Google Student Blog: July 2009

The results are in - how students like you use Google Docs

July 30, 2009

Stephanie is interning with the Google Docs Marketing team this summer and surveyed students to find out about how you're using Docs on and off campus. I asked you
How do students mainly use Google Docs?
BrainstormingGroup workPersonal record keepingYour favorite thing about Google Docs?Collaboration
Most creative uses we heard from you:

- Chris, Worchester Polytechnic Institute, Computer Science- Jacinda, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science- Justin, Harvard University, Anthropologyget started with Docs

Posted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Marketing Intern

Personalize your iGoogle homepage with comics themes

July 29, 2009

Robert, a rising senior at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is interning with the Search Marketing team on iGoogle in Mountain View this summer. BatmanSupermanTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesmangaPeanutsOwlyIron Man

Posted by Robert Do, iGoogle Team

Announcing our First Class of Google Lime Scholars!

July 27, 2009

Google and Lime are proud to announce our inaugural class of Google Lime Scholars!
Please join us in congratulating the 5 students who we are recognizing for their tremendous achievements in the field of computer science.

David Hayden - Arizona State
David Millman - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Eugene Vasserman - University of Minnesota
Matthew Strom - University of Illinois
Sina Bahram - North Carolina State

Google Lime scholars will each receive a USD $10,000 academic scholarship and are invited to an all-expenses paid trip to the Google Headquarters in California in 2010.

To learn more about Google's Scholarship Programs, please visit www.google.com/jobs/scholarships. To learn more about Lime, and their partnership with Google, check out http://limeconnect.com/.

Posted by Meghan O'Farrell, Talent & Outreach Programs Specialist

Grad tip: An easy way to journal using Blogger

July 24, 2009

In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more!
Whether you're starting a new job, or traveling for a few months, or moving to a new city, you might want to keep a journal of this time in your life. Personally, I've been very unsuccessful with keeping journals or diaries over the years. It was always something I aspired to, but my notebooks would ultimately be full of blank pages.
For a while, I tried blogging as well, but my commitment to writing daily posts waned over time. That is, until I learned a useful feature in Blogger that made documenting the day-to-day events of my life super simple. And since then, I've kept up with my posts for over 2 years!
I essentially photo blog, meaning instead of writing lengthy text posts about my life, I just capture what goes on in pictures that I post online. What makes this process even simpler is that I'm able to take a spontaneous photo on my mobile phone, email it to my blog's address, and have the photo published within seconds.
After doing this for two years, it's amazing to go back and look at what I took a picture of months or a year ago, and to remember what I was doing or who I was with at the exact time and moment the photo was posted to my blog.
If you want to do this, here are some steps to get started:

Follow the steps at www.blogger.com to create a new blog for yourself (if you don't already have one).
After you've created your blog, go to "Settings".
Click "Email & Mobile".
Under "Posting Options," fill in the field to create a Blogger email address for your new blog (make sure to keep this email address secret!).
Select "Publish emails immediately".
Click "Save Settings".
Now take a photo on your mobile phone, and email it to the Blogger address you created. The subject line for the email will be the post's title, and you can include text in the body of the email that will appear along with your photo on your blog.

Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

It's kids play for winning students in the 2009 Google Online Marketing Challenge

July 24, 2009

Last year we launched the Google Online Marketing Challenge — a global university competition that gives undergraduate and post-graduate students hands-on exposure to online marketing. Working with their professors, teams receive the equivalent of US$200 to spend on Google AdWords advertising, then work with a local business to devise an effective online marketing campaign. Teams are given three weeks to mastermind the strategy before submitting a campaign report to an international judging panel of professors.

Today we announce the results; our global winners come from Deakin University, Australia and were taught by Chia Yao Lee and Bardo Fraunholz. The team of Andrew Kidd, Richard Blakely, Kevin Fung, Clinton Hinze, Katalin Kish and Howard Lien worked with a local kids play center, www.littletigrrs.com.au, to create a well-crafted campaign that highly impressed our judges.

Clockwise from top left: Richard Blakely, Chia Yao Lee (professor), Katalin Kish, Kevin Fung, Bardo Fraunholz (professor), Howard Lien, Andrew Kidd, Fiona and Mike (from Little Tigrrs), Clinton Hinze and Mick, The Big Hearted Tiger

Read more about the challenge and the other top finishers on the Official Google Blog.

We sent a survey out to every participating team, professor and business and the results were overwhelmingly positive. One professor noted, "The Google Online Marketing Challenge is among the most practical learning experiences one can offer their students. Thanks, Google!" Students seemed to agree, one commenting, "The Google Challenge enabled me to develop my online marketing and consultant skills by working with a real business. The Google Challenge has been the best assignment I have ever had!"

And finally, my personal favorite favourite:

"The teams have bonded and the learning process was blissful in every way! Our BEST memories ever: Thank YOU for having opened the Challenge to overseas students. It means the WORLD to us!!!"

For anyone interested in competing in the 2010 Challenge, formal registrations will open later this year, but in the meantime you can register your interest.

Posted by Lee Hunter, Product Marketing Manager

Connect with one another

July 23, 2009

Last week we were thrilled to welcome fifty students from North America -- from the University of Alberta to Morehouse College to the American University of Puerto Rico -- in New York City for the first-ever Google FUSE. Aimed at connecting top rising sophomores from underrepesented backgrounds in CS, this retreat brought together some of the best and brightest students for three days of making new connections, creating new ideas, and getting to know Google.

What better way to help these talented students to build their network than by bringing them together to solve some interesting challenges? After bonding over a game of computer science trivia and designing web and mobile ready applications, these budding computer scientists have both virtual and real worlds at their fingertips.

We think it's safe to say that this pilot year went well, and that we look forward to fielding applications for FUSE 2010 soon enough!

Posted by the FUSE team (Holly Benson, Zach Geller, Lindsey Gilligan, Hanah Kim)

Get published on the Google Docs Template Gallery

July 21, 2009

Whether you've created an awesome group project, planned a hassle-free spring break trip, or just written a fun form using Google Docs, you can now share your ideas and creations with other students in just a few clicks.As of last week, the Google Docs Template Gallery is now accepting public template submissions. Help contribute to the collection of student templates by selecting the "Students and Teachers"

Students & Teachers sectionthis postPosted by Stephanie Vezich, Google Docs Team

40 years after Apollo 11

July 20, 2009

heardof the first moon landing by Apollo 11. Not only did we honor this occasion with a special doodle...

Moon in Google Earththis post

Posted by Tasha Danko, on behalf of the Google Earth Team

Grad tip: Check off your to-do's with Tasks

July 17, 2009

In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more!mobile phonesGoogle Calendaradd Tasks to iGoogle

For more Apps news

Did you know that Gmail and Google Calendar are just two of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog!Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps team

Introducing a collection of favorite places from around the world

July 15, 2009

Soumya, a rising senior at Wellesley College, is interning with the GeoMarketing team in Mountain View this summer. A Bay Area native, she's enjoying discovering unique local businesses on Google Maps.

After spending the last semester scurrying between classes, the dining hall, the library, and...(did I already say dining hall?)... I seem to have lost track of the amazing restaurants, art galleries, and shops that live beyond the borders of my college campus bubble.

But working with the Google Maps team this summer has helped me learn about all the local places and businesses that can be found online, from a New York record store with one of the largest collections of hip-hop vinyls, to one of San Francisco's weekly farmer's markets, to an incredible piece of public art in Chicago. And to better help connect other students with these spots, we on the Maps team are now highlighting the favorite places of local experts in cities around the world.

Here are a few examples:

"Hawaii" Mike Salman, founder of marketing agency LTD+ and LTD magazine, shares his favorite places to find sneakers in New York City, including Dave's Quality Meat, which hangs skate-inspired street wear on meat-hooks, and Flight Club New York, the original sneaker consignment shop.

Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, has shared her favorite places to experience art in London, from the Tate Modern for contemporary art to Curzon Soho cinema, where you can catch the latest independent film releases.

Nate Valentine, founder of Vintage 415 in San Francisco, shares his favorite places to eat and dress in the city by the Bay without breaking your bank account. Grab Sunday brunch at Foreign Cinema, where you can eat your pancakes while watching foreign film, or get your hair cut at Alex Sandor Art Studio, an environmentally friendly hair salon.

So while you're enjoying your summer vacation, skip those re-run marathons and instead start discovering all your town has to offer using Google Maps!

To explore the full collection of favorite places, please visit google.com/favoriteplaces or visit m.google.com/fav from your phone's browser.

Posted by Soumya Srinagesh, BOLD Undergraduate Intern

Grad tip: K.I.T. using Gmail's voice and video chat

July 10, 2009

In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so stay tuned for more!

If you and your friends are scattered across cities too, you should try keeping in touch with voice and video chat in Gmail. You can either make a voice call (pretty much a phone call, but it's free and you don't have to use up your cell phone minutes!), or if you have a web cam, you can make a video call to chat with friends "face to face."

To make use of this free service in Gmail:

Download the voice and video chat plug-in.
Log back into Gmail.
Make a voice or video call to any friend that has a camera icon next to their name in your chat list by selecting their name and clicking "Video & more."

For more Apps newscheck out the Google Apps BlogPosted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager

The results are in, and they are beautiful

July 9, 2009

Wow! We received some amazing entries for the Google SketchUp 2009 International Student Bridge Modeling Competition. Higher education students from over 65 countries registered for the competition, 42 collections were created in the Google 3D Warehouse, and 77 bridges were modeled from all over the world. The types of bridges range from historical to pedestrian, rail and highway - and they were all certainly impressive. Check out our winners page for details and comments from our illustrious panel of judges.

And the winners are...
1st Place
Jason Wong
School of Architecture and Construction Management, Washington State University, United States

2nd Place
Tobias Merk
School of Design, Hochschule Augsburg - University of Applied Sciences, Germany

3rd Place
Nicholas Falbo
Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning, Portland State University, United States

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Using Google Sites for school projects

July 1, 2009

Google Sites.Ski Club

Sites for TeachersPosted by Ashley Chandler, Google Docs and Sites User Operations team

Student Blog