Developers come together at Developer Day in Sydney

Posted by Ben Appleton, Software Engineer

Yesterday's Developer Day was a fantastic time for all involved, especially those who came with their geek caps on. From chats about how developers can use OpenSocial to build social apps across networks, to discussions of the Google App Engine, which provides free storage for anyone to build and scale apps on the internet, it was a day full of lively conversations and exciting possibilities.

Developers from all over Australia had the chance to mingle with one another, and talk with Googlers about how Google products can help to power their applications and online content. Lars Rasmussen, one of the creators of Google Maps, gave an introduction to our Google Web Toolkit, which helps developers to write applications more quickly and easily, while Google Australia's own Dmitri Abramov shared a few tips and tricks for the recently announced Flash Maps API. Developers also got a chance to play with the Google Earth API, announced at Google I/O a couple weeks back, and to hear about the new Android SDK, Google's open mobile platform (and see a few new Android apps demos).

Lastly, to spice things up, Google also held a speedgeeking competition to recognise some of the most creative Australian mashups of Google products and APIs. Yesterday we were proud to announce that http://www.cleancruising.com.au/ were the winners, thanks to their innovative use of multiple Google APIs, creating useful apps involving products such as Google Maps and Google Earth.

With ideas bouncing back and forth, lots of APIs and developer tools to mull over, and Googlers and developers immersed in thoughts for the future, it was great to step back and see what is possible when developers come together as a community.

An open web on which developers can build new and innovative apps is truly a beautiful thing.

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We be jammin' - Google Code Jam returns

Posted by Bartholomew Furrow, 20% Tech Lead for Google Code Jam

In 776 BC, the Greeks established a competition to celebrate the potential of the competitive human spirit, and to honor the great god Zeus and the divine hero Pelops. Athletes of unmatched speed and mighty frame traveled from the far reaches of the Greek world for a chance to achieve eternal glory as champions at the Olympic games.

Coders: you have a similar chance to achieve supreme coding glory. Today, we're happy to announce that the Google Code Jam is back, and we're inviting coders from here and around the world to test their mettle, to push themselves in pursuit of the coder's ideal of excellence.

The contests are intense: you'll have two short hours to solve some fiendish algorithmic challenges. You'll read a problem, write your code, download our test cases, and tell us what you think the right answers are. If you're right, it's time to move on to another problem -- but if you're wrong, it's time to make a decision. Debug, or look for an easier challenge...?

Registration is now open, so you can find out more about the contest, and practice on some sample problems. Practice hard! If you make it to the top 500, you'll travel to the Google Sydney office for our semifinal round. If you're in the top 100, we'll fly you to our Mountain View headquarters to compete with the world's very best.

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Show off your favorite blogs with a Blog List

Today we’re releasing a new page element for Layouts blogs: Blog List. The Blog List improves on our Link List page element by using blogs’ RSS and Atom feeds to show update times, post titles, and snippets.

Use a Blog List to put a blogroll in your sidebar, or make a few to categorize the blogs you read. The Blog List works well for any page that has an RSS or Atom feed, so you can get creative: link to news sites, podcasts, Twitter streams, search results, or anything else with a feed.

Here’s a quick summary of the features that a Blog List gives you:

• Link to blogs, web pages, and feeds from your blog’s sidebar, with an optional favicon
  
• For pages with RSS and Atom feeds, Blog List can show last updated time, post title, and a snippet of the latest post
  
• Sort links alphabetically or by last update time
• Show all links, or hide some behind a “show all” link
  
• Import subscriptions from Google Reader
  
• Blog List links are visible to search engine crawlers, so your blog’s PageRank and reputation flow to those you link to
  

Want to see it in action? We made a help video to walk you through adding and configuring a Blog List:

Thanks go out to everyone who chimed in on the Blogger in draft blog while this feature was being developed. You helped us a lot!

Tip: Want to show more posts from a single blog? Use the Feed page element to put any RSS or Atom feed in your blog’s sidebar.

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Supporting National E-Security Awareness Week

Posted by Alan Noble, Head of Engineering - Australia & New Zealand

Google has a large number of initiatives to help keep you and your computer secure (many of which are detailed on our official Online Security Blog). For example:

• In conjunction with Stop Badware.org, we place warnings in our search results for websites that our testing has determined to host or distribute badware. If you search for a site that Google has determined to be potentially dangerous, you will see a warning in the search results.
  
  
• We offer all Australians a free collection of software (Google Pack), which contains Norton Security Scan and Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, to detect and remove viruses, worms, spyware, adware, trojans and keyloggers.
  
  
• Our Gmail users enjoy sophisticated anti-virus scanning, as well as our well-recognised and innovative spam filters and anti-phishing measures.
  
  
• Our enterprise security products are helping many Australian businesses keep their networks secure.
  
  
• Our security experts regularly provide tips to avoid getting hooked by online scams.
  

But there's more that you can do to stay safe online, which is why we're partnering with the Australian Government for National E-security Awareness Week, from June 6-13. We share a commitment to helping you be secure online so that you can get the most out of the Internet.


The week is designed to raise awareness of the steps that you can take to keep yourself and your family secure online.

For more information, visit the Australian Government’s Stay Smart Online website. You can sign up for the new Stay Smart Online Alert Service. You’ll be sent regular emails that will alert you to the latest e-security risks, and provide useful advice for how to manage them. For more information about the types of online scams, visit Scamwatch. To learn more about how to protect yourself against identity theft, visit Protect your ID.

The online environment is constantly changing so make sure you’re keeping up to date—with your software, your passwords and the latest risks. Follow these simple steps:

1. Install, update and use your security software.
2. Use strong passwords and change them regularly (see the Official Google Blog for more info).
3. Use common sense when sharing personal information online.
4. Think before you click on email offers — if it looks too good to be true it probably is!
5. Be smart and stay informed.

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Updates and Bug Fixes for June 5th

Today’s release brings a handful of tweaks and fixes, as well as the new Blog List page element. Here’s some of what we fixed:

• If you delete a post or make a typo in a post URL, the resulting 404 page now says “page not found” instead of the incorrect “blog not found.”
• <blockquote> tags no longer break the line height of later paragraphs in the Minima, Scribe, Harbor, Dots, 867/565, Moto, and Thisaway templates. If you’ve edited your CSS or blog widget template, you may not get this fix, or, worse, you’ll lose line spacing in your posts. For a fix, see the known issue on this bug. (We apologize for this one-time disruption.)
• OpenID logins for comments now work when the OpenID URL redirects to another page.
• Layouts blogs will now display on Blog*Spot even when the template has invalid data: tags, rather than showing a bX code page.
• Performance improvements across Blogger.com and Blog*Spot.

Enjoy! We’ll have a bit more to say about Blog List later today, as well as some new fixes and features on Blogger in draft.

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This just in: ABC News on Google Earth

Posted by: Richard Suhr, Head of Enterprise, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia

You never know when the next breaking story might be right around the corner, but with ABC’s new Google Earth layer, you’ll get to see the news as it happens - whether it’s just around the corner, or in another corner of the globe

Today, ABC announced the launch of ABC Earth, integrating ABC content, including video, audio and text, as a layer in Google Earth. This trial launch will feature live stories (with updates every two hours), archived reports from around the world, profiles of Australian regional centres, and reports from the award-winning Foreign Correspondent.

This announcement, and the recent announcement of the RAIA’s architectural layer in Earth, both are a part of our ongoing effort to provide Australians new ways to connect with their local area and the world at large, while providing those outside Australia with new outlets to learn and explore.

With the recent launch of Google Earth 4.3, reading the news and soaring over some of Australia’s finest architecture has never been so fun and easy (and filled with sunshine). The search for new ways to see the world never ends, and we look forward to the new perspectives to come.

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