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Google At Rio+20
Monday, June 18, 2012
(Cross-posted from the
Google Green Blog
)
This month, heads of state, NGOs, scientists and business leaders from around the world will meet to discuss how best to reduce poverty, advance social equity and better protect the environment at the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development
, also known as Rio+20. As a company that believes deeply in sustainability, we wouldn’t miss this for the world. So from June 13 - 22, a group of Googlers from our
Google Earth Outreach
and
Google Earth Engine
teams will be joining many of our partners, including Chief Almir Surui,
The Jane Goodall Institute
,
Imazon
,
Aliança de Terra
,
Amazon Sustainable Foundation
and others to show how technology can support the conference’s core themes. We’ll be posting updates on the
Google Green Blog
from the conference throughout the week, but we thought we’d offer a quick preview of how we’ll be participating:
Wednesday, June 13th - Friday, June 22nd
: We invite all conference attendees to visit us at our booth in the Rio State Government Pavilion at Athletes’ Park. You’ll be able to tour the Earth and beyond in our
Liquid Galaxy
, an immersive Google Earth experience, and explore some of the work our partners have created using Google tools.
Friday, June 15th:
Ronaldo Barreto, Strategic Partner Manager for Latin America, will participate in
Megacities Forum 2012
, at a roundtable on “Future Cities and the Use of New Transport Technologies.” Ronaldo will show how tools such as Google Maps, Google Transit and Google Street View are being used to modernize Rio de Janeiro’s transportation infrastructure.
Friday, June 15th:
Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager for Google Earth Engine and Google Earth Outreach, will speak at “No Roads to a Green Economy: Mapping Earth´s roadless areas and their services,” a discussion at the
European Union Pavilion
about the need to promote roadless areas as a means to conserve biodiversity and secure the rights of indigenous people.
Saturday, June 16th:
Rebecca Moore will be joining Chief Almir Surui at the
Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum
to share the latest news regarding our ongoing partnership with the Surui tribe.
Sunday, June 17th:
We’ll be holding an SD-Learning event, “
From the Ground to the Cloud: New Tools for Sustainable Development
,” which will be introduced by Brazilian Senator Eduardo Braga and will feature a presentation from Imazon on their work to create a deforestation monitoring system for Brazil, powered by Google Earth Engine. (Registration has closed for this event.)
Monday, June 18th:
All visitors to Rio+20 are welcome to join our Side Event, "
Tools for Data Collection and Mapping: the Ground to the Cloud Story
" at the Arena de Barra. We’ll be hearing from a number of partners about they work they’re doing with Google tools. Among others, the Jane Goodall Institute and Woods Hole Research Center will share their work estimating forest biomass over Tanzania with Google Earth Engine, and Aliança da Terra will talk about how their use of
Open Data Kit
and
Google Maps Engine
has transformed their operations.
Tuesday, June 19th:
we’ll be at the U.S. Government Pavilion to participate in panel
discussions and demonstrations
of our work with the Governor’s Forest and Climate Taskforce.
These are only a few examples of the fascinating ways technology can help address some of our world’s most pressing challenges. Stay tuned for updates throughout the conference about the news our partners are sharing, and if you have any thoughts about how technology can help save the world -- or at least help us all be more environmentally responsible and support a sustainable future, let us know at #googleatrio20.
Posted by Rick Needham, Director, Energy & Sustainability
The HALO Trust Uses Google Earth To Help Get Mines Out Of The Ground, Now
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Lat Long Blog
)
Founded in 1988,
The HALO Trust
is the world’s oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization. Dedicated to the removal of the hazardous debris of war, HALO has cleared over 414,000 acres of land and removed over 13 million landmines and other explosive remnants. Their work allows families to return home, land to be used for agriculture, roads to be re-opened, and children to walk to school safely. When HALO visited the
Google Earth Outreach
team at Google headquarters two years ago, we were proud to hear
how they use our tools to clear landmines around the world
. Since 2006, they have leveraged their Google Earth Pro grant for minefield survey, data validation, quality control and to produce maps for donors, governments, and other NGOs. They have since received a
Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant
to fund creation of their
Explore a Minefield
project. Now you can take a tour of the mine-affected areas of Cambodia and Angola with the HALO Trust using
Google Earth
, and see how landmine removal efforts have helped build safe and vibrant communities. Angelina Jolie, who has visited mine removal efforts in a number of war-torn countries, lent her voice for the narration.
Learn how HALO’s Cambodia staff maps and clears mined areas. Watch the
YouTube video
or
download the tour
in Google Earth.
Watching these tours, we were amazed at the sheer number of mines that were laid in Cambodia and Angola and the size and scope of HALO’s effort to clear them in each of the
13 countries where they work
. Using Google Earth’s
historical imagery
to provide time-lapse images of mined areas before and after clearance, they can clearly show how landmine removal is helping war-torn communities rebuild. While this scale of landmine clearance is staggering and inspiring, the tours also show the minefields that still remain.
Learn about Angola’s war-torn history and how HALO is helping communities to rebuild. Watch the
YouTube video
or
download the tour
in Google Earth.
To learn more about how you can help The HALO Trust clear these remaining minefields, visit
their website
.
Posted by Raleigh Seamster, Google Earth Outreach
Access Our Google For Nonprofits Trainings From NTC On YouTube
Monday, June 4, 2012
Back in April we were fortunate to meet many wonderful nonprofit organizations at
NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference
(ntc 2012). We wanted to let everyone know that the recorded trainings from the conference are now live on the
Google for Nonprofits YouTube channel
for your viewing (and learning!) pleasure.
Get insight and actionable next steps for putting products like
Google Apps, Analytics, Earth, Google+, Grants, Mobile and YouTube
to work for your organization.
We had a great time at NTC 2012
and hope that it comes through in
the videos
you’re about to watch.
Posted by Jessica Vaughan, Google Grants Team
A New Human Rights Channel On YouTube
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Official YouTube Blog
)
From its inception, YouTube has been a platform for free expression. Activists around the world use YouTube to document causes they care about and make them known to the world. In the case of human rights, video plays a particularly important role in illuminating what occurs when governments and individuals in power abuse their positions. We’ve seen this play out on a global stage during the Arab Spring, for example: during the height of the activity, 100,000 videos were uploaded from Egypt, a 70% increase on the preceding three months. And we’ve seen it play out in specific, local cases with issues like police brutality, discrimination, elder abuse, gender-based violence, socio-economic justice, access to basic resources, and bullying.
That’s why our non-profit partner
WITNESS
, a global leader in the use of video for human rights, and
Storyful
, a social newsgathering operation, are joining forces to launch a new
Human Rights channel
on YouTube, dedicated to curating hours of raw citizen-video documenting human rights stories that are uploaded daily and distributing that to audiences hungry to learn and take action. The channel, which will also feature content from a slate of human rights organizations already sharing their work on YouTube, aims to shed light on and contextualize under-reported stories, to record otherwise undocumented abuses, and to amplify previously unheard voices. The project was announced today at the
Internet at Liberty conference
, and will live at
youtube.com/humanrights
. Storyful will source and verify the videos, and WITNESS will ensure the channel features a balanced breadth of issues with the context viewers need to understand the rights issue involved.
We hope this project can not only be a catalyst to awareness, but offer people new avenues for action and impact. The channel is committed to providing new citizen creators as well as viewers with the
tools and information
necessary so that every citizen can become a more effective human rights defender. It will also be available on
Google+
, where the broader human rights community can take part in discussions, share material, and find collaborators.
We welcome your feedback and thoughts on the channel, and if you want to suggest a video for inclusion, email the YouTube URL to witness@storyful.com. Please include
any and all details
around the time, place, and context of the video. Also, be sure to take the time to learn
how to protect yourself and your subjects
if you’re the one behind the camera.
Posted by Sam Gregory, WITNESS Program Director, and Olivia Ma, YouTube News Manager
How Two Nonprofits Improve Their Site Performance With Google Analytics
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Google Analytics Blog
)
At Google, we’re proud that our products are used by nonprofits to help them better achieve their objectives and improve the world. We believe that data holds amazing power for all types of organizations and it’s inspiring to see some forward-thinking nonprofits live at the edge of adoption. Today we’d like to share two brief case studies we’ve published: how the
Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) and
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) are using Google Analytics. Links to the full case studies are included after each summary if you’d like to dive deeper.
By tailoring the features of Google Analytics, LunaMetrics helps PBS increase conversions and visits by 30%
Top Notch Programming, The Public Broadcasting System’s interactive arm, helps individual PBS producers and local PBS stations create and promote each section within PBS.org for programs such as NOVA, American Masters, and Sid the Science Kid. A selection of web analytics tools had been installed, but these proved difficult to maintain and use. PBS wanted to develop a coordinated approach to analysis and reporting that would inform their future strategic decisions.
Led by Web Analytics Director Amy Sample, the team at PBS needed a cohesive system across the entire enterprise, and for this they turned to Google Analytics. In addition to top-level analysis of PBS.org and PBSKids.org, they also hoped to implement a solution that would allow producers of individual programs to see only the data on those pages and microsites that related to their own shows. It was critical to have a solution that gave Amy the over-arching view she needed, and the microcosm view that each producer needed. To meet these requirements, LunaMetrics devised a custom technical solution for PBS that expanded their existing standard implementation.
Google Analytics has been a key facilitator in the transformation of PBS online. The tool enables reporting that is robust, tailored and meaningful, which means that stakeholders are no longer focused on static monthly reports. Instead, they are increasingly able to use analytics to inform critical and timely business decisions on a day-to-day basis. Analysis of search engine trends led to an increase in PBS traffic by 30% during the first year after implementation. PBS also used valuable conversion funnel data to optimize the registration path in PBSKids; this activity increased conversions by one-third. Furthermore, since Google Analytics was set up to allow PBS to evaluate the way users consumed video, the broadcaster created two new portals: PBS Video and PBSKIDS Go!
Read the full PBS case study here
.
SFMOMA Chooses Google Analytics and Masters the Art of Metrics
In 1995, SFMOMA was one of the first museums to launch an institutional website.
SFMOMA.org
offers a fluid space of exploration in which visitors can easily navigate an online collection of more than 9,000 artworks and a rich archive of studio and video content. The site also has an online store and a detailed calendar of exhibitions and events.
Their primary goal was to develop rich, dynamic content that engages visitors and keeps them coming back to the website as well as the physical museum. SFMOMA’s website receives nearly four times the number of visits than the physical museum. Providing compelling digital content that visitors want was as critical as hosting popular exhibitions.
Google Analytics Certified Partner E-Nor helped SFMOMA connect key business objectives to a robust web analytics strategy and recommended Google Analytics as the best solution for their needs. As a result of the switch to Google Analytics with a thorough implementation plan, SFMOMA saw a tremendous increase in available insights about their online presence. They realized a 15% gain in traffic accuracy, and so were more willing to make decisions based on the data.
They could clearly see what content users liked best, and made changes and improvements to their website to keep them coming back. Their marketing campaigns were tied to sales and other goal conversions, and so they could optimize accordingly.
All this new data is helping produce valuable insights on how the website is used and what marketing efforts and website designs are delivering results. SFMOMA is now prepared to continue its online leadership thanks to careful planning and strategy coupled with an expert use of the advanced features in Google Analytics.
Read the full SFMOMA case study here.
Posted by the Google Analytics team
Google Maps Engine Grants For Nonprofits
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Lat Long Blog
)
Today, we are excited to announce a new addition to the
Google Earth Outreach Grants program
. Now, eligible nonprofit organizations in the U.S., U.K., Brazil and Canada can apply for grants of
Google Maps Engine
, a
platform formerly known as Google Earth Builder
, for hosting, storing, managing, and styling map data. Google Earth Builder has been
available to businesses
since August 2011. A new name is just the beginning. Several nonprofit organizations, including
World Wildlife Fund
and
Eyes on the Forest
(a coalition of Sumatran NGOs), as well as
Living Oceans Society
, have already been using the platform to tell stories and engage their constituents in an interactive way. It's no secret that the natural habitats of wildlife such as tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans are disappearing at an alarming rate. The World Wildlife Fund, in partnership with Eyes on the Forest, uses Google Maps Engine to develop and publish Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data showing the reduction of ranges for these four endangered species. In addition, they are publishing maps on floral diversity and change in carbon stocks and forest cover over time.
While some nonprofits focus on terrestrial conservation, Living Oceans Society works to protect the British Columbia coastline. As GIS and mapping specialists, they create and publish maps such as kayak routes, dive sites, eelgrass beds, and oil and tanker traffic to inform residents of the recreational value of natural habitats as well as inform policy-makers about the risks that increasing industrial practices pose to the ecosystem.
With this addition of Google Maps Engine to the Google Earth Outreach Grants program, we’re releasing three new Google Maps Engine
tutorials
to educate nonprofits on how to use the product. We’ll also be hosting a Google+ Hangout on the
Google Earth Plus page
to provide more information about the program and answer questions from potential grant recipients. Tune in by visiting the Google Earth Plus page on May 24th at 10:30 a.m. PDT to join the
Hangout on Air
. More information about eligibility for a Google Maps Engine grant and how organizations can apply is available on the Google Earth Outreach
Maps Engine for Nonprofits page
.
Posted by Tanya Birch, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach
Announcing The Next Series Of Learn With Google Webinars!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Inside AdWords Blog
)
Earlier this year, we introduced the
Learn with Google webinar program
, and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business.
Check out our upcoming live webinars below:
May 23 at 10am PDT:
Getting Started with Google Analytics
May 24 at 9am PDT:
Building Blocks of Digital Attribution
May 31 at 10am PDT:
Introduction to TrueView for YouTube
June 5 at 10am PDT:
GoMo: Mobilize your Site with Quick and Easy New Tools
June 6 at 10am PDT:
Our Mobile Planet: Understanding U.S. Smartphone Consumers
June 7 at 10am PDT:
Introducing Mobile Apps Inventory in AdWords
June 12 at 10am PDT:
Get Local with ZIP Code Targeting to Increase Sales/Leads
June 14 at 10am PDT:
Search Optimization: Tips, Tricks, and Tools
June 19 at 10am PDT:
Bringing the Power and Control of Search to Display
July 10 at 10am PDT:
Account Management Tools for Large Advertisers and Agencies
Visit our
webinar page
to register for any of the sessions and to access past webinars on-demand. We’ll be adding new webinars as they’re scheduled, so check back regularly for updates. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by downloading our
Learn with Google Webinar calendar
to automatically see upcoming webinars in your Google Calendar.
Whether your goal is to engage the right customers in the moments that matter, make better decisions, or go bigger, faster, we hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to having you at an upcoming Learn with Google webinar!
Posted by Erin Green, Marketing Coordinator
GoMo: Build A Mobile Site In Minutes, The Recap
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Google Mobile Ads Blog
)
In case you missed it, last Thursday Google hosted a mobile site builder product demonstration and broadcasted it live with Hangouts on Air on Think With Google’s
Google+ page
. During the Hangout, we featured two businesses building mobile-friendly sites in minutes. Participants included:
Dennis Mink, Chief Marketing Office from DudaMobile
Adrienne Burhoe, Chief Operating Officer from Top Mast Resort in Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Felicia Viening, General Manager from Savas Restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Key takeaways
Understand your mobile user and the content they need, and bring those elements to your mobile-friendly site
Make it easy for people to contact and find your business
Remember to paste the auto-redirect code to your desktop site
Create a mobile-friendly site today with Google’s simple and easy-to-use site creation tool
Check out the recorded video of our Hangout below and visit howtogomo.com/getstarted to build your own mobile site. It only takes minutes and Google will pick up the cost for the first year.
Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads
Getting Started With Analytics
Monday, May 14, 2012
It’s often hard to know how to improve your website. Sure, you may have the greatest resource hub ever, but are people actually using it? What’s the deal with metrics like time on site--is longer better because people are exploring your great content, or is longer worse because people are confused and lost?
Google Analytics
, a free tool that provides detailed information about your website traffic, can help you answer these questions. Once you’ve installed it on all pages of your website (instructions
here
), you’ll be slicing and dicing data in no time!
The first step towards analysis with Google Analytics is thinking about the different groups of people who might visit your site. Say your organization tutors low-income students. You might have three types of people visiting your site--donors, volunteer tutors, and the students themselves. Take a second and make a list of all the different sorts of people who might visit your own website.
Next, think about what these groups of people might be looking for. The students might want to know when you’re closed for holidays, or they might be looking for resources to help them with that tricky geometry homework. Donors could be trying to donate online, or maybe looking for more information about your organization’s mission. Volunteers may be looking for a list of upcoming volunteering events, or for a sign-up link for your newsletter.
Once you’ve figured out who is visiting your site and what they might be looking for, it’s time to use Analytics if these people are getting what they want. The
“Goal”
feature of Analytics is designed for just this purpose. URL destination goals are a great place to start. This goal type allows you to track visits to specific pages of your site--for example, the “Thank You page” that comes up after a successful online donation, or a page with information about volunteering hours. You’ve already figured out what your visitors are looking for--now translate these into URL destination goals!
Once you’ve created these goals, they’ll show up each of your
reports
within Analytics. You’ll be able to look at goal completion rate, which is one way to measure your website’s effectiveness. You can compare goal completion rates for different referring sites or landing pages, allowing you to see which of your partnership efforts is the most effective.
Now that you have a good sense of how your website is performing, you can begin to find ways to make it even better! One great report to look at is the
“Visitor Flow”
report, which shows you the pages people visited en route to your goal URLs. Take a look at these paths and see if anything looks unexpected. Did a high number of users end up on the resources section of your site after visiting the donation section? Did many users visit ten pages before finally finding your hours of operation? Are there popular paths that involve both pages targeted specifically at donors and pages targeted at beneficiaries? If so, this may suggest that the flow of your website is confusing. Consider including more direct links to your goal pages on your home pages to facilitate use of your site.
Your website should make it easy for all of your visitors to find what they’re looking for--you wouldn’t want to miss out on potential donors because the online donation process is confusing, or turn away volunteers who can’t find an updated calendar! With just a little set-up, Analytics can help you determine whether your website is helping you or hindering you--and it can show you what you can change to improve your performance.
Posted by Eva Breitenbach, AdWords Team
Google+ Hangouts On Air: Broadcast Your Conversation To The World
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
(Cross posted from
the Official Google Blog
)
Last year we introduced
Hangouts On Air
to a limited number of broadcasters, enabling them to go live with friends and fans, for all the world to see. Since then, this small community has grown the feature in lots of creative ways. And they’ve made one thing crystal clear: when groups of passionate individuals can broadcast live, together, the results are truly remarkable:
Today we're excited to launch Hangouts On Air to Google+ users
worldwide
. So if you have something to say—as an aspiring artist, a global celebrity, or a concerned citizen—you can now go live in front of a global audience. With just a few clicks, you’ll be able to:
Broadcast publicly.
By checking "Enable Hangouts On Air," you can broadcast your live hangout—from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website—to the entire world.
See how many viewers you’ve got.
During your broadcast, you can look inside the hangout to see how many people are watching live.
Record and re-share.
Once you're off the air, we’ll upload a public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post. This way it's easy to share and discuss your broadcast after it's over.
Of course, launching millions of live stations takes some doing, so we're rolling out Hangouts On Air gradually, over the next few weeks. In the meantime you can save the date for an upcoming hangout...
-
CBS This Morning
: May 8th at 4:20am PT / 7:20am ET
-
Cadbury UK
: May 11th at 1:30pm PT / 4:30pm ET
-
Conan O’Brien
: May 8th at 7:30pm PT / 10:30pm ET
-
The Nerdist
: May 11th at 3:00pm PT / 6:00pm ET
-
CNBC
: May 10th at 1:15pm PT / 4:15pm ET
-
Jamie Oliver
on Food Revolution Day: May 19th at 5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET
-
Global Poverty Project
: May 10th at 4:00pm PT / 7:00pm ET
- A special series from
The New York Times
’ Opinion department
… sign in to Google+ to see what’s
live right now
, or find inspiration in the many broadcasts that have already aired.
A news van for everyone.
KOMU-TV anchor
+Sarah Hill
invited locals to share live coverage of the recent protests in Montreal; Fox 11 LA anchor
+Maria Quiban
invites viewers to join her on Good Day LA.
Town halls with today’s leaders.
President
+Barack Obama
, Governor
+Mitt Romney
, UN Secretary-General
+Ban Ki-moon
, and many others have connected with citizens via hangout.
Live concerts from your living room.
Musical artists like
+Suite 709
and
+Daria Musk
perform live for those inside the hangout, and for everyone else tuning in.
Classes anyone can attend.
Chef
+Larry Fournillier
, Professor
+Noah Diffenbaugh
, and
+FAWN
share their cooking, climate change and fashion expertise, respectively, via hangout.
Roundtables about any topic
. Photographer
+Trey Ratcliff
,
soccer
football enthusiast
+Sabotage Times
and celebrity trend spotter
+Young Hollywood
talk about the issues they find interesting.
Face-to-face meetups with all of your favorites
.
+David Beckham
, the
+Miami Hurricanes
,
+Tyra Banks
, the
+Indianapolis Colts
and
+Geek & Sundry
have all enjoyed meet-and-greets with their fans.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll share with the world.
Posted by
Chee Chew
, Engineering Director
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