Miss Japan Yukari Kuzuya

Miss Japan Yukari Kuzuya, 21. She is 183 centimeters tall, making her the tallest Japanese candidate in the pageant history. Yukari is a professional model from Aichi Prefecture who trained in Paris and London shortly after being crowned Miss Japan (She beat 14 other finalists who were selected from a record 2,256 applicants for the annual contest which celebrates its 53rd anniversary this year).

This month, if she wins Miss Universe title she will be the second Japanese to wear crown. In 1959, Akiko Kojima, a model from Tokyo, became the very first Asian winner.

Yukari Kuzuya's Blog

Hot Burger Ad Paris Hilton

Burger makers Carl's Jr.'s new "Spicy BBQ Burger" TV commercial starring Paris Hilton may be getting too hot for comfort, with a site touting the clip crashing! The site - www.SpicyParis.com - crashed for four hours as Internet surfers raced to see the seductive swimsuit-clad socialite.

The ad shows Hilton in a black bikini that barely hides her body, dripping suds while washing a Bentley and then suggestively eating a burger. It has generated media attention since hitting the US TV airwaves.The special site was launched by Carl's Jr at the same time, featuring a special 60-second version of the ad.

The site crashed and was down for about four hours, the company said.At first look the commercial seems like a slick trailer for a particularly well-done soft porn film. But the commercial's director, Chris Applebaum, describes the ad as "pure hotness" and says there is competition to see who is hotter, Paris or burger? Brad Hailey of Carl's Jr. and Hardee Marketing says, "Eating the burger, looking hot and washing a very nice car - that is pretty much the idea."

Hilton calls the ad "pretty hot".The commercial's makers say out of some 3,000 ads on TV, it is important that one is noticed. Hilton washing a Bentley and then wolfing down a burger is guaranteed to get them noticed.

Singer/Actress Aya Ueta

In 2004, Aya Ueta, 19 was casted to play the role of Oka Hiromi in her first ever live action drama, "Ace wo nerae!", based on the comic of the same name, which was a huge hit. The 162cm Tokyo lass recorded the ending song for the show, "Ai no tameni." which was written by Tetsuro Oda, famed for catapulting talents to the top of the charts. The single rank No.6 on the Oricon Charts and was an instant hit. The sales surpassed her highest selling single "Pureness" released back in 2002. A month after the release of "Ai no tameni.", her 2nd album "MESSAGE" was released and ranked No.6 on the Oricon Album Charts.

The next single to be released was the double a-side "Kaze/okuru kotoba" and ranked No.8 on the charts. The main track "Kaze" was used as the ending theme for the popular anime "Nintama Rantarou" and her cover track "Okuru kotoba" was used as the theme song for the PS2 Gamesoft "3 nen B gumi Kinpachi Sensei" based on the drama in which Aya won her way into stardom in 2001.

In September, Aya emerged as the new CM queen, overshadowing other talents as she was advertising products for 10 various companies. According to advertising agencies from Japan, her contract price rose from 30 million yen to 45 million yen in 2004.

Aya also starred in a new movie "Install" based on the best-selling and award-winning novel by Wataya Risa. Aya performed for the first time at the prestigious musical show "Kouhaku Utagessen" on new years eye.

Speaking of search

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team

Do you manage to lose track of files, emails and websites in languages other than English? If so, you’ll be glad to know that Google Desktop Search is now available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese and Korean.

Give them a hand

Posted by Debbie Jaffe, Product Marketing Manager

The product marketing team is currently experimenting with some new ideas for Google Local, and I just went to Kansas City to beta-test some of them with my colleagues Resmi and Samantha. Our first order of business was to visit mall kiosks. Since my poor sense of direction has inspired my family to invoke “The Debbie Rule” (the listener travels in the opposite direction from what Debbie says), before arriving in Kansas City I used Google Maps to print out driving directions from Rafael Hotel to Town Center Plaza, and from there to the Oak Park Mall.

Aside from Arthur Bryant’s barbeque, a highlight of the trip was a ball game between those major rivals, the Kansas City Royals vs. the St. Louis Cardinals. Not only did the Royals rally in the 8th inning to come within one run of the Cards, but it was pretty cool to see fans wave big foam hands from Google.



(If it's too hard to read, one side says “Know your city like the back of your hand. In this case, a big foam hand. Google Local.” The other side says “Go Royals.”)

Some Cardinals fans also enjoyed the hands - but none of those photos are suitable for posting (the hands we provided all started out with five fingers, I swear).

Controversial Mallika Sherawat

Mallika Sherawat is one Bollywood babe in top demand and who is in news constantly. Mallika is co-starring with Jackie Chan in an action comedy film called THE MYTH.

Mallika was discovered by director Stanley Tong in Mumbai as he met many Bollywood heroines for the lead role of the film and was impressed with Mallika's acting talent in the controversial film, MURDER. He then showed the same film to Jackie who too liked her in the role in the film. Jackie Chan then cast her as first ever-Indian heroine for his film.

Mallika, with only two films in Bollywood, has made a significant mark in the industry with KHWAHISH and MURDER. She plays the role of an Indian princess in THE MYTH. "Jackie Chan films are known for clean image. It is a very clean film. I do martial arts rather than doing any bold or nudity scenes," gushes Mallika daring not to perform any bold scenes for the film.

She further adds that the Hollywood action hero adores India and its women. "Jackie loves India and I must say he loves Indian women. He is crazy for Indian girls and it goes without saying that he loves me too," utters the actress wondering how Jackie performs such dangerous stunts knowing the risks involved.

She revealed that when Jackie came to know she was a vegetarian, he arranged for a special cook to prepare vegetarian Chinese cuisine for her. Mallika said Jackie invited her to a Formula 1 charity show, "It was great! They had invited top actors, singers and models from Southeast Asia. So it was a massive cultural exchange! Now I feel I have grown a lot as an actress."

"I feel very lucky to be the first Indian actress to co-star with a big international actor like Jackie Chan," exclaims Mallika. Mallika was also the first Indian actress to be offered to pose for Playboy magazine but she turned it down.

No scraping necessary

Posted by Brian Singerman, Software engineer

My friends have been asking me for something that could add Gmail and news headlines to the Google homepage. I saw a Slashdot post requesting the same thing, and someone wrote back: if you want that feature, do it yourself and whip up some code or scrape the data. Of course, why would my friends spend any time hacking this together when they could just get me to do it for them?

So I got involved with the 'fusion' initiative by joining the team working on a personalized homepage. We launched today, so now I can return the Python books I bought my lazy friends. Check it out and tell us what else you want to see. We just might code it up.

A method to our madness

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products, and Jessica Ewing, Product Manager

Does Google have a strategy, or are we just a bunch of mad computer scientists running around building whatever we want? Today this question gets an answer: we've launched our personalized homepage via Google Labs. It's part of a strategic initiative we refer to as 'fusion' to bring together Google functionality, and content from across the web, in useful ways.

The personalized homepage is a complement to the existing Google homepage - not a replacement. Keep using the original Google homepage if you want to. (We expect many people will.) But if you're keen to organize and customize your information, take a stab at designing your own homepage. You can add Gmail, news, stocks, weather and more. Plus you can add great content from websites like the BBC and Wired. We're incorporating feeds from just a few other sites today, but we envision being able to accept any standardized feed very soon.

Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Miss World Cup 2002 Shin Mina

Relatively unknown until spotted by photogrpahers during the 2002 World Cup match between host South Korea and Germany. Being a typical fan, Shin Mina had her face painted with the Korean national flag, wearing the "Be the Reds!" T-shirt rolled up into a sexy top and a mini-shorts with the Korean flag around her hips. This sexy 25 year old gained overnight popularity in South Korea after being named Miss World Cup 2002

Before her fame, she was a back-up dancer for Park Ji Yoon, a Korean artist. Months after that fateful day, the recording comapany, J Company, signed Mina and the rest was history.

Her sexy good looks, bubbly personality and good moves made her a big hit in Korea's music industry. Mina has just recently released her first album entitled 'Rendezvous' and first single "Answer the Phone", was both a big hit in South Korea.

Tomorrow, work that bike

Posted by Joe Gross, System Ops Manager

So many Googlers commute by bike every day that you can't easily look down a hallway and not see a bicycle or two leaning against the wall. Some people bike in from just a few miles away while others combine their commute with other training. I ride 40 miles from San Francisco to Mountain View (and back!) twice a week. Somehow, I'm much more awake and refreshed than I would have been if I sat in my car on 101 for an hour. Or more...

Google is a huge supporter of bike commuting, and Bike to Work Day is a real party in Mountain View. Cyclists can get Google-branded bike goodies, monthly onsite bicycle tune-ups, and classes on basic commuter skills, bike maintenance, touring - even how to ride your first century. But it doesn't matter what or how far you ride. Biking to work is a great way to get some exercise, save some gas, improve the environment, and most importantly of all, have fun!

this just in from Aparna Brown, Commuting Coordinator:

Since he was just named San Francisco County's Bike Commuter of the Year by the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, Joe is the perfect Googler to write about bike commuting. As someone who only bikes 2.5 miles to work, I'm pretty darn impressed with his dedication to regular rides to work. To encourage others to bike to work, Joe and others will be leading rides to Mountain View from all over the Bay Area on Thursday. Watch for bikers with Google shirts and give them a friendly wave (from your bike, natch).

Search for the enterprise

Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Product Manager

Looking for a crucial file you lost somewhere on your computer? At home you’d use Google Desktop Search - and at work, you’d start updating your resume. Not anymore. Check out Google Desktop Search for the Enterprise: fast, secure (and free!) desktop search that you can actually use from 9 to 5.

Fashion Model Yu Yamada

Twenty-year-old charismatic fashion model Yu Yamada's career is really taking off. Not only is she a popular magazine cover girl, she is also the campaign girl for the Tokyo Metro and a star in the TBS drama "Yumede Aimasho" (Let's meet in our dreams) that started from April. In it, she is a dental assistant who isn't afraid to play love games using her beauty.

The Okinawan-born Yamada's TV commercial contracts are increasing, too. Besides hawking products for Kanebo, Vodafone and five other major companies, confectionery company Ezaki Glico selected her to pitch its new ice cream. "She is very stylish but down to earth and has a lot of male and female fans. That's why we chose her as our campaign girl," said an Ezaki Glico spokesperson. "Since the ads started appearing, sales of the new ice cream have skyrocketed quickly and it's thanks to Yamada."

According to Tatsuo Sekine of CM Total Research, celebrities who have more than five commercial contracts are rated A. "Yamada is not only popular among adults, she also has a lot of children fans. When she did the ball exercise in the Glico apple yogurt TV commercial, children who saw it mimicked her and it became a sort of children's phenomenon."

Such magnetic power is an important asset for an actress. Yamada's TV commercial guarantee has been estimated at around 30 million yen per product, but that will probably go up to 50 million within a year, said Sekine.

When Yamada was 11 years old, she entered the same Okinawa acting and singing school that singers Namie Amuro and Speed attended. In 1999, she made her singing debut with the group y'z factory. One year later, she was offered modeling work by top fashion magazine Can Cam and was soon walking the red carpet at gala events.

The reason for Yamada's popularity is her perfect proportion, say industry observers. She is 170 centimeters tall, and her vital measurements are B83, W58, H83.

She seems to have inherited much of her good looks from her mother, Mikako Yamada, a 46-year-old former JAL flight attendant and fashion model with 23 years in the business. Mikako also was born in Okinawa. After graduating from high school, she came to Tokyo to study at a flight attendant academy. She won two beauty pageants and was subsequently named Miss Okinawa in the first such pageant held by the prefecture. She married at age 25 and had three children — Yu and two boys.

In the May edition of VoCE, Yu and Mikako appear in a photo spread together. Mikako wears a sleeveless shirt and miniskirt, and more than holds her own against her daughter. She says: "Actually, Yu has a longer career in the magazine industry, so I asked her advice for the photo shoot."
(Translated from Shukan Post)

A Video Uploader for the rest of us

Posted by R.P. Hughes, Software Engineer

As a Mac user, my heart sank a little when I first saw the post about the Google Video Upload Program. Clearly, the concept is cool. It was just that all-too-ubiquitous .exe file you must run to upload your videos. Of course I know that something like 90% of the desktop/notebook computers sold today run Windows. But in my circle of friends (admittedly a small one -- I blame the caffeine), almost everyone uses a Mac, and the rest use Linux or some other UNIX-like substance. Anyhow, this Video announcement inevitably led to a lot of flak (again) from my friends about how Google was shipping yet another Windows-only application. "I thought Google has lots of smart developers." "Doesn't Google know how to write platform independent software?" Blah, blah, blah.

But this time, I took it as a personal challenge. I shoot a lot of video, and I edit it on my Mac. How hard could it be to write a compatible video uploader that would run everywhere? As I soon discovered, not very hard at all. After all, I have access to the C++ source code for the existing Windows-specific uploader, and I can spend my 20% time working on whatever I want. And I have plenty of experience writing portable code, given that I program in Java.

Java comes pre-installed on the vast majority of operating systems in use today, or it's available as a free download from Sun. And software written in Java really, really does work across all those platforms, as a decade of work by software developers can attest. The Java mantra "Write once, run anywhere" is a reality -- it just works. Java programs also tend to be less buggy than their C/C++ counterparts, and programmers working in Java are a lot more productive - but these are topics for another post.

Anyway, now you can sign up for the Google Video Uploader for Macintosh, and ditto for Linux (and UNIX and Solaris and HP-UX and AIX and lots of other platforms). The same sign-up page goes to to the Windows version too. So now I can ponder a different problem - namely, which of my videos I want to share with the world.

Feed me

Posted by Shuman Ghosemajumder, Product Manager, AdSense for Feeds

If you're like many savvy web users, you may be reading this via a feed reader, along with all the other blogs, newspapers, and other content that interests you. Whether a feed is Atom-enabled or RSS, it offers great flexibility for users and additional distribution for publishers. As with many promising technologies feeds haven't quite hit the mainstream yet, nor are the business models entirely sorted out.

Enter AdSense for feeds, launching today in beta. The idea is simple: advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising - and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from. Given the great flexibility that feeds can offer, it's essential to get the model right, especially so that readers are satisfied. Towards this end we have outlined what we believe are some best practices for advertising in feeds. Publishers who want to participate in the public beta can apply here.

A Bay to Breakers break

Posted by Nat Criou, "We're Feeling Lucky" Team

The Bay to Breakers 12k run is a hallowed (if irreverent) Bay Area tradition that starts at San Francisco's Embarcadero (the Bay), and ends in Golden Gate Park (sort of close to the breakers of the Pacific - ok, it's a bit of poetic license). Though serious runners compete, the streets are clogged with up to 70,000 hardy souls —



— a mix of halfway decent and annual runners, often in costume (or not; there's a band of nude runners too).

Today's 94th race included more than 40 Googlers running as the "We're Feeling Lucky" team. We ran for fun and to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Our "Lucky" Team "donned special T-shirts emblazoned with the hurdles doodle from the 2004 Summer Olympics on the front, and individual letters that collectively spell GOOOOOOOGLE on the back. Faster runners got the G-O tees, and well, the rest of us got O-O-G-L-E.



Of course, we did a little advertising. This was a good crowd to inform that as always, we're hiring.

Q&A: the world tour

Posted by Jonathan Betz, Q&A Tech Lead

When we launched Google Q&A, we told you it was just the beginning. Today marks the start of the Google Q&A world tour -- we're kicking off with the UK (who's the prime minister again?), Ireland (what's the population of Dublin?), Canada (how many people live there?), Australia (what's the capital?), and New Zealand (how big is it, anyway?). So now I can't say it's still just the beginning, but it's still very early. We're putting together a lot of new information like this to help you get the quickest possible answers to all your questions, so keep checking back for more.

(updated with a new link)

Mini goes Euro

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Mini Product Manager

Turns out that businesses in London, Madrid and Dusseldorf have the same headaches as those in Chicago or Vancouver: they can't find that sales presentation on the company intranet. Or customers fill up the support line with calls for info that's actually on the website. Google Mini to the rescue. So now it's for sale in the UK and throughout the EU.

Library access

Posted by Alex Verstak, Software Engineer

As a graduate student at Virginia Tech, I spent many an hour reading volumes of Machine Learning Journal on the fourth floor of Newman Library. Libraries are known for their vast print collections, but that's not the end of the story. I often found interesting citations on the web and wished I could read the articles right then on my computer screen, saving a trip to the library.

My wish is now becoming a reality: most academic libraries these days subscribe to electronic versions of journals that authorized patrons can read on their own computers. And today we're launching a feature in Google Scholar that lets people read their academic library's subscriptions directly from their Google Scholar search results. Students at more than 100 participating universities will see links to such library resources as electronic delivery, print catalogs, and interlibrary loan.

We are deeply grateful to libraries and library software vendors who worked with us to define and implement library access in Google Scholar. Thirty organizations have participated in the pilot project that led to this launch, and many more have offered their help. We hope that library access in Google Scholar will help researchers like myself discover relevant information so they can build on the work of others and 'stand on the shoulders of giants.'

One more way to access Local UK

Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software Engineer

We were on a roll after we launched Google Local UK last month, and went on to build a mobile web browser version of Google Local for our UK users. Users can now access Local on their mobile by going straight to the Local home page (that's http://mobile.google.co.uk/local) or the Google UK home page (a.k.a. http://www.google.co.uk/xhtml). So we say: step away from that computer. Click a few buttons on your keypad and head to that new Thai restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. If you're slightly disoriented once away from the screen, Local gives you Google Maps and driving directions too.

Updated with visible URLs.

They are among us

Posted by Biz Stone, Blogger Team

There's no cause for alarm, but we wish to note that millions of people walking around *right now* are carrying little blogging devices. That's what we on the Blogger team call them, anyway. Others might refer to them as "mobile phones." It's all semantics.

The point is, we've launched Blogger Mobile. It's nothing fancy, really. All you need to do to use it is send an email or MMS from your phone to go@blogger.com - and that's it. We automatically create your blog, and whatever text or photos (or both) you send in the message becomes your post. Continue posting by sending more messages to go@blogger.com and congratulations: you are a blogger.

There's also this part we call "claiming your blog." That means you visit go.blogger.com and enter the token we send to your phone. When you sign in with this token, you get full Blogger access to all of your various settings, plus the ability to switch your posts to an existing blog if you already have one.

You may now use a mobile device to create and update your blog while you're on-the-go. See? Little blogging appliances — they are among us.

Switch!

Posted by Eric Case, Blogger team

To make the Google Blog a bit easier to manage behind the scenes, we're now publishing it to its new home at Blogspot: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Newsreader users shouldn't have to re-subscribe; the Atom feed is being redirected to its new URL. We've also updated the design a bit, and added a blogroll. Let us know what you think.

Time waits for no one

Posted by Marius Eriksen, Software Engineer

My dentist told me I needed to floss more.

That's a big demand for a Googler's busy lifestyle. Where do you find the time to floss - less foosball, shorter lunches, skip out on ultimate frisbee? Hardly!

This calls out loud and clear for a way to optimize time. One mundane time-waster we all contend with, for example, is waiting for web pages to load. The tantalizing promise of a web page is only seconds away. But even on broadband, the wait's too short to do something else - and just long enough to be irritating. Let's face it, those seconds add up.

As you may have noticed, we're slightly obsessed with speed around here. When you search on Google.com, your results are returned to you within fractions of a second. And now comes Google Web Accelerator. After you download it, we hope you'll enjoy that same Google-fast experience across the rest of the web. After all, seconds add up to minutes.



Dentists everywhere will be smiling.

TV treasure hunt

Posted by Dan Zheng, Google Video team

Before a recent trip to Hong Kong and Taipei, I'd heard that a major Taipei attraction is the food at night markets. So I did a search on Google Video for Taipei night markets, and was pleasantly surprised to see that there's a PBS show called "Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions." And before my trip it aired an episode on Taiwan. The first segment of the show focused on, yes, night markets. Perfect. After watching it, I knew enough to jostle among the locals and eat incredible treats like dou hua, dumplings, squid stew and oyster omelets.

We've been working to bring more video content online since we launched Google Video in late January, and have just added 12 new channels - among them CNN and the Discovery Channel - giving me way more TV info to unearth.

It's an honor

Posted by Len Kleinrock
Professor, Computer Science Department, UCLA

Dear Sergey and Larry, I want to extend my personal congratulations to you both on your election to the esteemed American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is a most well-deserved honor that recognizes your accomplishments and vision both technological and societal. I am proud to have you join us in the AAAS, which has among its members the most accomplished individuals since the Academy was formed in 1780 by some of our nation's founding fathers. Welcome, and congratulations again.