Google New Zealand Blog

Picture perfect: Welcome customers into your business on Google Maps

2012-01-27T11:24:00.003+13:00

When we initially announced the Business Photos pilot program, we wanted to give business owners an easy way to get customers in the door online using interactive, high-quality, 360-degree images of places on Google Maps and on Google Search results. With thousands of businesses under our belt — from restaurants to salons— we’ve been hearing the same question again and again from both business owners and photographers alike: How can I participate?

Well, with the overwhelming success of the first pilot, we’ve decided to unveil a complementary initiative that will help us reach more interested business owners, more quickly: Trusted Photographers.

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Click and drag to view the inside of Da Vincis 

It’s simple. Visit our new website and search for a Google Trusted Photographer in your area. Either email or call a photographer in your area to schedule a time and agree on a price that you will pay the photographer for a photoshoot of your business. This self-serve model makes for easier scheduling and quicker turnaround, while also supporting the local photographers in your community. During the hour it should take for the shoot, you can collaborate with the photographer about how best to display and capture your business. When finished, the photographer will upload the images to Google, and shortly thereafter, you’ll see 360-degree panoramic views of your business on Google.co.nz, Google Maps and on your Google Places listing.  

See how Business Photos has helped Toy Joy of Austin, Texas.

Trusted Photographers are available in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France. Don’t see a photographer in your area? Let us know, as that will help us determine where more Trusted Photographers are needed.

Posted by Gadi Royz, Product Manager, Google Maps

Android Developer Labs Coming to New Zealand

2012-01-23T16:12:00.002+13:00

Our Android Developer Advocates are kicking off 2012 with new events to get out and meet Android developers around the world. First stop: Australia & New Zealand!

Android Developer Labs (ADLs) will be taking place in Melbourne (Tuesday 31 January), Sydney (Friday 3 February) and Auckland (Wednesday 8 February). ADLs are aimed at accomplished Android developers who want to learn the best practices for building truly world-class Android apps. Ideally, developers will enter an ADL with a good app that has already garnered some success, but leave with a great app that will appeal to Android users everywhere.

In these sessions, we’ll cover the following topics:
Latest advances in Ice Cream Sandwich
Utilising cloud services in Android apps
Designing polished and immersive user experiences
Building rich apps for both smartphones and tablets
How do I participate?

Registration is open to everyone, but we will sift through the applications by hand and select the most qualified developers. In choosing attendees, we’re primarily looking for developers who have already released a successful app on Android Market but want to improve its overall quality, fit and finish.

Other prerequisites include a laptop with the Eclipse & Android SDK (API 15) installed and configured, an Android device(s) for debugging and a solid understanding of Android fundamentals (activities, layouts, app life cycle, etc). If you’re selected to attend, you’ll receive an invitation up to 48 hours before the event.

Visit the Android Developer Lab website for more information and submit your application.

Sixty YouTube Space Lab Finalists Announced: Vote Now For Your Favorites

2012-01-18T11:14:00.006+13:00

A few months ago we set 14-18 year olds the bold challenge to design a science experiment that could be performed by NASA aboard the International Space Station, something that has traditionally been the preserve of qualified astronauts and scientists. Coming up with a suitable idea required huge imagination, passion and scientific curiosity, which is why we were thrilled with your response— we received a total of 2,000 video submissions from students in more than 80 countries!

Expert scientists helped us check and rank all of the entries, and today we are very proud to announce the sixty finalists. All of their submissions can now be viewed on the YouTube.com/SpaceLab Channel, and from 17–24 January, you can vote for the ones you want to win. We need your help selecting the six regional winners, and ultimately the two global winners that will have their experiments performed 400 kilometers above Earth and live streamed on YouTube. Start voting today.

Among the finalists for the Asia-Pacific region were a team from New Zealand — Patrick Zeng and Derek Chan of Auckland Grammar School.

And remember, the channel is also a launchpad to some of the best space and science videos on YouTube. We’ve already received more than 39 million combined video views worldwide and we’re adding new videos and playlists regularly, like this new playlist about the mysteries of the Red Planet. Subscribe to the channel to keep up to date with all the latest content.

Didn’t make it to the final round? Check out the newly launched Google Science Fair 2012 for another chance to enter an amazing global science competition.

Posted by Zahaan Bharmal, YouTube Space Lab lead.

Ask your question in the 2012 Google Science Fair

2012-01-17T14:22:00.001+13:00

Are human beings born curious, or can curiosity be nurtured through environment, competition or a good teacher? Everyone’s got a question—that’s ours. But we’re sure you’ve got tons of questions, too. So we’re inviting students around the world to pose their most pressing questions and answer those questions through scientific inquiry as part of our second annual Google Science Fair.

Along with our partners CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, it’s the largest online science competition in the world. Open to students ages 13-18, students (either individually or in teams of up to three people) pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it.

Last year, we received entries that strove to solve a wide variety of needs, from “How can I cure cancer?” to “Can I teach a robot to learn English?” to “Can I build a faster sailboat?” The breadth and depth of these projects was incredibly impressive, and this year we hope to see even more entries from the next generation of brilliant young scientists.

From the entries we will recognise 90 regional finalists before our judges select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, for the Google Science Fair event on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges (like Vint Cerf, Sylvia Earle, and Nobel Laureates David Gross and Ada Yonath) will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18).

In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your project can also help to win you some pretty cool prizes, like a US$50,000 college scholarship from Google, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer or an internship at Google or any one of our partners.

We’re also introducing a new category for this year’s competition—the Scientific American Science in Action award which will see the winner earn US$50,000 and a year-long mentorship to make their project a reality. We were so inspired by 2011 finalist Harine Ravichandran’s project, which attempted to solve energy surges in rural villages, that this year we decided to recognise an outstanding project that addresses a social, environmental or health need.

The Google Science Fair will accept submissions until Sunday, April 1 at 11:59 GMT.

Google itself was founded through experimentation and with the Google Science Fair, we hope to inspire scientific exploration among the next generation of scientists and engineers, celebrate scientific talent, create scientific role models and unite students around the world in the quest for learning.

Visit google.com/sciencefair and ask your most burning questions.

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)
Posted by Cristin Frodella, Google Education Team

Rebecca Black, Ghost Chips and LMFAO: 2011 in review on YouTube

2011-12-21T13:18:00.000+13:00

YouTube contains the largest and most diverse set of videos ever assembled, but in amongst the one trillion playbacks on YouTube this year, there are some videos that draw us all together. These videos capture the imagination as we watch them over and over and share them with our friends and family.

Today we reveal the top 10 videos watched by New Zealanders on YouTube in 2011.

Homegrown viral videos and ads were amongst the top videos watched by New Zealanders as Kiwis came online to be entertained by music clips, informed by footage of news events and preoccupied by latest internet sensation.

The nek minute video has been watched more than 1.7 million times and was the second most watched community video on YouTube this year. Viral music sensation Rebecca Black came in first with her song Friday.

Stand in Black, a fan video supporting the All Blacks saw more than half a million views, while Mile-High Madness, an Air New Zealand safety video starring Richard Simmons, saw a global audience of almost 2.5 million views. Also making the list was Legend, an anti-drink driving ad by the New Zealand Transport Authority which was seen more than 1.5 million times.

Kiwis also came to YouTube to watch the latest music clips and this year LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, Bruno Mars and Chris Brown were amongst the top watched music videos.

In addition to compiling the YouTube most-watched lists, YouTube also took a look at the billions of queries that people typed into YouTube in 2011 to identify some of the fastest-rising search terms for each month, which included “ghost chips” (a reference to the drink-driving ad), the Christchurch earthquake and Charlie Sheen.

To see more of the year’s most popular and influential YouTube videos from across the world, visit youtube.com/rewind. And for more lists, see YouTube Trends and the YouTube blog.

Most Watched YouTube community videos in New Zealand:

Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Nek Minute

Stand in Black

Mile-high madness with Richard Simmons! #RICHROLL

Ultimate Dog Tease

Major Earthquake has hit Christchurch, New Zealand

Samsung Smart TV TVC New Zealand

Legend

Cadbury Share the Joy Song

Flash Haka @ Sylvia Park, 4.Sept.11

Most Watched music videos on YouTube in New Zealand:

LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video]

Jessie J - Price Tag ft. B.o.B.

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)

Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

Chris Brown - Look At Me Now ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It

Adele - ''Someone Like You''

Then, to determine the fastest rising search terms for each month, we examined the billions of queries that people searched for on YouTube (through December 2011):

Fastest Rising search terms by month in country:

January	ricky gervais
February	christchurch earthquake
March	charlie sheen
April	party rock anthem
May	someone like you
June	man down rihanna
July	moves like jagger
August	stereo hearts
September	flash haka
October	we found love
November	ghost chips
December	fight for life

Posted by Johnny Luu, Communication and Public Affairs Manager, Google New Zealand

Experience the tsunami-affected areas of Japan through Street View

2011-12-13T15:26:00.000+13:00

Back in July, we announced our initiative to digitally archive the areas of Northeastern Japan affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Today, we’re making good on that promise—after driving more than 44,000 kilometers through the affected regions, 360-degree panoramic imagery of those areas is now available through the Street View feature in Google Maps. The images can also be viewed via a special website called “Build the Memory,” where you can easily compare before and after shots of the towns changed by these events.

A virtual tour via Street View profoundly illustrates how much these natural disasters have transformed these communities. If you start inland and venture out toward the coast, you’ll see the idyllic countryside change dramatically, becoming cluttered with mountains of rubble and debris as you get closer to the ocean. In the cities, buildings that once stood proud are now empty spaces.

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In the bottom left corner of each image you’ll also see a month and year that tells you when a particular photograph was taken. When looking at images of the magnificent cities side-by-side with images of the ruins left in their place, this additional context demonstrates how truly life-changing this tragedy has been for those who live there and witnessed the destruction of their homes, neighborhoods and even entire districts. This timestamp feature has been the most requested Street View feature for the last few years, and it is now available on Street View imagery worldwide. Professionals such as historians, architects, city planners and tourism boards—as well as regular users including travelers and home-buyers—can now get a sense of how fresh the online photos are for a locations that interests them.

In the case of the post-tsunami imagery of Japan, we hope this particular digital archiving project will be useful to researchers and scientists who study the effects of natural disasters. We also believe that the imagery is a useful tool for anyone around the world who wants to better understand the extent of the damage. Seeing the street-level imagery of the affected areas puts the plight of these communities into perspective and ensures that the memories of the disaster remain relevant and tangible for future generations.

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Posted by Kei Kawai, Senior Product Manager, Street View

Kiwis rugby mad as Sonny Bill Williams overcomes Bieber Fever

2011-12-07T01:35:00.001+13:00

From the Rugby World Cup and chicken thigh recipes to the meaning of love and the meaning of planking, New Zealanders turned to Google this year to find out more information and keep their finger on the pulse.

Today we’re releasing our annual Zeitgeist lists: this year’s hottest search terms on google.co.nz. The lists offer a unique glimpse into the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends which captivated us throughout 2011.

With the Rugby World Cup making headlines this year, it’s little surprise that it was the fastest rising search query of the year, meaning it saw the largest spike in searches in 2011. Kiwis were also looking up information on the Japanese earthquake, the rumoured iPhone 5 as well as the curious and viral nek minute video on YouTube.

But the biggest upset of 2011 involved a local lad. Proving that bicep and ball skills trump Bieber fever, golden boy Sonny Bill Williams won out Justin Bieber to be the most popular searched images on Google New Zealand. The rugby player also came third in top news searches as Kiwis turned to Google to find out the latest.

Our appetite for a high calorie diet saw us look up the bunless 1939kj KFC double down burger, which claimed top prize as the most popular food or drink search. Red velvet cupcakes, pizza, macaroons and buttercream icing rounded out the top five.

Here are our top search terms in New Zealand for 2011 -- we’ll be posting our global search terms next week, and we’ll tweet and post on Google+ to let you know!

Fastest rising searches 1. rugby world cup 2. japan earthquake 3. iphone 5 4. Pippa middleton 5. Adele 6. nek minute 7. google plus 8. Amy winehouse 9. Steven tyler 10. Ken Ring	Top image searches 1. Sonny Bill Williams 2. Justin Bieber 3. Katy Perry 4. New Zealand 5. All Blacks 6. Selena Gomez 7. Megan Fox 8. Kim Kardashian 9. Nicki Minaj 10. Christchurch earthquake
Fastest rising people 1. Pippa Middleton 2. Adele 3. Amy Winehouse 4. Steven Tyler 5. Ken Ring 6. Kate Middleton 7. Scarlett Johansson 8. Kimbra 9. Sonny Bill Williams 10. Mark Zuckerberg	Top searches for “what is?” 1. what is love? 2. what is energy? 3. what is culture? 4. what is twitter? 5. what is planking? 6. what is 3g? 7. what is skype? 8. what is gluten? 9. what is matariki? 10. what is html?
Top newsmakers 1. Christchurch earthquake 2. Rugby World Cup 3. Japanese tsunami 4. All Blacks 5. iPhone 6. Sonny Bill Williams 7. Cricket 8. China 9. Warriors 10. Apple	Top food searches 1. double down burger 2. red velvet cupcakes 3. pizza 4. macaroon 5. buttercream icing 6. chocolate cupcakes 7. chocolate brownie 8. peanut butter cookies 9. chicken thigh recipes 10. potato bake
Top travel destinations 1. Hawaii 2. Las Vegas 3. New York 4. Hamilton Island 5. Rarotonga 6. Port Douglas 7. Great barrier reef 8. Maui 9. Byron Bay 10. Fiji	Top Kiwi in news search 1. Sonny Bill Williams 2. Richie Mccaw 3. David Tua 4. Hone Harawira 5. John Key 6. Ken Ring 7. Dan Carter 8. Jonah Lomu 9. Graham Henry 10. Robbie Deans

Posted by Johnny Luu, Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Google New Zealand

My Wish for New Zealand - Doodle 4 Google winner annouced

2011-11-11T17:38:00.002+13:00

After receiving around 2500 doodles from students from across New Zealand, we finally can announce our winning doodle!

Congratulations to Liam Platt of Ponsonby Primary School, whose winning entry was chosen by the original Google doodler Dennis Hwang. Liam’s doodle, which represents his wish for a clean unpolluted environment and the protection of our native creature, will be featured on google.co.nz early next year.

The four age group winners spent yesterday at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Olivia, Liam, Vida and Lucia were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the gallery and its collections with Meg, their tour guide. The four even had time for some doodling in the gallery’s learning centre.

The young doodlers were also shown a special gallery which is exhibiting their own framed doodle artworks. Their doodles will be displayed throughout the month of November for everyone to see.

Thank you to all our thousands of doodlers from across New Zealand, and look out for Liam’s doodle on our homepage.

Liam Platt and his winning doodle

Four national age-group finalists

Posted by Leticia Lentini, Events Marketing Manager, Google New Zealand

Hundreds of New Destinations for Your Virtual Travel Itinerary

2011-11-02T11:18:00.002+13:00

Over the last few years, Google Maps’ Street View service has helped Kiwis plan out routes to new locations, search for real estate online, and pick out visually memorable meeting spots. But you can also use Street View to travel virtually around the world. Global adventurers once shared their photos of far-away destinations with jealous friends, but now with Street View, those friends can walk around the same foreign lands and see famous tourist destinations like they were right there.

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

We have some good news today for New Zealand’s virtual explorers. We have added hundreds and hundreds of new sites around the world for you to explore, ranging from temples in Taiwan, castles in Ireland, French chateaus, and snowy slopes in North American mountain ranges. You can walk around Italy’s iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa and try to find angles where it looks perfectly straight. Or you can lounge around the poolside at Monaco’s Monte Carlo Bay Resort. For years we have had the streets of Amsterdam on Street View, but now you can also enjoy an all-out full-out recreation of The Netherlands in Nagasaki, Japan at the Huis Ten Bosch Theme Park.

Taiwan Confucius Temple, Tainan, Taiwan

Since most of these partner program collections are not on public streets, Google works closely with the location owners to collect the imagery. And with Street View cars being too big and bulky, we use our Street View Trike, a three-wheeled contraption with a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry. Learn more about the trike here.

Stay tuned for even more imagery launches in coming months. And all the virtual tourists shouldn’t forget that you can also travel the world’s top art museums in our Google Art Project — and even the Moon!

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager, Google Maps, Australia

Tournament ends with Sonny Bill and Dan on a high note

2011-10-31T20:40:00.001+13:00

If the number of Google searches an individual gets is an indicator of popularity, then Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams are at the top of their game – on and off the field!

In a recent search analysis of the tournament’s playmakers, Dan Carter’s groin injury achieved the highest search spike throughout the tournament spanning six weeks, while Sonny Bill Williams achieved the most searches overall, peaking after the opening game “Ripped Shirt” incident.

Searches for Quade Cooper after the Wallabies’ semi-final against the New Zealanders, came in at just 1% under Dan Carter, although Carter was consistently searched more than Cooper over the six weeks.

Deserving captain Richie McCaw peaked in Google searches after Sunday night’s final. IRB Coach of the Year Graeme Henry doesn’t rank at all in the searches, while IRB Player of the Tournament French Thierry Dusautoir only makes the smallest of inroads in search statistics after Les Bleus left the tournament with only second-place medals.

In Google Image searches, Sonny Bill Williams tops searches throughout the tournament by a long way: losing out to Dan Carter only by 4% on October 2 and by 5% after the final, where Carter took the attention of searchers around the world.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world challenged New Zealand in the number of searches for “Rugby”. Fiji is awarded with most searches, with Kiwis searching for the keyword 25% less.

Regional interest in Rugby:

1. Fiji

2. New Zealand

3. South Africa

4. Namibia

5. Ireland

6. United Kingdom

7. Madagascar

8. France

9. Australia

10. Botswana

Posted by Kate Mason, Google Australia and New Zealand Communications

Doodle 4 Google voting open

2011-10-24T13:16:00.002+13:00

Voting has begun to select your favourite Google Doodle. Last week our judges narrowed the thousands of entries to a shortlist of 20. Now is your turn to choose the four national age groups winners.

Voting closes November 2nd.

Posted by Leticia Lentini, Events Marketing Manager, Google New Zealand

Judging Doodle 4 Google

2011-10-18T13:31:00.005+13:00

Earlier this year we announced the popular Doodle 4 Google 2011 competition, which gives New Zealand students the chance to have their version of the Google logo on our homepage and win prizes for their school.

There was excitement in Auckland today as our judges Michael McCormack, Ingrid Berzins and Christa Napier Robertson had the hard job of choosing from 100 finalists to pick our 20 winners. Now it’s up to you to vote for your favourite in each age group and narrow it down to the top four.

(L-R: Christa Napier Robertson, Michael McCormack and Ingrid Berzins)

This year our volunteers who sorted through the 2000 ‘doodles’ that came in were also given a chance to pick their favourite. This special packing room mention goes to 8-year-old Archer Pascoe from Waikari School, who writes about his entry:

“My wish for New Zealand is that we have more kiwis and other native animals and plants. I want it to be kept green and warm. I want to protect our endangered animals. New Zealand is the best place in the world”.

Voting will begin on October 24th so make sure to get voting for your favourite doodle to appear on the Google New Zealand homepage.

To vote for your favourite, visit http://www.google.co.nz/doodle4google.

Posted by Leticia Lentini, Events Marketing Manager, Google New Zealand

Google Earth downloaded more than one billion times

2011-10-06T03:12:00.004+13:00

This is a cross-post from the Google LatLong blog.

How large is one billion? One billion hours ago modern humans were living in the Stone Age. One billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was flourishing. If you traveled from Earth to the Moon three times, your journey would measure one billion meters.

Today, we’ve reached our own one billion mark: Google Earth has been downloaded more than one billion times since it was first introduced in 2005. That’s more than one billion downloads of the Google Earth desktop client, mobile apps and the Google Earth plug-in—all enabling you to to explore the world in seconds, from Earth to Mars to the ocean floor.

We’re proud of our one billion milestone, but we’re even more amazed at the way people have used Google Earth to explore the world. When we founded Keyhole, Inc. back in 2001 (the company was acquired by Google in 2004), we never imagined our geospatial technology would be used by people in so many unexpected ways. At www.OneWorldManyStories.com, we’ve collected stories from people all over the world who use Google Earth to follow their dreams, discover new and distant places, or make the world a better place.

Visit www.OneWorldManyStories.com to learn about people like Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia, who’s used Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Professor Kennedy has discovered ancient tombs and geoglyphs dating back at least 2,000 years, all without leaving his desk in Perth. Architect Barnaby Gunning, after the April 6, 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila Italy, encouraged his fellow citizens to start rebuilding the city virtually in 3D. Their online urban planning will aid city planners and architects. Retired English teacher Jerome Burg created Google Lit Trips, which uses Google Earth to match places in famous books to their geographical locations, encouraging students to create connections between the stories they read in school and the world they live in.

We hope you enjoy the site, and that it illustrates how some of those one billion downloads of Google Earth have been making a difference. You can explore these stories right in your browser with the Google Earth plug-in or download the KML files to view in Google Earth.

If you have a Google Earth story you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you. If you don’t have Google Earth, download it now and be part of the next billion stories. While it’s inspiring to see how Google Earth has touched the lives of so many, we know the best is yet to come.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

M-Lab and Victoria University help New Zealand get better broadband data

2011-09-28T12:01:00.000+13:00

Suddenly, it's taking forever to reach your bank's website. What’s going on? How do you know whether it's a problem with your device, with the service you're trying to access, with the network, or with something else? The answer for a long time was: you don’t.

Measurement Lab (M-Lab) is trying to change that. M-Lab hosts open source tools that consumers access to measure broadband health and performance. Each test run gives consumers real-time information about their connection. And while they help consumers, they also collect rich data for researchers -- over 400 terabytes, available in the public domain, comprising a treasure trove that allows scientists to do deep analysis of the state of broadband networks.

Now, all of this is available in New Zealand. John Hine, Dean of Engineering at Victoria University of Wellington, understood the need for better data broadband data for researchers and consumers. He and his colleagues, working with local Google engineers, helped set up M-Lab servers in Wellington. With servers close enough to ensure accurate results, New Zealanders can now reliably access and run M-Lab's tests, and New Zealand's research community can dig into robust data about local broadband performance and make data-based suggestions on how to improve broadband performance.

Check out the M-Lab tools and see for yourself.

Posted by Josh Bailey, Google Software Engineer

Trying on the new Dynamic Views from Blogger

2011-09-28T11:09:00.000+13:00

As you may have noticed, the Google New Zealand blog looks a lot different today. That’s because we—along with a few other Google blogs—are trying out a new set of Blogger templates called Dynamic Views.

Launched today, Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that makes it easier and faster for readers to explore blogs in interactive ways. We’re using the Magazine view, but you can also preview this blog in any of the other six new views by using the view selection bar at the top left of the screen.

We’re eager to hear what you think about the new Dynamic Views. You can submit feedback using the “Send feedback” link on the bottom right of this page, or just send us some email.

If you like what you see here, and we hope you do, we encourage you to try out the new look(s) on your own blog—read the Blogger Buzz post for more info.

Posted by Kate Mason, Consumer Communications Manager for AU/NZ

Happy third birthday, Chrome!

2011-09-02T09:14:00.000+12:00

This is a cross-post from the Official Google blog.

It’s that time of the year again for the Chrome team, when we pause on our anniversary to reflect on the amazing life and times of the web. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been three years since we launched our open source web browser, Chrome.

In that time, the web community has continued to inspire us, bringing the power of the web into all kinds of apps and experiences, with all modern browsers making great strides in speed, simplicity and security. To pay homage to the goodness of the web, we’ve put together an interactive infographic, built in HTML5, which details the evolution of major web technologies and browsers:

(With thanks to our friends at Hyperakt, Vizzuality, mgmt design, and GOOD)

In our third year, we’ve also brought Chrome's principles of speed, simplicity and security to a new model of computing: the Chromebook. The Chromebook is pure Chrome—a computer built for everything you ever need to do on the web while doing away with all the usual annoyances of an old, slow PC.

Here’s a quick fly-by through the some of the highlights of the past 12 months on the Chrome platform:

Faster and faster

We kick off the Year of the Rabbit with a new compilation infrastructure for the V8 JavaScript engine, codenamed “Crankshaft,” which improves JavaScript performance by up to 66 percent.
Chrome’s new settings interface helps you find the right settings quickly with an integrated search box. It also provides direct links to each settings page, which can be copied and pasted for easy troubleshooting.
The omnibox is improved to better suggest partial matches for webpage titles and URLs.
You can optionally enable Chrome Instant, which shows relevant content in the browser window as you type, before you press Enter.
Chrome’s built-in prerendering technology enables sites to build even faster experiences for their users—such as Instant Pages in Google search, which in some cases makes search results appear to load almost instantly.

Simpler and more accessible

Chrome supports many popular screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver to help visually impaired people better experience the web.
Print Preview, a popular feature request, uses Chrome’s built-in PDF viewer to display the preview, and enables you to save any webpage as a convenient PDF file using the “Print to PDF” option.
Chrome’s icon takes on a simpler look to embody the Chrome spirit, since Chrome is all about making your web experience quicker, lighter and easier for all.

An even more secure platform

Our integrated and sandboxed PDF viewer enables you to view PDF files on the web without installing additional software. Furthermore, we built an additional layer of security around the PDF viewer called a “sandbox” to help protect you from security attacks that are targeted at PDF files.
Adobe Flash Player is sandboxed on Windows, further protecting you from security attacks and malware targeted at Flash content on the web.
Chrome warns you before downloading some types of malicious files with enhanced Safe Browsing technology. In order to protect privacy, malicious content is detected without Chrome or Google ever having to know about the URLs that you visit or the files you download.
To provide greater transparency and control over the data that websites store on your computers, Chrome lets you delete Local Shared Objects created by Adobe Flash Player using the browser’s built-in setting dialogs.

Wowzah, the modern web!

The Chrome Web Store is an open marketplace where you can search for and discover web applications, both free and paid, along with ratings and reviews. Developers can add in-app payments to their apps for a flat 5 percent transaction fee.
Chrome supports WebGL, which brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser with no additional software needed. For a taste of what WebGL can do, check out “3 Dreams of Black,” a 3D music experience for the web browser.
Chrome’s support for the HTML speech input API enables developers to give web apps the ability to transcribe your voice into text. Try it out on www.google.com by clicking on the microphone icon in the search box.
Hardware-accelerated 3D CSS enables snazzier experiences in webpages and apps which use 3D effects.

Delivering a new, simpler model for computing

Chrome is enterprise ready, with an MSI installer and support for managed group policies. Many organizations such as Vanguard and Proctor & Gamble have successfully deployed Chrome to thousands of users in an enterprise setting.
As of this past July, Chromebooks are now available for purchase in eight countries—the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and South Korea. And just like Chrome, the Chromebook always keeps getting better. When you turn your Chromebook on, it updates itself automatically: you get the latest and greatest version of the operating system without having to think about it.

There’s more to come. Keep an eye on the Chrome blog to hear about new features and performance improvements as we continue to ship stable channel updates every six weeks. As always, on both Chrome and Chromebooks you’ll be automatically updated to the new versions as soon as they’re released.

Posted by Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher, Software Engineers

Privacy Impact Assessment for Street View in New Zealand

2011-08-12T12:24:00.001+12:00

Last year, we worked with the Privacy Commissioner to support her investigation into what happened with our mistaken collection of publicly broadcast payload data (information sent over unencrypted WiFi networks) through our Street View cars. When the Commissioner concluded the investigation last year, we committed to working even more closely with her on the privacy implications of our product launches going forward. This blog post is an update on what has happened since that time.

First, you may remember that our ultimate goal was to delete the payload data. We can report that this was completed in February under independent supervision.

Second, one of the commitments we made to the Commissioner was to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) on any further Street View activities in New Zealand. Today we are publishing that PIA. We have carefully considered the potential privacy impact of Street View and how to manage present and future privacy issues.

In summary, we will continue to:

Ensure Street View images are not real time.
Use automated technology to blur faces and licence plates before publishing imagery. If one of our images contains an identifiable face (for example, that of a passerby on the pavement) or an identifiable licence plate, our technology will blur it automatically, meaning that the individual or the vehicle cannot be identified.
Provide the “Report a problem” tool which allows users to request further blurring or removal of any image or let us know if our detectors miss something.

In addition, we have made some changes to our Street View driving process. We removed all WiFi equipment from our Street View cars and will not be collecting any WiFi data via the Street View cars. We have also taken steps to strengthen our internal privacy controls. Last October Google appointed Alma Whitten as our director of privacy across both engineering and product management. Her focus is ensuring that we build effective privacy controls into our products and internal practices. We have also enhanced our privacy training program for employees, and we require every engineering project leader to maintain a privacy design document for each initiative they are working on. This document records how user data is handled and will be reviewed regularly by managers, as well as by an independent internal audit team.

We want to reiterate to New Zealanders that our collection of payload data was a mistake for which we are sincerely sorry. Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and we have to earn that trust every single day.

We are now looking forward to getting Street View cars back on the roads and continuing to provide a product that is useful for all New Zealanders.

Posted by Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Knowledge

Doodle 4 Google 2011 is open! Your Wish for New Zealand doodle

2011-07-25T12:53:00.002+12:00

Today I’m so excited to announce that we’re running our second Doodle 4 Google in New Zealand. We’re inviting school students in years 1-10 to sharpen their pencils, use their imagination and artistic talent to create a Google doodle depicting their vision for “My Wish for New Zealand”. The winning doodle will be shown on the Google homepage for a day for millions of New Zealanders to enjoy.

Since 1998, when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate they were going to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, USA, Google’s team of doodlers has been creating doodles to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous writers and scientists.

This year, we’re really thrilled to have The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki who are incredibly passionate about children’s art and education join us for all the doodling fun. Special judges, including Island Bay artist Michael McCormack, Christa Napier-Robertson from the Auckland Art Gallery and artist and children’s book illustrator Ingrid Berzins will select finalists across four age groups: Grades 1-3; Grade 4-6; Grades 7-8, and Grades 9-10, whose doodles will be shown online. We’ll ask the public to vote on their favourite doodles from each age group and the winners will receive fantastic technology prizes for themselves and their schools, including laptops, interactive whiteboards and $10,000 worth of technology for the National winner’s school. Google’s original doodler, webmaster Dennis Hwang, will select the overall national winner to be shown on the homepage.

During July, we’re sending out information packs to every New Zealand school. To take part, please register your school by 26 August, and all doodles must be submitted by 23 September. Please visit the Doodle 4 Google website for a full listing of all the contest rules and information.

Lucinda Barlow, Head of Marketing, Google Australia and New Zealand

Want to win an Anita Borg Scholarship?

2011-07-08T08:03:00.003+12:00

Dr. Anita Borg devoted her life to revolutionising the way we think about technology and dismantling the barriers that keep women and minorities from entering the computing and technology fields. In honour of Anita's vision, we established the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in 2004, awarding scholarships to women who share her passion for technology. Once again, Google is proud to announce the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in Australia and New Zealand.

Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic background and demonstrated leadership. A group of female undergraduate and graduate student finalists will be chosen from the applicant pool. Each scholar recipient will receive a $5,000 AUD scholarship towards the following academic year. In addition all finalists and scholarship recipients will be invited to an expenses-paid networking retreat to be held at Google’s Sydney Engineering centre.

Who can apply?

Applicants must satisfy all of the following criteria to be eligible:

Be a female student at an Australian or New Zealand university who has completed one or more years of a Bachelors degree with at least one year of study remaining, whether as part of a Bachelors or postgraduate degree.
Be enrolled in full-time undergraduate or postgraduate study at an university or equivalent tertiary institution (please see FAQ for details) in Australia or New Zealand for the following year.
Be studying Computer Science, Software Engineering, Informatics, or a closely related technical field.

Citizens, permanent residents, and international students are eligible to apply. Past applicants and finalists are also encouraged to re-apply. If you have any questions, please email anitaborgscholarsanz@google.com.

For further information on this scholarship and how to apply, check out www.google.com.au/anitaborg .
Deadline to apply: July 31st, 2011.

Thank you for your support and good luck to applicants!

NetHui: the net bringing New Zealand together and catapulting it ahead

2011-07-06T00:40:00.001+12:00

New Zealand is already a forward-thinking digital economy. Its investment in broadband, combined with an open and free internet, has the capacity to catapult New Zealand forward - growing its economy and bringing the world to its doorstep.

Last week, we attended the NetHui in Auckland organised by InternetNZ - a meeting of people who care about the Internet’s effect on New Zealand. The NetHui brought together government, industry, universities, civil society groups and more. It was an opportunity for robust discussion about the potential social and economic benefits of the Internet, as well as some of its challenges.

The forum’s discussions focused on:

how Kiwis can be supported to be active and empowered digital citizens;
the challenges posed by the internet on issues such as censorship and copyright;
the benefits of open government and making information available to the public; and
the internet’s potential to increase access to a diverse range of content and services.

Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig was there and he delivered a compelling keynote, which received a standing ovation. Lessig discussed how equality on the Internet causes people to feel entitled to engage - and that yields change in different ways by stimulating innovation and invigorating the sharing and creation of culture. You can see the full version of his keynote on YouTube: it’s a fascinating insight into the great power of the internet as an equaliser of society and a catalyst for change.

Posted by Ishtar Vij and Matt Dawes, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google Australia and New Zealand

The +1 button launches in New Zealand

2011-06-28T12:16:00.003+12:00

Back in March, we announced the +1 button on search results in English on Google.com - a way for you to recommend content to your friends, contacts and the rest of the world directly from Google search results and ads. Today, 1+’s will start appearing on Google’s search results in New Zealand.

Just like on Google.com, the +1 button allows you to recommend a news article, your favourite brand of sandals or an attraction you visited with a single click.

The +1 button will appear next to each search result

After pressing the +1 button, you have the option to undo the action immediately

Say, for example, you’re planning a trip to London. If you are searching for a hotel, we may show you +1’s from your globe-trotting friend. Or if you’re looking for things to do on a sunny day, we may show you +1’s from your food-loving cousin next to the result for a gourmet market.

But +1s aren’t only for search results. You will also see +1 appear on sites large and small across the Internet. Website owners can implement the +1 button on their site within minutes.

How do we know which +1’s to show you? We use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example).

To get started +1’ing the stuff you want to recommend, you’ll need to create a Google profile. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. To see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account.

We believe that +1, combined with all of the social content we’re now including in search globally, will mean even better, more relevant results than you get today.

Posted by Kate Conroy, Product Specialist

Showcase your business with a 360-degree perspective

2011-05-18T15:48:00.001+12:00

This is a cross-post from the Google Australia blog

The George Hotel, South Melbourne.

Last week we launched Business Photos in Australia and New Zealand, a new use of Street View technology where businesses can let people who visit their Places pages walk virtually into their restaurants or shops.

With our Business Photos pilot, we’ve been busy photographing businesses, with their permission, to highlight the qualities that make their locations stand out.

We can look at Melbourne, the city of alleyways and arcades, as a great example of how you can research shops, restaurants and bars right from your computer or smartphone. Looking for a birthday cake? You can have a look at the desserts right up close at the Melbourne Bake House. Researching where to hang out with some mates? You can take a peek inside the Railway Hotel. You can even admire the baby grands at Melbourne Piano Sales!

With this pilot, you'll begin to see additional photo experiences on the Place pages of a growing number of businesses. As additional imagery becomes available for more locations in the coming months, you’ll also be able to enter the interior perspective of businesses directly from the Street View images of nearby roads on Google Maps.

We’re continuing this program with businesses in select cities in the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, South Korea, and France. If you would like to highlight your business to Google Maps users, please visit the Business Photos site to learn more and apply.

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager for Google Maps.

3D dreams in the modern browser

2011-05-16T16:01:00.000+12:00

This is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog

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 albumROME, 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

Young Kiwis take their science project global

2011-05-10T14:30:00.001+12:00

Two young Kiwis, Jun Bing and Alec Wang, are global semi-finalists in the Google Science Fair.

The team entered a project in the competition to research, design and develop a working model of a device capable of filtering out carbon dioxide from car exhausts. Their aim is to reduce the rate of climate change due to global warming and the greenhouse effect by reducing a significant proportion of the global CO2 emissions.

They are among 60 projects that were selected from a pool of over 7500 entries from more than 90 countries around the world. Their project is included among innovative and engaging entries on a wide range on topics from cancer treatment to renewable oceanic energy to aeronautic auto-pilot algorithms.

You can see the semi-finalists at google.com/sciencefair and vote for your favourite Google Science Fair project. The team or individual with the most votes will win the People’s Choice Award and bring home a $10,000 scholarship. Public voting will only be open until 20 May 2011 so make sure to cast your vote today to ensure your favourite project is in the running.

Check back on the 23rd May, 2011 to see which teams will be flown out to Google’s headquarters in California for the final round of judging conducted by our panel of renowned scientists and innovators and the celebratory finalist event.

Posted by Kate Mason, Google Australia

Seven Days of Searching

2011-05-06T16:48:00.002+12:00

In the last seven days, one of the busiest news week of the year, the fastest rising search term on Google worldwide has been “bin laden”. Osama-related searches have rated as the fastest rising search term this year.

Australia and New Zealand have followed this trend, with Osama bin Laden rating as the fastest rising search, followed by the Royal Wedding. In Australia, the Logies made it into the top ten list, and in New Zealand. Auckland’s Albany tornado activity came in a no. 7.

Pippa Middleton is clearly an Aussie and Kiwi favourite, with searches for the Duchess’s sister also coming in above Kate Middleton!

Times have definitely changed: while the only viewing platform for the wedding of Charles and Diana was television back in 1981, last week’s royal wedding had us watching the live stream of the service and procession on YouTube - with the British Monarchy’s official YouTube channel TheRoyalChannel receiving almost 28 million views.

The week leading up to the wedding saw an abundance of royal wedding-related searches including everything from Kate’s dress to Prince Harry. Now, amidst the flurry of post-game analysis, people are focusing on highlights from the day - with the Middleton sisters being a standout in search even a week after the event.

Osama bin Laden and tornado coverage, both being breaking news, have immediately gone straight to the list of breakout searches. The three biggest news stories of the last week have certainly dominated search engine and newsrooms alike.

Fastest rising searches in Australia over the last seven days:
1. bin laden
2. bin laden dead
3. osama
4. osama bid laden
5. osama dead
6. pippa middleton
7. logies
8. royal wedding
9. kate middleton
10. biggest loser

Fastest rising searches in New Zealand over the last seven days:
1. bin laden
2. bin laden dead
3. osama
4. osama bin laden
5. osama dead
6. pippa middleton
7. tornado auckland
8. tornado
9. kate middleton
10. royal wedding

Posted by Kate Mason, Google Australia