Attention, Froogle shoppers...

Posted by Josh Redstone, Software Engineer

I'm excited to tell you about the enhanced version of Froogle Mobile, a handy service for checking online prices from your cellphone. Say you're in a store eyeing that new BeDazzler that you've always wanted. A quick price check via Froogle Mobile, and you can rest assured that you're getting this wardrobe staple at a fine price. You can also sort queries by price, and Froogle Mobile is now available to our friends in the U.K. too.

This was posted from Microsoft Word

Posted by Jason Shellen, Product Manager

Last July, a few of us visited the Democratic National Convention to see political bloggers in action. Many were using Microsoft Word to post their reports. It was a multi-step process that didn't look like fun, but for citizen journalists, punctuation, spelling and grammar are important. That got the Blogger team thinking about how to help Word users to become bloggers.

So just now I fired up Microsoft Word, wrote this, hit 'Publish' on the brand new Blogger for Word toolbar and voila - you're reading it. Which means there's really no excuse, blogwise, if you prefer to finely craft your posts over time. Use Blogger for Word as a way to back up your document drafts with the 'Save as Draft' button or work on posts while you are offline and post them later. Hope you enjoy this new add-in.

Sassy Girl Jeon Ji-Hyun

Born on October 30, 1981, Jeon Ji-hyun first became well-known as a commercial model and as a TV actress. Although she made her film debut in the little-watched White Valentine in 1999, it was not until later in the year when she was featured in an advertisement for an audio system that she became a popular sensation. The dancing and attitude expressed in the ad made her into an icon for Koreans in their late teens and early twenties.

After continuing her TV and modelling career, Jeon made her first well-publicized film appearance in late 2000 with Il Mare. A handsomely-shot melodrama set on Kanghwa Island, the film did respectably well at the box office (despite opening on the same day as JSA) and solidified her status as a star.

Jeon's breakout film was comedy My Sassy Girl, which became a huge hit both in Korea and throughout Asia with its tale of a gullible college student and his slightly unhinged girlfriend. The film spent two weeks at #1 in Hong Kong, and turned her into Korea's most recognizable star in the Chinese-language market. Two years then passed before she appeared in her next film, an "occult thriller" titled The Uninvited which wowed critics but failed to catch on with viewers. Throughout this time she was a constant presence in TV ads and on billboards in Korea and also in other Asian countries.

2004 saw her return to the big screen in another film by Kwak Jae-yong, the director of My Sassy Girl. Windstruck cast her in the role of a policewoman, but many viewers felt it was too similar to My Sassy Girl. There were also signs that her popularity had started to suffer because of overexposure in advertisements. Nonetheless, Windstruck became the best-performing film ever in Japan, where My Sassy Girl was not as well known.

Jeon's next project Daisy teams her with Jung Woo-sung (who frequently appears together with her in advertisements), and has drawn attention for its 100% location shooting in the Netherlands, and for using the Hong Kong director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs). Kwak Jae-yong (My Sassy Girl) wrote the screenplay.

We get letters …

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

The Google mailbag is filled with stories like this one, demonstrating the reach of Google across countries and between people. Occasionally we'll feature such a story here and hope you enjoy reading them. If you have a noteworthy tale about how you've used Google, write to testimonial@google.com.

Laura Escobosa is the executive director of Operation Rainbow, an all-volunteer organization which organizes medical missions to poor countries for American doctors and nurses specializing in orthopedic and plastic surgery. The people on these missions are affiliated with Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and one regular stop for them has been Esteli, Nicaragua. Among those mentioning his Operation Rainbow experience is Dr. Elliot Krane, who cites it on his CV.

Just two weeks ago, this year's team was preparing for its annual trip to Esteli. At the same time, a quite unrelated journey was underway. A young American woman, Alice Orman, was visiting Esteli en route to her new year-long role as an English teacher in Honduras. While in Esteli, she had an accident that led to a leg break in two places. Though local doctors wanted to help, they lacked good facilities or equipment for setting a complicated break properly.

Someone at the hospital remembered the Stanford doctors. The staff knew they were coming soon, but who, and when? Alice called her parents in Nashville for help. They went to Google and typed in [Esteli Stanford] and up came Dr. Krane's reference. They emailed him late that night, and by morning he had replied from his office in Palo Alto. He told them about Dr. Larry Rinsky, an orthopedic surgeon who was packing his bags right then for Esteli. With a copy of Dr. Krane's email reply in hand, Dr. Rinsky called Alice's parents and assured them he would see Alice, and that the team would do what it could for her.

So Alice rested and waited another day, hoping that the arriving team would treat her in addition to their Nicaraguan patients. Ms Escobosa says the team of Stanford doctors and nurses treated her right away, gave her crutches and some TLC too. Within a short time she was able to continue on to Honduras for her year of teaching. And she's there now.

Back in Nashville, Scott and Mindy Orman were very relieved: "When we received the call from Alice," writes Mindy, "we were very worried and didn't know how we could help, being so far away. But the miraculous timing of the Stanford doctors' annual mission trip to Esteli, and the Google search that led us to them, assured us that Alice would be in good hands. We are so thankful for all the prayers and encouragement of so many folks and the excellent care she received from the Stanford team."

Ms. Escobosa wrote us to marvel at the coincidences that led to this happy ending. We're glad we could be part of it.

Making books easier to find

Posted by Adam M. Smith, Google Print Product Manager
(Updated 8/12/05, 1:31 p.m. PDT*)

In October 2004 we announced a program called Google Print, a way for publishers to make their books discoverable by the millions of people who search on Google every day. Shortly thereafter, we added a complementary program to help find all books more easily by partnering with libraries to index their collections too. The goal of Google Print is ambitious: to make the full text of all the world's books searchable by anyone. These books are hard to find now, and for most of them, no full-text search exists. We think that making books easier to find will have a positive impact on the world, and we welcome the challenge.

As with many ambitious ideas, Google Print has sparked a healthy amount of discussion. And we've been listening. Over the last few months, we’ve been talking with numerous publishers, publishing industry organizations and authors about our Google Print Publisher Program and Google Print Library Project. Today I’d like to mention two new features that reflect these discussions and which we feel will considerably improve both programs.

If you’re in the Publisher Program (or you decide to join it), you can now give us a list of the books that, if we scan them at a library, you’d like to have added immediately to your account. This way you can have your books in Google Print, which will put them into Google.com search results, direct potential buyers to your website, provide ongoing reports about user interest in your books, and your books will also earn revenue from contextual advertising – even if they are out of print.

We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher program in order to introduce their work to countless readers around the world. But we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too. So now, any and all copyright holders – both Google Print partners and non-partners – can tell us which books they’d prefer that we not scan if we find them in a library. To allow plenty of time to review these new options, we won’t scan any in-copyright books from now until this November.

We're going to continue talking about Google Print with our partners and the publishing industry. These discussions have been crucial in helping to build a program that benefits the industry and, most important, the millions of users who'll be able to discover new books. Stay tuned.

*Update: People have been asking us how we came to this new policy for the Google Print Library Project. We consulted with a variety of constituencies and ultimately decided that this new approach would best balance the rights and needs of users and publishers while remaining consistent with our web search policy. Google automatically indexes content across the web. Most web publishers find this service convenient and useful, but we gladly offer those who prefer that we not index their site a way of telling us not to do so via a robots.txt file. Similarly, the Library Project aims to make it convenient and useful for publishers to get their books into Google Print, but those publishers who don't want to take advantage of this service can now simply tell us which books they'd like us to exclude.

NFL Ambassador/ Singer Beni Arashiro

If you are at Tokyo Dome on Aug 6 for the NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts, you'll see 19-year-old Beni Arashiro singing the national anthems of the United States and Japan before the game and taking part in a special performance at half-time.

In just 14 months, Arashiro has gone from unknown student to recording artist (with five singles), TV ad girl for Kose cosmetics and Glico confectionery and ambassador for the NFL in Tokyo.

"When I was a little girl, I never dreamed I would be a singer or even in showbiz," says Arashiro who speaks fluent English. "Actually, I wanted to be in the FBI, or I thought I'd become a lawyer. But I always liked music, though. I have played the piano since I was six."

Born in Okinawa to an American father and Japanese mother, Arashiro moved back and forth between Japan and California. She completed her high school education in Kanagawa and is currently studying political science at Sophia University.

Her debut into the Japanese showbiz world came two years ago when her mother encouraged her to enter the Bishojo Club (a nationwide contest whose winners go into the modeling and celebrity worlds).

"Being a 'hafu,' I didn't think I'd do any good, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try," she recalls. To her surprise and delight, she was chosen.

Arashiro, whom everyone calls Beni-chan, says she has no problem with the term "hafu." "I remember some people used to call me a double, but I had no idea what they were talking about. I have both cultures in me and am proud of both. I guess I am more Americanized, though. My English language skills are stronger and I prefer English interviews because I can express myself better."

That's one of the reasons the NFL asked her to be its ambassador in Tokyo. She recently went to the States to promote the Tokyo Bowl and did some interviews on TV there. Performing in front of the Tokyo Dome crowd will be her biggest stage to date. "I love American football and really want to see the game but I know that up until half-time, I'm going to be so nervous," she says.

For the near future, Arashiro plans to concentrate on her singing career. All five of her singles so far have been in Japanese. "I haven't done a full CD of English songs yet. I am beginning to write my own lyrics. I'm better at doing that in English than Japanese. For now, I am still trying to find my own style."

She is also serious about finishing her studies. "When I am not at work, I study. I just finished exams last week. My schedule can get really hectic. Some days at the studio, as soon as I am done recording, I take out my laptop and do assignments."

On the rare days when she doesn't have to work, Arashiro likes soccer, hip hop dancing, shopping, watching movies and, last but not least, she is a big Harry Potter fan. "Of course, I got the sixth book last week, but I'm still on the 4th one. I have to catch up this summer."

It's a Mini world

Posted by Kevin Gough, Google Mini Marketing Manager

Everyone else is having fun with Google Maps; why not your friendly neighborhood Google Mini team? Here's our ever-expanding map of satisfied customers who are giving our website and intranet search appliance rave reviews.

P.S. Don't forget to drag your way over to Europe.