Google Refine

Google Refine 2.0 - a power tool for data wranglers


Our acquisition of Metaweb back in July also brought along Freebase Gridworks, an open source software project for cleaning and enhancing entire data sets. Today we’re announcing that the project has been renamed to Google Refine and version 2.0 is now available.

Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data sets, including cleaning up inconsistencies, transforming them from one format into another, and extending them with new data from external web services or other databases. Version 2.0 introduces a new extensions architecture, a reconciliation framework for linking records to other databases (like Freebase), and a ton of new transformation commands and expressions.

Freebase Gridworks 1.0 has already been well received by the data journalism and open government data communities (you can read how the Chicago Tribune, ProPublica and data.gov.uk have used it) and we are very excited by what they and others will be able to do with this new release. To learn more about what you can do with Google Refine 2.0, watch the following screencasts:





Source: Google Open Source Blog

Pacifica Online - Facebook Game

Pacifica Online: MMORPG for the Facebook Platform.



Pacifica Online - supports free and open source software.

A Free and Fun High Quality MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) for Facebook. No downloads, long waiting time or extra plugins required. Just play it directly from your browser!

Pacifica Online is made by Nexus Pixels - Free High Quality Multiplayer Online Games Independent Development Team in the Philippines.

Team Members
Galileo Lajara - Game Designer / Lead Programmer
Jeremiah Torevillas - Art Director / 3D Artist
Justine Aaron Torrevillas - Graphic Artist / Map Designer
Donnie Ray Gianchand - Game Programmer / Music Composer

Mission
Develop High Quality Free Real-time Multiplayer Online Games using Open Source Software


Source:
Nexus Pixels
Nexus Pixels on Facebook
Pacifica Online MMORPG
Software Freedom Day 2010

Preserving Alan Turing’s papers at Bletchley Park

As you may have seen, some key papers from British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing are up for auction today at Christie’s in London. Dr Turing is a hero to many of us at Google for his pioneering work on algorithms and the development of computer science. (He’s also an important figure for many across the world who face homophobic attacks and bullying, an issue that we have spoken about elsewhere.)

Why are these papers so important? Dr Sue Black, a computer scientist at University College London and a key campaigner for Bletchley Park, where Dr Turing worked, explains: “The lot includes codebreaker Max Newman's copies of many of Turing's papers. Some of the papers have on them comments from Newman, a friend of Turing’s who testified in his defence at his trial. These papers belong at Bletchley Park, home of the codebreakers, and where these two codebreakers worked together side by side, helping to save millions of lives during World War II.”

There’s still a long way to go to raise all the money required; we hope that others will be able to come forward too. The deadline for contributions to the bid has been extended until 2pm GMT today. Anyone interested in supporting it should contact Sue directly, or go to http://www.justgiving.com/turing-papers/.

Source: Google Blog

Apply for a 2011 Google Policy Fellowship

Last summer Google Fellow Gwen Glazer at the American Library Association focused on digitization, specifically on for content from small or mid-sized public libraries and other cultural heritage institutions. Rare materials, like local history collections and historic photographs and maps, present significant challenges to digitization, and Gwen’s proposal encouraged the creation of a national program that would digitize these archival materials and collect them in a free online interface to make them available to the public.

Ramtin Amtin at the Citizen Lab examined the recent changes to Google in China to study free expression as a human rights issue, and explored Internet censorship as a potential violation of world trade laws.

At the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Carolyn Homer wrote a legal paper on the meaning of online privacy policies, and published two op-eds on privacy on AOL News and in AdAge.

What will Google fellows do summer 2011? That’s up to you. Students of all levels and disciplines interested in Internet policy issues can apply starting today. The deadline for applications is January 17, 2011.

Selected students will spend ten weeks this summer working on issues as varied as free expression, privacy, security, and intellectual property with thought leaders at a diverse range of organizations, including: American Library Association, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Cato Institute, Center for Democracy and Technology, The Citizen Lab, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Creative Commons, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Future of Music Coalition, Internet Education Foundation, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Media Access Project, National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, TechFreedom, and the Technology Policy Institute.

You can learn about the program and host organizations on the Google Public Policy Fellowship website.

Google Public Policy Blog

Google Person Finder

Be Part of Improving Google Person Finder

Google Person Finder has become a useful tool in responding to natural disasters by reconnecting people with their family and friends. We’ve been looking at the next phase of Google Person Finder and decided to begin hosting the open source project at Google Code. We’re inviting the developer community to help improve Google Person Finder and the PFIF data format.

Google Person Finder provides a common place to search for, comment on, and connect records from many missing person registries. After the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, a team of Googlers worked with the U.S. Department of State to quickly create a site that helped people who were affected by the disaster. The site was used heavily after the Chile earthquake in February and put in action again in April after the Qinghai earthquake in China and in August for the Pakistan floods.

The software powering Google Person Finder is open source so we’re listing the open issues and feature requests we’ve received over the past few months in hopes the community can help us improve the code. We’ve created a Developer Guide to help developers get started. As always, we invite those interested to post questions on our public Person Finder discussion group. Those who are interested in improving the PFIF data format can also join the PFIF discussion group.
Google Blog
Person Finder: Test Instance

Google Checkout

Find it with Google. Buy it with Google Checkout.

Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. Google Checkout also offers fraud protection, as well a unified page for tracking purchases and their status.

Google Checkout service was first made available in the United States on June 28, 2006, and later became available in the UK on April 13, 2007. It was free for merchants until February 1, 2008. Between that date and May 5, 2009 Google charged merchants 2.0% plus $0.20 per transaction (1.4% + £0.20 for UK merchants). Since that date Google has moved to a tiered cost structure, identical to that of PayPal. Also since this date, Google have discontinued their offer whereby merchants who advertised with an AdWords account were not charged fees on monthly transactions totaling less than ten times their monthly AdWords expenditure. Google Checkout Tour. Wikipedia.

Google Instant

Faster Searches. Smarter Predictions. Instant Results.
Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way. Google Instant.

Google Translate

Translate the world with new Google Translate.

Google Translate is a free statistically-based machine translation service provided by Google Inc. to translate a section of text, document or webpage, into another language.

The service was introduced in 2007. Prior to that Google used a SYSTRAN based translator which is used by other translation services such as Babel Fish, AOL, and Yahoo. Wikipedia.

Google Mp3 Player in Gmail

A new GMail feature lets you play MP3 files right inside the GMail homepage without having to download the MP3 song or open an external media player.



When you receive an MP3 audio file as an email attachment, click the play button and Google will play the audio file for you in a Gmail popup window.



You can also embed this player in your website so your visitors can listen to an audio clip right from any page.

What is Google Chrome OS?

Google Chrome OS is a forthcoming Linux-based, open source operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. First announced on July 7, 2009, Chrome OS will be publicly available as a stable release by the northern hemisphere "late fall" of 2010 according to Google.

Chrome OS will not be available as a download to run and install. Instead, the operating system will only ship on specific hardware from Google's manufacturing partners. The user interface takes a minimalist approach, resembling that of the Chrome web browser. Because the only application on the device will be a browser incorporating a media player, Google Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on the Internet. Wikidepia.

Latest on Youtube

35 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

Remember in March when we shared that more than 24 hours of video was being uploaded to YouTube every minute? Well, our users continue to amaze us, and as of last week, 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. If we were to measure that in movie terms (assuming the average Hollywood film is around 120 minutes long), it’s the equivalent of more than 176,000 full-length Hollywood releases every week.

Give YouTube Topics on Search a whirl
We know that sometimes people come to YouTube looking for a specific video, but at other times, they have only a rough idea of the kind of videos they want. We’ve been there too, and have been thinking for a while about this challenge of searching when you don’t yet know exactly what you’re looking for. Here’s our take on how discovery for videos could work on YouTube in the not-too-distant future. Find out what happens when we search for [LOL] and [cat] to find funny cat videos.



Google Blog

Gmail's New Look

Gmail homepage makeover
Monday, November 15, 2010 | 6:25 PM

If you visited the Gmail log-in page recently, you may have noticed that things looked a wee bit different. They decided to give this page a bit of a facelift and updated a few of Gmail’s other pages while we were at it. Their goal was to keep a familiar look while freshening up the graphics and trimming down the text (they cut out over 250 words in the process).
Here’s a before & after of the log-in page:

They also updated the Gmail logo, brightening the colors and making it more in line with the latest Google logo:

Google Blog.

Gmail 5 New Themes

Felling unhappy and bored with your current Gmail theme?..
Try one of the new five Gmail themes now.

• Basic Black and Basic White Theme

Google has stripped the Gmail interface to its barebones offering us something “dead simple” in either black or white color options.



• Android Theme

If you love your Android smartphone then this is the theme for you, using the same color scheme as the mobile operating system.


• Tree Tops Theme

This is a theme for those of you who want to relax and look at some trees, some relaxing tree tops in fact.

• Marker Theme

Finally there’s the marker theme which gives Gmail a handmade look. Not to everyone’s tastes, but Google needs to cater for its millions of users so I’m sure some will welcome this one.

Google Adsense - New Look

Introducing the new AdSense interface, now available globally.
Google has just released a new interface for its AdSense platform and it is being rolled out to all publishers globally.

Almost exactly a year ago, Google started testing its new AdSense interface with a select group of AdSense publishers. The new design is a reflection on both the feedback from that group and requests for features from the existing userbase.

The new AdSense looks strikingly similar to the new Feedburner interface released last month. We expect that more and more Google Webmaster products will begin to take on cues from these two interface updates.

The new interface has been redesigned to make managing tasks more efficient, has placed controls all in one place and provides more insights into analytical data. Google Adsense. Google Adsense Blog.

Take a tour on New look of Google Adsense now.

Google Vulnerability Reward Program

Rewarding web application security research.
Monday, November 1, 2010 12:30 PM
Back in January of this year, the Chromium open source project launched a well-received vulnerability reward program. In the months since launch, researchers reporting a wide range of great bugs have received rewards — a small summary of which can be found in the Hall of Fame. We've seen a sustained increase in the number of high quality reports from researchers, and their combined efforts are contributing to a more secure Chromium browser for millions of users.

Today, we are announcing an experimental new vulnerability reward program that applies to Google web properties. We already enjoy working with an array of researchers to improve Google security, and some individuals who have provided high caliber reports are listed on our credits page. As well as enabling us to thank regular contributors in a new way, we hope our new program will attract new researchers and the types of reports that help make our users safer. More information at: Google Online Security. Vulnerability Reward Program.

Google Chrome - Free Wi-Fi for the holidays

Passengers enjoy free Wi-Fi for the holidays.

This holiday season, Google Chrome has teamed up with AirTran Airways, Delta, and Virgin America to offer free Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi on every domestic flight from November 20, 2010 through January 2, 2011. These participating airlines have outfitted their entire domestic fleet with Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, and we expect more connected passengers this holiday season than ever before!

Just bring a Wi-Fi enabled laptop or mobile device and stay connected to family and friends while you travel. Free Wifi from Google Chrome.

Google Docs - Moving Your Files To The Cloud

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of Writely and Spreadsheets with a presentation program incorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems. Data storage of any files up to 1GB each in size was introduced on January 13, 2010. Wikipedia.

Google Map - Street View

Explore the world at street level.
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide.

Google Street View displays images taken from a fleet of specially adapted cars. Areas not accessible by car, like pedestrian areas, narrow streets, alleys and ski resorts, are sometimes covered by Google Trikes (tricycles) or a snowmobile. On each of these vehicles there are nine directional cameras for 360° views at a height of about 2.5 meters, GPS units for positioning and three laser range scanners for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle. There are also 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots. Recently, 'high quality' images are based on open source hardware cameras from Elphel. Wikipedia.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended - Top 5 New Features

Complex selections made easy.

Easily select intricate image elements, such as hair, for refinements, compositing, or placing in layout. Eliminate background color around selection edges, and automatically vary selection edges and perfect masks using new refinement tools.

Content-Aware Fill.
Remove any image detail or object and watch as Content-Aware Fill magically fills in the space left behind. This breakthrough technology matches lighting, tone, and noise so it looks as if the removed content never existed.


Puppet Warp.
Precisely warp or stretch graphics, text, or image elements to create unique new looks for your designs.




State-of-the-art raw image processing.
Use the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6 plug-in to nondestructively remove image noise while preserving color and detail; add grain to make digital photos look more organic; enjoy more control when performing post-crop vignetting; and more.


Superior HDR imaging.
Create photo-realistic or surreal HDR images with unprecedented speed, control, and accuracy. Get better-than-ever results thanks to automatic ghost removal and greater control with tone mapping and adjustments, and even give single-exposure photos the look of HDR.

More on Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended.
Download a free trial of Photoshop CS5 Extended.


Podcast.