Northern exposure

So you live in Canada, eh? Oh, you don't -- but you're nonetheless looking for a coffee joint with Internet access that's open right now in Toronto? Well, lucky you -- we just launched Google Local Canada.

-- Bret Taylor
Product Manager, Google Local Canada

The journey may be the reward, but so is finding the right hotspot

We may be able to roam the globe online, but what about finding a locksmith - or a Thai place that delivers - when you need it? Meet Google Local, our local search service, which we've just enhanced with some new features. We beefed up the technology that delivers more precise results. We cleaned up the design a bit, so the maps you see with the results show the location of your find. We link to more information than before - business home pages, and ratings, reviews. And now you can zoom and pan the maps without reloading the page.

Say a blogger wants to get to a wi-fi hotspot with decent coffee somewhere around Palo Alto. She would definitely have trouble finding listings that provide the right detail through the yellow pages or on other local information sites. But by searching for [wi-fi coffee] in [Palo Alto] on Google Local, she could be caffeinating, and posting, in no time. A time-honored saying is "all politics is local." That's hard to argue, but what we also think is that some search is local, and when it is, it should be useful.

- Bret Taylor
Google Local product manager

On the alert(s)

You're always welcome at Google, but wouldn't it be nice if Google came to you on occasion? Google Alerts enable you to specify topics you want to track (Hurricane Ivan, election polls, the latest Survivor odds) and deliver news updates as well as the latest changes to websites directly to your email inbox. Alerts are also a useful tool for tracking what's doing in business, whether you request updates about your own company or your competitors. Currently in test (beta) mode, Google Alerts are yours for free (no asterisks or strings attached).

To set yours up, go to the Google Alerts home page. Just specify a keyword, the type of alert you want (news, website, or both), delivery options (daily, weekly, or as it happens), and an email address. You can receive alerts in either plain text or HTML format. You can also access a central console to create new alerts, check their status or edit your existing topics. Alerts are available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Chinese (simplified) and (traditional).

- Adam Smith
Google Alerts product manager

Worth the drive

We like things to be efficient and fast, so it's logical that we'd set up a shuttle service for all the Googlers driving to Mountain View from San Francisco every day. Doing it in a Googley way, we went a step further than providing a shuttle. Our bus runs on biodiesel fuel. This clean-burning alternative to gasoline is produced from renewable - and domestically grown - resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, is biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. It has lower emissions than petroleum diesel, too. It's less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar.

It does cost more than regular diesel, but consider this: The Google shuttle carries an average of 155 employees a day. Each run totals about 75 miles - that's 11,625 miles a day we're not driving. If the average car gets 25 mpg, then we're saving some 465 gallons of gas a day, or 2,325 gallons a week - weekly savings of $4,998.75 (figuring $2.15/gallon).

Between the shuttle's wireless access and the earth-friendly fuel, it's hard to imagine getting more out of a daily commute. Although now that I think about it, a helicopter might be nice.

- Cari Spivack
Engineering operations project manager & SF shuttle organizer

Will code for plane ticket?

Do you like programming challenges? Do you like competition? Do you like money? If you can answer yes to at least two of those three questions, then Code Jam, Google's annual celebration of the art of computer science, is for you. Every autumn, thousands of programmers sign up to tackle the most ego-deflating problems Google's engineers can come up with, in a race against time and their fellow coders. After several elimination rounds, the top 50 finalists get a free trip to the final round at the Googleplex here in Mountain View, where all 50 will wind up with a share of $50,000 in prize money ($10,000 to the winner, at least $250 to all 50 finalists).

So. Are you good? We mean, like, seriously good? Let's find out. Maybe you'll score some cash. Maybe you'll wind up changing the world as a Googler yourself (yes, we'll be interested in perusing code jammers' resumes). But most important, you'll have the sheer intellectual pleasure of testing your gray matter against that of the world's best programmers. Gifted geeks may take up the Code Jam '04 gauntlet here.

-- David Jeske
Software Engineer

'Browse' used to mean this

Corporate schwag -- T-shirts, mugs, mousepads -- has long been a way of saying "We appreciate you" or "Please don't forget us." We're not immune from making stuff with our name on it, of course. But we do try to pick things to sell that are fun, sturdy, and usable.

We're telling you this because Google Store has had a makeover. We're not telling you to go there. But if you do, you'll have a better shopping experience (as they say) than previously, especially if you live outside the U.S. We're even open all night.

Dylan Casey
Google Store manager

Greets from GoogleGuy!

Some other Googlers have stopped by to introduce themselves, so it seems appropriate to say hello. Many Google Blog readers may not have heard the story of how GoogleGuy got started, so forgive this bit of historical rambling.

I'm a Google engineer. About three years ago, I was waiting for a program to finish compiling, and I was reading what people online were saying about Google. I remember seeing a question from a site owner about how to structure his site for better crawling, and thinking it would be great if a Googler could just pop by to answer technical questions like that. And then I thought, I'm a Google engineer. I can answer technical questions like that. So I did. Since then, I've managed to post around 2,000 messages in various web forums, setting the record straight whenever possible.

Of course, I had to have an online nickname. What if I got sick, or needed to take a break? I needed a handle that someone else could step into if necessary. After not a lot of consideration, GoogleGuy seemed just right. My primary inspiration was the Man in Black in The Princess Bride. When he returned to Buttercup, he could just hand the reins to a new Man in Black. It didn't bother him that no one knew his true identity:

Fezzik: Why do you wear a mask? Were you burned by acid, or something like that?
Man In Black: Oh no, it's just they're terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.

So there you have it. Lately, I've been pretty quiet, but at some point I'll hit the Google blog again to hold forth on, say, which is better in a url: hyphen or underscore.

Later -- but hopefully, soon,

GoogleGuy

P.S. Usually, it's a hyphen.

P.P.S. If anyone knows of a good source of iocaine powder, lemme know. I've spent the last few years building up an immunity to it just in case. But you know how it is: hard to find these days.