Official Google Blog: November 2008

Triple silken pumpkin pie takes the prize

November 26, 2008

Desserts by the YardNew York officethe recipesoPosted by Kayla Wilson, Recruiting Coordinator

Sorting 1PB with MapReduce

November 21, 2008

MapReducestandard terabyte (TB) sort benchmarkGoogle File Systemsorting recordarchived web dataJanuary 2008Technology RoundTable SeriesPosted by Grzegorz Czajkowski, Systems Infrastructure Team

Our international approach to search

November 21, 2008

this seriesdescribedParliament of TanzaniaTanzaniaKenyaSoko la hisa dar es salaamTiba ya malariafußball in hamburg

Spell corrections: We recently launched spell corrections in Estonian. If your Estonian is rusty, and you don't remember how to spell "smoke detector," we can suggest a spell correction for [suitsuantur], leading to better search results.

Diacritical marks: Many languages have diacritical marks, which alter pronunciation. Our algorithms are built to support them, and even help users who mis-type or completely ignore them. For example, if you're a resident of Quebec, Canada and would like to know the weather forecast in Quebec City, we'll serve good results whether you type with diacritical signs [Météo à Québec] or without [meteo quebec]. Czech users can read the same excellent results for a popular kids' cartoon by searching for [krtecek] and [krteček]. On the other hand, sometimes diacriticals change the meaning of the word and we have to use them correctly. For example, in Thai, [ข้าว] is "rice," with completely different results than [ข่าว], which is "news"; or in Slovakia, results for "child" [dieťa] are different than results for "diet" [diéta].

Synonyms: A general case of diacritical support is the handling of synonyms in different languages. Korean searches showed that "samsung" can be viewed as a synonym of "삼성", so that when users search for [samsung], they find results which have the company's name in Korean.

Compounding: Some languages allow compounding, which is the formation of new words by combining together existing words. You can see a nice example in Swedish, where we return documents about a Swedish credit card for both compounded [Visakort] and non-compounded [visa kort] queries.

Stemming: Google has developed morphological models that can receive compound words as queries, and return pages which contain their stem, possibly as part of a different compound. For example, when searching for cars in Saudi Arabia, you can search for [سيارة] and [سيارات] because both are variants of the same stem, and both return many common results. A Polish user can search for "movie" [film], and get back results that contain other variants of the stem, such as "filmów," "filmu," "filmie," "filmy." A user from Belarus will find results for all word forms of the capital, Minsk [Мінск]: "Мінску," "Мінска," "Мінскага."

רה"מสน.I.B.M.《手机》剧情2006年1月13日hgsuvالسعرحقثسهيثىفهشم ثممثؤفهخىسpresidential electionsvdrk, kuyuהגרלת לוטוrehc ljkffhfкурс доллараbiskvitnyi ruletбисквитный рулетdianying电影trapeza attikhs

category browsing by Imagesrelated searchesreal-time completion of queriesPeruMexicoSpainFranceBelgiuminč u milimetrima50 euro in dollariVæret i Osloweather Bostonblog postハロウィンイラスト해리 포터افتتاح دار الاوبرا في سيدني

(Update:Posted by Daphne Dembo, Engineering Director

SearchWiki: make search your own

November 20, 2008

onlyyour own

Posted by Cedric Dupont, Product Manager, and Corin Anderson, Software Engineer

Transgender Remembrance Day

November 20, 2008

We believe great ideas can come from anywhere and everyone. And we aspire to be an organization that reflects global diversity, because we know that a world's worth of perspectives, ideas and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. We have more than a dozen employee-driven resource groups, from Gayglers to GWE (Google Women Engineers), that actively participate around the world in building community and driving policy at Google. The post below kicks off an occasional series, entitled Interface, about valuing people's similarities and differences in the workplace. For more information on how Google fosters an inclusive work environment, visit Life at Google on our Jobs site. – Ed. Transgender Remembrance Daywas murderedandPosted by Kai Johnson, Software Engineer

Lively no more

November 19, 2008

Lively.comPosted by The Lively Team

The Final Inch

November 19, 2008

(Cross-posted from the Google.org blog)new cases of poliofirst announced this projectVermilion Filmsprimarily in India and AfghanistanDavid HeymannThe Final InchThe Final InchThe Final InchHBOTheFinalInch.orgUpdateThe Final InchOscar nominationour postUpdateThe Final InchHBO's websitePosted by Gregory Miller, Managing Director, Google.org, and Irene Taylor Brodsky, Vermilion Films, Producer and Director of The Final Inch

LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search

November 18, 2008

This collection

Alfred EisenstaedtMargaret Bourke-White

Posted by Paco Galanes, Software Engineer

Now you can speak to Google Mobile App on your iPhone

November 17, 2008

send us a video responseGoogle Mobile Blogoverview videoPosted by Gummi Hafsteinsson, Product Manager and disqualified arm wrestler, Google Mobile team

Ads in new places

November 17, 2008

Google Image SearchGoogle FinancePosted by Nick Fox, Director, Business Product Management

Introducing SketchUp 7

November 17, 2008

Google SketchUp 7abstract artfreeProbuild models for Google Earth

Making it even easier to get started – We've created a new class of "smart" objects called Dynamic Components, which are simpler to work with for new modelers. Take a look at this video to see what I mean:

Making it easier to share what you make and collaborate with other people – We built a better link between SketchUp and the rest of the 3D world, made it possible to "sign" your models, and added Google Docs–style collaboration and sharing to our 3D Warehouse.

Adding powerful features for experienced SketchUp Pro users – SketchUp is only half of the SketchUp Pro suite; the other half is all about sharing your work with your clients. LayOut 2 (which is now officially out of beta and rarin' to go) lets you create multi-page documents and presentations. Your models are linked to your LayOut file so that changing the former automatically updates the latter.

What's New in 7 pagePosted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Product Evangelist

It's Jam time

November 14, 2008

Google Code Jamfifth annualPosted by Jeanne Williams, Google Code Jam Program Manager

Google Site Search gets more demanding

November 13, 2008

up to the minute newsget directionsmost pressing questionsOn-Demand IndexingGoogle Custom Search Engine

Google Enterprise Blogwww.google.com/sitesearchPosted by Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager, Enterprise Search, and Tom Duerig, Software Engineer

How we help track flu trends

November 12, 2008

This post is the latest in an ongoing series about how we harness the data we collect to improve our products and services for our users. - Ed.football scoreshotelannounced Google Flu TrendsGoogle TrendsThe New York Timescheck out the toolhow Flu Trends worksserver logsanonymizeFAQsprivacy policysafeguardingPosted by Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Counsel

Promote your video with YouTube Sponsored Videos

November 12, 2008

Updatechanged

contestsYouTube Insightads.youtube.comPosted by Matthew Liu, Product Manager, YouTube

An invitation from the mayor of Rome: Come see Ancient Rome in 3D

November 12, 2008

Ancient Rome 3DRome Reborn ProjectCaput Mundihttp://earth.google.com/rome/Google Lat Long Blog

UpdateUpdatePosted by Gianni Alemanno, Mayor of Rome

About our Veterans Day logo

November 11, 2008

Veterans DayU.S. Coast GuardPosted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Chief Doodler and Webmaster

Tracking flu trends

November 11, 2008

U.S. electionshot trendsZeitgeistPredict and Prevent teammillions of deathsup to 500,000 deathsGoogle Flu Trends1918Update on 11/21academic paperNaturePosted by Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, Software Engineers

Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail

November 11, 2008

http://www.gmail.com/videochatGmail BlogPosted by Serge Lachapelle, Product Manager, Stockholm

New Google Help Forums

November 6, 2008

Google Help ForumsorkuteersGoogle Apps Power PostersWebmaster Help Bionic Posters

improved search results, including posts from current and new forums

the ability to designate especially helpful forum members as "Top Contributors"

a reputation and ranking system

the ability for users, Top Contributors and Googlers to mark questions as answered

easier access to Help Center content

expanded user profiles that highlight your forum activity

AdWordsAdSenseAndroid MarketGoogle AppsGoogle ChromePolish productsPosted by Katina Johnson, Google Help Team

The art of the field study

November 6, 2008

ongoing series

(Video courtesy of Kerry Rodden) was

in situPosted by Daniel Russell, Uber Tech Lead, Search Quality

Accessible View: An ARIA for web search

November 5, 2008

From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful.recent postAccessible ViewGoogle-AxsJAXAccessible SearchGoogle Readerkeyboard shortcutshjklnp

Key

Behavior

j/k

next/previous result

n/p

next/previous result, scroll if necessary

enter

open current result

up/down

next/previous result

left/right

switch categories (results, ads, refinements)

jump to ads

switch to Accessible Search results

switch to default Google results

jump to related searches

the experimentyour feedbackPosted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist, and Charles L. Chen, Software Engineer

Ending our agreement with Yahoo!

November 5, 2008

advertising agreement with Yahoo!delayPosted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

A vote for broadband in the "white spaces"

November 4, 2008

white spaceswith other tech companies and public interest groupspublic filingsWi-Fi on steroidsOffice of Engineering and TechnologyFree the AirwavesPosted by Larry Page, Co-Founder and President of Products

Official Blog

Triple silken pumpkin pie takes the prize

Sorting 1PB with MapReduce

Our international approach to search

SearchWiki: make search your own

Transgender Remembrance Day

Lively no more

The Final Inch

LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search

Now you can speak to Google Mobile App on your iPhone

Ads in new places

Introducing SketchUp 7

It's Jam time

Google Site Search gets more demanding

How we help track flu trends

Promote your video with YouTube Sponsored Videos

An invitation from the mayor of Rome: Come see Ancient Rome in 3D

About our Veterans Day logo

Tracking flu trends

Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail

New Google Help Forums

The art of the field study

Accessible View: An ARIA for web search

Ending our agreement with Yahoo!

Top searches on Election Day (part 3)

Top searches on Election Day (part 2)

A vote for broadband in the "white spaces"

Top searches on Election Day (part 1)

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