Google Student Blog: 2008

Googlers Beta

December 19, 2008

The Student Has Become the Teacher
During a Google internship PhD student Sam Slee discovered the openness of the Google culture and found a way to become part of it.

Name: Sam Slee Department: Google Analysis Products Background: PhD candidate from Duke University working on Self-Reconfigurable Robotics. How it happened: I first wanted to come to Google because I was inspired by stories of a great company culture and their famed "Don't be evil" motto. I wasn't disappointed. During the course of my internship much of my work was about writing connections from my team's codebase to several other large, existing Google systems. That meant I had to learn a lot about these core, internal workings that most companies would try to keep hidden. But the Google culture is incredibly open. Even as an intern, I was able to read through documentation and source code for these important Google technologies. Whenever I came up with more detailed questions, there were plenty of Googlers that I could go to in person or by email who were very eager to provide help. That eagerness rubs off, and after a while I looked to start sharing all of the documentation and tutorials that I had written while learning about those Google technologies. I eventually found an intern in another office -- in another city, actually -- who needed to start working with a particularly big, internal system that I had written an online tutorial for. It took me 2 days to get that system set up when I first tried it. Following my tutorial, it took him about 2 hours. He was thrilled to say the least, and at that point I felt like I had contributed as a real part of the Google culture.
To learn more about how you can become a Google intern, please visit www.google.com/jobs/students/intern. We are now accepting applications for Summer 2009.
Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

Santa Claus is coming to town

December 17, 2008

grinchNORAD Santa TrackergadgetNORAD Tracks Santa websiteSantaCam network

Happy Tracking!

Posted by Jeff Martin, Product Marketing Manager and Santa enthusiast

Gmail sticker fun

December 15, 2008

manage your email without touching your mouse

Send me some Gmail stickers already
P.O. Box 391420
Mountain View, CA 94039-1420*Our lawyers asked us to make sure it was clear that your contact information won't be maintained in any way and these stickers are "void where prohibited and only while supplies last."Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Gmail Product Marketing Manager

Get your challenge on!

December 11, 2008

You may have seen our post a few weeks ago about last year's global winning team for the Google Online Marketing Challenge. The five students from the University of Western Australia partnered with a local climbing gym to create a rock-solid online marketing campaign. Next year's blog post could be about you!

Registration has begun for the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge , and we need YOU to help us get the word out. Last year over 8,000 students participated in the Challenge, which brought AdWords into 350 classrooms in nearly 50 countries across the globe.

The Challenge is a global competition where teams of 3-6 students receive US$200 of online advertising with AdWords and then source local businesses to work with to devise a campaign. Teams outline a strategy, run their campaign, assess the results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing. The winners are judged by an international panel of independent academics.
The challenge is a great way to get you and your classmates involved in the quickly evolving world of online marketing. It's a skill you'll want to have as you graduate and prepare to enter a tough job market. And most importantly, it's fun! Our feedback from students who participated in last year's challenge was overwhelmingly positive.
If you think your professors, lecturers or tutors might be interested in signing their classes up for the Challenge, let them know about this opportunity! The Challenge is open to any university, any discipline, at the graduate or undergraduate level. Individual teams can sign up as well as entire classes as long as a professor agrees to oversee the project. And if you'd like some help approaching your professor, here's an email template with everything they'll need to know to decide if the Challenge is right for them.

Hurry because registration for the Challenge ends January 23rd, and the competition runs between January 26th and May 22nd 2009.

Finally, be sure to visit the Online Challenge website to check out details of last years' winning campaigns!Posted by Cynthia Benin on behalf of the Challenge team

Daniel connects Googlers across the world

December 9, 2008

Ever wanted to know more about working in the "real world" besides what your parents and friends have told you? Do you have to be a gifted golfer to succeed in the corporate world? Will you have to become a business casual dresser? Most importantly, will you be challenged in a collegial, collaborative environment? Here is your opportunity to learn from Googlers across the company and around the globe who aren't that much older than you and are excited to share their stories about working at Google. Read about their experiences growing sales teams that generated hundreds of millions of dollars, performing stand-up in front of a thousand coworkers, and developing technical systems with JavaScript and Python. Here is the first of our 20,000+ part series about our Google employees, our Googlers.

Name: Daniel Helmhold
Department: Online Sales and Operations (OSO) – AdWords Acquisitions Team

Education: UC Davis, International Relations and Spanish
Background: 4.5 years at Google

My story:
Since first going abroad to study in college, I've had a passion for travel and exposure to other cultures. This interest ultimately led me to study International Relations and Spanish. So when I started working at Google, I was excited to seek out international professional experience. Soon, I started as the OSO Ambassador to Dublin in Q1 of 2006. I helped launch our European Inside Sales Team, and I knew I wanted to help give other Googlers the opportunity to have a similar experience through the Ambassador Program.

Since then, I've worked as global co-chair of the Ambassador Program, which has helped send over 100 Googlers to offices world wide over the past 2+ years. The program is now established in Mountain View, Ann Arbor and Boston in the US as well as Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Wroclaw, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Sydney. As OSO grows, the Ambassador Program gives us an opportunity to erase the distances between offices by connecting Googlers in-person around the world, and letting them find innovative ways to address a variety of challenges.

While my involvement as a coordinator of the Ambassador Program has never been my core job, it's always been a very important part of my life at Google and a project I look forward to staying involved as long as I'm here.

Posted by Andrea Powers, University Programs Team

Calling all musicians: Join YouTube's Symphony Orchestra

December 8, 2008

hereYouTube Symphony Orchestra channelYouTube BlogPosted by , YouTube Team

The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land

December 5, 2008

New developments in information technology are rapidly revolutionizing the fields of archaeology, history, and the social sciences. The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land (DAAHL) is one example of this that you can see for yourself at http://daahl.ucsd.edu*. This is the first 'node' in a network of online archaeological atlases that are part of the MedArchNet (Mediterranean Archaeology Network project), which is an international effort to create a 'portal science' for archaeology around the Mediterranean Sea.

The DAAHL brings together experts in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the archaeology of the Holy Land (Israel, Palestine, Jordan, southern Lebanon, Syria and the Sinai Peninsula) to create the first online digital atlas of the region. Using the power of Google Maps and the Google Earth API, the tens of thousands of recorded archaeological sites for the region - from the remote prehistoric periods to the early 20th century - will be entered into a comprehensive database along with site maps, photographs and artifacts. The good news for you is that you can also use this digital atlas as a research tool.

Archaeologists study the past by looking at similarities and differences in human material culture across space, time, and form. The DAAHL project uses a variety of Google Maps and Google Earth API interfaces to help. Archaeological sites can be mapped by time period, by the ancient empire with which they were associated, and against a background of historic maps drawn in the 1870s and 1880s. Another exciting new development in the Digital Atlas is the Virtual Museum, which displays three dimensional objects in a Google Earth API, suspended over their find spot at the site they originated. The application lets you roll the object in all three dimensions, which is as close to holding the object as it can be.

So head to http://daahl.ucsd.edu

*The historical and archaeological data for this project has been developed by a team of over 30 international scholars working in the region. This DAAHL website has been developed at the Geo-Archaeological information Systems Lab at Arizona State University, and is served from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Technology (Calit2), UC San Diego.

Posted by Thomas E. Levy, University of California, San Diego, Stephen H. Savage, Arizona State University, and Chaitan Baru, Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego

Countdown to 2009

December 3, 2008

The end of the year is finally in sight. For you, that probably also means tons of work as you get through exams, rush to finish that term paper (which you should have started a month ago) and juggle your agenda to see family and friends. There's little we can do to alleviate your workload, but we thought that we could share some tips to help you make the best of your holidays and year-end celebrations.

In that spirit, we wanted to share one new Google tip per day as we count down to 2009. We'll cover everything from how to use Google Docs Holiday Templates to checking your flight status with Google Search. There will be much more to come throughout December, so check Google's Countdown to 2009 daily and add the countdown gadget to your iGoogle page.

We wish you good luck with all your year-end school activities and a great head start to the holiday season!
Posted by Sergio Civetta, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Google Workshop for Women Engineers

December 2, 2008

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to encouraging women to excel in computing and technology, we are pleased to host the 2009 Google Workshop for Women Engineers to recognize and reward deserving female graduate students in computer science, and inspire them to become active participants and leaders in creating technology. For more information on the program and to find out how to apply, please visit http://www.google.com/jobs/students/gwwe. The deadline to apply is Friday, December 5, 2008.

Up to 75 female computer scientists will be selected to attend a 3 day all-expenses paid workshop at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California January 22-25, 2009. This special workshop will include technical talks and career workshops, and a unique occasion to build and strengthen networks of women in technology. Students will also enjoy tours of the Googleplex, have the opportunity to meet with Google engineers in their research fields, and have fun exploring the San Francisco bay area.

Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

Students from around the world jam in Mountain View

November 24, 2008

Google Code Jamannounced Code Jamfinalists

picturesPosted by Bartholomew Furrow, Google Code Jam Team

Ancient Rome Comes to Life

November 17, 2008

Ancient Rome 3D LayerOfficial Google BlogGoogle EarthStreetView

earth.google.com/romecontest

K.I.T. with voice and video chat in Gmail

November 13, 2008

Learn more about voice and video chat

Announcing the 2009 Google Anita Borg Scholarship - now accepting applications!

November 12, 2008

In 2003, a group of Googlers decided to establish the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship to honor the work of their friend and colleague, Dr. Anita Borg, a computer scientist who dedicated her professional career to increasing the participation of women and other under-represented groups in the field of technology. In her memory, we're pleased to announce the 2009 Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship program in both the United States and Canada.

We're looking for women who will carry on the legacy of Dr. Borg, with strong academic backgrounds and demonstrated leadership qualities. A group of female undergraduate and graduate students will be chosen from the applicant pool, and scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of each candidate's academic background and demonstrated leadership. All US and Canadian scholarship recipients and finalists will be invited to visit the Googleplex in Mountain View, California next June for the Annual Google Scholars' Retreat. This special networking event includes workshops with a series of speakers, panelists, breakout sessions and social activities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The deadline for the US Anita Borg Scholarship program is Friday, February 6, 2009 and the deadline for the Canada Anita Borg Scholarship program is Monday, February 23, 2009. Tell your friends, or apply yourself.

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship program is a global initiative available to women studying computer science in Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and New Zealand

Hear from the Global Winners of the Google Online Marketing Challenge

November 11, 2008

You may know that earlier this year, Google launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge to encourage students around the world to get hands-on experience with AdWords and online marketing, with the chance to win a trip to Mountain View in the process. From Nigeria to Australia to Taiwan, 1600 student teams from 47 countries around the world took part in the first ever global online marketing competition. The standard of teams was very high and we're proud to announce our winners and finalists for 2008!

Global Winner

University of Western Australia - Aaron Balm, Lauren Bobridge, Amy Smith, Victor Tsen and Arina Usikov. Taught by Dr. Fang Liu.

Regional Winners

Australian Graduate School of Management - Sean Harpur, Daniel Jolly, Fiona Macrae, Danny Van Clief and Jason von Stieglitz. Taught by Dr. Julien Cayla.
Pennsylvania State University (US) - Caroline Furey, Joe Lewis, Matthew Maisel, Daehee Park and Tonya Podkuiko. Taught by Dr. Jim Jansen.
Universitat Bern (Switzerland) - Raphael Dick, Kilian Imboden, Kevin Meile and Gourav Verma. Taught by Prof. Thomas Myrach and Research Assistant, Natalie Jaggi.

Regional Finalists

National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences (Taiwan) - Shiu Chiau-Ya, Yang Huei-Chuen, Yeh Hui-Ling, Lin Jia-Wei, Wang Shin-Pei and He Tzung-Ting. Taught by Craig Chao.
National Taiwan University - Chu Chao-Yuan, Honggo Ng, Tseng Tzu-Yu, Lee Ta-Jen and Lin Wan-Ching. Taught by Chun-Yao Huang.
Boise State University (US) - Lisa Chipman, Trevor Herbst, Kasey Keller, Chris Mendonca and Lisa Mooers. Taught by Christoph Schneider.
James Madison University (US) - Ryan Farrell, Bethany Kent, Julia Marchetti, Renee Montmeny and Katelynn McGinnis. Taught by Theresa Flaherty.
The Wurzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences (Germany) - Johannes Albert, Fabian Drescher, Christian Hoerner and Jochen Saal. Taught by Mario Fischer.
The College for Modern Business Studies (Hungary) - Péter Seres, Tamás Szabó, László Tóth and Anikó Vetési. Taught by Nebojsa Damjanovich.

Below is a guest blog entry by the Global Winners from the University of Western Australia who recently visited the Googleplex in Mountain View as part of their prize. For us at Google, it was immensely gratifying to meet these students and hear them speak of the enthusiasm and benefit they received from competing.

Remember - The Google Online Marketing Challenge is on again in 2009. To find out more visit the 2009 Challenge website at www.google.com/onlinechallenge.

____

The Google Online Marketing Challenge has had a major impact on us as students by not only expanding our knowledge of online search advertising but also by increasing our career prospects. As student marketers it was great to actually get hands-on experience in using an online advertising platform. We got to work with real money and a real business client in a real world situation. The challenge was definitely a refreshing change from the usual theoretical university assessments we've been given in the past.

The challenge gave us the opportunity to put into practice some of the marketing theories we've been learning about in our Advertising and Promotion unit. In addition the resource guides provided by Google and the Adwords help center taught us how to easily and effectively advertise on Google's search and its content network. The knowledge and skills that we picked up will definitely help us in the future, especially at a time when more and more people are using the Internet.

And you don't even have to be studying marketing to benefit from taking this challenge. One day you may be starting your own business, and the skills you picked up through this challenge can be used to help promote your business on one of the world's largest online advertising networks. Also you could easily promote your charity, club or organization using the experience you gained from taking this challenge.

Besides the valuable experience we have all picked up, the challenge has helped increased our career prospects, especially with Google. One of our team members is actually in talks with Google for a job in London. Another one of our team members is currently in part-time employment with a Search Engine Marketing firm as a consequence of the challenge. Taking part in the challenge is definitely a great thing to add to your resume.

As global winners our prize was a trip to the Google headquarters in Mountain View. While we were there we received a tour of the Googleplex, found out what it was like to work there, met the Googlers who worked on the challenge and got plenty of Google's renowned free food and drinks! In addition we each received an awesome Macbook Pro. There are many cool prizes to win, so sign up for 2009 and who knows you and your team may be flying to the Google headquarters in 2009.

Before we sign off we would like to share a tip for everyone taking part in the 2009 challenge. It is highly recommended that you follow the guidelines, read it thoroughly and try to satisfy as much of the requirements as possible. The guides will help you structure your campaign correctly and give you a good understanding of what the judges expect from you. Apart from the resource guides, make sure to use the Adwords help center and other Adwords online resources. Just Google it!

Thank you and best of luck to everyone!

____

Posted by Lee Hunter, Product Marketing Manager

More on Halloween and the Election

November 6, 2008

It’s been a busy week at Google between Halloween last Friday (or Googleween as we like to call it) and the election on Tuesday. Halloween 2008 was celebrated in true Google style with lots of creative costumes and pumpkin carving. From current events to technology, Googlers costumes ranged from the simple to the elaborate. And of course our dogs got in on the fun too!

A Googler dressed as T-Mobile's G1, the first phone to support Google's Android platform.

Plymouth Cafe's pumpkin carving contest entry: Seed of Pumpkin

A bumblebee Doogler (Googler dog)

Jellyfish

Michael Phelps shows off his 8 gold medalsOur favorite student submitted costume comes from Ashley Tjader and Ashley Reid from theUniversity of South Carolina who dressed up as their favourite childhood lunch items.

Thanks, Ashley and Ashley, for sharing your Halloween fun with us!The biggest news this week, of course, is the culmination of the 2008 US Presidential election. According to Rock the Vote, American youth turned out in record numbers to cast their votes. A whopping 55% of voters ages 18-29 voted in the 2008 election, up from 49% in 2004. No matter how you voted, we hope you were one of the 133 million people to get their voices heard during this historic election. To see how Google got involved and helped to get out the vote, visit our 2008 Election site or check out our blog post from just a few days ago. And congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama and Vice President Elect Joe Biden on their victory!Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

The bus stops here

November 6, 2008

Google Apps for EducationEDUCAUSEthe bus

"App to School" bus touruse products

www.google.com/a/eduPosted by Miriam Schneider, Google Apps for Education team

Get out the vote!

November 4, 2008

1)Get informed2008 Election siteYouTubehistorical voting resultsGoogle MapsIn QuotesAudio IndexingPresidential Candidates gadget2) Vote
U.S. Voter Info sitem.google.com/electionsan hour off to voteVideo Your VoteMcCainObama3) Watch resultsGoogle Maps Election GalleryElections section

Halloween @ the Googleplex

October 31, 2008

home page

Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

Celebrities get out the vote with Google Maps

October 30, 2008

As you may have seen in one of our previous posts, we recently launched a site called 2008 US Voter Info on Google Maps that shows users everything from their polling place to their custom registration information. It's been quite popular across the web, embedded in several websites and linked to from all types of news and blog sites. Additionally, there's one unique place where it has made an exceptional impact, and that's within a celebrity-infused PSA YouTube video titled "5 Friends."

The first video was launched in early October, around the time when registration deadlines were approaching. With the election only a few days away, the same cast has come back to record yet another video, encouraging citizens to get five more friends to vote. Celebrities featured in the video include: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, “Borat”, Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal.

We're excited to have collaborated in this process and hope that more citizens will be able to get the information they need on election day, thanks to the virality of such tremendous get-out-the-vote efforts. So what are you waiting for? Tell five more friends to vote! There's not much time left.

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team

Reduce your carbon footprint in five simple steps

October 27, 2008

This is a guest post from the folks at liveclimate.org, an organization we worked with to offset the Google Apps bus tour's carbon footprint. Developing countries will be the hardest hit by effects of climate change, and hundreds of projects around the world are using the growing carbon market to fight poverty in the poorest parts of the world while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving the integrity of our climate. We think these issues are important and would love for you to help.
Live Climate"App to School" bus tour Climate change and poverty will be the two defining challenges of this millennium. To win at both these challenges requires commitment from government, from business, and from everyday people like you and me. Google has obviously made that commitment. With their RechargeIT program and solar initiative, we are that much closer to driving 100mpg cars and building affordable solar energy.

Now it's time for us all to make the commitment. If you were wondering what you could do, here are 5 simple things you can do to go carbon neutral and stop climate change:

Change the Lights – For how small it is, Compact Fluroescent light bulb makes a big difference. Each CFL installed saves you money and prevents 110 lbs of coal from being burned. If every college student in the U.S. changed just 2 light bulbs, we could prevent over 1 Million metric tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere. If you need any more convincing, Wal-Mart and Costco are offering huge discounts.

Green Your Ride – So maybe you can't afford a Toyota Prius yet. You can still reduce emissions from transportation. Walk or take public transportation whenever possible. If you do drive, fill up your tires to their limit. It makes a 5% difference! When driving play a game of seeing how many miles you can get out of each tank. With $4/gallon gas, it's a game worth playing.

Eat Less Beef –The food we eat is a major source of carbon emissions. Visit http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/ to see the carbon footprint of your diet. Eating less beef, eating organic, and buying from local farmer's markets reduces how much energy has gone into the production and transportation of your food.

Make Your Home Super-Efficient - Seal up doors and windows. Switch to EnergyStar appliances. And when you've done all of that, contact your utility to make sure that the few kilowatt-hours of electricity that you do use is coming from renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Offset Your Footprint with Live Climate – Through the simple changes above, we can reduce our individual carbon footprints by over 50%. To go fully carbon neutral, offset your footprint through a site like Live Climate. Offsetting lets you account for your own carbon footprint by contributing to a project elsewhere that is reducing emissions. With sites like Live Climate, you can pick exactly what project to contribute to and you are guaranteed that is helping to fight poverty as well.

Get out and Vote! This year's election is going to determine how we decide to address climate change in the coming decade, and

Greater access to voting information

October 22, 2008

how people like you have increasingly been searching for voting information, like how to register and where to vote.

It's hard to believe that in 2008, information so important to U.S. citizens and the democratic process isn't well organized on the web.US Voter Info site

We developed the site in the hope that it will increase voter participation. We were helped by a number of partners, including many state and local election officials, the League of Women Voters, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and others involved in the Voting Information Project.

Are you registered to vote? What's the best way to obtain an absentee ballot? When people visit the site, answers to these questions appear. And anyone with a website can provide the same information. The US Voter Info gadget places a simple search box that expands to show a full set of voter information when someone enters an address.

We are also offering a simpler way to find out where to vote. By entering a home address, citizens across the country will be able to find their polling place for election day.

To further encourage voter participation, we've opened up this data to third-party sites and developers through an API developed by Dan Berlin, one of our open-source engineers. We're excited to share this information, and hope that others will find it useful in encouraging citizens to vote.

Organizing information is our mission. We do that every day with web content, and we want to do the same thing with information to inform and empower voters and to help them get to the polls this election season.

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Elections Team

Congratulations to the gadget competition winners!

October 16, 2008

East Africa Gadget Competitiontechnical difficultiesOverall Winner

Igisoro Game by Antoine Nzeyimana (KIST, Rwanda)

Best Gadget UI

Charty Wizard by Murithi Borona (University of Nairobi, Kenya)

Best Local Content

Random African Proverb by Peter Munene Karunyu (Moi University, Kenya)

Best Education-Specific

Deaf / Braille Alphabets by Jean Claude Nzayisenga (National University of Rwanda, Rwanda)

Best Procrastinator

Sliding Puzzle by Miano Njoka (JKUAT, Kenya)

Most Technically Sophisticated

Add Mad by Hussein Lightwalla (Strathmore University, Kenya)

Here's a full list of winners$600$350Posted by Maria Kubran and Louise Welch, University Programs Team

Stories by Googlers

October 13, 2008

revisiting our memoriesVint Cerfinterplanetary InternetKai-Fu LeeCraig Silversteinfamous garageMarissa MayerSo take a few minutes to watch this blended tale of startup quirkiness and big dreams. And if you like, feel free to comment on YouTube.

Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog Team

Gmail Labs: helping students everywhere

October 9, 2008

introduced Gmail Labs

Posted by John Perlow, Gmail engineer

New Technology Roundtable Series

October 6, 2008

Google Technology Roundtable SeriesLarge-Scale Search System Infrastructure and Search QualityJeff DeanAmit SinghalMap ReduceJerry ZhaoMatt AusternThe Intelligent CloudApplications of Human Language TechnologyFranz Josef Och[Cross-posted on the Google Research Blog.]Posted by Alfred Spector, VP of Research and Special Initiatives

Science outreach returns

October 3, 2008

workshopGoogle Earth Conference

University of MichiganScientific Applications for Google Earth Conference is scheduled for October 22nd and 23rd in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The two-day event will bring together researchers and students from all over the country to discuss the scientific uses of virtual globes and how that technology is enabling newer and richer data interaction experiences for both expert and novice users.
Keynote speakers include Tim Killeen, Assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation, and Dan Adkins, former Director of the National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure.

Like the Boulder event, Google engineers will be on hand to work directly with students and scientists on ways to overcome technical problems and to provide training for those interested in advanced techniques with KML. Of course we'll be sure to wear maize and blue! Registration for the event is now open, details are available on the conference website. Spots are limited so be sure to check it out soon.

Google Earth Contest

The second initiative is a contest targeting scientific content in KML. The KML in Research

contest is open to both students and professionals. We think this will be a fun way for people working with KML to get some exposure for their work and perhaps win some prizes!

So get out your best research ideas and bring your data to life with KML and Google Earth. In addition to prizes, winners will have their work showcased at the American Geophysical Union's annual Fall meeting on December 15th!

For great examples of the kind of entries we are hoping for, check out John Bailey's Science Archive and as always, the Google Earth Gallery.

Posted by Ryan Falor, Systems Engineer

Now's the time: Register to vote

October 2, 2008

Census reportVoter Info Mapm.google.com/electionsVoting Information ProjectLeague of Women Voters

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Googlers Beta

October 1, 2008

"On top of becoming a better programmer, working at Google has made me a better designer and problem solver."
Matt Pokrzywa, Software Engineering InternMy story:Google CheckoutPosted by Ann Forbes-Cannon, Intern Program Team

The Google Apps bus pulls into the home of the Hoo

September 28, 2008

After starting the week at UNC Greensboro, the Google Apps Road Trip was off to its next stop at my alma mater and home of the Cavaliers, the University of Virginia. Needless to say, as an alum, I was both giddy and nostalgic as we headed north on 29 to the ole' stomping grounds. When we reached the UVa campus in the heart of Charlottesville, all of these great memories came rushing back - Saturday afternoon tailgating, delicious Bodo's bagels, and late nights at the Biltmore. I took a walk around campus to see TJ's "lawn" and grab dinner at the Corner.

I also visited the gorgeous, new building for the McIntire School of Commerce, where I spent 2 years studying finance and management. Recognized as one of the country's premier undergraduate business programs, the Comm School emphasizes a case-based and collaborative learning culture. To simulate a real-world professional environment, we primarily worked in small teams to evaluate the net present value of a product launch or develop a new marketing campaign.

Therefore, I was happy to talk with students about how Google Apps can make their lives and schoolwork a little easier. On Wednesday morning, we pulled the bus right into Newcomb Hall plaza between the book store and student center. UVa recently deployed Virginia mail, so we demoed the cool features of some other Google Apps technology. Students were excited to learn about the real-time collaborative functionality of Google Docs. They appreciated that group work can become less annoying, because they can work on the same paper simultaneously, rather than having to save and send back and forth multiple times. We also heard from graduate students and first-years how they create their own surveys to conduct opinion polls in a Politics class or ask friends about the next trip to Wintergreen.

Overall, it was just a phenomenal visit to Charlottesville. We got to chat with really energetic students, faculty, and administrators and had a lot of fun too - tossing frisbees around the plaza and rocking out to "Say It Ain't So" on the bus. Thanks to everyone at the University of Virginia for "getting on the bus!"

Wahoo-wa!

Check out more photos from our campus visits at www.google.com/apps/bus

Posted by John Leu, Global Talent and Outreach Marketing

Student Blog

Googlers Beta

Santa Claus is coming to town

Gmail sticker fun

Get your challenge on!

Daniel connects Googlers across the world

Calling all musicians: Join YouTube's Symphony Orchestra

The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land

Countdown to 2009

Google Workshop for Women Engineers

Students from around the world jam in Mountain View

Ancient Rome Comes to Life

K.I.T. with voice and video chat in Gmail

Announcing the 2009 Google Anita Borg Scholarship - now accepting applications!

Hear from the Global Winners of the Google Online Marketing Challenge

More on Halloween and the Election

The bus stops here

Get out the vote!

Halloween @ the Googleplex

Celebrities get out the vote with Google Maps

Reduce your carbon footprint in five simple steps

Greater access to voting information

Congratulations to the gadget competition winners!

Stories by Googlers

Gmail Labs: helping students everywhere

New Technology Roundtable Series

Science outreach returns

Now's the time: Register to vote

Googlers Beta

The Google Apps bus pulls into the home of the Hoo

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