About Me
Monday, May 12, 2008
Your vote matters
A couple of months ago, we announced the Doodle 4 Google art competition and invited students in grades K-12 across the U.S. to redesign our logo around the theme "What if...?".
Since then, more than 16,000 kids across the country have been busy creating their doodles. It's been a lot of fun for us and the kids (see for yourself in this video):
Today we're excited to announce the state finalists and 40 regional winners. The thousands of wonderful entries made judging difficult, but with the help of experts at Young Audiences, Teach for America and reporters from across the country, we've managed to narrow the field to the very best.
Now it's your turn. Starting today, you can vote for your favorite doodle. Your votes will determine the four national finalists. Just make sure to vote soon: you only have until May 18th. The national winner will be announced and the winning doodle will replace our usual logo on the Google homepage on May 22nd.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Growing our connection to food
Today at our Mountain View headquarters we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of an important project: our organic garden. Not only does it provide a stunning centerpiece for the central campus; it yields produce and herbs that are used daily in the cafes on campus. Although many Googlers would like to think of themselves as Renaissance men and women, a green thumb didn't exactly come as easily to some as C++ development might. Fortunately, the garden wasn't just an ambitious 20% project but rather, an initiative that we took on with the partnership of The Growing Connection.
The Growing Connection is a grassroots project of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The work of the Growing Connection originates with a humble earth box, a patented growing system that helps growers to cultivate produce with limited space and water. The project really has two parts: teaching people around the world, especially kids, how to cultivate their own food, and giving them a hands-on lesson in nutrition. The latter entails connecting growers so that kids growing corn on rooftops in Harlem can share their experiences with students planting earth boxes in Ghana.
To earmark today's anniversary, we had a little get-together at the Googleplex, complete with cucumber and lemon verbena infused waters, organic snacks and a few words from Robert Patterson, Senior Liaison Officer at FAO. "Like Google, Growing Connections combines growth and information," he observes. "So coming to Google has been a natural fit. We work from kids from all over--Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. They learn to like each other through food and realize that they're part of an actual solution for hunger and poverty."
Check out today's photo album:
Thursday, May 8, 2008
OSO conference takes the cake
Last week at the annual meeting of our Online Sales and Operations (OSO) organization, a group of us (1,211 Googlers from around the world, to be exact) made an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the "largest cake decorating lesson." This isn't the first time we've taken our culinary talents to great heights, but it is the first time we've attempted to bake our way to a new record.
The event brought our teams together, united around something we all love: good food. We decorated a total of 171 cakes, using 800 pounds of butter cream and 500 pounds of fondant along the way. In addition to this fun foray into the sugar arts, the two-day conference featured a keynote speech by Al Gore, workshops with faculty from the Harvard Business School, and several panels on industry trends, including one on bloggers moderated by Kara Swisher.
Check out this video of the day:
We'll report back if (and hopefully when) we hear the news from Guinness.
Internet protection on the go
Protecting employees from Internet threats is tough enough when they're at work, much less when they're on the road. Off-network users are particularly vulnerable to web threats because they must remember to connect via VPN for protection when they're away from the office.
Today we're making Internet security easier for people, wherever they may be working. Google Web Security for Enterprise, powered by Postini, provides real-time malware protection and URL filtering with policy enforcement and reporting. An additional feature extends the same protections to users working remotely on laptops in hotels, cafes, and even guest networks without requiring any action on their part.
Read more on the Enterprise Blog or get protected now.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Investing in the future of the open Internet
As you may have read, Google, Comcast, Intel Capital, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners have entered into an agreement to invest $3.2 billion in a new wireless broadband company. The new company will combine Clearwire's existing consumer WiMAX business with Sprint's broadband infrastructure and 2.5 GHz spectrum to create a new nationwide wireless broadband network. In addition to our $500 million contribution as part of the investment group, we will provide search and applications to the network's users, and will work with Clearwire to offer additional services and applications. This will include jointly creating an open Internet protocol to work with mobile broadband devices (including Android-powered devices) and implementing other open network practices and policies.
We believe that the new network will provide wireless consumers with real choices for the software applications, content and handsets that they desire. Such freedom will mirror the openness principles underlying the Internet and enable users to get the most out of their wireless broadband experience. As we've supported open standards for spectrum and wireless handsets, we're especially excited that Clearwire intends to build and maintain a network that will embrace important openness features. In particular, the network will: (1) expand advanced high speed wireless Internet access in the U.S., (2) allow consumers to utilize any lawful applications, content and devices without blocking, degrading or impairing Internet traffic and (3) engage in reasonable and competitively-neutral network management.
We're looking forward to seeing the Clearwire network take shape and begin to deliver benefits to users, and we will continue to look for new partners to promote openness and bring compelling applications and services to end users. There's more information on Clearwire and the transaction on Clearwire's site.
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