Posts filed under 'Google'
Almost 500 photographs by French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand have been unveiled in Google Earth today. The photographs are presented as a layer in Google Earth with striking facts and figures about the state of the globe today. Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his non-profit organization GoodPlanet.org aim to promote environmental sustainability by highlighting the beauty of the planet and the issues it faces through his photography.
The layer, which is called “Earth from Above,” will be regularly updated with new photographs plus facts and figures by GoodPlanet.org, using data from various agencies around the world. It will be accessible from the Global Awareness folder in Google Earth, home to a number of layers highlighting environmental and humanitarian issues. To access the Global Awareness folder, users should go to the Layers folder in the left hand toolbar in Google Earth.
The stunning Yann Arthus-Bertrand photographs can also be accessed on iGoogle, the personalized Google homepage. By adding the “Earth from Above” gadget to their homepage, users can discover a new photograph each day and pinpoint its location on Google Maps.
The layer, iGoogle gadget and introductory video can be accessed from the “Earth from Above” microsite: www.google.com/earthfromabove. The Earth from Above will be available in 14 languages: French, English, German, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Czech and Russian.
December 11th, 2007
UNICEF, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and Google today announced the launch of “Our Stories” (www.ourstories.org), a joint initiative to preserve and share the histories and identities of cultures around the world by making personal stories available online in many languages.
Using laptops, mobile phones and other recording devices, children will record, in their native languages, the stories of elders, family members and friends. These stories will be shared globally through the Our Stories website, where they can be found on a Google Map.
By making these stories accessible around the world, the Our Stories project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of our shared humanity across countries and cultures, across religious traditions, across languages, and across generations.
“Information technologies can help young people around the world learn more about each other,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “Our Stories will promote dialogue across borders and cultures and give young people a voice on a wide range of issues.”
Low-cost XO laptops by One Laptop per Child will serve as a foundation to help build this digital archive of personal stories by providing children in developing countries with easy-to-use technology to record their stories and interviews.
“One Laptop per Child is very excited about partnering with Google and UNICEF to capture the thoughts and feelings of children and their communities around the world,” said Walter Bender, President of Software and Content/COO, One Laptop per Child. “The XO laptop is a tool for sharing and collaboration and this project is a great way to build a global community.”
The Our Stories website will initially include stories collected by Brazil’s Museum of the Person and stories recorded for UNICEF by young people in Ghana, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Our Stories has taken inspiration from the StoryCorps® project in the United States founded by MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay. “StoryCorps is proud to lend its experience in recording the conversations of nearly 30,000 Americans to this global undertaking,” said Isay. “These efforts teach us that the lives of everyone“ whether they are in New York or Nairobi“ matter, and that they will not be forgotten.”
More stories from more countries will be added to the site every month in an effort to preserve an oral history of humanity in the 21st Century.
“Google as both a company and as a culture loves a good story,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs for Google. “We’re proud to support the Our Stories global initiative and we hope that this collaboration will not just encourage better storytelling but better listening to stories.”
Leading figures have already lent their voices to the project: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan and UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, and Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War and best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, have all recorded messages welcoming users to the site and encouraging them to share their stories.
Listen to a story today at www.ourstories.org.
December 8th, 2007
Today, Google announced the release of a new iPhone application that integrates its multiple services into a single interface, making it easy for iPhone users to find, use and switch between Google search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and more. To use the application, iPhone users simply point their web browser to http://www.google.com.
To accomplish this, Google is taking advantage of browser technologies (like AJAX) that made Gmail and Google Maps possible on the desktop. In supporting these advances in web technology, the iPhone’s Safari browser not only delivers an excellent mobile Internet experience; it enabled our product and engineering teams to create an optimal Google experience on a mobile device.
Google’s overall goal is to provide users with access to information, wherever they are. This commitment is device-independent, and we are working to develop new mobile technologies that are faster, easier to use, and available on more devices. A recent example is My Location (http://google.com/gmm/mylocation.html), a Google Maps for mobile feature that shows users their location directly on the map with or without GPS. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit http://mobile.google.com.
December 5th, 2007
Google announced today that it will apply to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band.
As part of the nationally mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction — which begins January 24, 2008 — will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless Internet service for consumers. Advocacy by public interest groups and Google earlier this year helped ensure that regardless of which bidders win a key portion of the spectrum up for auction (the so-called “C Block”), they will be required to allow their users to download any software application they want on their mobile device, and to use any mobile devices they would like on that wireless network. The winner must ensure these rights for consumers if the reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C Block is met at auction.
“We believe it’s important to put our money where our principles are,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. “Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet.”
Schmidt also praised the leadership of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his fellow commissioners for adopting the new rights for consumers earlier this year.
Google’s formal application to participate in the 700 MHz auction will be filed with the FCC on Monday, December 3, 2007 — the required first step in the auction process. Google’s application does not include any partners.
December 1st, 2007
Google today announced the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile, its innovative and widely used mobile mapping and local search application. New in v2.0 is a beta version of Google’s “My Location” technology, which uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, helping them determine where they are, what’s around them, and how to get there.
Google is committed to providing users with quick and easy access to the information they need, no matter when or where they need it. Location information makes mobile mapping and search faster and more convenient, but the most common source of location information to date — GPS technology — is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones expected to be sold in 2007. With Google’s new My Location technology, users who don’t have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology also complements GPS-enabled devices, as it delivers a location estimate faster than GPS, provides coverage inside buildings (where GPS signals can be unreliable), and doesn’t drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS. Whether users are trying to locate a restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood, get directions to the nearest hotel while traveling, or just find a place to grab some coffee while shopping for the holidays, Google Maps for mobile with My Location can help them get what they need quickly and easily.
The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user’s current location on the map. This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature. The feature can also be easily disabled by anyone who prefers not to use it. The My Location technology is available on most smartphones, including all color BlackBerry devices, all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices, most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericsson devices, and some Motorola devices.
Google Maps for mobile, first launched in the US in November 2005, enables users to view interactive maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get point-to-point driving directions, and view live traffic updates, all while on the go. The application is now available on and optimized for a wide variety of platforms, running on most J2ME-enabled devices; all color BlackBery devices; Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0, and above; Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices; and Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above. Google Maps for mobile is being actively used by millions of people in more than 20 different countries around the globe.
To download Google Maps for mobile with My Location, point your mobile or desktop web browser to www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit mobile.google.com.
November 28th, 2007
Google today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. RE<C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas. In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.Â
“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. ”We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal.”
Page added, “There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there.”
Page continued, “With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades.” (One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.)Â
“If we meet this goal,” said Page, “and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well.”
Coal is the primary power source for many around the world, supplying 40% of the world’s electricity. The greenhouse gases it produces are one of our greatest environmental challenges. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal would be a key part of reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions.Â
“Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind,” added Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder and President of Technology.
Strategic Investments and Grants
“Lots of groups are doing great work trying to produce inexpensive renewable energy. We want to add something that moves these efforts toward even cheaper technologies a bit more quickly. Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, “Google.org’s hope is that by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal.”
Working with RE<C, Google.org will make strategic investments and grants that demonstrate a path toward producing energy at an unsubsidized cost below that of coal-fired power plants. Google will work with a variety of organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. For example, Google.org is working with two companies that have promising scalable energy technologies:Â
- eSolar Inc., a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy. eSolar’s technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/esolar.pdf.
- Makani Power Inc., an Alameda, CA-based company developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources. High-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs. For more information on Makani Power, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/makani.pdf.
Ongoing Commitments
Today’s announcement represents just the latest steps in Google’s commitment to a clean and green energy future. Â
Google has been working hard on energy efficiency and making its business environmentally sustainable. Last spring the company announced its intention to be carbon neutral for 2007, and is on track to meet that goal. To this end, the company has taken concrete steps to reduce its carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology, including:
- Developing cutting-edge energy efficiency technology to power and cool its data centers in the U.S. and around the world.Â
- Generating electricity for its Mountain View campus from a 1.6 Megawatt corporate solar panel installation, one of the largest in the U.S.
- Accelerating development and adoption of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, including a $10 million request for investment proposals (http://www.google.org/recharge/)
- Joining with other industry leaders in 2007 to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium that advocates the design and use of more energy-efficient computers and servers (http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/). Â
- Working on policies that encourage renewable energy development and deployment, such as a U.S. Renewable Energy Standard, through Google.org.
For more information on Google’s commitment to a clean energy future, see http://www.google.com/renewable-energy
November 28th, 2007
Postini today announced new content policy management capabilities to its Email Security service, including protection for social security and credit card numbers. At no additional cost, Postini customers now gain greater flexibility and control to manage their communications compliance and security policies.
“Companies of all sizes are seeking to reduce email security and compliance risk” said Scott Petry, founder of Postini and director of product management at Google, “They are seeking to encrypt email communications automatically based on message content, prevent sensitive content from leaving the company via email and have visibility into policy violations. Postini’s innovation in content analysis and disposition simplifies the process of managing communications compliance policies for our customers. We are continuing to deliver on the promise of SaaS (software as a service) as the most cost and time effective way for large and small enterprises to manage their communications.”
Advanced Content Policy Management
With the new release announced today, Postini customers gain access to three significant advancements:
- Lexical data analysis for credit card and social security numbers in email including attachments with automatic policy enforcement dispositions options such as encrypt or block.
- Administrators can create advanced policy rules based on text patterns using regular expression syntax and apply a variety of dispositions including blocking, sending a carbon copy to supervisors, or quarantine.
- With content-based message analysis and reporting, Postini administrators gain intelligence and insight into content entering and leaving the organization. Postini customers can address policy violations with granular, easy to implement policies and address their company specific or regulatory requirements.
Postini’s content policy management framework is available as a part of the Postini standalone service and also as part of Google Apps™ Premier Edition. Content policy management is expected to be extended in the future to additional communication protocols, including Instant Messaging and HTTP.
In addition, Postini also announced significant new functionality for Email Security and Message Archiving services.
Zero hour Detection Capabilities
New early detection capabilities allow suspicious content to be automatically quarantined and re-inspected with updated virus signatures, providing an added security layer of advanced virus protection. New anti-spam capabilities have also been added to detect and block newer, more sophisticated bot-net based attacks immediately. The new advancements to the Postini architecture enable rapid updates to the Postini spam and virus filters for quicker defense against the newest threats.
Advanced Message Archive Management Tools
With new granular Message archive retention and purge controls email administrators gain more flexibility and control to manage mailbox storage management, discovery, and compliance efforts. A new self-serve option for message archive extractions enables Postini administrators to avoid costly data extraction expenses.
Taken together, these improvements enable Postini customers to have more control and flexibility over policy enforcement, email security defenses, and message archiving management. The new content policy management and email security updates are available to Postini customers at no extra charge. The Postini message archiving enhancements are available for Postini archiving customers.
November 13th, 2007
GoDaddy.com is working with Google as the pilot partner for a new effort to seamlessly integrate Google Webmaster Tools into customers’ Web hosting accounts.
With Google Webmaster Tools, Go Daddy users are now able to see how Google views their site, diagnose problems and share information with Google in order to improve their site’s visibility in search results. This service, combined with Go Daddy’s Sitemap Editor, provides a free and easy way for Web site owners to manage and improve traffic to their site.
“When Google approached us about incorporating their product into our hosting accounts, it was an easy decision,†said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Our customers are always looking for simple ways to make their sites easier to find and attract new visitors. Thanks to these easy-to-use tools, customers can quickly tap this valuable Webmaster resource without having to be technical wizards.”
Go Daddy hosting customers are now able to easily add and verify their Web sites for use with Google Webmaster Tools. Once set up, Go Daddy will automatically submit sitemaps to Google on behalf of its customers. Sitemaps inform Google about new Web pages or updates to a customer’s site and help to increase their coverage of Web pages in Google’s index.
“Go Daddy is a leading innovator in the Web hosting space and, through our partnership, we hope to educate more Webmasters on how to effectively make their site more search engine-friendly,” said Bill Brougher, Google Group Product Manager. “Google Webmaster Tools was designed as a useful resource for site owners to get up-to-date information on how their site is performing. This partnership ultimately helps Google to improve the Web by increasing the comprehensiveness and freshness of the content people seek.”
November 13th, 2007
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