Official Google Australia Blog: February 2012

Collaborate and edit anywhere with the updated Google Docs for Android

Thursday, February 23, 2012

This is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog
As I was sitting on the ferry commuting to Google’s Sydney office this morning, two thoughts occurred to me. First, Australia is beautiful. If you’ve never been here, you really should visit. And second, it’s amazing how productive I can be with just my Android phone and an Internet connection. I was responding to email, reading news articles and editing documents—just like I do at the office. Only the view was better!

We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android. We've brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You'll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.

We also updated the interface to make it easier to work with your documents on the go. For example, you can pinch to zoom and focus on a specific paragraph or see the whole document at a glance. We also added rich text formatting so you can do things like create a quick bullet list, add color to your documents, or just bold something important. Watch the new Google Docs app in action:

If you want to hear about the latest Docs news or send us feedback on the new app, visit Google Docs on Google+.

Gotta run—I’ve got another ferry to catch!

Posted by Vadim Gerasimov, Software Engineer

Making computer science accessible: apply now for 2012 CS4HS Grants

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Working with micro-controllers at UQ’s worskhop.

The need for computer science professionals is increasing faster than universities are able to graduate CS students -- not just in Australia and New Zealand, but around the world. That’s why Google has worked with universities around the world to develop the CS4HS program: Computer Science for High School.

CS4HS is an initiative sponsored by Google to promote Computer Science and Computational Thinking in high school and middle school curriculum. The program takes a “train the trainer” approach. Universities develop 2-3 day workshops for teachers that provide training, tips, and actual classroom materials to help them teach programming and computing in their schools and turn their students into computational thinkers and creators.

This summer five CS4HS workshops were held in Australia and New Zealand, at University of Melbourne, University of Canterbury, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Queensland, and University of Adelaide. University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney will hold theirs in the coming weeks. Over 200 teachers have:

learned about programming software directly from developers, full-time CS faculty, and Google engineers;
participated in hands-on workshops ranging from robotics programming to mobile app development with App Inventor;
attended informational talks by industry leaders; and
discussed new and emerging CS curricula at the high school and middle school level.

CS4HS participants and tutors at the University of Queensland’s workshop.

This sort of training is especially helpful for the surprising number of teachers in Australia and New Zealand who are devoting their own free time to offering computer science classes as a club or an extra course outside of the school’s primary curriculum.

Professor Paul Strooper, Head of the School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland, said, “The CS4HS program was a huge success for UQ since the funding enabled us to develop three new hands-on computer science workshops for high schools which we are hoping to deliver to groups of students throughout the year. We used part of the funding to offer travel grants which enabled 15 teachers from all over Queensland and as far as Sydney to attend the CS4HS Workshop. Participating teachers from the Brisbane area have already started contacting us to organise workshops for their students at UQ and we are planning to visit the teachers from Mackay later in the year to run workshops for their students.”

From now until 3rd March 2012, CS4HS is accepting applications for 2012 grants; if you’re affiliated with a college or university in Australia or New Zealand, we’d love to hear from you. If you’re not affiliated with a college or university you can still encourage your local university, community college or technical school to apply for a grant. After applications close, we’ll post the workshop websites of participating schools on cs4hs.com for professors looking for ideas and for teachers interested in learning more about what’s being offered.
Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Program Manager Engineering, Google Australia

Hitting your target audience... with a snap!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

An edited version of this blog post was first published on Mumbrella.

One of this week’s viral sensations on YouTube is a science fiction-themed ad for the Central Institute of Technology (CIT) in Perth. The skit-style video commercial, titled “It’s A Snap”, features CIT grads-turned-YouTube stars Henry & Aaron, who magically jump from one CIT department to the next with a snap of Aaron’s fingers. The comedy takes a distinctly darker turn when Aaron’s teleporting skills start going horribly wrong -- with gruesome results.

This video holds a couple of lessons for marketers. First of all, it’s a great example of one of the newest rules of the web marketing game: “think popular, not premium.” When it comes to celeb endorsements, don’t just think pro athletes or movie stars -- follow your audience. Comedy duo Henry & Aaron are celebrities on YouTube, and they come with their own devoted following and credibility among their fans. Odds are they’ve got a pretty good following among CIT’s target audience of teenagers considering a technical college education.

We’ve seen this strategy of piggybacking on YouTube stars pay off in Australia before. Sydney-based shoe start-up Shoes of Prey worked with popular “hauler” Juicystar07 on YouTube - 18-year old beauty guru Blair Fowler - to create a shoe giveaway. Blair promoted the shoes in her video and Shoes of Prey got one of their best weeks of orders. Last year, Lonely Planet worked with Australia’s most successful YouTuber, Sydneysider Natalie Tran, whose videos have been viewed more than 400 million times. Natalie’s short travel videos from Miami to the Maldives, Buenos Aires to Egypt, helped to connect Lonely Planet with her many online fans.

Secondly, let’s take a look at the content of the video itself. It may stray into gory territory that’s traditionally scared marketers off, but it’s earned rave reviews--tech news site Gizmodo has called it the "Best. Technical College Ad. Ever"--and it’s gotten more than 1.4 million views online. Head of Marketing at CIT Kenley Gordon sums it up nicely in the press release, saying that even though the ad isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, you can’t argue with its popularity: “The youth market is what Henry and Aaron know and judging from the hits, they nailed it.” What’s interesting is that the gross-out ending delivers the shock value that’s perhaps helping this go viral, but it doesn’t interfere at all with the key messages of CIT.

The barriers to entry have disappeared and the next star to shoot to global popularity on the web can come from anywhere. It’s worth considering how your brand might hitch a ride. One thing is for sure: going popular helped CIT reach its target audience...with a snap.

Posted by Karen Stocks, Head of YouTube & Display, Google Australia

Introducing our Google Student Ambassadors

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Last week we welcomed our newly appointed Google Student Ambassadors to our Sydney office and the inaugural Google Student Ambassador Summit.

After putting a call out for students interested in acting as on-campus liaisons between Google and their universities, we selected 52 student ambassadors representing 23 universities across Australia and New Zealand. Ambassadors get the chance to learn about Google products and programs and organise campus events for their fellow students.

Our ambassadors are a diverse bunch. Not only are they geographically scattered, but they have majors from computer science to anthropology, business and even zoology. What they all have in common is a passion for new technology, enthusiasm about Google, and deep involvement in their school communities.

Desiree Kelly is currently studying Computing and Intelligent Systems and Software Development at Griffith University. Desiree wants to be an advocate for women in I.T. and has been active in helping organise Geek Girl Coffees in Brisbane.

Sam Jarman, a seasoned app developer and Computer Science student at the University of Canterbury, and fellow Kiwi Julius Bennett, a finance and accounting student in Auckland, hope to raise campus awareness about the benefits of the cloud with a product like Google Docs.

Desiree, Sam and Julius attended the two-day summit with their fellow ambassadors and received presentations from Googlers about Google Apps for Education, YouTube, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Places and Google+.

It was not all work though. There was plenty to time to socialise as they took part in Google Sydney’s weekly TGIF drinks and went on a Sydney Harbour cruise, bringing the summit to a fitting close.

All our ambassadors finished the summit with lots of ideas they’ll bring back to campus. One of our ambassadors has also put together a circle on Google+. Add everyone to your own circles to follow what they’re doing on campus.

Posted by Marco Duarte, Engineering Programs and Recruiting Specialist, Google

Unnecessary regulation could stop the digital economy in its tracks

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Last August, Google commissioned a first-of-its-kind research report from Deloitte Access Economics to take an in-depth look at how the Internet is rewiring Australia’s households and businesses in fundamental ways. “The Connected Continent” discovered that the Internet contributed $50 billion directly to the Australian economy in 2010 — the same as iron ore exports. In short, Australia’s digital economy is booming — and this is a boom that every Australian is a part of.

Australian content is certainly booming on YouTube. A new class of Aussie artists and entrepreneurs is making high-quality videos that are racking up tens of millions of views across Australia and the world, and many of them are earning enough to quit their day jobs. Rob Nixon, for example, was once a ground crew worker at Perth airport; now he’s “Nicko the Chef” with a YouTube cooking channel with 37M views. Interestingly, Australia is running a trade surplus in online video. In 2011, overseas viewers watched more hours of Australian content on YouTube than Australians watched of overseas content.

Unfortunately, there’s a real danger at the moment that unnecessary regulation — like that being sketched out in the Interim Report from the Convergence Review — could stop this thriving part of the digital economy in its tracks. We were surprised and disappointed to see this report moving toward the imposition of unwarranted and unworkable TV-style regulation on the online media sector. (You can read Google’s official comment here.)

Long-standing government policy, re-articulated by the Convergence Review, aims for a media sector with diverse voices, lots of high-quality Australian content, and community standards for content. Simply put, we believe the web — and especially online video sites like YouTube — is already delivering this.

The web has solved previous issues of media scarcity. This has traditionally been a key part of the justification for government regulation of media. On YouTube, anybody with a video camera (or a smartphone!) can start their own media channel, broadcast to massive audiences home and abroad, and through our YouTube Partner Program, turn their popular videos into a business. This is driving an explosion in Aussie content. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 40% of Australians with Internet access now create content online, from videos to blogs.

The openness of the web is generating diversity in Australian voices. It’s even filling in the gaps left by traditional content providers. SportingPulse, in Melbourne, helps local sports leagues across the country get videos of their matches online where their most passionate fans can find them. Talent from diverse backgrounds is thriving on YouTube, from two Adelaide mates’ Encyclopedia of Magic to sister singers Janice and Sonia Lee. On the web there are no casting agents or producers deciding who gets on screen or what stories should be told, and this has resulted in an explosion of new faces and voices.

Our most respected cultural institutions are embracing the web to reach Australia and the world. The Sydney Opera House can only fit so many people into its seats — but through the web, they reach the vast majority of us who can’t get to Bennelong Point on a regular basis. And Screen Australia’s Vault on YouTube breathes new life into heritage films that might otherwise be collecting dust. Many content creators have more content than they can broadcast, screen, or publish through traditional channels; platforms like YouTube are giving this content new life and new fans.

This incredible online momentum is creating a new golden age of Australian content unparalleled in the quality, quantity, and great diversity of voices it represents. The last thing we want to see is unnecessary regulation squelching its growth. The web has flung open the doors of creative and economic success to all Australians, and we want to make sure those doors stay wide open.

Posted by Iarla Flynn, Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google Australia

Helping Dean Sell His Coffee Online

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Did you know that more than a third of Australians made at least one online purchase last year? As more and more of us use the web to research and buy products online, businesses of all sizes need to make sure that their products can be found quickly and easily online.
Dean from Geronimo Coffee Roasters signed up for a free website through MYOB and Google’s joint initiative Getting Aussie Business Online that now also includes e-commerce features. Thanks to these, Dean created an online store where customers can browse and buy his products. He can now also receive payments online.

Like Dean, businesses that sign up for a free e-commerce enabled website through Getting Aussie Business Online can get additional exposure for their products through Google Shopping.

As soon as they upload product photos to the gallery on their site and make them available for purchase, information for each product is automatically submitted to Google Shopping and can appear in Google Shopping search results. For Dean it’s a great way to be found by local customers as they can see what items are available in his store.

Within just a couple of months Dean started to see the payoff from promoting and selling his products online. With over thirty sales already, some of which are interstate, Dean is excited for the future of his business and he hopes to help customers with a coffee machine understand what truly fresh coffee tastes like.

Posted by Bora Toska, Small Business Marketing, Google Australia

Introducing Chrome for Android

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

This is a cross-post from the Google Mobile Blog.
In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalised web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices.

Speed With Chrome for Android, you can search, navigate and browse fast—Chrome fast. You can scroll through web pages as quickly as you can flick your finger. When searching, your top search results are loaded in the background as you type so pages appear instantly. And of course, both search and navigation can all be done quickly from the Chrome omnibox.

Simplicity Chrome for Android is designed from the ground up for mobile devices. We reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet. You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you’re holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web.

One of the biggest pains of mobile browsing is selecting the correct link out of several on a small-screen device. Link Preview does away with hunting and pecking for links on a web page by automatically zooming in on links to make selecting the precise one easier. And as with Chrome on desktop, we built Chrome for Android with privacy in mind from the beginning, including incognito mode for private browsing and fine-grained privacy options (tap menu icon, ‘Settings,’ and then ‘Privacy’).

Sign in You can now bring your personalised Chrome experience with you to your Android phone or tablet. If you sign in to Chrome on your Android device, you can:

View open tabs: Access the tabs you left open on your computer (also signed into Chrome)—picking up exactly where you left off.
Get smarter suggestions: If you visit a site often on your computer, you'll also get an autocomplete suggestion for it on your mobile device, so you can spend less time typing.
Sync bookmarks: Conveniently access your favorite sites no matter where you are or which device you’re using.

Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. We’re eager to hear your feedback. Finally, we look forward to working closely with the developer community to create a better web on a platform that defines mobile.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps

Doodling for Dickens’ Birthday: A behind the scenes look

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

This is a cross post from the Inside Google Books Blog

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birthday (born February 7, 1812). To celebrate the life and work of one of the world's greatest storytellers, the Google doodle team created this fantastic celebratory Doodle for our home page:

In addition, our Google Books editorial team curated a collection of free and featured Dickens classics available in Google eBookstore in Dickens's native land (United Kingdom) and some Commonwealth countries (Canada, Australia) as well as the US -- a relatively new nation that Dickens himself visited in 1842 and 1867.

As anyone who has read a Dickens novel can attest, they are full of memorable characters, realism, humour, lyricism, and social commentary. He is considered one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era, and responsible for some of the most iconic stories in English literature. Contemplating Dickens’ diversity of characters and themes, I wondered how the artist who created the Dickens doodle, Mike Dutton, handled the challenge.

Prior to working at Google, Mike was a freelance artist, and illustrated several children’s books, including Donovan's Big Day. He is no stranger to making the words on a page come alive through imagery.

Mike has worked on countless doodles, some honoring other authors like Richard Scarry, and others celebrating events like the Royal Wedding and the World Cup. His favorite doodles to work on (so far!) were Mary Blair’s 100th birthday and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (author of The Little Prince).

When asked about his experience trying to represent Dickens, Mike said that it posed a greater challenge than most. “Google doodles,” he said, are intended to be fun and delightful; however Dickens’ work is frequently serious in tone. So I decided to focus on Dickens’ characters to bridge this gap.”

And Mike’s doodle is full of characters! We see Nell and her grandfather in the The Old Curiosity Shop, many characters from Little Dorrit, Oliver and his friends from Oliver Twist and Estella and Pip from Great Expectations. Even a certain French aristocrat graces the doodle, sitting inside the uppercase “G” -- a reference to his eventual death by guillotine. And no tribute to Dickens would be complete without Ebenezer Scrooge and a vivid depiction of London in the background.

Mike said that while he normally works on his tablet, he had to go back to a physical drawing board for the Dickens doodle, creating each character separately so that he could place them within different parts of the Google logo. Like an engineer, he likes to iterate on what he designs, until he gets it right.

Mike’s puzzle – layering characters

from Great Expectations and Oliver Twist

When I visited his office, I also saw that like other artists, Mike immersed himself in his subject. He had Dickens’ novels stacked by his desk, as well as images from adaptations of the author’s novels pinned to his wall.

“Just happy to be here.”

Interestingly, while a doodler’s work neither hangs in a museum nor receives the reverence of a Da Vinci or a Picasso, the illustrations are perhaps more widely and instantly viewed than any other artists’ in history. When asked about this, Mike responded:

“Sometimes I feel I got to cut in line somewhere along the artist’s journey. Being a doodler is a very fun job, but we take it seriously. Our ultimate goal is to engage and delight users, but we want to make sure we really pay proper homage to each figure along the way too.”

Mike’s doodle lets Dickens’ characters speak to the author’s impact, the way Dickens himself used them to speak his messages to the world. They are familiar, warm, and tell their sometimes harsh stories in a way that makes us want to take notice and enjoy. He uses them to successfully capture what made Dickens’ great: characters that are real to us.

Find out more about Dickens’ work and Google doodles:

Browse our Free and Featured Collection of Dickens' pieces (available in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia)
Learn more about Google doodles

Posted by Ariel Levine, Google eBooks Associate

Safer Internet Day

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Technology plays a huge part in our daily lives, so now more than ever it’s critical that we all have the tools and knowledge we need to be safe, smart and responsible online.

Today is Safer Internet Day, a collaborative effort between government, industry and child safety organisations to put front and centre the safe and responsible use of technology, especially amongst children and young people.

This year’s theme of connecting generations and educating each other is about encouraging all members of your family and the school community to talk about online safety. Research on intergenerational attitudes to social networking and cybersafety suggests that young people themselves are the most valuable resource for adults concerned about the online safety of their children and it encourages parents to sit down and talk with their kids about what they do online.

Safer Internet Day is the perfect time to sit down with your kids, nieces and nephews or grandkids, and find out more about the sites they visit and the ways they manage their information online. Why not ask them to take you on a tour of their favourite sites, show you how they use the privacy settings and teach you tips and tricks to get the most out of each one?

If you want to learn more about staying safe online, visit our safety centre. You’ll find information on Google safety tools, tips from Google parents and advice from our partners.

You might also like to download the cybersafety help button, a government initiative that gives you access to help and information on cybersafety issues. Once downloaded, the button sits on the computer desktop or within the taskbar, and takes you directly to a web page where you can talk, report or learn more about cybersafety issues.

Over the coming year, we will continue to work with Australian child safety organisations: Kids Helpline, NAPCAN, Inspire Foundation, Bravehearts, The Alannah & Madeline Foundation and the Youth and Wellbeing Cooperative Research Centre.

We look forward to continuing to help all Australians to be smart, safe and responsible online. Just like in real life where we need street smarts; on the web we need cyber smarts.

Posted by Ishtar Vij, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google Australia

Entries open for the Google Australia Eureka prize for computer science

Monday, February 6, 2012

Entries for the Google Australia Eureka Prize for Innovation in Computer Science are now open. Each year, the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes reward excellence in research and innovation, science leadership, school science, and science journalism and communication.

Google is delighted to sponsor an award in the Research & Innovation category. The $10,000 prize is awarded annually to an individual or team of Aussies who demonstrate real innovation in computer science.

Here at Google we're passionately committed to innovation in computer science. We hope that by encouraging future generations to embrace the power of an IT education now, we'll foster our next generation of innovators. Previous winners of the Google Australia Eureka prize include:
Associate Professor Moss from the School of Physics at the University of Sydney was awarded the 2011 prize last year for his work in incorporating light onto silicon computer chips. This groundbreaking work has led to the development of a laser that allows light to be generated on silicon chips, which overcomes many energy and bandwidth obstacles for on-chip and chip-to-chip communications.
Professor Peter Stuckey from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Melbourne who was awarded the 2010 prize for his development of Lazy Clause generation, a software method which solves mathematical challenges of resource allocation significantly faster than any other existing method.
Entries in the Google Australia Eureka Prize for Innovation in Computer Science should be cutting-edge and represent a tangible advance in their field. The winning innovation will have the potential to improve the lives of many other Australians.

You can enter as an individual or as a team, and your submission can take the form of a research contribution, commercial product or completely private work such as an open source development.

Further information on criteria and how to submit your entry is available here.

Best of luck!

Posted by Alan Noble, Engineering Director Google Australia and New Zealand

Android and Security

Friday, February 3, 2012

This is a cross-post from the Google Mobile Blog.

The last year has been a phenomenal one for the Android ecosystem. Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion. As the platform continues to grow, we’re focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations - including in security.

Adding a new layer to Android security
Today we’re revealing a service we’ve developed, codenamed Bouncer, which provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process.

The service performs a set of analyses on new applications, applications already in Android Market, and developer accounts. Here’s how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analysing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analysed apps to detect possible red flags. We actually run every application on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android device to look for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyse new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.

Android malware downloads are decreasing
The service has been looking for malicious apps in Market for a while now, and between the first and second halves of 2011, we saw a 40% decrease in the number of potentially-malicious downloads from Android Market. This drop occurred at the same time that companies who market and sell anti-malware and security software have been reporting that malicious applications are on the rise. While it’s not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market - and we know the rate is declining significantly.

Android makes malware less potent
In addition to using new services to help prevent malware, we designed Android from the beginning to make mobile malware less disruptive. In the PC model, malware has more potential to misuse your information. We learned from this approach, designing Android for Internet-connected devices. Some of Android’s core security features are:

Sandboxing: The Android platform uses a technique called “sandboxing” to put virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. So, if you download a malicious application, it can't access data on other parts of your phone and its potential harm is drastically limited.
Permissions: Android provides a permission system to help you understand the capabilities of the apps you install, and manage your own preferences. That way, if you see a game unnecessarily requests permission to send SMS, for example, you don’t need to install it.
Malware removal: Android is designed to prevent malware from modifying the platform or hiding from you, so it can be easily removed if your device is affected. Android Market also has the capability of remotely removing malware from your phone or tablet, if required.
No security approach is foolproof, and added scrutiny can often lead to important improvements. Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe.

Posted by Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering, Android

Australia Blog

Collaborate and edit anywhere with the updated Google Docs for Android

Making computer science accessible: apply now for 2012 CS4HS Grants

Hitting your target audience... with a snap!

Introducing our Google Student Ambassadors

Unnecessary regulation could stop the digital economy in its tracks

Helping Dean Sell His Coffee Online

Introducing Chrome for Android

Doodling for Dickens’ Birthday: A behind the scenes look

Safer Internet Day

Entries open for the Google Australia Eureka prize for computer science

Android and Security

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