Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
Don't get locked out: set up recovery options for your Google Account
Monday, September 9, 2013
Posted by Diana Smetters, Software Engineer
This summer we’re
posting regularly
with privacy and security tips. Knowing how to stay safe and secure online is important, which is why we created our Good to Know site with advice and tips for safe and savvy Internet use.
-Ed.
Strong passwords help protect your accounts and information on the web. But forgetting your password is like losing your keys—you can end up locked out of your own home. It gets worse if your password gets compromised or stolen. Sometimes the thief will change your password so you can't get back into your own account—kind of like someone stealing your keys and then changing the lock.
If you've lost your Google password, you need a way to get back into your Google Account—and back to all of your stuff in Gmail, Maps, Google+ and YouTube. To help you, Google needs to be able to tell that you’re the rightful account owner even if you don't have the right password. There are a few easy steps you can take right now to make it easy for you—and no one else—to get into your Google Account if you forget or don’t know the password.
1. Add a recovery email address.
By registering an alternate email address with your
Google Account settings
, you’re giving Google another way to reach you. If you forget your password, Google can send a link to that recovery email address so you can reset your password. Google can also use that email address to let you know if we detect something suspicious happening with your account.
Setting up your recovery options can help you get back in
if you get locked out of your Google Account
2. Add a phone number to your Google Account.
Your mobile phone is the best way to regain access to your account if you forget your password. It's like the "fast lane" for account recovery: we text a code to the phone number you've registered with us, and you're
back in business
in no time. Your phone is more secure and reliable than other means of recovering your account. Methods like “secret” questions (asking your mother’s maiden name or city where you were born) may have answers that are easy to remember, but they are also possible for bad guys to uncover. And we’ve consistently seen that people who register a recovery phone are faster and more successful at getting their accounts back than those recovering their accounts via email.
You can also get a text message if Google detects that something suspicious is going on with your account. Giving a recovery phone number to Google won’t result in you being signed up for marketing lists or getting more calls from telemarketers.
3. Keep your recovery options up to date.
It’s a good idea to check your recovery options every so often. For example, if you change your phone number after setting up your recovery options, take just a minute to update your recovery settings to match. We'll remind you of your current settings every so often to make it easier for you to keep them up to date.
That’s it! You can either update your recovery options next time you’re prompted, or you can take two minutes to do it right now on our
Account recovery options page
. For more advice on how to protect yourself and your family online, visit our
Good to Know site
, or check out some of the other posts in our series on staying safe and secure.
Dude, where’s my phone? Simple steps to protect your Android device this summer.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Posted by Adrian Ludwig, Android Security Engineer
This summer we’re
posting regularly
with privacy and security tips. Knowing how to stay safe and secure online is important, which is why we created our Good to Know site with advice and tips for safe and savvy Internet use.
-Ed.
With summer vacation in full swing, you’re likely out and about, using your smartphone or tablet to get answers on the go or check out the latest cool apps and games. But you don’t have to leave safety at home! In this post, we’re sharing a few tips and tools that you can easily set up if you’re on an Android phone or tablet to keep your device—and the contents inside—safe and secure, including a new service that makes it easy to locate a misplaced device.
1. Lock your device screen.
Whether you’re on a phone or a tablet, it’s easy to set up a
screen lock
. This is important to do in case your device gets left in the back of a car, or you’re worried about someone picking up your phone and scrolling through your stuff. You can lock your device with a pin, password, pattern (or even
your face
!) by going to Settings > Personal > Security > Screen Lock.
2. Protect your phone from suspicious apps.
We automatically scan Google Play to block and remove harmful apps. That makes Google Play the safest place to get Android apps. But Google Play can also help
protect you
even for apps you get elsewhere, like the web or a third-party app store. The first time you start to install an app from an unknown source, a message will pop up asking if you’d like Google to scan the file to make sure it’s not harmful. Tap “OK” to let Google help protect you from harmful apps.
3. Locate, ring and wipe a misplaced device.
Have you ever lost your phone in between the couch cushions or left it in a restaurant? Later this month, you will be able to use a new service called Android Device Manager, which can quickly ring your phone at maximum volume so you can find it (even if it’s been silenced), or locate it on a map, in real time, using Android Device Manager. If your phone can’t be recovered, or has been stolen, you can quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device to keep your data from ending up in the wrong hands. The Android Device Manager will be available for devices running Android 2.2 and above, as part of Google Play. You can read the full announcement on the Android blog.
For more advice on how to protect yourself and your family online, visit our
Good to Know site
, and stay tuned for more posts in our security series.
Congress, now live on YouTube
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Posted by
Robert Kyncl, Vice President, Global Head of Content Partnerships for YouTube
& Susan Molinari, Vice President, Public Policy and Government Relations
Video plays a powerful role in bringing us closer together, especially when it connects people in real time. By transcending borders, empowering citizens, and increasing transparency, it’s one of the many ways technology allows democracy to thrive. Starting this week, all members of the U.S. Congress will
have the opportunity to access enhanced features on their YouTube channels, including the ability to live stream video.
Live video is already allowing elected officials and their constituents to reach one another in innovative ways. Thousands tuned in to YouTube to watch the president’s
State of the Union address
and the corresponding
Republican response
this February. Engagement is growing across many types of platforms — Google+ Hang
outs, for example,
have sparked face-to-face conversations on topics ranging from
gun control
to the
national economy
and have allowed people on the other side of the world to
share their stories at Congressional hearings
.
If you’re a member of Congress and would like to know more, check out these Dear Colleague letters issued by the
House
and
Senate
. Whether it’s to share a look into your daily work, broadcast speeches and meetings, or showcase events in your state or district, we can’t wait to see how you connect with your constituents.
Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager
Not many of us like thinking about death — especially our own. But making plans for what happens after you’re gone is really important for the people you leave behind. So today, we’re launching a new feature that makes it easy to tell Google what you want done with your digital assets when you die or can no longer use your account.
The feature is called
Inactive Account Manager
— not a great name, we know — and you’ll find it on your Google Account settings
page
. You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason.
For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity. Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data from some or all of the following services: +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube. Before our systems take any action, we’ll first warn you by sending a text message to your cellphone and email to the secondary address you’ve provided.
We hope that this new feature will enable you to plan your digital afterlife — in a way that protects your privacy and security — and make life easier for your loved ones after you’re gone.
Mapping creates jobs and drives global economic growth
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Google Geo
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
Twenty years ago, we used paper maps and printed guides to help us navigate the world. Today, the most advanced digital mapping technologies—satellite imagery, GPS devices, location data and of course
Google Maps
—are much more accessible. This sea change in mapping technology is improving our lives and helping businesses realize untold efficiencies.
The transformation of the maps we use everyday is driven by a growing industry that creates jobs and economic growth globally. To present a clearer picture of the importance of the geo services industry, we commissioned studies from
Boston Consulting Group
(BCG) and
Oxera
. What we found is that maps make a big economic splash around the world.
In summary, the global geo services industry is valued at up to $270 billion per year and pays out $90 billion in wages. In the U.S., it employs more than 500,000 people and is worth $73 billion. The infographic below illustrates some examples of the many benefits of maps, whether it’s improving agriculture irrigation systems or helping emergency response teams save lives.
Click the image for a larger version
1.1 billion hours of travel time saved each year? That’s a lot of time. Also, consider
UPS
, which uses map technology to optimize delivery routes—saving 5.3 million miles and more than 650,000 gallons of fuel in 2011. And every eight seconds, a user hails a taxi with
Hailo
, which used maps and GPS to deliver more than 1 million journeys in London alone last year. Finally,
Zipcar
uses maps to connect more than 760,000 customers to a growing fleet of cars in locations around the world.
Because maps are such an integral part of how we live and do business, the list of examples goes on and on. That’s why it’s important we all understand the need to invest in the geo services industry so it continues to grow and drive the global economy. Investments can come from the public and private sectors in many forms—product innovation, support of open data policies, more geography education programs in schools and more.
We’re proud of the contributions that
Google Maps
and
Earth
, the
Google Maps APIs
and our
Enterprise solutions
have made to the geo services industry and to making maps more widely available, but there’s a long way to go. To learn more about the impact of the maps industry, see the
full reports
.
Bringing the Halls of Museums Into Classrooms Everywhere
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Posted by Piotr Adamczyk, Google Art Project Team
The last known photo portrait of Abraham Lincoln. A masterpiece made up of thousands of tiny painted dots. Scenes of the American West that will leave you breathless. Some of our nation’s greatest treasures -- all at your fingertips.
In a few hours I will join art enthusiasts, students, and local leaders at the Art Institute of Chicago to announce a major expansion of the
Google Art Projec
t. We are thrilled to have partnered with
151 museums
in
40 countries
including 29 American institutions in 16 cities.
Now anyone with an Internet connection can take a virtual field trip to see some of the finest art around the world and right here in America. No permission slip, sack lunch or bus fare needed! All before lunch, from their desk, a student could walk through the East Room of the White House, visit one of the greatest collections of the American West in the world at the Denver Art Museum, and take a quick trip to Massachusetts to see some of the great illustrations at the Norman Rockwell Museum. They could, of course, also go see
South African rock art
,
street graffiti from Brazil
or
Australian aboriginal art
.
All told, the Art Project puts over 30,000 works of art at your fingertips and allows you to:
Explore inside museums
: We’ve adapted mapping technology to take 360-degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of more than 385 rooms within the museums. You can also explore the gallery interiors directly from within
Street View in Google Maps
.
Discover history
: Our partners have provided the backstory of many of the works in the Art Project and the artists that created these pieces. The Art Project is a fantastic classroom tool with hundreds of short educational videos created by
SmartHistory
presented by Khan Academy.
Get up close
: We now have 46 artworks available with our “gigapixel” photo capturing technology, photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution so you can study details of the brushwork and patina that would be impossible to see with the naked eye.
Curate your own collection
- build a personalized collection, provide your own commentary, and share it with your friends and family.
To learn even more about the Google Art Project and today’s announcement read this post on the
Official Google Blog
.
Giving you more insight into your Google Account activity
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
Every day we aim to make technology so simple and intuitive that you stop thinking about it—we want Google to work so well, it just blends into your life. But sometimes it’s helpful to step back and take stock of what you’re doing online.
Today we’re introducing
Account Activity
, a new feature in your Google Account. If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.
For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3 percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month, and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and [hotel].
Click the image for a larger version
Knowing more about your own account activity also can help you take steps to protect your Google Account. For example, if you notice sign-ins from countries where you haven’t been or devices you’ve never owned, you can change your password immediately and sign up for the extra level of security provided by
2-step verification
.
Give Account Activity a try, and tell us what you think by clicking on the “Send feedback” button in the lower right corner of your report. Over the next few months, we plan to incorporate more Google services. Meanwhile, we hope this feature helps you better understand and manage your information on Google.
Explore Mandela’s archives online
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Product Manager, Google’s Cultural Institute
(Cross-posted from the
Google Africa Blog
)
Last year we
announced
a $1.25 million grant to the
Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
to help preserve and digitize thousands of archival documents, photographs and videos about Nelson Mandela. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (NMCM) is committed to documenting the life and times of one of the world's greatest statesmen and spreading his story to promote social justice throughout the world.
Today, the Mandela archive has become a reality. Along with historians, educationalists, researchers, activists and many others around the world, you can access a wealth of information and knowledge about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African leader. The
new online multimedia archive
includes Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa. The archive will also include the
earliest-known photo of Mr. Mandela
and
never-before seen drafts
of Mr. Mandela's manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography
Long Walk to Freedom
.
We’ve worked closely with the NMCM to create an interactive online experience which we hope will inspire you as much as us. You can search and browse the archives to explore different parts of Mandela’s life and work in depth:
Early Life
,
Prison Years
,
Presidential Years
,
Retirement
,
Books for Mandela
,
Young People
and
My Moment with a Legend
.
For example, you might be interested in Nelson Mandela’s personal memories of the time he was incarcerated and click into the
Prison Years
exhibit. You can immediately see a curated set of materials threaded together into a broader narrative. These include handwritten notes on his
desk calendars
, which show, for example, that he met President F.W. De Klerk for the first time on December 13, 1989 for two and a half hours in prison; the
Warrants of Committal
issued by the Supreme Court which sent him to prison; the earliest known
photo of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell
on Robben Island circa 1971; and a
personal letter
written from prison in 1963 to his daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, after their mother was arrested, complete with transcript.
From there, you might want to see all the letters held by the archive, and click “See more” in the letters category, where you can discover all
personal letters
or use the time filter to explore his
diaries and calendars
written between 1988 and 1998, where you can see that in the
last page
of the last diary, he met with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda to exchange ideas about the situation in northern Uganda. If you were a researcher, you can search through various fragments of Madiba’s memory that relate to
Ahmed Kathrada
, his long-time comrade, politician and anti-apartheid activist, where you can find photos, videos, manuscripts and letters that relate to him.
Finally, by clicking into the exhibit,
My Moment with a Legend
, you can go beyond Madiba’s personal materials to get a diverse perspective through photos, videos and stories, via the memories of people like
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
,
F.W. De Klerk
and
Nomfundo Walaza
, a community worker.
The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive project is an initiative by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the
Google Cultural Institute
, which helps to preserve and promote our diverse cultural and historical heritage. Some of our other initiatives include the
Art Project
, digitizing the
Dead Sea Scrolls
and bringing the
Yad Vashem Holocaust
materials online.
You can start exploring the Nelson Mandela archive right now at
archive.nelsonmandela.org
. We hope you’ll be inspired by this influential leader—the face of South Africa’s transition to democracy.
Ten recent algorithm changes
Monday, November 14, 2011
Posted by Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer
Starting today, we'll begin cross-posting some entries from our
Inside Search blog
to help pull back the curtain even further on how Google search works. We hope to provide greater transparency by posting regular updates about our major search ranking changes.
Today we’re continuing our long-standing
series of blog posts
to share the methodology and process behind our search
ranking
,
evaluation
and algorithmic
changes
. This summer we published a
video
that gives a glimpse into our overall process, and today we want to give you a flavor of specific algorithm changes by publishing a highlight list of many of the improvements we’ve made over the past couple weeks.
We’ve published hundreds of blog posts about search over the years on this blog, our
Official Google Blog
, and even on my
personal blog
. But we’re always looking for ways to give you even deeper insight into the over 500 changes we make to search in a given year. In that spirit, here’s a list of ten improvements from the past couple weeks:
Cross-language information retrieval
updates:
For queries in languages where limited web content is available (Afrikaans, Malay, Slovak, Swahili, Hindi, Norwegian, Serbian, Catalan, Maltese, Macedonian, Albanian, Slovenian, Welsh, Icelandic), we will now translate relevant English web pages and display the translated titles directly below the English titles in the search results. This feature was available previously in Korean, but only at the bottom of the page. Clicking on the translated titles will take you to pages translated from English into the query language.
Snippets with more page content and less header/menu content:
This change helps us choose more relevant text to use in snippets. As we improve our understanding of web page structure, we are now more likely to pick text from the actual page content, and less likely to use text that is part of a header or menu.
Better page titles in search results by de-duplicating boilerplate anchors:
We look at a number of signals when generating a page’s title. One signal is the anchor text in links pointing to the page. We found that boilerplate links with duplicated anchor text are not as relevant, so we are putting less emphasis on these. The result is more relevant titles that are specific to the page’s content.
Length-based autocomplete predictions in Russian:
This improvement reduces the number of long, sometimes arbitrary query predictions in Russian. We will not make predictions that are very long in comparison either to the partial query or to the other predictions for that partial query. This is already our practice in English.
Extending application rich snippets:
We recently announced
rich snippets for applications
. This enables people who are searching for software applications to see details, like cost and user reviews, within their search results. This change extends the coverage of application rich snippets, so they will be available more often.
Retiring a signal in Image search:
As the web evolves, we often revisit signals that we launched in the past that no longer appear to have a significant impact. In this case, we decided to retire a signal in Image Search related to images that had references from multiple documents on the web.
Fresher, more recent results
:
As we announced just over a week ago, we’ve made a significant improvement to how we rank fresh content. This change impacts roughly 35 percent of total searches (around 6-10% of search results to a noticeable degree) and better determines the appropriate level of freshness for a given query.
Refining official page detection:
We try hard to give our users the most relevant and authoritative results. With this change, we adjusted how we attempt to determine which pages are official. This will tend to rank official websites even higher in our ranking.
Improvements to date-restricted queries:
We changed how we handle result freshness for queries where a user has chosen a specific date range. This helps ensure that users get the results that are most relevant for the date range that they specify.
Prediction fix for IME queries:
This change improves how Autocomplete handles IME queries (queries which contain non-Latin characters). Autocomplete was previously storing the intermediate keystrokes needed to type each character, which would sometimes result in gibberish predictions for Hebrew, Russian and Arabic.
If you’re a site owner, before you go wild tuning your anchor text or thinking about your web presence for Icelandic users, please remember that this is only a sampling of the hundreds of changes we make to our search algorithms in a given year, and even these changes may not work precisely as you’d imagine. We’ve decided to publish these descriptions in part because these specific changes are less susceptible to gaming.
For those of us working in search every day, we think this stuff is incredibly exciting -- but then again, we’re big search geeks. Let us know what you think and we’ll consider publishing more posts like this in the future.
Powering a new job search engine for military veterans
Monday, November 7, 2011
Posted by Christina Chen, Product Manager, Search
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
and
Inside Search blog
)
Earlier today, President Obama spoke about the importance of
helping returning military veterans find work
. Thousands of businesses have committed to hiring military veterans and families and as part of this nationwide effort, starting today, job seekers can visit the
National Resource Directory
(NRD) to search more than 500,000 job openings from employers around the country.
We have been working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a customized job search engine for the NRD, using
Google Custom Search
technology. This custom search engine uses the power and scale of Google search to constantly crawl the web, looking for
JobPosting markup
from
Schema.org
on sites like
simplyhired.com
to identify veteran-committed job openings. An employer can easily add a job posting to NRD simply by adding that markup to their own web page. As pages are updated or removed from the web, they’re automatically updated and removed from the system, keeping the available job postings on NRD fresh and up to date.
If you’re an employer, you can find
more information
on how to participate on
nationalresourcedirectory.gov
. In addition, organizations such as local veterans' groups can help people find jobs by adding a veteran-committed jobs
search box
to their websites.
We’re happy to contribute to this important initiative and hope businesses use this opportunity to connect with veterans seeking employment.
Search data reveals people turn to the Internet in crises
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Posted by Ryan Falor, Crisis Response Product Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Google.org
blog)
People often share stories with us about the ways the Internet has helped them during natural disasters. Whether it’s accessing information about the event, communicating with loved ones during a crisis or finding out how to help respond in the aftermath, the web plays a valuable role.
We looked up some statistics from our search data for several natural disasters to get insights into this phenomenon. We see two consistent trends in search behavior and internet use in the affected areas: a substantial (and often dominant) proportion of searches are directly related to the crises; and people continue to search and access information online even while traffic and search levels drop temporarily during and immediately following the crises. While in some cases internet access is restricted due to infrastructure failures, generally Internet Service Providers continue to provide connectivity and users take advantage of it. The findings show just how resilient the internet can be in times of crises, compared to other infrastructure.
We expect these trends will continue, and to a great extent this drives the ongoing work of the Google Crisis Response team to improve the information available on the 'net during crises.
Joplin Tornado, Joplin, MO, USA, May 2011
The week of this year’s tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, searches for terms related to help, safety and recovery were significantly up from normal levels. [Disaster relief] was 2054 percent greater than normal and [FEMA], [American Red Cross], and [National Weather Service] showed increases of 400-1000%. Despite the tragedy, in which
25 percent of the town was destroyed
and 75 percent damaged, we still saw search traffic at 58 percent of normal levels the day of the tornado, and an immediate recovery toward normal Internet traffic occured within a day of the event.
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, LA, USA, August 2005
During Hurricane Katrina, one of the largest U.S. disasters in recent memory, terms like [new orleans], [hurricane] and [katrina]
topped search queries
while search queries for resource providers like FEMA and the American Red Cross grew the fastest, according to our data. Even
as 90% of the population was evacuated
from New Orleans, we still saw search traffic at more than 50 percent of normal in Louisiana and 20% of normal in New Orleans, based on the previous five-day average.
The Internet has proven to be an essential resource during natural disasters internationally as well.
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Northern Coast, Japan, March, 2011
During the Japan earthquake and tsunami, searches for earthquake information and impacts including terms like [outage], [tokyo electric power] and [rolling blackouts] gew the fasted and also
topped the list
of most searched queries across Japan. In fact, even in the hardest hit areas, where
mobile and landline communications were disrupted
, Internet services were largely unaffected. During this time, people entered 620,000 records into
Google Person Finder
, a tool developed by the Google Crisis Response team to help people find missing friends and loved ones in the aftermath of such disasters.
Chile Earthquake, Maule Chile, February 2010
Immediately following the earthquake, people searching online were actively looking for earthquake information; earthquake and news source search terms became eight of the top 10 queries. [Terremoto] was the most searched term, and two online news sources, Terra and Emol, and the National Office for Emergencies [onemi] also appeared as top keywords. While there was no search traffic for 15 minutes after the earthquake, within one day searches had recovered to 25 percent of normal traffic, and search traffic returned to pre-earthquake levels within just four days.
Haiti Earthquake, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, January 2010
The month of the Haiti earthquake, [seisme]—or “earthquake”—was the
fastest-growing search term
, and it continued its surface as a frequently searched term for almost two months after the earthquake. In the capital city of Port-Au-Prince, at the center of the earthquake, search traffic stopped momentarily, but did not completely disappear even when the three submarine Internet cables were cut as a result of the earthquake. As outlined by this
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Communications Summary
, Internet Service Providers were able to quickly reroute connections through a microwave relay wireless communication between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This allowed traffic to return to rise within one day, and reach normal levels within a few months, despite ongoing damage to the city and country’s infrastructure.
We’re excited about continuing our work to create and support products that make the Internet even more useful to people looking for information and communication during crises.
Explore America’s diplomatic efforts around the world
Friday, July 8, 2011
Posted by Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics
Throughout the past year American embassies, consulates, and ambassadors around the world have uploaded hundreds of videos to YouTube across a wide array of topics. Some are informative, like U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos
updating American citizens following the devastating tsunami
; some are inspirational, like First Lady Michelle Obama’s
message to a school in Santiago
; and others are instructional, like this video on
what to expect at a visa interview at the US Consulate in Juarez, Mexico
.
In an effort to continue offering easy access to this information, we’ve launched the
YouTube State Hub
, a place to find all of the U.S. Department of State’s various YouTube channels in one place.
This site follows the model of two similar YouTube channels, the
House Hub
and
Senate Hub
, which also help users easily find videos posted by government officials. Just click on the pin in each country, and you can find content from that embassy.
Throughout the coming year we’ll showcase some of the most creative videos from embassies, consulates and ambassadors around the globe on our
CitizenTube
blog and via our twitter account,
@CitizenTube
.
Me, Myself and I: Helping to manage your identity on the web
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager
In recent years, it’s become easier and easier to publish information about yourself online, through powerful new platforms like social networking sites and photo sharing services. One way to manage your privacy on these sites is to decide who specifically can see this information, determining whether it is visible to just a few friends, family members or everyone on the web. But, another important decision is choosing how you are identified when you post that information. We have worked hard to build various
identity options
into Google products. For example, while you may want to identify yourself by name when you post an answer to a question in a forum so that readers know the response is reputable, if you upload videos about a controversial cause you may prefer to post under a pseudonym.
However, your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you -- whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update. When someone searches for your name on a search engine like Google, the results that appear are a combination of information you’ve posted and information published by others.
Today we’ve released a new tool to help make it easier to monitor your identity on the web and to provide easy access to resources describing ways to control what information is on the web. This tool, Me on the Web, appears as a section of the
Google Dashboard
right beneath the Account details.
Savvy web users may already have used
Google Alerts
to set up notifications for mentions of their name or email address in websites and news stories. If you haven’t set up alerts yet, Me on the Web makes it even easier to do so and even automatically suggests some search terms you may want to monitor.
Me on the Web also provides
links
to
resources
offering information on how to control what third-party information is posted about you on the web. These include common tips like reaching out to the webmaster of a site to ask for the content to be taken down, or publishing additional information on your own to help make less relevant websites appear farther down in search results.
This is just one of our first steps in continuing to explore ways to help make managing your identity online simpler.
Helping government officials connect with constituents on YouTube
Friday, June 10, 2011
Posted by Will Houghteling, YouTube News & Politics
From
Congressman Ryan explaining his budget plan through data visualizations
, to
Governor Christie posting responses during Town Hall meetings
, to
national
leaders
participating in the “It Gets Better” campaign, government officials at all levels are using YouTube in interesting and innovative ways. Check out these recent examples:
To help more government officials create and distribute great videos like these, we recently launched
youtube.com/government101
. This site provides advice on what types of videos are most engaging to constituents, how
Google Moderator
can be used to solicit questions and suggestions, and more.
We’ll be showcasing some of the most creative government uses of YouTube on our
CitizenTube
blog and via our twitter account,
@YTPolitics
. Which officials do you think have been most innovative on YouTube? Let us know in the comments.
Remembering fallen journalists on video
Monday, May 16, 2011
Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
.)
We live in a world that feels smaller every day. As we become accustomed to nearly ubiquitous coverage of the news and events unfolding around the world, it’s easy to forget the price that is sometimes paid to obtain quality, accurate reporting on important stories—particularly in areas of conflict or in cases of government repression of the media. With this in mind, today, the
Newseum
in Washington, D.C., Google and YouTube are together launching the
Journalists Memorial channel
on YouTube to remember the journalists who have died in the last year while reporting news around the world.
Their stories are incredible: heading into a street battle with no weapon other than
your camera
;
talking about politics
over the radio, only to be
beaten to death
with iron bars by a group of thugs on the way to work. The risks and sacrifices that many have made in order to provide us with accurate information is remarkable. On the Journalists Memorial channel you can watch a collection of videos representing these journalists’ lives and their work.
This channel will become a digital version of the
Newseum’s Journalists Memorial
, which is re-dedicated annually to honor journalists worldwide who have died during the preceding year. This year, 77 names are being added to the list of the more than 2,000 journalists who have been recognized for their sacrifices since 1837. At today’s
rededication ceremony
, Krishna Bharat, the founder and head of Google News, will be delivering the keynote address, which the Newseum will post to the new YouTube channel later today.
In tribute to those who are being honored at today’s ceremony, we would like your help finding videos that profile or represent the work of all journalists who have risked or lost their lives doing the important work they do. We invite you to go to the
Journalists Memorial channel
and submit videos you think deserve recognition to the Moderator platform on the channel. The Newseum will be featuring additional submissions there.
Google Transit goes to Washington
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Posted by Noam Ben Haim, Product Manager, Google Maps
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
.)
Every day, many thousands of commuters, locals, and tourists ride public transit in Washington, D.C. To help all of these transit riders find their way around the metro area, today we’re making comprehensive information about D.C.’s public transportation available on
Google Transit
.
In partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (
WMATA
), we’re adding all of D.C.’s Metro and bus stations, stops and routes, as well as connections to other transit systems in nearby cities. You can find this information on
Google Maps
as well as
Google Maps for mobile
—no matter where you are, you can get to where you’re going. With Google Transit, D.C. metro-area commuters—including those in Baltimore, Montgomery and Jefferson counties—may discover a quicker route to work, while visitors can easily make their way from
Reagan National Airport straight to the Smithsonian
.
Public transportation is a vital part of city infrastructure and can help alleviate congestion and reduce emissions. But planning your trip on public transit can be challenging, especially when there are multiple transit agencies and you need to use information from multiple sources to figure out the best route. With mapping tools like the transit feature, we’re working to make that easier.
Directions are also available on Google Maps for mobile—so if you’re graduating from GWU and want to meet some friends in Adams Morgan to celebrate, it’s as easy as pulling out your phone. If you’re using an Android device, for example, search for [Adams Morgan] in Google Maps, click on the Places result and select “Directions.” Switch to Transit in the upper-left corner and find out which bus gets you there fastest.
Wherever your journey takes you, whether using public transit, driving, biking or walking, we hope Google Transit directions in D.C. make finding your way a little easier.
Using the power of mapping to support South Sudan
Friday, May 6, 2011
Posted by France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
.)
Last Thursday, the
Google Map Maker
team, along with the
World Bank
and
UNITAR/UNOSAT
, held a
unique event
at the
World Bank
Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and a
satellite event
in Nairobi at the same time. More than 70 members of the Sudanese diaspora, along with regional experts from the World Bank,
Sudan Institute
,
Voices for Sudan
,
The Enough Project
and other organizations gathered together to map what is expected to become the world’s newest country later this year: the Republic of South Sudan. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked the international community “to assist all Sudanese towards greater stability and development” during and beyond this period of transition.
South Sudan is a large but under-mapped region, and there are very few high-quality maps that display essential features like roads, hospitals and schools. Up-to-date maps are particularly important to humanitarian aid groups, as they help responders target their efforts and mobilize their resources of equipment, personnel and supplies. More generally, maps are an important foundation for the development of the infrastructure and economy of the country and region.
The Map Maker community—a wide-ranging group of volunteers that help build more comprehensive maps of the world using our online mapping tool, Google Map Maker—has been contributing to the mapping effort for Sudan since the referendum on January 9. To aid their work, we’ve published
updated satellite imagery of the region
, covering 125,000 square kilometers and 40 percent of the U.N.’s priority areas, to Google Earth and Maps.
The goal of last week’s event was to engage and train members of the Sudanese diaspora in the United States, and others who have lived and worked in the region, to use Google Map Maker so they could contribute their local knowledge of the region to the ongoing mapping effort, particularly in the area of social infrastructure. Our hope is that this event and others like it will help build a self-sufficient mapping community that will contribute their local expertise and remain engaged in Sudan over time.
We were inspired by the group’s enthusiasm. One attendee told us: “I used to live in this small village that before today did not exist on any maps that I know of...a place unknown to the world. Now I can show to my kids, my friends, my community, where I used to live and better tell the story of my people.”
The group worked together to make several hundred edits to the map of Sudan in four hours. As those edits are approved, they’ll appear live in Google Maps, available for all the world to see. But this wasn’t just a one-day undertaking—attendees will now return to their home communities armed with new tools and ready to teach their friends and family how to join the effort. We look forward to seeing the Southern Sudanese mapping community grow and flourish.
Broadband data maps, brought to you by M-Lab
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Posted by Tiziana Refice, Network Researcher, and Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager
In 2009 we helped a group of researchers and industry partners
launch
Measurement Lab
(M-Lab), an open platform for broadband measurement tools. Over the past two years, M-Lab has grown significantly – more than 300 terabytes of data from over half a billion tests are now publicly available.
M-Lab tools help an individual understand the performance of one’s own broadband connection, but making sense of that much data in the aggregate is more complicated. That’s why we’re happy to announce that, working with M-Lab, we have developed a set of maps to help investigate such a huge dataset using
Google’s Public Data Explorer
.
The visualizations show measured median upload and download speeds as measured by M-Lab tools across the United States, Europe, and Australia, and you can drill down to city-level aggregates. You can also view to what extent speeds are limited by problems with users’ network connections or with their computers (or other devices).
The maps are built entirely on open data collected by
Network Diagnostic Tool
(NDT), an
open source
tool developed by
Internet2
and widely deployed. The platform, the tool, and the data are all open – which means the Internet community can vet the measurement methodology, perform independent analysis of the same data, and build their own visualizations. In fact, the M-Lab data provide much more information that what’s presented in these visualizations, and we hope that our effort will help drive future research in this area.
On Wednesday, the
Open Technology Initiative
will be hosting a
panel discussion on M-Lab
in Washington, D.C. In a keynote, Vint Cerf will explain how M-Lab is helping analyze broadband performance and promote good science. For those who can’t attend in person, the event will be
live-streamed via the web
, starting at 10:30am, EST.
Update (3/23/11):
Check out video of the event, below.
Explore our U.S. Presidents on a map
Friday, February 18, 2011
Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Program Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Google Lat Long Blog
.)
When I was in elementary school, I got two days off every February; one for George Washington and another for Abraham Lincoln. I remember classrooms were usually wallpapered with a potpourri of decorations left over from Valentine’s Day and token silhouettes of these two Presidents thumb-tacked to the bulletin board. My teachers would talk about the significance of the holiday during class but with lack of visuals to pique my interest, it was always hard to retain (and fully enjoy!) the information. With that in mind, we’re pleased to celebrate the President’s Day holiday by letting you go back in time to learn more about our past presidents in a visually fun and interactive way.
We’ve created a
U.S. Presidents Showcase
to map the birthplaces of all 44 presidents, and provide details about their presidential terms, using the
Google Earth
plug-in. You can also see the states that voted during each president’s election by clicking on the tours in the left column of the showcase.
Whether you’re a history buff or simply curious to learn more about U.S. presidents, we hope you enjoy exploring a little further using Google Earth. In addition to the
U.S. Presidents map
, educators can use some of our other
resources
in their classroom to explore more aspects of history. Here are a few ideas:
Explore the White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and other
historical monuments in 3D
and have students explain how architecture is used to honor people, concepts and establishments
View a 3D model of
Valley Forge National Park
in Google Earth
View a copy of the
Emancipation Proclamation
signed by Abraham Lincoln and map the areas where slavery ended, as well as the areas that were not initially covered by this executive order
Discuss the famous painting “
Washington Crossing the Delaware
” by German American artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze and use the
ruler tool
in Google Earth to measure the width of the Delaware River
We hope you have fun
exploring and learning
a little more of the history behind the President’s Day holiday. And when you’re done, go out and enjoy your day off!
Act locally in Sudan with new imagery & maps
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Posted by France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org
(Cross-posted from the
Google Lat Long Blog
.)
After years of conflict, Southern Sudan overwhelmingly opted to
secede from the country's north
. Many challenges lie ahead as the newly independent state negotiates the rocky path towards independence. We believe that access to high-quality, up-to-date and locally relevant maps will assist humanitarian organizations working in the region.
We are encouraging users to add their local knowledge to this mapping effort through a campaign to
build a better map of Sudan
. Recent satellite imagery is key to building up-to-date maps, and we are continuously acquiring fresh and historical imagery of Sudan. Our latest imagery update is now live on
Google Map Maker
, Google Earth, and Google Maps, with nearly fifty percent of the
UN priority areas
over Southern Sudan covered with high resolution imagery. Thanks to our satellite partner GeoEye, we will continue to acquire and publish high resolution imagery of the remaining UN priority areas, as well as to refresh areas that we have previously covered as the need arises. This new imagery, such as the one over Melut, will directly benefit the many organizations working in Sudan and ultimately support the building of a solid basemap of Sudan to achieve long-term socioeconomic objectives.
Town of Melut (before 2/16/2004, after 1/30/2011). In Melut, there is a humanitarian hub where many services are delivered to at risk populations, including food, water, health care, education, and more. Given the varying needs of each of these services, maps can provide a variety of planning benefits for expansion, staff safety, and emergency procedures.
Google is also contributing to various humanitarian efforts, including the
Satellite Sentinel project
, by helping to build an active and self-sustained Sudanese mapping community -- locally and among the Sudanese
diaspora
. This community will help improve maps of Sudan by using
Google Map Maker
, a product that combines the power of mapping with community engagement.
Dedicated mappers have started building the foundation for a Sudan mapping community, resulting in high quality maps of Sudan. But this is a long term process that requires deep commitment from various stakeholders and community groups. To join the Sudan mapping efforts, and offer feedback, please join our
Sudan community mailing list
or visit our
team site
.
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