Official Google Australia Blog

Modifications to the Google Books settlement

2009-11-14T16:12:00.002+11:00

(Editor's note: This is a cross-post from the Google Public Policy Blog)

Last year, we joined with a broad class of authors and publishers to announce a settlement agreement that would make millions of out-of-print books available to students and readers in every part of the U.S., while forging new opportunities for rightsholders to sell access to their books. Tonight we submitted an amended version of the Google Books settlement agreement to the court.

We've travelled all over the world together with the authors and publishers to talk with people about our agreement, and over the last two months, we've read the many letters and briefs written to the court. We've also had discussions with the Department of Justice about the settlement.

The changes we've made in our amended agreement address many of the concerns we've heard (particularly in limiting its international scope), while at the same time preserving the core benefits of the original agreement: opening access to millions of books while providing rightsholders with ways to sell and control their work online. You can read a summary of the changes we made here, or by reading our FAQ.

We firmly believe in the promise of the agreement, as do our many supporters. As Sergey Brin recently wrote in a recent op-ed, "even if our cultural heritage stays intact in the world’s foremost libraries, it is effectively lost if no one can access it easily."

We're disappointed that we won't be able to provide access to as many books from as many countries through the settlement as a result of our modifications, but we look forward to continuing to work with rightsholders from around the world to fulfill our longstanding mission of increasing access to all the world's books.

You can find more perspectives on the agreement from authors and publishers here and here.

Posted by Dan Clancy, Google Books Engineering Director

Two great hackfest days!

2009-11-12T15:58:00.009+11:00

This is a guest cross post from blog.openaustralia.org

Last weekend, OpenAustralia held its second hackfest at Google's Sydney office. If you haven't come across OpenAustralia.org before, it's a volunteer run website which helps you to find out what your representatives get up to in parliament with the aim of bridging the growing democratic disconnect that many people feel.

This time we went all out with a two day hackfest - 10:30am till 8pm both days. That's over 18 hours of hacking! As well as the venue and a fabulous team of volunteers, which included Tim Ansell, James Polley and Pamela Fox, Google provided lunch and snacks for both days. Thank you to Google for supporting this community!

It was an amazing turnout by an incredibly talented group of people. Over 90 people took part, including a surprise group from CSIRO who happened to be wandering past and dropped in to see what we were up to. We were also delighted to have 30 people take part in the first ever retroactively-named OpenAustralia installfest - installing the development virtual machine onto their laptops, and walking through the first steps showing how they can make changes to the code, test locally, and then submit to our repository on github. During the course of the hackfest, we had half a dozen or so patches pushed to us - we're still working through the process of accepting them all! We also had 40-odd updates to bugs on our tracker.

Photos by Halans. For more fabulous photos by Halans and others see Flickr.

This hackfest was timed to coincide with the Gov2.0 Taskforce MashupAustralia competition, and we encouraged people to work on mashups for the competition, OpenAustralia itself, or any other civic-minded project.

At the same time hacking on MashupAustralia on the weekend was the #melbhack session, organised by Lonely Planet and the GovHack folks.

If people weren't in the mood for hacking, either on a mashup or OpenAustralia, we had presentations and directed hacking sessions scheduled throughout both days. Plenty for all to do.

We gave out small prizes (donated by Google) to some of our favourite mashups created over the weekend. Working demos, however rough, won out over plans, however well-formed.

Our favourite mashup, the "Suburb Matchmaker", was created over the weekend by Raul Alberto Caceres (@totocol), Daniela Fernandez (@danira_98) and Roberto Arias Alegria (@roberto8080). It was particularly impressive that this team met over lunch on the first day and decided on the spot to work together. "Suburb Matchmaker" helps you find the suburb that's right for you by answering some simple questions.

Second place went to the "Frog Census" by Simon Swain (@psi6030). See where and when different frogs have been spotted in South Australia.

The irreverant "Bouncing Teapots" by Dan Bethell (@fxmonkeydan) and Ray Haleblian (@rhaleblian) came third. The "Bouncing Teapots" simulated members of the House of Representatives as teapots falling where the more time they spoke in parliament the more bouncy they were.

We hope that one of these or one the many other projects that were worked on over the weekend will win the MashupAustralia competition!

To follow OpenAustralia's progress and find out when we'll be running the next Hackfest near you please read our blog, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or join our community mailing list on Google Groups!

This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.

Guest posted by Matthew Landauer, Co-founder of OpenAustralia.org

Locking SafeSearch

2009-11-12T13:40:00.003+11:00

This is a cross post from the Official Google Blog

When you're searching on Google, we think you should have the choice to keep adult content out of your search results. That's why we developed SafeSearch, a feature that lets you filter sexually explicit web sites and images from your search results. While no filter is 100% accurate, SafeSearch helps you avoid content you may prefer not to see or would rather your children did not stumble across. We think it works pretty well, but we're always looking for ways to improve the feature.

Today we're launching a feature that lets you lock your SafeSearch setting to the Strict level of filtering. When you lock SafeSearch, two things will change. First, you'll need to enter your password to change the setting. Second, the Google search results page will be visibly different to indicate that SafeSearch is locked:

Even from across the room, the coloured balls give parents and teachers a clear visual cue that SafeSearch is still locked. And if you don't see them, it's quick and easy to verify and re-lock SafeSearch.

To use SafeSearch lock, go to the "Search Settings" page on Google. For detailed instructions, check out this video.

We hope you and your family find exactly what you’re looking for in Google search results — and nothing more.

Posted by Posted by Pete Lidwell, Product Manager and Aaron Arcos, Engineer

Congratulations to our 2009 Doodle 4 Google winners!

2009-11-12T12:00:00.010+11:00

What an amazing day we had at Google's Australia headquarters on Tuesday. Thirty-two talented young artists from every state and territory in Australia flew to join us for a day of celebrating their achievement at being selected as the winners of the 2009 Doodle 4 Google Australia competition, which asked kids to draw a Google doodle showing their 'Wish for Australia'.

From more than 5,500 individual entries, our 32 wonderful winners had first been selected as one of 320 finalists, and then impressed our judges (Ken Done, Anne Geddes, and Hugh Evans) enough to be selected to come to Sydney for a day of Googley fun.

Every one of the young artists impressed us with both their obvious artistic talent, but also their wonderful attitudes and interest and passion for Australia's future. They asked fantastic questions throughout the day, as they learned about the history of the Sydney Opera House in a fun behind-the scenes tour; heard from inspiring humanitarian Hugh Evans about his wish for Australia and the world; and saw first hand the way that Google's original doodler Dennis Hwang creates his iconic artworks.

Nearly 80,000 Australians voted for their favourite Google Doodles over the last few weeks, and we revealed the winners after a jaunty trip down from Google HQ led by gypsy band Kush.

The four national age group winners are:

Ferryn Sutantio, Mill Park Heights Primary School, Mill Park VIC (Years 1-3)
Jessie Du, Rydalmere East Public School, Ermington NSW (Years 4-6)
Darcy McBean, Kormilda College, Katherine NT (Years 7-8)
Emilie Tan, St Ursula's College, Toowoomba QLD (Years 9-10)

Then came one of the big moments of the day ... finding out which Google doodle would be seen by millions of people around Australia and the world on Australia Day next year. Dennis Hwang, selected Jessie Du's doodle "Australia Forever" to appear on the page, and he complemented her on the real warmth in her drawing. We can't wait to see it on the homepage next year in all its glory - congratulations Jessie.

To everyone who entered Doodle 4 Google Australia 2009 - thank you for sharing your talent and enthusiasm with us. Doodle 4 Google is one of the highlights of our year, and you guys really made it special for us. Keep doodling!

Posted by Leticia Lentini, Doodle 4 Google team

Googlers pose for Street View camera

2009-11-06T14:28:00.008+11:00

We recently announced that our Street View fleet would be back on public roads across Australia this month to capture new and better imagery of our country's beautiful cities, beaches, and dusty roads.

What better way to kick this off than to start with a little fun at our Google Australia headquarters in Sydney? This morning, about 300 Googlers in our Pyrmont office lined the park next to our office to welcome the Street View camera (and get our 15 minutes of fame). When the imagery goes up sometime next year, you'll be able to spot all kinds of props - blow-up toys, signs, exercise balls - and acrobatics - handstands and human pyramids. You may also see a few Googlers trying to catch the car on their scooters.

It's become a Google tradition to pose for our Street View cars when they drive-by our offices around the world. For this occasion, we won't blur our faces, though we normally blur faces and license plates in our Australian Street View imagery.

For a sneak peak of our Street View shots, check out the photos from our neighbours at the Sydney Morning Herald (you may spot a few of their faces too).

Posted by Deborah Singer, Communications Team

Transparency, choice and control — now complete with a Dashboard!

2009-11-05T21:17:00.003+11:00

This is partially cross posted from the Official Google Blog

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard. Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account? The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.

Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users. Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data. In the past, we've taken numerous steps in this area, investing in educating our users with our Privacy Center and making it easier to move data in and out of Google with our Data Liberation Front. Transparency, choice and control have become a key part of Google's philosophy, and today, we're happy to announce that we're doing even more.

In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings. Today, the Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more. The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we're delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this — and we hope it will become the standard. Watch this quick video to learn more and then try it out for yourself at www.google.com/dashboard.

Posted by Alma Whitten, Software Engineer, Yariv Adan, Product Manager, and Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products and User Experience

Supporting SOSO campaign to combat cyber bullying

2009-11-03T14:12:00.003+11:00

Today we hosted the launch of a new campaign to help teens combat cyber bullying. The campaign, called Cyber Bullying Affects Real Lives, is part of the Smart Online, Safe Offline (SOSO) social initiative from the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN).

At Google, we believe that education is vital for combating cyber bullying and we're proud to support the SOSO campaign through YouTube. YouTube is a great platform for reaching teens and speaking to them in a medium they understand.

It was very impressed to see NAPCAN involve young people in all aspects of developing their campaign. Although we all have a responsibility to prevent and combat cyber bullying, the most powerful impact will come from teens themselves.

At today's event I sat on a panel chaired by TV presenter Jennifer Byrne and alongside Dr Toni Noble, senior lecturer in Education and Psychology at the Australian Catholic University, and three teenagers who starred in the campaign video Esra Isak, Isobel Wilson and Jettson Fawcett. Here are some of the insights into cyber bullying they shared:

Jettson:
Online people say things they don't mean. In person, you get reactions and facial experessions. Online you don't get that; you don't have to face them, you can say more extreme things - there are less consequences online but not for the other person.

Isobel:
Bullies pick on others to try to feel better about themselves. Sarcasm doesn't sound the same online. Once you write things down, the damage is done.

Esra Isik:
Don't be a keyboard hero! Stand up to bullied online!

My message for young people is that you're in control of your online experience. Don't put up with stuff which bothers you - flag inappropriate content if you find it on YouTube, delete comments which bother you on your videos or moderate comments before they go live. You can also disable comments altogether. Think about whether you want to be contacted and by who - you can block this feature altogether or limit to your friends. Keep personal videos private.

Check out our Safety Centre - we have lots of practical advice about being safe and making the most of your online experience.

Posted by Alan Noble, Head of Engineering, Google Australia and NZ

AAPT’s journey to going Google

2009-11-03T09:25:00.002+11:00

(Editor's note: This is a guest post by AAPT COO David Yuile)

As a challenger telco in the competitive Australian market, AAPT has worked closely with Google in the past couple of years to get the most out of the technology opportunities available to us - using search in smarter ways, and using Google Maps and Google Earth when it has made sense as a way to better visualise and plan our operations and communications with customers. These decisions were easy – Google’s technology was leading the way, and we were committed to being at the cutting edge. The decision to ‘go Google’ for our internal IT infrastructure was a tougher decision at a philosophical level than a technical one, because it fundamentally concerned a new way of working within enterprises, but it’s a decision we haven’t regretted. Let me tell you about our journey to go Google.

Feasibility phase
The first, and perhaps most fundamental question we had to answer was around how much control we would have when we adopted more open, social collaborative methods rather than more traditional enterprise methods. The breakthrough for us was in realising that both worlds can exist and people will use the methods that best suit them. With this decision made, we quickly moved on to what the business case would be and what benefits we would gain.

Most of the tangible benefits were in the Gmail and storage arena. However, we were rolling out only Google Video and Google Sites in our ‘Phase 1’, with a view that Gmail would quickly follow. We resolved that Phase 1 was “strategic’ (a euphemism for ‘gut feel’) and would significantly contribute to a more engaged (and hence productive) workforce.

15 days before go-live:
With the business case approved, we moved into implementation mode. Firstly we had to convince our security guys that we were all still safe, and then we started to tackle the old “single sign on” chestnut, believing firmly that we need to embrace ease-of-use as a core principle for this and many other things. It was a really interesting experience, as along with Google we were really educating our security guys on the robustness and security of the cloud, a new area for them.

Next, we moved into the test phase, with about 20 of us. Here, we picked up and solved a few minor issues, such as firewall and monitoring configuration which were pretty confused with the sudden increase in video traffic!

While all this technical stuff was going on, we were busy working away on the “how-we-launch” part and what should the landing page should look like. In line with our internal philosophy to keep things simple and straight-forward, we used a basic landing page and worked on the premise that many people were already familiar with the technology and/or it was so intuitive that little or no training was required. We decided a company-wide announcement and restatement of the internal internet usage policy would suffice.

Perhaps the hardest part of all was preparing the welcome video for the landing page, as I became stuck in the retake loop and ended up trying to use video editor to tidy it…which then chewed up inordinately large amounts of time. Suddenly, the penny dropped and I realised I had forgotten it was meant to be easy to use and it was not meant to be studio quality.

Day of launch
We went live with 1,300 users and, even as I was trying to upload my second video at 7.30am, I realised that several people had already hit the landing page and watched the video. More impressive is that I’m still getting feedback and comments from people about what I post. I think this whole ‘engagement’ thing must be working …

Day 15 after launch
We’ve had loads of videos and sites popping up around all sorts of topics that I never knew about. Personally, I’m sucked in hook, line and sinker with video updates, which are proving a much simpler and quicker way to spread the word (or am I just really saying it saves me writing it down?!).

We’re now looking forward to the next stage, which we’re aiming to accelerate into Phase 2 (Gmail).

Posted by David Yuile, COO, AAPT

And they're racing now ...

2009-11-03T07:11:00.002+11:00

All eyes will be on Flemington racecourse this afternoon, for the 2009 running of Australia's most famous horse race - the Melbourne Cup. It's all about the thrills, the wagers ... and of course, the fashion, which we're celebrating in our special Melbourne Cup 2009 Google Doodle.

If Google search trends are anything to go by, fashion generally noses out horses as a hot search topic ... but today wouldn't be complete without them both. Enjoy the day!

Posted by Katharina Friedrich, product marketing manager

Partnership update: News Digital Media

2009-11-02T09:00:00.003+11:00

We recently renewed our partnership with News Digital Media to deliver targeted advertising across News Digital Media’s sites. The partnership encompasses AdSense for Content and AdSense for Search. (google.com.au/adsense)

AdSense for Content delivers text ads throughout News Digital Media sites that are relevant to the audience and content. Small and large advertisers can target News Digital Media sites to connect with the sites' content and traffic.

AdSense for Search allows News Digital Media to provide Google web search to its visitors, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on its own site search results pages.

Last year, Google's AdSense publisher partners received more than USD $5 billion.

News Digital Media is a vital news and content resource for Australians. By connecting News Digital Media’s sites with our vast base of advertisers, AdSense provides an effective and efficient revenue stream for News Digital Media. We look forward to a successful partnership.

Posted by Ryan Hall, Head of Business Development, Google

Street View update coming to Australia

2009-10-30T13:18:00.004+11:00

Back in August last year, we brought Street View to Google Maps in Australia - helping Aussie Internet users to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of our beautiful country's cities, towns, regions and remote areas.

Since then, Street View has been one of our most used and talked about Google Maps features - having been integrated with real estate sites, appeared in news stories, and used to help both Australians and visitors plan their trips around the country.

But Street View is most useful useful when the imagery is up-to-date and reflective of what you'd see if you visited an area in person ... which is why we're sending the Street View fleet back out on the road.

Starting from next month in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and parts of Tasmania, we'll be doing our best to cover as many of Australia's public roads as we can during this summer. So if you're in the right place at the right time, you might spot one of our clearly marked Street View cars (like the one below) in your neighbourhood.

We also work hard to improve our products as much as we can, and so the images we're collecting this time will be crisper than before - making Street View even more useful when using it to find that restaurant you've forgotten the name of, or when reading street signs on Street View when following driving directions in Google Maps. It will also make our face-blurring technology even more accurate, because faces and license plates will be easier for our blurring technology to recognise.

You can see an example of what we're talking about by checking out the latest Street View imagery collected in Canada ... look at the remarkable fine detail of the stonework on the beautiful Basilique Notre-Dame.

View Larger Map

The new Australian imagery will be available sometime within the next year, and while we don't have a more specific timetable to share right now, we'll be sure to keep you updated on this blog. And in case you were wondering ... unfortunately we can't let you know exactly when we'll be in your street, because it's such a large project and would be too challenging to coordinate. You'll just need to keep the lawn mowed for the next few months! However, you can see what general areas we're in at this site.

If you're ever uncomfortable with an image that appears in Street View, whether in the existing imagery or in the new imagery once it launches, it's a simple matter to have it blurred or removed - simply click 'Report a Problem' at the bottom of any image, and follow the easy steps.

We do have one more Street View update to share, and that's in relation to our policy around storage of Street View images. We retain Street View images on our databases so we can do things like improve our blurring technology, and check our maps against the images so that we don't give you bad driving directions - for example, checking to see if a street has 'no entry' signs.

We announced earlier this month that we will permanently blur images that we retain for internal use within one year of their publication on Street View. This means that, long term, the only copy we keep will be the one in which faces and license plates are blurred. We think one year strikes a good balance between protecting people's privacy and our ability to reduce mistakes in blurring, as well as use the data we have collected to build better maps products.

Stay tuned for more updates over the coming months, and in the meantime, why not use Street View to find a great location for your upcoming summer holiday? I think this spot will do me just fine ...

Posted by Andrew Foster, product manager

More, more, more real estate in Google Maps

2009-10-30T07:58:00.003+11:00

Since we announced a real estate search feature on Google Maps in Australia back in July, we've been working steadily to make it even easier for Australian home buyers and renters to use. At the same time, Google Maps has continued to evolve and improve, and become an even more useful tool for online real estate searching. Here are a couple of things you can look out for next time you visit Maps.

First up, we've made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simply click "Real Estate" from the 'More' button on the top right of any map on Google Maps to discover listings. From there, it's a simple matter to refine your search using the left hand panel - price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and so on. Of course, you can still pan the map and it'll automatically update with more listings.

You'll also notice that Google Maps is now showing even more information about an area as you pan around and zoom in. There are small icons on the map showing the names and location of businesses and prominent features of the neighbourhood. This means that during your home search, you'll be able to tell at a glance just exactly what shops can be found down the road from where you're looking, all without typing!

Finally, we've made it easier to layer your searches over each other. If you're looking for a new place near a primary school, start by searching for "primary school". Then click More, Real Estate to see all available properties nearby overlaid on the same map. Refine your search, and find that perfect 3 bedroom apartment in walking distance of a school.

Of course, these aren't the only resources available for your new home search. You can use Street View on Google Maps to check out the neighbourhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and transit information to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.

We've also been working with a number of organisations across the real estate industry to make even more current real estate listings searchable on Google Maps. You can now find listings for rent and sale from many of the major real estate franchise groups including Ray White, LJ Hooker, First National, Harcourts and Raine & Horne.

Good luck compiling your open home lists today - here's to a fruitful weekend of real estate searching!

Posted by Andrew Foster, product manager

Make your vote count for Doodle 4 Google!

2009-10-29T15:59:00.006+11:00

We've already received thousands of votes for Doodle 4 Google 2009, but if you haven't voted yet, you'd better be quick - voting closes this Friday, 30 October.

Doodle 4 Google asked Australian students from Years 1 through 10 to transform the Google logo to reflect their 'wish for Australia'. We've seen everything from alternative power, to continuing sporting success, to more friendship in schools - it's been incredible to see what young Aussies hope for our country, and the standard of entries has been truly high.

From the thousands of entries received, we picked a long list of 320 entries, from which our judges, Ken Done, Anne Geddes, and Hugh Evans, selected the top 32 to go up for public vote. After voting closes this week, we'll be flying all 32 finalists to Sydney for the grand final event on 10 November, when we'll celebrate the achievements of our top 32, announce our age group winners, and invite Google's original Doodler Dennis Hwang to select the overall winner whose doodle will feature on the google.com.au homepage on Australia Day in 2010, to be seen by millions of people around the world.

We'll post all of the details here so make sure you check back to find out which doodles Australians have voted their favourite. But first we want your vote! Head to www.google.com.au/doodle4google to have your say...

Posted by Katharina Friedrich, Doodle 4 Google team

Promote your videos on YouTube and across the Web

2009-10-28T10:00:00.008+11:00

There are now 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, which means it's no easy task to find the right audience for your video. How does a new band build a fan base and get buzz for their new single? Or how can a top brand test the effectiveness of new ad creative on YouTube? Not every business or video creator can rely on the word-of-mouth that turned Nike's video of Kobe Bryant jumping over an Aston Martin into a worldwide sensation. Sometimes people need a little help discovering what's new and relevant to them.

Today we're launching Promoted Videos, a way to place your video on related pages on YouTube and across the web. It's an advertising program that anyone - from an everyday user to a major brand advertiser - can use to help people discover their video. Promoted Videos will help you find a relevant audience wherever they are on the web, whether it's searching or watching videos on YouTube or browsing across Google's network of publisher sites.

Like Google AdWords, Promoted Video campaigns are targeted by keyword and priced on a cost-per-click basis. Starting today, you can also buy Promoted Videos directly in AdWords, which means it's easier than ever to run your campaigns and drive traffic to your videos. You can place your bids, select where you'd like your videos to appear (on relevant YouTube search results pages, video watch pages, and Google's publisher network), and set daily spending budgets all within the AdWords interface. Our aim is to provide a single destination for your overall Google ad buy, as well as give YouTube advertisers new to AdWords access to additional campaign tools.

We know that many of you want your viewers to visit your website after watching your video, so we've built Call-to-Action overlays into Promoted Videos. Advertisers will be able to add a clickable overlay to their Promoted Videos, allowing them to drive viewers to a website off YouTube. This means you can track the performance of your video and whether your viewers are converting into customers.

We hope that Australian partners of all sizes will take full advantage of this opportunity to grow their audience here and around the world. Visit adwords.google.com.au to get started today or sign up for a webinar to learn more.

Posted by Jay Akkad & Matthew Liu, YouTube Product Managers

Unleashing creativity through AWARD School

2009-10-22T12:29:00.003+11:00

I'm excited we announced a partnership with Google and AWARD School. Google is the new principal sponsor of AWARD School Australia and New Zealand, a 12 week course which teaches copywriters and art directors how to create big advertising ideas.

At Google, we're great believers in the power of technology to empower creativity. There's fantastic creative talent in Australia and New Zealand and the opportunities for this community on the web are vast. I'm delighted to work with AWARD School which has such a long history of nurturing the generation of creative ideas.

Back in August this year, we started exploring what happens when technology meets creativity at Creative Sandbox in Sydney. We're seeing agencies like 303 Group push the boundaries of creativity to deliver awesome results for Harley Davidson on YouTube recently.

I look forward to seeing what the next generation of creative talent in Australia and New Zealand surprises us with.

AWARD School applications open in January 2010. To register and for further information visit www.awardonline.com

Posted by Guy Gibbs, Head of Agency Relations

Guest post: Australia's Mortgage Choice goes Google

2009-10-20T09:52:00.002+11:00

Editor's Note: We're pleased to welcome guest blogger Peter Herrmann, solution architect, Information Technology Department, at Mortgage Choice Limited. Peter led the development of the business case to switch Mortgage Choice to Google, and is project manager and tech lead for the organization-wide deployment of Google Apps. Peter has been working with Mortgage Choice for eight years and has been involved with IT strategy, consulting to internal business units, implementation, migrations, integration and lifecycle for many systems at Mortgage Choice.

Peter has a background in messaging and collaboration technologies and still remembers his delight in getting messages to flow (in 1992) between islands of Lotus Notes, cc:Mail, MS Mail (Windows & Mac), Memo (a mainframe based email system) and MHS (from Novell) during a proof of concept integration he did for a large multinational.

Mortgage Choice, Australia's largest independently-owned mortgage broker, was established in 1992 and operates a franchise-based business model. We have over 1,000 users operating from around 350 locations across Australia.

The Australian mortgage broking industry has undergone a period of significant change and consolidation. In this challenging environment, the ability to scale both up and out while improving our business systems and resources, along with keeping a steady cost base, is critical to growing and strengthening our business.

In IT, we are constantly challenged by the ongoing overhead of installing, upgrading, storing, supporting and maintaining installed software across a geographically dispersed environment.

Prior to our transition to Google Apps, we diligently kept our users' software up-to-date and met system and service SLAs, but simply meeting our service obligations does not necessarily add value! At the end of the day, after buying, running and maintaining our infrastructure and software, our capacity to really add value through innovation was constrained by resource limitations.

By late 2008, with a newly reinvigorated IT strategy taking shape, the Google Apps platform was right in focus. We developed a business case for Google Apps, focusing on the benefits of simplicity (no installed software), choice (access anywhere anytime from any Internet connected device), scalability (growth with a variable cost base) and user happiness (great user experience from modern apps evolved from massive consumer driven input).

During mid-2009, Mortgage Choice ran an initial deployment of Google Apps (Mail, Calendar and Chat) for some 70 users across the country. We used Google Sites for FAQs, feedback forums and spreadsheet forms for polls to get regular user feedback. This was used to continuously improve our change management, communication, migration and support processes and collateral.

At completion of the initial deployment, 91% of users recommended we roll-out Google Apps to the entire organisation. The results also reinforced our IT strategy imperatives to "provide the business with a technology environment that is scalable, flexible, simple to use, leverages modern and emerging technologies and provides users with choice".

Even now, as we roll out to the rest of the organization, we're seeing immediate benefits outside the original project focus of Mail, Calendar and Chat. Users are adopting other Google Apps, such as Google Docs, for collaboration in real time with co-workers and business partners. They're building forms based workflows for their business processes, and have used Google Sites and Google Video to deliver specific on-demand training websites and online manuals. This innovation is taking place organically at the initiative of users and without the requirement for traditional IT involvement or assistance. Furthermore, it has come at no additional cost and at a pace chosen by the initiators.

Since we've "gone Google", we are seeing tangible benefits from adopting Google Apps across the organisation and we expect this to increase as our people - an increasingly mobile workforce - leverage the platform further in future.

Posted by Peter Herrmann, solution architect, Information Technology Department, Mortgage Choice Limited

Australia is going Google ... along with millions of businesses around the world

2009-10-19T12:08:00.003+11:00

Each day, thousands of companies around the world choose to "go Google" — that is, switch to Google Apps. More than two million businesses and 20 million users in over 100 countries and more than 40 languages have adopted Apps for their workplace, and we're happy to welcome companies around the world such as Konica Minolta, Rentokil Initial and TOTO that have just decided to go Google. These companies no longer have to deal with the hassles of managing email servers or rolling out software updates, and their employees now enjoy the convenience of shared documents and calendars, Gmail and more.

In Australia and New Zealand, organisations small and large, from technology companies like Altium and successful SMEs like De Bortoli wines, to state managed enterprises like New Zealand Postal Services Group have made the switch... and well over 1.5 million students in schools across Australia and New Zealand have already 'gone'.

Today, we're excited to support this global momentum with the expansion of the "Gone Google" initiative to additional countries including the U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. We hope our messages — in train stations such as Paddington, La Défense and Shinagawa, at airports Toronto, Dallas and beyond, and in certain spots around Sydney — help companies, schools and other organisations learn all about the benefits of going Google with our enterprise products. Here's a sneak peek at what you can expect around the world:

If you've already gone Google, you can share your company's Gone Google story with us, or use some of our tools to help spread the word about switching to Google Apps. We hope you'll be part of the story.

Posted by Deepak Ramanathan, Google Enterprise team

Our commitment to privacy

2009-10-18T14:34:00.005+11:00

We get asked about privacy a lot. We recently held a roundtable in Australia to discuss Google's approach to privacy. Here is a summary of what we discussed.

Privacy is a pretty modern concept. There was no such thing as privacy when we humans were all living in the same cave. In the post industrial revolution society, a fairly recent phenomenon in human history, each new information and communications technology - such as cameras, newspapers, radio, TV - has brought convenience and great services, and challenged and changed our notions of privacy.

The Internet has given millions of people access to vast amounts of information and created useful tools and services, and it also presents new challenges for protecting people's 'personal information'.

The concept of privacy is subjective and there is no one size fits all privacy standard. For example, people's attitudes towards sharing personal information about themselves online on social networking sites is more relaxed than in a direct face-to-face environment. Moreover, the privacy expectations of a 21 year old university student will be different from those of an 80 year old grandfather.

Online, companies are supremely accountable to their customers. Competition is one click away, and there is more transparency and accountability than ever. We're exposed to intense scrutiny, and that's a good thing.

Google's mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. We pursue innovative ideas and push the limits of existing technology to provide increased access to information. We recognise our responsibility to protect your privacy. We live and die by your trust. We believe it is possible to deliver leading-edge services and to give you control over your personal information.

Google's approach to privacy is founded on transparency, choice and security. We tell you what information we collect and what we do with it, and we build innovative tools and features that put you in control of your information. We don't hold data hostage. We protect your personal information and use it responsibly. We don't sell it, we don't collect it without permission, and we don't use it to serve ads without permission. Education is also important. The Google Privacy Centre, with a wealth of information and videos on each product, is linked directly from the Google home page.

Many Google services, including Search, can be used anonymously - without providing any personally identifying information at all. For products which you use with more personal information such as Gmail, Docs and Picasa, you need to have a Google Account and to log in. Signing in to your Google Account unlocks a personalised experience such as Web History to give you personalised search results based on your activity when you're signed in. We also give you the ability to share information between the services you use in a way that's transparent to you, such as accessing your Gmail contacts from your Google Calendar or adding an event mentioned in an email to your Google Calendar.

We use information in aggregate form in our server logs to work out how people are using Google and to make overall improvements. We don't need personal information to do this. For example, we use our aggregated server logs to figure out when something's not working properly or crashes, what website layouts are the fastest to load in your browser, how many users clicked on a particular ad or search result, or how many search results people click on before they find what they're looking for, as well as to detect spam, click fraud and viruses. There's more detail in this blog post from Hal Varian on how Google uses data.

Finally, we believe that the best privacy protection is in good product design. As the web evolves and our notions of privacy with it, Google will continue to innovate around privacy and build privacy protections into our products from the ground up, as we are doing today with Google Wave.

Posted by Iarla Flynn, Policy Team

Transit directions for Cairns in Google Maps

2009-10-14T15:25:00.004+11:00

Whether you're a resident of Cairns, or planning a visit to beautiful northern Queensland, getting around town just got easier with the launch of Transit information on Google Maps for the city. Using information from Sunbus and Transit Australia Group (TAG), you can easily see information like the nearest bus stop, timetables at different times of the week, and look up directions using only public transport options.

You could use the new service to visit the interestingly named Yorkeys Knob, at the first headland north of Cairns harbour, or to get to the Skyrail, which sounds like an incredible tourist experience. Don't forget you can also check out updated map and satellite imagery of the islands, reefs, cays and rocks of the Great Barrier Reef in Google Maps - another great tool for planning a trip to the winter-less north.

TAG are the first Queensland public transit agency to launch Google Transit, and they'll be kicking it off in Cairns before rolling it out to other towns like Townsville, Rockhampton and Magnetic Island. It's great to see such a tourism-focused region putting the latest technology in place to help visitors get around easily and safely via public transport - and while making it easy for residents to choose 'green' commuting options.

We're excited to see Google Transit come to more and more Australian cities, and look forward to working with other transit agencies to make that happen.

Posted by Bryan Landsiedel, senior technical account manager, Google Australia

OpenAustralia Hackfest in Google Sydney

2009-10-14T09:44:00.002+11:00

We're delighted to host the OpenAustralia Hackfest - The MashupAustralia Edition on 7-8 November in Google's office in Sydney. It's a free all-weekend hacking competition where you get to build cool applications using data from data.australia.gov.au, with the chance to win prizes, including a $10,000 first prize.

I've been banging on for ages about the benefits of freeing public sector information such as public transport data and making it accessible to all. Information is more powerful when it's set free and PSI is publicly funded, intended for public consumption and of great benefit to society.
I'm particularly excited about what Open Australia is doing to make our democracy more accountable by making Parliamentary records more accessible to Australians. There's no better way to show the value of opening up government data than by creating a practical demonstration and I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Posted by Alan Noble, Head of Engineering

Google Chrome now with Australian artist themes

2009-10-06T11:14:00.004+11:00

We're always keen to share updates about our browser Google Chrome. This past month, we launched a new stable release with speed improvements and updates to key features, as well as a little something extra to make your browser pop: themes. Today, we're excited to build on this initial splash of color. We've invited leading artists, architects, musicians, illustrators, filmmakers and fashion and interior designers from around the world to create artwork for an unusual canvas: the modern web browser.

The result? Artist themes for Google Chrome, a fusion of art and technology, with a hundred artist themes that we hope will enrich and personalise your web browsing experience.

We're honoured to have had the opportunity to work on this project with two of Australia's most celebrated designers - Akira Isogawa and Carla Zampatti. We'd like to thank Akira and Carla for lending their vision, imagination and hard work to this collaboration, and we think you'll enjoy the beautiful Chrome themes they developed for us.

Further afield, we've been lucky enough to collaborate with artists including Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Karim Rashid, Jonathan Adler, Oscar de la Renta, Anita Kunz, Tom Sachs, Kate Spade, Donna Karan, Kid Robot, Casey Reas, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Graves, Todd Oldham, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Mariah Carey.

If you haven't tried Google Chrome recently, download the latest version and give the artist themes a whirl. If you're already using Google Chrome, check out the themes gallery and try on your favorite Artist Themes.

Posted by Jason Chuck, head of marketing for Google Australia and New Zealand

Google climate change tools for COP15

2009-09-23T07:05:00.002+10:00

(Editor's note: this is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog)

In December of this year, representatives from nations around the globe will gather in Copenhagen to discuss a global agreement on climate change. The objective is to reduce global warming emissions sufficiently in order to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change and to support the global community in adapting to the unavoidable changes ahead. Denmark will act as host for this fifteenth Conference of the Parties under the United Nations’ Climate Change Convention, known as COP15.

In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of Google Earth layers and tours to allow you to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet and the solutions for managing it. Working with data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we show on Google Earth the range of expected temperature and precipitation changes under different global emissions scenarios that could occur throughout the century. Today we are unveiling our first climate tour on Google Earth: "Confronting Climate Change," with narration by Al Gore. Stay tuned for more tours in the coming weeks!

Together with the Danish government, we're also launching our YouTube COP15 channel. On the channel, you can submit your thoughts and questions on climate change to decision-makers and the world through an initiative called "Raise Your Voice." These videos will be broadcast on screens around the conference in December and rated by viewers of the channel. The top-rated contributions will be aired globally during the COP15 CNN/YouTube debate on December 15th, and the top two submissions will win a trip to Copenhagen. We look forward to seeing your videos

Posted by Justin Baird, Google Australia

Why are pirates called pirates? They just arrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2009-09-18T10:21:00.002+10:00

Arrrrr me hearties! Stow the hatches and grab ‘yer mates for a grand ole' time! Saturday rings in the 8th annual International Talk like a Pirate Day. Here are our top ten tips for helping you unleash your inner buccaneer.

Become immersed in pirate language. Go to your Google preferences page and switch your default language to “Pirate”. Back in 2008, Google realised that our products were not accessible to a large, influential and notoriously quick-tempered community - pirates! We quickly remedied this with the “Pirate” language option. Then check out the “Google Searrrch” or the “I Be Feelin’ Lucky” buttons. If you get good enough at navigating around in 'Pirate', one day you might graduate to this special keyboard.

Find a mentor. Watch or re-watch Pirates of the Caribbean for a bit of Jack Sparrow inspiration. Johnny Depp’s infamous character takes you on a cursed adventure through the high seas - a great way to get in the mood. Check out the search spikes among Australians when the two Pirates of the Caribbean movies came out.

Get a name. Be creative and remember a name is nothing without an act! So get your accent on Red Beard, and find your very own pirate name.

Assemble a crew. A pirate without a crew is a lonely man. Nothing but a scurrvy dog. Gather like-minded scallywags to support your adventures.

Look the part. Get yourself an eye-patch, a bandana, a plastic sword or even a toy parrot. In order to be the part, you have to look the part. Ripped shorts are a must, and a dirty mop is a great accessory to any pirate outfit.

Learn phrases. Speak the part by using phrases such as “Shiver me timbers!” and “Heave ho me hearties!” Here is your first talk like a pirate lesson.

And, never enunciate them. “You are” and “he is” are not words you will ever hear from a pirate. They mutter and slur their words together. In fact, they often say things that make no sense at all, but they always say it with the utmost conviction - like "Me'n'these here scurvy drivelswiggers drug our sorry keesters out t'th' 'orlop and had us a grand adventarrrrr!"

Embellish. True pirates are larger than life, so embellish at will. A pirate’s whale-of-a-tale is never tall enough! It’s the one day a year that the fish really was that larrrge.

Drink up. Why not try some of your very own drink ideas? Pirate punch, anyone? In a large bowl, mix 1 part pineapple juice, 1 part orange juice concentrate, 2 parts lemonade. All that citrus will help you fight off the scurrvy.

Growl and scowl often. Pirates have seen it all and they are not cultured or graceful. Here 'arr a few examples.

Posted by Davey Jones, Google Australia

Google for the Public Sector lands in Oz

2009-09-16T19:04:00.006+10:00

The Australian public sector has a great track record of embracing the web. Australia was the first country to launch a Google election site in 2007, the NSW government map makes public spending more transparent, and the recently announced Government 2.0 taskforce has been charged with accelerating Government onto the web.

Australians spend more time online than on any other media, and more people access government information online than in any other way. The Internet makes government more transparent and accountable and has opened up communication between politicians and their constituents.

In this spirit Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, tonight launched Google for the Public Sector, www.google.com.au/publicsector, a guide to the tools and best practice for the public sector to reach, communicate and engage with their communities.

Many of these products are used by governments around the world to:

Foster direct and open communication (YouTube, AdWords, Blogger)
Encourage participation in public debate (Moderator)
Tap into the public pulse (News Alerts, Insights for Search)
Target and maximise online presence (Webmaster tools, Analytics)
Lead the shift to cloud computing (Apps, Enterprise)

To see these tools in action:

Posted by Iarla Flynn, Head of Public Policy

The YouTube generation? Looks like us.

2009-09-16T09:13:00.003+10:00

Cross post from the YouTube Australia blog

We wanted to find out more about Australians on YouTube so we did some research and surveyed over 3,000 Aussie YouTubers... turns out the YouTube generation is as diverse as the Australian population. Here is what we found:

We're large and diverse

Includes all the family - 14-17 year olds only make up 7% of Australian YouTube users, 18-29 = 32%, 30-39 = 20%, 40-49 = 18%, 50-59 = 13% and 60+ = 10%
Are workers, students, stay-at-home mums and retirees - 57% are working, 19% are stay at home, and only 15% are studying
Encompasses all life stages - 55% are married, 35% are single and 9% are divorced
Are not just techies and nerds - 61% of YouTube users are not tech-savvy

We're active and engaged

86% of the community say YouTube is their favourite place to watch videos and 63% agree YouTube is one of their favourite websites
79% stay longer than they intended (on average 1 hour and 09 mins per week).
62% visit at least once a week
47% share videos when they find a video which they love
86% spend time on YouTube for entertainment
2 out of 3 people do more than just watch videos in YouTube
20% uploaded video

We watch a broad range of content:

Posted by Jason Chuck, Marketing team