Bike to Work Day 2009

Almost every Friday, I jump on my bike in San Francisco and ride roughly 45 miles to get to work at the <a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=Google%20Inc.@37.423156,-122.084917&hl=en">Google campus</a> in Mountain View — it takes about 3 hours. Most people think I'm crazy, but seeing the sun rise over the bay and feeling the rush of the air as I speed down <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cortland+ave,+san+francisco,+ca&sll=37.739058,-122.41632&sspn=0.02508,0.05579&gl=us&ie=UTF8&ll=37.739838,-122.411814&spn=0.02508,0.05579&t=p&z=15&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=37.739861,-122.411686&panoid=SAr9PwXXVOFTcmIGgEwVzQ&cbp=12,92.04,,0,14.14">Cortland Hill</a> at close to 30mph on my bike makes it all worth it.<br /><br />Today and tomorrow, Googlers in 42 offices from around the world are joining me in celebrating <a href="http://www.sfbike.org/?btwd">Bike to Work Day</a>. Google's participation in this national event began in 2003 with only a handful of participants. Through the years, the tradition has grown from a purely local event to one that involves numerous offices in competition to get the longest distance biked, the most bikers, and the greatest percentage of an office participating.<br /><br />More than 500 Googlers in the San Francisco Bay Area participated, jumping on their bikes and leaving traffic behind. The benefits to us are clear; not only is biking great for health and fitness, but it also spares the earth a day of pollution.<br /><br />To see us in action, check out the photo album below.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fgblogphotos%2Falbumid%2F5335784595393124785%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Debbie Leight, Product Marketing Manager</span>

Bike to Work Day 2009

Almost every Friday, I jump on my bike in San Francisco and ride roughly 45 miles to get to work at the Google campus in Mountain View — it...

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This is your pilot speaking. Now, about that holding pattern...

Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected. That's basically what happened to some of our users today for about an hour, starting at 7:48 am Pacific time.<br /><br />An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions. We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and "always on," so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again. All planes are back on schedule now. <br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Urs Hoelzle, SVP, Operations</span>

This is your pilot speaking. Now, about that holding pattern...

Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of othe...

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Understanding health-related searches

As we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-experiments-large-and-small.html">blogged last summer</a>, there are lots of experiments running on Google web search all over the world. Today we've started a temporary experiment that some people might find interesting: we're researching how Google users search the Internet when they or someone they know is feeling sick.<br /><br />Understanding how people search when they're feeling sick is an important problem to solve, as it can help improve projects like <a href="http://google.org/flutrends">Google Flu Trends</a>, which uses aggregated search data to detect influenza epidemics. Statistics gathered in this experiment may also help Google deliver more relevant search results in the future. For example, someone who searches for [arthritis pain] to understand why an aging parent is experiencing joint pain might want to learn about nearby health facilities and potential treatments, whereas somebody who searches for [arthritis pain] because she is doing a research project might want results about how common arthritis is and what its risk factors are. Rather than make educated guesses about how many users are searching because they're sick, we're running this experiment to collect real statistics. This is not a permanent change, but a short-term experiment. A small percentage of random health-related searches will trigger the poll question.<br /><br />For example, at the bottom of the search results for [headache], some users will see a survey which asks whether they were searching because they or someone they know has a headache:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdYuXY6tR76mxwyxtmd-lZ8641_kUweNtGuPTMITfV7pZJxpsPoAOifrZOqaa-AC3rRXgKBO-Sr8bZJ0XVamEPsVFOpfU-KvR2fDsb5DLBgvz2cwsNdNzAo_X0R0QqCuyMjQ36X6WNTv0/s1600-h/RUSICK" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335411363823702674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdYuXY6tR76mxwyxtmd-lZ8641_kUweNtGuPTMITfV7pZJxpsPoAOifrZOqaa-AC3rRXgKBO-Sr8bZJ0XVamEPsVFOpfU-KvR2fDsb5DLBgvz2cwsNdNzAo_X0R0QqCuyMjQ36X6WNTv0/s400/RUSICK" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 40px;" /></a><br />Similarly, if you happen to search for [ibuprofen], a common anti-inflammatory drug, you might see a survey which asks whether you were searching because you or somebody you know is taking ibuprofen:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwELINNrKrYg-E1kEd_NBrhhUZi0l9YF8pxS6LsUoTIe1qCrLL7yxCamVlv2me4IGJz4bzS0AoaRpRGqoEVdaQBkfHSzoy_8bYW6kF3z22vrGhHurbdUpuN0soST1jKDWiNL3paFG1EE0Y/s1600-h/RUSICK2" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335411498581474978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwELINNrKrYg-E1kEd_NBrhhUZi0l9YF8pxS6LsUoTIe1qCrLL7yxCamVlv2me4IGJz4bzS0AoaRpRGqoEVdaQBkfHSzoy_8bYW6kF3z22vrGhHurbdUpuN0soST1jKDWiNL3paFG1EE0Y/s400/RUSICK2" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 40px;" /></a><br />Data collected in this survey will be aggregated across thousands of users. Survey responses will be stored together with the original search query, but will not be associated with email addresses or other personally identifiable information. Survey data will not be used for advertising — it will only be used to help Google improve health-related search results and to help refine public health trends based on aggregated search queries, much like Google Flu Trends. You can learn more about how Google protects users' privacy at our <a href="http://www.google.com/privacy">Privacy Center</a>.<br /><br />For more information, please take a look at our <a href="http://www.google.org/about/flutrends/feeling-sick-faq.html">FAQ</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Roni Zeiger, MD, Product Manager and Jeremy Ginsberg, Software Engineer</span>

Understanding health-related searches

As we blogged last summer , there are lots of experiments running on Google web search all over the world. Today we've started a tempora...

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30,000 new Google Apps business users at Valeo

Since Gmail launched in 2004 with, what was at the time, an unprecedented 1GB of storage per person, we've been focused on continuously improving the email experience with things like fast search to find messages quickly, <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-apps-connects-with-blackberry.html">mobile support</a>, <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/01/announcing-offline-access-in-gmail-labs.html">offline access</a> and integrated IM, and <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2008/11/gmail-voice-and-video-chat.html">voice and video chat</a>. Gmail was really the beginning of how we're rethinking personal and group productivity, and over the last couple of years, business adoption has accelerated rapidly as the hosted suite has emerged as a powerful, affordable successor to on-premises business technology.<br /><br />Today, more than a million businesses have moved beyond traditional software and hardware to cloud computing – where data and applications live online – and they're using the Google Apps suite not just for Gmail, but also for shared calendaring, collaborating on files without attachments, private video sharing and quickly deployable internal and external sites. IT managers are refocusing the money and time saved towards core projects that help their individual businesses become more competitive.<br /><br />Today we're thrilled to share news about another exciting partnership: <a href="http://www.valeo.com/en/press-releases/details.html?id=100">Valeo is deploying Google Apps</a> to the company's entire office-based workforce.<br /><br />This marks a significant moment for Google Apps, because Valeo has 30,000 Internet-connected employees, making this one of the largest enterprise deployments of Google Apps to date. Valeo is moving to the cloud with the support of Capgemini, one of the world's most highly regarded technology advisory firms. This deployment across Valeo's distributed workforce of 192 business entities in 27 countries and five continents demonstrates the vast scalability of Google Apps. Whether your company has just five employees in a single room, or tens of thousands of people scattered around the globe, Google Apps can easily provide powerful messaging and collaboration tools.<br /><br />If you help make technology decisions where you work, we invite you to <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=us-en-ogb&utm_campaign=valeo">learn about Google Apps </a>and join the million businesses that have already become more productive by rethinking their approach to technology.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Laurent Guiraud, Google Enterprise</span>

30,000 new Google Apps business users at Valeo

Since Gmail launched in 2004 with, what was at the time, an unprecedented 1GB of storage per person, we've been focused on continuously ...

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We have a Knol for Dummies.com winner!

Today, we're pleased to announce that the winner of our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-become-dummiescom-author.html">Knol for Dummies.com contest</a> is "<a href="http://knol.google.com/k/jennifer-frank/how-to-talk-to-your-doctor/1sx1wpgiybdpu/4">How to talk to your doctor</a>" by <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/jennifer-frank/-/1sx1wpgiybdpu/0#">Dr. Jennifer Frank</a>, whose knol about "getting the most out of a short-but-sweet office visit" was selected for its quality, clarity, and usefulness. It will be <a href="http://www.dummies.com/Section/id-380924.html">featured on Dummies.com</a>, and she will receive $1,000.<br /><br /><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/jennifer-frank/how-to-talk-to-your-doctor/1sx1wpgiybdpu/4#" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337940818958342082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyAzL20ujGBZGOSuJXf1pDJNQLcu4gbq5eDN0Mzj-BzVMfM-bScBqV8ZDkCYk3x8UhGstBDyVmb9QfwEQgRSgQnvu1MHV7Cy2pMg83m072zqsejyxI7hgzzPcb3esUS8NKJEQyd2CGBKUt/s400/Picture+7.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 104px;" /></a><div>You can read Dr. Frank's knol <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/jennifer-frank/how-to-talk-to-your-doctor/1sx1wpgiybdpu/4">here</a>. Dr. Frank's tips on are just the type of authoritative content that makes great knols.<br /><br />Congratulations also go to the four finalists, who will also be featured on Dummies.com:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/tom-nolan/how-to-calibrate-lag-in-guitar-hero/1tcv2hb2pn9ca/2#">How to Calibrate Lag in Guitar Hero</a> by <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/tom-nolan/tom-nolan/1tcv2hb2pn9ca/0#">Tom Nolan</a></li><li><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/craig-meathead-goldwyn/how-to-make-the-best-barbecue-ribs-ever/26escshr4kvt0/29">How to Make the Best Barbecue Ribs Ever</a> by <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/craig-meathead-goldwyn/-/26escshr4kvt0/0#">Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn</a></li><li><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/rita-hubbard/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know/1crry0nq2vba8/10">Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Getting a Grant (But Were Afraid to Ask)</a> by <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/rita-hubbard/rita-hubbard/1crry0nq2vba8/0#">Rita Hubbard</a></li><li><a href="http://knol.google.com/k/stephen-buchwalter/how-to-make-great-coffee/2hvcc153l9mae/2">How to Make Great Coffee</a> by <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/stephen-buchwalter/stephen-buchwalter/2hvcc153l9mae/0#">Stephen Buchwalter</a> and <a href="http://knol.google.com/k/paivikki-buchwalter/paivikki-buchwalter/18qshwnl2mfm1/0#">Paivikki Buchwalter</a></li></ul>Thanks to everyone who participated in the competition. We enjoyed learning how to do so many interesting things — from the importance of being nice to the staff at your doctor's office to the difference between spare ribs and babyback ribs — and hope knol readers did too.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matt Ghering, Product Marketing Manager, Knol</span></div>

We have a Knol for Dummies.com winner!

Today, we're pleased to announce that the winner of our Knol for Dummies.com contest is " How to talk to your doctor " by Dr....

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A planetarium in your pocket

At today's <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-search-options-and-other-updates.html">Searchology event</a> we were pleased to launch Google Sky Map for Android. Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a dynamic window on the night sky. When you point your phone upwards you will see a map of the brightest stars, constellations and planets in that part of the sky. The next time you see a bright star and want to know what it's called, Sky Map can help you identify it.<br /><br />Whether you are an aspiring astronomer or just want to impress your date, download Sky Map from the Android Market. For more information watch the video below or visit the <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/05/sky-map-for-android-location-and.html">Lat Long Blog</a>.<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p6znyx0gjb4&hl=en&fs=1"><!-- param--><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p6znyx0gjb4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by John Taylor, Software Engineer</span>

A planetarium in your pocket

At today's Searchology event we were pleased to launch Google Sky Map for Android. Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered mobile pho...

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More Search Options and other updates from our Searchology event

Today we are hosting our second Searchology event, to update our users, partners, and customers on the progress we have made in search and tell them about new features. Our first Searchology was two years ago, when we were excited to <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html">launch Universal Search</a>, a feature that blended results of different types (web pages, images, videos, books, etc.) on the results page. Since then Universal Search has grown quite a bit, adding new types of results, expanding to new countries, and triggering on ten times as many queries as it did when we launched it.<br /><br />But as people get more sophisticated at search they are coming to us to solve more complex problems. To stay on top of this, we have spent a lot of time looking at how we can better understand the wide range of information that's on the web and quickly connect people to just the nuggets they need at that moment. We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it.<br /><br />Our first announcement today is a new set of features that we call Search Options, which are a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier. Search Options helps solve a problem that can be vexing: what query should I ask?<br /><br />Let's say you are looking for forum discussions about a specific product, but are most interested in ones that have taken place more recently. That's not an easy query to formulate, but with Search Options you can search for the product's name, apply the option to filter out anything but forum sites, and then apply an option to only see results from the past week. Just last week, at our Shareholders' Meeting, I had a woman ask me why she couldn't organize her results by time, with the most recent information appearing first. "Come back Tuesday," I wanted to say!<br /><br />The Search Options panel also gives you the ability to view your results in new ways. One view gives you more information about each result, including images as well as text, while others let you explore and iterate your search in different ways.<br /><br />Check out a video tour here:<br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MtirDMfcOKE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MtirDMfcOKE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br />We think of the Search Options panel as a tool belt that gives you new ways to interact with Google Search, and we plan to fill it with more innovative and useful features in the future.<br /><br />Another challenging problem we have worked on is better understanding the information you get back from a search. When you see your results from a Google search, how do you decide which one has the best information for you? Or, how can we help you make the best decision about where to click?<br /><br />We call the set of information we return with each result a "snippet," and today we are announcing that some of our snippets are going to get richer. These "rich snippets" extract and show more useful information from web pages than the preview text that you are used to seeing. For example, if you are thinking of <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=drooling+dog+barbeque">trying out a new restaurant</a> and are searching for reviews, rich snippets could include things like the average review score, the number of reviews, and the restaurant's price range:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9miC0n3rRxtw0nRDb8El-lvdanl1JZUXRSHm8B_kRitmu0T4h4zocYJUZTt2rCIBJzEtCeTUVEYZvYXHR0fvX2GlRmRQW9IjrkZm37tw6ySeSO53YQV3jwJfozYMUrH9HNV5V36BQk0n/s1600-h/Picture+5.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334997642503482946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9miC0n3rRxtw0nRDb8El-lvdanl1JZUXRSHm8B_kRitmu0T4h4zocYJUZTt2rCIBJzEtCeTUVEYZvYXHR0fvX2GlRmRQW9IjrkZm37tw6ySeSO53YQV3jwJfozYMUrH9HNV5V36BQk0n/s400/Picture+5.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 69px;" /></a>In this example, you can quickly see that the Drooling Dog Bar B Q has gotten lots of positive reviews, and if you want to see what other people have said about the restaurant, clicking this result is a good choice.<br /><br />We can't provide these snippets on our own, so we hope that web publishers will help us by adopting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microformats">microformats</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDFa">RDFa</a> standards to mark up their HTML and bring this structured data to the surface. This will help people better understand the information you have on your page so they can spend more time there and less on Google. We will be rolling this feature out gradually to ensure that the quality of Google's search results stays high. If you are a webmaster and are interested in participating, visit the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/request.py?contact_type=rich_snippets_feedback">rich snippets help page</a> to learn more.<br /><br />We also showed a preview of a new tool that we're calling Google Squared. Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic — instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet. We'll be opening it up to users later this month on Google Labs.<br /><br /><div>These features really explore search from a broad and entirely new perspective. Because we realize that when you can't quickly find just the exact information or content you need or want, it's our problem, not yours. And it's a problem with plenty of room left for innovation.  Stay tuned.</div><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, and Jack Menzel, Group Product Manager</span>

More Search Options and other updates from our Searchology event

Today we are hosting our second Searchology event, to update our users, partners, and customers on the progress we have made in search and t...

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