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Thu 15 May, 2008

Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image12:05 Demographics now available in YouTube Insight Official Google Blog


When we first announced YouTube Insight, our free video analytics tool for YouTube, we were excited to see just how users, partners, and advertisers might creatively use information about the viewing trends of their videos. We've since learned that some users and partners are modifying their upload schedules based on when they know their audience is tuning in, and advertisers are studying geographic traffic patterns to assess the effectiveness of regional ad campaigns.

Today we've added some new features to Insight. One is a new demographics tab that displays view count information broken down by age group (such as ages 18-24), gender, or a combination of the two, to help you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience. We show you general information about your viewers in anonymous and aggregate form, based on the birth date and gender information that users share with us when they create YouTube accounts. This means that individual users can't be personally identified.

Insight now also displays statistics based on the combined total views of all the videos you've uploaded. Just as you can explore the view counts and popularity of individual videos, with this feature you can see your account's total number of views, and your relative popularity on YouTube compared to other users, based on geographic location.

As with Insight's other features, we hope this new information helps you learn how to create more compelling content that best engages the audiences you want to reach. You can find these new metrics under the "Demographics" tab within the Insight dashboard. Click on the "Insight" button under "Account > My Videos."
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:14 Leslie Moonves' Poker Face And CBS/CNET - BusinessWeek Google News - Sci/Tech

HispanicBusiness.com

Leslie Moonves' Poker Face And CBS/CNET
BusinessWeek - 50 minutes ago
A hearty congrats to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves and CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith—because, by all accounts, neither gave up nary a flickering hint that something big was coming down even as they schmoozed with reporters at a CBS upfront shindig last ...
CBS Goes All In Forbes
CBS ratings, outlook unaffected by CNet deal CNNMoney.com
The Associated Press - PC World - Reuters - InternetNews.com
all 2,074 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:06 Without 'Answers,' Dictionary.com's parent will become part of Ask.com - BetaNews Google News - Sci/Tech

Brocktown News

Without 'Answers,' Dictionary.com's parent will become part of Ask.com
BetaNews - 58 minutes ago
By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews While some analysts have already deemed online search to be a territory that Google has already won, there are still competitors looking to assemble the right formula.
Ask.com Tries Again (and Not Just With Women) New York Times
Ask.com Will Acquire Lexico Publishing Group Portal IT
Forbes - VNUNet.com - Digitaltrends.com - Reuters
all 176 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:05 Apple’s Newest Store Represents Global Retail Expansion - RedOrbit Google News - Sci/Tech

NECN

Apple’s Newest Store Represents Global Retail Expansion
RedOrbit - 1 hour ago
As Apple Inc, opened the doors to its newest retail store in Boston on Wednesday, a senior company official said that the company plans to broaden its retail ventures across the world.
America's Largest Apple Store Opens Its Doors The Channel Guide
Apple Store Boylston Street Grand Opening Today I4U
Macworld - MacDailyNews - Dealerscope - CRN
all 75 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image10:38 Polar bear listing could slow arctic oil drilling - Reuters Google News - Sci/Tech

Polar bear listing could slow arctic oil drilling
Reuters - 1 hour ago
By Yereth Rosen - Analysis ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Oil drilling in the Arctic may need to slow down, now that polar bears, iconic symbols of global warming, are headed for protection under the US Endangered Species Act, experts said.
Video: Polar Bears On Thin Ice (CBS News) CBS
google news commentComment by Reed Hopper Principal Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
RedOrbit - eFluxMedia - Washington Post - Wall Street Journal
all 1,671 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image10:36 Aliph launches new Jawbone - NetworkWorld.com Google News - Sci/Tech

Mobile Gadget News

Aliph launches new Jawbone
NetworkWorld.com - 1 hour ago
Aliph today launched the newest version of its Jawbone Bluetooth headset, with a design that's half the size of its original version, and new noise elimination technology aimed at providing even better voice quality, the company says.
Aliph releases new Jawbone that is 50% smaller than the original ZDNet
Aliph’s Jawbone2: Less Weight and Great Noise Cancellation eFluxMedia
TMCnet - Mobility Site - CNET Reviews - Mobile Burn
all 54 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image10:30 Nintendo to pay $21M in patent infringement suit - Punch Jump Google News - Sci/Tech

dBTechno

Nintendo to pay $21M in patent infringement suit
Punch Jump - 1 hour ago
by Marcus Lai Nintendo of America Inc. this week was ordered to pay $21 million to Anascape Ltd. for patent infringement for the Wii and GameCube video game hardware.
Nintendo Ordered To Pay $21 Million to Anascape eFluxMedia
Nintendo Loses Patent Infringement Case Wired News
PC Magazine - GameSpot - VentureBeat - Shacknews
all 170 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image09:34 SingTel, StarHub for iPhone Singapore? - Computerworld Google News - Sci/Tech

GamePro.com

SingTel, StarHub for iPhone Singapore?
Computerworld - 2 hours ago
Apple chose SingTel as a partner for the launch of the iPhone in Singapore on strength of the networks leading market share in the region, the company's chief executive said this week.
AT&T limits iPhone, one per customer Computerworld
Twitter restored after outage Computerworld
Computerworld
all 22 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image09:10 Why Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales milestone isn’t so impressive - Ars Technica Google News - Sci/Tech

KVEO-TV

Why Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales milestone isn’t so impressive
Ars Technica - 2 hours ago
By Ben Kuchera | Published: May 15, 2008 - 09:55AM CT Today, Microsoft has sent word to the gaming press that the Xbox 360 has become the first console in the current generation to sell 10 million units in the US.
Analysts Unmoved By 360's 10 mln US Milestone Next Generation
Xbox 360 sales surpass Wii, PS3 Reuters
PC World - eFluxMedia - I4U - CVG Online
all 289 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image08:57 Crazy raspberry ants stack their dead to avoid pesticides on surfaces - DailyTech Google News - Sci/Tech

PhysOrg.com

Crazy raspberry ants stack their dead to avoid pesticides on surfaces
DailyTech - 3 hours ago
There are many things that can harm electric devices like computers. From water to power surges to toddlers, computers are apt to be damaged by many different things.
Rasberry ants invade Texas homes United Press International
Ants cripple computers in Texas VNUNet.com
New York Times Blogs - NECN - The Associated Press - Click 2 Houston.com
all 243 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image08:09 Investor launches Yahoo challenge BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
A billionaire investor announces he will fight to oust the present board of directors at Yahoo.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image08:07 Text of Icahn’s Letter to Yahoo Board - New York Times Google News - Sci/Tech

KLEW

Text of Icahn’s Letter to Yahoo Board
New York Times - 3 hours ago
By SOURCE: ICAHN CAPITAL LP Following is the text of a letter sent by the billionaire investor, Carl Icahn, to the chairman of Yahoo, Roy Bostock, on Thursday in which Mr.
Video: Icahn to Launch Proxy Battle Against Yahoo AssociatedPress
Icahn to fight Yahoo to accept Microsoft bid Reuters
PC World - The Associated Press - Los Angeles Times - BusinessWeek
all 1,285 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image08:05 Bumpy Road to Mars, Part 1 - Space.com Google News - Sci/Tech

Canada.com

Bumpy Road to Mars, Part 1
Space.com - 3 hours ago
By Edna DeVore I visited Richard Quinn's lab at NASA Ames Research Center to learn more about his work on Earth and on Mars. Richard Quinn and John Marshall are both scientists in the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute; they are instrument ...
Mars Lander May Find First Signs of Life on the Red Planet findingDulcinea
Risky trip may find clues of past life on Mars San Francisco Chronicle
Register - eFluxMedia - Wired News - PhysicsToday.org
all 161 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:55 Billg bigs up SharePoint and Touch Wall - Register Google News - Sci/Tech

InternetNews.com

Billg bigs up SharePoint and Touch Wall
Register - 4 hours ago
By Kelly Fiveash → More by this author Bill Gates bigged up collaborative technologies and demoed a new device called the Touch Wall, which looks to us rather like a wall-mounted iPhone.
Gates Sees Boom Ahead in InternetNews.com
Bill Gates: E-Mail, cell phones not effective enough TG Daily
CNet News.com Blog - PC World - CNNMoney.com - Ars Technica
all 45 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:41 Google to Spread Social Tool Across The Web - InternetNews.com Google News - Sci/Tech

InternetNews.com

Google to Spread Social Tool Across The Web
InternetNews.com - 4 hours ago
The drive for an interoperable social Web continues as Google rolls out Friend Connect service. By Kenneth Corbin: More stories by this author: Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has picked up the banner of the social Web by launching an initiative to bring ...
The top 10 social networking annoyances Computerworld
Google Absent from MySpace Data Portability Initiative eWeek
New York Times - ClickZ News - eFluxMedia - ZDNet
all 462 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:35 Verizon picks Linux—but not Android—for mobile platform - Ars Technica Google News - Sci/Tech

dBTechno

Verizon picks Linux—but not Android—for mobile platform
Ars Technica - 4 hours ago
By Ryan Paul | Published: May 15, 2008 - 08:25AM CT Mobile carrier Verizon Wireless has joined the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation and has announced plans to adopt the open source software platform.
Verizon shuns Android for LiMo Register
Verizon Wireless joins LiMo Foundation Reuters
InformationWeek - PC World - CNNMoney.com - Washington Post
all 285 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:33 EU Raises Privacy Issue for Google Street View - PC World Google News - Sci/Tech

The Tech Herald

EU Raises Privacy Issue for Google Street View
PC World - 4 hours ago
Europe's data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, urged Google Thursday to respect local privacy rules as it prepares to launch its Street View function this side of the Atlantic.
EU says Google map images could be a problem Reuters
Google's Street View May Face Problem in Europe, Regulator Says Bloomberg
Techtree.com - The Associated Press - BetaNews - The Tech Herald
all 179 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:05 CBS buys tech news site CNET BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Television company CBS agrees to buy online technology news and entertainment website CNET.

Wed 14 May, 2008

Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image21:07 Supernova Remnant Is Young and Quick - New York Times Google News - Sci/Tech

Canoe.ca

Supernova Remnant Is Young and Quick
New York Times - 14 hours ago
NASA/CXC/NCSU/S.Reynolds et al./NSF/NRAO/VLA/Cambridge/D.Green et al. A composite image of G1.9+0.3 with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory taken in 2007, orange, and the Very Large Array in 1985, blue.
Chandra Spots Youngest Supernova In The Milky Way eFluxMedia
Young supernova remnant spotted in our galaxy Ars Technica
USA Today - RedOrbit - Reuters - National Geographic
all 348 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image19:49 Spam king, phishing buddy hit for $200m - ZDNet Google News - Sci/Tech

ChattahBox

Spam king, phishing buddy hit for $200m
ZDNet - 16 hours ago
Spam king Sanford Wallace and phishing buddy Walter Rines hijacked some 300000 MySpace accounts and sent hundreds of thousands of spam messages and comments across the service.
MySpace Wins Record $230M Suit Against Spammer InternetNews.com
MySpace Wins $225 Million Spam Judgment InformationWeek
CRN - Register - eFluxMedia - AFP
all 586 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:43 Philly Won't Fight to Save Wi-Fi Network - PC World Google News - Sci/Tech

DailyTech

Philly Won't Fight to Save Wi-Fi Network
PC World - 18 hours ago
The city of Philadelphia is moving on after its brief municipal Wi-Fi relationship with EarthLink, no longer trying to find a way to keep the network up and running.
City walks away from $17m network ZDNet
How hard did EarthLink try to help its muni-WiFi customers? FierceBroadbandWireless
InformationWeek - CRN - DailyTech - Washington Post
all 273 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:04 Webmaster Tools now in 26 languages Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
Written by Liza Ma, Webmaster Tools Team

Webmasters come from all corners of the world and we are working hard to reach each and everyone of you. A few months back we introduced you to Googlers who help monitor our Webmaster Help Groups in fifteen languages. Since then, that number has grown to sixteen with the addition of the Chinese Help Group. Today, we're happy to announce that Webmaster Tools is now available in four more languages:
  • Arabic
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Thai
Webmaster Tools is already available in 22 other languages: British English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and US English.

We're thrilled to be engaging with such a diverse community of webmasters. Thank you again for your feedback and support!
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:04 Registration open for 2008 scalability conference Official Google Blog


As we noted earlier, our Conference on Scalability is taking place in Seattle on Saturday, June 14. And now registration is open until June 6.

We have some great talks lined up from industry and academia, covering everything from scalability of storage, communication and transactions to scaling applications into the mobile space or, in one case, under water. Space is limited, so do sign up now.

We're excited to bring together so many talented people from the Seattle area. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:47 Becoming Social Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Wondering how to make your site more social? We'd like to make it easier for you, which is why earlier tonight at Campfire One at the Googleplex, we announced a preview release of Google Friend Connect.

Google Friend Connect is a service that that helps you grow traffic by enabling you to easily provide social features for your visitors. Just add a snippet of code, and, voilà, you can add social functionality -- picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.

Social features can generate buzz and traffic to your pages. Using Google Friend Connect on your site, your visitors will be able to see, invite, and interact with their friends from existing sources of friends, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, LinkedIn, orkut, Plaxo, and others. And you'll be able to more actively engage your visitors by adding social features from a growing gallery of social applications.



We've heard from many site owners that even though their sites aren't social networks, they'd still like them to be social. Whether your site sells car parts or dishes out great guacamole recipes -- like the sample site in the YouTube video above -- you can visit http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ or read more on the Official Google Blog to learn about Google Friend Connect. Right now, the preview is available for only a few sites, but soon we'll give the green light to even more. Sign up now to be on the wait list.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:47 Google.org announces investment in BrightSource Energy Official Google Blog

Today we are pleased to announce our participation in BrightSource Energy's $115 million venture financing with a $10 million equity investment as part of Google's RE<C initiative.

Solar thermal energy generation is one of the key emerging industries addressing the changing global climate and we are excited about both of our current investments in solar thermal technology -- BrightSource Energy and eSolar.

In addition to making investments in renewable energy startups, we plan to make grants to support the research and development of enabling technologies to help the solar thermal industry achieve larger scale and lower costs. We believe that by supporting researchers and entrepreneurs taking different, ambitious approaches and risks to generate clean energy, we can help to accelerate progress and increase the collective economic value of these new clean energy industries.

We are also looking for a Head of Renewable Energy to run our internal R&D effort, which is focused initially on solar thermal power, advanced wind technologies, and enhanced geothermal systems.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:47 A friend connected web Official Google Blog


Have you ever wished you could share information and interact with friends while visiting some of your favorite websites? There are a number of great social networking sites out there that let you stay connected, but the rest of the web typically hasn't been social. Yet.

Site owners have been saying for a while that they would love to provide this functionality, but, frankly, it's been too hard to add social features. A lot of code has to be written to create a site where visitors can sign up and bring their friends along, form new friendships, and do engaging things together. And not to mention that if you're a site visitor, it's pretty inconvenient to create a new account and try to rebuild a network of friends each time you visit a site.

Enter Google Friend Connect. This new service, announced as a preview release tonight at Campfire One, lets non-technical site owners sprinkle social features throughout their websites, so visitors will easily be able to join with their AOL, Google, OpenID, and Yahoo! credentials. You'll be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web like Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, LinkedIn, orkut, Plaxo, and others. And quite simply, you'll be able to do things together.
Having faces show up at a site is not enough. Friend Connect lets site owners include OpenSocial apps made by a world of developers. We're providing a few apps, such as posts and ratings, to get the ball rolling. And many more will be provided by the OpenSocial community.

With this functionality, there's no end to the possibilities. A small site dedicated to mountain biking in Moab, for example, would be able to have members who could exchange maps, tips, and pictures of their latest rides. A stroke victims support site could help grieving family members assist one another by sharing advice. A politician's site could enable supporters to advocate their viewpoints. A musician's site could give fans the chance to interact full tilt with the band and one another.

Take a look at a few white-listed sites using Google Friend Connect: Ingrid Michaelson's official website, which includes the iLike music application, and Bible Apps, owned by an OpenSocial developer fully dedicated to his "Verses" application -- where people can post prayers and test their knowledge of the Bible as a quiz game with their friends.

If you run a website and would like to add social features, you can now sign up for the wait list and learn more by visiting www.google.com/friendconnect. We're going to keep things pretty limited at first so we can gather feedback from site owners, developers, and users, but, in the weeks ahead, we'll be reaching out to more site owners and adding more social apps to the gallery.

You can also learn more about Google Friend Connect, OpenSocial, and other social initiatives at Google I/O, a two-day developer gathering about building the next generation of web applications. It takes place May 28-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Register now for Google I/O at http://code.google.com/events/io/.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image11:47 Looking towards IPv6 Official Google Blog


We care a lot about the health of the Internet. Recently, we've become increasingly concerned that IPv4 addresses — the numbers that computers use to connect to the Internet — are running out. Current projections place IPv4 address space exhaustion somewhere in late 2011, and while technologies such as Network Address Translation (NAT) can offer temporary respite, they complicate the Internet's architecture, pose barriers to the development of new applications, and run contrary to network openness principles.

That's why we're pleased to let you know that Google search is also available over IPv6 at ipv6.google.com (you'll need an IPv6 connection to view it). While IPv4 provides about four billion IP addresses — not enough to assign one to every one of Earth's more than six billion inhabitants — IPv6 provides enough address space to assign almost three billion networks to every person on the planet. We hope that by allowing every computer and mobile device on the network to talk to each other directly — an idea known as the "end-to-end principle" that was crucial to the original design of the Internet — IPv6 will allow the continued growth of the Internet and enable new applications yet to be invented.

With current operating systems such as Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux providing high-quality support for IPv6, we hope it's only a matter of time before IPv6 is widely deployed. We will be doing our part.


Update:
Changed three million networks to three billion networks in the second paragraph.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image10:00 Estonian cyber defence hub set up BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Nato backs a new cyber defence centre in Estonia, following attacks on its internet structure.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image07:57 First look: Peeking through Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope - Ars Technica Google News - Sci/Tech

The Age

First look: Peeking through Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope
Ars Technica - May 14, 2008
By Matt Ford | Published: May 14, 2008 - 08:45AM CT Yesterday saw the first public beta release of Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope, the skyward companion to Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope will light your fuse USA Today
Microsoft software gives free tours of space Reuters
New York Times - Space.com - InformationWeek - InfoToday.com
all 417 news articles
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image05:40 Identity fraud hits net telephony BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Usernames and passwords from voice-over IP accounts are being traded online, a telecoms firm finds.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image05:15 Mars probe set for risky descent BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Scientists prepare for "seven minutes of terror" as the Phoenix spacecraft attempts to land on the surface.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image05:12 UK software piracy rate declines BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
A survey of software piracy in UK firms has shown that it has fallen for the first time in three years.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image04:42 Dr Who fan in knitted puppet row BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
A Doctor Who fan is embroiled in a row with the BBC after publishing knitting patterns for the show's monsters online.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image04:11 Two internets BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Bill Thompson on how to be safe and keep risk alive online
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image03:06 MySpace wins huge spam payout BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
MySpace has won $234m in damages from spammers - but has little chance of getting the cash say experts.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image02:37 Apple's HBO deal signals shift in iTunes pricing - San Jose Mercury News Google News - Sci/Tech

E Canada Now

Apple's HBO deal signals shift in iTunes pricing
San Jose Mercury News - May 14, 2008
By John Boudreau Tough-guy Tony Soprano and the frisky femmes from "Sex and the City" are now available for viewing for non-HBO subscribers through download purchases on Apple's online iTunes store, the companies announced Tuesday.
Apple now sells HBO shows on iTunes store The Associated Press
HBO Shows Now Available on iTunes Zeropaid
Mediapost.com - New York Times - PC World - Los Angeles Times
all 425 news articles

Tue 13 May, 2008

Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:32 urlBorg previews (mp3, maps) vrypan|net|log
At the top of each page on urlBorg you will se a link named “account”. Click on it and login using your GMail account. You will be redirected to your urlBorg account page, where you will se the option “enable previews”. Previews are simple pages that look like this (here, I take advantage of a hidden [...]
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image10:40 urlBorg: why build yet another URL shortening service? vrypan|net|log
So, urlBorg has been rewritten in Python and is now hosted on Google AppEngine (make a note, the new address is urlborg.com). But why build “yet another URL shortening service”, when it’s so easy to build one? Any web developer could build one in less than an hour, couldn’t they? The truth is that building a URL [...]
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image09:05 HP in $13.9bn challenge to IBM BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
Hewlett-Packard buys information technology provider EDS for $12.6bn in a bid to take on rival IBM.

Mon 12 May, 2008

Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image22:17 Google helps the web to go social BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
The search giant Google is the latest company to launch a service aimed at making the web more social.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:14 Brand new Google Reader for iPhone Official Google Reader Blog

Reader on the iPhoneMobile web browsers have come a long way since we first introduced an XHTML version of Reader back in 2006. For example, iPhone and iPod Touch owners know how powerful having a full-featured browser is. We on the Reader team are heavy mobile Safari users. Sometimes we use it to kill time, other times for answering important questions that come up during brunch: What is Tyrol's first name? How is maple butter made? How do you sweeten rhubarb for sangria? What is John Gruber saying now? For questions like the last one, we of course use Reader to keep up with our subscriptions.

To make our (and your) Reader iPhone experience better, we wanted to really take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities. Today we're releasing a new beta version of Reader designed for the iPhone and other mobile phones with advanced browsers. You can use it by visiting http://www.google.com/reader/i/ on your phone.

This new version is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. If you've used list view, then it should be familiar to you. Scan the titles for an item that interests you, tap and it expands in place. Starring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place, so you never have to leave the list view or refresh the page. We think it's a very fast way to power through your reading list.

Since it's still in beta, we're not going to automatically send you to it, so bookmark the site so that you don't forget the address (http://www.google.com/reader/i/). We love getting feedback from users, so let us know what you think in our discussion group or the other channels.

Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image17:14 How auctions set ad prices Official Google Blog


All of the major search engines use auctions to price ads. The reason is simple: there are millions of keywords that need to be priced and it would be impossible to set all those prices by hand.

Using an auction removes the burden of having to do this: the prices are determined by the auction participants. These auctions run every time a user enters a query, so they always reflect the current values that advertisers place on keywords.

The outcome of the ad auction is efficient in the sense that the available ad slots are awarded to those who value them mostly highly. The outcome is also equitable in that the price an advertiser has to pay is determined by the other advertisers -- those with whom it has to compete for slots.

But how do they actually work? There are several steps in the process.

1) Each advertiser enters a list of keywords, ads, and bids.

2) When a user enters a query, Google compiles a list of all the ads whose keywords match that query.

3) The list of ads is then ordered based on the bids and the Ad Quality Scores, which measure the relevance of the ad to the user.

4) The highest ranked ad is displayed in the most prominent position, the second highest ranked ad gets the second most prominent position, and so on.

5) If the user clicks on an ad, the advertiser is charged a price that depends on the bid and Quality Score of the advertiser below it. The price charged is the minimum necessary to retain the advertiser's position in the list.

A simple example is when all ads have the same Quality Score. In this case, the ads will be ranked by bids and the price an advertiser pays per click will just be the bid of advertiser below it in the ranking. Hence the amount that advertisers pay is no more than what they bid and typically less.

In the general case, where ad qualities differ, the price an advertiser pays for a click will depend on its Quality Score relative to the quality of the ad below it in the auction. Roughly speaking, an ad that has twice the quality of another ad will tend to get about twice as many clicks, and will only have to pay half as much per click as the competing ad.

Where does this Ad Quality Score come from? It was originally determined by historical click through rates but has been refined over the years using sophisticated statistical models. Using ad quality as a factor in ranking ads provides strong incentives to advertisers to make sure that they provide relevant ads to end users.

There are many additional tweaks on top of this basic design. For example, Google actually runs two auctions: one for ads at the top of the page, and one for ads on the side of the page. Only ads with particularly high quality are eligible to compete in the top-ad auction. Ads that have particularly low quality may be disabled, and not shown at all. Advertisers also can set and adjust their daily and monthly budget so as to cap their maximum spend.

But the essential structure is that outlined above: advertisers bid for position and pay just enough to beat their runner-up. Prices for keywords are, ultimately, determined by the advertisers.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image12:34 Your vote matters Official Google Blog


A couple of months ago, we announced the Doodle 4 Google art competition and invited students in grades K-12 across the U.S. to redesign our logo around the theme "What if...?".

Since then, more than 16,000 kids across the country have been busy creating their doodles. It's been a lot of fun for us and the kids (see for yourself in this video):



Today we're excited to announce the state finalists and 40 regional winners. The thousands of wonderful entries made judging difficult, but with the help of experts at Young Audiences, Teach for America and reporters from across the country, we've managed to narrow the field to the very best.

Now it's your turn. Starting today, you can vote for your favorite doodle. Your votes will determine the four national finalists. Just make sure to vote soon: you only have until May 18th. The national winner will be announced and the winning doodle will replace our usual logo on the Google homepage on May 22nd.
Click here to bookmark this link.Channel Image09:32 Frigid robot eyes top tech prize BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
A robot which cares for millions of frozen biological samples is among four finalists for a top engineering award.