Drupal usability study at Google
Google Open Source Blog 28 Jan 2012, 1:30 am CET
Drupal is an open source content management system with thousands of active community members behind it. A popular solution for both small and large scale websites, Drupal is extremely flexible and offers thousands of add-on modules. Drupal’s user experience (UX) layer, however, can be daunting and frustrating for beginners to learn. I am working on an exciting project in conjunction with the Drupal User Experience team and the Google Open Source team to help determine some of the key UX issues new users of Drupal encounter. The usability study will have participants (all Googlers) building a website and will help to gain insight into the stumbling blocks users encounter along the way. The usability study will be streamed live and available for everyone to watch. The usability study is planned to take place February 1-3. Details about the live stream will be posted in the comments section below in the coming days. You can follow the discussion about this study on the Drupal.org wiki page. Saturday, January 28 at Drupal Camp San Diego (SANDCamp) I will be presenting a talk called “Usability Studies for you and Drupal too!” on the fundamental principles of user experience and an introduction to the usability study. Jen Lampton from Chapter Three is co-presenting with me to talk about why UX is so important to Drupal, what the Drupal UX team has discovered through past studies, and how to get involved with the project. Stay tuned for another post on the results, and make sure to check back on the Drupal.org wiki for details on how to watch live! By Becky Gessler, Google Search Quality team
This week's Trends: lights, wind, guitars
YouTube Blog 27 Jan 2012, 10:00 pm CET
Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:
- We took in some dazzling videos of the Northern Lights captured on camera.
- We collected video from Egypt's one-year anniversary of its revolution.
- We examined how a certain very popular trend of 2012 has gone local.
- We checked in on the ever-growing popularity of dubstep.
- We were blown away by crazy footage of a California wind storm.
- And we met an 8-year-old girl who might just be one of the best elementary school metal guitarist that we've seen:
Fridaygram: faster web, stronger machines, prettier planet
Google Code Blog 27 Jan 2012, 9:55 pm CET
By Scott Knaster, Google Code Blog
Editor
Everybody likes a faster web, and that theme has been evident this
week here on Google Code Blog. On Monday, Yuchung Cheng wrote about
Google’s research into making
TCP faster through various proposals and experiments.
Yesterday, Roberto Peon and Will Chan
blogged about SPDY (pronounced speedy), Google’s
protocol for speeding up the web’s application layer historically
handled by HTTP. In related news this week, the chairman of the
HTTPbis
Working Group announced
support for SPDY in a public post.
At Google, these projects are part of our Make the Web Faster
initiative, although TCP improvements and SPDY are efforts of the
whole community. Even if you’re not working on TCP or SPDY, you can
find lots of useful resources at our Make the Web Faster site. For
example, there are articles on compression,
caching, metrics, and more, a set of tools for measuring and
optimizing pages, and several discussion forums for
communicating with other interested folks.
Sometimes stronger is more important than faster. Scientists
looking to improve the durability of machinery have been studying
the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses bumps on its back to
resist damage from sandstorms. Researchers hope to use the
scorpion’s design to create erosion-resistant surfaces for blades,
pipes, and similar parts. Or maybe they’ll make machines that look
like giant yellow scorpions.
Finally, take a step back from everything on Earth and have a look
at NASA’s
latest "Blue Marble" images of our planet. We have a beautiful
home.
Let’s say this fast: Fridaygram posts are just for fun.
Fridaygrams are designed for your Friday afternoon and weekend
enjoyment. Each Fridaygram item must pass only one test: it has to
be interesting to us nerds. That definitely includes speed, space,
and scorpions.
A Billion Annoying Oranges Later....
YouTube Blog 27 Jan 2012, 6:54 pm CET
Today, we’re excited to welcome long-time YouTube Partner Annoying Orange to the blog to celebrate an impressive milestone - one billion views on his channel. Now, for a fresh perspective: Hey! Hey Youtubers! HEEEEEEY! Thanks for letting me borrow your blog! I promise not to chop it! HAHAHAHA! Wow. You know I've never actually written a blog before. Or read one. I usually just stick to emoticons. Oh! Oh! Here's one of me going NYAH, NYAH, NYAH, NYAH: (:^) And this is me smiling with waffle fries in my mouth: (:#) And this is pear with a mustache: (:{) No, he doesn't actually have a mustache. It's just peach fuzz! HAHA! And that one: (:O) That one means, "Thanks to all our fans for tubing in… ONE BILLION TIMES!" I've been using that one a LOT lately! Oh! Oh! One more! One more! Do you know what this means: !!!! Hey! Hey! Do you give up yet!? You give up!? How 'bout now?! Now?! OH! OH! NOW!? Okay, I'll tell you! It means "Holy smokes, the Annoying Orange is celebrating his BILLIONTH VIEW with an EPIC new video up now! You saw the action, now see the REVENGE! Wall-to-wall jokes, all your favorite guest stars, and lots and lots of FIRE!!! Don't miss it!" See, with an emoticon like that, what else do you really have to say? You know, besides (:^) See you then! A to the O! Annoying Orange, Guest to the YouTube Blog, recently watched, “Annoying Orange Comedy Roast!.”
Setting the record straight about our privacy policy changes
Google Public Policy Blog 26 Jan 2012, 11:54 pm CET
Posted by Betsy Masiello, Policy Manager A lot has been said about our new privacy policy. Some have praised us for making our privacy policy easier to understand. Others have asked questions, including members of Congress, and that’s understandable too. We look forward to answering those questions, and clearing up some of the misconceptions about our privacy policies that first appeared in the Washington Post. So, here’s the real story:
- You still have choice and control. You don’t need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube. If you are logged in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to “off the record,” control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer.
- We’re not collecting more data about you. Our new policy simply makes it clear that we use data to refine and improve your experience on Google — whichever products or services you use. This is something we have already been doing for a long time.
- We’re making things simpler and we’re trying to be upfront about it. Period.
- You can use as much or as little of Google as you want. For example, you can have a Google Account and choose to use Gmail, but not use Google+. Or you could keep your data separate with different accounts -- for example, one for YouTube and another for Gmail.
Welcome customers into your business on Google
Google LatLong 26 Jan 2012, 11:18 pm CET
(Cross-posted on the Small Business Blog.) When we initially announced the Business Photos pilot program, we wanted to give business owners an easy way to get customers in the door online using interactive, high-quality, 360-degree images of places on Google Maps and on Google Search results. With thousands of businesses under our belt — from salons to gift shops — we’ve been hearing the same question again and again from both business owners and photographers alike: How can I participate? Well, with the overwhelming success of the first pilot, we’ve decided to unveil a complementary initiative that will help us reach more interested business owners, more quickly: Trusted Photographers.
Bringing the creativity of the Sundance Film Festival to YouTube
YouTube Blog 26 Jan 2012, 11:00 pm CET
The annual independent film extravaganza known as the Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City, Utah. For film lovers who couldn’t make it this year to meet to-be-discovered filmmakers and rub shoulders with celebrities, we're bringing Sundance to you here on YouTube. Last year, we showcased past and present short films in the YouTube Screening Room. This year, we’ve teamed up with Sundance Film Institute to premiere a collection of films that are available for the first time for digital stream. Films include Obselidia (Independent Spirit Award Winner), Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007 Sundance Film Festival documentary on the arcade gamer competitions in the ‘80s), New York Times Critic’s Pick Lord Byron and 1994 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award Winner What Happened Was. To mark the last weekend of the festival, we’ll premiere Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie tomorrow at the same time the shock humor duo showcase their world premiere at the 2012 festival. This star-studded comedy features Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and is already picking up buzz in Park City. For the best of Sundance and thousands of other titles, get more into movies at YouTube.com/Movies. Mildred Padilla, Movies Merchandising Manager, recently watched “Brick.”
More options for Google+ badges
Inside AdSense 26 Jan 2012, 11:00 pm CET
More Options for Google+ Badges
Google Webmaster Central Blog 26 Jan 2012, 10:53 pm CET
Webmaster Level: All When we launched Google+ pages in November, we also released Google+ badges to promote your Google+ presence right on your site. Starting today in developer preview (and soon available to all your users), we're adding more options for integrating the Google+ badge into your website. You can configure a badge with a width that fits your site design and choose a version that works better on darker sites. You'll also see that Google+ badges now include the unified +1 and circle count that we added to Pages last month. If you’re still considering whether to add a Google+ badge on your website, consider this: We recently looked at top sites using the badge and found that, on average, the badge accounted for an additional 38% of followers. When you add the badge visitors to your website can discover your Google+ page and connect in a variety of ways: they can follow your Google+ page, +1 your site, share your site with their circles, see which of their friends have +1’d your site, and click through to visit your Google+ page. The Google+ Badge makes it easy for your fans to find and follow you on Google+. With these additional options, we hope it's even easier to create a badge that fits your website. Follow the conversation on Google+. Posted by Lucy Hadden, Software Engineer, Google+
My summer with the Google App Engine Team
Google App Engine Blog 26 Jan 2012, 10:47 pm CET
More Options for Google+ Badges
Google+ Platform Blog 26 Jan 2012, 10:07 pm CET
When we launched Google+ pages in November, we also released Google+ badges to promote your Google+ presence right on your site. Starting today in developer preview (and soon available to all your users), we're adding more options for integrating the Google+ badge into your website. You can configure a badge with a width that fits your site design and choose a version that works better on darker sites. You'll also see that Google+ badges now include the unified +1 and circle count that we added to Pages last month. If you’re still considering whether to add a Google+ badge on your website, consider this: We recently looked at top sites using the badge and found that, on average, the badge accounted for an additional 38% of followers. When you add the badge visitors to your website can discover your Google+ page and connect in a variety of ways: they can follow your Google+ page, +1 your site, share your site with their circles, see which of their friends have +1’d your site, and click through to visit your Google+ page. The Google+ Badge makes it easy for your fans to find and follow you on Google+. With these additional options, we hope it's even easier to create a badge that fits your website. Follow the conversation on Google+. Posted by Lucy Hadden, Software Engineer, Google+
What’s new with Sitemaps
Google Webmaster Central Blog 26 Jan 2012, 9:18 pm CET
Webmaster level: All Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. Webmaster Tools’ Sitemaps feature gives you feedback on your submitted Sitemaps, such as how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed, or whether your Sitemaps have any errors. Recently, we’ve added even more information! Let’s check it out:
The Sitemaps page displays details based on content-type. Now
statistics from Web, Videos, Images and News are featured
prominently. This lets you see how many items of each type were
submitted (if any), and for some content types, we also show how
many items have been indexed. With these enhancements, the new
Sitemaps page replaces the Video Sitemaps Labs feature, which will
be retired.
Another improvement is the ability to test a Sitemap. Unlike an
actual submission, testing does not submit your Sitemap to Google
as it only checks it for errors. Testing requires a live fetch by
Googlebot and usually takes a few seconds to complete. Note that
the initial testing is not exhaustive and may not detect all
issues; for example, errors that can only be identified once the
URLs are downloaded are not be caught by the test.
In addition to on-the-spot testing, we’ve got a new way of
displaying errors which better exposes what types of issues a
Sitemap contains. Instead of repeating the same kind of error many
times for one Sitemap, errors and warnings are now grouped, and a
few examples are given. Likewise, for Sitemap index files, we’ve
aggregated errors and warnings from the child Sitemaps that the
Sitemap index encloses. No longer will you need to click through
each child Sitemap one by one.
Finally, we’ve changed the way the “Delete” button works. Now, it
removes the Sitemap from Webmaster Tools, both from your account
and the accounts of the other owners of the site. Be aware that a
Sitemap may still be read or processed by Google even if you delete
if from Webmaster Tools. For example if you reference a Sitemap in
your robots.txt file search engines may still attempt to process
the Sitemap. To truly prevent a Sitemap from being processed,
remove the file from your server or block it via robots.txt.
For more information on Sitemaps in Webmaster Tools and how
Sitemaps work, visit our
Help Center. If you have any questions, go to Webmaster
Help Forum.
Written by Kamila Primke,
Software Engineer, Webmaster Tools
Resources to support a new and open world for learning
The Official Google Blog 26 Jan 2012, 9:08 pm CET
Googlers are the types who never really leave the classroom. Guest speakers come to campus to give talks on subjects ranging from fiction to physics. Diverse groups of people work together to understand and solve big problems while groups of Googlers engage in passionate debate in our cafeterias. Given this environment, it’s no surprise how highly we value our external work in education. We have a growing number of successful education programs from primary school through to university, as well as a suite of free and open tools that reach families and classrooms around the world. Recently, we decided to gather our resources and lessons learned into one place for educators everywhere. “Google in Education: A New and Open World for Learning” highlights how people are using Google resources to enhance teaching and learning. This booklet isn’t your typical annual report; it’s a living document for educators to use year-round. We’ve also revamped our website, google.com/edu, to be a one-stop shop for teachers, students, parents and organizations to explore all of our offerings. We’ve launched a Google+ page, where everyone can stay updated on our educational tools, products and programs, and join the conversation. To develop all of these new materials, we went straight to the source, relying on dozens of educators to provide stories and feedback. We hope these resources will inspire and enable teachers, while affirming our commitment to increasing access to an excellent education for all. Thanks to educators, students and supporters everywhere for helping to extend our spirit of lifelong learning into classrooms around the globe. For more information about Google in Education, visit www.google.com/edu/about, and to stay updated on the world of education at Google and connect with fellow educators, follow us on Google+. Posted by Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Head of Global K-12 Education Outreach
Making the web speedier and safer with SPDY
Google Code Blog 26 Jan 2012, 8:31 pm CET
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| Will |
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| Roberto |
Organic modeling made simple with Curviloft
SketchUpdate 26 Jan 2012, 7:48 pm CET
The process of extruding one 2D profile such that it ends in another, different 2D profile is often called lofting. There’s no easy way to do this in plain ol' SketchUp, but there are plenty of plugins that make it possible. The one I’ve been obsessed with lately is called Curviloft; it's by the venerable Fredo6. If you need to learn about plugins in general, including how to install them, visit the plugins page on our website.
Curviloft lets you do three basic operations; which one you use depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. For the sake of brevity (and simplicity), I’m going to focus on only the first operation in this post: Loft By Spline. The Basics
Let’s say you have two profiles that you want to connect together. The example below is super-simple: It’s a circle directly above a square. Here, I want to connect the two with a shape that goes directly between them. Curviloft’s Loft By Spline tool was made for just this kind of thing.
I start with two flat profiles (shapes) positioned one above the other.
With nothing selected, I activate Loft By Spline and click once on each shape. Because there are only two, it doesn’t matter which shape I click first. If there were more than two, I’d click in the order that I want to connect them, starting at either end. When both profiles are numbered, I click the green checkmark in the Curviloft toolbar (see below). This brings me into Preview mode, where I can see what I’m about to end up with.
The Curviloft toolbar is complicated; there’s no getting around it. The good news is that you don’t have to understand what all the controls do in order to use the tool. In Preview mode, you can just click things to see what happens. There's no shame in experimentation.
I like to fiddle with the Spline Method settings first (see below). This is where you control the shape of the vertical lines (splines) that connect the two profiles—in this case, the circle and the square. The three options that I find give the most interesting results are “Junction by connected lines”, “Bezier curves – Respect tangency (Method 2)” and “Junction by Orthogonal Bezier Curves”. By all means, try the other buttons, too; there’s gold in them thar hills.
Playing with the Vertex Matching controls also yields some useful options (see below). Here, you’re telling Curviloft how to decide which points on the perimeter of each profile should connect to one another. In this case, the circle has 24 endpoints and the circle only has four. The tool does its best to figure out the intermediate geometry, but the Vertex Matching settings let you provide guidance. For me, the most interesting button is the one on the far right; often, deselecting “Orientate contours to their best-fit box” seems to produce better results. Click it a few times to see what happens.
When you’re satisfied, hit Enter on your keyboard (or click the green checkmark on the toolbar) to finish generating the result.
While you’re still in Preview mode, clicking on black part of your preview object opens yet another set of controls. The Properties of the Edited Junction window shows you more information about the connections in the operation you’re doing. My favorite widgets here have to do with twisting; they let you rotate either of your profiles (in this case, the circle and the square) by 15 or 90 degree increments. The result is an insanely cool twisting effect. Click the little right and left arrows and you’ll see what I mean. Addictive, no?
Loft by Spline works great on profiles that aren’t lined up perfectly, too. Below, I’ve moved and rotated the circle.
Again, trying different Spline Method settings produces pretty wildly different results.
I dare you not to waste an afternoon playing with Curviloft. The other two tools in the set let you loft along a path and "skin" connected profile edges, but Loft by Spline is pretty powerful on its own. Remember that Curviloft is donationware, meaning that if you like it, you can contribute to its author; you'll find an option to do so in the Curviloft menu after you install it.
Here are some quick examples of shapes I whipped up while I was working on this post:
I've written about a couple of Fredo6's other terrific plugins in the past. RoundCorner gives you the ability to quickly and easily create rounds and fillets on almost any shape. FredoScale is a toolkit for stretching, bending, twisting and otherwise deforming your models in incredibly useful ways. Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist
Google Earth 6.2: It's a beautiful world
SketchUpdate 26 Jan 2012, 7:35 pm CET
[Crossposted from the Google Lat Long blog]
We're taking bird's eye view to a whole new level with the latest version of Google Earth, released today. With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless imagery and a new search interface. Additionally, we’ve introduced a feature that enables you to share an image from within Google Earth, so you can now simply and easily share your virtual adventures with family and friends on Google+.
A seamless
globe
The Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and
aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different
lighting and weather conditions. Because of this variance, views of
the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.
Today, we’re introducing a new way of rendering imagery that smoothes out this quilt of images. The end result is a beautiful new Earth-viewing experience that preserves the unique textures of the world’s most defining geographic landscapes—without the quilt effect. This change is being made on both mobile and desktop versions of Google Earth. While this change will appear on all versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing experience for this new data.
Google Earth is a great way to virtually explore the globe,
whether revisiting old haunts or checking out a future vacation
spot. With the Google Earth
6.2 update, we’ve added the option to
share a screenshot of your current view in Google Earth through
Google+. If you’ve already upgraded to
Google+, you can share images of the places you’ve virtually
traveled to with your
Circles, such as family, friends or your local hiking club. To
try this new feature, simply sign in to your Google Account in the
upper right hand corner of Google Earth and click “Share.” Images
of mountains, oceans, deserts, 3D cities, your favorite pizza shop
on Street View—you can now experience all these amazing places
around the world with people on Google+.
Search
improvements
We’ve also made some updates to the search feature in Google Earth. Aside from streamlining the visual design of the search panel, we’ve enabled the same Autocomplete feature that’s available on Google Maps. We’ve also introduced search layers, which will show all the relevant search results (not just the top ten), so now, when looking for gelato in Milano, you can see all the tasty possibilities. Finally, we’ve added biking, transit and walking directions, so if you’re itching for a change of scenery or looking for a new route for your regular commute, you can now use Google Earth to generate and visualize all your options. Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth
Google Earth 6.2: It’s a beautiful world
The Official Google Blog 26 Jan 2012, 7:26 pm CET
We're taking bird's eye view to a whole new level with the latest version of Google Earth, released today. With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless imagery and a new search interface. Additionally, we’ve introduced a feature that enables you to share an image from within Google Earth, so you can now simply and easily share your virtual adventures with family and friends on Google+. A seamless globe
The Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and
aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different
lighting and weather conditions. Because of this variance, views of
the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.
Today, we’re introducing a new way of rendering imagery that
smoothes out this quilt of images. The end result is a beautiful
new Earth-viewing experience that preserves the unique textures of
the world’s most defining geographic landscapes—without the quilt
effect. This change is being made on both mobile and desktop
versions of Google Earth. While this change will appear on all
versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing
experience for this new data.
Search improvements
We’ve also made some updates to the search feature in Google Earth.
Aside from streamlining the visual design of the search panel,
we’ve enabled the same
Autocomplete feature that’s available on Google Maps. We’ve
also introduced search layers, which will show all the relevant
search results (not just the top ten), so now, when looking for
gelato in Milano, you can see all the tasty possibilities. Finally,
we’ve added biking, transit and walking directions, so if you’re
itching for a change of scenery or looking for a new route for your
regular commute, you can now use Google Earth to generate and
visualize all your options.
Google Earth 6.2: It’s a beautiful world
Google LatLong 26 Jan 2012, 7:25 pm CET
(Cross-posted on the Official Google and SketchUp blogs) We're taking bird's eye view to a whole new level with the latest version of Google Earth, released today. With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless imagery and a new search interface. Additionally, we’ve introduced a feature that enables you to share an image from within Google Earth, so you can now simply and easily share your virtual adventures with family and friends on Google+. A seamless globe
The Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and
aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different
lighting and weather conditions. Because of this variance, views of
the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.
Today, we’re introducing a new way of rendering imagery that
smoothes out this quilt of images. The end result is a beautiful
new Earth-viewing experience that preserves the unique textures of
the world’s most defining geographic landscapes—without the quilt
effect. This change is being made on both mobile and desktop
versions of Google Earth. While this change will appear on all
versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing
experience for this new data.
Search improvements
We’ve also made some updates to the search feature in Google Earth.
Aside from streamlining the visual design of the search panel,
we’ve enabled the same
Autocomplete feature that’s available on Google Maps. We’ve
also introduced search layers, which will show all the relevant
search results (not just the top ten), so now, when looking for
gelato in Milano, you can see all the tasty possibilities. Finally,
we’ve added biking, transit and walking directions, so if you’re
itching for a change of scenery or looking for a new route for your
regular commute, you can now use Google Earth to generate and
visualize all your options.
Biking directions in Google Earth
PBS saves time with automated reports
Google Analytics Blog 26 Jan 2012, 7:01 pm CET
For most companies using Google Analytics, reporting on website traffic and performance for a few web properties is a straightforward task. However, if your company manages hundreds of web properties, delivering useful and timely reports can become a significant challenge. For many, the only apparent solution is to manually export analytics data for each web property, then combine and compare that data to answer relevant business questions. It’s a slow and costly process and you spend most of your time creating reports instead of carrying out meaningful analysis. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) faced precisely this challenge when it made the decision to use GA Data Grabber by AutomateAnalytics.com. GA Data Grabber works within Excel and uses the Google Analytics API. Users create or choose reports and GA Data Grabber automatically retrieves the Google Analytics data from any number of websites. And with multi-login capabilities, users can seamlessly combine data between Google Analytics profiles that reside under different Google Accounts. Designed for non-technical users, GA Data Grabber generates great-looking visualizations and can automatically highlight important changes in key metrics over a date range. It’s also possible to use Excel’s visualization and data processing features. For example, formulas can be added to calculate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on any set of metrics. Amy Sample, Director, Web Analytics, Public Broadcasting Service explains the challenges that PBS faced and how GA Data Grabber was able to help. “The PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org web sites are made up of hundreds of individual companion sites to broadcast programs. From a business perspective, there is a need to evaluate performance of individual program sites relative to each other.” As is common for many large organizations, PBS has separate Google Analytics accounts for each program site. “While multiple accounts works well to evaluate the site content and performance, it makes it difficult to look at all of the sites side-by-side without a lot of manual effort. Our previous attempts to create this type of report were time-consuming and often subject to data input errors.” “Using Google Analytics, combined with GA Data Grabber, we were able to create a benchmark report for our program sites. The monthly report pulls a standard set of KPIs from each of the program accounts and ranks the programs by traffic. The report is used as a management tool by both the PBS.org and PBSKIDS.org teams to monitor monthly performance of programs. The teams have also used it to identify opportunities for programs that are no longer being broadcast but still getting significant online traffic. Our program producers use the report to benchmark their performance against other sites of similar content or size and determine ways to improve audience engagement. As a result of using GA Data Grabber to pull the data, we can produce this report quickly and accurately on monthly basis.” GA Data Grabber Mikael Thuneberg, Founder & CEO of AutomateAnalytics.com has been using the Google Analytics API since its launch. “I’ve been very happy with the API. Having developed for several other APIs, I can say that the Google Analytics API is by far the easiest to develop for. It’s logically structured and flexible, the documentation is excellent, and it’s easy to get help through the forum. I’ll certainly continue developing for the Google Analytics API. I’ve expanded to other APIs as well, but Google Analytics is still by far the most important one for my business.” GA Data Grabber can be found through the Google Analytics App Gallery and can be downloaded from the GA Data Grabber website. If you’re interested in developing solutions for the Google Analytics platform, visit Google Analytics Developer Program. Posted by Pete Frisella, Google Analytics API Team
YouTube Release Notes: Updates to Browse page, Video Editor and Video Manager
YouTube Blog 26 Jan 2012, 7:00 pm CET
This week we’re kicking off our recurring Release Notes post for 2012, highlighting some of the most recent updates to YouTube. Our scrappy engineers have been hard at work to make your experience even better, and here’s what’s new. New look for Browse Today we're giving the Browse page a fresh look-and-feel, to help you find even more great Channels on YouTube. Alongside the top lists like Most Viewed Today, you can now discover and subscribe to more YouTube Channels on browse pages, which will then regularly update on your homepage. You can also discover more content under categories including Entertainment, People & Blogs, Science & Technology and more. You’ll find it all on YouTube.com/browse.
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