Demoing SMS

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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Home on the numrange

Posted by Tom Stocky, Product Marketing Manager

More than once I've wanted to search for something that involved a range of numbers - and I just discovered that I can. It turns out you can use two periods (no spaces) to have your search include multiple numbers that form a range. For example, if you wanted to search for inventions of the late 19th century, you could use inventions 1850..1899. I discovered this feature when I was trying to track down the hottest recorded temperature on Earth. I knew it happened in Death Valley, but couldn't remember what it was. I found it by searching for death valley 130..140 degrees.

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Tchotchkes cubed

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team

Every time I pass this cube I wonder why my own work space looks so lame.

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The platypus of the Internet

Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Tech Lead

It’s surprising what natural selection will produce – for instance, a platypus. How could something with such a seemingly discombobulated set of attributes be fit for survival in the hostile natural world? I had a similar reaction when I first heard about the XUL programming language, used to create the Firefox browser and the plethora of extensions that the Internet ecosystem is creating around it. Strange concept, using JavaScript, which is used to write code that works *in* a browser, to create the browser *itself*. As with the platypus, it’s not until we saw XUL in action that we realized how well suited for survival this product of Internet evolution is.

Not that long ago, the Google Firefox Toolbar team met for the first time - and now we've built the Google Toolbar for Firefox in 10 languages for three operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux). Self-congratulatory urges aside, we marvel at how well-suited this platypus was to our task. For a small team that had never worked together, or used XUL, to create a product quickly that works across languages and platforms from a single ~250K download - that's good stuff, if you ask me.

In the interest of brevity (already compromised by how long I've gone on), we also tip our hats to the folks at the Mozilla Foundation for making it so easy for us to look good. ;-)

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200 ngultrums? What a deal!

Posted by Bret Taylor, Product Manager

Want to see how your much Brazilian real will get you in Malaysia, or how the US dollar is holding up relative to the euro? You’re in luck -- Google's calculator feature now supports currency conversion.

[Updated URL]

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Sounds of summer

Posted by Hunter Walk, Product Manager

Googlers like music. We play in bands. We've got live music at our lunch BBQs. We've even been known to break into song at company meetings. But our secret sauce is the proximity of Google's Mountain View office to Shoreline Amphitheatre, a popular outdoor concert venue. They've got a full slate of shows each summer and sometimes I'll just hang out at the outer extremes of our campus, letting the tunes drift over the hills to my ears.

But while barely audible summer hits are nice, the fringe benefits of having rock stars so close to the office can sometimes pay off in more surprising ways. When Coldplay performed at Shoreline a couple of years back, it was an excellent excuse for some of the band - together with lead singer Chris Martin's inamorata, Gwyneth Paltrow - to come by and visit Google.

And with Coldplay returning to Shoreline this summer might we expect another visit from Gwyneth and her husband? Maybe. But I'm secretly hoping we get a different musical luminary walking the halls at Google this summer because, well, Ozzfest does come to Shoreline in August.

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Looking for Ian Turner (updated)

Posted by Matt Cutts, Software Engineer

Last week I got back from the WebmasterWorld conference in New Orleans. I just found out that Ian Turner, a well-known moderator and search engine optimizer, hasn't been seen since last weekend. If you've seen Ian more recently, could you contact his family? There's more information here.

Everyone is hoping that he's safe and sound somewhere.

Update: Ian's okay! He lost his passport, but he's doing fine in Atlanta.

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