Making form-filling faster, easier and smarter

Webmaster Level: Intermediate

One of the biggest bottlenecks on any conversion funnel is filling out an online form – shopping and registration flows all rely on forms as a crucial and demanding step in accomplishing the goals of your site. For many users, online forms mean repeatedly typing common information like our names and addresses on different sites across the web – a tedious task that causes many to give up and abandon the flow entirely.

Chrome’s Autofill and other form-filling providers help to break down this barrier by remembering common profile information and pre-populating the form with those values. Unfortunately, up to now it has been difficult for webmasters to ensure that Chrome and other form-filling providers can parse their form correctly. Some standards exist; but they put onerous burdens on the implementation of the website, so they’re not used much in practice.

Today we’re pleased to announce support in Chrome for an experimental new “autocomplete type” attribute for form fields that allows web developers to unambiguously label text and select fields with common data types such as ‘full-name’ or ‘street-address’. With this attribute, web developers can drive conversions on their sites by marking their forms for auto-completion without changing the user interface or the backend.

Just add an attribute to the input element, for example an email address field might look like:

<input type=”text” name=”field1” x-autocompletetype=”email” />

We’ve been working on this design in collaboration with several other autofill vendors. Like any early stage proposal we expect this will change and evolve as the web standards community provides feedback, but we believe this will serve as a good starting point for the discussion on how to best support autofillable forms in the HTML5 spec. For now, this new attribute is implemented in Chrome as x-autocompletetype to indicate that this is still experimental and not yet a standard, similar to the webkitspeech attribute we released last summer.

For more information, you can read the full text of the proposed specification, ask questions on the Webmaster help forum, or you can share your feedback in the standardization discussion!

Posted by Ilya Sherman, Software Engineer

Updating our privacy policies and terms of service

In just over a month we will make some changes to our privacy policies and Google Terms of Service. This stuff matters, so we wanted to explain what’s changing, why and what these changes mean for users.

First, our privacy policies. Despite trimming our policies in 2010, we still have more than 70 (yes, you read right … 70) privacy documents covering all of our different products. This approach is somewhat complicated. It’s also at odds with our efforts to integrate our different products more closely so that we can create a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google.

So we’re rolling out a new main privacy policy that covers the majority of our products and explains what information we collect, and how we use it, in a much more readable way. While we’ve had to keep a handful of separate privacy notices for legal and other reasons, we’re consolidating more than 60 into our main Privacy Policy.

Regulators globally have been calling for shorter, simpler privacy policies—and having one policy covering many different products is now fairly standard across the web.

These changes will take effect on March 1, and we’re starting to notify users today, including via email and a notice on our homepage.



What does this mean in practice? The main change is for users with Google Accounts. Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.

Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products. Our search box now gives you great answers not just from the web, but your personal stuff too. So if I search for restaurants in Munich, I might see Google+ posts or photos that people have shared with me, or that are in my albums. Today we can also do things like make it easy for you to read a memo from Google Docs right in your Gmail, or add someone from your Gmail contacts to a meeting in Google Calendar.

But there’s so much more that Google can do to help you by sharing more of your information with … well, you. We can make search better—figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink. We can provide more relevant ads too. For example, it’s January, but maybe you’re not a gym person, so fitness ads aren’t that useful to you. We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day. Or ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before. People still have to do way too much heavy lifting, and we want to do a better job of helping them out.

Second, the Google Terms of Service—terms you agree to when you use our products. As with our privacy policies, we’ve rewritten them so they’re easier to read. We’ve also cut down the total number, so many of our products are now covered by our new main Google Terms of Service. Visit the Google Terms of Service page to find the revised terms.

Finally, what we’re not changing. We remain committed to data liberation, so if you want to take your information elsewhere you can. We don’t sell your personal information, nor do we share it externally without your permission except in very limited circumstances like a valid court order. We try hard to be transparent about the information we collect, and to give you meaningful choices about how it is used—for example our Ads Preferences Manager enables you to edit the interest categories we advertise against or turn off certain Google ads altogether. And we continue to design privacy controls, like Google+’s circles, into our products from the ground up.

We believe this new, simpler policy will make it easier for people to understand our privacy practices as well as enable Google to improve the services we offer. Whether you’re a new Google user or an old hand, please do take the time to read our new privacy policy and terms, learn more about the changes we’re making and understand the controls we offer.

Posted by Alma Whitten, Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering

The Detox Kitchen - day two

The Detox Kitchen day two and I haven't cracked yet!

So I woke up this morning and I must admit I wasn't hungry (which I was fearing) and my stomach felt a bit flatter. I have, since Christmas indulgencies really, been feeling bloated and sluggish and I can definitely feel, even after just one day, things are beginning to take effect.

Today's bag contained the usual tablets and potions - the supplements are a Biocare Adult Mulitvitamin & Mineral tablet, 2 linseed oil 500 capsules which contain omega 3 fatty acids, 1 Biocare Bio Acidophilus which is a probiotic full of 'good' bacteria.

I must confess I couldn't face taking the Bentonite Clay last night, this aids internal cleansing and detoxing, but I just couldn't face it. Today's resolution is to take it and not make a fuss.

Breakfast was a shot of beetroot juice, the tablets and a porridge oats with agave raspberry and apple compote and almond milk which was filling.

Today's snack was carrot, celery and apple juice and lunch (which was my favourite one to date) was roasted root vegetable tagine with almond and pearl barley - which was stuffed full of crisp sweet potato and quite delicious.

Dinner was very filling but healthy, chicken with a smoked aubergine and puy lentil bake with rocket and a snack of kiwi with mint and blueberries. I feel healthier just typing this...

The Detox Kitchen Day One
The Detox Kitchen Day Three
The Detox Kitchen Day Five
The Detox Kitchen Day Four

The Detox Kitchen - a week of detox

I am doing a detox this week for a brand new diet delivery company in London called The Detox Kitchen. They deliver outside your front door early in the morning so you will have stuff for breakfast onwards and everything is balanced in terms of nutritents - they even supply you with some tablets and Pukka teas to keep things balanced and healthy. I will be blogging how I get on throughout the week - though how I'm going to live without coffee I do not know!

Each detox box that is delivered daily for 5 days contains

• Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and pudding/snack
• Detoxing herbal teabags
• One little tub of psyllium husk (we are huge fans of this wonder powder!)
• One little tub of detoxifying bentonite clay
• A Biocare supplement program
• A 'shot of the day' - wheatgrass, beetroot juice, aloe vera and many more

You have to follow the sequence of breakfast, lunch and dinner and before breakfast I mixed Psyllium Husk with juice. This acts as a broom for the colon (nice!) and gets things moving as it were. I also have Bentonite Clay for bedtime for internal cleansing and detox. Yum.

For breakfast I had a beetroot, celery and apple juice with a little pot of brazil nuts - surprisingly tasty.
My mid-morning snack was humous and raw veg...
Then lunch was a delicious Quinoa and carrot, pepper salad with a dressing of coriander, soy and ginger vinaigrette.

My mid afternoon snack was a pot of Edamame beans which I love then I had to survive on a detox tea and lots of water until supper.

This was a Sri Lankan vegetable and prawn curry with lime pickle and saffron brown rice - it made a nice change to have some hot food. I was also sent a baked apple with cinnamon and nutmeg and a trace of a raspberry coulis - very nice indeed. Welcome little touch was a little pot of fresh mint leaves for making a mid-evening drink, these guys try to think of everything.

Will let you know how I feel tomorrow and what's on the menu!

The Detox Kitchen Day Two
The Detox Kitchen Day Three
The Detox Kitchen Day Four
The Detox Kitchen Day Five

Your Interview with President Obama

If you could hang out with President Obama, what would you ask him? Would your question be about jobs or unemployment? The threat of nuclear weapons? Immigration reform? Whatever your question is, submit it on YouTube for the opportunity to ask the President directly in a special interview over a Google+ Hangout from the White House.

On Monday, January 30, a few days after delivering his State of the Union address to the nation, President Obama will answer a selection of top-voted questions you’ve submitted in a live-streamed interview. Starting today through January 28, you can visit the White House YouTube channel to submit your video and text questions and vote on your favorites. Your YouTube questions will drive the interview, and several participants with top-voted questions will be selected to join the President in the Google+ Hangout to take part in the conversation live.



So take out your camera, check your hair and go to youtube.com/whitehouse to submit your question now. Need ideas? Visit youtube.com/whitehouse on Tuesday night at 9:00pm ET to watch the President’s State of the Union address live. The address will be followed by the Republican response on Speaker Boehner’s YouTube channel.

Video questions are preferred (though we also accept text) and should be about 20 seconds long. In the video description, be sure to tell us a little bit about yourself, like where you’re from.

Your Interview with President Obama will be streamed live at 5:30pm ET on on January 30 on youtube.com/whitehouse. You have until midnight ET on January 28 to submit your question and make your voice heard on the issues that matter to you.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics Manager

(Cross-posted from the YouTube blog)

Rice homeware - bright and colourful for the home

I love Rice - the Danish home ware and accessories company that is! They really brighten things up in the home and have some great accessories too. They were founded in 1998 and have just opened a shop in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden. Sadly you can't buy directly from the Rice website, but there are lots of links to where you can buy. They have strong social ethics - helping small communities from poor countries around the world by buying produce at a fair price - and above all their products are fun and sunny and make me, for one, smile.

The Shop in Neal's Yard, Covent Garden

Jagriti Yatra: a journey of entrepreneurship through India

As part of our ongoing commitment to entrepreneurship around the world, we recently took part in a worthy experiment crisscrossing India. Jagriti Yatra is an annual train journey that takes more than 400 of India's highly motivated youth (ages 20-26) on an 15-day trip to introduce them to India’s challenges, and to the individuals and institutions that are developing unique solutions to those challenges. The goal is to inspire these young people to develop and lead social and economic entrepreneurship in their own communities. Each year, around 50 experienced professionals also join the Yatra to serve as mentors, and this year, I—along with four other Googlers—went along for the ride.

This year’s “yatris” (participants) came from all four corners of the country—rich states and poor states, urban, semi-urban and rural. A large portion came from low-income rural families, and many of them (especially the women) had fought great odds to get a good education. Now, they wanted to give back to their communities.

The trip, which began in Mumbai on December 25 and returned on January 8, covered 8,500 kilometers and made 12 stops in a route that circumnavigated the entire country. Our days began at 5:30am and ended at 11:30pm, and the majority of time was spent pounding the pavement, from villages in Orissa and Uttar Pradesh to the suburbs of Madurai and Patna.

These visits brought us face-to-face with India’s major challenges. Confronted with the stark reality of youth abandoning their farming traditions, vast open-air garbage dumps in town centers, girls dropping out of school after eighth grade and unemployed undergraduates scrounging money to bribe their way into government jobs, the yatris were even more motivated to become agents of change in their country. The Yatra has led to a diverse range of startups, both planned and pre-existing—for example, I spoke with participants taking up organic farming in their villages, and to others who were inspired to establish career mentoring programs in their communities.

As first-time sponsors of this year's Yatra (which focused specifically on issues in healthcare, agribusiness, water and energy) we provided not only financial support, but also WiFi for the train journey and an SMS channel for Jagriti Yatra followers to get updates on the Yatra over SMS. We also helped set up the organization with a YouTube channel and a Google+ page so they could chronicle and share their journey with the wider world.

Throughout, the energy of the group was incredible; everyone was infused with the feeling that all things are possible if you persist. Jagriti Yatra has become the event for college students and would-be young entrepreneurs to participate in (this year, the organization received 3,200 applications for less than 500 spots). It was great to see so many young people focused on making a positive impact on society through entrepreneurship.



For more personal stories from the journey, visit the Jagriti Yatra Google+ page. To register for next year’s journey, visit Jagriti Yatra’s registration page.

Posted by Adhi Kesarla, Principal, New Business Development