Tag Archives: Innovation & Technology

Code Jam returns: Do you have what it takes?

Today we invite anyone with a passion for coding—from students to professionals, and newbies to pros—to sign up for Code Jam, Google's largest, most challenging programming competition.

Last year, Code Jam welcomed 60,000 Code Jammers from more than 130 countries. The competition features multiple online rounds of intense, algorithmic problems, a track for coding in a distributed environment, an on-site World Finals and the opportunity to win a cash prize of up to $15,000. While we’ve changed and grown from our humble beginnings in 2007, much of the essential ingredients that make Code Jam beloved by so many remain the same.

Here’s what you need to know:

The languages are many. Code Jam allows competitors to use any coding language throughout the competition—everything from C++ to JavaScript to INTERCAL, LOLCODE, and Whitespace. We’ve even heard of a competitor who solved the 2015 Dijkstra problem using only a spreadsheet. Whatever language you speak, you’re part of a broader Code Jam community. This global community of current and former participants (and fans of the competition) has grown to more than 200,000 across our Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Facebook channels. And on any given day, you can participate in discussions about competition puzzles or get tips and tricks from past competitors.

The problems are memorable. The quality of the problems keeps many of the world’s best programmers coming back each year. All Code Jam problems are written by Google engineers. Hundreds have dedicated their time over the years to make every problem rewarding and fun for Code Jammers, from the easiest Qualification Round problem to the most fiendish challenge in the World Finals. You can check out past problems here and try your hand at them for practice. A lesser known fact is that the engineers who authored the problems in last year’s World Finals were actually competitors before they were teammates: all four were finalists in Code Jam 2005.

The stakes are high. In addition to receiving the limited edition Code Jam t-shirt (given to the top 1,500  performers), the top 26 finalists will be invited to compete in the World Finals at Google’s office in Dublin, Ireland for the chance become the Code Jam Champion and a cash prize of up to $15,000. As always, we’ll livestream the World Finals on YouTube so that thousands of fans can experience the magic from home. Can’t wait until then? Check out this behind-the-scenes look at Code Jam in the meantime.

Register today. We hope to see you jamming with us in Code Jam’s Online Qualification Round on April 7 — you can register here. Join our community on social media, follow us at #CodeJam2017 and help us spread the word.

Visit our website g.co/codejam to learn more about Code Jam spin-offs and other opportunities to test your coding skills while having fun with Google.

Code Jam returns: Do you have what it takes?

Today we invite anyone with a passion for coding—from students to professionals, and newbies to pros—to sign up for Code Jam, Google's largest, most challenging programming competition.

Last year, Code Jam welcomed 60,000 Code Jammers from more than 130 countries. The competition features multiple online rounds of intense, algorithmic problems, a track for coding in a distributed environment, an on-site World Finals and the opportunity to win a cash prize of up to $15,000. While we’ve changed and grown from our humble beginnings in 2007, much of the essential ingredients that make Code Jam beloved by so many remain the same.

Here’s what you need to know:

The languages are many. Code Jam allows competitors to use any coding language throughout the competition—everything from C++ to JavaScript to INTERCAL, LOLCODE, and Whitespace. We’ve even heard of a competitor who solved the 2015 Dijkstra problem using only a spreadsheet. Whatever language you speak, you’re part of a broader Code Jam community. This global community of current and former participants (and fans of the competition) has grown to more than 200,000 across our Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Facebook channels. And on any given day, you can participate in discussions about competition puzzles or get tips and tricks from past competitors.

The problems are memorable. The quality of the problems keeps many of the world’s best programmers coming back each year. All Code Jam problems are written by Google engineers. Hundreds have dedicated their time over the years to make every problem rewarding and fun for Code Jammers, from the easiest Qualification Round problem to the most fiendish challenge in the World Finals. You can check out past problems here and try your hand at them for practice. A lesser known fact is that the engineers who authored the problems in last year’s World Finals were actually competitors before they were teammates: all four were finalists in Code Jam 2005.

The stakes are high. In addition to receiving the limited edition Code Jam t-shirt (given to the top 1,500  performers), the top 26 finalists will be invited to compete in the World Finals at Google’s office in Dublin, Ireland for the chance become the Code Jam Champion and a cash prize of up to $15,000. As always, we’ll livestream the World Finals on YouTube so that thousands of fans can experience the magic from home. Can’t wait until then? Check out this behind-the-scenes look at Code Jam in the meantime.

Register today. We hope to see you jamming with us in Code Jam’s Online Qualification Round on April 7 — you can register here. Join our community on social media, follow us at #CodeJam2017 and help us spread the word.

Visit our website g.co/codejam to learn more about Code Jam spin-offs and other opportunities to test your coding skills while having fun with Google.

Experimenting at the crossroads of Machine Learning and arts

This 233,000 year old female figurine is said to be the oldest piece of artwork ever found. Based on microscopic analyses archeologists suggest that it was shaped by human hands — possibly one of the first artists in the world. Critically, those human hands used a flint to shape the head and arms.

GAC MachineLearning_Artifact.png
Made of volcanic material, this 233,000-year-old and 3.5 cm tall female figure is the oldest artwork discovered.

Ever since its ancient beginnings, art has been influenced by the tools and technology available to create and share works. Breakthroughs in painting, printing, or the invention of photography all provided tools for creative expression, and left their mark on our culture. In turn, art has inspired innovation and pushed the boundaries of technology. This remains true today.

Our team at Google Arts & Culture has been curious what Machine Learning can do in the hands of artists, museums or curators to create new experiences and help unlock art for everyone. This is why we invited creative coders - think of someone who is both a software engineer and an artist - to collaborate and experiment at our Lab in Paris. And today, we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to: check out the Google Arts & Culture Experiments, a new online space where you can see and play with the experimental projects that we have built.

Google Arts & Culture Experiments

With these experiments, you can explore hundreds of thousands of artworks and let Machine Learning aid your discovery.

  • X Degrees of separation: They say any two people in the world can be connected through just a few layers of friends of friends. Much like Kevin Bacon is connected to anyone in Hollywood. How about artworks? Created in collaboration with code artist Mario Klingemann, our ‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the computer using Machine Learning will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.
  • t-SNE Map: we’re all familiar with landscapes paintings, but how about a landscape of the history of art itself? You can now travel through hundreds of thousands of artworks from across centuries organized into one vast 3D landscape in this experiment. The more similar two works are seen by the computer the closer they are on the map. This was built in collaboration with digital interaction artist, Cyril Diagne.
  • Tags: A picture is worth a thousand words. In our Tags experiment the computer looked at the artworks and tagged them with all it saw in the picture. In turn this allows you to explore anything from “hairstyles” to more abstract concepts like “calm” or “happy”  in works from across the world of art.

GAC MachineLearning_Xdegrees4.gif
‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the Machine Learning algorithm will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.

We’re delighted to see the amount of excitement around Machine Learning in the cultural sector, especially among creative coders. If you are a creative coder yourself, or just getting started, check out the new AI Experiments website created by our friends in the Creative Lab where you can find further inspiration and resources.

Experimenting at the crossroads of Machine Learning and arts

This 233,000 year old female figurine is said to be the oldest piece of artwork ever found. Based on microscopic analyses archeologists suggest that it was shaped by human hands — possibly one of the first artists in the world. Critically, those human hands used a flint to shape the head and arms.

GAC MachineLearning_Artifact.png
Made of volcanic material, this 233,000-year-old and 3.5 cm tall female figure is the oldest artwork discovered.

Ever since its ancient beginnings, art has been influenced by the tools and technology available to create and share works. Breakthroughs in painting, printing, or the invention of photography all provided tools for creative expression, and left their mark on our culture. In turn, art has inspired innovation and pushed the boundaries of technology. This remains true today.

Our team at Google Arts & Culture has been curious what Machine Learning can do in the hands of artists, museums or curators to create new experiences and help unlock art for everyone. This is why we invited creative coders - think of someone who is both a software engineer and an artist - to collaborate and experiment at our Lab in Paris. And today, we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to: check out the Google Arts & Culture Experiments, a new online space where you can see and play with the experimental projects that we have built.

Google Arts & Culture Experiments

With these experiments, you can explore hundreds of thousands of artworks and let Machine Learning aid your discovery.

  • X Degrees of separation: They say any two people in the world can be connected through just a few layers of friends of friends. Much like Kevin Bacon is connected to anyone in Hollywood. How about artworks? Created in collaboration with code artist Mario Klingemann, our ‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the computer using Machine Learning will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.
  • t-SNE Map: we’re all familiar with landscapes paintings, but how about a landscape of the history of art itself? You can now travel through hundreds of thousands of artworks from across centuries organized into one vast 3D landscape in this experiment. The more similar two works are seen by the computer the closer they are on the map. This was built in collaboration with digital interaction artist, Cyril Diagne.
  • Tags: A picture is worth a thousand words. In our Tags experiment the computer looked at the artworks and tagged them with all it saw in the picture. In turn this allows you to explore anything from “hairstyles” to more abstract concepts like “calm” or “happy”  in works from across the world of art.

GAC MachineLearning_Xdegrees4.gif
‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the Machine Learning algorithm will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.

We’re delighted to see the amount of excitement around Machine Learning in the cultural sector, especially among creative coders. If you are a creative coder yourself, or just getting started, check out the new AI Experiments website created by our friends in the Creative Lab where you can find further inspiration and resources.

Experimenting at the crossroads of Machine Learning and arts

This 233,000 year old female figurine is said to be the oldest piece of artwork ever found. Based on microscopic analyses archeologists suggest that it was shaped by human hands — possibly one of the first artists in the world. Critically, those human hands used a flint to shape the head and arms.

GAC MachineLearning_Artifact.png
Made of volcanic material, this 233,000-year-old and 3.5 cm tall female figure is the oldest artwork discovered.

Ever since its ancient beginnings, art has been influenced by the tools and technology available to create and share works. Breakthroughs in painting, printing, or the invention of photography all provided tools for creative expression, and left their mark on our culture. In turn, art has inspired innovation and pushed the boundaries of technology. This remains true today.

Our team at Google Arts & Culture has been curious what Machine Learning can do in the hands of artists, museums or curators to create new experiences and help unlock art for everyone. This is why we invited creative coders - think of someone who is both a software engineer and an artist - to collaborate and experiment at our Lab in Paris. And today, we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to: check out the Google Arts & Culture Experiments, a new online space where you can see and play with the experimental projects that we have built.

Google Arts & Culture Experiments

With these experiments, you can explore hundreds of thousands of artworks and let Machine Learning aid your discovery.

  • X Degrees of separation: They say any two people in the world can be connected through just a few layers of friends of friends. Much like Kevin Bacon is connected to anyone in Hollywood. How about artworks? Created in collaboration with code artist Mario Klingemann, our ‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the computer using Machine Learning will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.
  • t-SNE Map: we’re all familiar with landscapes paintings, but how about a landscape of the history of art itself? You can now travel through hundreds of thousands of artworks from across centuries organized into one vast 3D landscape in this experiment. The more similar two works are seen by the computer the closer they are on the map. This was built in collaboration with digital interaction artist, Cyril Diagne.
  • Tags: A picture is worth a thousand words. In our Tags experiment the computer looked at the artworks and tagged them with all it saw in the picture. In turn this allows you to explore anything from “hairstyles” to more abstract concepts like “calm” or “happy”  in works from across the world of art.

GAC MachineLearning_Xdegrees4.gif
‘X Degrees of Separation’ lets you choose any two artworks and the Machine Learning algorithm will find a visual pathway connecting them through a chain of similar artworks.

We’re delighted to see the amount of excitement around Machine Learning in the cultural sector, especially among creative coders. If you are a creative coder yourself, or just getting started, check out the new AI Experiments website created by our friends in the Creative Lab where you can find further inspiration and resources.

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. In this case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. Inthis case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. In this case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.