Domains of choice

In the realm of the Internet, there's no shortage of acronyms for all the parts of a web address. Top-level domains like .com, .org and .edu are, logically enough, "TLDs." Then there are country codes like .es (Espana, or Spain) and .kr (Korea), which are referred to in some circles as ccTLDs. Though we try hard to avoid such puzzling shortcuts, we do add country and territory domains to our roster when we can. Now Indonesia, South Africa, Tonga, Bolivia, Krgyszstan, Jamaica, Belize, Seychelles, the Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands join more than 100 other countries and territories with a Google of their own, so people can restrict searches to their country or their language.

Sean Knapp
Software Engineer

Honey, we shrunk the Google

By and large, big companies have gotten the word: offering good search is good for business. Customers are happier (and more likely to buy something) when they can quickly find the right information on a website. Employees are more productive when they actually find what they need on their networks. They don't have to reinvent the wheel, bug the IT department (or their colleagues), or sift through directories and files.

Having good search used to be a bit out of reach for small and medium-sized businesses. So, we shrunk Google into a new blue box. Smaller than the original Google Search Appliance, the Google Mini looks like this...



And with a price of $4995, it's practically an impulse buy at the Google Store. Now small and medium-sized organizations with up to 50,000 online documents can get Google search for their own websites and intranets, like this productive-looking team from DeAnza College.



Rajen Sheth
Product Manager

Don't knock opportunity

A few years ago, despite being a big fan of Google, I turned down a job offer here, mainly because I thought it was too late to make an impact. After all, the company had 200+ people and a very established and successful product. But last year, I did join Google, and since then I've heard the same argument from a few friends whom I have tried to recruit.

Because Google's ongoing commitment is building technologies and products that organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible, we've come up with products like Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Print. And we're currently working on more products, and improving existing ones, to further deliver on this mission. We're very far from being done: there are a lot of exciting problems left.

Aside from working with smart people on solutions that can make an impact on the world, I've learned that Google has a few other attributes that make it unique. Through our research, we're able to develop systems here such as MapReduce or GFS that make it easier to build scalable distributed systems (and for that matter, build products faster than most startups can). What's more, Google has an amazingly cool and passionate work environment - and a strong commitment to technical excellence so that we can build the best products to help people all around the globe.

So if you're thinking that it's too late to make an impact at Google, I challenge you to think again. It turns out that today there are more chances to make your mark than ever before.

Reza Behforooz
Software Engineer

(Updated with correct year, typo fix)

Old acquaintance, new year

As the year turns, how about a stroll down Zeitgeist lane? Our annual collection of the most-visited names, images, and news stories from around the world is yours to peruse. If you use Flash, don't miss the Interactive Zeitgeist for a more dynamic look back. As for 2005, here's to your health and happiness.

The Google Blog team

Tsunami relief

Like so many others around the world, we're following the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami that has hit many parts of Asia and India. The only positive outcome of this sort of disaster is that people quickly swing into action. The Internet enables us all to get timely information from blogs like this as well as news sites, and by linking people to donation centers. Here are a few already set up to handle donations for victims throughout the region. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected.

- International Committee of the Red Cross

- Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) link updated
- (U.S. site) link updated

- Oxfam

- UNICEF

Karen Wickre
Google Blog team

Polar expression

At Google we take user email seriously. If you ask us for help with a Google-related problem, we'll do our best to solve it. If you send us product feedback, we'll consider and perhaps implement your suggestion. And if you impugn the artistic integrity of the guy who draws the Google doodles, you can expect a very direct and very public smackdown.

Here's the doodle that graced our home page on Wednesday:



And here's an email received by our User Support team, along with the Blog's response:

In reference to holiday illustration #3, I am curious as to how the larger polar bear learned, over a period of a few days, how to roll blobs of snow in almost perfect spheres. I mean, wouldn't this require a few thousand years of mental evolution, not to mention the concept of throwing objects and the idea of guessing how much power to put behind their throw in order for the snowball to land in an acceptable radius of the target...

Dear User:

Thank you for your recent email. We appreciate your concern but must confess to considerable bewilderment with regard to various statements you make about the home page doodle of 12/22/04. First, what makes you assert that those are "almost perfect spheres?" If you look more closely, you'll see that the snowballs in question are in fact somewhat oblong, which is to say, wholly producible by a polar bear paw. Second, why would you assume that the polar bear threw the snowballs into that pile, when placing them there would be much easier?

...Well, we won't have to worry about this because apparently the larger polar bear got preoccupied with hosing down the O for no apparent or logical reason. And how exactly can this hose have running water if they are in the Arctic tundra? I'll give your illustrator the benefit of the doubt but come on... Unless the polar bears have developed a heating system for their water supply in order to prevent freezing, this wouldn't be possible. And please, don't use the common "well, they stole the hose from the humans which already have heating methods under development." That is such a cliché...

Again with the erroneous assumptions. In this case, you conclude that the presence of a heated hose derives not from nearby humans, but from some technologically advanced and therefore highly unlikely polar bear society, because having humans produce the hose "is such a cliché." Well, life is full of clichés; their prevelance, in fact, is precisely what makes them clichés. As for why the polar bear is hosing down the O: we expect that the past few days have by now made clear that this series of doodles is telling a story whose conclusion none of us have yet to grasp.

...Also, considering the size of the polar bear and the circumference of the hose, why would he or she even need help with controlling it? It just seems like the back polar bear is holding up the hose just for the sake of holding up the hose. I mean, these are powerful bears. They can control a small hose with a medium sized jet of water gushing out without requiring the assistance of another bear...

Well, this being a holiday doodle and Google being a family-friendly company, the polar bear story has a family-oriented holiday theme; i.e., the daddy polar bear is spraying down the O as part of a plan to (as you must by now realize) decorate it in a festive manner, and the baby polar bear is "helping."

...And where exactly did they learn that holding the back of the hose stabilizes the front part? I'm assuming there isn't a television anywhere close to them. Did they just somehow, by the luck of the draw, decide to hold the hose in that certain way which is so conveniently similar to the method fire fighters use to stabilize their hoses? One final observation: there are more snowballs in picture number 3 than there are in picture number 2. Where did the extra ones come from and why did the polar bear decide to leave them sitting there if he took the time to neatly organize his previously?

Dude, in the interim of time which elapsed between doodle #2 and doodle #3, they made more snowballs, okay? And in the interim of time which elapsed since we began this response, our attitude toward you, dear correspondent, has segued from righteous indignation at your illogical attack on our graphic designer to warm-hearted gratitude that you cared enough to write to us in the first place. We love all our users, especially those who take the time to brighten our day with such graceful, witty emails. Enjoy the rest of Dennis' holiday doodles. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Michael Krantz
Google Blog Team

Modern advice for parents-to-be

Ten years ago, when you named a new child, you just needed to make sure the moniker was easy to spell and didn't rhyme with "smelly" or any other schoolyard taunt. But now, you've got to consider the search engine effect: is the name easily located via a Google search, or will your kid be confused with a multitude of John Smiths?

The solution? A unique name for which the only possible search results would be related to your child. But not actually "unique," since Social Security records tell us that 239 girls named Unique were born in 2002 (scroll down to "popularity of a name"). Imagine a baby boy named "Angus Katzenjammer." He'd have a wide open field since that search currently doesn't return any results. Or perhaps a young lass is named "Humid Lipstocking." With the exception of Google helpfully asking "did you mean Humid Lipsticking," it would be perfect.

In reality, you don't need to be famous or have a weird name to increase the odds of appearing in Google's search results. Just start a blog or build a website and you should eventually find yourself in our index. In an interesting twist on self promotion, some people have even bought AdWords ads which would result in the display of small text ads next to search results for their name. Yes - it is truly a brave new world.

Hunter Walk
(cursed by having a name consisting of two real words)
AdSense Partner Manager