All booked up

Some of us admit to a misspent youth lurking in libraries, devouring books on anything from "the survival of the fittest" or the explorations of Lewis and Clark to the essence of philosophy or Victorian detective yarns. This immersion has made us certain of one thing: there are a million and one books are out there waiting to be found (tens of millions, by some counts) - but library collections just aren't that easy to search.

Which is why we are thrilled to begin scanning book collections belonging to the University of Michigan, Harvard. Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library, so that they become more searchable.

We launched the first part of Google Print in October to make the world of books more discoverable. The thing is, most books in the world are out of print. By working with libraries as well as publishers, we'll have access to millions of books, including many unique volumes that haven't been read in years. Soon a new generation will be able to discover them too.

Joseph O'Sullivan, Software engineer
Adam M. Smith, Business product manager
Google Print team

I've got a suggestion

Today we launched Google Suggest, a new Labs project that provides you with search suggestions, in real time, while you type. We've found that Google Suggest not only makes it easier to type in your favorite searches (let's face it -- we're all a little lazy), but also gives you a playground to explore what others are searching about, and learn about things you haven't dreamt of. Go ahead, give it a spin.

The project stemmed from an idea I had a few months ago, and since then I've been working on it in my 20% time, which is a program where Google allows their employees to devote 20% of their working hours to any project they choose. What's really amazed me about this project is how in a matter of months, working on my own, I was able to go from a lunch table conversation to launching a new service. In my opinion, this is one of the things that really makes Google a great place; that the company's systems, resources and, most important, people are all aligned to make it as easy as possible to take an idea and turn it into something cool.

Plus, we have Segways.

Kevin Gibbs
Software Engineer

News happens everywhere

And so should news websites. So we've launched seven new editions of Google News; franchise operations, if you will, offering the usual wide (and occasionally startling) variety of stories which our computers think you'll be particularly interested in reading if you happen to live in, or otherwise care intensely about, Argentina, Chile, Canada Français, México, Österreich, Schweiz or Suisse. Vive la difference.

Michael Krantz
Google Blog Team

Continuing the mission

Recently we relocated to Japan to take on the challenge of extending Google's global engineering organization by opening a new R&D center in Shibuya, Tokyo (co-located with the existing sales office). We've both been at Google for many years and hope to use our experience to transfer our culture and technical knowledge to a new place with a new group of engineers. It will be an exciting adventure. Just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike, over the years, we expect the Tokyo office will develop its own variation of Google's engineering culture.

Last week we officially opened our doors, and celebrated the occasion with a series of open houses (see pictures below), hosting more than 300 students, professors, researchers, professional engineers, media, and partners. Our goal here is the same as all the other engineering locations (Hi Bangalore! Hi Zurich!) - recruit great engineers from a diverse set of backgrounds (not just search!), give them a fun and exciting work environment and freedom to explore their ideas, and then watch them create innovative technology that impacts the world. If you, or your friends, think you might be a good fit for our Tokyo organization and enjoy a new adventure, drop us a note (with resume) at jobs@google.com or take a look at our jobs page.


Howard Gobioff, PhD
Mizuki McGrath
Engineering Directors
Tokyo R&D Center

A new gaggle of Groups (update)

Are you interested in learning how to build a bird house, or discussing Linux with other partisans? Or maybe in your spare time you want to make single-layer graphene sheets using Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Whether your interests run to knitting or brain surgery, chances are good other people out there share them. The new Google Groups not only helps you find information on millions of topics; now you can actively share ideas and opinions with others about each and every obsession of yours.

And if you don't find a group already focused on your passion, by all means start one. Invite others to join your group so that all interested parties can read and respond to messages, share opinions and ideas via email or your own group's web page. If you're looking for a group to join, we could definitely use some thoughtful insight (or idle speculation) over at my space elevator group.

Shannon Bauman
Associate Product Manager, Google Groups

P.S. In related news, we have restored advanced date search to Google Groups. As for the post above, we had a publishing snafu last Thursday, so you may already have seen this item.

Have a very Froogle Friday

Well, it's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when every patriotic American must either watch football or go shopping. If neither end zone celebrations nor mall garage traffic jams make your day, why not try Froogle? In honor of the kick-off (so to speak) of the holiday spending-splurge season, we've spruced up our online shopping engine to make it as easy as possible for you to find and buy the products you and your loved ones really, really need.

For one thing, we're going international. A few weeks ago, we launched Froogle U.K.; this week we're pleased to announce that German-speaking shoppers can now search for and buy products that are actually for sale in Germany.

And back here in North America, we're now offering Froogle Store Ratings, which let you check the reputation of online stores by looking for "Reviews" links or aggregated ratings scores in your Froogle search results. We've also improved those results by grouping items together so you can more easily compare products. You can even narrow your search by searching by store. And finally, to ease those nightmares about receiving yet another itchy wool sweater, our new Froogle Wish List is easy to create (just click "My Shopping List" to get started), and even easier for your friends and family to access and (hopefully) heed.

Mick Jagger once insisted that you can't always get what you want. This holiday season, the Froogle team is doing their best to prove him wrong.

Karen Padham
Froogle product manager

I'm wishing

We release a lot of stuff here at Google, but this one I'm particularly excited about. Every year near the holidays my Mom starts asking me to tell her what I would like for Christmas. I'm usually bad at getting her a list, and more than once I've received argyle socks, but now I'll be happy to point her to my Froogle Wish List.

Want one of your own? Just go to Froogle, search for a few things from thousands of online merchants, and click 'Add to list' for any item you want to add to your Shopping List. You'll need to sign in to your Google account or create one if you haven't already (if you have a Gmail account or Groups 2 login, you already have a Google account). If you want to share items, just click the 'In Wish List' checkbox and whammo, you now have a web page of your holiday wish list to share with friends and family. This year maybe I'll get iPod socks instead of argyle!

Jason Shellen
Program manager - Blogger, and Froogle fan