Barbie of the Day - I shouldn't have favourites but...

Working for a collective of bloggers I know I shouldn't have favourites - everyone who comes on board comes on board because of their merits and before this turns into a plug for Handpicked Media and you all click away I would like to say that yes, there are certain blogs that I visit because on a personal and private level they give me an enormous amount of pleasure.

One such blog is Barbie of the Day purely because it's genius mixed with a bit of British bonkers. I had Sindy as a child - Barbie was far too brash and American (and probably too expensive as well) and I think my parents were really into their 'buying British' kick as early as the sixties. So Barbie didn't really feature in my consciousness as a child really. But boy did I love my Sindy - favourite outfit that I can remember? A mock leopard coat and black knee-length boots and... well that's all I can remember actually so my Sindy probably grew up to be a right little madam (in all senses of the word).
Sindy 1960's - what's not to love?

Anyway back to Barbie of the Day. This blog is written - or should I say, written, photographed and all the clothes are made by a Yorkshire boy who has the enviable lifestyle of living in the South of France. Here Barbie and Ken frolic and live out their A-list lives in the sunshine and wear the most fantastic outfits. These are some of my favourites...

To quote 'Clean, crisp and fresh. Nope, not the picnic, but today’s BOTD beach chic. We’re keeping cool and taking Halloween for a stroll around the cap. A touch of sparkle brightens up our simple tennis whites and a handsome hunk is the perfect finishing touch.' What's not to love....


But Barbie does Diva too...
'Beyoncé has arrived at Glastonbury with her flunkies in tow. Big gay stylist, big gay bouncer and big gay personal trainer/dog walker. Who run the world?'

But my favourites are those outfits shot on location that really conjure up that A-list lifestyle and working it on the Cap D'Azur...

'There is no such thing as a day off at BOTD Towers so it must be an off day. Never mind. Whatever is to be thrown at us this week, at least we will be looking great. Two minutes of peace by the pool before the madness begins.'


Barbie of the Day makes me smile, keeps me on my toes fashion-wise and is a daily dose of glamour and glitz - put her in your favourites or follow her on Twitter for the perfect antidote to working days in London.

The J. Paul Getty Museum collection comes alive with Google Goggles

The Google Goggles team has worked with The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to “Goggles-enable” their permanent collection of paintings. Now you can use the Google Goggles app on your phone to take a photo of any of the paintings in the Getty’s permanent collection and instantly access information about the work from both the Getty’s mobile-optimized webpage about the painting and from around the web. Instead of being limited to the amount of information that fits on the wall next to a painting, Getty museum staff can now share a fuller story that all visitors can enjoy online.

From your phone you can read and hear commentary from artists, curators, conservators or the works of art themselves, such as the anthropomorphic voice of the pig in the Adoration of the Magi. Snap a quick shot of the artwork and have an interactive experience with what is on the wall in front of you—all in in the palm of your hand (just remember to respect museum photography rules and to turn off your flash).

 

Google Goggles results and the Getty webpage for Portrait of the Sisters Bonaparte

If you want to take your art history lesson home with you, you can store a record of the art you captured by enabling Search History on your Android phone. In fact, anytime you stumble across a piece of art, whether it be a reproduction on a poster or a print in a book, you can take a photo with your phone and Goggles will recognize it and supply you with rich info.

Download Google Goggles for your Android or iOS device as part of the Google Search app, and give it a try if you stop by the Getty. You can also view the J. Paul Getty Museum collection online at http://www.getty.edu/art. For more information about the Getty-Goggles project, visit mobile.getty.edu/gettygoggles or scan the QR code below.

Posted by Shailesh Nalawadi, Product Manager

+1 around the world

Webmaster Level: all

A few months ago we released the +1 button on English search results on google.com. More recently, we’ve made the +1 button available to sites across the web, making it easy for the people who love your content to recommend it on Google search.

Today, +1’s will start appearing on Google search pages globally. We'll be starting off with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.jp and google.fr, then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after.

We’ve partnered with a few more sites where you’ll see +1 buttons over the coming days.

If you’re a publisher based outside of the US, and you’ve been waiting to put +1 buttons on your site, now’s a good time to get started. Visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central where the +1 button is already available in 44 languages.

Adding the +1 button could help your site to stand out by putting personal recommendations right at the moment of decision, on Google search. So if you have users who are fans of your content, encourage them to add their voice with +1!

Posted by Kari Wilson, Product Marketing Manager

Webbing the gap between science and the public

We recently held an Innovation Workshop for the 2011 Google Science Communication Fellows, a group of early to mid-career PhD scientists chosen for their leadership in climate change research and communication. The Fellows spent three days together alongside Googlers and external experts at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. exploring the potential of information technology and social media to spur public engagement.

All 21 of the 2011 Fellows are experienced science communicators, trained in using traditional media to bridge the gap between complex science and the general public. This workshop was an opportunity for them to explore new media communications optimized for the age of the web; or, as as I like to say, learning how to “web” the gap between the science community and the larger world in the digital age.
We organized the workshop around three themes:

1. Understanding the public. This session introduced trending tools— like search, Google Trends and Correlate—that can be used to gather data from search queries and online discussions. If you’re curious, watch Google user experience researcher, Dan Russel, give the Fellows a 101 on how people search, and what they’re looking for.
2. Documenting your science story. Here, the Fellows played around with Google Earth, Fusion Tables and YouTube to learn how to create interactive and engaging stories with science data, which could then be shared with a broad audience. For more on this, visit the Science Communications Fellows talks page on YouTube.
3. Joining the conversation. In this session, Googler Chris Messina, a developer advocate, took the Fellows on a journey into the social web, illustrating by examples the power of the crowd in shaping ideas and building understanding across diverse social networks. You can view Chris’s outstanding talk here.

Several external experts participated in the workshop as well, including Andy Revkin, Dot Earth blogger and senior fellow of environmental understanding at Pace University. Andy gave a thought-provoking keynote the first evening, which also included a self-composed ditty about the fossil age (look out Schoolhouse Rock!).

Armed with new knowledge on “webbing the gap,” the Fellows are now developing project proposals to put what they learned into practice. Proposal selections will be made later this summer. You can learn more about tools for science communication in the digital age and the innovation workshop at our site here. Stay tuned for future opportunities for participating in this program.

Posted by Dr. Amy Luers, Google.org

Updated and more detailed Transparency Report

Our Transparency Report discloses the information that governments have asked for over the past six months. For our latest batch of data, covering July through December 2010, we wanted to improve the way we give you the information, so we’ve updated the look of the report and added more details.

We've highlighted some significant changes in the data and provided context about why those changes may have occurred during this reporting period. We’ve also made it easier for you to spot trends in the data yourself. For example, we’ve changed the format so you can now see data on a country-by-country basis. We’re also clearly disclosing the reasons why we’ve been asked to remove content—such as an allegation of defamation or hate speech.

For the first time, we’re also revealing the percentage of user data requests we’ve complied with in whole or in part. This gives you a better idea of how we’ve dealt with the requests we receive from government agencies—like local and federal police—for data about users of our services and products.

Our goal is to provide our users access to information and to protect the privacy of our users. Whenever we receive a request, we first check to make sure it meets both the letter and spirit of the law before complying. When possible, we notify affected users about requests for user data that may affect them. And, if we believe a request is overly broad, we will seek to narrow it.

We hope that our website improvements help you to see more clearly how the web is shaped by government influence and how Google responds to requests for information and removals.

Posted by Matt Braithwaite, Transparency Engineering

Hadiah Istimewa dari Google: PageRank Update! (Juni 2011)

Sore tadi (27/6/2011) setelah membuat dan mempublish artikel Cara Membuat Menu Pulldown Plus Tombol/Button, saya menyempatkan ngobrol lewat YM dengan seorang teman Blogger dari US. Dalam percakapan itu, dia sempat menyinggung bahwa pada hari ini (di US masih pagi banget , 27/6/2011) Google melakukan update, yaitu Panda Update (yang dilakukan secara diam-diam sebelumnya) dan juga Google PageRank

Cara Membuat Menu Pulldown Plus Tombol/Button

Pull down menu seringkali juga disebut sebagai dropdown menu atau jump menu. Disebut pull down karena list menu akan muncul setelah bagian atas menu diklik/ditekan, dan disebut pula dropdown menu karena setelah di-klik sederet list menu akan muncul secara berurutan ke bawah. Pull down menu/drop down menu sangat bermanfaat untuk menampilkan list pilihan yang sangat panjang karena dapat