Thursday, February 7, 2008
It's all about teamwork
Raise your hand if you'd have a hard time getting things done without the Internet. Arranging a reunion with school friends? You can figure out schedules, vote on a venue, share a map, post pictures and videos and later share everything with those who couldn't make it, and all without leaving your chair. It's become so easy to coordinate and share with friends and family that we've wondered why the same couldn't apply to teams of co-workers at work or classmates at school.
That's why we're launching Google Apps Team Edition. Now you and your co-workers or classmates have a new way to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations and calendar information online. Just sign up with your work or school email address. After confirming that you belong to that organization, it's easy to invite others from your company or school and start collaborating. There’s no hardware, software or setup involved (and no burden for IT folks).
Of course, organizations need a level of security and control that individuals don't have to worry about. Team Edition enables co-workers and classmates to choose to share information just with each other, and not with outsiders, and it lets IT departments actively manage Google Apps, so admins can customize the Google Apps experience for users, including who should have access and which applications are available. You can learn more about all the administrative capabilities on the admin site for Google Apps.
We've lost a giant
Josh Lederberg, whose pioneering work laid foundation stones for modern genetics and biotech -- and then for space biology and artificial intelligence -- passed away on February 2. His creative and deep thinking on these subjects helped generations of scientists blaze trails in information and bio-sciences. Even more important, his thoughtful approach to new ideas has contributed to dialog on such critical matters as disarmament, genetic engineering, and public health policy.
In technology circles, he'll be remembered among other things for the expansion of the role of computers for scientific research. While at Stanford he and Edward Feigenbaum developed a computer program called DENDRAL, now recognized as the first expert system for use in science. He was also an early proponent of Digital Libraries. I have benefited in many ways from his tutelage. At one point, after briefing him on the possibilities of the idea of a Digital Library, he looked at me and said “Do something!” I could not have had better advice.
As a child, Josh said he wanted to be "like Einstein." His Nobel Prize and National Medal of Freedom attest to just how far he got. We will miss him greatly, but his legacy of thoughtful advice will sustain many friends and colleagues well into the 21st century.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
What's India searching for online?
In December 2007, for the first time in India, we released a list of most popular and fast rising searches, i.e. the Google Zeitgeist. But you don't need to wait till this December to know what was popular this year; we've just unveiled Google Trends and Google Hot Trends on Google India Labs, giving you a chance to find out what India is searching for on Google by the hour.
What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to sports to political issues to the latest Bollywood gossip. Hot Trends aren't the search terms people look for most often; those are pretty predictable, like [weather] or [games]. Instead, the Hot Trends algorithm analyzes millions of searches to find those that show an unusual and fairly sudden increase in popularity. The outcome is the Hot Trends list. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day, so check back often.
For example, the #1 Hot Trends result on January 9, 2008, was 'tata new car' because of the auto expo going on then. The associated web results and associated news search results give you more context and insight into why people were searching for 'tata new car'. You can see these results by changing the date range on the top left hand corner of the Hot Trends page. As you can see, 'tata new car' has a Hot Trend status of 'spicy' -- a measure of its popularity.
Together with Hot Trends, we also launched Google Trends for India. You can view search patterns and interest in their favorite topics. You can compare the popularity of multiple queries (e.g. different Bollywood stars) and see which cities and states search for them the most.
Looking ahead to what 'Valentines Day' might mean to us, keep checking out Hot Trends and Trends for insights into the mind of India
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
A Super Tuesday for business
For those of us who joined Google from Postini, one of the most exciting possibilities was to learn how to operate at Google scale. As a young company, we were accustomed to moving quickly. But now that we're here, we're seeing speed in a whole new dimension: how to quickly make complex technology products accessible and useful to all kinds of businesses. We didn't understand all the implications of Google's resources. (Frankly, we still don't!) But over last couple months the picture has started to come into focus, and now our customers get the benefit of our innovation and scale.
Today we announced three new security products that deliver anti-spam, outbound message filtering, transport encryption and archiving and discovery for any email system, from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange to Novell Groupwise. The new services are part of the Google Apps platform, which makes it easy for you to use all the messaging, collaboration and security products at once, or to adopt what you need and grow over time.
Read more on the Enterprise Blog or just get started.
Be part of the Super Tuesday action
They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing! Today marks an exciting day in the race to the U.S. Presidency: voters in 24 states will choose their party candidates. This will be the largest number of primaries taking place at one time in the history of the U.S. electoral system.
We've joined forces with Twitter to give you instant updates on Super Tuesday. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, you can send a simple text message about your voting experience. Huge turnout? Taking too long in line? Did you just vote for the first time? We want it all, if you can keep to 140 characters or less. (And if candidates can keep their posts to 140 characters, anyone can.)
Throughout the day, you can watch Twitter updates from across the country:
Twitter posts are only one piece of the Google Super Tuesday Map, a one-stop shop to follow the action today. You can find the latest YouChoose '08 videos, Google News election headlines and primary state results down to the county level. The Google News team is also in on the action. In addition to all the latest stories from thousands of sources in our new election section, they've also put together a gadget that tracks the progress of the candidates in each of the 24 states (of course, the numbers here are not real; they're meant to show you how it may look after the polls close).
Super Tuesday gives us a chance to try out new features and to see how people are using technology to participate in elections. This coming Thursday, we'll post a roundup of highlights. Send suggestions our way to elections at google dotcom.
Update: Gadget results in example are not real numbers or projections.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Super Tuesday on YouTube
Tomorrow is the biggest day in the primary presidential race thus far, and we've created a central location to follow the action on video. We're pulling in video clips from voters, candidates, and news organizations across the country on a Google Map as part of our You Choose '08 platform.
This is the first presidential election in which YouTube has given voters the same power to broadcast the events as the big broadcasters have. Already we're seeing terrific content uploaded to the map as voters in 24 different states prepare for the polls. Seeing all these great videos on one map gives the most diverse narrative of the campaign trail that we've ever seen. Scroll across the map and zoom in to see videos from your area, and keep an eye out for gems like these:
Stay tuned to You Choose '08 after Super Tuesday as we will continue to bring more and more great political video content from voters, candidates, and news organizations as the political drama thickens.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Yahoo! and the future of the Internet
The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place.
So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.
Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.
Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.
This hostile bid was announced on Friday, so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.
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