Your Google stories: finding health information when you need it

This is part of a series of stories from people who have shared how Google has helped them in their lives. Check back the rest of this week for more, and if you have a Google story, tell us about it. -Ed.

I work on several projects at Google with the goal of helping people improve their health and that of their loved ones. It’s humbling to read the feedback we receive from people who have used Google to find health information. These stories make us proud of what we do and encourage us to work harder to make our products even better.

Joe from Northern Ireland sent this story about how information he found with Google helped him welcome a new member to his family—firsthand:

Received: 12/23/2009
From: Joe
All I can say is thanks to google search engine. Why? My daughter went into labour in the early hours of Wednesday morning ... my wife phoned [emergency services] and my daughter got on her laptop and googled how to deliver a baby in an emergency ... I delivered my grandson just in time for the ambulance to arrive. The ambulance staff were gobsmacked to say the least. It hasn't quite sunk in yet but thanks to google and the emergency services I have a beautiful grandson. So there you have it first there was Google Earth now we have Google Birth. Many thanks.

Michael found resources to help him and his mother cope with the challenges of cancer treatment:

Received: 2/6/2010
From: Michael
I am ... a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. I just wanted to say thank you for your search [engine] and the work it does to make information readily available to the world. I recently found out my mother has cancer in the esophagus. She has been undergoing chemo treatment ... and the last few days I've been on Google reading stories about other cancer survivors, side effects they've had from the treatments and even articles on foods she can eat to help heal her cancer. I get emotional writing this but I think google.com has been a blessing from God in facilitating people like myself to get connected to resources that are helpful, especially in difficult circumstances. Google has saved me countless hours of research that I could be spending in and out of libraries [to] find the information we need to help us get through this ... Thank you and God bless you.

Bettie used Google to find a surgeon who helped save her husband’s kidney:

Received: 11/6/2009
From: Bettie
My husband and I have an amazing story to share about a surgeon I found easily through Google. Everyone that hears our story tells us we should write a book. Not sure we'll ever get around to that, but we do want to thank Google for directing us to the best possible surgeon to save my husband's one remaining kidney. He had been to many local, well-respected doctors and nationally recognized hospitals for months. None seemed to have the expertise needed to perform the challenging surgery on four malignant kidney tumors. Not only did Google direct us quickly to an expert in the field, but the site had a place to "Talk to the Doctor". On a Sunday afternoon, the doctor himself responded by email in four minutes ... Thank you for saving my husband's only kidney and possibly his life!

Thanks to Joe, Michael, Bettie and the many others who share their deeply personal stories with us. It’s the people behind every search—and our ability to help them—that make my team feel so committed to providing the best services we can.

Posted by Roni Zeiger, MD, Chief Health Strategist

App Tuesday: nine new apps introduced to the Google Apps Marketplace

It’s App Tuesday again, which means we’re excited to launch nine new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace. Like the other 150+ installable apps in the Marketplace, these apps help solve some of the toughest challenges that many businesses face today. While all apps are accessible from a user’s universal navigation bar, some of these apps integrate even further with Gmail, Calendar, Docs and more.

This new batch of apps helps users seamlessly and easily tackle all kinds of issues—from time management with RescueTime to procurement with Ketera.

Check out our post on the Enterprise Blog for more information on these apps as well as the other seven launching today, or go right to the Marketplace.

Posted by Harrison Shih, Google Apps Marketplace Team

Your Google stories: the right answer in the nick of time

This is the first in a series of stories from people who have shared how Google has helped them in their lives. Check back the rest of this week for more. -Ed.

We talk a lot about the products we build and the things we’re doing, but we don't often talk about the ways in which search touches people’s lives every day. Yet our ability to help people is why I—and most of the people around me—love working on search.

Some of the best feedback we receive are the real-world stories of how people have used Google to make an impact in their lives or the lives of others. We’re constantly amazed at what people can do and have done with our technology—from making a life-saving diagnosis to reuniting with a long lost love.

This first story struck a chord with me because, oddly enough, a chimney plays a significant role in my family lore. The night I was born, our chimney collapsed into the house—in fact it was the chimney collapsing that triggered my mom’s labor. Google helped Christine’s family avoid harm in a similar situation.

Submitted: 11/12/09 2:24 PM
From: Christine
YOU SAVED OUR LIVES!!!
While we usually Google things like hotel prices, product reviews and autism materials, today Google returned the right site at the top of the page in just the nick of time!
About an hour after warming up our fireplace, my husband and I were startled by the rumbling sound of what we thought was a low flying helicopter. My husband darted outside to look for one, but there was nothing of any aircraft in sight. He did tell me about the thick billowing smoke coming from our chimney.

Nervous, I quickly Googled “chimney fires” and within a second the first link caught my attention. At this site I learned that the rumbling sound is what many people hear when their chimney have caught fire! I then called 911 and they advised us to get out of the house right away!

Within 5 minutes our chimney was fully engulfed with flames! I have been praising Google all day today!

So thank you Google for working so hard to make researching and information gathering fast, easy and accessible. Without your commitment to a better product, we very well may have lost our house or our lives today!

This is just the first of many stories like it that we plan to share with you over the course of this week. They’re a huge source of inspiration for us and we’ll hope they’ll be for you, too—check ‘em out. And if you have a Google story, tell us about it.

Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Search

A joint policy proposal for an open Internet

Today, Eric Schmidt and Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon, will announce a joint proposal for an open Internet. We’ve been working with Verizon to find common ground on the issue of net neutrality for nearly a year—last October we released a shared statement of principles, and in January, we made a joint filing to the FCC. We hope today’s proposal, a suggested legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers, helps to advance the debate over open Internet rules in Washington. We also believe that it is best for users and for the web.

For more information, read the full post on our Public Policy blog.

Posted by Karen Wickre, Editor, Google Blog team

Seventh U.S. state is fourth to head to the cloud

(Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog)

Today we’re happy to announce that The Maryland Education Enterprise Consortium (MEEC) will make Google Apps for Education available to 1.4 million students in the state. MEEC is comprised of the University System of Maryland, Maryland Higher Education Commission and Maryland Department of Education, and provides software resources and services to its 194 members across the state. This includes all 24 public K-12 districts, libraries and all public and private higher education institutions.

Maryland joins the ranks of Oregon, Colorado and Iowa, who each enabled their educational institutions to “go Google” under one statewide agreement. And more than 8 million other students, staff and faculty across the globe actively use our free messaging and collaboration suite.

In addition to Google Apps, this agreement also enables MEEC member institutions—for example University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)—to license Google Postini Services such as Google Message Security, for use with the existing email infrastructure to enhance Spam filtering and email security for students, faculty and staff.

According to Assistant Vice President of IT at UMBC, Mike Carlin, students were overwhelmingly in favor of Google and vocal about their preference when it came to email since it “works exceptionally well with their mobile lifestyle.”

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Apps for Education Team