Today we announced our first official YouTube most watched lists, a look at 2009 through the videos Australians and people around the world were watching and searching for.
From a singer's debut on the world stage, to newly-weds dancing down the aisle, YouTube has offered people a way to share together in both the big and small moments that touched millions of people around the world this year.
And in addition to global content, some great Aussie-generated content attracted hundreds of thousands of views.
Enjoy!
Most watched YouTube videos in Australia
Top five most watched YouTube videos overall:
Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)
I'm On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) - Album Version
Miley Cyrus - The Climb - Official Music Video (HQ)
Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. - Official Music Video (HD)
Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow"
Top five most watched Australian-made videos:
Kate Miller-Heidke 'The Last Day On Earth' Official Video
Guy Sebastian - Like it Like That [Official Video]
Jessica Mauboy - Been Waiting [Official Video]
Cassie Davis - Like It Loud [Official Video]
Short Stack - Princess
Top five most watched music videos:
I'm On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) - Album Version
Miley Cyrus - The Climb - Official Music Video (HQ)
Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. - Official Music Video (HD)
Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow
Pussycat Dolls - Jai Ho
Top five most watched animal-related videos:
Extreme Sheep LED Art
Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog
The largest dead snake ever found, over 50 feet.
Piranha Devours a Duck
Slow loris loves getting tickled
Instant celebrities thanks to YouTube:
Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)
JK Wedding Entrance Dance
David After Dentist
Greatest freak out ever (ORIGINAL VIDEO)
Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009
Top five most watched movie trailers:
New Moon Movie Trailer - Official (HD)
Bruno - Official Trailer
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Official HD Movie Trailer #2 NEW!
'2012' Trailer HD
Paranormal Activity - Official Trailer [HQ HD]
Top five most watched Australian user-generated content:
My Crazy Sister - mychonny
Asian and White Parents - mychonny
Sorry it's been a while - communitychannel
My Victorian Bushfire Campaign - juanmann
Uncomfortable Love Scene - communitychannel
Most watched YouTube videos globally
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
David After Dentist (36+ million views)
JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
New Moon Movie Trailer (30+ million views)
Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Our views on Mandatory ISP Filtering
At Google we are concerned by the Government's plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, the first of its kind amongst western democracies.* Our primary concern is that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide.
We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression. While we recognise that protecting the free exchange of ideas and information cannot be without some limits, we believe that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.
Some limits, like child pornography, are obvious. No Australian wants that to be available – and we agree. Google, like many other Internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results. But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information.
The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green, and John Hartley, Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering, has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime. Refused Classification (or RC) is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material -- for example, educational content on safer drug use -- as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia. This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues.
While the discussion on ISP filtering continues, we should all retain focus on making the Internet safer for people of all ages. Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. The government has committed to important cybersafety education and engagement programs and yesterday announced additional measures that we welcome.
Exposing politically controversial topics for public debate is vital for democracy. Homosexuality was a crime in Australia until 1976 in ACT, NSW in 1984 and 1997 in Tasmania. Political and social norms change over time and benefit from intense public scrutiny and debate. The openness of the Internet makes this all the more possible and should be protected.
The government has requested comments from interested parties on its proposals for filtering and we encourage everyone to make their views known in this important debate.
Updated: December 16, 2009 at 5:00 PM
* Germany and Italy have mandatory ISP filtering, however in both cases they are of a clearly limited scope. In Germany, the scope is child abuse material and in Italy, it is child abuse material and unlawful gambling sites. Australia's proposed regime would uniquely combine a mandatory framework and a much wider scope of content, the first of its kind in the democratic world.
We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression. While we recognise that protecting the free exchange of ideas and information cannot be without some limits, we believe that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.
Some limits, like child pornography, are obvious. No Australian wants that to be available – and we agree. Google, like many other Internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results. But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information.
The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green, and John Hartley, Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering, has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime. Refused Classification (or RC) is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material -- for example, educational content on safer drug use -- as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia. This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues.
While the discussion on ISP filtering continues, we should all retain focus on making the Internet safer for people of all ages. Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, user empowerment through technology tools (such as SafeSearch Lock), and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. The government has committed to important cybersafety education and engagement programs and yesterday announced additional measures that we welcome.
Exposing politically controversial topics for public debate is vital for democracy. Homosexuality was a crime in Australia until 1976 in ACT, NSW in 1984 and 1997 in Tasmania. Political and social norms change over time and benefit from intense public scrutiny and debate. The openness of the Internet makes this all the more possible and should be protected.
The government has requested comments from interested parties on its proposals for filtering and we encourage everyone to make their views known in this important debate.
Updated: December 16, 2009 at 5:00 PM
* Germany and Italy have mandatory ISP filtering, however in both cases they are of a clearly limited scope. In Germany, the scope is child abuse material and in Italy, it is child abuse material and unlawful gambling sites. Australia's proposed regime would uniquely combine a mandatory framework and a much wider scope of content, the first of its kind in the democratic world.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Talking smart 'info-structure' at the Realising our Broadband Future forum
I was lucky enough to be involved with the 'Smart Infrastructure' stream at this week's 'Realising our Broadband Future' forum in Sydney. What is smart infrastructure? In part it's using sensors and communications technologies to better use and sustain important resources, but I like to think of it as more about empowering people than about playing around with physical infrastructure. Smart 'info-structure' rather than 'infrastructure' perhaps?
With the coming roll-out of the NBN, Australia is perfectly placed to become a leader in the field of sensor networks. We need to make sure we integrate smart technology into our vital infrastructure to achieve things like reduced road congestion, improved water management, and maximised energy efficiency.
Some of the cool ideas we discussed in the stream today included:
So far so good, but what needs to happen for some of these cool ideas to become reality? There are plenty of technology requirements, but there's also the engagement and belief of users. End users have to see the value in systems like smart electricity grids, and they need to retain control of their data in order to feel comfortable participating. By the way, anything that makes life harder than it already is will fail to be adopted in large numbers!
There are a few other requirements that I can see before we'll really be poised for a smart infrastructure future. We'll need to see an even greater mindset shift in both the public and private sector around sharing information, and a commitment to using open standards to stimulate innovation in smart applications. The Gov 2.0 agenda is a great step in the right direction here.
We'll need a regulatory environment in Australia that's conducive to the development of new services.
We'll need enough wireless spectrum to support smart infrastructure which generally runs on a hybrid fibre-spectrum network, and the right regulatory framework around spectrum for the rapid growth of a variety of new devices and services.
And we'll need to address questions around where all of this new data will be managed.
All of this can be achieved by the right kind of collaboration between sectors, and by playing some things a little smarter - for example, let's only dig up ditches once and put the right stuff in them! That kind of cooperative thinking is going to turn this smart infrastructure dream into a reality for all Australians.
The conference organisers encouraged tweeting of the event's proceedings, so you'll find plenty of additional commentary by searching under the tag #bbfuture.
With the coming roll-out of the NBN, Australia is perfectly placed to become a leader in the field of sensor networks. We need to make sure we integrate smart technology into our vital infrastructure to achieve things like reduced road congestion, improved water management, and maximised energy efficiency.
Some of the cool ideas we discussed in the stream today included:
- Intelligent road transport systems that can actively manage congestion and breakdowns; and more efficient planning and construction of roading systems using GIS
- Remote sensing and monitoring of water resources that lead to better management of ground and surface water; and more efficient and transparent water markets
- More efficient energy markets and pricing; better demand management, and more efficient management of energy security
So far so good, but what needs to happen for some of these cool ideas to become reality? There are plenty of technology requirements, but there's also the engagement and belief of users. End users have to see the value in systems like smart electricity grids, and they need to retain control of their data in order to feel comfortable participating. By the way, anything that makes life harder than it already is will fail to be adopted in large numbers!
There are a few other requirements that I can see before we'll really be poised for a smart infrastructure future. We'll need to see an even greater mindset shift in both the public and private sector around sharing information, and a commitment to using open standards to stimulate innovation in smart applications. The Gov 2.0 agenda is a great step in the right direction here.
We'll need a regulatory environment in Australia that's conducive to the development of new services.
We'll need enough wireless spectrum to support smart infrastructure which generally runs on a hybrid fibre-spectrum network, and the right regulatory framework around spectrum for the rapid growth of a variety of new devices and services.
And we'll need to address questions around where all of this new data will be managed.
All of this can be achieved by the right kind of collaboration between sectors, and by playing some things a little smarter - for example, let's only dig up ditches once and put the right stuff in them! That kind of cooperative thinking is going to turn this smart infrastructure dream into a reality for all Australians.
The conference organisers encouraged tweeting of the event's proceedings, so you'll find plenty of additional commentary by searching under the tag #bbfuture.
Making copyright work on YouTube
My first visit to Sydney was in 2006, when I moved here with my wife and one-year-old son to live for six months. I returned again this past week, this time as a Senior Product Manager for YouTube, to meet with Australian media companies, and to speak at the Government's Realising our Broadband Future event.
It's only been 3 years since my last visit to Sydney, but in that short time, the way Australians watch video has changed dramatically. Today, more and more Australians are enjoying their favourite TV shows and video content on the Web. They're not just watching videos; they're also uploading their own, commenting, rating, and sharing their favorites. In fact, a recent demographic study of Australians on YouTube found that two out of three people do more than just watch a video; they're actively participating in the YouTube community.
As more users have headed online, so has more professionally-created video. Increasingly, major movie studios, record labels, and broadcast networks upload their content to YouTube to reach the millions of people on the site. In addition to uploading content themselves, content owners are using YouTube's sophisticated content management tools to identify their copyrighted content in user uploads. To our pleasant surprise, the vast majority decide to leave their content on YouTube and make money by allowing us to place ads next to it. I helped build our latest tool launched in 2007, called Content ID, which allows rights holders to block, track, or make money from their copyrighted content.
Copyright has proved to be one of the most difficult challenges online, but it's one that we're committed to solving through technology. After all, Google at its core is a technology company interested in organising the world's information. On YouTube, that means video but also the vast and often tangled web of global rights management.
Platforms like YouTube, and tools like Content ID, help Australians promote their content to a worldwide audience. Everyone from new bands to large broadcasters like the ABC can tap into the international reach of YouTube to find a new fan base for their videos and music. YouTube is truly the world's largest focus group, and I think that's an enormous opportunity for companies large and small.
I return to the U.S. today, but I'm excited to see what the online video landscape will look like on my next visit to Australia.
It's only been 3 years since my last visit to Sydney, but in that short time, the way Australians watch video has changed dramatically. Today, more and more Australians are enjoying their favourite TV shows and video content on the Web. They're not just watching videos; they're also uploading their own, commenting, rating, and sharing their favorites. In fact, a recent demographic study of Australians on YouTube found that two out of three people do more than just watch a video; they're actively participating in the YouTube community.
As more users have headed online, so has more professionally-created video. Increasingly, major movie studios, record labels, and broadcast networks upload their content to YouTube to reach the millions of people on the site. In addition to uploading content themselves, content owners are using YouTube's sophisticated content management tools to identify their copyrighted content in user uploads. To our pleasant surprise, the vast majority decide to leave their content on YouTube and make money by allowing us to place ads next to it. I helped build our latest tool launched in 2007, called Content ID, which allows rights holders to block, track, or make money from their copyrighted content.
Copyright has proved to be one of the most difficult challenges online, but it's one that we're committed to solving through technology. After all, Google at its core is a technology company interested in organising the world's information. On YouTube, that means video but also the vast and often tangled web of global rights management.
Platforms like YouTube, and tools like Content ID, help Australians promote their content to a worldwide audience. Everyone from new bands to large broadcasters like the ABC can tap into the international reach of YouTube to find a new fan base for their videos and music. YouTube is truly the world's largest focus group, and I think that's an enormous opportunity for companies large and small.
I return to the U.S. today, but I'm excited to see what the online video landscape will look like on my next visit to Australia.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Coast to coast, more Australian universities Go Google
With the recent announcement that hundreds of thousands of UK students are moving to Google Apps, there are now more than six million students, staff, and faculty around the world using Google at school. In the US, a recent survey reported that of those universities that had converted to hosted student email, 56% are going Google. The trend is similar here, with more and more Australian universities getting on to Google Apps.
Back in 2008, we blogged that the NSW Department of Education had successfully deployed Gmail to over 1.2 million students, joining Macquarie University and a number of other Australian schools in switching to Google. Since that time I'm pleased to say that more Australian universities have gone Google, including the University of Adelaide, University of Southern Queensland, Monash University and the University of Western Australia, who've all made the decision to offer our powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to their students.
For the University of Western Australia, implementing Google Apps for its 30,000 students meant offering a compelling set of features while allowing staff to focus on their core competencies. "The service we could offer for students through Google Apps was much better than we could reasonably hope to provide ourselves. Our staff can now concentrate on the things we do best - serving the teaching and research needs of the University," said John Arfield, University Librarian and Director (Information Management). "Providing a good experience for our students is a very high priority at UWA. The students are delighted, and so are we."
Over at the University of Adelaide, the ITS team who implemented Google Apps for their 16,000 students in early 2009 recently scooped the primary award at the Universities Services and Resources Annual Awards for Excellence (pictured below is the University of Adelaide project team managed by Bianca Velder (third from right) receiving their award on November 19 this year). Google Apps went live for the University of Adelaide on March 16, after a 5 month planning and development period. The University saw a 50% take up rate within two weeks of go-live, students were enthusiastic to make the switch from the previous mail system to Google Apps.
"Google Apps allows the university to deliver seamlessly integrated email, calendaring and IM services to students with significant capacity, and the migration has been a huge success for the university" says Virginia Deegan, director, infrastructure, property and technology. "The strength of Google Apps Education edition lies in the ease of implementation and the ability to deliver an integrated and flexible platform for collaboration and communication technologies in the future. All at no cost to the University, and that was a compelling story to us.
"Post implementation surveys show a very high student satisfaction with Google Apps. Many students offer suggestions how we can add value to the student experience, by increasing the functionality of Google Apps as a teaching and learning environment. Google Apps is rapidly becoming part of the DNA of the university, and that is exactly what we hoped for".
Across in Melbourne, at Australia's largest university Monash, Alan McMeekin, CIO and Executive Director IT Services Division is very pleased with the outcome for their 58,000 students and staff. "Monash has a commitment to principles of equity and diversity, so accessibility of services for students is important. We want to remove the blocks that prevent students from learning and growing. Google is one of the few products that provides a html version for email that works well with assistive technology." For Alan, demand from students and the support Google offered with the implementation were two key ingredients in a successful implementation. "The demand from students to participate in the pilot was encouraging, with over two hundred students registering in a weekend. Google have been great to work with on the implementation, providing dedicated resources and making changes where necessary to ensure Monash's move to Google is successful."
Lisa Marsh, Manager of the Flexible Learning and Teaching Program at Monash, leads the team that builds and runs the award winning my.monash portal for staff and students. In partnership with Calvin Chow, IT Analyst and Project lead, Lisa lead the project to migrate students to Google Apps. "The team are excited by the move to Google Apps. Calendar, email space, and collaboration tools have always been high demand items with students. We're also working on integrating Google Apps with other core university services via the my.monash portal, so there's lots of excitement around the potential to enhance the student experience. It's great to be running a project that is overwhelmingly positive. The pilot was oversubscribed by students. We're already getting 'thank you' email".
We look forward to working closely with more Australian universities and making 2010 a year in which even more students across Australia get the benefits of going Google.
Back in 2008, we blogged that the NSW Department of Education had successfully deployed Gmail to over 1.2 million students, joining Macquarie University and a number of other Australian schools in switching to Google. Since that time I'm pleased to say that more Australian universities have gone Google, including the University of Adelaide, University of Southern Queensland, Monash University and the University of Western Australia, who've all made the decision to offer our powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to their students.
For the University of Western Australia, implementing Google Apps for its 30,000 students meant offering a compelling set of features while allowing staff to focus on their core competencies. "The service we could offer for students through Google Apps was much better than we could reasonably hope to provide ourselves. Our staff can now concentrate on the things we do best - serving the teaching and research needs of the University," said John Arfield, University Librarian and Director (Information Management). "Providing a good experience for our students is a very high priority at UWA. The students are delighted, and so are we."
Over at the University of Adelaide, the ITS team who implemented Google Apps for their 16,000 students in early 2009 recently scooped the primary award at the Universities Services and Resources Annual Awards for Excellence (pictured below is the University of Adelaide project team managed by Bianca Velder (third from right) receiving their award on November 19 this year). Google Apps went live for the University of Adelaide on March 16, after a 5 month planning and development period. The University saw a 50% take up rate within two weeks of go-live, students were enthusiastic to make the switch from the previous mail system to Google Apps.
"Google Apps allows the university to deliver seamlessly integrated email, calendaring and IM services to students with significant capacity, and the migration has been a huge success for the university" says Virginia Deegan, director, infrastructure, property and technology. "The strength of Google Apps Education edition lies in the ease of implementation and the ability to deliver an integrated and flexible platform for collaboration and communication technologies in the future. All at no cost to the University, and that was a compelling story to us.
"Post implementation surveys show a very high student satisfaction with Google Apps. Many students offer suggestions how we can add value to the student experience, by increasing the functionality of Google Apps as a teaching and learning environment. Google Apps is rapidly becoming part of the DNA of the university, and that is exactly what we hoped for".
Across in Melbourne, at Australia's largest university Monash, Alan McMeekin, CIO and Executive Director IT Services Division is very pleased with the outcome for their 58,000 students and staff. "Monash has a commitment to principles of equity and diversity, so accessibility of services for students is important. We want to remove the blocks that prevent students from learning and growing. Google is one of the few products that provides a html version for email that works well with assistive technology." For Alan, demand from students and the support Google offered with the implementation were two key ingredients in a successful implementation. "The demand from students to participate in the pilot was encouraging, with over two hundred students registering in a weekend. Google have been great to work with on the implementation, providing dedicated resources and making changes where necessary to ensure Monash's move to Google is successful."
Lisa Marsh, Manager of the Flexible Learning and Teaching Program at Monash, leads the team that builds and runs the award winning my.monash portal for staff and students. In partnership with Calvin Chow, IT Analyst and Project lead, Lisa lead the project to migrate students to Google Apps. "The team are excited by the move to Google Apps. Calendar, email space, and collaboration tools have always been high demand items with students. We're also working on integrating Google Apps with other core university services via the my.monash portal, so there's lots of excitement around the potential to enhance the student experience. It's great to be running a project that is overwhelmingly positive. The pilot was oversubscribed by students. We're already getting 'thank you' email".
We look forward to working closely with more Australian universities and making 2010 a year in which even more students across Australia get the benefits of going Google.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Have a say in your Broadband Future
The Australian Government is holding an event, Realising Our Broadband Future, at UNSW in Sydney this week to talk about the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia's high speed broadband future. At Google we've been very supportive of the vision for ubiquitous high-speed Internet access in Australia for driving innovation and stimulating the digital economy and we'll be presenting in various sessions at the conference.
On Thursday morning Vint Cerf (our Chief Internet Evangelist) will be giving a keynote address, to be followed by David King (Senior Product Manager at YouTube). David will talk about new business models that are emerging for media companies in the digital economy. I'll be chipping in as Lead Editor on a stream focusing on Smart Infrastructure.
It's great to see Government opening up the event for participation online for everyone in Australia. The Open To Ideas forum lets you submit questions and ideas for discussion as well as voting on other people's ideas - this uses Google Moderator. Make sure you submit your vote today. You can watch live webcasts of the event here.
On Thursday morning Vint Cerf (our Chief Internet Evangelist) will be giving a keynote address, to be followed by David King (Senior Product Manager at YouTube). David will talk about new business models that are emerging for media companies in the digital economy. I'll be chipping in as Lead Editor on a stream focusing on Smart Infrastructure.
It's great to see Government opening up the event for participation online for everyone in Australia. The Open To Ideas forum lets you submit questions and ideas for discussion as well as voting on other people's ideas - this uses Google Moderator. Make sure you submit your vote today. You can watch live webcasts of the event here.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Relevance meets the real-time web
(Editor's note: This is a truncated cross-post from the Official Google Blog).
Search is a natural starting point for discovering the world's information, and we strive to bring you the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it.
That's why today we're excited to share a few new innovations in the areas of real-time and social search that we feel are important steps in the evolution of information access.
First, we're introducing new features that bring your search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we'll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.
Try searching for your favourite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it's an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it's published on the web.
Here's how it looks:
Our real-time search enables you to discover breaking news the moment it's happening, even if it's not the popular news of the day, and even if you didn't know about it beforehand. For example, in the screen shot, the big story was about GM's stabilising car sales, which shows under "News results." Nonetheless, thanks to our powerful real-time algorithms, the "Latest results" feature surfaces another important story breaking just seconds before: GM's CEO stepped down.
Click on "Latest results" or select "Latest" from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google. You can also filter your results to see only "Updates" from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices when you need them on the go, be it a quick glance at changing information like ski conditions or opening night chatter about a new movie — right when you're in line to buy tickets.
And, as part of our launch of real-time on Google search, we've added "hot topics" to Google Trends to show the most common topics people are publishing to the web in real-time. With this improvement and a series of other interface enhancements, Google Trends is graduating from Labs.
Our real-time search features are based on more than a dozen new search technologies that enable us to monitor more than a billion documents and process hundreds of millions of real-time changes each day. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we're announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca — along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago.
The new features will be rolling out in the next few days and will be available globally in English. You can try them out today by visiting Google Trends and clicking on a "hot topic," which in most cases will bring you to a search results page with the new real-time feature.
Here's a first look at our real-time search:
As we've written before, search is still an unsolved problem and we're committed to making it faster and easier for people to access a greater diversity of information, delivered in real-time, from across the web. I'm tremendously excited about these significant new real-time search features.
Search is a natural starting point for discovering the world's information, and we strive to bring you the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it.
That's why today we're excited to share a few new innovations in the areas of real-time and social search that we feel are important steps in the evolution of information access.
First, we're introducing new features that bring your search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we'll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.
Try searching for your favourite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it's an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it's published on the web.
Here's how it looks:
Our real-time search enables you to discover breaking news the moment it's happening, even if it's not the popular news of the day, and even if you didn't know about it beforehand. For example, in the screen shot, the big story was about GM's stabilising car sales, which shows under "News results." Nonetheless, thanks to our powerful real-time algorithms, the "Latest results" feature surfaces another important story breaking just seconds before: GM's CEO stepped down.
Click on "Latest results" or select "Latest" from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google. You can also filter your results to see only "Updates" from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices when you need them on the go, be it a quick glance at changing information like ski conditions or opening night chatter about a new movie — right when you're in line to buy tickets.
And, as part of our launch of real-time on Google search, we've added "hot topics" to Google Trends to show the most common topics people are publishing to the web in real-time. With this improvement and a series of other interface enhancements, Google Trends is graduating from Labs.
Our real-time search features are based on more than a dozen new search technologies that enable us to monitor more than a billion documents and process hundreds of millions of real-time changes each day. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we're announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca — along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago.
The new features will be rolling out in the next few days and will be available globally in English. You can try them out today by visiting Google Trends and clicking on a "hot topic," which in most cases will bring you to a search results page with the new real-time feature.
Here's a first look at our real-time search:
As we've written before, search is still an unsolved problem and we're committed to making it faster and easier for people to access a greater diversity of information, delivered in real-time, from across the web. I'm tremendously excited about these significant new real-time search features.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The top Aussie searches of the year
2009 has certainly been a year to remember - from the Victorian bushfires to the death of Michael Jackson and Masterchef mania.
Today we released the most popular search terms that Australians tapped into google.com.au this year, as well as the fastest rising search terms of 2009. When seen in aggregate, search queries reflect the people, places and events that captured our attention and imagination throughout the year.
And it was all about vampires. A Twilight-related search featured in the fastest rising searches of the year, the most searched for news stories, most popular celebrities and dominated the most searched for movies of the year for both Twilight and the new release, New Moon. The most Twilight obsessed state was NSW, followed closely by Queensland and Tasmania.
Michael Jackson's death sent people rushing to their computers for more information, as did the rumoured death of Jeff Goldblum and Miley Cyrus. We're still dwelling on the breakup of some of our most beloved bands, with the ABBA and Simon and Garfunkle breakup being among the most searched for of the year. And Hamish and Andy were the most searched for Aussie celebs, beating out Miranda Kerr.
Our reality TV obsession continues and was evident in the weddings we searched for most - the top three most searched for nuptials were that of reality TV stars Kendra Wilkinson, Khloe Kardashian and Jade Goody.
We went crazy for the lemon detox diet, which was maybe balanced by our love of all things 'foodie', driven by the wildly popular Masterchef series. Searches for particular recipes from the show soared following each episode, with the infamous 'Croquembouche' topping our recipe related Masterchef searches for the year.
A full list of results is included below. To see the most popular searches from across the world, visit google.com/zeitgeist2009.
The fastest rising searches of 2009
One HD
twitter.com
Masterchef
Melbourne Cup 2009
Grooveshark
New Moon Movie
Facebook search
Trading Post Auto
Smartkiddies
Currency converter calculator
Most popular searches of 2009
Facebook
YouTube
Hotmail
eBay
MySpace
Google
Yahoo
Gmail
Bebo
Seek
Most searched for news stories of 2009
Swine Flu
Stimulus package
Flu
Bushfires
Bushfire
New Moon
Fires
Robert Pattinson
Michael Jackson
Rihanna
Most searched for celebrities of 2009
Michael Jackson
Lady Gaga
Robert Pattinson
Megan Fox
Taylor Swift
Miley Cyrus
Susan Boyle
Hamish and Andy
Miranda Kerr
Kirsten Stewart
RIP - most searched deaths in 2009 (including rumoured/incorrectly reported deaths)
Michael Jackson
Jeff Goldblum
Patrick Swayze
DJ AM
Kanye West
Miley Cyrus
Farrah Fawcett
Emma Watson
Sookie Stackhouse
Rick Astley
Most searched breakups of 2009 (rumoured and confirmed)
Oasis breakup
Telstra breakup
Beatles breakup
PussyCat Dolls breakup
Wolfmother breakup
John Mayer breakup
Abba breakup
Hugh Hefner breakup
Breakup of Gondwana land
Simon and Garfunkel breakup
Most searched for diets of 2009
Lemon detox diet
Atkins diet
Detox diet
CSIRO diet
Low carb diet
Soup diet
South Beach diet
Cabbage soup diet
Tony Ferguson diet
Liver cleansing diet
Most searched for album of 2009
Eminem new album
Lady Gaga album
Muse new album
Taylor Swift album
White album
U2 new album
Michael Jackson album
The Script album
Lily Allen album
Beyonce new album
Most searched for movies of 2009
New Moon
Twilight
2012
Hannah Montana
Star Trek
Eclipe
Avatar
Halo
District 9
Bruno
Most searched for weddings of 2009
Kendra Wilkinson wedding
Khloe Kardashian wedding
Jade Goody wedding
Kristy Hinze wedding
Kyle Sandilands wedding
Fergie's wedding
Ellen Degeneres wedding
Roger Federer wedding
Rove wedding
Heidi Montag wedding
Most searched for births of 2009
Catriona Rowntree baby
Nicole Richie baby
Kim Clijsters baby
Britney Spears baby
Jennifer Garner baby
Roger Federer baby
Alyson Hannigan baby
Heidi Klum baby
Sarah Michelle Gellar baby
Ashlee Simpson baby
Most searched for Masterchef-related recipes
Croquembouche
Chocolate mousse cake
Chips
Risotto
Open Kofta
Lamb Shanks
Cupcakes
Chocolate fondant
Scone
Lemon tart
Most searched for country/city outside of Australia
New Zealand
Singapore
Vietnam
India
Italy
Antartica
Dubai
Egypt
France
Phuket
The hot tickets of 2009
AFL tickets
Pink tickets
Wicked tickets
ACDC tickets
Parklife tickets
Jersey Boys tickets
Australian Open tickets
Melbourne Cup tickets
Soundwave tickets
John Farnham tickets
Most searched for retail outlets
Harvey Norman
Big W
JB HiFi
Target
Ikea
Bunnings
Officeworks
Woolworths
KMart
Coles
Most searched for retail catalogues of the year
Target catalogue
Harvey Norman catalogue
Big W catalogue
Bunnings catalogue
Myer catalogue
Coles catalogue
IKEA catalogue
Spotlight catalogue
Aldi catalogue
Fastest rising searches in relation to love
Love quotes
Love poems
Love calculator
Love story lyrics
Love songs
Love tester
Love sayings
Love games
Love actually
What is love?
Most popular sports for 2009
AFL
NRL
Cricket
Melbourne Cup
BMX
Greyhounds
Tennis
Golf
Swimming
Soccer
Popularity contest
Rudd vs Turnbull vs Abbott
NRL vs AFL vs Rugby vs Soccer
Chanel vs Prada vs Gucci
Save vs Spend
Today we released the most popular search terms that Australians tapped into google.com.au this year, as well as the fastest rising search terms of 2009. When seen in aggregate, search queries reflect the people, places and events that captured our attention and imagination throughout the year.
And it was all about vampires. A Twilight-related search featured in the fastest rising searches of the year, the most searched for news stories, most popular celebrities and dominated the most searched for movies of the year for both Twilight and the new release, New Moon. The most Twilight obsessed state was NSW, followed closely by Queensland and Tasmania.
Michael Jackson's death sent people rushing to their computers for more information, as did the rumoured death of Jeff Goldblum and Miley Cyrus. We're still dwelling on the breakup of some of our most beloved bands, with the ABBA and Simon and Garfunkle breakup being among the most searched for of the year. And Hamish and Andy were the most searched for Aussie celebs, beating out Miranda Kerr.
Our reality TV obsession continues and was evident in the weddings we searched for most - the top three most searched for nuptials were that of reality TV stars Kendra Wilkinson, Khloe Kardashian and Jade Goody.
We went crazy for the lemon detox diet, which was maybe balanced by our love of all things 'foodie', driven by the wildly popular Masterchef series. Searches for particular recipes from the show soared following each episode, with the infamous 'Croquembouche' topping our recipe related Masterchef searches for the year.
A full list of results is included below. To see the most popular searches from across the world, visit google.com/zeitgeist2009.
The fastest rising searches of 2009
One HD
twitter.com
Masterchef
Melbourne Cup 2009
Grooveshark
New Moon Movie
Facebook search
Trading Post Auto
Smartkiddies
Currency converter calculator
Most popular searches of 2009
YouTube
Hotmail
eBay
MySpace
Yahoo
Gmail
Bebo
Seek
Most searched for news stories of 2009
Swine Flu
Stimulus package
Flu
Bushfires
Bushfire
New Moon
Fires
Robert Pattinson
Michael Jackson
Rihanna
Most searched for celebrities of 2009
Michael Jackson
Lady Gaga
Robert Pattinson
Megan Fox
Taylor Swift
Miley Cyrus
Susan Boyle
Hamish and Andy
Miranda Kerr
Kirsten Stewart
RIP - most searched deaths in 2009 (including rumoured/incorrectly reported deaths)
Michael Jackson
Jeff Goldblum
Patrick Swayze
DJ AM
Kanye West
Miley Cyrus
Farrah Fawcett
Emma Watson
Sookie Stackhouse
Rick Astley
Most searched breakups of 2009 (rumoured and confirmed)
Oasis breakup
Telstra breakup
Beatles breakup
PussyCat Dolls breakup
Wolfmother breakup
John Mayer breakup
Abba breakup
Hugh Hefner breakup
Breakup of Gondwana land
Simon and Garfunkel breakup
Most searched for diets of 2009
Lemon detox diet
Atkins diet
Detox diet
CSIRO diet
Low carb diet
Soup diet
South Beach diet
Cabbage soup diet
Tony Ferguson diet
Liver cleansing diet
Most searched for album of 2009
Eminem new album
Lady Gaga album
Muse new album
Taylor Swift album
White album
U2 new album
Michael Jackson album
The Script album
Lily Allen album
Beyonce new album
Most searched for movies of 2009
New Moon
Twilight
2012
Hannah Montana
Star Trek
Eclipe
Avatar
Halo
District 9
Bruno
Most searched for weddings of 2009
Kendra Wilkinson wedding
Khloe Kardashian wedding
Jade Goody wedding
Kristy Hinze wedding
Kyle Sandilands wedding
Fergie's wedding
Ellen Degeneres wedding
Roger Federer wedding
Rove wedding
Heidi Montag wedding
Most searched for births of 2009
Catriona Rowntree baby
Nicole Richie baby
Kim Clijsters baby
Britney Spears baby
Jennifer Garner baby
Roger Federer baby
Alyson Hannigan baby
Heidi Klum baby
Sarah Michelle Gellar baby
Ashlee Simpson baby
Most searched for Masterchef-related recipes
Croquembouche
Chocolate mousse cake
Chips
Risotto
Open Kofta
Lamb Shanks
Cupcakes
Chocolate fondant
Scone
Lemon tart
Most searched for country/city outside of Australia
New Zealand
Singapore
Vietnam
India
Italy
Antartica
Dubai
Egypt
France
Phuket
The hot tickets of 2009
AFL tickets
Pink tickets
Wicked tickets
ACDC tickets
Parklife tickets
Jersey Boys tickets
Australian Open tickets
Melbourne Cup tickets
Soundwave tickets
John Farnham tickets
Most searched for retail outlets
Harvey Norman
Big W
JB HiFi
Target
Ikea
Bunnings
Officeworks
Woolworths
KMart
Coles
Most searched for retail catalogues of the year
Target catalogue
Harvey Norman catalogue
Big W catalogue
Bunnings catalogue
Myer catalogue
Coles catalogue
IKEA catalogue
Spotlight catalogue
Aldi catalogue
Fastest rising searches in relation to love
Love quotes
Love poems
Love calculator
Love story lyrics
Love songs
Love tester
Love sayings
Love games
Love actually
What is love?
Most popular sports for 2009
AFL
NRL
Cricket
Melbourne Cup
BMX
Greyhounds
Tennis
Golf
Swimming
Soccer
Popularity contest
Rudd vs Turnbull vs Abbott
NRL vs AFL vs Rugby vs Soccer
Chanel vs Prada vs Gucci
Save vs Spend
Show Your Vote for COP 15
One of the benefits working at Google is the ability to spend 20% of your time on projects you are passionate about. Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Australian Conservation Foundation's Climate Project Summit where I met Al Gore and was trained as a Climate Project Presenter. I developed in my 20% time an open source platform called Show Your Vote to allow people around the world to tell the world's leaders to seal a fair and effective climate deal.
Some major environmental campaigns (including Earth Hour) as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are now using Show Your Vote to help visualize the world's public support of the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Summit, the COP15.
You can see all the ways in which you can participate in the COP15 from wherever you are in the world on their "Virtual participation in COP15" page.
One of the big challenges around activating people on the issue of climate change is that there are a myriad of campaigns, big ones, small local ones, all over the world. I really wanted to address this issue, to provide a single platform that all campaigns and websites can use to collectively show the vote. So I developed a "web element" similar in function to Google's Web Elements, which anyone can insert to allow people to vote, show the vote and provide educational tools on their own website by simply filling out the publisher form, and copying and pasting a single line of HTML code.
Google App Engine provides the hosting solution that makes this all possible.
Show Your Vote has three tabs: Vote, Explore, and Learn. The Vote tab allows individuals and organisations to show their vote.
The Explore tab displays individual votes aggregated by post code, and organisations by their own custom icons. The voting map is powered by Google Maps API. Additionally, social networking tools powered by Google Friend Connect allow people within the global community to share their messages of support. Individual votes are aggregated into post codes, and organisations can upload their own icon to the map.
Finally, the Learn tab contains rich educational pieces, narrated by some of the top names in science, NGOs and the political world. These tours were created by the Google Earth Outreach team using Google Earth's new touring capabilities.
In the countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, I'm hopeful that we can collect enough of the world's public show of support to help amplify the need to change climate change, to drive collective action and to reinforce the need for our world leaders to act now. Please join me in helping to show the vote!
I'd like to thank fellow Googlers Pamela Fox, Bob Aman, Rupert Breheny and Benjamin Kott for volunteering their time in helping to make Show Your Vote possible.
Some major environmental campaigns (including Earth Hour) as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are now using Show Your Vote to help visualize the world's public support of the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Summit, the COP15.
You can see all the ways in which you can participate in the COP15 from wherever you are in the world on their "Virtual participation in COP15" page.
Visiting with the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany to present Show Your Vote
One of the big challenges around activating people on the issue of climate change is that there are a myriad of campaigns, big ones, small local ones, all over the world. I really wanted to address this issue, to provide a single platform that all campaigns and websites can use to collectively show the vote. So I developed a "web element" similar in function to Google's Web Elements, which anyone can insert to allow people to vote, show the vote and provide educational tools on their own website by simply filling out the publisher form, and copying and pasting a single line of HTML code.
Google App Engine provides the hosting solution that makes this all possible.
Show Your Vote has three tabs: Vote, Explore, and Learn. The Vote tab allows individuals and organisations to show their vote.
The Explore tab displays individual votes aggregated by post code, and organisations by their own custom icons. The voting map is powered by Google Maps API. Additionally, social networking tools powered by Google Friend Connect allow people within the global community to share their messages of support. Individual votes are aggregated into post codes, and organisations can upload their own icon to the map.
Finally, the Learn tab contains rich educational pieces, narrated by some of the top names in science, NGOs and the political world. These tours were created by the Google Earth Outreach team using Google Earth's new touring capabilities.
In the countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, I'm hopeful that we can collect enough of the world's public show of support to help amplify the need to change climate change, to drive collective action and to reinforce the need for our world leaders to act now. Please join me in helping to show the vote!
I'd like to thank fellow Googlers Pamela Fox, Bob Aman, Rupert Breheny and Benjamin Kott for volunteering their time in helping to make Show Your Vote possible.
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