Google Zeitgeist 2012: Year In Review

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As 2012 comes to a close, it's time for our 12th annual Year-End Zeitgeist - an in-depth look at the "spirit of the times" as seen through the billions of searches on Google over the past year.

On our 2012 Zeitgeist website, you can explore the most popular and hottest trending search terms from around the world. This year’s site is our most global to date, with a total of 838 lists from 55 countries. We’ve also added a number of new features, including an interactive map that shows where and when some of the hottest terms spiked around the world, and a Google Zeitgeist Android app coming out later today (with an iOS version coming soon too).

For a round-the-globe tour through 2012, take a look at our video:

So what kinds of things were top of mind this year? While there are perennial themes - "what is love?" topped the list in 10 countries - it’s the unusual and surprising that caught our attention in 2012.

Global superstar Whitney Houston topped many countries’ lists as well as three of our overall trending lists - her unexpected death surprising fans around the world. From Korea, YouTube sensation PSY’s “Gangnam Style” signature dance took the world by storm, landing him the #1 spot in many countries and making his song the second most trending query of 2012. (PSY’s video became the #1 most watched in YouTube history - stay tuned for YouTube’s Rewind for more.)

Then there was the superhuman. Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s epic free fall jump made him the #6 globally trending person of the year, while the 2012 Olympics and its various athletes made it into almost every country’s top trends. And NBA player Jeremy Lin also rose on the charts this year, making him the #1 trending athlete globally.

People researched a breadth of other topics, too. Web users took a serious interest in threats to the open Internet, with proposals like SOPA and ACTA both finding their way to the top of many countries’ lists. The U.S. elections brought attention to the candidates and issues, not least the presidential campaigns’ most notorious political gaffes. And while it might not be surprising to see that tragic natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy ranked highly (#3 on the global trending list), it is reassuring to find searches like [donate to Sandy] spiking as well.

We hope you enjoy exploring what people around the world were searching for in 2012. It’s quite a snapshot of what makes us human: a blend of guilty pleasures and higher pursuits. Posted by Amit Singhal, SVP & Google Fellow

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Google Earnings Review: Profitability Weakens Again

Google reported QE September 2012 financial results on October 18

I repeat, this isn't the Google that Granny used to talk about. Things have changed significantly. That is, Google fundamentals have changed with the acquisition and merger of Motorola in Q2 2012 (Fundamentals Change With Motorola Acquisition). Motorola is negatively affecting financial performance. Google's core business is not as profitable and therefore is also negatively affecting financial performance.



Both the revenue mix and margin mix have changed and hence the uncertainty about Google's operations. This will continue negatively impacting the bottom line, net income and earnings per share, at least for the short-term. The top line revenues surge upwards with no positive bottom line impact. The long-term impact is the uncertainty.

The 3rd and 4th calendar quarters can be the strongest for Google on an annual cyclical basis. The solid gains in net income and earnings per share were not reported year over year as expected. That leaves next quarter, the Holiday Q4, for a rebound. Holiday Q4 should be stronger than the current Q3, but the annual surge in earnings per share may not follow suit.



Revenue growth, year over year, had previously slowed but the Motorola acquisition reversed the trend significantly to the upside. Yet this has not mattered with regards to net income nor earnings per share. Consolidated margins decreased significantly, caused mostly by Motorola but to some extent by core operations. Net income and operating income continue decreasing on record revenues, the result of the gross profit margin, then operating margin, then net margin dropping to multi-year lows.



And finally we arrive at the earnings per share and ultimately GOOG stock prospects. The race and goal is to become the Anti-Apple with integration across software and hardware while continuing as an advertising company. Whether this can in fact be done, how long it will take, and if Apple's profitability levels can be reached are the 3 questions and uncertainties.



“We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45 percent year-on-year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first $14 billion revenue quarter,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “I am also really excited about the progress we’re making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices.”

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Google: Significant Motorola Restructuring Costs Ahead

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Google Warns of More Motorola Cuts, Revises Up Third-Quarter Bill

(Reuters) Google Inc revised up the bill for job cuts at its money-losing Motorola Mobility mobile phone unit in the third quarter and warned of further restructuring that may result in "significant" additional charges.

"Google raised its estimates for severance-related charges 9 percent to $300 million from $275 million and warned it faced another $40 million in other costs in the quarter to quit facilities and markets.

"Motorola has continued to refine its planned restructuring actions and now expects to broaden those actions to include additional geographic regions outside of the U.S.," the company said in a statement.

Read more

Google Warns of 'Significant' Motorola Charges

(CNBC) Google said planned job cuts at its Motorola Mobility mobile phone unit will cost about $340 million in severance and other costs in the third quarter and it warned of further restructuring that may result in "significant" charges.

"Motorola has continued to refine its planned restructuring actions and now expects to broaden those actions to include additional geographic regions outside of the U.S.," the company said in a statement.

Google plans to shrink Motorola's operations in Asia by exiting unprofitable markets, abandoning low-end devices and focusing on a few models instead of dozens, the New York Times had reported earlier.

"Motorola continues to evaluate its plans and further restructuring actions may occur, which may cause Google to incur additional restructuring charges, some of which may be significant," the company said.

The Internet search giant said in August that it would cut 20 percent of the workforce at Motorola Mobility, which it bought for $12.5 billion last year, as it moves to make more smartphones and fewer simple mobiles.

By pairing Motorola's smartphone business with its Android software, Google may have a better chance of mounting a direct challenge to Apple's popular iPhone.

Read more

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Google Closes at All-Time High $749.38!

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Google

Google Closes at $749.38

GOOG daily chart for 2012

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Google Web Lab: Magic of the Internet

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Google WebLab

Web Lab: The Magic of the Internet, Brought to Life

Launching in beta, Web Lab is a set of five physical installations housed in the Science Museum in London. You can interact with them in person at the museum, or from anywhere in the world at chromeweblab.com. By opening up the museum experience to the world online, Web Lab doesn’t play by the usual rules - a visitor’s location and museum opening hours no longer matter.

Each of the five experiments - Universal Orchestra, Data Tracer, Sketchbots, Teleporter and Lab Tag Explorer - showcases a modern web technology found in Chrome to explore a particular theme in computer science. For example, the Universal Orchestra experiment uses WebSockets to demonstrate real time collaboration as people from around the world make music together on custom-built robotic instruments housed in the Science Museum.

Please join us online or at the Science Museum in London (entry is free), and let us know what you think. True to its name, the year-long exhibition is a working lab, and we’ll continue to tinker with it based on your feedback.

Web Lab: The Magic of the Internet, Brought to Life

Enter Web Lab, a series of interactive Chrome Experiments made by Google that bring the extraordinary workings of the internet to life.

A first-of-its-kind web-based exhibition live from the Science Museum in London and open to the world online at chromeweblab.com

Worldwide visitors both online and in-museum are able to make music with people across the world; trace routes across the internet's vast network and discover where images are stored; watch their portrait being processed and drawn by a robot; and travel instantly to far away places.

See the magic of the web come to life at chromeweblab.com



Official Google Blog: Web Lab: The Magic of the Internet, Brought to Life

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Visit OspreyFlyer.com *Banking, Economy, Markets, Technology*

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OspreyFlyer.com

Visit OspreyFlyer.com

● Banking, Economy, Markets, Technology ●

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Building the Google Search Engine of the Future

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Google Search

Explore Lists and Collections with Google Search

Larry Page once described the perfect search engine as understanding exactly what you mean and giving you back exactly what you want. It’s very much like the computer I dreamt about as a child growing up in India, glued to our black-and-white TV for every episode of Star Trek. I imagined a future where a starship computer would be able to answer any question I might ask, instantly. Today, we’re closer to that dream than I ever thought possible during my working life—and here are some of the latest steps we’re taking today to make search even more intelligent:

1. Understanding the World

In May we launched the Knowledge Graph, our database of more than 500 million real-world people, places and things with 3.5 billion attributes and connections among them. The feedback has been phenomenally positive and we want to extend this feature to people outside the U.S. So starting today, you’ll see Knowledge Graph results across every English-speaking country in the world. If you’re in Australia and search for [chiefs], you’ll get the rugby team—its players, results and history.

We’ll also use this intelligence to help you find the right result more quickly when your search may have different meanings. For example, if you search for [rio], you might be interested in the Brazilian city, the recent animated movie or the casino in Vegas. Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, we can now give you these different suggestions of real-world entities in the search box as you type.

Finally, the best answer to your question is not always a single entity, but a list or group of connected things. It’s quite challenging to pull these lists automatically from the web. But we’re now beginning to do just that. So when you search for [california lighthouses], [hurricanes in 2008] or [famous female astronomers], we’ll show you a list of these things across the top of the page. And by combining our Knowledge Graph with the collective wisdom of the web, we can even provide more subjective lists like [best action movies of the 2000s] or [things to do in paris]. If you click on an item, you can then explore the result more deeply on the web.

2. Putting Your Info at Your Fingertips

Sometimes the best answer to your question isn’t available on the public web—it may be contained somewhere else, such as in your email. We think you shouldn’t have to be your own mini-search engine to find the most useful information—it should just work. A search is a search, and we want our results to be truly universal. So we’re developing a way to find this information for you that’s useful and unobtrusive, and we’d love your feedback. Starting today, we’re opening up a limited trial where you can sign up to get information from your Gmail right from the search box.

So if you’re planning a biking trip to Tahoe, you might see relevant emails from friends about the best bike trails, or great places to eat on the right hand side of the results page. If it looks relevant you can then expand the box to read the emails.

We’re working on some even more useful features. For example, if you search for [my flights] we will organize flight confirmation emails for any upcoming trips in a beautifully easy-to-read way right on the search results page.

3. Understanding Your Intent

Often the most natural way to ask a question is by asking aloud. So we’ve combined our speech recognition expertise, understanding of language and the Knowledge Graph so that Voice Search can better interpret your questions and sometimes speak the answers back as full sentences. This has been available on Android for a few weeks and people love it. It’ll soon be available on your iPhone or iPad (iOS version 4.2+).

You just need to tap the microphone icon and ask your question, the same way you’d ask a friend. For example, ask “What movies are playing this weekend?” and you’ll see your words streamed back to you quickly as you speak. Then Google will show you a list of the latest movies in theaters near you, with schedules and even trailers. It works for everything from celebrity factoids to the height of Kilamanjaro and more. When Google can supply a direct answer to your question, you’ll get a spoken response too.

These are baby steps, but important ones on our way to building the search engine of the future—one that is much more intelligent and useful than it was just a few years ago. It’s a very exciting time to be working in this field.



Official Google Blog: Building the search engine of the future, one baby step at a time

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Google Earnings Review: Fundamentals Change With Motorola Acquisition

Google reported QE June 2012 financial results on Thursday, July 19

Google fundamentals have changed with the acquisition and merger of Motorola. CEO Larry Page immediately started talking about "Google Standalone", because Motorola is affecting performance negatively. That's fine, but the consolidated financial results, including Motorola, are what will prevail long-term, good or bad, and are reflected in the charts below.

Both the revenue mix and margin mix have changed. That is and will continue affecting the bottom line and earnings per share. Short-term this is a negative impact. The long-term impact is the uncertainty. One thing is certain: this is no longer the Google that Granny used to talk about.

The performance dip from the prior quarter is not surprising, Google reported all-time highs for total revenues, net income, and earnings per share last quarter. The 3rd and 4th calendar quarters are generally the strongest for Google on an annual cyclical basis. Solid gains were reported year over year and that's what counts for Google in QE June 2012.

Revenue growth, year over year, had slowed the past 2 quarters, but the $1.25 billion added by Motorola reversed the trend. Consolidated margins decreased significantly, also caused by Motorola. Operating income dipped last quarter on record revenues, the result of the gross profit margin dropping to a 7-quarter low and operating margin dipping to near a multi-year low. That was without and excluding Motorola. Now that downside margin pressure is significantly increased with Motorola.

Metric, QoQ Change, YoY Change
Total Assets: $86.05 billion, +12%, +33%
Total Revenues: $12.21 billion, +15%, +35%
Net Income: $2.79 billion, -4%, +11%
Earnings per Share: $8.42, -4%, +10%















"Google standalone had a strong quarter with 21% year-on-year revenue growth, and we launched a bunch of exciting new products at I/O – in particular the Nexus 7 tablet, which has received rave reviews," said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "This quarter is also special because Motorola is now part of the Google family, and we’re excited about the potential to build great devices for users."

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Google Unveils Glass: Augmented Reality Glasses

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Google Glass

Google Unveils Google Glass Explorer Edition at I/O

Google's Sergey Brin reveals video-capturing, augmented reality glasses at Google I/O in San Francisco. The Google Glass Explorer Edition will be available via pre-order for conference attendees, cost $1,500, and ship in early 2013.



Project Glass: Skydiving Demo at Google I/O 2012

At Google I/O 2012, the Project Glass team took product demoing to a new level. Come with us and see how we spent the weeks leading up to the Google I/O demo ... living in the moment, doing Hangouts in Air, and freefalling with Glass.



Official Google Blog: Project Glass demo: Hangouts IN Air

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Google Launches Nexus 7: Powerful, Portable Tablet

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Google Nexus 7 Tablet

Nexus 7: Powerful, Portable and Designed for Google Play

All of this great Google Play content comes to life on Nexus 7, a powerful new tablet with a vibrant, 7” 1280x800 HD display. The Tegra-3 chipset, with a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU, makes everything, including games, extremely fast. And best of all, it’s only 340 grams, lighter than most tablets out there.

Nexus 7 was built to bring you the best of Google in the palm of your hand. Hang out with up to 10 friends on Google+ using the front-facing camera, browse the web blazingly fast with Chrome and, of course, crank through your emails with Gmail.

Nexus 7 comes preloaded with some great entertainment, including the movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," the book “The Bourne Dominion,” magazines like Condé Nast Traveler and Popular Science, and songs from bands like Coldplay and the Rolling Stones.

We’ve also included a $25 credit to purchase your favorite movies, books and more from Google Play, for a limited time. Nexus 7 is available for preorder today from Google Play in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, and starts at $199 in the U.S. It will start shipping mid-July.

Google Play

Official Google Blog: Android @ I/O: The Playground Is Open

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Google Updates Hot Searches List

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Google Hot Searches

Google Is Reporting: Find Out What People Are Searching For With The Updated Hot Searches List

People turn to search when they’re looking for answers and information, and sometimes what they want to know is on other people’s minds as well. You can learn a lot about what’s happening around the country or catch wind of a breaking news story by looking at what others are searching for.

With Hot Searches in Google Trends, you can see a list of the fastest rising search terms in the U.S. for a snapshot of what’s on the public’s collective mind. To create the Hot Searches list which is updated on an hourly basis, an algorithm analyzes millions of searches in the U.S. and determines which queries are being searched much more than usual.

Now, Hot Searches has gotten a refresh that makes the list of searches more visual, groups related rising search terms together and lets you see more information about those searches.

With rich images and links to related news articles, you can glance at the list and instantly get an idea of why these topics are particularly hot at the moment and click to find out more about them. Unlike the previous version of Hot Searches, which always provided 20 daily results, the new page introduces a filtering system that helps us make sure that the list includes only the truly hottest news stories of the day. Also, when a few of the fastest rising search terms refer to the same news story, such as [tony awards 2012] and [audra mcdonald], they’re now aggregated into one entry, which lists all the “Related searches” that go along with the main story. Lastly, the new list also provides an indication of how many searches have been conducted for each topic in the 24 hour period when it was trending.

To find out what the hottest searches are today, whether it’s a celebrity engagement, a sports-related shakeup or news about your favorite TV series, check out the updated Hot Searches list in Google Trends. Posted by Nimrod Tamir, Google Trends Team

Find out what people are searching for with the updated Hot Searches list

Google Hot Searches

Google Trends

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Explore Historic Sites With Google World Wonders Project

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Google World Wonders Project

Google Is Reporting: Explore Historic Sites With the World Wonders Project

I’ve always been fascinated by famous historic and cultural sites from around the world. When I was a child, flipping through encyclopedias while researching for school projects, the thought of exploring these sites was a distant dream. With the new Google World Wonders Project, that dream is now a little closer for students and others around the globe.

The World Wonders Project enables you to discover 132 historic sites from 18 countries, including Stonehenge, the archaeological areas of Pompeii and the ancient Kyoto temples. In addition to man-made sites, you can explore natural places: wander the sandy dunes of Australia’s Shark Bay or gaze up at the rock domes of Yosemite National Park in California.

World Wonders Project by Google From the archaeological areas of Pompeii to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Google's World Wonders Project aims to bring to life the wonders of the modern and ancient world. Together with partners including UNESCO, the World Monument Fund and Cyark, the World Wonders Project is preserving the world heritage sites for future generations.

World Wonders uses Street View technology to take you on a virtual trip to each iconic site. Most could not be filmed by car, so we used camera-carrying trikes to pedal our way close enough. The site also includes 3D models and YouTube videos of the historical places, so you can dig in and get more information and a broader view of each site. We also partnered with several prestigious organizations, including UNESCO, the World Monuments Fund, Getty Images and Ourplace, who provided official information and photographs for many of the sites.

We hope World Wonders will prove to be a valuable educational resource for students and scholars. A selection of educational packages are available to download for classroom use; you can also share the site content with friends.

World Wonders is part of our commitment to preserving culture online and making it accessible to everyone. Under the auspices of the Google Cultural Institute, we’re publishing high resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, digitizing the archives of famous figures such as Nelson Mandela and presenting thousands of artworks through the Art Project.

Find out more about the project on the World Wonders YouTube channel, and start exploring at www.google.com/worldwonders. Posted by Melanie Blaschke, Product Marketing Manager, World Wonders Project

Explore Historic Sites With the World Wonders Project

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Google and Samsung Announce New Chromebook, First Chromebox

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Google and Samsung Chromebox and Chromebook

Google Is Reporting: Next Step in the Chrome OS Journey

A year ago we introduced a new model of computing with the launch of Chromebooks. We’ve heard from many of you who’ve enjoyed the speed, simplicity and security of your Chromebooks at home, at school or at work. (Thanks for all the wonderful feedback and stories!) Today, we wanted to share some developments with you—new hardware, a major software update and many more robust apps—as we continue on our journey to make computers much better.

Next-generation devices Our partner Samsung has just announced a new Chromebook and the industry’s first Chromebox. Like its predecessor, the newest Chromebook is a fast and portable laptop for everyday users. The Chromebox is a compact, powerful and versatile desktop perfect for the home or office.

Chromebook: The (Always) New Computer The Chromebook is a new, faster computer that starts in seconds, offers thousands of apps, and keeps getting better and better with free, automatic updates.

Speed Speed is integral to the Chrome experience. The new Chromebook and Chromebox, based on Intel Core processors, are nearly three times as fast as the first-generation Chromebooks. And support for hardware-accelerated graphics, a built-from-scratch multi-touch trackpad and an open-source firmware stack provide a much faster and more responsive computing experience. The new Chromebook boots in less than seven seconds and resumes instantly. With the Chromebox, you can be on a video conference while continuing to play your favorite role-playing game on the side.

An App-Centric User Interface With the new user interface you can easily find and launch apps, and use them alongside your browser or other apps. You can pin commonly-used apps for quick access, display multiple windows side-by-side or experience your favorite apps in full-screen mode without any distractions.

Be Much More Productive...Or Not Get more stuff done, online or offline: With the built-in ability to view Microsoft Office files and dozens of the most common file formats, you can access all your content without the hassle of installing additional software. Google Drive makes it easy to create, store and share with just one click. Drive will be seamlessly integrated with the File Manager and support offline access with the next release of Chrome OS in six weeks. With Google Docs offline support (rolling out over the next few weeks), you can keep working on your documents even when offline and seamlessly sync back up when you re-connect. In addition, there are hundreds of offline-capable web apps in the Chrome Web Store. Have more fun: The revamped media player and a built-in photo editor and uploader enable you to easily play and manage your personal media collections. Through the Chrome Web Store, you can access entertainment apps such as Google Play, Netflix, Kindle Cloud Reader and Pandora, and thousands of games including popular games like Angry Birds and console titles such as Bastion. Carry your other computers...inside your Chromebook: With Chrome Remote Desktop Beta, you can now securely connect to your PC or Mac from your Chromebook or Chromebox. With the underlying VP8 technology, it’s almost like you’re in front of your other computers in real time.

The (Always) New Computer We’ve released eight stable updates over the past year, adding a number of major features and hundreds of improvements to all Chromebooks through our seamless auto-update mechanism. There’s a lot more on the way, so all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the benefits of the (always) new computer. For those who want to try the Chromebook and Chromebox first-hand, we’re expanding the Chrome Zone experience centers. In the U.S., Chromebooks will be available to try out in select Best Buy stores in the coming weeks. In the U.K., they’re now available in a growing list of PC World and Currys stores. Starting today, you can get the new Chromebook and Chromebox from our online retail partners in the U.S. and U.K., and in other select countries over the coming weeks.

Next Step in the Chrome OS Journey

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Google Acquires Motorola Mobility

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Google Closes Acquisition of Motorola Mobility

Google Is Reporting: We’ve Acquired Motorola Mobility

The phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live. It’s now possible to do things we used to think were magic, or only possible on Star Trek-like get directions right from where we are standing; watch a video on YouTube; or take a picture and share the moment instantly with friends.

It’s why I’m excited to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company that has driven the mobile revolution, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation, including the creation of the first cell phone. We all remember Motorola’s StarTAC, which at the time seemed tiny and showed the real potential of these devices. And as a company who made a big, early bet on Android, Motorola has become an incredibly valuable partner to Google.

Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

I’ve known Dennis for nearly a decade, and he’s been phenomenal at building teams and delivering on some of Google’s biggest bets. One of his first jobs at Google was to put on his backpack and build our businesses across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia. More recently he helped increase our revenue in the U.S. from $10.8 billion to $17.5 billion in under three years as President of the Americas region. Dennis has always been a committed partner to our customers and I know he will be an outstanding leader of Motorola. As an Ironman triathlete, he’s got plenty of energy for the journey ahead - and he’s already off to great start with some very strong new hires for the Motorola team.

It’s a well known fact that people tend to overestimate the impact technology will have in the short term, but underestimate its significance in the longer term. Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound - as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come. Posted by Larry Page, CEO

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility

We’ve Acquired Motorola Mobility

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Introducing Google Knowledge Graph

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Google Boosts Search Intelligence With Knowledge Graph

Google Is Reporting

Search is a lot about discovery - the basic human need to learn and broaden your horizons. But searching still requires a lot of hard work by you, the user. So today I’m really excited to launch the Knowledge Graph, which will help you discover new information quickly and easily.

Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To a search engine the words [taj mahal] have been just that - two words.

But we all know that [taj mahal] has a much richer meaning. You might think of one of the world’s most beautiful monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian restaurant. It’s why we’ve been working on an intelligent model - in geek-speak, a “graph” - that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.

The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about - landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more - and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.

Google’s Knowledge Graph isn’t just rooted in public sources such as Freebase, Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook. It’s also augmented at a much larger scale - because we’re focused on comprehensive breadth and depth. It currently contains more than 500 million objects, as well as more than 3.5 billion facts about and relationships between these different objects. And it’s tuned based on what people search for, and what we find out on the web.

The Knowledge Graph enhances Google Search in three main ways to start:
1. Find the right thing
2. Get the best summary
3. Go deeper and broader

We hope this added intelligence will give you a more complete picture of your interest, provide smarter search results, and pique your curiosity on new topics. We’re proud of our first baby step - the Knowledge Graph - which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the "Star Trek computer" that I've always dreamt of building. Enjoy your lifelong journey of discovery, made easier by Google Search, so you can spend less time searching and more time doing what you love. Posted by Amit Singhal, SVP, Engineering

Introducing the Knowledge Graph Get an under the hood look at the next frontier in Search, from the team at Google behind the technology. The Knowledge Graph is a huge collection of the people, places and things in the world and how they're connected to one another. With this technology, Google can get you the best possible answers and help jump start your discovery.

Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings

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Google Approved to Operate Self-Driving Cars in Nevada

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(CNN) -- If you want to salute, race or flirt with other drivers in Nevada, you could soon be out of luck with some cars. That's because on Monday, Nevada became the first to approve a license for "autonomous vehicles" - in other words, cars that cruise, twist and turn without the need for a driver - on its roads.

(ABC) -- Nevada is putting the pedal to the metal on those autonomous automobiles. It was just two months ago that the state approved and set regulations that would allow self-driving vehicles on the state’s roadways. And today it announced that it has approved Google for the first testing license under the new rules.

Google gets license to operate driverless cars in Nevada - CNN.com

Google Self-Driving Car License Approved in Nevada - ABC News

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Get Stuff Done in the Cloud: Go Google

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Google Cloud

Google is reporting:

You probably hear terms like “the cloud” or “cloud computing” being used a lot these days. While the idea of the cloud may seem abstract, many things you already do on your computer and smartphone today, such as email, photo sharing and video streaming, are made possible by the cloud.

At the heart of it, Google is about cloud computing - helping people live online and get things done in the cloud. Whether you need to add “milk” to a shared shopping list from the train, collaborate with your teammate back in the office to finish your presentation from a hotel lobby, or chat face-to-face with your mom from halfway around the world, we believe that getting stuff done in the cloud is a better way. We like to call it “going Google.”

We’ve built cloud-based tools like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs to help you connect and collaborate online with others more quickly and easily, without having to deal with the hassles and frustrations of installing and managing traditional software. Last week’s launch of Google Drive is the next step: Google Drive brings together many Google services—documents, spreadsheets, images and more—all in one place so you can easily create, collaborate, and share in real-time. Files are saved automatically, and friends, teammates, roommates, families and co-workers can do things together—even when they’re not. If you haven’t already tried it, Google Drive is a great place to start going Google.

Today, hundreds of millions of people, including 16 million students and teachers at 66 of the top 100 U.S. universities, employees at more than 4 million businesses worldwide including Burberry, Costco and National Geographic (and maybe even your 13-year-old daughter and her entire soccer team) have all already gone Google.

If you’re going Google to build a company, great. If you write your grand opus poem, even better. If you have to turn a project around from different time zones overnight, awesome. And if you video-chat with grandma while you do—well, that’s just showing off. So go on. See what it’s like to get stuff done and go Google.

Posted by Venkat Panchapakesan, VP Engineering

Get stuff done in the cloud. Go Google.

Google Drive

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Introducing Google Drive

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Google Drive

Google is reporting:

Just like the Loch Ness Monster, you may have heard the rumors about Google Drive. It turns out, one of the two actually does exist.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive - a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

With Google Drive, you can:

● Create and collaborate. Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.

● Store everything safely and access it anywhere (especially while on the go). All your stuff is just... there. You can access your stuff from anywhere—on the web, in your home, at the office, while running errands and from all of your devices. You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. We’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices. And regardless of platform, blind users can access Drive with a screen reader.

● Search everything. Search by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time.

You can get started with 5GB of storage for free—that’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on. You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive. To install these apps, visit the Chrome Web Store - and look out for even more useful apps in the future.

This is just the beginning for Google Drive; there’s a lot more to come. Get started with Google Drive today - and keep looking for Nessie...

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome & Apps

Introducing Google Drive... yes, really

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Google Reports Record Financial Performance on Slower Growth, Lower Margins

Google reported Q1 2012 financial results on Thursday, April 12, 2012

Google reported all-time highs for total revenues, net income, and earnings per share, but is there trouble in Internet paradise? CEO Larry Page began the earnings call explaining Google was a large company and implying not the young, high-growth Google of yore. Then CFO Patrick Pichette, one of the better earnings call CFOs to listen to, used phrases such as "complex set of dynamics" and "multiple variables in play" to qualify some declining metrics.

The exuberance of past earnings calls was missing and an apologetic tone prevailed. Why do I have this weird feeling Apple is sucking the air out of the room? A stock split was announced whereby existing Class A and a new Class C non-voting stock will be traded, via a stock dividend, but that is outside the scope of this review and left to disgruntled stockholders.

What's the problem here? Have I become so jaded that I'm knocking Google's record financial performance? Yes to both questions, because the upside to further Google web glory may be waning. The problem is slowing revenue growth and lower margins. Operating income dipped on record revenues, the result of a lower gross profit margin. The operating margin is the lowest since the QE September 2008.

Google continues as a legendary company but the long-held Internet advertising edge may be losing traction. Q1 is normally the annual cyclical low, so the assumed upside in Q2 should maintain and exceed this latest financial performance. If not, Google is facing a tougher, more competitive advertising market, notably in mobile and specifically with Apple, than management is willing to admit.

Google Income Statement Q1 2012 Google financial performance was record total revenues of $10.65 billion, record net income of $2.89 billion, record earnings per share of $8.75, and near-record operating cash flow per share of $11.19. From the prior quarter Q4 2011, QoQ, total revenues were +0.58%, net income +6.84%, and earnings per share +6.45%. From the prior year quarter Q1 2011, these were +24.14%, +60.73%, and +58.80%, respectively. Gross and operating margins dipped to 64.14% and 31.84%. Net margin of 27.15% is solid.

Google Balance Sheet Q1 2012 Total assets increased to a record $77.14 billion. The capital to assets ratio is steady at a very strong 80.00%. Google is incredibly liquid with a current ratio of 73.71% and over $49.32 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities! Capital expenditures decreased to $607 million and the "majority of which was related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment."

Google Cash Flow from Operations per Share and Earnings Per Share Current Cash Flow from Operations per Share of $11.19 is down QoQ and up YoY. Current Earnings per Share of $8.75 is +6.45% QoQ, +58.80% YoY, and an all-time high.




Google Total Revenues, Operating Income, and Net Income Current Total Revenues of $10.65 billion are +0.58% QoQ, +24.14% YoY, another all-time high, and have increased for 12 consecutive quarters. Current Operating Income  of $3.39 billion dipped slightly -3.36% QoQ below last quarter's all-time high. Current Net Income of $2.89 billion is +6.84% QoQ, +60.73% YoY, and an all-time high.




Google Gross Margin, Operating Margin, and Net Margin Current Gross Margin of 64.41% is down QoQ and YoY. Current Operating Margin of 31.84% is down QoQ and YoY. The current Net Income Margin of 27.15% is up QoQ and YoY, saving the quarter.




Google Return on Assets Current Return on Assets of 15.76% is slightly up QoQ and slightly down YoY.




Google Growth Rates YoY Current Total Revenues Growth YoY of +24.14% is about the historical (chart) average of +26.37%. Current Earnings per Share Growth YoY of +58.80% is outstanding and well above the historical (chart) average of +25.48%).




Google Traffic Acquisition Costs Current Traffic Acquisition Costs of 24.5% are a 4-quarter high and second consecutive quarterly increase.

Google Data Center Efficiency

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Google Data Center

Google is reporting:

To paraphrase Lord Kelvin, if you don’t measure you can’t improve. Our data center operations team lives by this credo, and we take every opportunity to measure the performance of our facilities. In the same way that you might examine your electricity bill and then tweak the thermostat, we constantly track our energy consumption and use that data to make improvements to our infrastructure. As a result, our data centers use 50 percent less energy than the typical data center.

One of the measurements we track is PUE, or power usage effectiveness. PUE is a ratio of the total power used to run a data center to the amount used to power the servers. For instance, if a data center has a PUE of 2.0, that means that for every watt of energy that powers the servers, another watt powers the cooling, lighting and other systems. An ideal PUE would be 1.0.

In 2011, our trailing 12-month average PUE was approximately 1.14—an improvement from 1.16 in 2010. In other words, our data centers use only 14 percent additional power for all sources of overhead combined. To calculate this number we include everything that contributes to energy consumption in our data centers. That means that in addition to the electricity used to power the servers and cooling systems, we incorporate the oil and natural gas that heat our offices. We also account for system inefficiencies like transformer, cable and UPS losses and generator parasitic energy draw.

If we chose to use a simpler calculation—for instance, if we included only the data center and the cooling equipment—we could report a PUE as low as 1.06 at our most efficient location. But we want to be as comprehensive as possible in our measurements. You can see the difference in this graphic:

We’ve been publishing our PUE quarterly since 2008—in fact, we were the first company to do so, and are still the only one. Our numbers are based on actual production data taken from hundreds of meters installed throughout our data centers, not design specs or best-case scenarios. One way to think of it is comparing a car manufacturer’s mileage estimates for a new model car to the car’s real-life miles per gallon. We’re measuring real-world mileage so we can improve real-world efficiency.

Our 2011 numbers and more are available for closer examination on our data center site. We’ve learned a lot through building and operating our data centers, so we’ve also shared our best practices. These include steps like raising the temperature on the server floor and using the natural environment to cool the data center, whether it’s outside air or recycled water.

We’ve seen dramatic improvements in efficiency throughout the industry in recent years, but there’s still a lot we can do. Sharing comprehensive measurement data and ideas for improvement can help us all move forward.

Posted by Joe Kava, Senior Director, data center construction and operations

Measuring to Improve: Comprehensive, Real-World Data Center Efficiency Numbers

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Visit the Amazon for World Forest Day with Google Street View

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World Forest Day celebrates the power and importance of forests, like this one in Vietnam. Photo Credit: Yurdi Yasmi

Google is reporting:

Last August, a few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams were invited to the Amazon Basin to collect ground-level images of the rivers, forest and communities in the Rio Negro Reserve. Today, on World Forest Day, we’re making those images available through the Street View feature on Google Maps. Now anyone can experience the beauty and diversity of the Amazon.



Many areas of the Amazon, including Rio Negro Reserve, are under the protection of the Brazilian government with restricted access to the public, so we hope that this Street View collection provides access to this special corner of the planet that many of us otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to experience. Together with FAS, we’re thrilled to help everyone from researchers and scientists to armchair explorers around the world learn more about the Amazon, and better understand how local communities there are working to preserve this unique environment for future generations.

Visit the Amazon on World Forest Day with Street View

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Introducing Google Play: All your entertainment, anywhere you go

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Google is reporting:

Entertainment is supposed to be fun. But in reality, getting everything to work can be the exact opposite—moving files between your computers, endless syncing across your devices, and wires…lots of wires. Today we’re eliminating all that hassle with Google Play, a digital entertainment destination where you can find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the web and on your Android phone or tablet. Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again.



With Google Play you can:
* Store up to 20,000 songs for free and buy millions of new tracks
* Download more than 450,000 Android apps and games
* Browse the world’s largest selection of eBooks
* Rent thousands of your favorite movies, including new releases and HD titles

Starting today, Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore will become part of Google Play. On your Android phone or tablet, we’ll be upgrading the Android Market app to the Google Play Store app over the coming days. Your videos, books and music apps (in countries where they are available) will also be upgraded to Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music apps. The music, movies, books and apps you’ve purchased will continue to be available to you through Google Play—simply log in with your Google account like always.

Introducing Google Play: All your entertainment, anywhere you go

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Google Largest Public DNS Service in the World: 70 Billion Requests a Day and Counting

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Google is reporting:

We launched Google Public DNS in December 2009 to help make the web faster for everyone. Today, we’re no longer an experimental service. We’re the largest public DNS service in the world, handling an average of more than 70 billion requests a day.

DNS acts like the phone book of the Internet. If you had to look up hundreds or thousands of phone numbers every day, you’d want a directory that was fast, secure and correct. That’s what Google Public DNS provides for tens of millions of people.

Google Public DNS has become particularly popular for our users internationally. Today, about 70 percent of its traffic comes from outside the U.S. We’ve maintained our strong presence in North America, South America and Europe, and beefed up our presence in Asia. We've also added entirely new access points to parts of the world where we previously didn't have Google Public DNS servers, including Australia, India, Japan and Nigeria.

Google Public DNS: 70 billion requests a day and counting

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Google Earnings Disappoint: Net Income & EPS Dip

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Google Earnings Disappoint: Net Income & EPS Dip


Google Summary Q4 2011 Google Q4 financial performance was disappointing and a triple instead of a home run. Q4 is normally the annual cyclical high with a drop in Q1. Therefore, this is as good as Google can do until probably Q3 2012. One notable positive is cost containment, that is, operating expenses continue stable while revenues grow. Financial position continues very strong, liquid, and stable. Ultimately, it may have been hedging the Euro that prevented an overall record Q4, as Other Income was a -$18 million, is normally $100+ million, and resulted in the lower net margin and earnings per share. The financial charts below illustrate several concerns about Google profitability and growth until another overall record quarter is reported:
1) Cash flow and earnings per share flattened during the historically strong and normally record Q4.
2) Net margin decreased (see above commentary)
3) Return on assets is downtrending, mostly the result of Google having more money than core business to invest in.
4) Earnings per share growth YoY was erratic in 2011, first because of the DOJ $500 million settlement and then the flat Q4.
5) The downtrend in traffic acquisition costs reversed in Q4. Management would not elaborate during the conference call.
6) Revenue growth in the United States increased while "Rest of World" growth slowed, raising concerns about the upside potential for Google worldwide.
7) International revenues of 52.95% correspondingly decreased to a 4-quarter low, because of 6) above.


Google Income Statement Q4 2011 Google financial performance was record total revenues $10.58 billion,  near-record net income $2.71 billion, near-record earnings per share $8.22, and near-record operating cash flow per share of $11.93. From the prior quarter Q3 2011, QoQ, total revenues were up +8.89%, net income down -0.88%, and earnings per share down -1.32%. From the prior year quarter Q4 2010, these were up +25.40%, +6.37%, and +5.25%, respectively. Gross margin of 65.02% and operating margin of 33.13% are historically strong. Net margin of 25.56% is an 11-quarter low.


Google Balance Sheet Q4 2011 Total assets increased +5.05% QoQ and +25.45% YoY to a record $72.57 billion. The capital to assets ratio increased to a very strong 80.12%. Google is incredibly liquid with a current ratio of 72.70%. Google has over $44.63 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities! Capital expenditures increased to $951 million and was related to " IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment."


Google Financial Performance by the Quarters


Google Cash Flow from Operations per Share and Earnings Per Share Current Cash Flow from Operations per Share of $11.93 is down QoQ and up YoY. Current Earnings per Share of $8.22 -1.32% QoQ, +5.25% YoY, and the 2nd highest all-time. The chart averages for CFS and EPS are $7.32 and $5.06, respectively.




Google Total Revenues, Operating Income, and Net Income Current Total Revenues of $10.58 billion are +8.89% QoQ, +25.40% YoY, another all-time high, and have increased for 11 consecutive quarters. Current Operating Income  of $3.51 billion is +14.68% QoQ and another all-time high. Current Net Income of $2.71 billion is -0.88% QoQ, +6.37% YoY, and 2nd highest all-time. The chart averages for TR, OI, and NI are $6.31 billion, $2.06 billion, and $1.63 billion, respectively.




Google Gross Margin, Operating Margin, and Net Margin Current Gross Margin of 65.02% is down slightly QoQ and YoY. Current Operating Margin of 33.13% is up QoQ and down YoY. The current Net Income Margin of 25.56% is down QoQ and YoY plus a 12-quarter low. The chart averages for GM, OM, and IM are 62.39%, 32.78%, and 25.99%.




Google Return on Assets Current Return on Assets of 15.01% is down QoQ and YoY plus a 9-quarter low. The chart average ROA is 17.36%.




Google Growth Rates YoY Current Total Revenues Growth YoY of +25.40% has slowed QoQ and YoY and is a 5-quarter low. Current Earnings per Share Growth YoY of +5.25% has slowed QoQ and YoY and is a 3-quarter low. The chart averages for TRG and EPSG are +26.65% and +21.32%, respectively.




Google Revenue Sources Advertising  continues to generate 96%+ of revenues. The chart averages for AR and OR are 97.16% and 3.87%, respectively.




Google Traffic Acquisition Costs Current Traffic Acquisition Costs of 24.1% are a 2-quarter high and reverse the downward trend. The TAC chart average is 26.09%.




Google Geographic Revenues The data below is what Google chooses to disclose. International revenues accounted for 52.95% of Google's total revenues in the latest quarter, a 4-quarter low. Overall the long-term trend has been the Rest of the World gaining on the United States while the UK  has increased slightly. The current quarter reversed this trend.




Google Operating Expense Ratio The current Operating Expense Ratio of 31.89% is a 4-quarter low. The OER chart average of 29.60%.



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