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News + Suggest join forces
April 28, 2006
Posted by Jon McAlister, Software Engineer
I've always been a big fan of both
Google News
and
Google Suggest
. So in my 20% time, I've worked on a way to bring them together, and I'm now happy to report the launch of
Google Suggest on Google News
, which provides you with search suggestions specific to news in your country, in real time, while you type. If you're already a Suggest user, you'll see this right away, but it's not on by default. Although Suggest + News is currently English-only, the suggestions will reflect the English-language regional edition you're viewing.
I find that this helps me save time while doing frequent searches (e.g. [
google
]. And seeing the Suggest list gives me a sense of the most common news queries. Enjoy!
A great day for 3D
April 27, 2006
Posted by Brad Schell, Product Management Director, Google SketchUp
Last month we
told you
that @Last Software had joined the Google fold. Today we’re releasing
Google SketchUp
, a free version of our 3D modeling software, which makes our long-time vision of making 3D accessible to everyone a reality.
We’re still offering
SketchUp Pro 5
for design professionals like architects, designers, builders, art directors and game developers. Both Google SketchUp and SketchUp Pro 5 enable you to place models in
Google Earth
; Pro users get some additional features.
The new Google SketchUp is for the do-it-yourselfer, the hobbyist — really anyone who wants to build 3D models for use in Google Earth. Go ahead and model that new kitchen, or deck, landscape your virtual garden, or impress your teacher with a roller coaster or medieval castle. When you’re finished, place your model in Google Earth. There! The beginning of a virtual world. Warning: don’t start messing with this stuff after dinner because your first experience could be an all-nighter… making an idea come to life in 3D can be
very
addicting.
And what could be better than that? Well, sharing your work with everyone else through the
3D Warehouse
. Accessible through both versions of SketchUp, 3D Warehouse enables you to upload, search, browse, view, and download SketchUp models. Just as you do with Google search, enter some keywords and the 3D Warehouse shows you all your options. Grab the one you want and import it into your model. (Note that the Warehouse is not stocked up yet — so model something yourself and upload it for all the world to see.)
Visionaries, utopians, virtual world builders: your time has come.
Google Maps in Europe
April 26, 2006
Posted by Steven Crossan, Product Manager, Google Maps Europe
We're excited to announce that we have just launched beta versions of Google Maps for
France
,
Germany
,
Italy
, and
Spain
. These sites include the full suite of interactive street maps, driving directions, and integrated local business search. This has been a global effort with Google teams in Paris, Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, New York, Mountain View, Kirkland, Sydney, London, Dublin, and Zurich working together for much of the past year to build a truly "local" product.
Accompanying this release, we have greatly improved high resolution imagery coverage for Europe in both Google Maps and
Google Earth
. Check out the
Eiffel Tower
in Paris,
Olympiastadion
in Berlin, and the
Grand Canal
in Venice.
To give you a preview of what's to come, we've also rendered street maps for many other countries in Europe. Developers, you can incorporate these maps and imagery into your own websites using the free
Google Maps API Version 2
.
This is a test. This is only a test.
April 24, 2006
Posted by Ambar Pansari, Product Manager, Search User Experience, and Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products and User Experience
From time to time, we run live experiments on Google — tests visible to a relatively few people -- to discover better ways to search. We do this because there’s no good substitute for understanding how real people, in real-world situations, actually operate. Theories are fine, but “improving the user experience” really happens best when we understand what people do online.
So to learn more, we sometimes randomly select a group of people to see a possible improvement to search options. Or we may select a group of people and try out a new element while they're searching. If you ever wonder why your Google site looks slightly different from that of the person sitting next to you, this is why.
We are currently testing new ways to refine searches so that, for example, a search for jobs might offer a choice of job location or function, rather than forcing you to continually narrow the terms you type in to a standard Google search.
We’ve run another test to learn more about how people navigate to find the information most relevant to them: how you might find image search or information in Froogle, for example, when that might be just the thing you want. Here’s how that one looks.
And we test ways to enrich web results, such as by offering a "Remove Result" option that would omit particular results from future searches if you decide they’re not useful. You'll see this feature if you're already signed in to a Google service when you perform your web search.
There's no set schedule when we'll roll out these sorts of new ideas (if at all), but these tests help us to improve your search experience.
p.s.: Google is also active in CHI, the major organization on user experience and usability. We're participating in the annual conference this week in Montreal.
More here.
Celebrating Earth Day
April 22, 2006
Posted by Cristin Frodella, Product Marketing Manager
To help spread the word about keeping our planet green this
Earth Day
, Google has joined forces with Scholastic – the folks who brought us Clifford the Big Red Dog – to distribute lesson plans (and a contest) to middle-schoolers across the U.S.
Using
Google Earth
, teachers can fly their students around the world to talk to them about issues like climate change and how it has affected places like Glacier National Park, the Chesapeake Bay and Los Angeles. And they can introduce students to community initiatives across the country where volunteers are cleaning up their cities, planting trees and beautifying. Using Google Earth, teachers can show their students placemarks of the towns where outreach projects are taking place and students can get involved in cleaning up their own environment.
As for the contest, students write their own environmental stories by researching a topic of interest and illustrating it with Google Earth images. Following detailed instructions, they can create their own Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files which they will send to us for review. The top three environmental story creators will win prizes for themselves, their class and their teachers, including a week at Earth Camp, technology grants and Lenovo laptops for the classrooms.
This Earth Day project goes to 30,000 middle school teachers across the country in poster form (with placemarks on the front and lesson plan suggestions on the back), and it’s also being emailed to 100,000 more teachers. There’s a Scholastic
website
for teachers and a special
Google Earth page
too.
Avoiding RSI
April 21, 2006
Posted by Dr. Taraneh Razavi, M.D., Staff Doctor
From time to time, a resident physician at Google headquarters weighs in with her thoughts on healthy living. This is not medical advice, and you should check with your own doctor before pursuing any particular course of action.
There is a Chinese saying that "To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short." In other words, how long can you tap on that keyboard or sit in that chair before you hurt yourself. We’re not designed to remain as sedentary or perform the fine motor movements for the long uninterrupted hours that we have to do in so many of our jobs. Evidence suggests that prolonged abnormal posture and repetitive movements contribute to neck, limb and back pain. These conditions are collectively known as overuse syndromes, or repetitive stress injury (RSI).
RSI is no small matter. It accounts for 34% of all lost-workday injury and illness — and costs almost $20 billion annually, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
.
The National Academy of Sciences
has concluded that an estimated $50 billion is lost by businesses every year from sick leave, decreased productivity and medical costs linked to repetitive stress disorders. The Academy has published two
reports
since 1998 which directly link repetitive motion to workplace injury.
The damage sustained from RSI is due to structural changes in the muscle fiber as well as due to decreased blood flow. Nerves can also be involved. The immobile tissue and surrounding inflammation compress the nerve which can cause numbness or tingling and eventually weakness if the nerve is damaged severely.
For those of you who need evidence, see this study on
"Overuse Syndrome."
In this study, biopsies were taken from hand muscles of injured and normal subjects, which demonstrated the structural damage in the muscle fibers and correlated the damage with the severity of the injury. In
another study
, biopsies were taken from neck muscles, and reduced local blood flow was found in the injured areas. The greater the pain difference, the greater the reduction in blood flow.
Some of the most common RSI injuries are
tendonitis
and
carpal tunnel syndrome
(CTS). Work-related carpal tunnel syndrome now accounts for more than 41% of all repetitive motion disorders in the United States, says
this study
. And here's a telling title:
"Hard work never hurt anyone: or did it?"
-- it's a review of occupational associations with soft tissue musculoskeletal disorders of the neck and upper limb.
So what should you do? The key to treatment is
prevention
. Research shows that injuries decrease and productivity increases when employers encourage stretch breaks and stress the importance of ergonomics. See for example this one at at
Ergonomics Now
.
Here are a few
tips
:
--
Breaks
should be taken every 30-45 minutes for at least 5 minutes. If you need assistance there are
free downloadable timers
that will help remind you to do so.
--
Stretch
your arms, hands, neck, and back during breaks. This
yoga site
demonstrates some exercises. Other sites are listed below.
--
Maintain posture
alignment
. Don't slouch on the couch with the laptop.
--
Work stations
should be reviewed initially and with each office move. Adjust your chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse, laptop. Alternate keyboards and mice periodically.
--
Shift your gaze
from the computer screen to the distance. And don't forget to blink!
--
Limit
non-essential computer use. This may be heresy -- but do give the surfing, gaming, emailing, and text messaging a rest.
-- If pain occurs or persists,
see your doctor,
who may recommend wrist brace, ice packs, anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen, cortisone injections, physical therapy, and most importantly,
rest
to allow healing. Don't procrastinate in addressing your symptoms -- the sooner you tend to them, the better off you are.
And finally, here are more sites that may be helpful:
Safe Computing Tips
Alternative Pointing Devices
Alternative and Ergonomic Keyboards
Harvard RSI Action
RSI exercises
RSI Page
Update:
One more: Boston U.'s
Ergonomics Self-Help Guide
(Flash)
This year's India Code Jam
April 21, 2006
Posted by Posted by Arvind Jain, Google Bangalore
On April 6 and 7, Google India celebrated the coding community in Southeast Asia by hosting the second
Code Jam
competition. At nearly 15,000 entrants, this year’s registrations topped last year’s. The annual software coding fest consists of two online rounds, in which participants competed to solve three coding problems more quickly and accurately than their competitors. The top 50, who came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Singapore (and included one female finalist, by the way), were invited to compete in the onsite finals. (We made a
video
about the finals.)
Though it was incredibly close, last year's winner, Ardian Kristanto Poernomo, from Indonesia, snagged the grand prize once again. Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Chennai, India was less than 3/100ths of a point behind him.
The two-day event also featured of team building activities and Google engineering presentations. We’re especially delighted that over half of the finalists expressed their interest in working for Google. And if you’re one of those, go
here
.
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