No Nieuws is bad news

Posted by Luuk van Dijk, Zurich Tech Team

Last week, we launched 10 new versions of Google News. Now, Google Nieuws is available in Dutch for the Netherlands, and furthermore, news readers in Belgium can get country-specific news in either Dutch or French. We also released English-language versions of Google News with news targeted for Ireland and South Africa, and Spanish-language versions of Google News were released for Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Venezuela, and the U.S.

We're proud of each new country, language, and feature we release, and Dutch engineers on the Google News team have been especially motivated by this launch: now we in Zurich and in Mountain View can finally keep up via Google News with what's happening at home. Even more important, since we're sworn to secrecy during much of pre-launch product development, we're relieved that we now can answer when friends and family ask what it is we actually work on.

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TechnoServe comes to Google

Posted by Posted by Bruce McNamer, President and CEO, TechnoServe.org

The Google Foundation supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of global poverty in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. From time to time we invite guest bloggers from grantee organizations to tell their story.

TechnoServe helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build successful small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that benefit the world’s poor. (Watch our video here.) We provide a hand up, rather than a handout.

Recently, I spent several hours with Googlers who wanted to know more about what TechnoServe is doing in West Africa. I couldn’t help but notice the great, positive energy among Google employees -- a sense that motivated, imaginative, smart people can change the world.

TechnoServe’s engagement with Google involves using business to improve the lives of the world’s poor. SMEs are a major driver of sustained economic growth, creating a ripple effect that creates jobs, boosts incomes and leads to improved social services. But even though they can help reduce poverty, SMEs are precisely what the developing world lacks. These countries are home to many visionary entrepreneurs who are capable of launching and growing successful businesses. But they need help – to make sure their business ideas make sense, to plan and manage their enterprises, to find markets and financing, and to overcome technical challenges.

That’s where TechnoServe comes in. Since its founding, we have helped to create or improve more than 1,200 businesses, benefiting millions of people in 23 countries. We identify entrepreneurial men and women and then guide them in planning, marketing, operating and expanding businesses that are likely to succeed and help the poor. We then leverage these lead entrepreneurs to replicate and/or scale up their businesses and grow competitive, self-sustaining industries. Where necessary, we also tackle constraints in the industries’ enabling environments.

To complement all of this, we also run programs that promote a culture of entrepreneurship. One activity is business plan competitions, which help entrepreneurs turn good ideas into solid businesses. We have run these in Latin America and are now launching them in Africa. And that’s where the Google Foundation comes in: it’s helping us run a business plan competition in Ghana this year. All qualified entrants will come away with valuable business training. The winners will also receive vouchers for aftercare services to help them launch or expand their businesses, and 10 winners will also receive cash.

We’re looking forward to having Googlers actively engaged in this project. Our two entrepreneurially-focused organizations have joined forces, which we believe will lead to sustainable solutions for poverty alleviation.

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All buttoned up

Posted by Othman Laraki, Product Manager, Google Toolbar team

As the Google Toolbar has gotten more popular, the greatest source of ideas about new features has come from our users. The breadth and variety of these requests is so large that it's hard to satisfy everyone. But then we started noticing engineers on the team had cool hacks on their Toolbars for doing customized searches on our internal bugs database, corporate employee directory, etc... We were barely done asking ourselves whether it was possible to offer this capability in the new Google Toolbar beta when one of the engineers started designing a feature called Custom Buttons. Here are some of the coolest aspects of Custom Buttons and why I think they're a big deal:

1) Simple API: The term API is almost a misnomer -- it literally takes seconds to make one of these. I just can't resist the urge to make a new one every time I run into new website. A couple of simple steps and voila - a new button's sitting on your Toolbar (check out the Getting Started Guide).

2) Flexibility: The simple inclusion of RSS & Atom feeds (and particularly allowing the update of toolbar button icons through feeds) has allowed for buttons like a weather button and a mood ring button.

3) Accessibility: Most users don't even need to make buttons. It takes one click on our buttons gallery or on a website that offers them to install a button for your favorite sites. And the custom buttons we built to search our intranet showed us how valuable a customizable toolbar can be to organizations, so now there's an enterprise version of Google Toolbar that can be securely deployed across a company.

And don't miss some of the other cool features for everyone: a greatly-improved search box for formulating better queries; a streamlined bookmarking interface; and Send-To, for posting or sending content via Gmail, Blogger or SMS.

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Picasa x 25

Posted by Sanne Su San Lim, Picasa Localization Lead

You love taking photos. You love your photo collection on your computer. But your options have been limited if there's no easy-to-use photo software available in your language. So if you lived close to Wieliczka, Pulau Seribu or Wat Phra Kaeo, you were stuck with English-only.

But no more! The team behind Picasa has now added 25 new interface languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Tagalog, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Catalan, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

All of these languages are one click away. Just download Picasa, and it will automatically match your system's native language. If you wish to change your Picasa language, go to Tools > Options and use the pull-down menu on the "General" tab. (You'll need to close and re-open Picasa to see your new language selection take effect.)

Shouldn't you be able to organize your photos no matter where you are and what language you speak? Of course.

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Google in China

Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel

Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our Google News service is never available; Google Images is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.

This problem could only be resolved by creating a local presence, and this week we did so, by launching Google.cn, our website for the People's Republic of China. In order to do so, we have agreed to remove certain sensitive information from our search results. We know that many people are upset about this decision, and frankly, we understand their point of view. This wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, we believe the course of action we've chosen will prove to be the right one.

Launching a Google domain that restricts information in any way isn't a step we took lightly. For several years, we've debated whether entering the Chinese market at this point in history could be consistent with our mission and values. Our executives have spent a lot of time in recent months talking with many people, ranging from those who applaud the Chinese government for its embrace of a market economy and its lifting of 400 million people out of poverty to those who disagree with many of the Chinese government's policies, but who wish the best for China and its people. We ultimately reached our decision by asking ourselves which course would most effectively further Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. Or, put simply: how can we provide the greatest access to information to the greatest number of people?

Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that.

No, we're not going to offer some Google products, such as Gmail or Blogger, on Google.cn until we're comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications. And yes, Chinese regulations will require us to remove some sensitive information from our search results. When we do so, we'll disclose this to users, just as we already do in those rare instances where we alter results in order to comply with local laws in France, Germany and the U.S.

Obviously, the situation in China is far different than it is in those other countries; while China has made great strides in the past decades, it remains in many ways closed. We aren't happy about what we had to do this week, and we hope that over time everyone in the world will come to enjoy full access to information. But how is that full access most likely to be achieved? We are convinced that the Internet, and its continued development through the efforts of companies like Google, will effectively contribute to openness and prosperity in the world. Our continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.

We're in this for the long haul. In the years to come, we'll be making significant and growing investments in China. Our launch of google.cn, though filtered, is a necessary first step toward achieving a productive presence in a rapidly changing country that will be one of the world's most important and dynamic for decades to come. To some people, a hard compromise may not feel as satisfying as a withdrawal on principle, but we believe it's the best way to work toward the results we all desire.

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Watching NBA Games on Google Video

Posted by Nelson Cheng, Business Product Manager by day, Sports Enthusiast by night

I first started following basketball during the era of Michael, Magic, and Larry, arguably three of the top 10 NBA players of all time. Two remarkable games a few days ago reminded me that while these three mega-stars may no longer step onto the hardwood, a new generation of players continues to make history and excitement for fans everywhere.

Last Sunday, with 81 points, Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to a 122-104 victory over Toronto. Eighty-one. That’s the second highest scoring total in NBA history, only behind Wilt’s famous 100 point game. Even Michael’s career high was only (only!) 69. It is so physically and mentally draining carrying such a heavy scoring load, especially when the opposing team is completely geared to stopping you. Despite this, Kobe still shot over 60 percent from the field, making 28 of 46 shots.

And the same night, in a game that was a throwback to the days when defense was light and scoring was high, the Sonics beat the Suns 152-149 in double overtime. (For comparison, the average number of points by other winning teams that night was only 101). Steve Nash, last season’s MVP (and the early front runner for MVP again), scored 28, had 16 assists and 8 rebounds. Ray Allen, despite a slow start, finished furiously, making 8 of 10 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and overtime.

When people say, “Wow, Kobe scored 81?” or “Nash went for 20+ points and 15+ assists… again!” – now you (and I!) can reply, “Yep – just caught it on Google Video.” So come watch the greatest players today play some of the greatest games ever.

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Putting a stop to spyware

Posted by Elizabeth Echols, Director of Policy, Global Online Sales and Operations

We're really excited to tell you about StopBadware.org, a new initiative aimed at combating the growing problem of spyware and other deceptive software. This project is led by Harvard’s Berkman Center and the Oxford Internet Institute to independently evaluate downloadable applications, publish objective information for consumers, and provide an easy web-based way for users to describe problems they've encountered. Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid advisor to the effort. Google, along with Sun Microsystems and Lenovo, are co-sponsors. Learn more here.

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