Google Friends Newsletter - December 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - December 2008

Holiday greetings and our best wishes for a wonderful new year to all
of our Google friends. We hope you enjoy this month's update on our
products and services.

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POWER TIP

College football in Sports OneBox

Football fans can now search for game times and scores of their
favorite college teams during the big bowl games coming up. For
example, typing [ncaaf] or [texas football] into the search box will
return game information at the top of the search results page. This is
in addition to the major U.S. leagues for a variety of sports (NFL,
NHL, MLB, MLS, and NBA) and six major European football (aka soccer)
leagues we recently added.
http://www.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Ask the President-elect questions with Google Moderator

U.S. President-elect Obama's transition team is using Google Moderator
to respond to questions on the Change.gov website. You too can get
involved, either by asking a question or by voting on questions you'd
like to have answered.
http://www.change.gov/OpenForQuestions

New Gmail features

View PDF attachments sent to your Gmail account without waiting for
them to download and open in another application. Just click the
"View" link next to any .pdf attachments you receive to view them
right in your browser. Recently we also rolled out Text Messaging
(SMS) in Chat in Gmail. Try both out in your own Gmail account under
the "Labs" tab in "Settings."
http://www.gmail.com

Updates to Picasa

Picasa Web Albums offers a new "Sign-in required to view" setting,
which lets you limit access to specific individuals who have a Picasa
Web Albums account. Additionally, all user comments are now
automatically translated into the viewer's native language using
Google Translate. And if you use Picasa to organize your video
content, you will also notice that most of your videos are now high
quality.
http://picasa.google.com

Daily how-to tips

Throughout the month of December, we published daily tips to make it
easier to use a number of Google products. Visit our countdown site to
learn about search tips and product features you can continue to use
in 2009.
http://www.google.com/countdownto2009

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MISCELLANY

As 2008 comes to a close, we invite you to see what was on the
collective mind as demonstrated by the aggregation of billions of
Google searches from around the globe. It was a wild year with many
momentous events, to say the least, and through it all Google users
kept pace with the U.S. elections, the Summer Games and social
networks (online, at least). Of course, we also made time for
superheroes and super-celebrity breakups, but even those diversions
couldn't take our thoughts away from the world's changing political
and economic landscapes. With so much at stake and so much uncertainty
in the year ahead, it's comforting to know that we are collectively
concerned and "in this together," search-wise. For more of the year's
highlights, take a look at our Year-End Zeitgeist website.
http://www.google.com/zeitgeist2008

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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
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Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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Google Friends Newsletter - November 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - November 2008

Winter greetings to Google friends everywhere. We hope you enjoy this
month's update on our products and services.

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POWER TIP

Google Translate adds 11 new languages

We recently added 11 more languages to Google Translate, making it
easier than ever to read web pages in other languages. The newest
language additions include Catalan, Serbian, Slovenian, Slovak,
Latvian, Filipino, Indonesian, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and
Vietnamese.
http://translate.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Update for Google iPhone apps

A number of updates for the Apple iPhone (including Street View,
Google Transit, walking directions, and voice search) are now
available. Access transportation schedules for 100+ cities worldwide -
New York, Tokyo, Montreal, Zurich, Perth, and more - from your iPhone.
And now voice search is integrated into the latest version of the
Google Mobile App for iPhone: just hold the phone to your ear and say
what you're looking for, and you'll hear Google search results. If you
do a local search for something like [pizza], we'll automatically find
pizza places near your current location.
http://www.google.com/mobile/apple

Gmail launches themes, voice and video chat

This month we introduced Gmail themes in 50 languages. Similar to
iGoogle, these 31 different themes range from options that simply
change colors to ones that change based on the time of day or the
weather. To customize your inbox, go to the "Themes" tab under
"Settings." We also rolled out Gmail voice and video chat for Macs
and PCs, supporting 53 languages.
http://www.gmail.com

Stay ahead of the flu with Google Flu Trends

You can better prepare for flu season with a new tool that provides up-
to-date estimates of flu activity in the U.S. Google Flu Trends uses
aggregated Google search data to track flu activity up to two weeks
faster than traditional flu surveillance systems. The site also
includes flu news articles, a flu shot locator, and lots of
information about how we calculate the estimates from aggregated
search queries.
http://www.google.org/flutrends

Ancient Rome in 3D now in Google Earth

Take a step back in time and explore Ancient Rome in 3D, now available
in Google Earth. This layer includes more than 6,700 ancient Roman
buildings rebuilt in 3D - and more than 200 placemarks that provide
historical information about famous sites. The project originated from
"Rome Reborn," an international academic initiative to create a
digital model of Rome as it appeared in late antiquity.
http://earth.google.com/rome

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MISCELLANY

Crowded airports, unruly security lines, and jammed highways: Yes,
here comes the year-end holiday travel season. Thanks to a few search
tips and tricks, you can make traveling to and fro a little bit
easier. Before you leave the house, you can track flight status
information just by entering the airline and flight number into the
search box. You can also see delays at a specific airport by typing in
the name of the city or three-letter airport code followed by the word
"airport." And Google Maps will get you through the alphabet soup of
airport codes, too. If you're headed one place but your itinerary
indicates you'll be changing planes at an unrecognizable three-letter
destination (SJC or DCA, for example), just enter the airport code to
find it on the map. We also offer a host of products designed
specifically for mobile phones, making it easy to track traffic and
weather conditions while you're on the road. We hope tools like these
will help de-stress the holidays so you can stay focused on good
cheer.
http://www.google.com
http://maps.google.com
http://www.google.com/mobile

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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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Google Friends Newsletter - October 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - October 2008

Happy Halloween to all of our Goooooogle friends! We hope you enjoy
this month's update on our products and services.

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POWER TIP

Sports OneBox on results pages

Sports fans now have an easier time finding game times and scores for
their favorite NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS teams by simply searching
for the name of the team. For example, typing [miami dolphins] or
[pistons] into the search box will return information on those teams,
respectively, at the top of the search results page. We'll soon be
expanding this to other leagues and sports teams around the world, so
stay tuned.
http://www.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch

Google Earth is now available for both the Apple iPhone and iPod
Touch. Beyond searching for cities, places, and businesses around the
world, you can use auto-tilt to adjust your view and see 3D terrain,
view geo-located Wikipedia articles and Panoramio photos, and use "My
Location" to virtually fly to your current location. You can download
it directly from the iTunes App Store.
http://mobile.google.com/apple/earth

New iGoogle features

Now you can do more on your Google homepage using the newest features
on iGoogle. With this latest release, you can view gadgets in an
expanded "canvas" view and do a lot more with them, like watch videos
or play games in full screen, write and respond to Gmail messages, or
see your feeds with inline photos and videos. And iGoogle now has a
lefthand navigation that gives you faster and easier access to all of
your stuff.
http://www.google.com/ig

2008 Election Site

Our US Voter Info site is designed to help you get up-to-date election
information in one place: voter registration deadlines and
requirements, polling place locations and election news. There are
also several tools that will help poll-goers become more informed and
engaged during the voting process, and election-related resources from
Google Maps, YouTube, iGoogle, Google Reader, Google Mobile, Knol, and
more.
http://maps.google.com/vote

New Blog Search homepage

Google Blog Search has a new look. The updated format takes some of
the underlying technology from Google News, and by grouping similar
content together, we've made it easier to see trends across multiple
blogs. We hope this update helps you more easily track the latest
trends and news from across the blogosphere.
http://blogsearch.google.com/

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MISCELLANY

With the days getting shorter and the temperature dropping, it's the
perfect season to talk about energy efficiency. And quite fittingly,
many of the energy-wasters in our homes are named after the ghouls of
Halloween. Living rooms are infested with "vampire" electronics that
suck power even when turned off; open chimney flues let the "ghosts"
of winter steal our heat; and quite often there's a "monster" furnace
lurking in the basement. By taking small steps to drive out the
goblins of inefficiency, you can save money and ward off carbon
emissions. So we've created a handy energy saving calculator and a
list of tricks to help you do just that. And as you gear up for the
changing season, check out these tips, and don't forget to set your
clocks back on Sunday, November 2.
http://www.google.com/hauntedhouse08/index.html

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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Google Friends Newsletter - September 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - September 2008

Autumnal greetings to all of our Google friends. We hope you enjoy
this month's update on our products and services.

------------
POWER TIP

Google Moderator

Google Moderator is a new way to facilitate question-and-answer
sessions during talks, presentations and events that involve large
groups of people. Anyone can submit a question and then people can
vote on the questions that they'd like answered.
http://moderator.appspot.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Project 10^100

As part of our 10th birthday celebration, we launched Project 10100
(that's "ten to the hundredth"), a call for ideas that could help as
many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those
ideas to life. We're committing $10 million to implement these
projects, and while money may offer a jump-start, it really comes down
to the great ideas that we know are out there. We're accepting
submissions until October 20, 2008, and then we'll open up voting in
January.
http://www.project10tothe100.com

Updates to Picasa, Picasa Web Albums

There's a new version available of our photo editing software. Picasa
3.0 makes it even easier to share photos with friends and family,
thanks to a new web sync feature that automatically keeps your web
albums up-to-date with the photos on your PC. Picasa 3 also includes
intuitive new editing tools, like a powerful retouching brush, text
tool, movie maker and revamped photo collages. We've also updated
Picasa Web Albums with "name tags" to help you automatically organize
and share your photos by who's in each picture.
http://www.google.com/picasa

Google Chrome

This month we released a new open-source web browser. Google Chrome is
fast, secure and lets you access your favorite Google services, such
as Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs, more easily than ever. There
are some unique features too, like a single box for web addresses and
searches, a simplified download manager and an interface to maximize
your browsing experience. (Windows-only at present.)
http://www.google.com/chrome

Google Maps for mobile with Street View

If you use Google Maps for mobile on your BlackBerry or Java-enabled
phone, you can now access Street View while on the go. The new release
incorporates Street View into business listings and directions --
you'll be able to see a specific location before you get there. Other
new features include business reviews and walking directions.
http://www.google.com/gmm

Transit on Google Maps for New York

New York City has about a third of the country's public transportation
volume, and now Google Maps includes public transit information for
the entire metro region, making this the biggest Transit launch for
Google Maps to date. You can find Transit coverage for more than 70
cities and countries; we'll keep you posted as we add more to the
mix.
http://www.google.com/transit

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MISCELLANY

September marked the first 10 years of Google, so we took a moment to
reflect on the enormous impact the Internet has had on people's lives
since our company's founding. The power of the Internet has changed
the way we find, manage and share information -- and we believe it
will only continue to change the way we live. While we don't have a
crystal ball to see exactly what the future holds, we asked a number
of our in-house experts to share their thoughts on how this phenomenal
technology will evolve in the next 10 years. You can read their
responses in a special blog series. We hope you're inspired by their
ideas.
http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/ten-years-out.html

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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Google Friends Newsletter - August 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - August 2008

Late summer greetings to our Google friends. We hope you enjoy this
month's update on our products and services.

-----------
POWER TIP

New personalized search features

This month we rolled out a new web search feature that gives you more
clarity concerning how we use data to improve your search experience.
Whenever we customize your search based on geographic location,
another recent search you performed, or items from Web History, a
message will appear in the top-right corner of the search results
page, with a link to a page with more details about how and why we
personalized your search.
http://www.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Power Readers in Politics

If you're curious about which news sites and blogs John McCain or
Barack Obama follow, now using Google Reader you can read the same
material the candidates read. For the upcoming U.S. presidential
election, we've launched Power Readers in Politics, a feed of shared
articles for the presidential campaigns and leading political pundits.
You can see which headlines are catching the attention of newsmakers
and read their comments.
http://www.google.com/powerreaders

2008 Summer Games on Google

For this year's Summer Games in Beijing, we launched a global effort
to bring some of the most important moments in sports history to more
people than ever. If you missed any of the action, you can still track
the results with Google News and explore the Olympic venues using
Google Maps.
http://www.google.com/landing/summergames2008/

Updates to Google Maps

Google Maps has a fresh new look: besides sporting a single search
box, the clean, straightforward design lets you more easily view full-
screen maps. We've also improved the way to print directions, added
the ability to print Street View images, and included an "Avoid tolls"
option for driving directions.
http://maps.google.com

Google Translate for iPhone

There's a new interface for Google Translate on the Apple iPhone,
covering 23 language pairs for users around the world. If you have an
iPhone, you can get to the new interface by visiting Google.com and
choosing "Translate" from the "More" tab, or by visiting the Google
Translate site directly.
http://translate.google.com

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MISCELLANY

The 2008 U.S. political conventions -- two weeks of party business
that began with the Democrats in Denver on August 25 and continue with
the Republicans in Minneapolis on September 1 -- mark the beginning of
the general election season. This year is particularly exciting in
part because of the groundbreaking role technology is playing in
connecting candidates and voters. To help you stay informed and
engaged, we're launching a one-stop shop for political information on
our conventions site. You can view the latest news, videos, photos and
blog posts. Use Elections Video Search to see what the candidates are
saying about the issues that concern you, and interact with a wide
variety of political mashups in the Google Maps Elections Gallery. If
you're a teacher, use our Election Toolkit for Teachers to inform your
students about the political process. And as election day grows
closer, we're working on ways for you to find local voter registration
sites or polling places on demand. As the momentum continues over the
next few months, bookmark the page and check back regularly.
http://www.google.com/2008election

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Google Friends Newsletter - June 2008

Google Friends Newsletter - June 2008

Summer greetings to our Google friends. We hope you enjoy this month's
update on our products and services.

------------
POWER TIP

Real-time stock quotes on Google Finance

You can now access real-time last sale prices from both the NASDAQ and
the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Google Finance, Google.com and
other search properties. And of course it's free - there are no
subscription fees or registration.
http://finance.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

New improved YouTube homepage

The new YouTube homepage answers the question "What should I watch
today?" by recommending videos based on what you've previously
watched, what your friends have "favorited" or rated, and more. It's
fully customizable so you can tailor it exactly to your taste. You'll
have to be signed into your account to use this feature. Also this
month, we added a search-suggest feature to the YouTube search box, so
now you get query suggestions as you type. By offering these
suggestions, we save you several keystrokes, reduce spelling errors,
and improve the overall search experience on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com

Google Maps for Mobile adds Transit

With Google Maps for mobile, you can now get schedule-based public
transit directions in any of the more than 50 areas worldwide covered
by Google Transit. This includes Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area,
Vancouver B.C., Denver/Boulder, Zurich, and Florence, among others. As
new transit coverage is added to our web maps every week, it will
automatically become available in Google Maps for Mobile.
http://www.google.com/gmm

Street View doubles coverage

We're celebrating Street View's first birthday by doubling our mileage
of imagery served in the U.S. Now you can see 37 new metro areas, 10
parks, and expanded, updated coverage in 15 existing areas. It's all
available on Google Maps, Google Earth and through the Maps API.
http://maps.google.com

New Google favicon in your browser

Have you noticed something different on Google recently, but can't
quite put your finger on it? Well, you might be thinking about the
change we made to our favicon - the tiny image that appears next to
the URL in your browser's address bar. This is the first change we've
made to it in 8 1/2 years. As more and more of you access Google from
your computers and on mobile devices, we need an image that fits all
screen sizes. This is the icon we're going with for now, but we've
asked for suggestions from users to help us as we consider more
updates to this small visual reminder of Google.
http://www.google.com

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MISCELLANY

Lately you may have been hearing a lot about "cloud computing" - a
phrase that describes the notion of using web-based software to work
on, and share, your own information and files via the Internet instead
of having to store them on your hard drive. Businesses are taking a
closer look at harnessing the power of "the cloud" because of the
efficiencies it can create for them, like burdening IT departments
less, helping employees to be more self-sufficient, and not having to
invest in hardware infrastructure. But the cloud works for regular
folks too. We've been seeing some great examples of people "living in
the cloud" to manage their personal lives more easily, including a
couple we recently heard from who planned their entire wedding using
web-based applications. There are a whole host of tools out there,
like Google Docs and Google Calendar, that let you access your
information via a web browser. Doing so gives you the freedom to
access your documents and photos anywhere you have Internet access,
from any computer - especially helpful if you're on the road. The
cloud is great for sharing, too: you can invite people to contribute
to your document just by sending them a link, and any of you who are
sharing it can make changes in real time. That means saying goodbye to
the version control madness on your desktop. And that's a very good
reason to celebrate.
http://docs.google.com
http://calendar.google.com

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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our
technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes
subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---