Posts tagged: united-kingdom

Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers unite at the Google Geo Teachers Institute

(Cross-posted from the Lat Long Blog ) What do Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers have in common? Last week, these individuals and groups all came together at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA to celebrate exploration and learning. Google hosted its first Geo Teachers Institute, an intensive two-day workshop in which 150 educators received hands-on training and experience with Google Maps, Google SketchUp and Google Earth, including features like Mars, Moon and SkyMaps. Attendees from around the globe not only learned how these products work, but also discovered tips and resources for introducing these tools to students and using them to conceptualize, visualize, share and communicate about the world around them. Through this event, teachers were hopefully inspired to bring the world’s geographic information to students in compelling, fresh and fun ways. John Hanke, VP of Product Management, addressing the audience of educators As part of our continued effort to collaborate with teachers and help students get a better sense of places across the globe, we also announced that Google Earth Pro is now available to educators for free through the Google Earth for Educators site . Educators from higher educational and academic institutions who demonstrate a need for the Pro features in their classrooms can now apply for single licenses for themselves or site licenses for their computer labs. A similar program exists for SketchUp Pro through the Google SketchUp Pro Statewide License Grant , which is currently being provided via grants to 11 states, and available to all others at the K-12 level at no cost. In conjunction with these exciting Geo-related events and announcements, the Geo Education team also thought it’d be timely and fun to test Googlers’ geographic knowledge by hosting the company’s first ever Google Geo Bee. With help from National Geographic, 68 teams relived their school years and took a written geography exam, competing for a spot on stage with Alex Trebek, who hosted the main event. The competition was based on the group version of the National Geographic Bee for students, which Google has sponsored for the past two years. Questions included those like “Which country contains most of the Balkan Mountains, which mark the boundary between the historical regions of Thrace and Moesia?” and “Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the United Kingdom, is located in which mountain chain?” The winners of our Google Geo Bee: Ian Sharp, Marcus Thorpe and Rob Harford The final three Google teams (the Tea-Drinking Imperialists, the Geoids and the Titans) all showed off their geographic literacy and answered a plethora of diverse and complex questions. In the end, it was the Tea-Drinkers who emerged the winners when they figured out that Mecca was the answer to the clue, “Due to this city’s location on a desert trading route, many residents were merchants, the most famous of whom was born around A.D. 570.” And they didn’t just walk away with bragging rights; thanks to Sven Linblad from Linblad Expeditions , they also won an amazing adventure trip to either the Arctic, the Galapagos or Antarctica. Through all of these education efforts — for teachers, students and grown-up Googlers alike — we hope people of all ages never stop exploring. Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Team

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Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers unite at the Google Geo Teachers Institute

Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers unite at the Google Geo Teachers Institute

(Cross-posted from the Lat Long Blog ) What do Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers have in common? Last week, these individuals and groups all came together at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA to celebrate exploration and learning. Google hosted its first Geo Teachers Institute, an intensive two-day workshop in which 150 educators received hands-on training and experience with Google Maps, Google SketchUp and Google Earth, including features like Mars, Moon and SkyMaps. Attendees from around the globe not only learned how these products work, but also discovered tips and resources for introducing these tools to students and using them to conceptualize, visualize, share and communicate about the world around them. Through this event, teachers were hopefully inspired to bring the world’s geographic information to students in compelling, fresh and fun ways. John Hanke, VP of Product Management, addressing the audience of educators As part of our continued effort to collaborate with teachers and help students get a better sense of places across the globe, we also announced that Google Earth Pro is now available to educators for free through the Google Earth for Educators site . Educators from higher educational and academic institutions who demonstrate a need for the Pro features in their classrooms can now apply for single licenses for themselves or site licenses for their computer labs. A similar program exists for SketchUp Pro through the Google SketchUp Pro Statewide License Grant , which is currently being provided via grants to 11 states, and available to all others at the K-12 level at no cost. In conjunction with these exciting Geo-related events and announcements, the Geo Education team also thought it’d be timely and fun to test Googlers’ geographic knowledge by hosting the company’s first ever Google Geo Bee. With help from National Geographic, 68 teams relived their school years and took a written geography exam, competing for a spot on stage with Alex Trebek, who hosted the main event. The competition was based on the group version of the National Geographic Bee for students, which Google has sponsored for the past two years. Questions included those like “Which country contains most of the Balkan Mountains, which mark the boundary between the historical regions of Thrace and Moesia?” and “Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the United Kingdom, is located in which mountain chain?” The winners of our Google Geo Bee: Ian Sharp, Marcus Thorpe and Rob Harford The final three Google teams (the Tea-Drinking Imperialists, the Geoids and the Titans) all showed off their geographic literacy and answered a plethora of diverse and complex questions. In the end, it was the Tea-Drinkers who emerged the winners when they figured out that Mecca was the answer to the clue, “Due to this city’s location on a desert trading route, many residents were merchants, the most famous of whom was born around A.D. 570.” And they didn’t just walk away with bragging rights; thanks to Sven Linblad from Linblad Expeditions , they also won an amazing adventure trip to either the Arctic, the Galapagos or Antarctica. Through all of these education efforts — for teachers, students and grown-up Googlers alike — we hope people of all ages never stop exploring. Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Team

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Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers unite at the Google Geo Teachers Institute

Introducing Google’s 2010 Anita Borg Scholars & Finalists

The Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, established by Google in 2004, honors Dr. Anita Borg, a computer science pioneer who dedicated her life to changing the way we think about diversity and technology. Now in its seventh year, her namesake scholarship continues to support under and post-graduate women completing degrees in computer science and related areas, recognizing and encouraging the next generation of technical leaders and role models. This year, we’re awarding 62 scholars and finalists in the U.S., 17 in Canada and 91 in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to receiving academic scholarships, all of our winners will be invited to participate in all-expenses-paid networking retreats featuring workshops, speakers, panelists, breakout sessions and social activities at Google offices. See below for a full list of winners and the institution they currently attend. In the coming months, we’ll be announcing winners for the Australia and New Zealand Scholarships. And we’ve introduced some other big changes for 2010: for the first time, we’re awarding Anita Borg Scholarships to students in Sub-Saharan Africa and to high school seniors in the U.S. Later this year, we plan to introduce the first-ever Anita Borg Scholarship in Asia. For more information on the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and other Google scholarship opportunities, visit our scholarships page . Congratulations, 2010 Scholars and Finalists! U.S. Scholars Aditi Goyal , Stanford University Adrienne Felt , University of California-Berkeley Angela Oguna , University of Kansas Main Campus Anna Molosky , Carnegie Mellon University* Bonnie Kirkpatrick , University of California-Berkeley Boya Xie , East Carolina University Carla Villoria , Texas A & M University Carrine Johnson , Massachusetts Institute of Technology* Daniela Rosner , University of California-Berkeley Erika DeBenedictis , California Institute of Technology* Fan Zhang , Massachusetts Institute of Technology Floraine Grabler , University of California-Berkeley Jill Woelfer , University of Washington Karthika Periyathambi , Stanford University Kristi Morton , University of Washington Kyle Rector , Oregon State University Lauren Stephens , Massachusetts Institute of Technology* Lydia Chilton , University of Washington Madeline Smith , Ithaca College Maithilee Kunda , Georgia Institute of Technology Micol Marchetti-Bowick , Stanford University Moira Burke , Carnegie Mellon University Nalini Vasudevan , Columbia University in the City of New York Natasha Nesiba , New Mexico State University* Samantha Ainsley , Columbia University in the City of New York Sheri Williamson , George Mason University Shilpa Nadimpall i, Tufts University Sneha Popley , Texas Christian University Svitlana Volkova , Kansas State University Therese Avitabile , Brown University Valeria Fedyk , Stanford University* Victoria Nneji , Columbia University in the City of New York* *High school senior — planned matriculation at university listed U.S. Finalists Adriana Lopez , New York University Anne Neilsen , University of Nebraska - Lincoln Cassandra Helms , Colorado State University Christina Brandt , Cornell University Emily Shen , Massachusetts Institute of Technology Esha Nerurkar , University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Farzana Rahman , Marquette University Jana Zujovic , Northwestern University Jessie Li , Massachusetts Institute of Technology Juliet Bernstein , University of Washington Lirida Kercelli , Carnegie Mellon University Marayam Ramezani , DePaul University Maryam Aziz , Montclair State University Michal Rabani , Massachusetts Institute of Technology Michelle Burroughs , Carnegie Mellon University Minlan Yu , Princeton University Miray Kas , Carnegie Mellon University Natalie Yudin , Rice University Pallavi Yerramilli , University of Pennsylvania Rachael Harding , Carnegie Mellon University Rachelle Fuhrer , University of California, San Diego Razieh Nokhbeh Zaeem , University of Texas at Austin Riddhi Mittal , Stanford University Sanjana Prasain , University of Washington Sonia Haiduc , Wayne State University Wei Chen , Carnegie Mellon University Yang Shan , Carnegie Mellon University Yi Gu , University of Memphis Yinian Qi , Purdue University Main Campus Zeinab Abbassi , Columbia University in the City of New York Canada Scholars Allaa Hilal , University Of Waterloo Barbara Macdonald , University Of Waterloo Dana Jansens , Carleton University Ioana Burcea , University Of Toronto Michelle Annett , University Of Alberta Canada Finalists Audrey Corbeil Therrien , University Of Sherbrooke Constance Adsett , Dalhousie University Inmar Givoni , University Of Toronto Jasmina Vasiljevic , Ryerson University Jennifer Woodcock , University Of Victoria Jignasa Shah , Dalhousie University Margareta Ackerman , University Of Waterloo Nazish Bhatti , Concordia University Phillipa Gill , University Of Toronto Rachel Zhang , Queen’s University Veronica Irvine , University Of Victoria Yanyan Zhuan g, University Of Victoria Europe, Middle East and Africa Scholars Adi Shklarsh , Tel Aviv University, Israel Alexandra Jimborean , Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg, France Andrea Francke , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland Arlette van Wissen , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Birgit Schmidt , Graz University of Technology, Austria Christina Pöpper , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland Christine Zarges , Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany Ekaterina Shutova , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Elena Tretyak , Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia Estrella Eisenberg , Bar-Ilan University, Israel Hilary Finucan e, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Hind Saddiki , Al Akhawayn University, Morocco Irina Makhalova , Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology, Russia Katayoun Farrahi , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Lavinia Basaraba , Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania Limor Leibovich , Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Maria Francesca O’ Connor , Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Maria-Camilla Fiazza , University of Verona, Italy Melanie Ganz , University of Copenhagen, Denmark Monika Schubert , Graz University of Technology, Austria Nina Kargapolova , Novosibirsk State University, Russia Ntombikayise Banda , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Nuzhah Gooda Sahib , Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom Oana Tifrea , Free University of Bozen · Bolzano, Italy Pinar Yanardag , Bogazici University, Turkey Ruzica Piskac , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Samreen Anjum , Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar Silvian Gitau , University of Cape Town, South Africa Sinini Ncube , Rhodes University, South Africa Sus Lundgren , Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Susanne Pfeifer , University of Oxford, United Kingdom Tatiana Starikovskaya , Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia Yael Amsterdamer , Tel Aviv University, Israel Europe, Middle East and Africa Finalists Afsaneh Asaei , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Aia Hassouneh , Birzeit University, Palestinian Territories Alissa Cooper , University of Oxford, United Kingdom Anastasia Tkach , Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia Anastasia Shakhshneyder , Technische Universität München, Germany Anna Astrakova , Novosibirsk State University, Russia Anna Dehof , Saarland University, Germany Anna Zych , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland Annemarie Friedrich , Saarland University, Germany Archana Nottamkandath , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Charlotte Ipema , Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Ching-Yun Chang , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Claudia Rosas Mendoza , Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain Claudia Schon , University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany Efrat Mashiach , Tel Aviv University, Israel Elzbieta Dlutowska , University of Wrocław, Poland Eman AbdelSalam , Alexandria University, Egypt Eva Darulova , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Floor Sietsma , University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Grace Mbipom , University of Manchester, United Kingdom Hildegard Kuehne , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Ifeanyichukwu Ekeruche , Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana Ioana Verebi , Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania Ivonne Thomas , Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany Janneke van der Zwaan , Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Julia Preusse , University of Magdeburg, Germany Julie Rico , University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Karolina Soltys , University of Warsaw, Poland Laura Zilles , Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany Lene Mejlby , Aarhus University, Denmark Lina AL Kanj , American University of Beirut, Lebanon Lucy Gunawan , Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Maria Mateescu , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Maria Karoliina Lehtinen , University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Marije de Heus , University of Twente, The Netherlands Marleine Daoud , University of Stuttgart, Germany Mary Baraza , Busoga University, Uganda Maysa Nouh , Birzeit University, Palestinian Territories Meyyar Palaniappan , Technische Universität München, Germany Min Bao , Linköping University, Sweden Mounira Bachir , Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France Naama Tepper , Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Nga Nguyen , University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Nino Shervashidze , Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany Olga Streibel , Free University of Berlin, Germany Reem Mostafa , Alexandria University, Egypt Rehab Alnemr , Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany Rikke Bendlin , Aarhus University, Denmark Ruth Rinott , Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Sarah Greenfield, De Montfort University, United Kingdom Sarah Niebe , University of Copenhagen, Denmark Saskia Groenewegen , Utrecht University, The Netherlands Sophia Wadie , American University in Cairo, Egypt Svetlana Olonetsky , Tel Aviv University, Israel Sylvia Grüener , Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany Tamar Aizikowitz , Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel Viviana Petrescu , Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland Zsuzsanna Püspöki , Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary Posted by Beate List, EMEA University Programmes

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Introducing Google’s 2010 Anita Borg Scholars & Finalists

Sharing advice from our site clinic

Webmaster Level: All Members of the Google Search Quality Team have participated in site clinic panels on a number of occasions. We receive a lot of positive feedback from these events and we’ve been thinking of ways to expand our efforts to reach even more webmasters. We decided to organize a small, free of charge pilot site clinic at Google in Dublin, and opened the invitation to webmasters from the neighborhood. The response we received was overwhelming and exceeded our expectations. Meet the Googlers who hosted the site clinic: Anu Ilomäki , Alfredo Pulvirenti, Adel Saoud , Fili Wiese , Kaspar Szymanski and Uli Lutz . It was fantastic to see the large turnout and we would like to share the slides presented as well as the takeaways. These are some questions we came across, along with the advice shared: I have 3 blogs with the same content, is that a problem? If the content is identical, it’s likely only one of the blogs will rank for it. Also, with this scattered of an effortwith this scattered of an effort chances are your incoming links will be distributed across the different blogs, instead of pointing to one source. Therefore you’re running the risk of both users and search engines not knowing which of your blogs is the definitive source. You can mitigate that by redirecting to the preferred version or using the cross domain canonical to point to one source. Should I believe SEO agencies that promise to make my site rank first in Google in a few months and with a precise number of links? No one can make that promise; therefore the short answer is no, you should not. However, we have some great tips on how to find a trustworthy SEO in our Help Center . There are keywords that are relevant for my website, but they’re inappropriate to be shown in the content e.g. because they could be misunderstood, slang or offensive. How can I show the relevance to Google? Depending on the topic of your site and expectations of the target group, you might consider actually using these keywords in a positive way, e.g. explaining their meaning and showing your users you’re an authority on the subject. However if the words are plain abusive and completely inappropriate for your website, it’s rather questionable whether the traffic resulting from these search queries is interesting for your website anyway. Would you advise to use the rewrite URL function? Some users may like seeing descriptive URLs in the search results. However, it’s quite hard to correctly create and maintain rewrites that change dynamic URLs to static-looking URLs. That’s why, generally speaking, we don’t recommend rewriting them. If you still want to give it a try, please be sure to remove unnecessary parameters while maintaining a dynamic-looking URL and have a close look at our blog post on this topic . And if you don’t, keep in mind that we might still make your URLs look readable in our search results no matter how weird they actually are. If I used the geo-targeting tool for Ireland, is Northern Ireland included? Google Webmaster Tools geo-targeting works on a country basis, which means that Northern Ireland would not be targeted if the setting was Republic of Ireland. One possible solution is to create a separate site or part of a website for Northern Ireland and to geo-target this site to the United Kingdom in Webmaster Tools. Is there any preference between TLDs like .com and .info in ranking? No, there is none. Our focus is on the content of the site. I have a website on a dot SO (.so) domain name with content meant for the Republic of Ireland. Will this hurt my rankings in the Irish search results? .so is the Internet country code top-level domain for Somalia. This is one factor we look into not pointing to the desired destination. But we do look at a larger number of factors when ranking your website. The extension of the domain name is just one of these. Your website can still rank in the Irish search results if you have topic-specific content. However, keep in mind that it may take our algorithms a little bit longer to fully understand where to best serve your website in our search results. We would like to thank all participants for their time and effort. It was a pleasure to help you and we hope that it was beneficial for you, too. For any remaining questions, please don’t hesitate to join the community on our GWHF . Posted by Kaspar Szymanski, Search Quality Strategist, Dublin

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Sharing advice from our site clinic

Zeitgeist 2009: the collective consciousness

Curiosity — it’s why we search the web. Whether searching for the latest news, a popular holiday gift, a website you’ve heard about, the latest singing sensation, or the trailer to a blockbuster film, you come to Google with something on your mind. And since 2001, we’ve been releasing our annual Zeitgeist — our view into the spirit of the times — which includes the fastest-rising Google searches (those that had the greatest surge in the past year) and most popular (those that are consistently searched in large volume, like [weather]). By exploring 2009’s popular and fastest rising search terms, we’re able to share a glimpse into what’s been on the mind of the global community this year.  So what has captivated the minds of searchers around the world this year? As millions of fans said goodbye to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson led the list of our  top 10 fastest rising queries across the globe . And a new star was born, too — quirky pop singer Lady Gaga became a search sensation the world over. In addition to appearing on many regional fastest-rising search term lists, from the Czech Republic to Switzerland and Kenya to the United Kingdom , Lady Gaga also landed in the #9 spot on the global fastest rising list. This year’s Zeitgeist also confirms that the social web is alive and well. In a sweeping confirmation of the web’s ability to connect us, both Facebook and the Spanish social-networking site Tuenti  appeared on the fastest rising searches at #2 and #3 respectively. Twitter also made our global list for the first time at #5 — undoubtedly propelled by celebrity tweeters from Ashton Kutcher to Miley Cyrus.  With the global community closely watching the swine flu epidemic, [schweinegrippe], [gripe porcina], [豬流感], [h1n1], [świńskiej grypy] and [sikainfluenssa] were heavily queried the world over. In fact, in the U.S., swine flu was searched even more than another major event of the year: the inauguration of President Obama. In the U.S., 2009 also saw many people express their thrifty consciousness in response to the sour economy. The most popular made by hand searches including everything from baby food (#2) to laundry detergent (#6). And as more and more turned to comfort foods and recipes to make at home, [chili] became the most popular recipe searched for across the country. It’s because of curious searchers like you and the billions of searches you do throughout the year, that our annual Zeitgeist has become an insightful look into a global mindset. So please check out our Zeitgeist site , which showcases many of these interesting trends across various categories and countries, and more about how we create the lists. We’re already anticipating what trends we will see in 2010!  Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience

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Zeitgeist 2009: the collective consciousness

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