YouTube Mobile Gets a Kick Start

YouTube Mobile Gets a Kick Start: "(Cross-posted with the YouTube Blog)

It’s well known that the mobile internet is huge and growing fast; what’s surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within 5 years more users will connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably -- playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we’re excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.

We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That’s why we’ve been working hard to roll out an updated version of the mobile site.

Here's what's new about the new mobile site:

• It's really fast.
• The new user interface incorporates larger, more touch friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
• It incorporates the features and functionality you’ve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists,the ability to designate “favorite,” “like,” or “unlike” videos directly from your device.
• As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you’ll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.

As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are. We're launching in English only today, but will be rolling it out in other languages in the coming months. You can access the latest YouTube mobile site from your iPhone or Android browser. To learn more, visit m.youtube.com to check out the latest improvements and take a minute to watch this demo video:



Posted by Andrey Doronichev, Product Manager recently watched 'Insane street football'

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Tips & Tricks: Using Images in Google documents

Tips & Tricks: Using Images in Google documents: "As anyone working on a term paper, project plan, or party invitation will tell you, there’s a lot of truth in the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” With the new Google Documents editor, you can easily find and insert the perfect image into a document and it will behave exactly as you’d like it.

To get started, select Image from the Insert menu. In Google documents, you can import images from your computer or from a URL. But sometimes you don’t have the image you want to use on hand. Whether it’s a map of the Roman Empire or a photo of a golden retriever, you can now insert an image directly from Google Image Search.


You can add any .gif, .jpg, .png, .bmp image file, up to 2 MB in size.

Wrapping it up
It can be important for images in your document to interact in certain ways with your text. Maybe you want your term paper’s sentences to wrap around a country’s flag? Or perhaps you want images to embellish the lines of your restaurant’s menu?

In the new version of documents, we’ve added a new setting for images -- Inline or Fixed. An Inline image will behave like text -- as you add or subtract words and lines, the image will move around the page, just as words within a certain paragraph do.


Meanwhile, a Fixed image will stay anchored to a specific paragraph, and your words will wrap around it.


You can drag and drop the image around your document if the Fixed position is selected. Or, for an Inline image, you can copy and paste it as you would move around the text within your document.

Resizing images
To resize an image within your document, you can click on it, and a resize box will appear. You can maintain the aspect ratio of the image by dragging from the corner of the rectangular resize window. If maintaining that ratio isn’t important, you can click one of the boxes on any side of the image and drag until you’ve resized the image to your liking.


These advanced image options are available only for documents created in the new version of Google Documents. Let us know what you think in our help forum.

Posted by: Michael Thomas, Software Engineer

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GSDENIRO's installed Apps on his T-Mobile HTC myTouch 3G

gsdeniro's Android apps on AppBrain

New Search Operators in your Documents List

New Search Operators in your Documents List: "Have you ever tried looking for a document or spreadsheet from a particular time or from a certain person about a specific topic? Let’s say you’re a rocket scientist and you’re looking for the presentation about “Prototype rockets with lasers” that your manager sent you last year.

Normally, you’d just search for [rockets lasers prototypes]. But, lets face it, you’re a rocket scientist so you get lots of matching results; just about every document you have is about rockets or lasers.

You could narrow the search in the advanced search menu or you can use Search Operators and refine the search directly in the search box:

• Quotes for exact phrase matching. Example: [ 'match this phrase exactly' ]
• OR to allow either one of several words. Example: [ 'rockets' OR 'shuttles' ]
• Items without a certain word: [ rocket -man ] will return docs that mention rocket, but not rocket man.
• Items you shared with, or had shared with you: [ from:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ] or [ to:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ]
• Starred or Hidden items: [ is:starred ] or [ is:hidden ]

And we recently added a some new search operators:

• Type of doc: [ type:{document, spreadsheet, presentation} ]
• Items edited before (or after) a certain day: [ before:YYYY-MM-DD, after:YYYY-MM-DD ]
• Items owned by Ted: [ owner:ted@rocketsnlasers.com ]
• Items with “rocket” in the title: [ title:rocket ]; [ subject:rocket ] does the same thing

Now you, the rocket scientist, should be able to easily find your boss’ presentation by searching for [ rocket laser prototypes from:overhead@rocketsnlasers.com before:2010-01-01 type:presentation ].

Posted by: Vivek Haldar, Software Engineer

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Leftist Protesters on Violent Rampage Through Streets of Toronto

Sundown - Lyrics, by Gordon Lightfoot

Sundown
Gordon Lightfoot

I can see her lyin' back in her faded dress
In a room where ya do what ya don't confess
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs

She's bin lookin' like a queen in a sailor's dream
And she don't always say what she really means
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain

I can picture every move that a man could make
Getting lost in her lovin' is your first mistake
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin again

I can see her lookin' fast in her faded jeans
She's a hard lovin' woman, got me feelin' mean
Sometimes I think it's a shame
When I get feelin' better when I'm feelin' no pain
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sundown ya better take care
If I find you bin creepin' 'round my back stairs
Sometimes I think it's a sin
When I feel like I'm winnin' when I'm losin' again

Sundown - by Elwood

Google Maps for Android Helps You Find the Right Place, Catch a Train, and Add Latitude Friends

Google Maps for Android Helps You Find the Right Place, Catch a Train, and Add Latitude Friends: "Hot off the presses, Google Maps for Android version 4.3 has added a couple new features to help you quickly choose the right place to grab dinner, catch the next train, and find friends to add in Latitude.

Have you ever had to make a split decision for dinner plans while on the go? Now, you can see a snapshot of what people are saying about places right on search result pages. Instead of poring through full reviews, you can start by looking at what the most frequently mentioned aspects about a place are, such as food, service, atmosphere, or anything else people keep mentioning. Just like on Place Pages for your computer, the color-coded bar gives an overview of how positively people are talking about any individual aspect. Tap one to see more details like the actual review snippets. Whether you’re looking for top-notch service or a vibrant ambiance, you can now pick just the right place to go.

You’ll also find a new addition to public transit station pages: upcoming schedules. Select any transit station icon directly from the map and open its page by tapping the window. You’ll find a handy list of the next departure times for any subways, trains, or buses that are leaving from that station where transit info is available.

In Google Latitude, we wanted to make it even easier for you to find friends and family with whom you’d like to share your location. Right at the bottom of your Latitude friend list, you’ll be able to quickly start sharing your location with long lost friends, loved ones, and others from your Google Contacts. Add any suggested friends by tapping the + icon and sending them a sharing request. Tap the x and they’ll be dropped from your suggested friends list. Don’t worry -- you can always add them later by choosing “Add friends” from the Latitude menu.

Get the latest version of Maps by searching for Google Maps in Android Market from Android 1.6+ phones. If you’re reading this on your phone, just tap here. Version 4.3 is available in all the countries and languages where Maps is currently available.

Visit our Help Center to learn more, ask questions in our Help Forum, or give us suggestions and vote on other people’s on the Mobile Product Ideas page.

Posted by Andrew Oplinger, Software Engineer, Google Mobile Team

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Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs

Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs: "A couple of months ago, my co-worker, Mike, showed up at my desk with a pile of paper, each of the yellowed sheets densely covered with an ancient-looking typewriter font. His wife had recently discovered parts of her family chronicles in the attic, typed up by her grandmother many years ago! Now he was wondering if there was a way for her to continue writing the chronicles in Google Docs.

The papers sat on my desk for a while, but recently, I returned them to Mike with a smile, cheerfully telling him that what started as my 20% project is now ready for everyone to use -- Google Docs now officially supports importing scanned documents. What we launched as an experimental feature for the Documents List Data API last year is now available on the upload page: check the “Convert text from PDF or image files to Google Docs documents”, upload your scanned images (JPEG, GIF, PNG) or PDFs, and Google Docs will extract text and formatting from the scans for you to edit away.


For the technically curious: we’re using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that our friends from Google Books helped us set up. OCR works best with high-resolution images, and not all formatting may be preserved. The original images will be included in the new document to make it easier for you to correct mistakes. Supported languages include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages and character sets on their way. We’re looking forward to get feedback from you while we keep improving the feature over the next months.

And Mike’s scanned family chronicles have even been extended by an additional chapter in Google Docs: his wife recently had a baby boy named James!

Posted by: Jaron Schaeffer, Software Engineer, Google Docs

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A Picture of Me Without You

Don't You Want Somebody To Love - Flying Babies !!

Tips & Tricks: Table of Contents in Google documents

Tips & Tricks: Table of Contents in Google documents: "Like in a book, the table of contents in a document is an important element that keeps readers and authors organized. It allows you to create a list of links at the beginning of your document that point to different sections of that document. This can be useful for drafting term papers, design documents or restaurant menus. Once you’ve created your table of contents, you can easily update its links as you edit each section of your document.

To make a table of contents, you need to mark each section of your document with a heading. To do this, highlight the appropriate text, and then select a heading size from the style menu in the toolbar.


To revert a heading to normal text, simply select the Normal option from the same drop down menu; doing so will also remove that link in the table of contents after you update the table of contents.

After you’ve marked each section with a heading, your document could look like this:

You can then add a table of contents from the Insert menu.


After you’ve added a table of contents, it will automatically create a link to each heading in your document.

As you update your document, you can easily update the table of contents by clicking the Update now button in the top right of the table of contents.

Posted by: John Day Richter, Software Engineer

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Settle trivia debates anytime, anywhere

Settle trivia debates anytime, anywhere: "Last month we launched a way to provide short answers to search queries, and it's now available on your iPhone, Palm WebOS or Android-powered device in English. If you’re like us, you may sometimes engage in trivia matches with friends on topics as far ranging as, what continent is Turkey in?, Star Wars release date?, or Augustus’ successor? Now you can settle that debate there and then by searching Google from your mobile; you can speak your question into Google Search on Android or Google Mobile App for iPhone, or you can visit google.com from your mobile browser to type your search.

If your friends challenge the answer provided in Google Search results, you can corroborate the information with a list of websites by clicking on the “Show sources” link. The source list includes the relevant text from each page so you can quickly verify whether Google interpreted the context of the answer correctly. You can also click through to the original website to get all the details.

We continue to work on providing short answers to more questions. Here are some additional examples to try:

• Who’s taller? [height of kobe bryant] or [height of paul pierce]
• Geography trivia? [capital of massachusetts], [language in netherlands]
• Literature trivia? [author of les miserables], [george eliot’s gender]
• Movie trivia? [release date of shrek], [director of harry potter 3]
• Music trivia? [composer of four seasons], [birthday of lady gaga]

Posted by Nick Fey, User Experience Designer and Mike Buchanan, Software Engineer, Google Mobile Team

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Follow your football team in South Africa, wherever you are

Follow your football team in South Africa, wherever you are: "Whether you’ll be in South Africa in person this month, or simply cheering your team on from back home, our new tools for football fans can help you soak up the atmosphere and follow your team wherever you are in the world.

You can check out the brand new Street View imagery for South Africa which includes amazing pictures from seven of South Africa’s new football stadiums, including Soccer City in Johannesburg, Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Each one can be explored from pitch-level in 360 degrees, both inside and out—see a preview on the Lat Long blog. These detailed images were collected over the last few months, using the Street View Trike and some serious pedal power!



You can also zoom around the host cities and stadiums in 3D. Simply turn on the 3D buildings layer in Google Earth or switch to Earth View in Google Maps, and zoom in to the chosen destination. All 10 of the football stadiums have been modelled in amazing 3D detail, as well as the South African cities of Rustenburg, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg.

To make it easier for people to find all these great places, South African Tourism have provided information on the most important sights. Visit maps.google.com/exploresouthafrica to start virtually exploring South Africa.

If you’re staying back home but want to find a great place to watch the match with your friends, take a look on Google Maps and look for the special football icon—that tells you that the location is one of tens of thousands of businesses who have added themselves to Google Places as a football viewing location.

Our first global Doodle 4 Google competition is well underway, with tens of thousands of children in 17 countries around the world sending us their amazing designs for a doodle around the theme of “I Love Football.” The winning doodle will be displayed internationally on the Google homepage for a day on July 11, 2010.

To make it easy for you to customize your photos to show the world which team you’re cheering for, we’ve launched a set of football-themed photo effects in Picnik. With just a few clicks, you can add digital face paint, soccer-themed stickers and team flag overlays, customized for each of the 32 qualifying teams.

Finally, it’s not just the professional players who’ve been put through their paces ahead of kick-off. In the run-up to the games, fans from around the the world have joined the legendary Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids on his Street Soccer Tour for Charity from Amsterdam, London and Paris and to eight cities in Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Edgar and his team of Street Soccer Legends have been competing against local players as they make their journey to South Africa and you can watch them on YouTube.

May the best team win!

Update 12:09PM: Updated link to Picnik photo effects.

Posted by Yonca Brunini, Marketing Director, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (SEEMEA)

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See collaboration in action on Google Docs

See collaboration in action on Google Docs: "Collaboration is at the heart of the modern workspace, yet many businesses still run cumbersome client-side software that makes it unnecessarily difficult to work together. With Google Docs, coworkers can collaborate in real-time on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawings. Instead of creating a document, sending it as an attachment, receiving multiple revisions, and then having to merge edits, with Google Docs everyone can work on the same version at the same time.

If you've never tried our web-based documents, spreadsheets and presentations, now you can instantly take a test drive at docs.google.com/demo. No need to download any software or even sign in -- just start editing right in your browser. Better yet, you can share the unique link provided with others to try out real-time collaboration together.

Google Docs is designed to help people be more productive than ever before. But don’t take our word for it, take Google Docs for a spin and let us know what you think. To learn more about how Google Docs make your teams more efficient, visit google.com/apps/docs.

Posted by Scott Johnston, Product Manager, Google Apps

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Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland.