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Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 October 2006

The rebirth of cool

Posted on 15:04 by Unknown
Posted by Silas Reyes, Webmaster, Mobile team

Have you ever been involved in a project that you've seen evolve from an idea to a work in progress to a full-fledged product? I just had that experience with mobile.google.com. If you visited that URL yesterday, you would have seen some pretty basic information presented in a fairly simple format. Today you'll find a streamlined layout and some new ways to learn about Google's mobile offerings. Want to take a live test run of the traffic feature on Google Maps for mobile? Or maybe figure out how to stay on top of your Gmail using your phone? We've included video tutorials or emulators for every service or application, and we've designed the pages in such a way as to make it easy to learn more about the mobile offerings you're interested in. You can even have Google send a link to your mobile device via a text message that will help you start using Google mobile services with just a few clicks. You just enter your mobile number on the desktop version of mobile.google.com and we'll text you the link.

My favorite part of the site is probably the Google SMS demo. I think this SMS search is one of the coolest out there, and I'm always urging my friends and family to give it a try. The demo shows you firsthand just how useful and easy to use SMS is, with more than a dozen sample queries to try out and a search box for typing in your own. In fact I'm playing around with it now -- did you know that you can use Google SMS to get the address of an Ethiopian restaurant in Chicago, the exchange rate for dollars to baht, a weather forecast for Wamego, Kansas, or the score of the latest MLB playoff game?

Anyway, if you haven't already, head over to this new improved site and give it a whirl. And as always, don't be shy about sending us feedback -- we're always looking for ways we can make it even better.
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Thursday, 12 October 2006

Maps in the Palm in your hand

Posted on 11:03 by Unknown
Posted by Jerry Morrison, Tech Lead

Since we first launched Google Maps for mobile devices, we've adapted it to more phones and languages and added features like traffic info. And as of today, the new Palm Treo version answers our top request from users. It's been months in the making, but I think you'll find it worth the wait. We think this is the fastest, slickest version yet, with draggable maps and translucent pop-up balloons that don't hide the map.

If you don't read English, you'll have to wait some more.

There are two ways for Treo users to download Google Maps: visit google.com/gmm on your Treo's web browser, or you if you prefer, download and HotSync® here.

And by the way, the "Do not operate while driving" caution is deadly serious. Please be mindful of pedestrians, bikes, cars, and trees -- not messages and keyboards.
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Posted in apps, mobile | No comments

Tuesday, 25 July 2006

Corporate info on the go

Posted on 13:06 by Unknown
Posted by David Bercovich, Product Marketing Manager

In keeping with the blog's mobile theme today, we've just made enterprise information -- corporate networks, databases, content management systems -- searchable on mobile devices. You can read more here.
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Posted in enterprise, mobile | No comments

Home on the road

Posted on 09:38 by Unknown
Posted by Maryam Kamvar, Software Engineer

It may be liberating to step away from your computer and out into the world -- but who can stand to leave the convenience of the Internet behind? I like to take the information I need with me -- like news, weather, Gmail, and everything else from my Google Personalized Homepage -- and now so can you. Before you take off, customize your mobile home page from your computer. On your Personalized Homepage, decide what you want to add to your phone, then drag and drop to reorder the items. On the road, in line, or wherever you go, you can view all this information on your phone. The world is waiting!
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Posted in mobile, personalization | No comments

Saving the galaxy, one traffic jam at a time

Posted on 06:03 by Unknown
Posted by Josh Sacks, Software Engineer

Is it wrong to refer to your own handiwork as "the new hotness"? Probably, but we're hoping you'll humor us for a bit. So what is with the new Google Maps for mobile? Well, to paraphrase Agent J:

Old and busted: Being stuck in traffic
The new hotness: Checking traffic conditions from your phone*

Old and busted: Showing up late
The new hotness: Driving directions with real-time traffic estimates

Old and busted: Typing in the same addresses over and over
The new hotness: 1-touch recall of favorite locations and routes

This release won't avert an intergalactic disaster any time soon, but we'd like to think the Men in Black would give it a try. You can too: just point your mobile phone's web browser to www.google.com/gmm.

*Update: Currently available across the U.S. with comprehensive data coverage for more than 30 metro areas; partial coverage elsewhere in U.S.
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Posted in apps, mobile | No comments

Tuesday, 27 June 2006

More of the world in your pocket

Posted on 09:17 by Unknown
Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software Engineer

Today Google's mobile web services get a bit more worldly: We've just added a raft of new languages to the pocket-sized versions of Gmail, News, and Personalized Home. Along with U.S. and U.K. English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, and Turkish interfaces to most of these products.

If you've already used any of Google's products on your mobile device (like Maps), you know it's a great way to stay connected to the Internet, even if your PC is miles away. What's handy about these three products in particular is that they keep you in touch with the information that matters most to you.

Personalized Home, for instance, displays the same customized content as your personalized Google homepage on the PC, but in a phone-friendly format that's easy to read and navigate. (If you've been looking for a fast, easy way to view any feed via your phone, here it is.)

Then there's Gmail. If you've ever been on the road, desperate to remember something like a flight confirmation number that's stashed in your inbox, or directions to a party you were sure you could remember, this mobile version of Gmail lets you quickly search, read, and reply to email wherever you are. (And note the nifty mobile-specific features we've added, like Gmail's ability to directly call buddies in your contact list.)

News can get personal, too: now you can search across mobile news sources to reel in the latest news on whatever subject you're a fan of, whether it's 'arsenal football' or just all things 'macintosh' -- wherever and whenever. So give 'em all a whirl -- visit Google in your mobile phone's browser, and click the News, Gmail, or Personalized Home links.

You might just discover the little communications device in your pocket has just become a whole lot more valuable.
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Posted in mobile, personalization | No comments

Thursday, 16 March 2006

Courtside seats, without the court... or the seat

Posted on 13:40 by Unknown
Posted by Qi Ke, Software Engineer

Starting today you can get up-to-the-minute sports scores and schedules using Google SMS on your mobile device. Just text message a school or team name to 46645 (GOOGL). "Why?" you ask? Because:

  1. The big game is on tonight, and while your cable was cut 3 weeks ago, you've still got a recliner couch and a pair of battle-worn, nacho cheese-stained text messaging thumbs
  2. Your newly purchased tickets make the nosebleeds feel like a fireside chat, and you lent your binoculars to your ornithologist cousin
  3. You recently secured a new job, and you need to look like you're preoccupied with important business at all times
  4. The love of your life dragged you to the ballet on game day, and made you leave your 60-inch liquid crystal TV at home
  5. It's time for your family reunion (and the playoffs) again, and you don't have the heart to tell your relatives that you majored in basket... weaving
  6. The restraining order filed against you by multiple sports professionals mandates that you find a way to "look but not touch"
  7. When it comes to your personal sports soundtrack, you prefer the Crazy Frog to the National Anthem
  8. You've developed an allergic reaction to commercial time-outs (or even commercials, for that matter)
  9. It's triple over time, and your too-cute-to-say-no nephew wants pizza from a restaurant six blocks from the stadium
  10. The BIG DANCE!
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Tuesday, 28 February 2006

Choose your News

Posted on 06:34 by Unknown
Posted by Erin Earl, Google Mobile Software Engineer

Have you ever noticed that in waiting rooms, the section of the newspaper you most want to read is either missing from the magazine rack, or someone else is reading it? It’s made me a real master of finding all the hidden pictures on the covers of Highlights magazine. Don’t even try asking me Where’s Waldo? I've found him 10 times already.

That’s what’s cool about Google News for mobile devices. You can access the news you want, whenever you want, by using a search box, top headline listings, and browsable news categories. Just type google.com on your web-enabled phone, and click the link to Google News. Goodbye, Waldo. Hello, everything else.

Updated with Wikipedia entry to Waldo/Wally.
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Thursday, 23 February 2006

A query less ordinary

Posted on 09:18 by Unknown
Posted by Roger Skubowius, Software Engineer

A lot of our work in the mobile space has been about delivering quick answers to everyday questions. Services like Google SMS, Personalized Home, and Local for mobile bring you movie times, phone numbers, the latest news headlines and directions from point A to point B.

But what about those problems that are a little less everyday? What if, say, you're out somewhere and absolutely must know if that new Super Monkey Ball game for the Nintendo DS is in stores yet?

If you search for [Super Monkey Ball DS release date] in an ordinary web browser on your PC, your first result is this complex, graphics-rich page. Search that same phrase on Google with your mobile phone, though, and your top result is this lightweight, phone-friendly version of the same page. That's because now whenever you click on a Google search result through your mobile web browser, Google automatically translates the page's layout to make it as easy as possible to read on a small screen. We also break long-winded web pages into smaller pieces and do our best to show you the portion that's relevant to your query, first.

The whole idea is to get you the information you want as quickly as possible, so you can spend less time downloading and scrolling through long documents on a pocket-sized screen, and more time (what else?) playing Super Monkey Ball.
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Posted in mobile, search, user experience and usability | No comments

Thursday, 12 January 2006

Your Google homepage, to go

Posted on 11:53 by Unknown
Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software Engineer

Anyone who's ever tried to browse the web on their cell phone knows that it isn't always the best user experience. That's why I'm excited to tell you about Google Mobile Personalized Home. We've designed a way for you to view the things that you really care about, from your Gmail inbox to news headlines, weather, stock quotes, and feeds (Atom or RSS). The interface is optimized for small screens, and we've arranged things so you don't have to click on a bunch of links to locate what you're after -– your personalized content appears on top, right where it should be. Give it a try, and let us know how you like it.
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Posted in mobile, personalization | No comments

Tuesday, 15 November 2005

A man with a phone in Nantucket ...

Posted on 11:51 by Unknown
Posted by Matt Waddell, Google Mobile Team

Underneath a cell tower nearby
SMS I decided to try:
[t to french grant a loan], [6 shekels in kroon]
Now a polyglot banker am I.*

*This limerick was inspired by Google SMS, and its new translation and currency conversion features. And if you're wondering, as I was: kroon is pronounced "krone."
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Sunday, 6 November 2005

Get lost and found on your phone

Posted on 21:07 by Unknown
Posted by Matt Waddell, Google Mobile Team

You know that saying, "Wherever you go, there you are"? Now it makes sense to me, thanks to the new Google Local for mobile. In fact, it inspired me to write this song. Enjoy, and happy trails. (You'll need Macromedia's Flash Player to hear it.)



You can also save the music file to your computer. (Right-click in Windows, or control-click on a Mac, and save.)

Get lost and found on your phone.

Walkin' 'round a new town,
looking for a way around.
Askin' locals for their thoughts
'bout nearby Chinese restaurants...
they tell you to get lost --
get lost and found on your phone.

Take Google Local on the go,
get listings, maps and aerial views.
Call directly from your search results
and even keep search history too.
Download from Google today.

Wrestlin' with a paper map,
tryin' to figure out just where you're at,
how to get from point A to point B,
better leave the directions to J2ME.
So you can get lost --
get lost and found on your phone.

Zoom in, zoom out,
drag maps up down left right and you'll see...
where you want to go on your mobile phone,
in lucid satellite imagery.
Download from Google today.

Place Google Local in your hand --
first, you need a data plan.
Your phone must handle Java too.
It helps if it is somewhat new.
To download, here is what you do:

Browse Google dot com slash g-l-m on your desktop.
Tell us 'bout your phone,
and we'll show you a link to the file in a blink
and you're ready to start...

Gettin' lost on your phone.
Get lost and found on your phone.
Download from Google today.
Get lost and found on your phone...
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Posted in mobile, search | No comments

Wednesday, 31 August 2005

Instant gratification - your way

Posted on 08:46 by Unknown
Posted by Peiling Yao, Google Mobile Team

In the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, do you remember Veruca Salt, the girl who kept screaming, "I want it NOW, daddy!" Well, that's pretty much how I feel about searching the web on my mobile phone. It takes longer for pages to load, and it's not easy entering text in the first place - so I want the answer NOW, Google!

For all you Verucas out there, we engineers have been working on three new Google search features for mobile phones. Starting today, if you type [movies] or [weather] and a location, or enter a stock ticker symbol, we'll show, predictably enough, movie showtimes, weather forecasts, or live stock quotes above the Google web search results that display on your phone.

Talk about instant gratification - and the best part? No golden tickets required.
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Posted in mobile, search | No comments

Tuesday, 30 August 2005

Small is beautiful

Posted on 08:22 by Unknown
Posted by Alan Strohm, Google Mobile team

Back in June, we introduced Google Sitemaps, a beta program that lets webmasters inform Google quickly about new or updated web pages, and boost Google index coverage of their web pages.

The thing is, working on the Google Mobile team, you learn that desktop computers and mobile phones aren't created equal. (For one, your desktop won't fit in your front pocket.) At first, the Google Sitemaps program didn't support web pages designed to fit the smaller screens of mobile phones.

We've fixed that. Starting today, webmasters of sites of all sizes can submit their mobile website URLs to Google Mobile Sitemaps, an extension of the Google Sitemaps program. And just as cool, mobile phone users can search through these, and other mobile-friendly websites, using Google Search for the Mobile Web. Here's to the little guy (or device, rather)!
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Wednesday, 24 August 2005

"Sign up for Gmail"

Posted on 17:44 by Unknown
Posted by Keith Coleman, Gmail Product Manager

It's pretty exciting to see those words on the Gmail homepage. For the last 16 months, a lot of people have been asking us how they can sign up for Gmail, and today we're happy to be able to say, "Just go to gmail.com." From there, you can get an invitation code sent to your mobile phone, and with this code, you can create a Gmail account. Once you have Gmail, you can try out our brand new IM and voice service, Google Talk.

Why use mobile phones? It's a way to help us verify that an account is being created by a real person, and that one person isn't creating thousands of accounts. We want to keep our system as spam-free as possible, and making sure accounts are used by real people is one way to do that.

We're also working on some new mobile features that will make your Google account more useful and secure, such as SMS alerts and password recovery. When you sign up using your mobile phone, you can choose to save your number with your account so you can use these features as soon as they become available.

Right now, sign-ups only work with U.S. mobile phone numbers, but we're eager to support others. With Gmail now available in 29 languages (and counting), we're already working hard to bring you "注册 Gmail 邮箱," "Зарегистрироваться в системе Gmail," "Abra sua conta no Gmail" and many more.
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Posted in apps, mobile | No comments

Tuesday, 16 August 2005

Attention, Froogle shoppers...

Posted on 15:17 by Unknown
Posted by Josh Redstone, Software Engineer

I'm excited to tell you about the enhanced version of Froogle Mobile, a handy service for checking online prices from your cellphone. Say you're in a store eyeing that new BeDazzler that you've always wanted. A quick price check via Froogle Mobile, and you can rest assured that you're getting this wardrobe staple at a fine price. You can also sort queries by price, and Froogle Mobile is now available to our friends in the U.K. too.
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Posted in mobile, search | No comments

Tuesday, 12 July 2005

Demoing SMS

Posted on 11:25 by Unknown
Posted by Maurice Sidi, Software Engineer

Since joining Google as an intern a few months ago, I’ve enjoyed over 300 Google meals, done over 20 loads of laundry, and actually launched something. My interactive demo for Google SMS lets you send SMS queries from your computer to Google and preview the results you’d actually get on your phone. You can use Google SMS to look up local business listings, weather conditions, movie showtimes, stock quotes, and more, using any major U.S. or UK carrier. Give it a try.

p.s. Congrats to my colleagues for getting Google SMS out of Labs!
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Posted in mobile | No comments

Thursday, 16 June 2005

The world in your pocket

Posted on 06:31 by Unknown
Posted by Steven Schirripa, Software Engineer

Since millions of people across the globe already use mobile phones like there's no tomorrow, we're launching Mobile Web Search in many languages. Try it the next time you visit Google on your mobile phone - you'll see a new option to search the Mobile Web. How different is it than standard web search? There are sites out there that have already been designed for your mobile phone, which makes them more navigable on the small screen. So we've created an index specifically for these sites. And so your phone can now be that much more useful.
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Posted in mobile, search | No comments

Tuesday, 10 May 2005

One more way to access Local UK

Posted on 07:30 by Unknown
Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software Engineer

We were on a roll after we launched Google Local UK last month, and went on to build a mobile web browser version of Google Local for our UK users. Users can now access Local on their mobile by going straight to the Local home page (that's http://mobile.google.co.uk/local) or the Google UK home page (a.k.a. http://www.google.co.uk/xhtml). So we say: step away from that computer. Click a few buttons on your keypad and head to that new Thai restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. If you're slightly disoriented once away from the screen, Local gives you Google Maps and driving directions too.

Updated with visible URLs.
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Posted in Europe, mobile, search | No comments

Friday, 6 May 2005

They are among us

Posted on 11:23 by Unknown
Posted by Biz Stone, Blogger Team

There's no cause for alarm, but we wish to note that millions of people walking around *right now* are carrying little blogging devices. That's what we on the Blogger team call them, anyway. Others might refer to them as "mobile phones." It's all semantics.

The point is, we've launched Blogger Mobile. It's nothing fancy, really. All you need to do to use it is send an email or MMS from your phone to go@blogger.com - and that's it. We automatically create your blog, and whatever text or photos (or both) you send in the message becomes your post. Continue posting by sending more messages to go@blogger.com and congratulations: you are a blogger.

There's also this part we call "claiming your blog." That means you visit go.blogger.com and enter the token we send to your phone. When you sign in with this token, you get full Blogger access to all of your various settings, plus the ability to switch your posts to an existing blog if you already have one.

You may now use a mobile device to create and update your blog while you're on-the-go. See? Little blogging appliances — they are among us.
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Posted in apps, mobile | No comments
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Blog Archive

  • ▼  2006 (231)
    • ▼  October (27)
      • On the alert for bloggers
      • Scary stories
      • Do you "Google?"
      • Google Earth voter guide
      • Eureka! Your own search engine has landed!
      • The rebirth of cool
      • Heading to the X Prize Cup
      • Eric and the NAE
      • Looking for Google Talk stories
      • Corporate solar is coming
      • Maps in the Palm in your hand
      • Music for your eyes
      • Teacher's helper
      • Better together: Docs & Spreadsheets
      • Score one for the Sun Devils
      • Greetings, Earthlings!
      • Inside Macs at Google
      • About that fake post
      • Our security stance
      • More developer love with Google Code Search
      • Got blog? Will ping.
      • The new Groups experience
      • Accessible Search now has advanced search features
      • The Literacy Project
      • Yes, you can have a pony
      • Create web apps on top of Google search
      • Discount with Checkout
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    • ►  January (18)
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    • ►  December (18)
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