Posted by Rodrigo Vaca, Channel Marketing Manager, Google Enterprise

This month, we passed the 9,000 mark for enterprise buyers of the Google Search Appliance and the Google Mini. That's a great beginning, but we want to reach out even farther, which is why we're embarking on a partnership with Ingram Micro, one of the largest global distributors of technology products in the world. Ingram has extensive reseller relationships that can help us deliver the power of search behind the firewall to businesses of all sizes, more efficiently and at a larger scale than we could on our own.

Both the Google Mini and the Google Search Appliance are available immediately to qualified Ingram Micro solution providers in the U.S., with plans for a phased rollout in other regions through the end of 2007.

Contact us here to obtain a Google Mini or here for a Google Search Appliance.

一个让人上瘾的flash小游戏

　　哦也，当我看到原文的标题时，我就忍不住点击 blog it 发布到煎蛋来了。真的是很棒的教程！作者说，自从用了这招，垃圾留言狂跌到 0 个。 　　我们先来看招： 　　下面是简单的 HTMl 代...

Posted by Ping Chen and Joel Onofrio, Software Engineers

If you've ever seen a great picture and wondered where it was, wished you could visit that exact spot yourself, or found yourself itching to share a great photo with somebody -- but you were away from a computer, we've got two new features on Picasa Web Albums to help you out. First, we're excited to let you know about 'Map My Photos' -- it lets you show exactly where you took your favorite snapshots. When you share an album with friends, they can see your best photos arrayed on a map (or even Google Earth). It's the perfect way to showcase a memorable road trip or a globe-trotting vacation.

Here's how to get started: when you create a new album, just fill in the optional 'Place Taken' field. You can even drag and drop individual photos directly onto a map, and use built-in Google Maps technology to pinpoint exactly where each was shot. For a quick peek at what the results look like, check out our test gallery.

But wait! There's more. We're also launching the first version of Picasa Web Albums built specifically for mobile devices. You already have a couple of pictures stuffed in your wallet, and maybe even a few wallpapers stored on your phone. But what about all those snapshots you can't carry around? With Picasa Web Albums for mobile devices, your favorite pictures are always with you. So next time you're at a loss for words when describing just how awesome, cute, or beautiful something really was, just grab your phone for visual backup.

Of course, the mobile version of Picasa Web Albums lets you keep track of photo updates from friends and family, too. Just click 'My Favorites' from the main screen to see the latest photo albums that your contacts have posted to Picasa Web Albums -- you can even post a quick comment on their photos, using your phone. Thumbnails and photos are automatically re-sized for your device's screen, so pictures look good and download fast. All you need to get started is a phone with a web browser and a data plan; learn more here.

As you enjoy your summer travels, remember to take plenty of snaps, and share the most beautiful places in the world (and don't forget to use your phone to show off pics from back home!).

Posted by Darren Delaye, User Experience Designer

We collaborate using Google Docs & Spreadsheets so often at work that I now have more than 300 online documents. My project teams create shared documents and spreadsheets for everything: taking notes in meetings, planning product launches, analyzing usability studies, and much more. I also share docs with friends at work to plan baseball outings, and my fiancé and I are using a shared spreadsheet to help manage the guest list for our upcoming wedding. In other words, I'm one of many with a desperate need to organize all my online documents. Thankfully, I got the chance to design a new interface for Google Docs & Spreadsheets that includes folders and some convenient ways to quickly manage and access all my documents (and if you're like me, your own collection of online docs and spreadsheets is growing daily).

Now when you sign in, you'll see a new interface that lets you create personal folders for each of your projects, and drag your online documents and spreadsheets into them. On the lefthand side, you'll see a list of all the people you are collaborating with; click on any name to see all the files you're working on with them. To read more about this new interface, head over to the Docs & Spreadsheets blog.

The wedding planning continues -- but at least all the docs I need are now easier to find in a folder. Hope your own organizing is easier now too.

Posted by Rebecca Moore, Manager, Google Earth Outreach

When Google Earth launched two years ago, it was fun to see that many people around the world used it to fly to their homes, navigate around their neighborhoods, and explore the planet. But when, in September 2005, it was used to rescue stranded victims in the aftermath of Katrina, we realized that Google Earth had the potential to be a significant tool beyond personal exploration. We began to see public-benefit KMLs created for things like environmental protection and global public health. A large number of non-profit groups started contacting us, asking good questions: can Google Earth help us illustrate our projects in a new and more compelling manner than text and slideshows? Are there methods or tools for importing our existing data into Google Earth? Can you tell us about any other non-profits who’ve been successful at using GE to reach a new audience, raise awareness, gain volunteers, inspire people into action, and create a tangible impact?

We listened carefully and worked on this for more than a year, and now, the answer is “Yes!” Today we're formally launching Google Earth Outreach, a program designed to empower non-profit groups with the resources, tools, and inspiration that they need to leverage the power of Google Earth for their cause. This is where public service groups can find online guides and video tutorials, inspiring case studies and a gallery of high-quality, public-benefit KML. We are offering free Google Earth Pro licenses to qualified non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations. And the Earth Outreach team is also moderating a forum to foster discussion, exchange ideas, and give technical support.

We're excited to see the birth of Google Earth Outreach, and it's truly an honor for us to be able to support the critically important work of these groups. As Dr. Jane Goodall said, "Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help. With Google Earth Outreach, more people have the chance to see, to care, and then to act."

a collection of data visualization methods that reveal the specific characteristics of communications between Usenet newsgroups members. the visual analysis focuses on distinguishing "signatures of role", such as identifying so-called "answer people", individuals whose dominant behavior is to respond to questions posed by other users.

for instance, the "authorlines" visualization represents the volume of contributions for a single author across a year. each vertical strip represents one week. each circle represents a thread in which the actor participated during this week. red circles represent threads initiated by the selected author, while blue circles indicate threads initiated by someone else that were replied to by the selected author. the diameter of a circle represents the number of messages posted by author to that thread during that week.

[link: cmu.edu|via smartmobs.com]

a user study of a new website (sense.us) that supports asynchronous collaboration across a variety of visualization types. its collaborative features includes view sharing, discussion, graphical annotation & social navigation. results of the study show emergent patterns of social data analysis, including cycles of observation & hypothesis, & the complementary roles of social navigation & data-driven exploration. the study ran in 2 different parts: a pair of controlled lab studies & a 3-week live deployment on the IBM corporate intranet.

"we believe these results show the value of focusing on the social aspects of visual analysis. our user studies indicate that combining conversation & visual data analysis can help people explore a data set both broadly and deeply. from a design perspective, there seems to be a promising opportunity for exploring new widgets & modes of interaction aimed at enhancing collaboration."

[links: berkeley.edu & berkeley.edu (PDF) & berkeley.edu (movie)|via smartmobs.com]

Populaser 是一个关于激光的科普 flash，非常酷。包含一些激光的基础知识，甚至还有一个激光游戏。制作者是俄罗斯一个叫 GRTOV studio 的公司。

Posted by Alex Kinnier, Group Product Manager

In April we announced that we're buying DoubleClick, a leading company in the ad serving business. When we made this announcement, we gave some of our reasons. But because online advertising is complicated, I thought I'd step back a bit and offer some more context. If you're an expert, please bear with me, as some of what follows will seem elementary to those already familiar with the online advertising world. If you're not, I hope this gives you a better understanding of how advertisers, publishers, ad serving companies, agencies and other companies such as Google all fit into this exciting new mix.

A little history
In the earliest years, online ads were simple banner ads on websites. Advertisers would purchase these banner ads for those sites their customers would likely visit. A tire company, for example, would place banner ads on sites for automobile enthusiasts.

An innovation followed: Text-based ads targeted at search. Type “drip irrigation” into a search engine and up pop ads, or “sponsored links,” to gardening service and supply companies. This development made online advertising accessible to small advertisers for the first time. According to a May 2007 IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) study called the "Internet Advertising Revenue Report," text-based search ads now account for 40 percent of online ads. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are the leaders in managing this category of text-based ads.

The same IAB study notes that display ads account for roughly another 40 percent of online ad sales. Unlike text ads, these may incorporate 3-D graphics, full-motion video, sound and user interactivity. And the remaining 20 percent consists of other categories such as email, classified and lead-generation ads.

Three portals – AOL, Yahoo! and MSN – lead the industry in display ads. Each has more than $1 billion in annual display ad revenue. Content sites such as CNET and ESPN.com are also in the game. Google, however, has been a minor player in display advertising.

Meanwhile, ad serving companies such as DoubleClick, Atlas, and MediaPlex have been helping advertisers get their ads onto these sites and measure how effective the ads are. Since Google has never played in this space, acquiring DoubleClick will enable us to complement our search and content-based advertising capabilities. Its products and technologies will help to improve online advertising for consumers, advertisers and publishers.

By enabling our AdSense network to work with DoubleClick’s delivery mechanisms, for example, advertisers can obtain more precise metrics in order to judge the effectiveness of their campaigns. The combination of the technologies and expertise of Google and DoubleClick will help publishers better monetize their unsold inventory, thus helping to fuel the creation of even more rich and diverse content on the Internet.

What ad serving is
As you might expect, ad serving is the act of serving, or delivering, ads to websites. Google and DoubleClick play different but complementary roles in online advertising. Google primarily sells ads, and DoubleClick delivers (serves) ads. The relationship between Google and DoubleClick is analogous to the relationship between Amazon.com and Federal Express. Amazon.com makes money by selling a book to the consumer. Federal Express makes money by delivering it to the consumer.

For some perspective on the relative size of the ad serving business versus the online ad sales business, some industry estimates put the latter, globally, at about $20-30 billion. According to various eMarketer studies (available by subscription), estimates of ad serving, on the other hand, are many times smaller -- probably 20 times smaller, or even less.

How ad serving works
There are two types of ad-serving products: publisher and advertiser-agency. Publishers use ad-serving products to manage how and when the ads they have sold appear in their websites. For example, will the ad appear on the front page of the site, or on a subsequent page? The process of placing the ad on the appropriate page and in the appropriate size is managed by the publisher’s ad server.

In addition to placing ads in the right location at the right time, ad servers report on the performance of the ads. This is an absolutely vital function. Real-time performance reporting enables advertisers and agencies to change the content, and timing of ads almost on the fly. The value to the advertiser-agency of an ad-serving company such as DoubleClick is having a single place to measure and report on all online campaigns for ads that run on different sites across the web.

How Google and DoubleClick differ
Google makes money primarily by selling text-based ads to advertisers and their agencies. These are displayed on Google.com and partner sites through our AdSense program. We get paid when consumers click on the ads.

DoubleClick is in the ad-serving business and has two primary products. DART for Advertisers is an ad server that gives advertisers/agencies the tools to plan, deliver and report on their online ads. DART for Publishers gives publishers the tools to place ads on their site, optimize them, and assess placement to make the best use of their ad inventory. For the most part, DoubleClick is paid by advertisers and publishers to serve and report on ads. These are two vital and interrelated functions. Allowing agencies and advertisers to deliver ads in the right context and monitor their effectiveness maximizes the return on investment for a given ad or campaign. Ultimately, this leads to better and more relevant ads for the consumer.

Why we're buying DoubleClick
In summary, we're buying DoubleClick because:

1. DoubleClick's products and technology are complementary to our search and and content-based text advertising business, and give us new opportunities to improve online advertising for consumers, advertisers and publishers.
2. Historically, we've not allowed third parties to serve into Google's AdSense network, which has made it hard for advertisers to get performance metrics. Together, Google and DoubleClick can deliver a more open platform for advertisers, and provide the metrics they need to manage marketing campaigns.
3. By combining Google's infrastructure with DoubleClick's knowledge of agencies and publishers, we can create the next generation of more innovative ad serving technology, one that significantly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of online advertising.
4. To manage ad inventory, some of the largest publishers use DoubleClick DART for Publishers – but a good portion of it goes unsold. It's our view that the combination of DoubleClick and Google will help these publishers succeed by monetizing their unsold inventory.

We believe DoubleClick can help Google deliver better, more relevant display ads, which improves the online experience of consumers. From a technical perspective, Google will also be able to get web pages to load faster by reducing latency from ad servers. Publishers will benefit by making more money from remnant inventory and – as has been the case with other technologies we've acquired – we hope to make ad serving more accessible. Smaller publishers would get access to DoubleClick's ad serving technology, enabling them to better compete in the global marketplace.

Advertisers and agencies will benefit, too. AdSense will support certain ad tags so advertisers will be able to use a broader selection of formats in our ad network, improving ad relevance. And the experience for advertisers will be more efficient, because there will be an ad server that provides consolidated reporting and management of display ads on all properties and networks. More generally, we'll be able to use our technology and record of innovation to improve the quality of existing products in the marketplace. We intend to invest heavily in R&D and product development to respond to the demand from publishers, advertisers and agencies for better tools.

In short, Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick will benefit all parties in the online advertising business, including advertisers, publishers, agencies and, most importantly, consumers.

While creating some AdSense ad unit javascript for a client today, I noticed a new feature in the AdSense control panel, the ability to chose the style of corners in the ad unit. Publishers can now select "slightly rounded", "very...

我们现在的编程工具就处在一个关口。 在这关口之前的二十年里，竖立着一个成功的编程工具：Microsoft Visual Studio（以及它的最初原型 - Visual Basic）。这个可视的集成化的编程工具把一代的程序员吸引到这个平台上面并且帮助微软确立了PC机世界的霸主地位。 而在今天的这个关口出现的时候，眼花缭乱的新工具冒泡一样的出现，但就剩最后一步，仅仅一步，就到了这个关口了。 比方说，我们看到了YUI (Yahoo! User Interface)，它提供一些简单的控件 - 比如按钮, DataTable，菜单。。。。 如果大家还有印象的话，当年的Visual Basic就是拉着程序员们的小手，从画第一个窗体，第一个按钮开始，一步步引领他们进入Windows的世界的。Java Applet最初不也就是这么几个控件吗？这个基础已经在那里了。Yahoo! 下一步需要的，就是一套更加简单的，图像界面的编程工具。 在这个关口前，我们也看到了Google Web Toolkit。看看这个Hello World，看看这个完整的，再看看这个复杂些的，你会发现，基于Web的一个新的平台已经呈现，Google下一步需要的，就是一套更加简单的，图像界面的编程工具。 再看看百花齐放的各种各样的Framework，比如这个script.aculo.us还有这些AJAX的，这些所有的创新，基本上已经把一个新的世界的样子描画出来了，他们作为一个整体需要的，就是一套更加简单的，图形界面的编程工具。 如果还要我举出更多的征兆，就是Facebook的F8开发平台，Amazon的AWS开发平台，以及几乎所有Portal都有的Widget开发平台（微软的，Google的...）就明白无误的告诉我们，一个新的以互联网为平台的已经逐步形成，给应用程序铺设的舞台已经开场，但是缺的，还是一个更加简单，图形界面的编程工具。 所以，在这个关口，我相信在不久的将来（应该就在3个月以内），各大厂商一定会推出自己的类似Visual Studio的开发平台，或者成为集成开发环境(IDE)，这个IDE会有以下特征： 运行于互联网之上（就像它生成的其他任何程序一样） 基于拖拽的控件（你可以把一个Button拖到网页正中间，并且双击它就可以编代码） 所有的互联网服务都以控件的形式出现在IDE里面（比如搜索或者Fackebook, Flickr） 最终生成的应用程序可以直接保存，运行在IDE厂商的平台上。（或者就是由IDE的厂商提供hosting 平台，大家可以通过URL来运行这个应用程序） IDE市场的争夺战会异常激烈 谁赢得了这场IDE的争夺战，谁就有了下一代互联网霸主之争的入场券。 其实我很为微软扼腕痛惜。群雄纷起，都虎视眈眈的盯着微软最牢固的平台还有开发工具生意的时候，微软还没有做出像样的动作来。ASP.NET和C#真的是早出来7年，出来的太早了。当最近这些基于AJAX的控件把客户端和服务器端彻底连接成了一个密不可分的整体的时候，微软的开发工具就显得风韵犹存，又老态初现。风韵犹存的意思是，在7年前就已经把一个控件（比如button, Textbox, DataGrid)既当作客户端控件，又当作服务器端控件，在所有的编程思想中明显的处于有前瞻性，即便在今天也是了不起的思想，但我又说它老态初现的原因是，毕竟每一次客户端的操作，都需要HTTP的Post-Back一次，与异步的JavaScript+XML的架构相比，就显得如此的笨拙和不合时宜了。一个刚刚出现7年，还没有普及的产品就这样过时了，真的让人惋惜。 好久没有正儿八经的写程序了（最近都是sample code级别的）。最近也没有太多时间（想象一个刚刚当爸爸的我会有多么忙碌），但是我打算这个周末，花上两个小时，写一个这样的雏形出来，尝试一下这个互联网的IDE的想法。仅仅因为我相信，这样的产品，在三个月以内一定会隆重推出，至于是微软，还是Google，或是刚刚换了CEO的Yahoo!就不得而知了。...

　　大家多少都用过搜索引擎，google、yahoo、baidu还有很多搜索引擎目前都有个特点，就是你和我使用同一个keyword去搜索，得到的结果将是一样的，但事实上我们两个因为个人性格、爱好、文化背景等不一样，对同样的搜索结果的满意度是不一样的，有没有办法能让搜索引擎自动根据我们两个之间的这种差异，返回给我们最适合各自的结果呢？ 答案是肯定的，这就是个性化搜索，根据不同人的不同特点，提供不同的搜索结果。 　　 　　传统的搜索引擎根据关键词来创建索引并得到搜索结果，同时根据关键词来提供广告服务，这往往是不够准确的，比如同样搜索hotel，不同的人可能希望得到的结果是不一样的，有钱人希望得到的是最好的星级酒店，普通老百姓希望得到的是便宜实惠的结果，同样，广告的展现希望更加准确，比如喜欢自驾游的用户显然应该推荐更多汽车旅馆的广告，而喜欢大海的用户则应该得到更多海边度假酒店的广告。 　　目前有不少的搜索引擎已经开始意识到个性化搜索的重要性，并且开始进行了积极的尝试，google提供的history和personalize服务，就是类似这样的东西，不过和google提供的这种服务一样，各个搜索引擎目前都面临同样的问题，那就是他们大多基于用户所有的搜索历史来进行个性化分析，这种分析仅仅基于单一的关键词，往往不够准确，理论上应该考虑更多关键词之外的用户特性，比如点击行为，对同样排序结果里面不同位置的满意度、点击率等因素综合计算。同时，通过用户搜索历史记录来提供个性化搜索服务，将面临侵犯隐私的重大法律障碍，这成为目前各大搜索引擎棘手的问题。 　　我有三个美国的华人朋友，其中一个是麻省理工研修人工智能的博士，7年的博士课程仅3年半就顺利完成，目前已经是美国人工智能领域排名前三位的科学家之一，他和两位两个朋友一起，近几年来基于他在基因DNA搜索领域的研究成果，开发出一套算法，该算法成功的应用到了传统的互联网搜索引擎上，有效的实现了个性化搜索，解决了其他搜索引擎面临的问题。 　　通过他们的算法，可以实现类似下面的功能： 不同的人搜索同样的关键词，可以根据不同人的各种属性（地域、年龄、性别、爱好、职业、历史搜索…等等）分别得到最适合自己的结果。 可以根据用户各自的差异和特点，提供最适合该用户的广告投放。 可以根据不同的用户特点，划分具有共同爱好、特性的用户群体。 　　最关键的一点，他们的这套算法没有任何其他搜索引擎面临的侵犯用户隐私的担忧，这套算法基于人工智能和用户模型来实现，每个用户都会有个初始的用户模型，该模型会根据用户的各种属性来不断调整，会随着用户长期的使用搜索引擎，查询不同的关键词，点击和收藏不同的结果等event来调整，最后这个抽象出来的用户模型将非常接近现实中的用户本人，从而达到个性化的目的，而这个过程中，搜索引擎不记录任何用户操作历史。 　　我和这三位朋友接触较长一段时间，目前他们这套算法已经完成大部分的核心开发并且包装出了一个demo的prototype系统，正在寻求VC的投资，说实话，经过我的实际使用，我非常看好这个项目，希望真的可以成功。