Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets

For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a "search snippet." Recently, we've enhanced the search snippet with two new features that make it easier to find information buried deep within a page.<br /><br />Normally, a search snippet shows how a page, as a whole, relates to a your query by excerpting content that appears near and around where your query terms show on the page. But what if only one section of the page is relevant to your search?<br /><br />That's where these new features can help, by providing links within the snippet to relevant sections of the page, making it faster and easier to find what you're looking for. Imagine, for example, that we're researching trans fats and cholesterol, and their effects on the body. If we start with a generic query like [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=trans+fats">trans fats</a>], Google returns several results with lots of information about trans fats in general, including this result from Wikipedia:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMZqrLTIR6bluy9LnoE6oBiFK-lpahwM01JqKdG7utOmY6kZf9jZLbGw_MBdTCt_AmBTE8XzohjMrk5KnVHUPv2fiXVmSA2T0TGpkS-dPCIdkfcLkqVcnwkv8w8bzD0Kfxi7atu7KV6ub/s1600-h/sp1.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463367921356546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMZqrLTIR6bluy9LnoE6oBiFK-lpahwM01JqKdG7utOmY6kZf9jZLbGw_MBdTCt_AmBTE8XzohjMrk5KnVHUPv2fiXVmSA2T0TGpkS-dPCIdkfcLkqVcnwkv8w8bzD0Kfxi7atu7KV6ub/s400/sp1.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 62px;" /></a>Now, included with the snippet are links to specific sections within the page, covering different subtopics of trans fats. Since we're particularly interested in what's healthy and what's not, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#Nutritional_guidelines">Nutritional guidelines</a>" is probably where the most relevant information is. Clicking this link will take you directly to that section, midway down the page.<br /><br />Now imagine we're particularly interested in learning about good cholesterol and what levels of it are healthy, so we try a more specific query, [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=good+cholesterol+level">good cholesterol level</a>]. The top result is from the American Heart Association and has tons of information about cholesterol levels. The specific information about good (HDL) cholesterol, however, is contained in one section titled "Your HDL (good) cholesterol level"‎. Since the query was more specific, the snippet for this result now provides the option to "jump to" just this section of the website.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VcPPQbqIlfOURqVafhHRRyLk3CWV2RrtC0ZnUgopbRBiA3VokfA1yAYuO1SE9ULD70VNq5fqrANHhhD1TCH1uYJWcdERAFtiP96UWfAsJTG4T2RKsKPxDWx5IWeOPvOpP5rUr4Nq5UEI/s1600-h/sp2.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463377597364946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VcPPQbqIlfOURqVafhHRRyLk3CWV2RrtC0ZnUgopbRBiA3VokfA1yAYuO1SE9ULD70VNq5fqrANHhhD1TCH1uYJWcdERAFtiP96UWfAsJTG4T2RKsKPxDWx5IWeOPvOpP5rUr4Nq5UEI/s400/sp2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 63px;" /></a><br />Clicking on "<a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml%3Fidentifier%3D183%23HDL&usg=AFQjCNEfCN2c_HMJHmvxopdKBvrfQ3avLA&ei=99q7SsvzJoPANYqxlMAL&sa=X&oi=section_link&resnum=1&ct=legacy">Jump to Your HDL (<span style="font-weight: bold;">good</span>) <span style="font-weight: bold;">cholesterol level</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">‎</span>" takes you directly to the most relevant information on the page:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq80a4lQpmThjfenE6Bei331kGrGxVna2QLOyOQWVusWkNv5oYsjPfd09zY8n54B-LE8ty15r9m8W8n4MALJsWE4PjleNac2mjaw_ATbovOjrFKM-zga0zCr2692h1CFoBWKMEXw54tInf/s1600-h/sp3.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385463382285453714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq80a4lQpmThjfenE6Bei331kGrGxVna2QLOyOQWVusWkNv5oYsjPfd09zY8n54B-LE8ty15r9m8W8n4MALJsWE4PjleNac2mjaw_ATbovOjrFKM-zga0zCr2692h1CFoBWKMEXw54tInf/s400/sp3.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 201px;" /></a><br />Clicking on the title of the snippet ("What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean") still takes you to the top of the page, as always.<br /><br />If you're a webmaster and would like to have these links appear for your webpages, take a look at the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/using-named-anchors-to-identify.html">Google Webmaster Central Blog</a> for info on some of the things you can do. And in the meantime, we hope these enhancements help you find the information you're looking for faster.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Chris Kern, Snippets Team</span>

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Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets

For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a "search snippet." Recently, we've enhanced the search snippet with two new …

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The Reappearance of a Ghost of Seasons Past

About a year after we started Health Care Renewal, in late 2005, we wrote multiple posts about the complex and unfortunate case of Dr Aubrey Blumsohn's attempts to keep a research project honest. The early posts were <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/another-challenge-to-integrity-of.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-on-blumsohn-procter-gamble.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/no-protection-for-whistle-blowers.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/paying-for-silence-updating-blumsohn.html">here</a>. In <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-summary-and-much-documentation-of.html">this post</a>, we summarized the case thus:<br /><br /><br /><ul><li>Dr Aubrey Blumsohn, a senior lecturer at Sheffield University, and Professor Richard Eastell performed a research project on the effects of the drug risedronate (<a href="http://www.actonel.com/index.jsp">Actonel</a>, made by Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals [P&G]) under a <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/contract.pdf">contract</a> between P&G and the University.</li><li>Although the research contract designated Blumsohn and Eastell as "Investigators" under whose direction the project would be carried out, Blumsohn was not given access to the original data collected by the project.</li><li>Despite numerous requests, (like <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050525mckay.pdf">this one</a>), P&G <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030619email.htm">refused access </a>to this data <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/attorneyreq.pdf">repeatedly</a>.<br />Blumsohn was concerned that he and Eastell could be accused of scientific fraud if they continued to make presentations and write articles and abstracts without access to the data which they were supposedly writing about.</li><li>Blumsohn became suspicious that some of the analyses done by P&G could be misleading, especially <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030909audio.htm">related to a graph shown to him that omitted 40% of patient data</a>.</li><li>Blumsohn objected to <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030424email.htm">P&G arranging for papers and abstracts to be written by a professional writer</a>, but with Blumsohn listed as first author. Blumsohn was concerned that such ghost-written documents were mainly meant to convey "key messages" in support of P&G's commercial interests.</li><li><a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20030910audio.htm">Eastell warned Blumsohn </a>not to aggravate P&G, because the company was providing a grant to the University which "is a good source of income."</li><li>After repeated failed attempt to get the data, Blumsohn complained to numerous officials at Sheffield University, including <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20040526eastell.pdf">Eastell</a>, medical school Dean <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050708weetman.pdf">Tony Weetman</a>, University Vice-Chancellor <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050814bouche.pdf">Robert Boucher</a>, and the Head of the University's Department of Human Resources, <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/20050627boucha.pdf">Ms R Valerio</a>.</li><li>Still unable to get the data, he spoke with news reporters about his case. At this point, Sheffield suspended him, but then <a href="http://www.fraudinscience.org/PG/gag.doc">offered him a severance agreement </a>if he signed a contract binding him not to make any detrimental or derogatory statements about the University and its leaders.</li></ul><p>So the case involved suppression and manipulation of research, ghost-writing, institutional conflicts of interest, and attempts to silence a whistle blower. It provides lessons about the downsides of letting commercial firms sponsor and hence control human research designed to evaluate the products or services they sell; and of academic medicine becoming dependent on research money from such firms for such research. Although Health Care Renewal, being US based, most often writes about such issues in the US, this case is a reminder that they are global. (Note that we posted more about this case in 2006, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/01/more-fall-out-from-blumsohn-procter.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/02/blumsohn-tours-washington-to-raise.html">here</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/05/dr-aubrey-blumsohn-on-north-american.html">here</a>, but since then it has not gotten much public attention.)</p><p>Last weekend the (UK) Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/18/doctors-ghost-writing-pharmaceutical-research">returned</a> to it:</p><br /><br /><blockquote>The Guardian has learned that one of Britain's leading bone specialists is facing disciplinary action over accusations that he was involved in 'ghost writing'.<br /><br /><em>The General Medical Council will call Professor Richard Eastell in front of a fitness to practice committee. Eastell, a bone expert at Sheffield University, has admitted he allowed his name to go forward as first author of a study on an osteoporosis drug even though he did not have access to all the data on which the study's conclusions were based</em>. An employee of Proctor and Gamble, the US company making Actonel, was the only author who had all the figures.<br /><br />Experts believe the practice is widespread in Britain.<br /><br />In a letter published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, which carried the original study, he stated: 'In the original paper one of the authors, a statistician working for P&G, Ian Barton, had full access to all the data.' The authors had full access to all the analyses of the data that they requested, he said – but those analyses were carried out by the company.<br /><br />The letter, published in 2007, also acknowledged flaws in the study. A later independent analysis of the data 'identified some errors and poor practice', he wrote. The study was designed to show the strengths of Actonel which was in fierce competition with a rival bone-strengthening drug called Fosamax, made by Merck.<br /><br />Eastell's paper concerned a study carried out on behalf of Proctor and Gamble, comparing the bone density of women prescribed Actonel with others who were not. Only the company knew which women were on the drug and which were taking something else.<br /><br />Eastell's colleague, Dr Aubrey Blumsohn, wanted the codes which would say which of the patients who suffered fractures had been on the drug. The company refused. Blumsohn took his concerns to Eastell, but in a conversation which Blumsohn says he taped , Eastell said he was concerned that persistent requests might damage the relationship they had with the company. Eastell is said to have told him: 'The only thing that we have to watch all the time is our relationship with P&G. Because … we have the big Sheffield Centre Grant [from P&G] which is a good source of income, we have got to really watch it.' . </blockquote><br />So, after four years, this case has generated an official hearing of sorts. The hearing is obviously late, and seemingly will only be devoted to only one aspect of this case (ghost writing). However, at least our friends in the UK are doing something. I cannot recall a single case that resulted in any serious consideration of imposing negative consequences on anyone who was accused of suppressing research, manipulating research, endorsing ghost-writing, or intimidating a whistle-blower. In fact, many of the more troubling cases have never resulted in any sort of public discussion either at the institutions at which they occurred, or at any organization with relevant regulatory, or even just moral authority. So the GMC hearing is at least a step forward. Two cheers for the British GMC, and none for US universities, academic medical centers, professional societies, and government regulators.<br /><br />(If anyone can remind me of a case in which there was a public discussion at the relevant institution, or some public consideration of the case by a regulatory agency, professional society, or some group with moral authority, please remind me of it, and I would be happy to post about it.)

The Reappearance of a Ghost of Seasons Past

About a year after we started Health Care Renewal, in late 2005, we wrote multiple posts about the complex and unfortunate case of Dr Aubrey Blumsohn's attempts to keep a research project honest. The …

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Place Pages for Google Maps: There are places we remember!

<a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> is a great tool for exploring places — you can pan around the map, zoom in and see nearby places, look around in Street View and search for whatever you want. But what I always wanted to do is be able to get a clear understanding of what a place is all about. Instead of doing the research all over the web, wouldn’t it be great to see all the information about one place in...one place?<br /><br />Starting today, you can do that on Place Pages for Google Maps. A Place Page is a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. By every place, we really mean *every* place — there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities all over the world.<br /><br />You can get to a Place Page by clicking on "more info" in search results, or by clicking "more info" in the mini-bubble. Now, instead of just getting a slightly bigger bubble, you'll get an entire page of rich details, like photos, videos, a Street View preview, nearby transit, reviews and related websites.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcru4PXV7xifYteyyuAT0PQPtFvfc2BnVNTRGUetQZZJaTlP7j8lKgvndMyZcfzBX3bzmBHtWDz0K9JOTo4RyonxyyOYfKsr7WPKSzfrrx3Hc3181sYgJSolwbkPIhqohBM73O0rJmyuSb/s1600-h/placepageentry.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385153692246673890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcru4PXV7xifYteyyuAT0PQPtFvfc2BnVNTRGUetQZZJaTlP7j8lKgvndMyZcfzBX3bzmBHtWDz0K9JOTo4RyonxyyOYfKsr7WPKSzfrrx3Hc3181sYgJSolwbkPIhqohBM73O0rJmyuSb/s320/placepageentry.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 131px;" /></a><br />Here are some of my favorite places, and what you can discover about them using Place Pages:<br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.com/places/us/san-francisco/guerrero-st/600/-tartine-bakery">Tartine Bakery</a>: My favorite bakery in the world. The "Place Summary" section compiles voices from all over the web praising the desserts but warning you about the lines. The "Details" section aggregates material from over 500 authoritative sources; for example, you can find the menu from Zagat.com. The "Related Maps" sections shows user-created maps that include this bakery, such as this delicious <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=104631940394313560320.0004390ad3794bfac38c0&ved=0CBEQkAUwAA&sa=X&ei=mt-5Soj3IYfijAOH3enyBg&sig2=ChZbEnS7J8Im92Jg1d_h8A">California dessert map</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://maps.google.com/places/us/san-francisco/guerrero-st/600/-tartine-bakery"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385153689253711122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1bKLvriyG6jXe25bEPk_de6DGtaqzgZgSwnmDWSwIxxRdWkF_E2WQAeEPyqfZ9kPdtFRP9BdDzxjRrAPNqoPV_hfOHd3WQN1GquqKk28aEpYnZdc-KaVSDprrMPRFGYD86AbctcCAUs9p/s320/placepagetartine.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 316px; height: 320px;" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=10463731849571799424&q=yoda%2Bstatue%2Bsf">Yoda statue</a>: One of my childhood heroes in real size! The "User Content" section shows excerpts from all over the web describing this hidden little gem; "Nearby Transit" helps you find the best way to get there by public transport; and there’s even some useful local ads in case you want to get one of these at home.<br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x60188b571aa41423:0x418522594924803e&q=tokyo">Tokyo</a>: I've spent a lot of time here lately as it's home to part of the Place Page team. On the city's Place Page, you can find out the most popular hotels, parks and major landmarks in Tokyo, browse local photos and videos, see what other people are searching for and access maps about the city from all over the web.<br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=2442679245943293040">Zurich Hauptbahnhof</a>: I’ve traveled through the central train station in Zurich several times over the last year, visiting the local team that made Place Pages possible. Place pages for transit stations are particularly useful because they'll show you a list of all the lines serving that station, as well as provide a timetable of upcoming departures. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=2442679245943293040"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385163990499149874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoPA9lsj-jh3_4R7KJFyws_3Xd2_oMTiU6N6Csr2mX5WNEDZXn5225rrwJTUJL1ga-OD0Q9wQsI1yZRyxvlkHpsaPqMSkDqPje68cxyTA8A84tryDY7WaiXZXfiAkr2wi60pO__SdZsnqm/s320/zurichfinal.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" /></a><br /><br />As the <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHMB_enUS325US325&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=beatles+%22there+are+places+i+remember%22">Beatles' song</a> in this post's title suggests, we want to make it easy to remember places: pages will come with a friendly URL that is easy to remember and link to under google.com/places. For example, the San Francisco Place Page will be found at <a href="http://google.com/places/us/california/san-francisco-city">google.com/places/us/california/san-francisco-city</a>. Right now we include cities and most businesses, but we're working hard on bringing this to all Place Pages.<br /><br />We want there to be a Place Page for every place in the world, but we might be missing a few places here and there. If you're a business owner, you can add or update your business details through the <a href="http://www.google.com/lbc">Local Business Center</a>. This allows you to make sure your Place Page reflects the most accurate, authoritative and recent information about your business. And if you don’t have a business, but you discover a place that doesn’t have a Place Page, you can add it through <a href="http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=98014&cbid=1q5t41ccouhnp&src=cb&lev=topic">community edits</a> or <a href="http://google.com/mapmaker">Google Map Maker</a>, depending on the country you’re in.<br /><br />Whether you're searching for a great local florist or planning a trip across the globe, we hope Place Page for Google Maps makes your explorations easier and happier.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Lior Ron, Senior Product Manager, Place Page team</span>

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Place Pages for Google Maps: There are places we remember!

Google Maps is a great tool for exploring places — you can pan around the map, zoom in and see nearby places, look around in Street View and search for whatever you want. But what I always wanted to d…

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Announcing Project 10^100 idea themes

Late last year we announced <a href="http://www.project10tothe100.com/">Project 10^100</a>, a call for ideas to help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life with a total of $10 million. We hoped to capture the imagination of people around the world and offer a way to bring their best ideas to fruition. We were overwhelmed by the response — you sent us more than 150,000 ideas (approximately 10^5.2) in more than 25 languages and it took more than 3,000 Googlers in offices around the world to review the submissions. (The review process took us much longer than we expected and we appreciate your patience!)<br /><br />Some ideas we received suggested broad areas of investment, others were very specific technology or implementation proposals, and many of the ideas shared overlapping elements. So rather than posting individual idea submissions, we've decided to do something a little different. We've pooled similar ideas into a set of 16 top idea themes aimed at addressing some important common goals, from making government more transparent to driving innovation in public transport. Every theme has different possible implementations and we intend to consider all reasonable possibilities. But we need your help.<br /><br />Over the next two weeks we'll be gathering your votes to help inform an advisory board that will then choose up to five winning ideas that will receive funding. After that, we'll present the finalists and ask for proposals from individuals or organizations that can implement these ideas.<br /><br />It has been a long road for those of us who have worked on this from the beginning. Although it took a lot longer than we first planned, we're pleased with the outcome. In the end, we followed the tried-and-true Google method of "launch and iterate." We enjoyed going through so many interesting proposals and adapted to the massive volume of ideas. We are incredibly proud to be able to put these 16 ideas in front of you to see what you think. Let the <a href="http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html">voting</a> begin!<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by the Project 10^100 Team</span>

Announcing Project 10^100 idea themes

Late last year we announced Project 10^100, a call for ideas to help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life with a total of $10 million. We hoped to capture…

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Fast.Forward. Connecting marketers with innovative ideas (and other marketers)

In this ever-changing digital environment, it can often be tough for businesses and marketers to keep up and maintain relevance to consumers. To help out, we've partnered with The Wharton School to launch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/fastforward">Fast.Forward.</a> This site is full of helpful content, including more than 100 videos from leading industry experts — like our own CEO, Eric Schmidt — and academics like <a href="http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/windj.html">Jerry Wind</a>, Lauder Professor at The Wharton School, offering their perspectives on the changing world of marketing.<br /><br />You can read all about it on our <a href="http://ytbizblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/fastforward-connecting-marketers-with.html">YouTube Biz Blog</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Cindy Goodrich, Google Business Marketing</span>

Fast.Forward. Connecting marketers with innovative ideas (and other marketers)

In this ever-changing digital environment, it can often be tough for businesses and marketers to keep up and maintain relevance to consumers. To help out, we've partnered with The Wharton School to la…

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Why Have Governing Boards Forsaken Their Duties? - Ideas from Silverglate and Malchow

We have posted frequently about the governance and leadership of academic medical organizations. While one would think that health care organizations, and especially academic health care organizations ought to be held to a particularly high standard of governance, we have noted how their governance is often unrepresentative of key constituencies, opaque, unaccountable, unsupportive of the academic and health care mission, and not subject to codes of ethics. How the governance of organizations with such exemplary missions and sterling reputations got this way has been unclear.<br /><br />Now there are new insights from the ongoing discussion of one of the most interesting and controversial cases of disputed organizational governance. We have often come back to the example of Dartmouth College, of which Dartmouth Medical School is a significant component. We most recently discussed <a href="http://www.blogger.com/http//hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/04/investment-bankers-strike-back.html">here</a> an ongoing dispute about the extent that the institution's board of trustees ought to represent the alumni at large, or instead, ought to be a self-elected body not clearly accountable to anyone else. (For our take on this complex case, start <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/04/investment-bankers-strike-back.html">here</a> and follow the links backward.) The latest development in the case is a lawsuit filed by Dartmouth alumni challenging an increase in the number of self-elected, or "charter" trustees, which they charged broke an 1891 agreement that established numerical parity between alumni-elected and charter trustees.<br /><br />Soon after this lawsuit was filed, an <a href="http://www.dartblog.com/data/media/Silverglate_Malchow_Fiduciary_Duty_9-09.pdf">important article </a>by Harvey Silverglate (one of the founders of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) and Joseph Malchow appeared. For those interested in the case, the article includes extensive detail, with multiple citations, on all the twists and turns of the case, and is very much worth reading. (See <a href="http://www.thefire.org/article/11058.html">this post </a>on FIRE's Torch blog for more background and discussion.)<br /><br />However, the article also features extensive scholarship on governance of US not-for-profit institutions, focused on academic institutions (including medical academia), and with relevance to other not-for-profit or non-governmental health care organizations. In particular, the article sheds light on how the governance of such organizations has become so degraded.<br /><br />First, Silverglate and Malchow summarized the duties of governing boards:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Traditionally, fiduciary duty [of the board of trustees] has been understood as having two components: <em><strong>the duty of loyalty</strong></em> and the <em><strong>duty of care</strong></em>. The duty of loyalty requires a fiduciary to <em>act in a manner he or she reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the organization</em>. The duty of care obliges directors to <em>inform themselves of reasonably available information prior to making a business decision</em>. More recently, courts have considered <strong><em>the duty to act in good faith</em></strong> [the duty of obedience] as a fiduciary requirement. This component, similar to the duty of care, is satisfied when a director <em>makes informed decisions without conflicts of interest</em>.<br /><br />The question central to the dispute regarding Dartmouth governance is to what or to whom do fiduciaries owe their duty. Corporate directors have a relatively straightforward task of serving the corporation and its shareholders. In the case of a charitable trust, however, which generally does not have 'ascertainable beneficiaries who can enforce their rights,' <em><strong>the duty of fiduciaries is instead directed toward fulfilling or furthering the organization’s mission</strong></em><br /></blockquote><br /><br />So just to summarize, considerable discussion, scholarship, and I believe some some laws support the notion that the board of a not-for-profit organization is obliged to take reasonable care to make informed decisions free of conflicts of interest to uphold the organization's mission.<br /><br />However, currently, many boards <em>value deference to the organization's (usually hired) top managers and avoidance of internal conflict within the board more highly</em> than these obligations:<br /><br /><blockquote>Dartmouth, to be sure, is far from the only place where <em>fealty to organizational leaders—and the notion of 'going along in order to get along' —has been placed before true fiduciary duty.<br /></em></blockquote><br />Silverglate and Malchow have some important ideas about how we came to this.<br /><br /><em>Not-for-profits became more like for-profit corporations</em>:<br /><br /><blockquote>During the 1980s, traditional nonprofit organizations supported by donations and governed by donors and volunteers became <em>increasingly displaced by professionally staffed commercial nonprofits, supported by grants, contracts, and earned income, and governed by insider boards.</em> The shift in governance was armored by <em>progressively professionalized and entrepreneurial management</em>, which was perceived to be more adept at control of the ebb and flow of funds in the American market. </blockquote><br />Top hired not-for-profit <em>executives assumed more power at the expense of other constituencies, including the professionals who did the work</em>:<br /><br /><blockquote>By the 1990s, with faculty power firmly institutionalized at colleges and universities, <em>a notion that university presidents were bereft of power took hold</em>. The AGB [Association of Governing Boards], in 1996, argued that university presidents <em>needed to regain power</em> with a pivotal document of its own: Renewing the Academic Presidency: Stronger Leadership for Tougher Times. Though this outlook was applied to varying degrees at colleges and universities, an <em>imperative toward greater executive power in universities was thus established.<br /></em><br /><em>Presidential and professorial decision-making power, combined with the rise of the administrative bureaucracy in academia, have generally relegated trustees to a secondary role</em> in campus affairs. </blockquote><br />Attempts at reforming governance were <em>inappropriately based on a for-profit corporate model, and particularly the need to project unity and avoid confrontation among the leadership trumped transparency</em>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Aligning academic boards with the cultural trends of increased critical oversight has obvious benefits, but some boards have <em>moved to adopt the norms of for-profit corporate governance that are simply not applicable to the university context</em>. Admittedly, this is a thin distinction when considered on a theoretical level. But in practical terms, <em>misguided nonprofit reforms—some of which, upon close examination, actually violate an institution’s mission</em>—are readily evident.<br /><br />For example, some nonprofit boards have emphasized the adoption of <em>formal nondisclosure pledges or confidentiality agreements that step well beyond nondisclosure of proprietary information.</em> This is hardly uncommon in the business sector, where bottom-line strictures demand a certain degree of internal accord and non-transparency. And though there is evidence that nonprofit board directors have, from time to time, attempted to hush public dissent, only recently have dominant majorities of some nonprofit boards proposed and ratified binding pledges not to publicly air differences. According to a 2006 BoardSource publication, <em>'If a board member does not support a decision for whatever reason, [he or] she has a responsibility to remain silent or step down from the board.' </em>(Recall the resignation offer made to Zywicki before his second term was denied.)<br /><br />These directives, written in highly influential publications in the realm of university governance, disregard the important role that public discussion has on decision-making at universities and nonprofits in general. 'In the nonprofit context, nondisclosure agreements or the use of 'executive session' rules to curtail debates about policy and procedure depart from established norms. They shut down opportunities for public dialogue and for communication with other concerned and influential parties, including reporters,' nonprofit specialist Norman I. Silber wrote in the Oregon Law Review. </blockquote><br />Emphasis on raising money rather than upholding the mission has lead to board deference to hired executives.<br /><br /><blockquote><em>Fidelity to institutional leaders, rather than institutional mission, is now paramount in higher education, as deviation from accepted decisions is perceived as potentially shrinking the donor base. Administrators cringe at public disagreement</em>; rather than focusing on the long-term likelihood that competing ideas will result in implementation of the fittest, they tend to focus on the short-term possibility that a particular alumni subset may be offended. This shortsighted outlook is not only an insult to the intelligence of alumni and other constituencies, but it is ultimately detrimental to the institution, as established ideas are enthroned and unchallenged. It is also based on false premises: as in the case of Dartmouth, there is no established correlation between public criticism and donor decline. </blockquote><br /><br />Boards are increasingly <em>composed of executives of for-profit corporations</em>, particularly in the finance field, who may grant the same deference to the organizations' leaders that they would like from their own board. That is, <em>hired executives identify more with other executives than with the organizations they are supposed to be leading</em>:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />Judge Cabranes noted that <em>trustees, especially business executives, tend to act toward university presidents as they wish their boards would act toward them—deferentially.</em> And the phenomenon of board members believing they serve at the pleasure of the executive is what one nonprofit attorney and blogger, has termed 'upside down board.' <em>The ascendance of the hedge-fund community, a peculiar province of graduates of elite institutions,</em> has contributed to the prevalence of the upside down board....<br /></blockquote><br /><br />The article suggests some issues that need to be addressed to make governance more accountable, transparent, ethical and honest. Boards need to be reminded of their duties, and that their loyalty should be to the mission, not the organization's executives, or the views of the board's majority. Transparency and open discussion are more important than projecting the (sometimes false) impression of unity. New board members should be chosen for their loyalty to the mission rather than their similarity to and congeniality with current board members.<br /><br />I strongly suggest that anyone who cares about how health care organizations are run ought to read Silverglate and Malchow's full article. It should be required reading for current and would-be board members of academic and health care not-for-profit organizations (but I will not hold my breath waiting for them to read it.)

Why Have Governing Boards Forsaken Their Duties? - Ideas from Silverglate and Malchow

We have posted frequently about the governance and leadership of academic medical organizations. While one would think that health care organizations, and especially academic health care organizations…

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Help and learn from others as you browse the web: Google Sidewiki

As you browse the web, it's easy to forget how many people visit the same pages and look for the same information. Whether you're researching <a href="http://www.google.com/sidewiki/entry/117213073072448275065/id/Fegil0nf8ivzC6iIB8MU0XREs3A">advice on heart disease prevention</a> or looking for <a href="http://www.google.com/sidewiki/entry/oklahomazeppelin/id/Dys9NgtwlW1uI1a1-R8-grlgxOw">museums to visit in New York City</a>, many others have done the same and could have added their knowledge along the way.<br /><br />What if everyone, from a local expert to a renowned doctor, had an easy way of sharing their insights with you about any page on the web? What if you could add your own insights for others who are passing through?<br /><br />Now you can. Today, we're launching Google Sidewiki, which allows you to contribute helpful information next to any webpage. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page.<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CsjJOsx84MA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CsjJOsx84MA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />In developing Sidewiki, we wanted to make sure that you'll see the most relevant entries first. We worked hard from the beginning to figure out which ones should appear on top and how to best order them. So instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed. If you're curious, you can <a href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/large-scale-graph-computing-at-google.html">read more</a> on our Google Research Blog about the infrastructure we use for ranking all entries in real-time.<br /><br />Under the hood, we have even more technology that will take your entry about the current page and show it next to webpages that contain the same snippet of text. For example, an entry on a speech by President Obama will appear on all webpages that include the same quote. We also bring in relevant posts from blogs and other sources that talk about the current page so that you can discover their insights more easily, right next to the page they refer to. <br /><br />We're releasing Google Sidewiki as a feature of Google Toolbar (for Firefox and Internet Explorer) and we're working on making it available in Google Chrome and elsewhere too. We also have the first version of our <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/sidewiki/">API</a> available today to let anyone work freely with the content that's created in Sidewiki.<br /><br />We've been testing Sidewiki with several experts and news organizations for a while and are happy to <a href="http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/testimonials.html">hear their positive responses</a>. We hope you'll try it for yourself, <a href="http://twitter.com/googlesidewiki">follow our Twitter feed</a>, and let us know what you think!<br /><br />If you're ready to start exploring the web with Google Sidewiki, visit <a href="http://google.com/sidewiki/#tbbrand=GZEG">google.com/sidewiki</a> to download Google Toolbar with Sidewiki and contribute your own entries alongside pages on the web.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Michal Cierniak, Engineering Lead for Google Sidewiki </span>

Help and learn from others as you browse the web: Google Sidewiki

As you browse the web, it's easy to forget how many people visit the same pages and look for the same information. Whether you're researching advice on heart disease prevention or looking for museums …

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