Author Archives: Emily Wood

Through the Google lens: search trends May 9-15

Search is often the first place we turn when something unexpected or unusual happens. This week is no exception, as people looked for news on a celebrity smackdown, an interspecies showdown and everything in between.

When the news is news

A newsroom shuffle at the New York Times put the Grey Lady at the top of headlines around the country. Wednesday, it was announced that Jill Abramson, who served as executive editor since 2011 and was the first woman in that position, would be replaced by Dean Baquet (himself a “first”—no African-American has held the job before now). Searchers scrambled to find information on the story behind the story.

The Finals countdown

Miami Heat trends

Basketball continues to be in the search spotlight as the NBA Finals approach. After a crazy, up-and-down, roller-coaster first round, the second round went more according to plan. Now we’re rewarded with matchups of the top two seeds in each conference finals, leading people to do some searching for the Spurs, Thunder, Heat and Pacers. While those teams are preparing for their next opponent, some teams are already making changes to prepare for next year; the Golden State Warriors announced a new coach, Steve Kerr, a former player with five championships under his belt. Searchers looked for information on [steve kerr rings] and [steve kerr bulls] (he won three of those rings in Chicago), as well as [steve kerr knicks]—rumor has it that Kerr turned down an offer to coach that team.

What a wonderful web

Legions of loyal cat people felt vindicated this week when a video of a family’s “hero cat” saving a four-year-old boy from a dog attack went viral. Not only were there hundreds of thousands of searches for [cat saves boy from dog], but the video now has more than 9 million views on YouTube. I personally vouch that it’s worth your time.

My Cat Saved My Son

My Cat Saved My Son

In other viral news, Macaulay Culkin was photographed wearing a T-shirt showing my own favorite famous person Ryan Gosling wearing a T-shirt of Macaulay Culkin back in his “Home Alone” days. People rushed to the web to see the photos, as well as create their own recursive images. As the A.V. Club says: great job, Internet!

Bey it ain’t so

Solange Trends

An elevator surveillance video released by TMZ and showing Solange Knowles in a physical altercation with brother-in-law Jay-Z inspired a frenzy of speculation and search activity—and you could say it added one more problem to Jay’s list. Monday’s top trending topic—with more than 5 million searches!—was [tmz], and searches for terms like [solange attacks jay], [jay z fight] and [solange fight] were through the roof. Call it a testament to Bey and Jay’s status as celebrity royalty.

Through the Google lens: search trends May 9-15

Search is often the first place we turn when something unexpected or unusual happens. This week is no exception, as people looked for news on a celebrity smackdown, an interspecies showdown and everything in between.

When the news is news

A newsroom shuffle at the New York Times put the Grey Lady at the top of headlines around the country. Wednesday, it was announced that Jill Abramson, who served as executive editor since 2011 and was the first woman in that position, would be replaced by Dean Baquet (himself a “first”—no African-American has held the job before now). Searchers scrambled to find information on the story behind the story.

The Finals countdown

Miami Heat trends

Basketball continues to be in the search spotlight as the NBA Finals approach. After a crazy, up-and-down, roller-coaster first round, the second round went more according to plan. Now we’re rewarded with matchups of the top two seeds in each conference finals, leading people to do some searching for the Spurs, Thunder, Heat and Pacers. While those teams are preparing for their next opponent, some teams are already making changes to prepare for next year; the Golden State Warriors announced a new coach, Steve Kerr, a former player with five championships under his belt. Searchers looked for information on [steve kerr rings] and [steve kerr bulls] (he won three of those rings in Chicago), as well as [steve kerr knicks]—rumor has it that Kerr turned down an offer to coach that team.

What a wonderful web

Legions of loyal cat people felt vindicated this week when a video of a family’s “hero cat” saving a four-year-old boy from a dog attack went viral. Not only were there hundreds of thousands of searches for [cat saves boy from dog], but the video now has more than 9 million views on YouTube. I personally vouch that it’s worth your time.

My Cat Saved My Son

My Cat Saved My Son

In other viral news, Macaulay Culkin was photographed wearing a T-shirt showing my own favorite famous person Ryan Gosling wearing a T-shirt of Macaulay Culkin back in his “Home Alone” days. People rushed to the web to see the photos, as well as create their own recursive images. As the A.V. Club says: great job, Internet!

Bey it ain’t so

Solange Trends

An elevator surveillance video released by TMZ and showing Solange Knowles in a physical altercation with brother-in-law Jay-Z inspired a frenzy of speculation and search activity—and you could say it added one more problem to Jay’s list. Monday’s top trending topic—with more than 5 million searches!—was [tmz], and searches for terms like [solange attacks jay], [jay z fight] and [solange fight] were through the roof. Call it a testament to Bey and Jay’s status as celebrity royalty.

Curbing patent trolling in Europe

Last September, we joined a coalition of European and U.S. companies and associations in an open letter applauding Europe’s move toward a Unitary Patent System. Today, we’re releasing another letter with an expanded coalition.

We are participants in and supporters of the European patent system and look forward to its harmonized future. The coalition has proposed some changes to the Unitary Patent System draft rules to help ensure its smooth operation and to curb abuses by the kinds of patent trolls that have plagued the U.S. economy.

Patent trolls—entities that don’t make anything, instead using dubious patents to extort money from companies that do—are placing a huge drag on innovation. In the United States, trolls use the threat of expensive and lengthy litigation to extract settlements, even if their patents wouldn’t hold up in court.

A Unitary Patent System could promote efficiency and long-term competitiveness. But the current draft rules contain certain provisions that trolls could exploit, taking a potentially serious toll on economic growth and innovation in Europe.

For instance, the rules as currently written could allow a troll to block a product from the European market using a patent that later turns out to be invalid. We think that the validity of a patent should be tested before it impacts 500 million European consumers.

The proposals outlined in our coalition letters would build confidence that Europe’s new Unitary Patent System will address the problem of patent trolls, allowing companies to invest in innovation and growth—not frivolous patent litigation.

Posted by Catherine Lacavera, Director of Patent Litigation

Launching Project Link: a new way to bring faster, more reliable Internet access to Uganda

Africa is home to more than a billion people and is also the fastest growing continent. But only 16% of people are connected to the Internet. That leaves a huge population without access to new opportunities, such as a reliable channel to the latest news, a tool to join in worldwide commerce, or a platform to create and contribute photos, video, and more. This is true even in Africa’s bustling cities, such as Kampala, Uganda.


For the nearly 3 million people living in and around Kampala, the Internet hasn’t been as fast and available as it could be; online activity often sputters on pre-broadband speeds or unreliable connections. That’s why today, we’re announcing Project Link, an initiative to build a super-fast, high-capacity fiber network to enable any local mobile operator or Internet service provider (ISP) to connect more people in Kampala to a faster, more reliable Internet.

Project Link’s network is available today to connect providers to long-distance fiber lines, equipping them with near-unlimited capacity to build and expand services to Ugandans. By making this connection, we’re strengthening a crucial piece of the Internet supply chain. Some parts of the chain are already strong: undersea cables are bringing data to Africa’s shores and mobile providers are expanding services across the continent. We’ve now built quality infrastructure in between these points to deliver the speed and capacity that supports the latest and greatest of the web.


Project Link goes beyond basic access; it enables local providers to offer new mobile data plans or high-speed Internet for office buildings and universities, and support newer technologies as they come to market. For Kampala, we hope it’s a foundation to support the needs of a new crop of entrepreneurs and innovators: the media-rich projects of a successful musician, fast connections for local hospitals, or new digital learning tools for students.



As more of Africa comes online, the Web will grow stronger and richer from the contributions of a growing population. Project Link isn’t just about connecting fiber cables. It’s about connecting the people of Kampala and giving them an opportunity to contribute to a truly global Internet.

Posted by Kai Wulff, Access Field Director

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Lancement de Project Link : un nouveau moyen de fournir à l'Ouganda un accès à Internet plus rapide et plus fiable

L'Afrique compte plus d'un milliard d'habitants et c'est aussi le continent dont la croissance est la plus rapide. Mais seuls 16 % des Africains sont connectés à Internet. Ce qui signifie qu'une énorme partie de la population n'a pas accès aux nouvelles opportunités, tels qu'un canal fiable pour accéder aux dernières infos, un outil pour participer au commerce international ou une plate-forme pour créer, partager ou commenter des photos, des vidéos, etc. Et cela est vrai même dans les villes débordantes d'activités, telles que Kampala, en Ouganda.

Pour les quelque 3 millions de personnes vivant à Kampala et ses faubourgs, la vitesse et la disponibilité d'Internet laissent toujours à désirer ; les activités en ligne sont souvent ralenties par la lenteur du débit ou une connexion non fiable. C'est pourquoi nous annonçons aujourd'hui le lancement de Project Link, une initiative pour bâtir un réseau fibre à très haut débit et très grande capacité pour offrir à n'importe quel opérateur mobile ou fournisseur d'accès à Internet (FAI) la possibilité de connecter davantage de résidents de Kampala à un Internet plus rapide et plus fiable.

Le réseau Project Link est d'ores et déjà disponible pour connecter les fournisseurs d'accès à des lignes en fibre longue distance, leur offrant une capacité quasi-illimitée de développer des services à destination des Ougandais. En effectuant cette connexion, nous renforçons un maillon essentiel de la chaîne d'accès à Internet. Certains maillons de la chaîne sont d'ores et déjà bien implantés : des câbles sous-marins transportent les données jusqu'aux côtes africaines et les opérateurs mobiles proposent leurs services sur l'ensemble du continent. Nous avons à présent construit une infrastructure de qualité entre ces points pour proposer le débit et la capacité requis pour prendre en charge le meilleur du Web.

Project Link va au-delà du simple accès ; il permet aux fournisseurs locaux de proposer de nouvelles offres de données mobiles ou des accès Internet haut débit pour les immeubles de bureaux et les universités, et de prendre en charge les nouvelles technologies au fur et à mesure de leur mise sur le marché. Pour Kampala, nous espérons que cela constituera une base pour répondre aux besoins d'une nouvelle génération d'entrepreneurs et d'innovateurs : les projets riches en contenu médiatique d'un musicien à succès, des connexions haut débit pour les hôpitaux locaux ou encore de nouveaux outils d'apprentissage numérique pour les étudiants.

Avec le développement des connexions en Afrique, Internet va se renforcer et s'enrichir de la contribution de populations toujours plus nombreuses. Project Link ne résume pas à brancher des câbles en fibre. Il s'agit de connecter les habitants de Kampala et de leur donner l'opportunité de contribuer à un Internet véritablement mondial.

Auteur : Kai Wulff, Access Field Director

Trial in Cape Town shows that TV White Spaces can deliver broadband access without interference

(Cross-posted on Google.org blog)

TV White Spaces—the unused spectrum between TV channels—have the potential to bring wireless broadband access to underserved and rural areas. These low frequency signals can travel long distances and fill a need in places where telecommunications infrastructure is lacking.

Google, joined by a group of partners (CSIR Meraka Institute, TENET, e-Schools Network, WAPA, and Carlson Wireless), wanted to help make this potential a reality. In March 2013, the group launched a six-month trial using TV White Spaces (TVWS) to bring broadband Internet access to 10 schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The goal of the trial was to show that TVWS could be used to deliver broadband Internet without interfering with TV broadcast.

After six months, the trial has been a success. The participating schools, which previously had slow or unreliable Internet connections, experienced high-speed broadband access for the first time. Teachers were able to use videos in their lesson plans, make Skype calls to other schools, update school websites, and send regular email updates to parents. Students could use educational videos for research. Because the service was better and faster, teachers and learners used the web to enrich the classroom experience.


At the same time, multiple sources confirmed that there was no interference with TV broadcast. Trial partner CSIR Meraka Institute performed frequent scientific studies to measure any potential interference over the six-month period. We also provided tools for people to report any interference experience while watching TV. Both the Meraka Institute’s findings, as well as crowdsourced reporting, show that the TVWS service did not interfere with local broadcast. We’ve published the final results for a deeper dive on the outcomes of the trial.

ICASA, South Africa’s communication regulator, plans to use the trial outcomes as inputs into the TVWS regulatory process. This is a big step to bringing this technology to more of South Africa. We also hope the results extend far beyond this trial and can be useful in encouraging others to consider TVWS to help bring the power of the Internet to more people in more parts of the world.

Posted by Fortune Sibanda, Policy Manager, Google South Africa

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L'essai effectué au Cap montre que les espaces blancs télévisuels peuvent fournir un accès haut débit sans interférence

Les espaces blancs télévisuels—le spectre inutilisé entre les canaux de télévision—sont à même de fournir un accès WiFi haut débit aux zones rurales ou mal desservies. Ces signaux basse fréquence peuvent transiter sur de longues distances et répondre à un besoin dans les lieux dépourvus d'infrastructures de télécommunications.

Google, rejoint par un groupe de partenaires (CSIR Meraka Institute, TENET, e-Schools Network, WAPA et Carlson Wireless), a souhaité aider à transformer ce potentiel en réalité. En mars 2013, le groupe a fait un essai sur six mois, pour exploiter les espaces blancs télévisuels (TVWS) et fournir un accès WiFi haut débit à dix écoles du Cap (Afrique du Sud). L'objet du test était de vérifier que les TVWS pouvaient fournir un accès haut débit à Internet sans interférer avec les émissions de TV.

Six mois plus tard, le test se révélait concluant. Les écoles participantes, qui ne disposaient jusque là que de connexions Internet lentes et peu fiables, ont expérimenté pour la première fois le confort d'un accès haut débit. Les professeurs ont pu se servir de vidéos pour leurs cours, communiquer avec d'autres écoles via Skype, mettre à jour les sites Internet des écoles et informer régulièrement les parents par courrier électronique. Les étudiants ont utilisé les vidéos pédagogiques pour leurs recherches. Avec un service amélioré et plus rapide, professeurs et élèves se sont davantage servi d'lnternet pour enrichir leur expérience en classe.

Simultanément, de nombreuses sources ont confirmé qu'aucune interférence ne perturbait les émissions de télévision. Un des partenaires de l'essai, CSIR Meraka Institute, a effectué de fréquentes études scientifiques pour mesurer les éventuelles interférences tout au long des six mois de test. Nous avons également fourni aux téléspectateurs des outils leur permettant de signaler toute interférence. Les résultats obtenus par le Meraka Institute, comme les rapports des téléspectateurs, ont montré que le service TVWS ne générait aucune interférence avec les émissions locales. Nous avons publié les résultats finaux pour une analyse plus approfondie.

L'ICASA, l'organisme sud-africain de réglementation des communications, prévoit d'exploiter les résultats du test comme données pour le processus de réglementation des TVWS. Il s'agit là d'un grand pas dans la mise à disposition de cette technologie pour davantage de régions sud-africaines. Nous espérons également que les résultats seront diffusés bien au-delà de cet essai et encourageront d'autres décideurs à considérer les TVWS comme un moyen d'offrir la puissance d'Internet à davantage de personnes dans davantage de régions du monde.

Poste par Fortune Sibanda, Policy Manager, Google South Africa

Books arrive on Google Play in South Africa

Starting today, book-lovers in South Africa can now buy books on Google Play.

Apps are already available on Google Play, and today’s launch will give users access to hundreds of thousands of books, including bestsellers and classics from hundreds of publishers. With the launch of books, Google Play becomes a key destination for the very best digital content available on the web.

With your books in the cloud you can read on the web, a phone, or a tablet and pick up right where you left off. You can discover, purchase and read books on:

  • Android phones and tablets—you can buy books in the Google Play Store and begin reading them instantly in the Google Play Books app;
  • your computer—you can buy books on the Google Play store and read in your web browser; and
  • iPhones and iPads—you can read books that you’ve purchased on the web in the Google Play Books app

We’re happy to make it even easier for all book lovers to discover and buy whatever they want to read, whether that’s the next bestseller, a new release from their favourite author or a well-loved classic. Whether you’re a bookworm or casual reader, we hope you find something great to read on Google Play, and we’re looking forward to adding more titles and South African content from today onwards. We hope you enjoy reading your books whenever you want!

Posted by Santiago de la Mora, Director, Print Product Partnerships

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Les livres arrivent sur Google Play en Afrique du Sud

À partir d'aujourd'hui, les amateurs de livres en Afrique du Sud peuvent acheter des livres sur Google Play.

Les applis sont d'ores et déjà disponibles sur Google Play, et le lancement d'aujourd'hui va donner accès à des centaines de milliers d'ouvrages par Internet, dont des best-sellers et des classiques publiés par des centaines d'éditeurs. Google Play devient ainsi une référence pour les contenus numériques disponibles sur Internet.

Avec vos livres dans le cloud, vous pouvez lire sur Internet, sur votre téléphone ou votre tablette, et reprendre votre lecture là où vous l'aviez interrompue. Vous pouvez découvrir, acheter et lire des ouvrages sur:
  • Des téléphones et tablettes Android—vous pouvez acheter des livres sur la boutique Play Store et commencer immédiatement à les lire via l'appli Google Play Books ;
  • Votre ordinateur—vous pouvez acheter des livres sur la boutique Play Store et les lire via votre navigateur;
  • L’iPhone et l’iPad—vous pouvez lire les livres que vous avez achetés sur Internet via l'appli Google Play Books
Nous sommes heureux de rendre encore plus simples la découverte et l'achat de tout ce que peuvent souhaiter lire les passionnés de livres, qu'il s'agisse du prochain best-seller, d'une nouvelle parution de leur auteur favori ou d'un classique toujours apprécié. Que vous soyez un dévoreur de livres ou un lecteur occasionnel, nous espérons que vous trouverez votre bonheur sur Google Play, et nous allons bien entendu y ajouter de nouveaux titres et des contenus propres à l'Afrique de Sud dès aujourd'hui. Nous espérons que vous apprécierez de pouvoir lire des livres au moment où vous en avez envie!

Publié par Santiago de la Mora, Directeur, Partenariats Produits imprimés

Bringing Google+ Comments to Blogger

Cross-posted from the Google Official blog

Posted by +Yonatan Zunger, Principal Engineer


Reading and responding to comments can be one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. Not only do they help you connect with your readers, they can also inspire later blog entries. The challenge, oftentimes, is following all the conversations around your content—on Google+, for instance, as well as on your website. So we're making things a lot simpler.


Starting today, you can bring Google+ Comments to your Blogger blog. Once you've enabled the feature through your Blogger Dashboard, you'll enjoy a number of important benefits:


View your blog and Google+ comments, all in one place

Now when you're browsing your blog's comment threads, you'll see activity from direct visitors, and from people talking about your content on Google+. For example, if there's a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog. This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place.


Help readers comment and connect with their circles

Your blog readers will now have the option to comment publicly, or privately to their circles on Google+. And when they're browsing blog comments, they can view all of them, just the top ones, or only those from the people in their circles.

In all cases, you and your readers will only see the comments you have permission to see. Giving people these kinds of controls not only encourages more meaningful sharing—it can lead to more blog traffic.

To get started with Google+ Comments, just visit the Google+ tab of your Blogger Dashboard, and check “Use Google+ Comments.” (Older comments will continue to appear in the new widget.)

You can also visit any post on the Official Google Blog (like this one), or on Blogger Buzz (like this one), to see Google+ Comments in action.


Happy commenting!

Source: Blogger Buzz


Improvements to the Blogger template HTML editor

Posted by: +Samantha Schaffer and +Renee Kwang, Software Engineer Interns.

Whether you’re a web developer who builds blog templates for a living, or a web-savvy blog owner who prefers to make changes to your template using HTML, CSS or JavaScript, you may be interested in some enhancements that we made to Blogger’s Template HTML Editor.

Your blog’s HTML template is the source code that controls the appearance of your blog. This template can be customized to appear however you’d like. The improved HTML template editor now supports line numbering, syntax highlighting, auto-indentation and code folding to make editing your template much easier.

Suppose we wanted to move the date of a blog post underneath the post title, similar to the Blogger Buzz blog. To do this, follow these steps:
Click the “Template” tab on the Blogger dashboard, then the “Edit HTML” button, to see the new template HTML editor:
Locate the “Blog1” widget quickly using the new “Jump to widget” drop down:
This widget controls how your blog posts are displayed. The code inside the widget is folded by default. Clicking the new fold markers ‘►’ next to the line numbers expands the widget and reveals a set of “includable” tags:
Inside the “main” includable is the block of code that renders the post date:
Cut the post date code section and move it to where we want it, in this case, under the post title in the “post” includable:
To check our changes, click the new “Preview template” button to see the updates:
The post date is exactly where we want it, so tab back to “Edit template”, hit “Save template” and we’re done!

Finally, we’ve added a “Format template” button that automatically cleans up the indentation of the template, and made it possible to search for text by pressing “Ctrl+F” once you’ve clicked into the editor. To find and replace text occurrences one by one, use “Ctrl+Shift+F” or to find and replace all occurrences at once, use “Ctrl+Shift+R”.
 
We worked on this project as part of Google Australia’s BOLD Diversity Internship Program. We hope you enjoy the changes we’ve made!

(Cross-posted from the Blogger Developers Network)

Source: Blogger Buzz


Mention people in your posts with Google+

Posted by +Malte Ubl, Software Engineer

Blogs are a great way to spark a conversation, and today we’re giving you a new way to grab someone’s attention: Google+ mentions in Blogger.  Now you can add a link to a Google+ profile or page when you want to mention someone in a post. If you then share your post from Blogger to Google+, we make it easier to notify your mentions by including them in the sharebox.

To mention someone, just type “+” before their name while you’re using the Blogger post editor.


The profile or page will show up as a link in your published post.  Hovering over will show a card with more info and an ‘Add to circles’ button. Clicking the link takes you straight to the Google+ profile or page.

So, whether you want to credit a co-author (thanks +Gregory Fair!), ask a question, or just kick off a dialogue, connect your blog to Google+ and try mentioning someone in your next post!

Source: Blogger Buzz