Google Adsense College

Posted by Noel Gordon, Software
Engineer

Today we're pleased to announce the full launch of

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/" >Google Maps in New
Zealand. Although we've offered basic mapping in New
Zealand for some time, today we're unveiling a localised and
customised site for our users in New Zealand. We've added full
local business search capabilities, plus the href="http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup?hl=en-AU&gl=NZ"
>Local Business Centre, so that any Kiwi
business can get a free listing.

While we know New Zealanders care about a lot more than rugby,
racing and beer, we're pleased that now Google Maps can help
you find the nearest place to do any of those things. Plus, you can
find a

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cafe ponsonby&ie=UTF8&z=15&om=1"
>cafe in Ponsonby, an

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=indian restaurant wellington&ie=UTF8&z=9&om=1"
>Indian restaurant in Wellington , a

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=plumber dunedin&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1"
>plumber in Dunedin, or a great

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=queenstown hotel&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=11&om=1"
>hotel for your next holiday. All available on
a PC or

href="http://www.google.co.nz/gmm/index.html"
>mobile phone near you!

And of course, Kiwis can also use Google Maps to look up an
address, get

href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=auckland to rotorua&sll=-45.031104,168.662731&sspn=0.33435,0.6427&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9&om=1"
>driving directions (and the ability to drag
them around), browse our satellite imagery, and even create custom
maps that you can share with friends, all using the simple
interface.

Tags: , announce, EngineerToday, Gordon, Noel, pleased, Posted, software

Posted by Sam Schillace, Engineering
Director

We're pleased to announce that we've acquired the assets of
Zenter, a company that provides software for creating online slide
presentations.

You've heard us talk a lot about using the web to improve group
collaboration and information sharing. These days, when you create
a document — whether it's a text document, a spreadsheet, or a
presentation — you usually want to share it, collect feedback, or
communicate about it in some way. We on the href="http://docs.google.com/" >Google Docs &
Spreadsheets team focus on making this experience easier and
more powerful for you. In particular, we're working to href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html" >add
presentation-sharing capabilities to Google Docs &
Spreadsheets, and we're excited about the addition of
Zenter's technology and team to that effort.

Tags: , announce, DirectorWere, Engineering, pleased, Posted, Sam, Schillace

Posted by Wesley Chan, Product
Manager

We're pleased to announce that we have acquired href="http://www.grandcentral.com/" >GrandCentral
Communications, a company that provides services for managing
your voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service
that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and
voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the
web. We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into
Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the
collaborative exchange of information between our users.

GrandCentral offers many features that complement the phone
services you already use. If you have multiple phone numbers (e.g.,
home, work, cell), you get one phone number that you can set to
ring all, some, or none of your phones, based on who's calling.
This way, your phone number is tied to you, and not your location
or job. The service also gives you one central voice mailbox. You
can listen to your voicemails online or from any phone, forward
them to anybody, add the caller to your address book, block a
caller as spam, and a lot more. You can even listen in on voicemail
messages from your phone while they are being recorded, or switch a
call from your cell phone to your desk phone and back again. All in
all, you'll have a lot more control over your phones.

We're really excited to welcome the GrandCentral team to
Google. While we're moving their technology over to
Google's network, a limited number of invitations will be
available to register for a GrandCentral beta account. If you have
a U.S. telephone number, you can sign up for an invitation at href="http://www.grandcentral.com/" >www.grandcentral.com.
Current GrandCentral customers will continue to have uninterrupted
access to the service. height="1" width="1" />

Tags: , announce, Chan, ManagerWere, pleased, Posted, product, Wesley

Posted by Bindu Reddy, Product
Manager

Today we're excited to announce href="http://base.google.com/" >Google Base, an extension of our
existing content collection efforts like web crawl, Google
Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video. Google Base enables
content owners to easily make their information searchable online.
Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can
use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll
host the items and make them searchable for free. There's href="http://base.google.com/base/about.html" >more info
here.

Some organizations are already using Google Base. Here are a few
examples.

"Students need as much information as possible when they
are searching for the right college or university. Google Base
helps us reach students and parents and deliver more of the
information they need when making important college
decisions." - Hal Higginbotham, President,
CollegeBoard.com

"We want to use knowledge and information about the
environment to help motivate more responsible public and private
action. With Google Base, we can bring the public key insights on
sustainability issues – like climate change, human health, and
resource consumption – and bring about change." – Amy Cassara,
Senior Associate, World Resources Institute

"CareerBuilder.com's business model is built on
providing employers with as many avenues as possible to connect
with job seekers. Feeding our jobs to Google Base further extends
our distribution network, providing employers with added support in
marketing their open positions." - Richard Castellini, VP of
Consumer Marketing, CareerBuilder.com

"We compile an enormous amount of valuable data on fine
art and artists, and we want collectors, dealers, students and art
aficionados to have easy access to this information. Google Base
enables us to reach more people researching art and get them the
information they need." - Brent Peich, Director of Marketing,
Artnet

"Our mission is to make it easy for small businesses to
use the web to drive in-store sales. Google Base gives us an ideal
outlet to promote and distribute content about local products more
broadly." - Kendall Fargo, Founder & CEO, StepUp
Commerce

Right now, there are two ways to submit data items to Google Base.
Individuals and small website owners can use an interactive user
interface; larger organizations and sites can use the bulk uploads
option to send us content using standard XML formats.

Rather than impose specific schemas and structures on the world,
Google Base suggests attributes and item types based on popularity,
which you can use to define and attach your own labels and
attributes to each data item. Then searchers can find information
more quickly and effectively by using these labels and attributes
to refine their queries on the experimental version of Google Base
search.

This beta version of Google Base is another small step toward our
goal, creating an online database of easily searchable, structured
information. As always, we welcome href="http://base.google.com/support/bin/request.py" >your
feedback and ideas.

Tags: , announce, Bindu, Excited, ManagerToday, Posted, product, Reddy