Knowledge is power

Posted by Grace Kwak, Google Sitemaps team

We launched Google Sitemaps this past summer as a way for webmasters to give us information we could use to better crawl their sites. Since then, we've been adding to the kinds of information we give back. In our latest release, we provide even more interesting statistics that webmasters can use to improve the way their pages work with web crawlers, which will ultimately benefit their visitors.

I think the most fun are the new "query stats" -- they show top Google search queries that return pages from a site, as well as the top search queries that led users to click on a site. We've also enhanced the crawl errors we show, like specific HTTP errors Google runs into when crawling a page.

If you're a webmaster and you haven't used the Sitemaps program yet, you can now create a Sitemaps account and add a site to it even before you create a Sitemap. Once you verify ownership of the site, we'll show you all of these statistics and error details. You can always add a Sitemap later. Read more on the Sitemaps blog or just log in to get going.

First Base

Posted by Bindu Reddy, Product Manager

Today we're excited to announce Google Base, an extension of our existing content collection efforts like web crawl, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video. Google Base enables content owners to easily make their information searchable online. Anyone, from large companies to website owners and individuals, can use it to submit their content in the form of data items. We'll host the items and make them searchable for free. There's more info here.

Some organizations are already using Google Base. Here are a few examples.

• "Students need as much information as possible when they are searching for the right college or university. Google Base helps us reach students and parents and deliver more of the information they need when making important college decisions." - Hal Higginbotham, President, CollegeBoard.com

• "We want to use knowledge and information about the environment to help motivate more responsible public and private action. With Google Base, we can bring the public key insights on sustainability issues – like climate change, human health, and resource consumption – and bring about change." – Amy Cassara, Senior Associate, World Resources Institute

• "CareerBuilder.com's business model is built on providing employers with as many avenues as possible to connect with job seekers. Feeding our jobs to Google Base further extends our distribution network, providing employers with added support in marketing their open positions." - Richard Castellini, VP of Consumer Marketing, CareerBuilder.com

• "We compile an enormous amount of valuable data on fine art and artists, and we want collectors, dealers, students and art aficionados to have easy access to this information. Google Base enables us to reach more people researching art and get them the information they need." - Brent Peich, Director of Marketing, Artnet

• "Our mission is to make it easy for small businesses to use the web to drive in-store sales. Google Base gives us an ideal outlet to promote and distribute content about local products more broadly." - Kendall Fargo, Founder & CEO, StepUp Commerce

Right now, there are two ways to submit data items to Google Base. Individuals and small website owners can use an interactive user interface; larger organizations and sites can use the bulk uploads option to send us content using standard XML formats.

Rather than impose specific schemas and structures on the world, Google Base suggests attributes and item types based on popularity, which you can use to define and attach your own labels and attributes to each data item. Then searchers can find information more quickly and effectively by using these labels and attributes to refine their queries on the experimental version of Google Base search.

This beta version of Google Base is another small step toward our goal, creating an online database of easily searchable, structured information. As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas.

A man with a phone in Nantucket ...

Posted by Matt Waddell, Google Mobile Team

Underneath a cell tower nearby
SMS I decided to try:
[t to french grant a loan], [6 shekels in kroon]
Now a polyglot banker am I.*

*This limerick was inspired by Google SMS, and its new translation and currency conversion features. And if you're wondering, as I was: kroon is pronounced "krone."

The circle of analytics

Posted by Brett Crosby, Product Marketing Manager

“Analytics” is a sturdy business catchword, and of course “web analytics” has become its own buzz-phrase in recent years. The tools and services of the web analytics world give businesses precise information on what customers want, so that they can improve their online marketing and website content. These services help provide answers to questions like: Which keywords attract the most visitors? Which email campaigns create more customers? And how to design web page content that holds people’s attention?

We think every online business can benefit from knowing the answers, so today we’re launching Google Analytics. The same service (which used to be called Urchin from Google) used by dozens of Fortune 500 companies is now available to every business on the web. We’ve integrated it with AdWords, it’s easier to use – and it’s free. We hope that Google Analytics will help improve the overall web – one site at a time.

The breakfast business

Posted by Josef Desimone, Executive Chef

At a technology company you might think no one's around for a morning meal, but that's not so here in Mountain View. The cafe I run on campus is open for breakfast from 8-9:30 a.m. five days a week. My team of 12 feeds a steady crowd of about 750 every morning -- and these folks are big on breakfast. Our record so far is making 201 (custom) omelets in 90 minutes. We blend 300 12 oz. fruit smoothies that typically disappear in an hour. Some other stats from the front lines (all of these are per-day numbers, by the way):

- Googlers prefer Canadian bacon (45 lbs.) to chicken-apple sausage (30 lbs.)
- Steel-cut oatmeal (10-12 gallons) wins out over organic grits (6-8 gallons)
- We polish off 5 cases of fresh fruit (cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple)
- Devour 160 breakfast burritos (eggs, veggies, cheese)
- We cook 80-100 lbs. of red bliss potatoes
- We use 2 gallons of egg whites (for the omelets)
- Googlers gulp down 9 gallons of fresh coffee every morning (just in our cafe)

My biggest surprises: people consume 1-1/2 gallons of kombucha tea - a little-known fermented drink - every day; and against all logic, some people ask for an omelet that's half egg whites, half regular eggs. What can I say? We aim to please.

Paris Hilton Crash Test

Celebrity actress Paris Hilton, whose Bentley was damaged in a videotaped crash that spawned an Internet sensation and a police investigation, was the "only victim" of the incident, her spokesman said today.

The videotape released by celebrity website TMZ.com shows Hilton's companion, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos, slamming her luxury car into a truck as the couple left a Hollywood nightclub with at least two other people.

The car is then seen speeding away from the scene with a scratched hood and Niarchos at the wheel as bystanders and celebrity photographers scatter. Later, Niarchos is shown speaking to Los Angeles police officers who have pulled him over.

The officers then allowed Niarchos and Hilton to leave with their friends, identified by TMZ.com as rocker Rod Stewart's daughter, Kimberly Stewart, and Talan Torriero, star of MTV's reality show Laguna Beach.

Torriero is heard telling his friends, "I'm the only sober one, let's just go." Hilton, star of the popular Fox reality show The Simple Life, blows a kiss to one of the policemen and is heard saying, "Thank you officer - we love the police," before she steps into the car.

The Los Angeles Police Department said it has opened an investigation to determine whether the officers should have detained Niarchos, a student at the University of Southern California, to determine if he was driving under the influence of alcohol.

Figure Skater Katarina Witt

Katarina Witt was born December 3, 1965, in East Berlin, Germany. She is an ice skater - athlete, an artist, an actress, a television personality and a business woman. A true superstar, few woman have a celebrated talent with more style and grace than this striking German beauty. In the course of a truly unique career, she's won more titles than anyone, and has become the most successful figure-skater of all time.

Katarina's humble beginning is from the former East German city of Karl Marx Stadt, where she had dominated the women's figure skating in the 1980's. She began skating at the age of five at the Karl Marx Stadt Sports Club. While Katarina went to school, she learned to skate under the direction of Bernd Egert. When she was nine, Katarina was placed under the coaching direction of one of worlds most prominent skating coaches, Jutta Muller. Katarina was soon spending four hours a day on the ice, sacrificing leisure time and family life for the sport she so loved.

In 1990, she won an Emmy Award for her starring performance in the title role of HBO's "Carmen on Ice." She also starred in the CBC-TV special "Women in Red" which was broadcast throughout Europe and Canada. Katarina has enjoyed continued success as a performing professional touring North America with several figure skating troupes, including "Skating I & II". Katarina made her skating debut with "Discover Card Stars on Ice".

In recent years, Katarina has become a media fixture lending her talents to television, motion pictures and sports commentary. Katarina co-produced a modern adaptation of the classic "Cinderella", called "Ice Princess". On two occasions, 'People' magazine has named her "One of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World".

After regaining her amateur status in 1993, Katarina competed in her third Olympic Winter Games at Lillehammer, Norway where she finished sixth. Katarina was given the Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Award for her outstanding achievements as an athlete, and is also the first German ever to be given the award. Katarina has also provided colorful sports commentary for CBS-TV of the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and German TV ZDF coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships in Munich.

Today, she has established herself as a businesswoman with her own company, Witt Sports & Entertainment GmbH. Katarina makes her home in Berlin and New York, and her name stands for quality.