Official Blog
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
Get with the program: open source coding with Google Summer of Code
March 10, 2014
Tobi Mueller
started coding when his grandfather, who works in IT, gave him access to a spare PC. It was a sweet
286 machine
which Tobi learned to program with the then-popular teaching language
Pascal
. He eventually became interested in free and open source software, but it was
Google Summer of Code
(GSoC) that helped transform Tobi into the free software contributor he is today.
Tobi was a GSoC student in 2007 for
GNOME
, a free software desktop environment. He’s been a regular contributor to the GNOME community ever since—and in 2012, Tobi was elected to the GNOME Foundation
board of directors
.
Tobi is one of more than 7,500 students who have participated in Google Summer of Code program over the past nine years. Every summer, GSoC participants work with various organizations in the open source community, building important technical skills and gaining workplace experience. Students aren’t the only ones who benefit; their projects also give back to the open source community.
Karen Sandler
, GNOME’s executive director, told us how Google Summer of Code “encourages and empowers” new contributors and helps “invigorate projects.”
So if you’re a university student looking to earn real-world experience this summer, we hope you’ll consider coding for a cool open source project with
Google Summer of Code
. We’re celebrating the
10th year
of the program in 2014, and we’d love to see more student applicants than ever before. In 2013 we accepted almost 1,200 students and we’re planning to accept 10 percent more this year.
You can submit proposals on our
website
starting now through Friday, March 21 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the
190 open source projects
in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. There are a limited number of spots, and writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program—so be sure to check out the
Student Manual
for advice. For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the
Google Open Source blog
.
Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until March 21 to apply!
Posted by Carol Smith, Google Open Source team
Tenth annual Code Jam competition wraps in London
August 23, 2013
Scientists at Google Labs have discovered it's not easy to be a great rock drummer.
Your task
is to devise an algorithm to audition drummers based on the imperfections of their rhythms.
This is the type of challenge that was posed to the finalists of our 10th annual Code Jam last week. Twenty-four of the world’s best coders were flown to London to compete for the title of Code Jam Champion 2013 and the accompanying $15,000.
Belarus's Ivan Miatselski, a.k.a. “mystic,” was crowned Champion, besting more than 45,000 other registrants and making it through four online qualifying rounds before winning the in-person finals. The final round was a four-hour,
five-problem
tour de code. Throughout Code Jam, contestants are allowed to use
any programming language
and any development environment they like, ranging from C++ to
Taxi
. And while the finalists are among the among the most talented, we’ve yet to see anyone earn a perfect score during the final round.
Successfully solving the problems involves more than just writing code: contestants in this year's finals needed mastery of computational geometry, dynamic programming, numerical algorithms and more. Though the competition is fierce, Code Jam is also a growing community of skilled problem-solvers, engineers and friends from all over the world. Code Jam will be back in 2014—join our
community
on Google+ and look for more news to come.
Posted by Onufry Wojtaszczyk, Software Engineer, Google Code Jam
Live from Google I/O: Mo’ screens, mo’ goodness
May 15, 2013
This morning, we kicked off the 6th annual
Google I/O
developer conference with over 6,000 developers at Moscone Center in San Francisco, 460
I/O Extended sites
in 90 countries, and millions of you around the world who tuned in via our
livestream
. Over the next three days, we’ll be hosting technical sessions, hands-on code labs, and demonstrations of Google's products and partners' technology.
We believe computing is going through one of the most exciting moments in its history: people are increasingly adopting phones, tablets and newer type of devices. And this spread of technology has the potential to make a positive impact in the lives of people around the world—whether it's simply helping you in your daily commute, or connecting you to information that was previously inaccessible.
This is why we focus so much on our two open platforms: Android and Chrome. They enable developers to innovate and reach as many people as possible with their apps and services across multiple devices. Android started as a simple idea to advance open standards on mobile; today it is the world’s leading mobile platform and growing rapidly. Similarly, Chrome launched less than five years ago from an open source project; today it’s the world’s most popular browser.
In line with that vision, we made several announcements today designed to give developers even more tools to build great apps on Android and Chrome. We also shared new innovations from across Google meant to help make life just a little easier for you, including improvements in search, communications, photos, and maps.
Here’s a quick look at some of the announcements we made at I/O:
Android & Google Play
:
In addition to new developer tools, we unveiled Google Play Music All Access, a monthly music subscription service with access to millions of songs that joins our music store and locker; and the Google Play game services with real-time multiplayer and leaderboards. Also, coming next month to Google Play is a special Samsung Galaxy S4, which brings together cutting edge hardware from Samsung with Google’s latest software and services—including the user experience that ships with our popular Nexus devices.
Chrome
:
With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we’re now focused on bringing to mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we’ve seen on the desktop. To that end, today we previewed next-generation video codec
VP9
for faster video-streaming performance; the
requestAutocomplete API
for faster payments; and Chrome Experiments such as "
A Journey Through Middle Earth
" and
Racer
to demonstrate the ability to create immersive mobile experiences not possible in years past.
Google+
:
We unveiled the newly designed Google+, which helps you easily explore content as well dramatically improve your online photo experience to give you crisp, beautiful photos—without the work! We also upgraded Google+ Hangouts—our popular group video application—to help bring all of your real-life conversations online, across any device or platform, and with groups of up to 10 friends.
Search
:
Search has evolved considerably in recent years: it can now have a real conversation with you, and even make your day a bit smoother by predicting information you might need. Today we added the ability to set reminders by voice and we previewed “spoken answers” on laptops and desktops in Chrome—meaning you can ask Google a question and it will speak the answer back to you.
Maps
:
Today we previewed the next generation of Google Maps, which gets rid of any clutter in order to put your individual experience and exploration front and center. Each time you click or search, our technology draws you a tailored map that highlights the information you need. From design to directions, the new Google Maps is smarter and more useful.
Technology can have a profound, positive impact on the daily lives of billions of people. But we can’t do this alone—developers play a crucial role. I/O is our chance to come together and thank you for everything you do.
Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps
We’re going live from Google I/O
May 8, 2013
Developers today have the power to introduce powerful, breakthrough technologies to the world through their code. That’s why we look forward to bringing Google developers together year after year at
Google I/O
, our annual developer conference. In one week, we’ll welcome more than 6,000 developers to I/O through the doors of Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif.—and many more via our event’s live streams. If you’re looking for inspiration and want to learn more about the future of our products, we hope you’ll tune in to our live keynote and technical sessions.
Starting on May 15 at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC), join us as
Google Developers Live
(GDL) powers multiple channels of live streamed content from Google I/O on
developers.google.com/io
. On this page, you can:
Stream the keynote on your computer, tablet or phone.
Get in on the action, and listen to product and technology announcements straight from our teams. Live streaming will run on
developers.google.com/io
from 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC) to 7 p.m. PT (2:00 UTC) on May 15 and 16.
Watch exclusive interviews with the Googlers behind the latest product announcements.
This year,
GDL
will broadcast one-on-one product deep dives, executive interviews and Developer Sandbox walkthroughs from our onsite stage.
Get the latest news in real time.
We’ll post official announcements during I/O. You’ll be able to see the feed on the
Google I/O homepage
, in the I/O mobile app (coming soon), and on
+Google Developers
.
Never miss a session.
The keynote and all sessions will be recorded and made rapidly available on GDL and the
Google Developers YouTube channel
.
Whether you’re joining us from the comfort of home for
Google Developers Live at I/O
or at an
I/O Extended
event, tune into
developers.google.com/io
at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC) on May 15 for the latest from Google product teams. Add
+Google Developers
to your circles and follow
#io13
to stay updated on official conference announcements and connect with the community.
Posted by Mike Winton, Director of Developer Relations
A new kind of summer job: open source coding with Google Summer of Code
April 22, 2013
If you’re a university student with CS chops looking to earn real-world experience this summer, consider writing code for a cool open source project with the
Google Summer of Code
program.
Over the past eight years more than 6,000 students have “graduated” from this global program, working with almost 400 different open source projects. Students who are accepted into the program will put the skills they have learned in university to good use by working on an actual software project over the summer. Students are paired with mentors to help address technical questions and concerns throughout the course of the project. With the knowledge and hands-on experience students gain during the summer they strengthen their future employment opportunities in fields related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.
Interested students can submit proposals on the
website
starting now through Friday, May 3 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the
177 open source projects
in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. Because Google Summer of Code has a limited number of spots for students, writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program—be sure to check out the
Student Manual
for advice.
For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the
Google Open Source blog
, join our Summer of Code
mailing lists
or join us on Internet relay chat at #gsoc on
Freenode
.
Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until May 3 to apply!
Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source team
Cloud computing enabling entrepreneurship in Africa
December 20, 2012
In 2007, 33-year-old Vuyile moved to Cape Town from rural South Africa in search of work. Unable to complete high school, he worked as a night shift security guard earning $500/month to support his family. During the rush hour commute from his home in Khayelitsha, Vuyile realized that he could earn extra income by selling prepaid mobile airtime vouchers to other commuters on the train.
In rural areas, it’s common to use prepaid vouchers to pay for basic services such as electricity, insurance and airtime for mobile phones. But it’s often difficult to distribute physical vouchers because of the risk of theft and fraud.
Nomanini
, a startup based in South Africa, built a device that enables local entrepreneurs like Vuyile to sell prepaid mobile services in their communities. The Lula (which means “easy” in colloquial Zulu), is a portable voucher sales terminal that is used on-the-go by people ranging from taxi drivers to street vendors. It generates and prints codes which people purchase to add minutes to their mobile phones.
Today, Vuyile sells vouchers on the train for cash payment, and earns a commission weekly. Since he started using the Lula, he’s seen his monthly income increase by 20 percent.
Vuyile prints a voucher from his Lula
Nomanini founders Vahid and Ali Monadjem wanted to make mobile services widely available in areas where they had been inaccessible, or where—in a region where the average person makes less than $200/month—people simply couldn’t afford them. By creating a low-cost and easy-to-use product, Nomanini could enable entrepreneurs in Africa to go to deep rural areas and create businesses for themselves.
In order to build a scalable and reliable backend system to keep the Lula running, Nomanini chose to run on
Google App Engine
. Their development team doesn’t have to spend time setting up their own servers and can instead run on the same infrastructure that powers Google’s own applications. They can focus on building their backend systems and easily deploy code to Google’s data centers. When Vuyile makes a sale, he presses a few buttons, App Engine processes the request, and the voucher prints in seconds.
Last month, 40,000 people bought airtime through the Lula, and Nomanini hopes to grow this number to 1 million per month next year. While platforms like App Engine are typically used to build web or smartphone apps, entrepreneurs like Vahid and Ali are finding innovative ways to leverage this technology by building their own devices and connecting them to App Engine. Vahid tells us: “We’re a uniquely born and bred African solution, and we have great potential to take this to the rest of Africa and wider emerging markets. We could not easily scale this fast without running on Google App Engine.”
To learn more about the technical implementation used by Nomanini, read their guest post on the
Google App Engine blog
.
Posted by Zafir Khan, Google App Engine
Discover the world of open source with Google Code-in 2012
November 20, 2012
Every time you send a text, check a webpage or post a status update, you’re using open source software. The Internet is made of open source. But have you ever created any yourself? With the
Google Code-in
contest, pre-university students (13-17 years old) can learn more and create open source software that people all over the world can use—and win cool prizes along the way.
Starting Monday, November 26 and for the following 50 days, contest participants will work on fun online tasks for
10 different open source organizations
. Possible challenges include documentation, marketing outreach, software coding, user experience research and more.
Participants earn points for each task they successfully complete and can earn prizes like T-shirts and certificates of completion. This year we’re doubling the number of grand prize winners to 20 talented students, who will win a trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. They’ll spend a day getting a tour of the “Googleplex,” meeting and talking with Google engineers, plus enjoy another full day exploring San Francisco and other surprises.
Some of the 2011 Google Code-in Grand Prize Winners by the Golden Gate Bridge
Last year, 542 students from 56 countries and 360 schools completed 3,054 tasks during the eight-week contest. This year we want to encourage even more students to participate in the contest and learn about open source development. If you’d like to sign up, please review our
Frequently Asked Questions
and the
contest rules
on our
program site
. You can also watch our
screencast
, check out some
sample tasks
from last year’s contest and join our
discussion list
for any other questions. For details on important dates for the contest, see the
timeline
. You can register for your account on the
program site
when the contest opens on Monday, November 26 at 9:00am PST.
Finally, our Open Source Programs team will be hosting a
Hangout on Air
on the Google in Education page November 26 at 2:00pm PST to discuss the details of the Google Code-in contest and answer any questions.
We hope you’ll spend your winter (or summer, for our friends in the southern hemisphere) learning about the ins and outs of open source development through hands-on experience. Ready...set...
Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs
Tune in to I/O Live at 9:30 a.m. PDT on June 27
June 25, 2012
Google I/O, our annual developer conference, begins in just two days, and this year, we’re bringing you more than 130 technical sessions, 20 code labs and 155 Sandbox partners. If you’re not here in San Francisco, you can still sign up for one of our 350+
I/O Extended
events around the world or tune in to
I/O Live
to watch the live stream from wherever you are.
This year’s conference kicks off on June 27 with the first day’s keynote at 9:30 a.m. and the second day’s keynote on June 28 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, so tune in early at
developers.google.com/io
to avoid missing the action!
Bookmark
developers.google.com/io
to watch I/O Live from your desktop, or download the
Google I/O mobile app
to access the live stream from your phone or tablet. For the truly entrepreneurial, check our
liveblogging gadget
, which lets you add your commentary and the live video feed from the Google I/O keynotes to your blog.
More than
40 sessions
on Android, Chrome, Google+ and your favorite APIs will be streamed live, and all remaining session videos will be recorded and available shortly after the conference on
Google Developers Live
and the
conference website
. Between sessions, we’ll bring you behind-the-scenes footage featuring interviews with Googlers and attendees, tours of the Sandbox and more. The stream will also continue through our After Hours party (June 27 starting at 7:00 p.m. PDT), where we've teamed up with top entertainers, inventors, artists, educators and visionaries from all over the world for an amazing evening.
Posted by Mike Winton, Director of Developer Relations
Google Code Jam 2012 registration is open
March 13, 2012
Today, we're opening up registration for
Google Code Jam 2012
. This year thousands of students, professional programmers and freelance code wizards will pit their ingenuity against a new set of algorithmic challenges concocted by our tireless team of red-eyed, LED-illuminated problem writers.
Last year’s champion, Makoto Soejima, was asked to
build a house for kittens
,
serve food to hungry mathematicians
,
escape from a shady casino
and
help Goro control his anger
. Who knows what our problem writers have on their minds this year?
Code Jam is a world-wide programming competition in which contestants may use any programming language to solve algorithmic problems. The qualification round takes place April 13, followed by three online rounds in the following months. At the end of it all, the top 25 contestants will be invited to Google’s New York office on July 27 for a final match up and a chance to win $10,000. If you are up for the challenge,
throw your hat into the ring now
.
Posted by Igor Naverniouk, Software Engineer, Google Code Jam
From acquisition to in-app payments in less than one year
June 6, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Commerce Blog
)
This is the latest post in our
series
profiling entrepreneurial Googlers working on products across the company and around the world. In this post, you’ll read why one team decided to sell their company to Google, and how they went from acquisition to product launch in less than a year. - Ed.
The decision to sell your company is one of the hardest an entrepreneur can make, and as the CEO of Jambool, I thought long and hard about Google’s offer to acquire us when they came calling in August 2010. Ultimately,
we decided to join Google
for two reasons: one, we shared the goal of offering consumers and merchants unified online payment solutions, and two, we realized that Google was serious about helping us integrate our technology into their digital tools by providing us with infrastructure and other support. Less than a year later, we’ve already taken a major step to help Google deliver on this vision with
Google In-App Payments
, which we announced last month at
Google I/O
. In-App Payments enable web application developers to receive payments for digital and virtual goods without the user ever leaving the application.
Me on stage at Google I/O introducing Google In-App Payments
When we first joined, we expected to spend a lot of time ramping up, meeting people and learning Google’s technology. In reality, our shared vision for the product enabled us to quickly partner with teams across the company to build out our product at scale. As a startup, you spend the majority of your time building teams from scratch to focus on functions like product, sales, marketing, operations and legal. At Jambool, I’d divide my time across operations, raising funds and meeting with outside developers. But at Google, we were able to combine our efforts with teams already in place who could manage those areas while we focused on the core product.
We set an ambitious goal of launching in-app payments nine months later at Google I/O, which motivated us to work quickly. We worked with Google’s established teams—especially Chrome, Android and Google Checkout—to build a simple API and intuitive user interface. During the last few weeks before Google I/O—when we were still working around the clock just to finish the product—we were invited to announce our launch as part of the day two keynote. That gave us even more drive to finish on time. And, thanks to the Chrome team, we found partners like Angry Birds and Graphic.ly, which really demonstrated the product’s usefulness and got developers excited about our broader vision of seamless digital payments.
As a startup, we never imagined we’d stand on a stage like the one at I/O and instantly reach consumers, businesses and developers around the world. In the first 24 hours after the announcement, thousands of developers signed up to use the API. This is something we wouldn’t have been able to do so quickly on our own, and it’s a testament to the big things a startup can accomplish by joining Google. We’re already looking forward to what the next year brings as developers around the world start to build great businesses on our platform.
If you’re interested in integrating your apps into Google’s In-App Payments API, we invite you to
sign up
and
send us feedback
.
Posted by Vikas Gupta, Head of Consumer Payments
Hacking for humanity in Silicon Valley and around the globe
May 24, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Code Blog
and
Google.org Blog
)
Two years ago representatives from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, NASA and the World Bank came together to form the
Random Hacks of Kindness
(RHoK) program. The idea was simple: technology can and should be used for good. RHoK brings together subject matter experts, volunteer software developers and designers to create open source and technology agnostic software solutions that address challenges facing humanity. On June 4-5, 2011 we’ll hold the
third Random Hacks of Kindness global event
at five U.S. locations and 13 international sites, giving local developer communities the opportunity to collaborate on problems in person.
The RHoK community has already developed some applications focused on crisis response such as
I’mOK
, a mobile messaging application for disaster response that was used on the ground in Haiti and Chile; and
CHASM
, a visual tool to map landslide risk currently being piloted by the World Bank in landslide affected areas in the Caribbean.
Person Finder
, a tool created by
Google’s crisis response team
to help people find friends and loved ones after a natural disaster, was also refined at RHoK events and effectively deployed in Haiti, Chile and
Japan
.
We’re inviting all developers, designers and anyone else who wants to help “hack for humanity,” to attend one of the
local events
on June 4-5. There, you’ll meet other open source developers, work with experts in disaster and climate issues and contribute code to exciting projects that make a difference. If you’re in Northern California,
come join us
at the Silicon Valley RHoK event at
Google headquarters
.
And if you’re part of an organization that works in the fields of crisis response or climate change, you can
submit a problem definition online
, so that developers and volunteers can work on developing technology to address the challenge.
Visit
http://www.rhok.org/
for more information and to sign up for your local event, and get set to put your hacking skills to good use.
Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Developer Marketing Team
Launch a mobile business with The Guide to the App Galaxy
May 19, 2011
The Guide to the App Galaxy
, which we showed off last week at
Google I/O
, is designed to help mobile app developers—regardless of platform—navigate the complexities of launching an app and building a business on mobile. As you maneuver through the "galaxy” using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you’ll get the basics about app promotion, monetization and measurement—with tips from Google as well as successful developers.
There’s no exact blueprint for mobile app success and no developer’s journey is the same, which is why
The Guide to the App Galaxy
contains different advice and best practices from
developers around the world
. Here are some key insights from developers who have successfully built a business on mobile:
Rovio Mobile
Making money on mobile is not black and white—there's actually a lot of color. There are a number of business model options that aren't exclusive to any particular platforms.
Best, Cool & Fun Games
Offering your app for free lowers the barrier for users to download and try your app. The free version of Ant Smasher went viral because players could easily recommend the game to their friends through social media sites and word of mouth.
The Weather Channel
Don't forget to think beyond mobile. If you have a website or even a television channel, you can cross-promote your app with banner advertising or in-show mentions to drive downloads.
If you’re a developer who has successfully navigated the App Galaxy and launched your own app, you’ve probably picked up some tips of your own. Share your insights by creating your own journey and sharing it with your friends. We might even feature your story on
The Guide to the App Galaxy
.
The Guide to the App Galaxy
is currently available in English, Japanese, Korean, French and German. We’re continuing to expand the guide to other developers around the world with new languages and new content like case study journeys. For more information about our solutions for mobile app developers, visit
www.guidetotheappgalaxy.com/about
.
Posted by Lauren Usui, Product Marketing Manager
Keynote and session videos from Google I/O now live
May 13, 2011
With Google I/O 2011 just two days behind us, we wanted to thank the nearly 1 million developers who joined us at Moscone Center, attended I/O Extended events and watched online via I/O Live from 161 countries around the world.
The keynote presentations highlighted the momentum and vision for two of our most important developer platforms: Android and Chrome.
On the topic of Android, Hugo Barra, director of Android Product Management, opened Day 1 of the conference with the themes of “Momentum, Mobile and More,” announcing
Movies in Android Market
,
Music Beta by Google
, Android @ Home,
Android Open Accessory
and a preview of the new
Ice Cream Sandwich
logo. Read the
blog post
summary or watch the keynote in its entirety below.
The Day 2 keynote was all about Chrome, which has grown to 160 million active users, up from 70 million last year. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, discussed the launch of the HTML5 version of
Angry Birds
built with GWT on App Engine,
Chromebooks
for consumers and businesses and
in-app payments
. If you missed it, watch the Chrome keynote below.
These launches are just a few of the more than
30 announcements
we made over the two days, including the launch of
Google App Engine 1.5
, a updated
Google Prediction API
, new additions to the
Fusion Tables API
and many more. For more information about these and the other news coming out of the event, visit the
Google I/O label
on the Google Code Blog.
Additionally, in case you missed any of these announcements, HD recordings of the
sessions
are now available online.
Find the highlights from this year’s event at
www.google.com/io
, where we’ll feature photos, announcements and the latest videos. Also stay tuned for a feature on “Backstage at Google I/O” where we’ll highlight the developers and artists who helped to make the event possible this year.
Google I/O kicked off the year as our biggest developer event—but we’re only getting started. As of today, we’re announcing locations for our eight
Google Developer Days
(GDDs), which will take place all over the world with more than a few
DevFests
in between. Stay tuned for more info on the 2011 event details, but we’ll look forward to seeing you in Brazil, Argentina, Prague, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, Israel and Germany for our Google Developer team world tour.
Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering
3D dreams in the modern browser
May 13, 2011
Some of the most compelling experiences on the web come when inspirations of old are brought to life with modern technologies. Last August, “
The Wilderness Downtown
” brought the wistful feeling of nostalgia to the browser as you run down the streets where you used to live in an
HTML5
music experience based on the Arcade Fire song “We Used to Wait.”
“
3 Dreams of Black
” is our newest music experience for the web browser, written and directed by Chris Milk and developed with a few folks here at Google. The song, “Black,” comes off the album ROME, presented by
Danger Mouse
&
Daniele Luppi
, featuring
Jack White
and
Norah Jones
on vocals and soon to be released on the record label Parlophone/EMI. ROME is inspired by Italian soundtracks from the 1960s and the classic
Italian Western
genre. In fact, the album was recorded with the original orchestra from Italian director Sergio Leone’s westerns (remember
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
?).
“3 Dreams of Black” is a visual voyage through three dream worlds, told through rich 2D drawings and animations that are interspersed with interactive 3D sequences. At various points in this web experience, you can take control with your computer’s mouse and guide your journey through the unfolding narrative. You can even contribute to the dream by creating your own relics using a 3D model creator. Some of the best user creations will be integrated into the experience and become a part of others’ “3 Dreams” exploration.
In “3 Dreams in Black”, the browser is transformed into a theater for these lucid virtual dreams through
WebGL
, a new technology which brings
hardware-accelerated 3D graphics
to the browser. With WebGL in modern browsers like
Google Chrome
, you can interact with 3D experiences with no need for additional software. For curious web developers out there, we’ve made all the code completely open and available so that you can dig in, have a look around and
try it out for yourself
.
Because “
3 Dreams in Black
” is an experiment built with the latest web technologies, it requires a browser that supports WebGL like Chrome, and Windows Vista / Mac OS X 10.6 or above to help ensure that your computer has up-to-date graphics drivers. For those of you who may have hardware constraints, we’ve put together a
short video
that we hope will provide a glimpse into this unique experience. To explore these dreamscapes, visit
www.ro.me
.
Posted by Aaron Koblin, Google Data Arts Team
Android: momentum, mobile and more at Google I/O
May 10, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Google Code Blog
)
This morning at
Google I/O
, the Android team shared some updates. It’s hard to believe a little more than two and a half years ago, we were just one device, launching in one country, on one carrier. Thanks to the ecosystem of manufacturers, developers and carriers, the platform has grown exponentially. There are now:
100 million activated Android devices
400,000 new Android devices activated every day
200,000 free and paid applications available in Android Market
4.5 billion applications installed from Android Market
Mobile—one OS everywhere
Over the past two and a half years, we’ve shipped eight releases of Android and there are now more than 310 Android devices around the world, of all shapes and sizes. This morning we talked about our next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Our goal with Ice Cream Sandwich is to deliver one operating system that works everywhere, regardless of device. Ice Cream Sandwich will bring everything you love about
Honeycomb
on your tablet to your phone, including the holographic user interface, more multitasking, the new launcher and richer widgets.
We also launched
Music Beta by Google
, a new service that lets you upload your personal music collection to the cloud for streaming to your computer and Android devices. With the new service, your music and playlists are automatically kept in sync, so if you create a new playlist on your phone, it’s instantly available on your computer or tablet. You can use a feature called Instant Mix to create a playlist of songs that go well together. You can even listen to music when you’re offline: we automatically store your most recently played music on your Android device and you can choose to make specific albums or playlists available when you’re not connected. The service is launching in beta today to U.S. users and is available by invitation.
We’ve also added Movies for rent to
Android Market
. You can choose to rent from thousands of movies starting at $1.99 and have them available across your Android devices—rent a movie on your home computer, and it’ll be available for viewing on your tablet or phone. You can rent from Android Market on the web today, and we’ll be rolling out an update to Verizon XOOM customers beginning today. We’ll start rolling out the update to Android 2.2 and above devices in the coming weeks.
The Android ecosystem has been moving really fast over the last two and a half years and rapid iteration on new and highly-requested features has been a driving force behind Android’s success. But of course that innovation only matters if it reaches consumers. So today we’re announcing that a founding team of industry leaders, including many from the Open Handset Alliance, are working together to adopt guidelines for how quickly devices are updated after a new platform release, and also for how long they will continue to be updated. The founding partners are Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola and AT&T, and we welcome others to join us. To start, we're jointly announcing that new devices from participating partners will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released, as long as the hardware allows...and that's just the beginning. Stay tuned for more details.
More—extending the platform beyond mobile
From the beginning, Android was designed to extend beyond the mobile phone. With that in mind, we’ve developed Android Open Accessory to help developers start building new hardware accessories that will work across all Android devices. We previewed an initiative called Android@Home, which allows Android apps to discover, connect and communicate with appliances and devices in your home. We also showed a preview of Project Tungsten, an Android device for Music Beta to give you more control over music playback within the Android@Home network.
You can watch the entire Android keynote from Google I/O on our
Google Developer YouTube Channel
shortly. On behalf of the team, we want to thank the entire Android community of developers, OEMs and carriers who are pushing the platform into new areas and building great experiences for consumers. Without you, the Android platform wouldn’t have grown so large in the past two and a half years. We look forward to seeing where you take it next.
Update
May 11
: The video from the keynote is now available:
Posted by Hugo Barra, Product Management Director, Android
Google I/O: countdown to the keynote kickoff
May 9, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Code Blog
)
In less than 24 hours, we’ll be kicking off
Google I/O 2011
, our annual developer conference here in San Francisco. With more than 5,000 participants from 60 countries, including
110 sessions
, 261 speakers and
152 Sandbox partners
, this year’s I/O will be the biggest one yet.
This year’s keynote presentations will highlight the biggest opportunities for developers and feature two of our most popular and important developer platforms: Android and Chrome. Google engineers from Andy Rubin and Sundar Pichai’s teams will unveil new features, preview upcoming updates, and provide new insights into the growing momentum behind these platforms.
Plus, for the first time in Google I/O history, you’ll be able to join us throughout the two days at
I/O Live
. We’ll live stream the two keynote presentations, two full days of Android and Chrome technical sessions, and the After Hours party. Recorded videos from all sessions across eight product tracks will be available within 24 hours after the conference. Whether you’ll be joining us in San Francisco or from the farthest corner of the world, bookmark
www.google.com/io
and check back on May 10 at 9:00 a.m. PDT for a fun treat as we count down to 00:00:00:00.
From left to right: Andy Rubin, Vic Gundotra, Sundar Pichai
If you’re attending the conference this year, we can’t wait to meet with you and share our vision for the future of web and mobile development. If you aren’t able to make it this year, you can continue to follow us on the
Google Code Blog
and on Twitter (#io2011) over the next two days as we share photos, videos, news and recaps of the event. It’s going to be an exciting 48 hours!
Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering
Happy Tax Day! Now, where did your tax dollars go?
April 18, 2011
Like it or not, Americans have a date with the IRS today. In a few hours, our tax forms will have been sent in... yet most of us will still be left wondering, “How will the government spend our money?”
In February, we
launched
the
Data Viz Challenge
to answer that very question. The challenge was a five-week competition that asked developers to visualize how our federal income tax dollars are spent. We received more than 40 thought-provoking entries that each take a unique approach to making this data more accessible to taxpayers.
Take a look at the variety of visualizations in this short video:
The entries ranged from quirky and fun to serious and academic. Some were as simple as a
receipt
, others showed us how many
minutes
or
days
we work to cover public spending.
One
even rendered the data as a cityscape and invited people to climb the towers virtually.
In the end, our
jury
selected Anil Kandangath’s “
Where Did My Tax Dollars Go?
” as our Grand Prize winner. As the jury noted, his entry is information-rich but elegantly designed, and at no point while interacting with the visualization do you lose the “big picture.” Anil’s entry is a great example of how data visualization can take boring, complicated, but critically important information and make it accessible to everyone. Congratulations, Anil.
Thank you to all of the entrants and our partners
Eyebeam
and
Whatwepayfor.com
for making this possible. We hope these submissions help you better understand where your tax dollars are spent—and even inject a little bit of fun into your tax day this year. Happy filing!
Posted by Jenny Ramaswamy, Google Creative Lab
Bringing Google I/O direct to you with I/O Live
April 7, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
Google Code Blog
)
After Google I/O sold out in
59 minutes
, we gave ourselves a challenge: bring I/O 2011 to as many developers as we could, even those that didn't have tickets to Moscone Center. So for those of you not joining us in San Francisco or at one of our
I/O Extended
viewing parties, visit
www.google.com/io
on May 10-11 from the comforts of your own home, office or anywhere you have a reliable Internet connection for
I/O Live
.
I/O Live will bring all of the excitement at Moscone Center to our online website, where the keynotes, sessions and Developer Sandbox will come to life for audiences all over the world. Starting on May 10, the Google I/O homepage will become the I/O Live dashboard, where you can:
Watch livestream video feeds from our two largest session rooms from 9:00 a.m PST to 6:00 p.m. PST during both days of the conference.
This will include streaming of the keynotes, as in years past, as well as—new for 2011—the addition of sessions from Android and Chrome. We’ll also aim to post HD video recordings from sessions that are not livestreamed within 24 hours.
Read captions from the livestreamed sessions in real-time.
Plus, to make sure all our content is accessible, all remaining videos will also be captioned. For international developers, captions will be machine translated to all languages that are supported by
Google Translate
.
Be one of the first to know by getting your news direct from the source.
The latest announcements and news will be added to our I/O Live dashboard in real-time.
Submit your questions to our Sandbox developers.
We'll post answers for the questions with the most votes.
In the coming weeks, we’ll update our
Sessions
and Sandbox pages with all the relevant information you’ll need to participate in I/O Live. In the meantime, visit our temporary
I/O Live
page, where you can get our new HTML5 badge to display on your website and let us know that you’ll be watching on May 10 and 11.
This year is slated to be our largest Google I/O event to date. So whether you’re joining us in San Francisco, from an
I/O Extended
event, or even the comforts of your own Shangri-la, we’re looking forward to seeing you at 9 a.m. PDT on May 10 as we count down to 00:00:00:00 and I/O Live.
Posted by Monica Tran, Google I/O Team
Ladies and gentlemen, start your editors! Registration now open for Google Code Jam 2011
April 6, 2011
Imagine you’re a ninja, trying to master your deadly grappling hook. Or perhaps you’re a chess grand master, outsmarting your opponent’s every move. Or even a Taoist philosopher, explaining the deep truths of the world to your followers.
It’s situations like these that you’ll face in Google Code Jam, our annual coding contest in which some of the best coders from around the world write programs to solve tough algorithmic problems. We believe that one of the best ways to sharpen your coding skills and stretch them creatively is through healthy competition. The intense experience of confronting a problem, conveying your solution to your computer and seeing the results emerge is a thrill unlike any other.
Today we’re opening registration for
Google Code Jam 2011
. Coding will begin on May 6 with our qualification round, where competitors will have as much as a day to plan their approach to our first few problems. From there, the contest heats up quickly: the remaining contestants will engage in several two-and-a-half hour rounds, wrangling each time with three to four algorithmic problems that range in difficulty from simple to fiendish. For each problem, you’ll wield the programming language of your choice, crafting the perfect algorithm to pit against the gauntlet of our test data. Construct your code flawlessly and you’ll be on to the next problem; solve enough problems, and you’ll make your way to the next round. If you continue to succeed, you might find yourself sitting on a flight to the finals.
The challenge begins in
just over a month
. If you’re a killer coder and you’re ready to compete, sign up on
our website
; while you’re there, make sure to check out the
puzzles
of the past few years to get a sense of what’s to come, and to hone your skills. If you’re one of the top 25 competitors, we’ll bring you to our Tokyo office to spar against your fellow coders. In the end, only one person will bring home the $10,000 top prize—and the title of Code Jam Champion.
Posted by Bartholomew Furrow, Software Engineer, Google Code Jam
The Data Viz Challenge: can you make tax data exciting?
February 22, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Code Blog
)
This time of year, everyone in the United States is starting to fill out—with varying levels of enthusiasm—our federal income tax forms. Yet, after we write our checks to the IRS, most of us don’t really know exactly where our money is going.
Fortunately, there’s a new online tool to help us find out. Last year, Andrew Johnson and Louis Garcia, two developers from Minneapolis, Minn., created a website called
whatwepayfor.com
that uses public data to estimate how our tax money is spent. You enter your income and filing status on the site, and it creates a formatted table of numbers showing your contributions to the federal budget—down to the penny:
We’re impressed by what the website uncovers. In 2010, for example, a married couple making $40,000 a year contributed approximately $14.07 to space operations, $6.83 to aviation security and $0.91 to the Peace Corps…and those are just a few of the hundreds of expenditures revealed on the site. As we spent time exploring all of these details, it got us thinking: how we could make the information even more accessible? So we created a simple interactive data visualization:
Click the image above to try the interactive version—it lets you drag the bubbles around, change the income level and so on. You can now look at the data in a new way, and it’s a little more fun to explore. Of course, there are lots of ways to visualize the data, and we’re very sure there are many talented designers and developers around the country who can do it even better than we have.
To make that happen, we’ve teamed up with
Eyebeam
, a not-for-profit art and technology center, to host what we’re calling the
Data Viz Challenge
. Andrew and Louis have built an
API
to let anyone access the data, so now you can choose how to display it. Could you create a better animated chart? Something in 3D? An interactive website? A physical display somewhere in the real world? We want you to show everyone how data visualization can be a powerful tool for turning information into understanding.
You can enter the challenge at
datavizchallenge.org
, where you’ll also find more information about challenge and the data. The challenge starts today and ends March 27, 2011, and is open to the U.S. only. The top visualization, as chosen by a
jury
, will receive a $5,000 award and a shout-out on the site and this blog. We’ll announce the shortlist on the week of April 11, and the winners on April 18, a.k.a. Tax Day.
If you’re a data viz enthusiast, we hope you’ll take a look at the data and build your own creative visualization. But even if you’re not, hopefully the results will help you appreciate what data visualization can do, and its usefulness in turning raw information—like federal income tax numbers—into something you can explore and understand.
Posted by Valdean Klump, Creative Lab
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