My Maps, your love stories

Flowers, chocolates and cards are all typically associated with Valentine's Day. But as someone with a bit of a crush on cartography, I wanted to find a way for people to express their love using maps. I rallied a few other hopeless romantics around here and, together, we created a <a href="http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68480" id="t84v" title="My Map">My Map</a> where you can mark the romantic places in your life. Whether it's the waterfall where you proposed, the Chinese restaurant where you had your first date with your sweetheart, the secluded beach where you got married, or simply the most romantic spot that comes to mind, we'd love to hear from you. You can even add photos and videos to illustrate your love story. (But make sure your story doesn't make Cupid blush, as this map is intended for all audiences.)<br /><br /><iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101225290779886943060.00046283b416f675c9680&ll=47.754098,-93.515625&spn=90,-89.296875&output=embed&s=AARTsJol4gdM0jlIEfMeuSsXN77dC55Yeg"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101225290779886943060.00046283b416f675c9680&ll=47.754098,-93.515625&spn=90,-89.296875&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br />And if you're still scrambling for a last-minute gift for your valentine this year, we hope this map will provide some inspiration. You can use My Maps or <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/02/google-earths-flying-tour-bus.html" id="b2q3" title="the new Touring feature in Google Earth">the new Touring feature in Google Earth</a> to make a special map just for your loved one, showing all the important places throughout your relationship. Of course, some flowers probably wouldn't hurt either. :-)<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Google Blog team and self-professed map lover </span>

My Maps, your love stories

Flowers, chocolates and cards are all typically associated with Valentine's Day. But as someone with a bit of a crush on cartography, I wanted to find a way for people to express their love using maps…

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Happy trails with My Tracks for Android-powered phones

Today I'm pleased to announce the new <a href="http://mytracks.appspot.com/">My Tracks</a> application for Android-powered phones such as the T-Mobile G1. My Tracks records tracks of outdoor activities using the phone's built-in GPS. It shows these tracks on a map and presents live statistics, including an elevation profile. And here's the best part: it lets you easily share your activities with friends and the world using Google Maps, as well as archive your training history with Google Docs.<br /><br />Check out a ride from one of the My Tracks engineers (click to view larger):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiphxYeX9I6kPQ7eiqW0xR0nsAKg5i84QgcEUfEzscN4cz4SooVwmlubD_3RYwM_qNr8LQdDQ5qDKsZh1DvJ4cWef-HAqqjSKiNMthtfs061ebeot0aDjpC7DcahyphenhyphenKFjLeANx-612e9auM/s1600-h/Page+Mill+Rd+Cycling.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301957264218520690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiphxYeX9I6kPQ7eiqW0xR0nsAKg5i84QgcEUfEzscN4cz4SooVwmlubD_3RYwM_qNr8LQdDQ5qDKsZh1DvJ4cWef-HAqqjSKiNMthtfs061ebeot0aDjpC7DcahyphenhyphenKFjLeANx-612e9auM/s400/Page+Mill+Rd+Cycling.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 244px;" /></a><br />Many GPS receivers require you to plug a separate device into a computer, install software, transfer, convert and upload your track to the web. With My Tracks, this has become a whole lot simpler. I no longer need to carry multiple devices when I go out for a ride, and I can easily share my rides on the spot with anyone I'd like by recording and uploading my track right from my phone and then sharing it out via email or even Twitter.<br /><br />Here's a look at some of the things you can do with My Tracks:<br /><ul><li> Record and visualize GPS tracks while running, hiking, biking, skiing — or any other outdoor activity</li><li>Get live statistics, such as total/moving time, (average) speed, distance, and elevation profile</li><li> Send performance statistics to Google Docs to build a training history</li><li>Mark places and describe activities for others to discover via Google Maps</li></ul>It's simple to get started. Just go to Android Market on your Android-powered phone and search for "My Tracks." Install the application and hit "Start recording" from the menu. This video shows you how it's done:<br /><br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IBmjJrgUGdE&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IBmjJrgUGdE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br />My Tracks was developed as a 20% project. On behalf of the entire team, we hope you enjoy using this application as much as we had fun developing it. And we're looking forward to seeing all of the creative ways people use it.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Dylan Casey, Product Manager and former professional cyclist</span>

Happy trails with My Tracks for Android-powered phones

Today I'm pleased to announce the new My Tracks application for Android-powered phones such as the T-Mobile G1. My Tracks records tracks of outdoor activities using the phone's built-in GPS. It shows …

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Share the iGoogle love

Since we launched iGoogle two years ago, we've received some fascinating stories from users telling us about interesting ways they're using their personalized Google homepage. Some have mentioned a particular gadget that they could not live without; others have said how much they enjoy <a href="http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/gallery.html">artist themes</a>. Some people have let us know how they've used our tools to create their own <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/gmchoices?source=gdha">gadgets</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/tm">themes</a>. We've also heard personal stories about how people have tailored their page to <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/share-love-with-igoogle.html">keep their relationship alive</a>, their news filtered, and their life organized.<br /><br />In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we're asking all iGoogle fans to share the love by submitting a written story or video describing what's special about their homepage. Your story can mention anything you want about your page — from something practical to something heartwarming. If you aren't a video whiz, don't worry. You can just tell it like it is. But we do encourage you to spice up your submission however you'd like — the best ones will be showcased for all to see.<br /><br />For each entry received, we will 'share the love' back by sending you a free set of iGoogle artist theme laptop stickers.* You can choose from six popular themes, by Radiohead, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Ecko, kate spade and Paul Frank.<br /><br />Visit <a href="http://www.google.com/sharethelove09">www.google.com/sharethelove09</a> to find out how to submit your story and receive your stickers. We're looking forward to reading (and watching) your love stories. To help you get inspired, we've put together this short video that shows some of our favorite ways to use iGoogle.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZlBcXnTAb3g&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZlBcXnTAb3g&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">*One sheet per person. We regret we can only mail to U.S. addresses and only while supplies last.</span><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Associate Product Marketing Manager</span>

Share the iGoogle love

Since we launched iGoogle two years ago, we've received some fascinating stories from users telling us about interesting ways they're using their personalized Google homepage. Some have mentioned a pa…

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Victorian fires update

<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/02/victorian-fires-update.html">Google Australia Blog</a>. Here's the <a href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/02/mapping-victorian-fires.html">earlier post </a>on mapping the fires.)</span><br /><br />To follow up <a href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/02/mapping-victorian-fires.html">our post on Sunday</a>, and with the tragedy in Victoria continuing, we've updated our <a href="http://mapvisage.appspot.com/fires/FireMap.html">map of the Victorian fires</a> to incorporate the latest available satellite imagery from the Modis Rapid Response project at NASA/GSFC. You can toggle the button "Show Imagery" to see their most recent satellite imagery of some affected parts of Victoria. The small red polygons indicate that a fire is still burning (as at the time indicated beneath the map — 20 hours ago at the time of posting this).<br /><br />We're continuing to try source the most hi-res imagery and fire data available and will update the map as soon as we get it (much of the satellite imagery is covered by smoke). We'll provide updates on the <a href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/">Google Australia Blog</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJGnQv0d25455R70WsGyKUzuXgrUqoHenXSGZJb5O1vxyCankF_ZvSiNC5jJp-W2hmy8pu4k6oT9qq8EEAghOW8Qj8tbO7-yWHpBhVIPqJlnzp1975KdneM6GJUZmGX9Gz4e5zJPK1vxag/s1600-h/Picture+2%282%29.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301219600136496178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJGnQv0d25455R70WsGyKUzuXgrUqoHenXSGZJb5O1vxyCankF_ZvSiNC5jJp-W2hmy8pu4k6oT9qq8EEAghOW8Qj8tbO7-yWHpBhVIPqJlnzp1975KdneM6GJUZmGX9Gz4e5zJPK1vxag/s400/Picture+2%282%29.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 323px;" /></a><br />This map takes a constantly updating RSS feed from the Country Fire Authority of current fire incidents. To embed this map on your website, click <a href="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=open&url=http://mapvisage.appspot.com/fires/vicfiresgadget.xml">here</a> and then click "Get the Code."<br /><br />We've set up a <a href="http://www.google.com.au/landing/victorianbushfires/">dedicated page</a> (which we are linking to from the front page of google.com.au) that contains the Victorian fires map with imagery and a Google News feed. It also provides a link to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfires Appeal, to which so many Australians are contributing.<br /><br />Our thoughts are with the victims and their families and, like all Australians, we're in awe of the efforts of everyone involved in the rescue and relief operations.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Alan Noble, Raul Vera and Pamela Fox, Engineering team</span>

Victorian fires update

(Cross-posted from the Google Australia Blog. Here's the earlier post on mapping the fires.)To follow up our post on Sunday, and with the tragedy in Victoria continuing, we've updated our map of the V…

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Power to the people

Imagine how hard it would be to stick to a budget in a store with no prices. Well, that's pretty much how we buy electricity today. Your utility company sends you a bill at the end of the month with very few details. Most people don't know how much electricity their appliances use, where in the house they are wasting electricity, or how much the bill might go up during different seasons. But in a world where everyone had a detailed understanding of their home energy use, we could find all sorts of ways to save energy and lower electricity bills. In fact, <a href="http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/electric-metering.php">studies show</a> that access to home energy information results in savings between 5-15% on monthly electricity bills. It may not sound like much, but if half of America's households cut their energy demand by 10 percent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.<br /><br />Google’s mission is to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter/">home electricity use</a>. We're tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We've been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a "smart grid," to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called "smart meters." There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4PgMlZDopssDtUBl_2WjC92O9WmlU-r5qwtg7ltC5hbmNQxPD86-xjd-idjnR2hhipOKyI4qr3wGy9CtAgFBigiNEaREoV5amoJtCDR6O8c6UZBHEYTioqBjrJqSxRb5cfnySsV7MWSF/s1600-h/Info-graphic.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5301023342469221010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4PgMlZDopssDtUBl_2WjC92O9WmlU-r5qwtg7ltC5hbmNQxPD86-xjd-idjnR2hhipOKyI4qr3wGy9CtAgFBigiNEaREoV5amoJtCDR6O8c6UZBHEYTioqBjrJqSxRb5cfnySsV7MWSF/s400/Info-graphic.gif" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" /></a>But deploying smart meters alone isn't enough. This needs to be coupled with a strategy to provide customers with easy access to energy information. That's why we believe that open protocols and standards should serve as the cornerstone of smart grid projects, to spur innovation, drive competition, and bring more information to consumers as the smart grid evolves. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it. For more details on our policy suggestions, check out the <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter/cpuc.html">comments</a> we filed yesterday with the California Public Utility Commission.<br /><br />In addition to policy advocacy, we're building consumer tools, too. Over the last several months, our engineers have developed a software tool called <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter/howitworks.html">Google PowerMeter</a>, which will show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer. Google PowerMeter is not yet available to the public since we're <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dx38hzRWDQ">testing it out</a> with Googlers first. But we're <a href="http://www.google.org/powermeter/contactus.html">building partnerships</a> with utilities and independent device manufacturers to gradually roll this out in pilot programs. Once we've had a chance to kick the tires, we'll make the tool more widely available.<br /><br />There is no one-size-fits-all solution to providing consumers with detailed energy information. And it will take the combined efforts of federal and state governments, utilities, device manufacturers, and software engineers to empower consumers to use electricity more wisely by giving them access to energy information.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Ed Lu, Engineering team</span>

Power to the people

Imagine how hard it would be to stick to a budget in a store with no prices. Well, that's pretty much how we buy electricity today. Your utility company sends you a bill at the end of the month with v…

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The rowboat and the cloud

Late last month a young man named Oliver (Olly) Hicks climbed into his boat, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Flying Carrot</span>, and set out from Recherche Bay in Tasmania, Australia on the <b><a href="http://virginglobalrow.com/" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);" target="_blank" title="Virgin Global Row"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Virgin Global Row</span></a></b>, 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.<br /><br />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 <span style="font-style: italic;">Carrot</span>, 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />So, bon voyage, Olly. We're rooting for you, and we hope the rest of the world does, too.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9yFMmeyw9Vvn1ZPsRPynRSe9A5TQVW5dAdlxp5oEHG6o7oTTLCkFf7gX0iH_kvjXSZsUxblsOl3VbRKdMyUf7KKq9gTf2RwVAW1t7dMsY1YBgL1XlCQBeNJa9XlGElbd_FxNIIX-noM6/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"><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><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Andy Berndt, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab</span>

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 Virgin Global Row, his attempt to become th…

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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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Here's one student who uses Calendar to manage lab studies with his classmates:<br /><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><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager</span>

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 universities across the U.S. One of our main goals of this trip was to hear from t…

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