Google Blogs
Announcing the 90 regional finalists of the Google Science Fair 2012
- Mon, 21 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
Congratulations to the regional finalists of the second Google Science Fair! These top 90 entries from around the world represent some incredibly innovative and groundbreaking science.This year’s competition was even more international and diverse than last year. We had thousands of entries from more than 100 countries, and topics ranging from improving recycling using LEGO robots to treating cancer with a substance created by bees to tackling...
A look inside our 2011 diversity report
- Fri, 18 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
We work hard to ensure that our commitment to diversity is built into everything we do—from hiring our employees and building our company culture to running our business and developing our products, tools and services. To recap our diversity efforts in 2011, a year in which we partnered with and donated $19 million to more than 150 organizations working on advancing diversity, we created the 2011 Global Diversity & Talent Inclusion Report....From Words to Concepts and Back: Dictionaries for Linking Text, Entities and Ideas
- Fri, 18 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
| Yet in each word some concept there must be... |
| — from Goethe's Faust (Part I, Scene III) |
Human language is both rich and ambiguous. When we hear or read words, we resolve meanings to mental representations, for example recognizing and linking names to the intended persons, locations or organizations. Bridging words and meaning — from turning search queries into relevant results to s...
Carbon stocks and cultural mapping in the Amazon Rainforest
- Thu, 17 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
In 2008, the Google Earth Outreach team visited the Surui tribe in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest for the first time, upon request of Chief Almir Naramagoya Surui. Their goal was to learn how to share and preserve their culture using Google Maps, Google Earth, and other online tools including Picasa, YouTube, and Blogger. We were honored to play a role in empowering the indigenous people of a region that had been ravaged by illegal logging to te...
Internet at Liberty 2012 Conference: Join the discussion
- Thu, 17 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
Next week, 300+ Internet activists, policy makers, academics and NGO leaders from more than 30 countries will gather in Washington, D.C. to discuss the future of free speech online. The event is called Internet at Liberty 2012, and we want you to join the discussion.
The future of free expression is uncertain. According to the Open Net Initiative, more than 620 million Internet...
Helping students fish for a better future in the land of 10,000 lakes
- Thu, 17 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
Minnesota has long been a state that’s prided itself on its commitment to education. Now the state has taken on the mission of becoming a technology hub as well, setting the goal to become one of the country’s top five technology states by 2020. Last week, we travelled to Minnesota to pilot two new programs designed to help students with an interest in technology get a jump on the job market, and learn directly from Google engineers over Google+...Shiver me timbers, the 2012 D4G Winner is....
- Thu, 17 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
After 114,000 submissions and millions of your votes, second grader Dylan Hoffman of Caledonia, Wisc. is this year’s U.S. Doodle 4 Google National Winner. His doodle “Pirate Times” will be featured on the U.S. Google homepage tomorrow, May 18.Hoffman, who attends the Prairie School in Racine, Wisc., responded to this year’s theme “If I could travel in time I’d visit...” with a colorful depiction of his dream visit to an era filled with swashbu...
Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings
- Wed, 16 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
Cross-posted from the Inside Search BlogSearch is a lot about discovery—the basic human need to learn and broaden your horizons. But searching still requires a lot of hard work by you, the user. So today I’m really excited to launch the Knowledge Graph, which will help you discover new information quickly and easily.
Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To...
Imagery Update: Week of May 14th
- Wed, 16 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
The Google Earth and Maps Imagery team recently published another batch of aerial and satellite imagery. In this post, we’ll focus on U.S. cities and locales, as the largest amount of new high resolution aerial imagery covers regions in the United States.
High on the list of things associated with the United States are over-sized automobile tail fins. Our first aerial image shown below is of Cadillac Ranch, located near Amarillo, Texas. The...
Visit the Baltic nations of Estonia and Latvia with Street View
- Tue, 15 May 2012
SOFTWARE Google Blogs
You can now virtually visit the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia using the Street View feature in Google Maps.
Lets start in Estonia with a peek into the capital of Tallinn, a medieval city characterized by its cobbled streets and red roofs. Here’s a view the Town Hall Square.
Also in Tallinn you have the Toompea Castle, which is a historic site built on top of the Toompea Hill and now houses the Parliament of Estonia.