with.html">Google Mobile blog</a> for more details, and check out the video below to see Latitude in action. <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q-Oq-9enE-k&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q-Oq-9enE-k&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> Posted by Vic Gundotra, VP Engineering, Google mobile team

See where your friends are with Google Latitude

How often do you find yourself wondering where your friends are and what they're up to? It's a pretty central question to our daily ...

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Add Google News to your website

The world is a quickly changing place and it's getting harder and harder to stay on top of the news. With this in mind, we've just released a Google News–based element for webmasters and developers. This makes it easy to integrate headlines and previews from Google News into any webpage, and for newspapers to reach new audiences across the web. Whether your visitors are interested in <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=300x250&topic=b">business</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=728x90&topic=e">entertainment</a> or <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=300x250&q=Fashion">fashion</a>, you control the types of stories in your personal news show. You can input keywords like "<a href="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=300x250&q=Obama">Obama</a> " or "<a href="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=728x90&q=Superbowl">Superbowl</a>" or broad topics like "world news" or "politics." For more information, check out our <a href="http://googleajaxsearchapi.blogspot.com/2009/02/adding-google-news-to-your-website.html">post</a> on the AJAX Search API Blog or get started with our <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/newsshow/wizard.html">wizard</a> to automatically generate the code for you. <iframe src="http://www.google.com/uds/modules/elements/newsshow/iframe.html?format=300x250" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" height="250" width="300"></iframe> Posted by Adam Feldman, AJAX API team

Add Google News to your website

The world is a quickly changing place and it's getting harder and harder to stay on top of the news. With this in mind, we've just r...

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India Internet Bus Project rolls in

Today, we launched the Internet Bus Project, an initiative designed to showcase the benefits of the Internet to the people across the cities of the Indian state of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tamil+nadu,+india&sll=11.888853,78.662109&sspn=10.692796,12.502441&g=tamil+nadu,+india&ie=UTF8&ll=12.404389,78.662109&spn=10.159218,12.502441&z=6&iwloc=addr">Tamil Nadu</a>. Over the last few years, we've been witnessing a steady growth in Internet adoption, but we wanted to do more to directly engage the offline population of India. So we're hitting the road over the next month and a half to demonstrate how the Internet can make everyday tasks simple with tools like Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps and more. To learn more about the project and get updates from the road, visit the <a href="http://googleindia.blogspot.com/" id="k2va" title="Google India Blog">Google India Blog</a> or the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/internetbus" id="ukva" title="Internet Bus Project website">Internet Bus Project website</a>. Posted by Prem Ramaswami and Srikanth Belwadi, Product Managers

India Internet Bus Project rolls in

Today, we launched the Internet Bus Project, an initiative designed to showcase the benefits of the Internet to the people across the cities...

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