Google Adsense College

Posted by Rohit Dhawan, Senior Product
Manager

Earlier this week, we href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/weve-officially-acquired-doubleclick.html" >
completed our acquisition of DoubleClick. Together, we're
now focused on building a full suite of products and tools that
help publishers of all sizes improve productivity, manage their
inventory, generate additional revenue opportunities and save time
so they can focus on what they do best — creating great content
and delivering an exceptional experience to their users.

First, let us address the options that publishers have when it
comes to selling and managing ad space on their websites. Some
publishers use ad networks like href="https://www.google.com/adsense/login/en_US/?gsessionid=KDKfga-9mk0"
>Google AdSense to fill
their ad space. Still others employ a direct sales force to manage
and sell their ad inventory with solutions like the

href="http://www.doubleclick.com/solutions/publishers/index.aspx"
>DoubleClick Revenue Center, and partner with
third-party ad networks to fill in any unsold space. Regardless, it
is a challenge for publishers to effectively manage their available
inventory and ensure all of their clients' campaigns serve on
time without a sophisticated ad management and ad serving
solution.

Today, we're announcing a new tool for publishers with the beta
launch of Google Ad
Manager. Directed at addressing the ad management and serving
needs of publishers with smaller sales teams, Google Ad Manager is
a free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help
publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their directly-sold
and network-based ad inventory. It offers an intuitive and simple
user experience with Google speed and a tagging process so
publishers can spend more time working with their advertisers and
less time on their ad management solution. And by providing
detailed inventory forecasts and tracking at a very granular level,
Ad Manager helps publishers maximize their inventory sell-through
rates.

Google Ad Manager effectively complements the DoubleClick Revenue
Center, which is focused on publishers with larger sales teams.
We're excited to add DART for Publishers to our suite of
products, and we're committed to the continued development and
enhancement of DoubleClick's offerings. Today's
announcement demonstrates this promise, and at the same time
furthers our goal of creating new opportunities for publishers of
all sizes. Dozens of publishers have been using Google Ad Manager
successfully in early trials. To hear what those publishers have to
say check out some href="https://www.google.com/admanager/login/en_US/index.html#successstories"
>Ad Manager
success stories or take a product tour to learn more.

As we are still in beta, Google Ad Manager is available to
publishers by invitation only. If you're interested in learning
more about it or would like to be considered for the program, visit
the Google Ad Manager
site. Existing DoubleClick customers are not affected by this
announcement. As we expand the Google Ad Manager beta program, we
will be in touch again to include additional publishers and offer
updates on our progress.

Tags: , Dhawan, ManagerEarlier, Posted, product, Rohit, Senior, week

Posted by Cynthia Schroeder, Google
Grants team

This week marks the fifth year of Google Grants. We're pleased
to report that more than 4,000 grantees to date have benefited from
approximately $273.3 million in free AdWords advertising — and
that's something to celebrate. Learn more about the history of
this in-kind advertising program on the

href="http://googlegrants.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-grants-turns-5.html"
id="b8dc" >Google Grants Blog, and find out how your favorite
not-for-profit group can apply by visiting the href="http://www.google.com/grants/"
id="muxe" >Google Grants page

Tags: , Cynthia, google, Grants, Posted, Schroeder, teamThis, week

Posted by Jonas Klink, Software
Engineer, Accessibility

Last week Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20071212_toolbar.html" >
launched version 5 as a public beta. This version introduces a
number of exciting features, such as making your Toolbar settings
available from any computer that you log into with your Google
Account, improved suggestions for broken links, as well as
important changes that make Toolbar more accessible for assistive
technology users.

This release adds support for Windows Accessibility APIs (used by
screen readers, etc.) and enables keyboard navigation and access.
From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut
Alt G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. If
you're using a screen reader, you'll hear "Google
Toolbar Search". Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to
the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and
left arrow keys move focus between buttons. More information on
keyboard access is documented in the href="http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/search.py?query=accessibility&Action.Search=Search&ctx=en:searchbox" >
Toolbar Help Center (query 'accessibility').

Version 5 comes as a part of our ongoing efforts to enhance
accessibility in our client-side and web applications, which is a
matter I hardly need to mention is very important. Personally, I
see my work that went into the Toolbar as an important step
forward, as the product reaches a very large number of users and
enables everyone to gain quick access to a multitude of useful
features, through a unified UI. Adding keyboard navigation and
other features that enhance the ease of access to these features
benefit everyone.

We look forward to making further improvements to accessibility
(including the installation process) in future releases. You can
download the new Google Toolbar at href="http://toolbar.google.com/T5" >http://toolbar.google.com/T5.

Tags: , AccessibilityLast, engineer, Jonas, Klink, Posted, software, week

Posted by Jonas Klink, Software
Engineer, Accessibility

Last week Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20071212_toolbar.html" >
launched version 5 as a public beta. This version introduces a
number of exciting features, such as making your Toolbar settings
available from any computer that you log into with your Google
Account, improved suggestions for broken links, as well as
important changes that make Toolbar more accessible for assistive
technology users.

This release adds support for Windows Accessibility APIs (used by
screen readers, etc.) and enables keyboard navigation and access.
From inside a browser with Toolbar installed, the global shortcut
Alt G places your cursor in the Google Toolbar search box. If
you're using a screen reader, you'll hear "Google
Toolbar Search". Pressing the Tab key brings keyboard focus to
the button placed immediately after the search box, and right and
left arrow keys move focus between buttons. More information on
keyboard access is documented in the href="http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/search.py?query=accessibility&Action.Search=Search&ctx=en:searchbox" >
Toolbar Help Center (query 'accessibility').

Version 5 comes as a part of our ongoing efforts to enhance
accessibility in our client-side and web applications, which is a
matter I hardly need to mention is very important. Personally, I
see my work that went into the Toolbar as an important step
forward, as the product reaches a very large number of users and
enables everyone to gain quick access to a multitude of useful
features, through a unified UI. Adding keyboard navigation and
other features that enhance the ease of access to these features
benefit everyone.

We look forward to making further improvements to accessibility
(including the installation process) in future releases. You can
download the new Google Toolbar at href="http://toolbar.google.com/T5" >http://toolbar.google.com/T5.

Tags: , AccessibilityLast, engineer, Jonas, Klink, Posted, software, week

Surprisingly on-time, the following week of Google Sightseeing
will be dedicated to our Second Annual Island
Week.

Following on from the success of
last year’s Island Week, we’ll be posting sights related to
small pieces of land that are surrounded completely by water.

Island Week 2006 featured:

Iwo Jima

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Cockburn Island

Island
of the Dead

James Island

Wake Island

Republic of the Marshall Islands

Low Isles

Tags: , Annual, google, Island, Second, Sightseeing, week

(It’s
Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting
about Islands. For about a week.)

The Pitcairns are a group of four islands:
Pitcairn,
Henderson,
Ducie, and
Oeno, which are all located near New Zealand in the Pacific
Ocean.

The islands are classed as a British overseas territory and have
an official population of just 48, making them the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
least populated jurisdiction in the world.

src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/pit1.jpg'
width='160' height='120' >
src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/hend.jpg'
width='160' height='120' >
src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ducie.jpg'
width='160' height='120' >
src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/oneo.jpg'
width='160' height='120' >

All 48 of the islands’ inhabitants, who are just 9 different
families, live in
Adamstown on the main island of Pitcairn. Adamstown is
therefore unchallenged as the capital city, and with that title
earns the record for World’s smallest capital
city.

The population is unlikely to rise anytime soon; the islanders
mostly descend from British mutineers of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty HMAV
Bounty and only two children have been born in the
last 21 years.

src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/pit2.jpg'
width='160' height='120' >

Wikipedia Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands Pitcairn
Islands and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamstown,_Pitcairn_Island Adamstown.

Thanks: koen & http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile19190/worlds-smallest-official-capital-city.htm
tizerst

Tags: , Island, Islands, Pitcairn, week

(It’s
Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting
about Islands. For about a week.)

On the mighty Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, is
Mud Island, which is home to a steamboat museum, restaurants,
an
outdoor amphitheatre and some nice
large type.

src="http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/mudislandtype1.jpg"
alt="">

Okay, technically Mud Island isn’t actually an island,
but rather a
small peninsula. However, it does contain a
hydraulic scale model of the lower Mississippi
recreated in miniature all the way from
Cairo, Illinois south to
New Orleans!

alt="">
alt="">

Which probably makes this the world’s only model of a river on
an island (that’s actually a peninsula) in the river that the model
is a model of…

Or something. src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif'
>

Read more about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_Island,_Memphis Mud Island
at Wikipedia. Thanks to dedHED and Nat Case.

Tags: , Island, Mud, week

(It’s
Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting
about Islands. For about a week.)

Located in the south eastern Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand
kilometers from continental Chile, Easter Island - or locally
Rapa Nui - is one of the world’s http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Orthographic_projection_centred_over_Easter_Island.png
most isolated inhabited islands^{#fn:1″ rel=”footnote 1}, as well as one of the
world’s most fascinating archaeological sites.

http://mappic.org/fullsizePicture.php?pid=5705&r=GoogleEarth
alt="">
Photo of http://mappic.org/fullsizePicture.php?pid=5705&r=GoogleEarth
Rano Raraku Moai from http://mappic.org mappic.org

The human history of Easter Island probably began http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/53200?fulltext=true&print=yes#53362
somewhere between AD 300 and 1200 when people from the islands
west of here landed with the tools, animals and provisions to stay
for good. Although only http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=171 square kilometers in square miles&btnG=Search
171 km² in area, at the time Easter Island had
extensive forests, and the volcanic craters held drinking water -
which is an important feature on an island with no rivers.

alt="">

Rano Kau volcano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Osterinsel_Krater-Rano_Kao.jpg
Picture)

Somewhere between AD 1000 and 1500, the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapanui Rapanui began a
period of frantic construction of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Paaseiland_Kempeneers.jpg
enormous stone statues - the Moai, for which
Easter Island is world famous today. These enigmatic figures
represented the islander’s deified ancestors, and were mostly
placed near the coast, with their backs to the sea.

alt="">

Moai of Ahu Nau Nau, Anakena Beach (http://mappic.org/fullsizePicture.php?pid=5720&r=GoogleEarth
Picture)

Moai are hewn from the island’s volcanic rock id="fnref:2">#fn:2″ rel=”footnote 2, and the
largest Moai erected was almost http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=10 metres in feet&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
10 metres high and weighed 75 tonnes; their production and
transportation is considered a remarkable accomplishment.

alt="">

Moai of Ahu Tongariki (http://mappic.org/fullsizePicture.php?pid=5714&r=GoogleEarth
Picture)

887 Moai have been identified to date, however only a quarter
ever made it to one of the coastal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#Ahu Ahu
platforms - nearly half of all Moai remain at a single site called
Rano Raraku, the volcanic crater where 95% were originally carved.
The landscape is littered with
397 Moai - some half-finished, some semi-submerged in
the earth through erosion, and others never even detached from the
rock.^{#fn:3″
rel=”footnote 3}

alt="">
alt="">

Rano Raraku crater,
Rano Raraku Moai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rano_Raraku_quarry.jpg Picture)

By the time explorers arrived here in the 18th Century, the
forests of the island had completely disappeared.
It’s unknown whether or not the Rapanui had used all the trees in
the construction of the Moai, or if some other ecological factor
was involved, but either way the islanders were now trapped - there
was no longer any wood available for making seaworthy canoes.

After this things began to go rapidly downhill for the
inhabitants of Easter Island. There followed a period of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangata_manu tribal wars,
raids by Peruvian slavers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island#Destruction_of_society_and_population
epidemics of European diseases, and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamson-Balfour_Company conversion
of the entire island into a sheep farm. During this period much
Rapa Nui culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo was lost
forever, nearly all of the Moai were deliberately
toppled (probably by warring tribal factions), and by the
late 19th century only 111 of the indigenous people remained
alive.

Somehow, against all the odds, today there are several thousand
descendants of the surviving 111 Rapanui living on Easter Island -
which now has
sustainable forestry and the
longest runway in Polynesia (having been extended to function
as an emergency landing place for the U.S. Space Shuttle). The Moai
have returned too - many have been re-erected on their Ahus around
the island and one has even been http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahu_Tahai.jpg given new
eyes.

alt="">

Moai at Ahu Akivi, unusual in not being on the coast, and
facing towards the sea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahu-Akivi-1.JPG Picture)

Read more about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island Easter Island
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai Moai at
Wikipedia.

Thanks to Josh, Adam, Reinhold and Didier.

1. Featured earlier in the week, Easter Island’s nearest inhabited
   neighbour is
   Pitcairn Island - 1,931 kilometers west of here. #fnref:1″ rev=”footnote ↩

2. Whilst most Moai were carved from easily worked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuff tuff, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoa_Hakananai’a Hoa
   Hakananai’a is one of just ten Moai that were carved from much
   harder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt basalt. #fnref:2″ rev=”footnote ↩

3. The biggest Moai ever carved also remains on the slopes of Rano
   Raraku, which at 21.6 metres tall and around 270 tonnes was
   probably impossible for the Rapanui to move. #fnref:3″ rev=”footnote ↩

Tags: , Easter, Island, week

(It’s the last day of
Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’re almost done with
posting about islands. And it’s lasted about a week.)

Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada is
officially the world’s largest island that
is located within a lake.

alt="">

That’s pretty simple, but within the island there are an
additional 180 lakes…

Within one of those lakes,
Mindemoya Lake (to be precise), is the largest island
,in a lake, on an island, in a lake (in the world). Still
with me?

src="http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/mindemoya.jpg"
alt="">

But we’ve missed out a step! On the island of Sumatra in
Indonesia we find Lake Toba, and its principal island of
Samosir - which at http://www.google.com/search?q=630 square km in square miles
630 square km is easily the largest island, in a lake,
on a island.

src="http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/samosir.jpg"
alt="">

After Samosir, the second largest island within a lake is
Glover Island, which is in the Grand Lake on the island of
Newfoundland.

src="http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/glover2.jpg"
alt="">

However, Glover Island’s largest lake also has many islands, of
which the largest is about http://www.google.com/search?q=2 acres in square miles 2
acres. This
tiny, unnamed island is therefore the largest island,
in a lake, on an island, in a lake, on an island!

src="http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/glover.jpg"
alt="">

Unfortunately, it has no lakes in which we might find further
islands. src='http://googlesightseeing.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif'
>

Seeing as it’s island week, we’ve left out many additional facts
about the largest lakes found on islands (some of
which are larger that the lakes containing islands we’ve mentioned
here) but I think this post has been confusing enough!

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitoulin_Island Manitoulin
Island, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samosir Samosir & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glover_Island Glover
Island

Thanks to Dee, kejoad, Daryl, Chris W, http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/26/the-largest-island-o.html
Boing boing, http://www.elbruz.org/islands/Islands and Lakes.htm Elbruz.org
and http://worldislandinfo.com/blog/index.php/2007/07/26/the-real-largest-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island/
World Island Info.

Tags: , Island, Lake, Recursion, week

(It’s
Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting
about Islands. For about a week.)

Pollepel Island is located in the Hudson River, New York. A
characterless lump of rock, it would have been completely
uninteresting had Francis Bannerman not decided to build a castle
on the island, and then fill it with weapons…

This was in the late 1800s and Bannerman, a Scottish immigrant,
and the world’s largest buyer of surplus military equipment was
doing a roaring trade in munitions. When he purchased most of the
captured goods from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_American_War Spanish
American war he needed somewhere to store it all, preferably
somewhere where large amounts of gunpowder would be safe.

So he purchased Pollepel Island and set about building an
imitation Scottish castle of his own design, complete with lookout
turrets and a moat. The buildings took 17 years to complete and
feature giant concrete text across the side which reads
“Bannerman’s Island Arsenal”.

alt="">

Years later, the family sold the island back to New York State
who for a short time operated tours around the castle. Although all
the munitions had been removed, in 1969 a fire of “unknown origin”
destroyed the building’s interiors, making it too dangerous to
visit. Today, a trust group hope to stabilise the castle and
re-open it for tours.

More info on the castle at its http://www.bannermancastle.org official website, the http://www.hudsonriver.com/bannerman.htm Hudson river
site, and of course http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollepel_Island Wikipedia.

Thanks to Marc Cohen and Bill Parco.

Tags: , Island, Pollepel, week