Google Friends Newsletter - December 2009

We hope all of our Google friends are having a great December and a
wonderful 2009. Enjoy this month's update on our products and
services, and we'll see you in 2010.

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POWER TIP

Real-time search results

Now you can access comprehensive real-time search results from blogs,
social networks, news and the web. When relevant real-time information
is available, a new universal search feature will appear with a live
stream of the freshest web content. Clicking on the "Latest Results"
link will take you to a filtered full page of results. You can also
filter to see only short-form "Updates" from Twitter, FriendFeed,
Indenti.ca, Jaiku and TWiT Army. We also announced new agreements with
Facebook and MySpace, and are working to incorporate public content
from those services in the feature. You can also see what's happening
on the web by checking out the new Hot Topics on Google Trends.
http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/trends

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Chrome for Mac and Linux, and extensions on Windows and Linux
betas

You can now use Google Chrome on Mac and Linux, in beta. In addition,
if you're on the beta version of Google Chrome on Windows or Linux,
you can now try out any of 1000+ extensions to add more features and
functionality to the browser.
www.google.com/chrome
chrome.google.com/extensions

Google Goggles

Google Goggles is a new visual search application for Android phones.
Now you can search the web by taking a picture, instead of typing in
words. Shoot a photo of a landmark, sign, logo, book cover or work of
art to get matching search results for your image. For business
information, just point your phone at a store, and Goggles will show
you the name of the business, using the phone's GPS and compass.
http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles

Living Story

The Living Stories prototype is an experimental new way to consume
news, which we have developed over the last few months in partnership
with the New York Times and the Washington Post. It unifies coverage
of an ongoing story on a single dynamic web page, making it easier for
you to follow the latest updates, review background information and
keep track of the latest changes as the subject evolves over time. You
can read full articles, browse multimedia and filter stories in
different ways — all in one place.
http://livingstories.googlelabs.com

Gift ideas from Google Product Search

To help you with your holiday shopping, we've put together a list of
some of the most popular products on Google Product Search. Whether
you're looking for the latest game or gadget or a stocking-stuffer for
the family pet, we've got ideas for all budgets.
www.google.com/holidaygifts09

Buy Picasa storage and get a free Eye-Fi card

For a limited time, when you buy 200 GB of Google paid storage for
$50, you'll get a free 4GB Eye-Fi card (a $95 value). An Eye-Fi card
makes it easy to upload photos directly from your camera to Picasa Web
Albums or to your computer (no cables required). Google paid storage
is overflow space shared between Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, in
addition to your free quota.
www.picasa.google.com/eyefi

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MISCELLANY

We celebrate a variety of end-year traditions around here. The first
is our Year-End Zeitgeist, a collection of search trends over 2009
that offers a glimpse at the collective consciousness. We've compiled
our Zeitgeist since 2001 — this year you can explore what was on the
minds of citizens all over the globe, in dozens of languages. We're
also watching NORAD track Santa in Google Earth, a tradition since
2004 (when Google Earth was still Keyhole!). And finally, if you visit
the Google homepage from Dec. 21-25, we hope each day's doodle brings
you a little holiday cheer.
http://www.google.com/zeitgeist2009
http://www.noradsanta.org/
http://goo.gl/gam1

--
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http://googleblog.blogspot.com

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Google Inc.
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Google Friends Newsletter - November 2009

We hope all of our Google friends had a great November. Enjoy this
month's update on our products and services.

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

Flu shot locator and flu information in Google search

We recently launched a flu shot locator, which uses Google Maps to
show you nearby locations offering seasonal and/or H1N1 flu vaccine.
You can find this information on a standalone page as well as in
Google search results when you search for terms like [flu], [flu
shot], [h1n1 shot] and [flu vaccine]. The flu onebox also includes
tips on staying healthy from http://flu.gov.
http://www.google.com/flushot

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Search Stories

Visit YouTube's new Search Stories channel to see six stories inspired
by how our people use Google search in their daily lives. We hope you
enjoy these!
http://youtube.com/searchstories

Google Maps Navigation on Android-powered devices

Google Maps Navigation is a new, free turn-by-turn GPS navigation
service with voice output for all Android-powered phones. You can type
or speak a Google search to enter a destination. And because Google
Maps Navigation is always connected to the Internet, it enables you to
get fresh map, business and traffic data, as well as satellite and
Street View imagery along your selected route.
http://www.google.com/navigation

Google Dashboard

The new Google Dashboard provides transparency and greater control
over your Google-related information. Now you can view and control the
data associated with your Google account. It summarizes data for each
product you use and provides you with direct links to better control
your personal data and settings, all in one convenient and secure
place.
http://www.google.com/dashboard

Google Earth education platform

This interactive game teaches you how to use Google Earth. Start with
learning how to find your house and move through various steps until
you eventually learn how to create content for Google Earth.
http://earth.google.com/support/go/learn

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MISCELLANY

To help you get your holiday shopping done quickly and easily this
year, you might want to know about a couple of tools. Google Product
Search lets you compare products and prices from merchants across the
web, and it's now easier to compare images of products, read reviews
and find nearby stores selling what you're looking for. And if you're
out and about, Google Product Search also works on mobile phones. Then
there's Google Checkout. Use it to shop any of thousands of stores on
the web, and get special discounts on a variety of participating
stores this season.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/easy-holiday-shopping-with-google.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/holiday-savings-with-checkout.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

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Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
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Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
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Google Friends Newsletter - October 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - October 2009

We hope all of our Google friends had a great October. Here's the
month's update on our products and services.

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

Better music information in search results

We have just introduced a new feature to help you better find music
information using Google search. Now, when you enter a music-related
query — like the name of a song, artist, album or a line or two of
lyrics — into the Google search box, your search results will include
links to an audio preview of those songs provided by our music search
partners MySpace (which just acquired iLike) or Lala. This feature not
only makes search better, it also introduces millions of music seekers
to new sources of licensed music online.
http://www.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Flu Trends

Google Flu Trends has expanded from four to 20 countries, including
much of Europe. It's also now available in 38 languages. By tracking
the popularity of certain flu-related Google search queries, we are
able to estimate how many people actually have flu symptoms in a given
location, in near real-time. While some traditional flu surveillance
systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google
search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides
an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials
and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the
flu season.
http://www.google.org/flutrends/

Introducing Google Building Maker

Here is a fun and simple online tool for creating 3D buildings in
Google Earth, called Google Building Maker. This tool makes it
possible for anyone with a web browser to make high-quality, photo-
textured 3D models. It works like a very large, and very smart,
collection of building blocks: By assembling the blocks to match the
shape of your favorite building, you can make a whole 3D building in a
few minutes. Building Maker is available for 50 cities and in 14
languages.
http://www.google.com/buildingmaker

Google Wave opens up invitations to a limited preview

We've started sending invitations to preview Google Wave, a new tool
that lets you communicate and collaborate in real time, to 100,000+
users. Developers working with Wave now have some new extensions and a
roadmap for our APIs. Finally, based on early responses from Google
Apps customers, we have also invited to a set of businesses and
schools to preview Wave, and look forward to their feedback on how
Wave might help with collaboration and productivity.
http://wave.google.com/
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/extensions.html

New security solutions in Google Pack

Google Pack now provides a free way for individual PCs to detect and
remove viruses, spyware and rootkits. PC Tools Spyware Doctor with
Anti-Virus SE is available in most locales while Avast! 5.0 Free
Antivirus will be used in major European locales. The new versions
significantly increase protection for Google Pack PC users and are
distributed for free.
http://pack.google.com

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MISCELLANY

Recently we began a weekly series on the Official Google Blog
reflecting the heart of our company: search. We're always making
changes to improve your search experience, so we have gathered
together the seemingly-small details of those changes in one easy-to-
find place. We cover a wide variety of aspects within search — tools
that webmasters can use to make their sites safer, our recent
agreement with Twitter for adding real-time search results and how
we've used our search technology to improve recommendations in Google
Reader. As we continue to work on improving the search experience, we
will keep you updated through this series and posts elsewhere.
http://bit.ly/2LPopW

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

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Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
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Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Google Friends Newsletter - September 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - September 2009

We hope all of our Google friends had a great September. Here is the
month's update on our products and services.

------------

POWER TIP

Introducing Google Sidewiki

We're excited about the release last week of Google Sidewiki, a new
way for you and others to contribute helpful information alongside any
page on the web. Google Sidewiki is a sidebar in Google Toolbar where
you can add text entries, links, and embedded videos. To make sure you
see the most relevant entries on top, we use an algorithm to rank
entries by quality. It takes into account your feedback as well as
many other signals. We also have the first version of our API
available to let anyone work freely with the content that's created in
Google Sidewiki. Google Sidewiki is a feature of Google Toolbar for
Firefox and Internet Explorer — support for Chrome is coming.
http://www.google.com/sidewiki
http://code.google.com/apis/sidewiki/

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Fast Flip

Google Fast Flip, recently launched in Google Labs, is a way to read
news that combines the best elements of print and online articles.
Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse through recent news,
headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top
publishers. At the same time, we offer search over many top newspapers
and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends.
Fast Flip also personalizes your experience by taking cues from
selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and
journalists that you like.
http://fastflip.googlelabs.com

Place Pages in Google Maps

Last week we launched Place Pages. A Place Page is a webpage for every
place in the world — not just businesses, but also points of interest,
transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities. Each Place Page
organizes information about that a place, including a summary,
reviews, photos and videos, related maps and much more — all in one
page. To get to a Place Page, click "more info" in either the search
results or the display bubble that pops up on the map.
http://maps.google.com

Picasa 3.5, now with name tags

With Picasa 3.5, the newest version of our free photo editing
software, you can organize your pictures by what matters most: the
people in them. Using the same facial recognition technology that
powers name tags in Picasa Web Albums, it identifies and groups
similar faces so you can add name tags to dozens of pictures at once.
Then, you can do creative things with your pictures, like quickly find
all the photos with the same two people in them, make a face collage
with just one click, or upload and share people albums with friends.
Picasa 3.5 also has integrated Google Maps for faster geotagging, and
there's a totally redesigned import process so you can import photos
and upload them to Picasa Web Albums in one step. Picasa 3.5 is
available in English for both PC and Mac.
http://picasa.google.com

New Features in Google SketchUp

We just released Google SketchUp 7.1 with a bunch of new features and
functionality to make SketchUp even more useful for everyone. We
overhauled our rendering engine to make it faster, built in a
connection to Street View imagery in Google Maps, and added support
for even more 3D file types. Plus, LayOut 2.1 (which is included in
SketchUp Pro 7.1) now includes a simple but surprisingly powerful tool
for creating dimensioned drawings from your models; especially helpful
for architects, woodworkers and other designers.
http://sketchup.google.com

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MISCELLANY

Recently, you might have seen our mysterious series of Google
"doodles" (our special homepage designs) in honor of H.G. Wells, the
author and "father of science fiction." These are just three of the
many doodles that decorate the Google homepage to commemorate notable
individuals and discoveries, holidays and events in history.
Occasionally, such as for our 11th birthday this month, a doodle
graces the Google.com homepage worldwide. Other times, a doodle
appears on a particular Google country domain. But you don't have to
travel to see all the doodles there are — we archive them for your
viewing pleasure. You can also subscribe to a feed to see new doodles
whenever the archive is updated. Enjoy!
http://www.google.com/logos/index.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/mysterious-series-for-hg-wells.html

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

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Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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Google Friends Newsletter - August 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - August 2009

We hope all our Google friends had a great August. Here is this
month's update on our products and services.

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

Power Readers on Google Reader

Where do Arianna Huffington and Thomas Friedman go to get different
perspectives on the news? Which economics sites does Nobel prize
winner Paul Krugman read? What sites and blogs do the editors of
Lifehacker, Boing Boing and Kottke read? In an effort to help people
find great stuff to read in Google Reader, we approached leaders
across a variety of fields and asked them what they read online. We
got lots of great responses, which we've collected into our second
edition of Power Readers. In this edition, we've expanded from Power
Readers in Politics to include journalists, techies, fashion critics,
foodies and more. We hope this will be a good place for you to find
more great things to read, whether you're new to Google Reader or
already have an extensive reading list.
www.google.com/powerreaders

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

OpenSocial gadgets in iGoogle

We've added new social gadgets and features to iGoogle. Not only can
you play, collaborate and share with your friends using 20 social
gadgets, you can also get a feed of updates about your friends'
activities on iGoogle. There's a little something for everyone: You
can compete with others in Who Has The Biggest Brain?, Chess or
Scrabble; keep up on the latest buzz with media-sharing gadgets from
NPR, The Huffington Post and YouTube; or check things off alongside
your friends with the social To-Do list gadget. These gadgets and more
are available for users in the U.S. and Australia.
http://www.google.com/igsocial

Collaborate on Picasa Web Albums

If you've used Google Docs, you know that it makes collaborating on
documents easy. We've just introduced a similar idea for photo albums
— now, every album on Picasa Web Albums is potentially collaborative,
meaning multiple people can add photos to the same album.
Contributors' photos will be attributed to them, and they can rotate,
delete, and add captions to the pictures they've uploaded. To make an
album collaborative, click the "Share" button in Picasa Web Albums,
select the people you want to share with and make sure the "Let people
I share with contribute photos" checkbox is selected. When
contributors visit your collaborative album and sign in, they just
need to click the "Add Photos" button to start uploading.
http://picasaweb.google.com

Improved health information in search results

Now there are new ways to search for health conditions on Google.com.
If you type in a condition, such as [asthma], into the Google.com
search box, it will show you a new Health search result snippet and
image with a summary of the condition and links to popular health
sites like Google Health, Mayo Clinc and WebMD. If you click the
Google Health link, you'll find a combination of information on that
specific condition (such as overview, symptoms, causes, tests,
diagnosis and prognosis) as well as results from Google search
properties such as Google News, Google Scholar and Google Trends. So
start searching today to easily get info about the health conditions
you or a loved one may want to know more about.
http://www.google.com

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MISCELLANY

As the summer comes to a close and schools start to reopen, we know
some of our friends out there are dusting off their books and donning
their backpacks. If you're a student, you're probably familiar with
some of our tools that can help you excel in the classroom, including
Google search, Google Books, Google Scholar and Google Docs — just to
name a few. We're always thinking of new ways to use our products to
help you study, research or just get more organized in your
schoolwork. For ongoing Google tips and tricks tailored just for
students, check out the Google Students blog. Even if you aren't a
student, you might learn something new!
http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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:
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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
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Google Friends Newsletter - July 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - July 2009

We hope all our Google friends are having a great summer so far. Here
is this month's update on our products and services.

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

Calendar Labs

Earlier this month, we launched Calendar Labs. Like Google Labs and
Gmail Labs, Calendar Labs is a place to try out early, experimental
features as well as provide feedback to the team that built them.
There are six experimental Calendar features so far, including "Next
Meeting" which shows you how much time you have to procrastinate
before your next appointment and "World clock", which lets you keep
track of different timezones when you schedule meetings. You can test
these features out by going to the Labs tab under Settings.
http://calendar.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Moon in Google Earth

Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 took the first
human steps on the surface of the Moon. In celebration of this
historic occasion, we launched Moon in Google Earth, an interactive 3D
atlas of the Moon. You can now explore a virtual Moonscape, follow
guided tours from astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) and Jack Schmitt
(Apollo 17), see the latest rover concepts by teams competing in the
Google Lunar X PRIZE, view high-resolution "Street View"-style
panoramic photos, watch previously unreleased video footage captured
from the lunar surface and much more. Moon is viewable using Google
Earth 5.0.
http://earth.google.com/moon

Favorite Places on Google Maps

Ever wonder where culinary expert and chef Alice Waters goes for
organic and sustainable food in the San Francisco Bay Area? Or where
Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, goes to
experience art in that city? We've teamed up with a variety of experts
around the world to share some of their favorite local places and
businesses on Google Maps. We hope you enjoy exploring all of these
favorite places.
http://www.google.com/favoriteplaces

Google Docs template gallery open to everyone

We recently opened up the Google Docs template gallery to everyone.
Now, people can share their own documents, spreadsheets, presentations
and forms so that others may re-use them. The public template gallery
makes it easy to sort and browse templates by category, usage, rating
and document type. The template gallery is also available to Google
Apps Premier and Education Edition customers, making it easy to
privately share common document templates within companies and
organizations.
http://docs.google.com/templates

Your world in 3D

One of our favorite features of Google Earth is flying around the
world's cities in 3D. If you turn on the "3D Buildings" layer in
Google Earth you can access thousands of buildings as photo-realistic
3D models. Plus, if there's a building (or an entire town) that you'd
like the whole world to see, you can build your own models using
Google SketchUp and then add them to Google Earth. Not only is it a
great way to benefit your community, we think it's pretty fun.
http://sketchup.google.com/yourworldin3d

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MISCELLANY

Sure, you get this newsletter every month with news from Google. And
maybe you also read one or several of our official blogs. But what if
you're craving more frequent updates from us? We have a variety of
Twitter accounts that you can follow to get ongoing news, tips and
more on a variety of Google products and services. Besides our
official @google account, you might be interested in news from
Australia or Brazil, the latest advances in computer science research,
help with advertising or updates focused on a specific product like
Google Earth. We're adding new accounts from time to time, too — you
can see a list of all our official accounts on the Official Google
Blog.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-accounts-on-twitter.html

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - June 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - June 2009

We hope all our Google friends are enjoying sunny summer weather. Here
is this month's update on our products and services.

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

"What's here?" in Google Maps

This new option on the right-click menu in Google Maps gives you the
most relevant results based on your current location, whether it's a
specific address, a natural feature, or a place name. "What's here?"
takes into account the zoom level you're looking at to give you the
most appropriate geographical detail at that point. For example, if
you're very zoomed in, you will get an exact address. If you're more
zoomed out, you might get a neighborhood, a city or a state. If you
combine this with the "At this address" feature, you can also see a
list of the businesses located at that place.
http://www.maps.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Search by Author on Google News

The Google News homepage is a good place to go for an overview of
current events, but what if you're interested in a specific
journalist's take on the news? That's now easy with a new Search by
Author feature on Google News. If you spot an article with a
reporter's byline, click the name to bring up other articles by that
person. You can also find a specific journalist's articles by typing
"author:" followed by their name in the Google News search box. This a
great way to get an overview of the most recent op-eds and articles by
your favorite columnists or local reporters. As with any search on
Google News, you can sign up to get the latest results through a feed,
email alerts, or by adding a custom section to your Google News
homepage.
http://www.news.google.com

New iGoogle for Android and iPhone

You can now get a new and improved version of iGoogle for your iPhone
or Android-powered mobile device. More of the gadgets you're used to
on your desktop iGoogle page now work in this version, and you'll also
see the same tabs that you've already defined on your desktop. You can
rearrange the order of the gadgets on your phone, and customize which
ones you want to expand automatically. To try it out, go to
iGoogle.com in your mobile browser. The new iGoogle for mobile is
available in 38 languages.
http://www.google.com/ig

New features in Google Books

We have made several changes to Google Books that give readers
everywhere new ways to interact with the words and images contained
within the books we've brought online. It's now easier to embed and
share previews of your favorite books on your blog or website. For
more information, head to the Inside Google Book Search Blog:
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-features-on-google-books.html

Explore Google Search

Our new "Explore Google Search" site collects together 15-second
videos giving you tips on the main features of Google Search, stories
from Google engineers, and user testimonials. If you discover
something you didn't know you could do on Google, be sure to share it
with your friends and family. The site is available in the U.S., U.K.,
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India.
http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/

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MISCELLANY

The faster you can do what you need to do, the more time you have to
spend on things that might matter more. That's one reason we care a
lot about speed — as in the speed of delivering your information to
you. The belief that faster is better is behind much of what we do,
from finding the most relevant search result for a query to releasing
a speedier version of Google Chrome. Lately, we've been working on
several initiatives dedicated to a faster experience on the Internet
overall. We've just introduced a site for developers full of tips and
tools for improved performance and speed on the web, as well as a call
for ideas on how to speed things up even more. We've also released
some speed updates to Google products, including Picasa Web Albums and
iGoogle for mobile phones. For updates on our efforts toward a faster
web, check out the "faster web" label on the Official Google Blog.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/faster%20web

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - May 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - May 2009

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

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

New Search Options on search results

We recently announced Search Options, a new feature in Google Web
Search. You can now slice and dice your search results using a variety
of filters, which generate different views of your results page to
more easily and quickly find what you need. To try it out, click the
"Show options..." link on top of your search results to display the
Search Options panel. Watch this short video to learn more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtirDMfcOKE

------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Import mail and contacts to Gmail

You can now easily migrate existing email and contacts from Hotmail,
Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and other webmail providers into Gmail. Imported
emails will be appropriately sorted by date, and existing folders will
become labels. You can have your messages forwarded from your old
account for 30 days, giving you time to take Gmail for a test drive.
This new feature is available in all newly-created Gmail accounts, and
it is slowly being rolled out to all existing accounts. You'll know
it's available in your account when you see the "Accounts and Import"
tab under Settings.
http://www.gmail.com/

The bells and whistles behind Google Search

We put together two series of videos giving you a closer look at
various features of Google Search. The first is a set of 15-second
tips on how to check the weather, get the latest sports scores, find
word definitions, and more. In the second series, our search engineers
get up close and personal, sharing stories about the features they've
created and the challenges they face in making Google Search better.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B3A7CCFD7CD5CF09
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=396574970FFD6E31

A speedier Google Chrome

We just released a faster version of Google Chrome. Web pages with a
lot of JavaScript now load about 30% faster than in the previous
stable version, thanks to improvements to V8 and an updated version of
WebKit. We've also fixed hundreds of bugs and made changes in response
to many of your top requests, including full screen mode, ability to
remove thumbnails from the new tab page, autofill and more.
http://www.google.com/chrome

Doodle for Google winners

Christin Engelberth of San Antonio, Texas was the national winner of
our second annual Doodle 4 Google contest in the U.S., which concluded
this month. Her doodle "A New Beginning" was selected out of more than
28,000 entries. Christin won a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop
computer and a $25,000 technology grant for her school. In addition,
all of the regional winners' doodles are currently on display at the
Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City
until July 5. If you can't make the trip to New York, view all of the
finalists' doodles on the Doodle 4 Google website.
http://www.google.com/doodle4google

-------------
MISCELLANY

You may already know that we're real believers in the power of data-
driven decisions. If you have information based on your website's
traffic patterns, you can learn what people like best (or least) about
your site, ad campaigns or video — and use that information to make
your product better and attract more consumers. Being able to measure
the success of different strategies can help you more efficiently use
your resources to the maximum effect — no small thing in this economic
climate. But even on blogs or small sites, you can use data to improve
a great deal, like designing a better webpage or producing a
compelling YouTube video. Google offers a variety of tools that can
help you harness the power of measurement to be more successful with
your online business or product. To help you out, we're collecting
tips and tricks for how to use Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and
other measurement tools in an ongoing series of posts on the Official
Google Blog. Here's to the metrics!
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/measurement

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - April 2009

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

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

Profile information now in search results

To give you greater control over what people find when they search for
your name, we now show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S.
search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from the
profiles you created, a well as a link to the full profiles. We've
also added links so it's easy to search for the same name on MySpace,
Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn. Your public profile page identifies
you and serves as a hub for your content on the web. If you don't have
a profile yet, type [me] into the search box to get started creating
one.
http://www.google.com/profiles

------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Product Search for your iPhone and Android

It's now easier to make informed shopping decisions with the launch of
Google Product Search for mobile. To try it out, go to Google.com in
your mobile browser, search for a product, then scroll down and click
the "Shopping results" link. You'll see business listings that include
where to buy and pricing information so you can find the best deal.
For some products, like books and electronics, you can also see other
details, including online ratings and reviews. This new feature is
optimized for iPhone and Android-powered devices in the U.S. and U.K.
http://mobile.google.com

YouTube RealTime

Recently we unveiled YouTube RealTime, a new way to discover what your
friends are doing on YouTube. Using a toolbar in the lower right
corner of the page, you can see which of your friends are currently
online and what they're watching, a history of their recent activities
on the site, and real-time notifications when they comment on,
"favorite," or upload a video. This builds upon our efforts to make
the YouTube experience more interactive and social and follows other
updates such as channel feeds, customizable homepage and sharing
options (e.g., posting to Twitter or Facebook). Right now, you must
have an invitation to try it out, but when you do receive an
invitation, you'll have 25 invites to share with friends. We'll be
handing out more invitations shortly.
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=RUbB7ZLNsyU

Image Search rolls out Similar Images

We just rolled out an experimental new way to search for images, using
pictures rather than words. This is helpful if you are getting image
results you like but are at a loss for words on how to narrow them
down further. To try it out, go to Similar Images in Google Labs and
search for an image. On the results page, click the "Similar images"
link under that image to find others like it. Your new results will
be tailored based on whatever image you select.
http://similar-images.googlelabs.com

YouTube Shows and Movies

There's a new YouTube destination for television shows and an improved
destination for movies, where partners like Crackle, CBS, MGM,
Lionsgate, Starz and many others have made thousands of television
episodes and hundreds of movies available for you to watch, comment
on, "favorite" and share. We also completed a wider rollout of in-
stream ads, which for the first time will be displayed in shows and
movies. At the moment, Shows and Movies are only available in the
U.S., but we hope to expand to other regions soon.
http://www.youtube.com/shows

-------------
MISCELLANY

Whether it's the latest news from Washington D.C. or from "American
Idol," people around the world go online to search for information on
the news of the day. Search trends are a living, breathing reflection
of what we're interested in, and April searches were no exception. One
very popular topic was the White House puppy, Bo, which led curious
Google users to search for [portuguese water dog]. And those
interested in weightier political subjects were searching for
information about President Barack Obama's first [100 days] in office.
Breakout singing star [susan boyle] blew away the search competition
thanks to her performance on "Britain's Got Talent," but was
ultimately outstripped in popularity by concerned people seeking
information about [swine flu]. We offer a variety of tools to help you
keep your finger on the pulse of what searchers are looking for. Hot
Trends, updated approximately every hour, is great for discovering the
news of the moment. Trends is a Google Labs experiment that compares
interest in search terms over time. And you can use Insights for
Search to compare trends by region and time period, see related and
fastest-rising terms, filter for Google News, Product and Image
results, and much more.
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
http://www.google.com/trends
http://www.google.com/insights/search/

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - March 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - March 2009

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

------------

POWER TIP

New features for Google Mobile App for BlackBerry

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry now features search by voice, a
faster search experience on GPRS, as well as location features — like
suggesting local business listings as you type. To try this, do a
Google search for "pizza" and watch the location of the nearest pizza
place appear before you've hit the search button. You can also search
for business names, and with just one click you can call the business
or view it on a map. Note that this app does not support the
BlackBerry Storm.
http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/app

------------

NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Updates to Mars in Google Earth

On March 14, we featured a doodle on the Google homepage that
celebrated the birthday of Giovanni Schiaparelli, the Italian
astronomer who invented the naming scheme we use to identify features
on Mars today. We also launched some Google Earth updates including
the "Live from Mars" layer, which lets you fly along with orbiting
spacecraft and see imagery from NASA, sometimes just hours after NASA
receives it. The layer also includes guided tours from Public Radio's
Ira Flatow and Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who will show you the best
spots on the Red Planet.
http://earth.google.com/mars

Google Health's new sharing feature

Google Health, a product that lets you organize, store, and manage
your medical records securely online, just announced a new sharing
feature. Google Health users can now invite others they trust (family
members, a trusted care provider, a friend or a doctor) to view their
medical records and personal health information online. You can stop
sharing at any time, and you will always be able to see who has access
to your information. You can also print a wallet-sized version of your
health profile to share with doctors or family members who are not
online.
http://www.google.com/health

More Gmail Labs innovations

Ever hit the send button a moment too soon and wish you had a few
seconds to undo it? Well, now you can with the "Undo Send" button.
Another new set of Gmail Labs features lets you preview YouTube,
Flickr, Picasa and Yelp content right in your email. Gmail
automatically detects links in emails from these sites and shows
videos, photos, and ratings directly inside your messages. Turn on
these experimental features and more from the "Labs" tab under
"Settings."
http://www.gmail.com

Search for recent earthquake activity

Now when you do a Google search in the U.S. for "earthquake," you'll
get information on some of the most recent, significant earthquakes
from around the world, right on the search results page. Type
"earthquake" into the search box followed by the city and state or
U.S. zip code. Or for recent earthquake activity in other parts of the
world, just type in "earthquake." The data is provided by the US
Geological Survey (USGS), and you can click through to the USGS
Earthquake Center for more information, or visit the epicenter of any
quake using Google Maps.
http://www.google.com

-------------

MISCELLANY

Not long ago, finding the answer to something might involve a trip to
the local library. Today, anyone can research a topic in seconds from
the comfort of their own home or even from their mobile phone. And in
the last ten years, search results have evolved from just web pages to
images, videos, books, maps and lots more. As the scale of search has
changed dramatically over the years, the presentation and quality of
Google results have also undergone many changes. In the past year
alone, we have made more than 300 improvements to the quality and
speed of our search experience. Many of these are "under the hood"
changes, but others are easy to spot, such as the recent rollout of
longer snippets, the lines of text directly below each search result,
and refinements to our related searches. If you're interested in
learning more about how we approach the challenges of ongoing search
quality, there's a series of posts on the Official Google Blog for
your reading pleasure.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/search quality

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - February 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - February 2009

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

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

Syncing for iPhone, Windows Mobile and SyncML devices

One of the hardest parts about switching phones is getting your
address book and calendar to your new device. We're making that
process a little easier with the release of a beta version of Google
Sync for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones, as well as a contacts-
only version for phones that support SyncML. Google Sync lets you get
your Gmail contacts and Google Calendar events onto your phone so your
address book and calender are always up-to-date.
http://m.google.com/sync

------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Doodle 4 Google 2009: "What I Wish for the World"

This month we launched our second annual Doodle 4 Google competition
where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo
and see what new designs they come up with around the intriguing theme
"What I Wish for the World". The National Winner will win a $15,000
college scholarship to be used at the school of their choice and have
their design displayed on Google.com on May 21. We'll also award the
winner's school a $25,000 technology grant. The 40 finalists will
travel to Google's New York office and have their doodles in an
exhibition at the Smithsonian's, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum.
http://www.google.com/doodle4google

Collaborative Annotations on YouTube

The YouTube team has just completed a major upgrade to to annotations,
the interactive commentary you can add to videos. Now you can add
annotations to other people's videos (with permission from the video
owner, of course). And if you want to let your friends add annotations
to your video, simply view the video and you will see a special URL in
the "Video Owner Options" on the right (you can also access this URL
from the annotations editor). You can disable the URL at any time, and
you can always delete annotations added by others.
http://www.youtube.com

Ocean in Google Earth 5.0

We recently launched the next big step forward in 3D geo-browsing.
Google Earth 5.0 includes the long-awaited launch of Ocean, which
offers a way to drop below the surface and learn about one of the
world's greatest natural resources. Other features in the latest
version of Google Earth include Historical Imagery, which lets you
travel back in time with imagery from years past, and Touring, which
lets you create an easily sharable, narrated tour of your
destinations. You can also take a tour of the Red Planet by visiting
Mars in Google Earth.
https://earth.google.com

See where your friends are with Google Latitude

Google Latitude is a new Google Maps for mobile feature, as well as an
iGoogle gadget that lets you share your location with your friends,
and vice versa. Use your Google account to sign in, and then easily
invite friends from your existing list of contacts, or by entering
their email addresses. It's currently available on Android,
BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile devices; we will have support
for other handsets soon.
http://www.google.com/latitude

-------------
MISCELLANY

Our co-founder Larry Page published the very first edition of Google
Friends Newsletter using eGroups in April 1998. Thanks to fans and
readers who keep coming back, it's a tradition we're proud to
continue. Since then, of course, new resources and tools have come
into being, giving us more ways to help interested folks understand
how we work and what we do. Our network of corporate blogs is a fast,
immediate way to share news as it happens, covering everything from
new product launches and features to some of the plain old silliness
that transpires in our offices around the world. And we regularly post
videos on the Google Channel on YouTube, where you'll find
presentations and talks given by Googlers as well as visits from
newsmakers. If you're hungry for more of the goings-on at Google, we
encourage you to check out some of these additional resources.
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html
http://www.youtube.com/google

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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 - January 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - January 2009

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

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

Google Hot Trends gadget

Google Hot Trends is a fascinating real-time tool for seeing what
people are searching for right now. Add the Google Hot Trends gadget
(from the gadget directory) to your iGoogle page to see search queries
that have sudden surges of popularity in the U.S., Japan, India,
Korea, Hong Kong/Taiwan and Singapore.
http://www.google.com/ig

------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Explore New York City with Google

We joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference to announce
nycgo.com and the brand new Official NYC Information Center located in
midtown, both of which use Google tools and technology to help
visitors and residents explore all there is to see and do around New
York City. Plan a trip there using the Google Maps features available
on nycgo.com, navigate using Google Maps for mobile, and stop by the
Information Center to create a personal itinerary using the
interactive map tables.
http://m.google.com/nyc

Google Maps Transit layer for 50 cities

The Transit layer is a visual overlay of public transit options on
Google Maps, which offer an alternative to driving directions wherever
possible. The next time you visit London and want to visit the Tate
Modern, you can simply search for [Tate Modern] on Google Maps, and
then click on "More" and activate "Transit" to see nearby tube
stations and which lines serve them. You can even click on a station
and see which transit lines are passing through right now. The layer
is available for 50 cities around the world, including Chicago,
Dallas, London, Madrid, Paris, San Francisco and Seattle, and you can
find schedule data and itineraries for any transportation agencies
that are part of Google Transit.
http://maps.google.com

Picasa for Mac

We recently rolled out our photo organizing software, Picasa, for the
Macintosh, bringing all of the advanced sharing and sync features of
Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums.
Now sharing your photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing
a button. Picasa for Mac also includes all of the key editing and
photo-management features from Picasa 3 on Windows, ranging from basic
fixes like automatic red-eye correction to creative tools such as
photo collages.
http://picasa.google.com/mac

-------------
MISCELLANY

On January 28, the U.S. and Canada joined 27 European countries to
celebrate Data Privacy Day. As the volume of data uploaded to the
Internet every day grows exponentially, it becomes more and more
important to understand the benefits and risks of online
communications -- and to learn how to use tools to control and manage
information you share online. To mark this special day of awareness,
we joined U.S. and European government officials and key members of
the privacy community on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to discuss
how to increase public awareness about data privacy. In addition to
these efforts, we work to connect directly with everyone who uses our
products too. Our Privacy Center offers information, tips and videos
that explain how we're committed to protecting your online privacy and
how you can control what data you share. If you haven't been there
yet, we encourage you to visit. And, we'll continue to add new
information, so check back often.
http://www.google.com/privacy

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---