Modern advice for parents-to-be

Ten years ago, when you named a new child, you just needed to make sure the moniker was easy to spell and didn't rhyme with "smelly" or any other schoolyard taunt. But now, you've got to consider the search engine effect: is the name easily located via a Google search, or will your kid be confused with a multitude of John Smiths?

The solution? A unique name for which the only possible search results would be related to your child. But not actually "unique," since Social Security records tell us that 239 girls named Unique were born in 2002 (scroll down to "popularity of a name"). Imagine a baby boy named "Angus Katzenjammer." He'd have a wide open field since that search currently doesn't return any results. Or perhaps a young lass is named "Humid Lipstocking." With the exception of Google helpfully asking "did you mean Humid Lipsticking," it would be perfect.

In reality, you don't need to be famous or have a weird name to increase the odds of appearing in Google's search results. Just start a blog or build a website and you should eventually find yourself in our index. In an interesting twist on self promotion, some people have even bought AdWords ads which would result in the display of small text ads next to search results for their name. Yes - it is truly a brave new world.

Hunter Walk
(cursed by having a name consisting of two real words)
AdSense Partner Manager

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Google Desktop Search security

Nothing is more important to us than the security of the products we offer to our users. So we'd like to thank Professor Dan Wallach and his Rice University students, Seth Fogarty and Seth Nielson, for discovering and reporting a small flaw that existed in Google Desktop Search. When Desktop Search showed personal computer search results as part of users' overall web search results, there was a security hole that conceivably could have allowed a malicious site to access small portions of that information. To our knowledge, nobody was actually affected by this problem, and if you're currently using Desktop Search, your machine has been automatically updated with a software fix that ensures the security of your personal information. You can confirm this by going to the Desktop Search home page and clicking the "About" link. On the About Desktop Search page, you'll see that you're now using Beta 121004, which contains the security update. Finally, you can keep track of all the Google Desktop Search releases here.

Nikhil Bhatla
Product manager, Google Desktop Search

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It's the thought that counts

Feel that hot breath on the back of your neck? That's the deadline for holiday shopping drawing closer, closer, ever closer. Panic not. Google will help. We've packaged all our software tools into a convenient holiday keepsake that fits nicely into a stocking or adds a festive touch to that new computer you're giving your beloved. It's absolutely free to download, free to install and free to use, so no mucking about with gift receipts. There's Google Desktop Search and the Picasa photo organizer and the Google Toolbar and the Google Deskbar -- a veritable cornucopia of time-saving Google products for the PC. And it's all yours for the giving with just one click. We've even provided festive gift certificates and handcrafted packaging artwork so you can burn your own gift CD. The Gift of Google is appropriate for all ages and connection speeds. Batteries not included.

Doug Edwards
Google Blog Team

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All booked up

Some of us admit to a misspent youth lurking in libraries, devouring books on anything from "the survival of the fittest" or the explorations of Lewis and Clark to the essence of philosophy or Victorian detective yarns. This immersion has made us certain of one thing: there are a million and one books are out there waiting to be found (tens of millions, by some counts) - but library collections just aren't that easy to search.

Which is why we are thrilled to begin scanning book collections belonging to the University of Michigan, Harvard. Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library, so that they become more searchable.

We launched the first part of Google Print in October to make the world of books more discoverable. The thing is, most books in the world are out of print. By working with libraries as well as publishers, we'll have access to millions of books, including many unique volumes that haven't been read in years. Soon a new generation will be able to discover them too.

Joseph O'Sullivan, Software engineer
Adam M. Smith, Business product manager
Google Print team

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I've got a suggestion

Today we launched Google Suggest, a new Labs project that provides you with search suggestions, in real time, while you type. We've found that Google Suggest not only makes it easier to type in your favorite searches (let's face it -- we're all a little lazy), but also gives you a playground to explore what others are searching about, and learn about things you haven't dreamt of. Go ahead, give it a spin.

The project stemmed from an idea I had a few months ago, and since then I've been working on it in my 20% time, which is a program where Google allows their employees to devote 20% of their working hours to any project they choose. What's really amazed me about this project is how in a matter of months, working on my own, I was able to go from a lunch table conversation to launching a new service. In my opinion, this is one of the things that really makes Google a great place; that the company's systems, resources and, most important, people are all aligned to make it as easy as possible to take an idea and turn it into something cool.

Plus, we have Segways.

Kevin Gibbs
Software Engineer

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News happens everywhere

And so should news websites. So we've launched seven new editions of Google News; franchise operations, if you will, offering the usual wide (and occasionally startling) variety of stories which our computers think you'll be particularly interested in reading if you happen to live in, or otherwise care intensely about, Argentina, Chile, Canada Français, México, Österreich, Schweiz or Suisse. Vive la difference.

Michael Krantz
Google Blog Team

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Continuing the mission

Recently we relocated to Japan to take on the challenge of extending Google's global engineering organization by opening a new R&D center in Shibuya, Tokyo (co-located with the existing sales office). We've both been at Google for many years and hope to use our experience to transfer our culture and technical knowledge to a new place with a new group of engineers. It will be an exciting adventure. Just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike, over the years, we expect the Tokyo office will develop its own variation of Google's engineering culture.

Last week we officially opened our doors, and celebrated the occasion with a series of open houses (see pictures below), hosting more than 300 students, professors, researchers, professional engineers, media, and partners. Our goal here is the same as all the other engineering locations (Hi Bangalore! Hi Zurich!) - recruit great engineers from a diverse set of backgrounds (not just search!), give them a fun and exciting work environment and freedom to explore their ideas, and then watch them create innovative technology that impacts the world. If you, or your friends, think you might be a good fit for our Tokyo organization and enjoy a new adventure, drop us a note (with resume) at jobs@google.com or take a look at our jobs page.


Howard Gobioff, PhD
Mizuki McGrath
Engineering Directors
Tokyo R&D Center

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