Official Google Blog: 2007

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This year of Google blogging

December 31, 2007

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

Number of posts this year: 300

New product announcements: 15 (not counting our April 1 release)

News about upgrades and additions to products: 87

Announcing products in more languages and countries: 30

Acquisitions: 12

Unique visitors: 6,738,830 (for 8,655,830 visits)

Languages: 511 (preferred language configured on computers)

Top non-Google referrers: Yahoo, Digg, Slashdot, Fark

accessibilityenergy and the environmentpeople and culturerecipeshealthcare issuespolitical activityAustralia"Gphone"FCC spectrum auctionOpenSocial APIsblack screenKnol test projectyour own Google homepageNational Gorilla Suit Daydeconstructed the Valentine's Day doodlea snake went missing42Gmail blog EnglishPortugueseGoogle Lat LongGoogle FinanceGoogle NewsMobileJune postannouncing InVideo adsFrenchTurkishJapaneseKoreanItalianChineseBrasilNetherlandsits own Analytics blogGermanChineseWebmaster CentralAnalyticsInside AdSenseInside AdWordsYouTubeCheckoutGearsMashupGadgetsAndroidOpenSocialCzech RepublicAustraliaPublic PolicyGoogle.orgonline securityFortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki Wired Magazine

Google: the chainmail version

December 28, 2007

Posted by TJ Riley, Data Center TechnicianFrom time to time we highlight the non-work interests and pastimes of individual Googlers. - Ed.

The entire project is exactly 25,829 rings.

Dimensions: 67 units by 44 units (c. 66" x 27")

Rings: 1/4" 16-gauge aluminum; the silver is bright aluminum and the inlay uses colored anodized aluminum.

The entire thing is the traditional 4 in 1 pattern turned 90 degrees.

The year in YouTube politics

December 26, 2007

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of YouTube News and PoliticsCandidates caught singing on cameraDorm-room presidential interviews endorsingcommercialstwo presidential primary debates"gotcha!" videosYou Choose '08

NORAD tracks Santa with Google

December 23, 2007

Posted by Melissa Crounse, Santa Trackernoradsanta.orgSanta CamsNORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channelGoogle Earth

A very special Christmas broadcast

December 23, 2007

Posted by Theo Luke, YouTube partnerships, EMEAThe Royal ChannelNicolas SarkozyBritish Governmentthat first 1957 broadcastthis year's Christmas broadcast from the Queen appeared on YouTubeUpdate:

Save some energy over the holidays

December 22, 2007

Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy CzarClimate Savers Computing Initiative

'tis the season

December 21, 2007

Posted by David Griswold, Google Blog Teamstoriesroutinesthroughout the worldlocal communitiestoy drivesto find a way

My Maps are Our Maps

December 21, 2007

Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog teaminteractiveMy MapyouView Larger Mapphotosvideo

New Toolbar adds accessible features

December 21, 2007

Posted by Jonas Klink, Software Engineer, Accessibilitylaunched version 5Toolbar Help Centerhttp://toolbar.google.com/T5

Decorate your desktop

December 20, 2007

Take the Christmas Tree gadget, for instance. When you start it up, it's a simple tree with gently falling snow. With a few clicks you can add ornaments wherever you like. If you find the animated precipitation distracting, you can hide the snowflakes.

We hope you enjoy these gadgets. And happy holidays from the Google Desktop Team!

Posted by Kathy Walrath, Google Desktop teamlatest holiday gadgets

Get your cricket scores here

December 20, 2007

Posted by Sadeesh Duraisamy and Prasanna Meda, Software Engineersphilosophy)Google News IndiaGoogle News Blog

Analysis: The FTC clears our acquisition of DoubleClick

December 20, 2007

Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officercleared our acquisition of DoubleClickhave been sayingclearance statement

Transaction was cleared with no conditions. The FTC cleared the acquisition unconditionally, without demanding any changes in or commitments concerning the companies’ business practices. This will allow us to remain flexible as we continue to innovate and provide the best services to our customers and users.

Google and DoubleClick are not competitors. The FTC stated that its "thorough analysis of the evidence showed that the companies are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market." Furthermore, the FTC concluded that the merger would not eliminate beneficial potential competition, writing that "it is unlikely that the elimination of Google as a potential competitor in the third party ad serving markets would have a significant impact on competition." We agree with both of these findings. Google and DoubleClick provide complementary services, and competition between the companies was not necessary to create benefits for consumers. To the contrary, consumers will benefit from the two companies working together and combining our resources.

Third party ad serving markets are highly competitive. The FTC noted that "the evidence shows that the third party ad serving markets are competitive," and said that "the evidence also shows that firms can and do switch ad serving firms when it is in their self-interest to do so." This is an important finding, because it means that ad serving customers will continue to benefit from innovation and product development by the many players in this space, and that they can always select the ad serving provider that offers them the best services.

Privacy not a part of the merger review. Though we strongly believe in protecting our users' privacy, the FTC clearance decision reaffirmed the law by noting that privacy concerns played no role in its merger review. This is an important principle, as privacy issues need to be addressed on an industry-wide basis, and not on a company-by-company basis. The FTC wrote, "although such issues may present important policy questions for the Nation, the sole purpose of federal antitrust review of mergers and acquisitions is to identify and remedy transactions that harm competition. Not only does the Commission lack legal authority to require conditions to this merger that do not relate to antitrust, regulating the privacy requirements of just one company could itself pose a serious detriment to competition in this vast and rapidly evolving industry." The FTC also noted, however, "that the evidence does not support a conclusion" that this particular transaction will harm consumer privacy.

Data combination wouldn't pose problems. The FTC rejected the suggestion from competitors that Google would combine user information with DoubleClick's customers' data to obtain an advantage in the market, writing that the data is owned by DoubleClick’s customers and that "at bottom, the concerns raised by Google’s competitors regarding the integration of these two data sets -- should privacy concerns not prevent such integration -- really amount to a fear that the transaction will lead to Google offering a superior product to its customers." Moreover, "a number of Google’s competitors have at their disposal valuable stores of data not available to Google. For instance, Google’s most significant competitors in the ad intermediation market, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Time Warner have access to their own unique data stores."

Advertisers and publishers aren't concerned. The FTC noted that "the clear majority of third parties expressing [competitive] concerns [about the deal] were Google’s current or potential competitors." Additionally, Commissioner Jon Liebowitz noted in his concurring opinion that "my staff and I independently spoke with publishers and advertisers potentially affected by this deal and, somewhat surprisingly, they raised few anticompetitive concerns. In fact, many seem unruffled by the alternatives in the post-merger market." It is telling that while our competitors tried hard to come up with theories of how our customers and partners could be harmed by the deal, those customers and partners themselves did not agree with those theories. In fact, we know that many of these advertisers and publishers are excited about the transaction and look forward to benefiting from it.

principles

Accessibility mashups: AxsJAX fun with XKCD Comics

December 20, 2007

Posted by T.V. Raman, Research ScientistFrom time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful.accessibility mashupsAxsJAXRandall MunroeXKCD comic strip,extremely entertaining talkblind hacker geekshadsearch engine

Distributed accessibility --- the XKCD author does not need to create the transcripts.

Transcripts can be integrated from across the web.

The accessibility enhancements do not spoil the fun for XKCD readers in general.

And with Open Source self-voicing plugins like Fire Vox, every XKCD user can listen to the strip when desired.

New privacy tips video series

December 19, 2007

Posted by Jane Horvath, Senior Privacy Counsela series of new videosYouTube Privacy Channel.tell us

Holiday baking fun

December 19, 2007

Posted by Amy Ho Seto, Google Chefdelicious butternut squash souffleButtery Shortbread Cookies icing sugar.

Better flight stats results

December 18, 2007

P.S. We're still working on building a search feature that will find your lost luggage ;-)

Posted by Nick Weininger, Software Engineer

The holiday season is upon us, and we know that many amongst you are traveling to be with family and friends. To make sure you spend more time celebrating and less time waiting at the airport, we're introducing a new flight status feature that we hope will make your travels easier.

For the latest information on a flight's status, simply search for an airline and flight number, and the first result will tell you whether your flight is on time or delayed as well as the estimated departure and arrival times. Here's a quick example for a specific flight [American Airlines 123]:

Hopefully this makes your travels a little smoother. Happy holidays from the Google Search team.

The Davos Question

December 18, 2007

Posted by Ed Sanders, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube EuropeWorld Economic ForumCNN-YouTube U.S. presidential debatesYouTubepost a response

Giving through Google Checkout

December 17, 2007

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product ManagerGoogle Checkout for Non-Profitsholiday pagemore ideas

Update on international climate negotiations

December 17, 2007

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog TeamBali roadmap in contextclimate change and economic developmentlocal government actionsintroduction

When giving is fun

December 14, 2007

Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog team

fun place to workKids CompanyRefugeoverthis photo album

Encouraging people to contribute knowledge

December 13, 2007

Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineeringnot

The results are in

December 13, 2007

Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Zeitgeist TeamYear-End Zeitgeistcomplete list for 2007

Postini looks back on 2007

December 13, 2007

Posted by Adam Swidler, Product Marketing Manager, Postini

Google Enterprise blog

Google Toolbar: Take your tools with you

December 12, 2007

Posted by Aseem Sood, Product Manager, Google Toolbar Team

save your settings onlineYou can accessorize with Google Gadgets:first released custom buttons
Google Notebook is built in:
You'll get suggestions instead of error pages:like when you do a Google searchhttp://toolbar.google.com/T5

Haere Mai! Google Maps lands in New Zealand

December 12, 2007

Posted by Noel Gordon, Software EngineerGoogle Maps in New ZealandLocal Business Centrecafe in PonsonbyIndian restaurant in Wellington plumber in Dunedinhotel for your next holidaymobile phonedriving directions

Earth From Above

December 11, 2007

Posted by Rebecca Moore, Manager, Google Earth OutreachGoodPlanet.org,

Google Earth Outreachhere

Twice the Sitelinks

December 7, 2007

Posted by Jeremy Silber, Software EngineerSitelinks

Voices without borders

December 7, 2007

Posted by Stephen Cho, Director, Product ManagementStoryCorpsNational Public Radiowww.ourstories.orgwww.laptop.orgst

Google's (and parents') role in keeping kids safe online

December 7, 2007

Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet EvangelistFamily Online Safety InstituteSafeSearchYouTubeclear policiessafety tipsCommonSense Mediai-SafeiKeepSafeNetFamilyNews

Gmail <3 AIM

December 4, 2007

Posted by Mike Jazayeri, Senior Product Managerlive

Tracking Santa, then and now

November 30, 2007

Posted by Carrie Farrell, Veteran Santa TrackerNorth American Aerospace Defense CommandwerewebsiteGoogle EarthNORAD Tracks Santa iGoogle gadgetnoradsanta.org

Harry and Carrie.

Who's going to win the spectrum auction? Consumers.

November 30, 2007

Posted by by Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiativeswe announced todayon our blogsanti-collusion rules

December 3: By Monday, would-be applicants must file their applications to participate in the auction (FCC Form 175), which remain confidential until the FCC makes them available.

Mid-December: Once all the applications have been fully reviewed, the FCC will release a public list of eligible bidders in the auction. Each bidder must then make a monetary deposit no later than December 28, depending on which licenses they plan to bid on. The more spectrum blocks an applicant is deemed eligible to bid on, the greater the amount they must deposit.

January 24, 2008: The auction begins, with each bidder using an electronic bidding process. Since this auction is anonymous (a rule that we think makes the auction more competitive and therefore better for consumers), the FCC will not publicly identify which parties have made which bid until after the auction is over.

Bidding rounds: The auction bidding occurs in stages established by the FCC, with the likely number of rounds per day increasing as bidding activity decreases. The FCC announces results at the end of each round, including the highest bid at that point, the minimum acceptable bid for the following round, and the amounts of all bids placed during the round. The FCC does not disclose bidders' names, and bidders are not allowed to disclose publicly whether they are still in the running or not.

Auction end: The auction will end when there are no new bids and all the spectrum blocks have been sold (many experts believe this auction could last until March 2008). If the reserve price of any spectrum block is not met, the FCC will conduct a re-auction of that block. Following the end of the auction, the FCC announces which bidders have secured licenses to which pieces of spectrum and requires winning bidders to submit the balance of the payments for the licenses.

this page on the FCC's websiteGoogle News

Google Gadgets on your Dashboard

November 28, 2007

Posted by Rose Yao, Google Mac teamlaunched Google Gadgets for the Macbrowse YouTube videosnurture a virtual flower pot,even check your day's agenda

how to write a cross platform gadget

The CNN/YouTube Republican Debate

November 28, 2007

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, YouTubeYou Choose '08soon afterDemocrats got

Stephen Sixta asked a question

Lost? No, found!

November 28, 2007

Posted by Steve Lee, Product Manager, Google Mobile teamMy Locationnew mobile blog

Towards more renewable energy

November 27, 2007

Posted by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of ProductsOur new initiativeJoin usour previous work

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