A year of Google blogging

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

This is the 201st post to be published on the Google Blog in 2005. In closing out the first full year of our company-wide effort to share news and views, we thought you might be interested in a few factoids. Since we've had Google Analytics running on this blog since June, some of these numbers reflect only half a year. In that time, 4.3 million unique visitors have generated 8.7 million pageviews. Readers have come from all over the world, not just English-speaking countries: 53,001 visitors from Turkey have stopped by, for example; so have 155,691 from France, 29,614 from Thailand and 8,233 from Peru.

The most popular posts? Here are a few that have yielded scores of backlinks:

- Our explanation of "Googlebombing"
- A celebration of email and Gmail
- Google Earth's partnership with National Geographic about Africa

Several on Google Book Search (formerly known as Google Print), including:
- Preserving public domain books
- Our statement on the Authors' Guild suit
- and Eric Schmidt's op-ed about Book Search.

During the year, we've published 38 how-to tips, announced 77 new products and services, and addressed policy questions and legal matters 17 times. We've featured 11 guest bloggers. Forty posts have illuminated something about day to day life at Google; 19 have offered some international perspective.

In 2006, we'll keep up the Google Blog with more posts, more bloggers, and even more topics. Meanwhile, we really appreciate your interest and feedback, now visible through "Links to this post." We know some of you would like to offer comments directly, and we would like that too, when we can add resources to the blog crew. Meanwhile, our best to you and yours for the New Year.

Thailand's Sexiest: Actress Patcharapa Chaichua

Patcharapa 'Aum' Chaichua was recently voted Thailand's sexiest woman. Born on 5 December 1978, Aum is one of the top hotties on Thai TV in 2005. She can be found on almost every TV channel in Thailand with appearances in TV soaps.

This 168cm hottie is still single and rumours are that she is making it with every leading man. Some Thais feel she's sleazy for both her behavior and the amount of skin she likes to show.

She has also made the cover of popular fashion and gossip mags in Thailand.

Lin Zhi Ling is the Beautiful Newsmaker of the year

Taiwan's Top Model Lin Zhi Ling is the Beautiful Newsmaker of 2005! Having said that, the beautiful/elegant Chilling herself had an eventful year. She had her photos made into stamps in Taiwan, fell off a horse while shooting a commercial in China, after recovering... took up singing lessons to break into the music industry, hosted an award show, and at the same time endured rumours and speculations about breast implants.

What a year!

Hot Thai Actress/Model Methinee Kingpayome

Methinee Kingpayome is a popular Thai top model for many years. She was born on 11 June, 1972 and stands at 178cm. She's a familiar face in most of Bangkok's major events, magazine covers, TV and print ads as well for anything fashion related.

I'm feeling silly

Posted by Clay Bavor, Associate Product Manager

Not long ago, I walked by the desk of software engineer JJ Furman, and saw that he had made an interesting addition to his desk: a large blob of Silly Putty, about the size of a grapefruit. Intrigued, I asked how he'd gotten so much of the stuff. The answer? A bulk order directly from the manufacturer! Of course.

I knew then that I wanted some, and it dawned on me that I probably wasn't the only one. So I set out to place a really, really big bulk order. An email went out to cohorts. Their orders came in. Three weeks later, I had an eighth of a ton of Silly Putty delivered to my desk.


Naturally, we were all curious to see what 250 pounds of Silly Putty would look like, so before distributing the stuff, we put it all in a single pile to see. Huge mistake.

The problem was that once together, Silly Putty doesn't like to come apart, and none of us had any idea of how to deal with this effect. We tried everything: very strong people (didn't work), scissors (stabbing worked, slicing didn't), 28-gauge steel wire (broke), 22-gauge steel wire (broke), 16-gauge steel wire (too thick), and twisting and breaking (worked well for "smaller" pieces -- under five pounds, that is.)


Two hours later, with the help of more than a dozen enthusiastic Googlers, everyone was finally able to walk away with a giant piece of Silly Putty.

And then what? Some people are giving it for holiday gifts. Others are using it to exercise their arms, play basketball (rebounds are tough), and of course, imprint entire newspaper pages.
Any regrets? Absolutely not.

Pick of the Week #1

Unsure of her name, but she looks kinda familiar...

Korean Actress Park Han Byul

Park Han Byul is a Korean actress/model. She was born on 17 November, 1984 and this 168cm lass is famous for her advertisements where her stunning looks captivated the audience both in Korea and the Asian region. Amongst the Korean drama and movies credited to her were Han River Ballad (2004), My Fair Lady (2003) and Wishing Stairs (2003)