quinta-feira, 22 de dezembro de 2011
Academic Successes in Cluster Computing
Access to massive computing resources is foundational to Research and Development. Fifteen awardees of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cluster Exploratory Service (CLuE) program have been applying large scale computational resources donated by Google and IBM.
Overall, 1,328 researchers have used the cluster to perform over 120 million computing tasks on the cluster and in the process, have published 49 scientific publications, educated thousands of students on parallel computing and supported numerous post-doctoral candidates in their academic careers. Researchers have used the program for such diverse fields as astronomy, oceanography and linguistics. Besides validating MapReduce as a useful tool in academic research, the program has also generated significant scientific knowledge.
Three years later, there are many viable, affordable alternatives to the Academic Cloud Computing Initiative, so we have decided to bring our part of the program to a close. It has been a great opportunity to collaborate with IBM, the NSF and the many universities on this program. It was state-of-the-art four years ago when it was started; now, Academic Cloud Computing is a worldwide phenomena and there are many low-cost cloud computing options that provide viable alternatives to the Academic Cloud Computing Initiative.
segunda-feira, 19 de dezembro de 2011
Google Apps highlights – 12/16/2011
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
The elves got an early jump on the holidays this year by leaving us some surprises in Google Apps over the last few weeks. Sharing from Gmail got a whole lot easier, and Google Calendar can make better use of precious screen space. We also have 10 new Google Apps customer stories to share from the tens of thousands that have gone Google in recent weeks.
Gmail gets more social
Last week we sprinkled a touch of Google+ into Gmail, making it easier to connect and share with people from your inbox. You can add people to circles right from an email thread through Gmail’s people widget, share photo attachments with friends and family on Google+ without leaving Gmail, and view a filtered version of your inbox only showing messages from people in your circles. We also improved Gmail’s address book by incorporating contact information shared by your friends, family and colleagues in their Google+ profiles.
New features in the Gmail iOS app
Just yesterday we added several new improvements to the Gmail app for iOS 4+. Now you can set up a custom email signature for mobile messages, manage your vacation responder, and view nested labels from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. We also added scribbles, a fun way to spice up messages by adding a quick hand-drawn sketch. You can create scribbles using a range of colors, brush sizes, lines, erasers and spray paints from your touchscreen device.
More free calls right from Gmail
Last year we introduced free domestic calling in Gmail within the U.S. and Canada, and we’re extending this free service for the whole year of 2012. We’re happy to help you keep in touch with those special people in your life, for free.
Hide morning and night hours in Calendar
If you don’t often have appointments early in the morning or late at night, a new trick in Google Calendar might be useful. Now you can hide morning and night hours, leaving more screen real estate for the times of day when most of your events take place. Give it a try in Calendar Labs.
Who’s gone Google?
Businesses and schools are switching to Google Apps in droves these days. From tiny startups to large enterprises and nonprofits to college campuses, we love hearing the inspiring stories that our customers share. Here’s a new batch of stories for your reading pleasure: TripIt, IPSEN, Ebby Halliday, Ticket River, VigLink, HeyZap, The Great Books Foundation, Utah K-12 schools, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and UC Santa Cruz. Welcome one and all!
For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog, and keep an eye out for this series here after the holidays. We launched more than 150 improvements go Google Apps in 2011, and we have a ton more in store for 2012!
quinta-feira, 15 de dezembro de 2011
Dell Service Tag using PowerShell
(Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Bios).SerialNumber
domingo, 11 de dezembro de 2011
Support for C++0x / C++11 in NetBeans
- open the Project Options,
- select the category "C++ Compiler" under "Build",
- add "-std=c++0x" to the Additional Options of the Command Line. If you want to keep the GNU extensions, then you should add "-std=gnu++0x" instead.
- open the Options in the Tool menu,
- select the C/C++ icon
- select the tab "Code Assistance"
- select the sub-tab "C++"
- add "__GXX_EXPERIMENTAL_CXX0X__"
Be aware that no compiler/IDE has complete support for C++0x / C++11 yet.
For a list of new features in C++11, you can read this very readable document of the C++ inventor Bjarne Stroustrup: C++11 FAQ.
sexta-feira, 9 de dezembro de 2011
Measuring Ad Effectiveness Using Geo Experiments
Advertisers want to be able to measure the effectiveness of their advertising. Many methods have been used to address this need, but the most rigorous and trusted of these are randomized experiments, which involve randomly assigning experimental units to control and test conditions. At Google, we have found that randomized geo experiments are a powerful approach to measuring the effectiveness of advertising.
Many advertising platforms allow advertising to be targeted by geographical region. In these experiments, we first assign geographic regions to test or control conditions and employ AdWords’ geo-targeted advertising capabilities to increase or decrease the regional advertising spend accordingly. The use of randomized assignments guards against potential hidden test/control biases that could impact the measurements. Our approach also accounts for seasonal changes that impact the volume and cost of advertising across the length of the experiment.
In this paper, we describe the application of geo experiments for measuring the impact of advertising on consumer behavior (e.g. clicks, conversions, downloads, etc.). This description includes the results of a geo experiment that our research team ran for a Google advertiser.
quinta-feira, 8 de dezembro de 2011
New TalkBin improvements make it easier to connect with customers
Today, we’re excited to announce three improvements that make it even easier to manage customer feedback.
1) Getting started tutorial
When you log in to TalkBin, you’ll be welcomed with a handy educational tutorial that explains all the most important features. This makes learning how to use TalkBin a cinch for you and your employees.
2) Updated dashboard
Based on your feedback, we updated the user interface with a fresh new design that helps you to manage all of your settings in one convenient place. For example, now your Account Settings are just one click away from Location and Billing Settings.
3) Custom sign builder
In-store signs are key to getting quality feedback from your customers. The new sign building feature help you make and print custom signs in just a few minutes.
To learn more about how TalkBin can help your business, check out these firsthand perspectives from Fraiche Yogurt and P. Terry’s Burger Stand.
Also, for the rest of the month, Google Small Business Blog readers can get TalkBin for just $5/month per location (discounted from the regular $25/month per location). Just enter promotion code BLOGSMB when you sign up at talkbin.com/signup/user/. This offer expires December 31, 2011.
Posted by Qasar Younis, Product Manager, TalkBin
ACM Fellows for 2011
Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog
Congratulations to three Googlers elected ACM Fellows
It gives me great pleasure to share that the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced that three Googlers have been elected ACM Fellows in 2011. The ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, and the Fellows Program celebrates the exceptional contributions of leaders in the computing field. This year the society has selected Amit Singhal, Peter S. Magnusson and Amin Vahdat for their outstanding work, which has provided fundamental knowledge to the field.
The recently-named Fellows join 14 prior Googler ACM Fellows and other professional society honorees in exemplifying our extraordinarily talented people. On behalf of Google, I congratulate our colleagues. They embody Google’s commitment to innovation with impact, and I hope that they’ll serve as inspiration to students as well as the broader community of computer scientists.
You can read more detailed summaries of their achievements below, including the official citations from the ACM.
Dr. Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
For contributions to search and information retrieval
Since 2000, Dr. Amit Singhal has been pioneering search as the technical lead for Google's core search algorithms. He is credited with most of the information retrieval design decisions in Google Search – a massive system that has responded to hundreds of billions of queries. More than anyone, Amit has a deep understanding of Google’s entire algorithmic system. He is responsible for prioritization and has overseen the development of numerous algorithmic signals and their progression over time. He is the clear thought and managerial leader who has led critically important initiatives at the company. Among many other things, Amit catalyzed Universal Search, which returns multi-modal results from all available corpora; he was the force behind Realtime Search, which returns results from dynamic corpora with low latency; and he championed Google Instant, which returns search results as the user types.
Prior to joining Google, Amit boasted a prolific publication record averaging 5 publications/year from 1996-9 while at AT&T Labs. Since that time, you could say Google Search has been one long, sustained publication demonstrating a constant advancement in the state of the art of information retrieval.
Peter S. Magnusson, Engineering Director
For contributions to full-system simulation
Peter has made a tremendous impact by driving full-system simulation. His approach was so advanced, it can be used in real world production of commercial CPUs and prototyping of system software. Starting in 1991, Peter began to challenge the notion that simulators could not be made fast enough to run large workloads, nor accurate enough to run commercial operating systems. His innovations in simulator design culminated in Simics, the first academic simulator that could boot and run commercial multiprocessor workloads. Simics saw huge academic success and has been used to run simulations for research presented in several hundred subsequent publications.
Peter founded Virtutech in 1998 to commercially develop Simics, and he ultimately forged and became the leader in a new market segment for software tools. With Peter at the helm, Virtutech pushed Simics beyond several performance barriers to make it the first simulator to exceed 1 billion instructions per second and the first simulator to model over 1,000 processors. Peter joined Google in 2010 to work with cloud computing.
Dr. Amin Vahdat, Principal Engineer
For contributions to data center scalability and management
Amin’s work made an impact at Google long before he arrived here. Amin is known for conducting research through bold, visionary projects that combine creativity with careful consideration of the engineering constraints needed to make them applicable in real world applications. Amin’s infrastructure ideas have underpinned the shift in the computing field from the pure client-server paradigm to a landscape in which major web services are hosted “in the cloud” across multiple data centers. In addition to pioneering “third-party cloud computing” through his work on WebOS and Rent-A-Server in the mid-90s, Amin has made important advancements in managing wide-area consistency between data centers, scalable modeling of data center applications, and building scalable data center networks.
Amin’s innovations have penetrated and broadly influenced the networking community within academia and industry, including Google, and his research has been recapitulated and expanded upon in a number of publications. Conferences that formerly did not even cover data centers now have multiple sessions covering variants of what Amin and his team have proposed. At Google, Amin continues to drive next-generation data center infrastructure focusing on Software Defined Networking and new opportunities from optical technologies. This is emblematic of Amin’s ability to build real systems, and perhaps more significantly, convince people of their value.
terça-feira, 6 de dezembro de 2011
Our second round of Google Research Awards for 2011
We’ve just finished the review process for the latest round of the Google Research Awards, which provide funding to full-time faculty working on research in areas of mutual interest with Google. We are delighted to be funding 119 awards across 21 different focus areas for a total of $6 million. The subject areas that received the highest level of support this time were systems and infrastructure, human-computer interaction, social and mobile. In addition, 24% of the funding was awarded to universities outside the U.S.
One way in which we measure the impact of the research award program is through surveys of Principal Investigators (PIs) and their Google sponsors (a Googler with whom grantees can discuss research directions, provide progress updates, engage in knowledge transfer, etc.). Here are some highlights from our most recent survey, covering projects funded over the last two years:
- 433 papers were published as a result of a Google research award
- 126 projects made data sets or software publicly available
- 63 research talks were given by sponsored PIs at Google offices
An important aspect of the program is that it often gives early career academics a head start on their research agenda. Many new PIs commented on how a Google research award allowed them to explore their initial ideas and build a foundation for obtaining more significant funding from other sources. This type of seed funding is especially hard to get in the current economic environment.
The goal of the research award program is to initiate and sustain strong collaborations with our academic colleagues. The collaborations take many forms, from working on a project together, to co-writing a paper, to coming to Google to give a research talk. Whatever the form, the most important aspect is building strong relationships that last. Case in point, many of our focused awards (multi-year, unrestricted grants that include access to Google’s tools, technology and expertise) started as Google research awards.
Congratulations to the well-deserving recipients of this round’s awards, and if you are interested in applying for the next round (deadline is April 15), please visit our website for more information.
segunda-feira, 5 de dezembro de 2011
Pedal to find your dream home with Google Maps
The features available in Google Maps are equally functional and fun. You can tour distant cities with Street View or map out a trip with multiple destinations using Custom Maps. Not only is Google Maps a great tool for everyday personal use, but it’s can also be used as a practical business tool. Such is the case for Matt Kolb, owner of Pedal to Properties.
Matt is an avid cyclist and a realtor based in Boulder, Colorado. In 2006, Matt decided to blend his hobby and career by founding his own real estate agency called Pedal to Properties. His company is built on the idea that by touring homes via bicycle, one can get a better sense of the local community and determine if a particular property is the right fit.
When Matt meets with clients, he locates various properties on Google Maps and creates a biking route of the houses they’ll visit that day, using Bicycling Directions as a guide. Home buyers are encouraged to interact with the map, using Street View to check out a property and its surrounding neighborhood, and using nearby search to take a look at local schools and businesses. Through this process Matt is able to narrow down viable homes for a specific buyer, making the experience enjoyable and time-efficient.
If you have interesting stories about how you use biking directions, Street View, or other Google Maps features to enhance your business, comment on our Google+ Page with #mygmapstory
Posted by Dave Kim, Product Marketing Manager
sexta-feira, 2 de dezembro de 2011
2011 Google China Faculty Summit in Hangzhou
We just wrapped up a highly successful 2011 Google China Faculty Summit in Hangzhou, China. On November 17 and 18, Googlers from China and the U.S. gathered with more than 80 faculty members representing more than 45 universities and institutes, including Tsinghua University, Peking University and The Chinese Academy of Sciences. The two-day event revolved around the theme of “Communication, Exploration and Expansion,” with day one covering research and day two focusing on academic development.
The summit provided a unique setting for both sides to share the results of their research and exchange ideas. Speakers included:
- Maggie Johnson, director of education and university relations at Google, presenting on innovation in Google research and global university relations programs,
- Dr. Boon-Lock Yeo, head of engineering and research for Google China, providing an overview of innovation in China engineering and corporate social responsibility efforts and accomplishments, and
- Prof. Edward Chang, director of research for Google China, delivering a keynote on mobile information management and retrieval.
The discussions on November 17 focused on two tracks, mobile computing and natural language processing, while discussions on November 18 focused on curriculum development with a special focus on Android app development. The attendees also spent time discussing joint research and development between universities and industry.
This summit is part of a continuing to effort to collaborate with Chinese universities in order to support education in China. Click here for a list of the variety of education programs we have launched there in recent years. We look forward to expanding partnership opportunities in the future.
terça-feira, 29 de novembro de 2011
More Google Cluster Data
Google has a strong interest in promoting high quality systems research, and we believe that providing information about real-life workloads to the academic community can help.
In support of this we published a small (7-hour) sample of resource-usage information from a Google production cluster in 2010 (research blog on Google Cluster Data). Approximately a dozen researchers at UC Berkeley, CMU, Brown, NCSU, and elsewhere have made use of it.
Recently, we released a larger dataset. It covers a longer period of time (29 days) for a larger cell (about 11k machines) and includes significantly more information, including:
- the original resource requests, to permit scheduling experiments
- request constraints and machine attriibutes
- machine availability and failure events
- some of the reasons for task exits
- (obfuscated) job and job-submitter names, to help identify repeated or related jobs
- more types of usage information
- CPI (cycles per instruction) and memory traffic for some of the machines
Note that this trace primarily provides data about resource requests and usage. It contains no information about end users, their data, or access patterns to storage systems and other services.
More information can be found via this link, which will (after a short questionnaire) take you to a site that provides access instructions, a description of the data schema, and information about how the data was derived and its meaning.
We hope this data will facilitate a range of research in cluster management. Let us know if you find it useful, are willing to share tools that analyze it, or have suggestions for how to improve it.
segunda-feira, 21 de novembro de 2011
Loading .net 4.0 assemblies in PowerShell 2.0
By default, PowerShell uses the .Net Framework version 2.0 run-time, and then you get the following error message in PowerShell:
Add-Type : Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\...\MyDotNetAssembly.dll' or one of its dependencies. This assembly is built by a runtime newer than the currently loaded runtime and cannot be loaded.
At line:1 char:13
+ Add-Type <<<< -Path .\MyDotNetAssembly.dll
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Add-Type], BadImageFormatException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.BadImageFormatException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddTypeCommand
To resolve this problem you can change the config file of PowerShell to let it load the .Net Framework version 4.0 instead of version 2.0. This can be done using the PowerShell.exe.config file.
Locate the program PowerShell.exe which is normally "C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0", and create/update the file PowerShell.exe.config beside it, with this configuration:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0.30319"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
</startup>
</configuration>
On 64-bit machines, the location of PowerShell is the same, but the 32-bit version of PowerShell is located under "C:\windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0". When you use the 32-bit version of PowerShell, you should create/change the config file there too.
The same trick can be applied to other software that hosts PowerShell, such as PowerShell_ISE.exe.
sexta-feira, 18 de novembro de 2011
Google Apps highlights – 11/18/2011
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
The last few weeks have brought a fresh new look in Gmail, more mobile access options and simpler meeting scheduling tools. Millions of organizations using Google Apps can now use Google+ on their business and university accounts, and we launched a couple Apps-related Google+ Pages ourselves.
Gmail’s new look
Back in July we previewed Gmail’s new look, and a couple weeks ago we started letting people switch to the new design with one click. The refreshed interface makes it easier to follow conversations and spot the sender with profile pictures for each message. The new look also supports dynamic screen densities, so Gmail displays properly whether you’re viewing on a large desktop monitor or a smaller mobile screen. We also added a selection of beautiful HD themes to the existing gallery. Finally, we made it easier to perform advanced email searches using a panel of powerful search options that reveals with a single click.
Gmail app for iOS devices
This month we introduced the Gmail app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, complete with mobile alerts for new mail, a responsive touch screen interface and Gmail mainstays like fast search, conversation view and address auto-complete.
Suggested meeting times in Google Calendar
We’ve heard how frustrating it can be to spend 15 minutes finding a good time for people to convene for a 30 minute meeting, so we made it easier to find a good meeting time in Google Calendar. The suggested times feature automatically reviews the availability of meeting invitees, and proposes event times that work for the whole group.
Google+ for organizations using Google Apps
Businesses, schools and organizations with Google Apps can now use Google+. Employees and students can create profiles, +1 things they like on the web, share interesting content with their circles and have live multi-person video chats with classmates, colleagues and friends. Organizations can also create their Google+ Pages—an organization’s identity on Google+ for customers, students or fans. We’re using Google+ Pages ourselves, so take a look at the Gmail and Google Enterprise pages, and circle us if you’d like to stay in the loop.
24x7 telephone support and improved mobile device management
This week, we introduced a couple other new benefits for Google Apps customers. Organizations of all sizes around the world can now call our support hotline at any time for all core service issue. Also new this week, we improved our mobile device management capabilities with an interface for administrators to view and deny mobile devices connecting to Google Apps, granular mobile policy controls, and the ability to visualize mobile usage trends across the organization.
Who’s gone Google?
Organizations large and small continue to amass around Google Apps. We’re thrilled to welcome a whole host of new customers including the Trinity Mirror Group (Britain’s largest newspaper publisher), startups such as JobFlo and UserTesting, organizations including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and colleges like the University of Michigan and UT Austin. Welcome to all!
Which database files are almost full?
The query is similar to DBCC SHOWFILESTATS, which also works on SQL Server version prior to 2005, but doesn't include the transaction log files.
quinta-feira, 10 de novembro de 2011
Aero Peek Alt-Tab problem in Windows 7
I could not resolve the problem for now, but as a workaround I have turned off "Aero Peek":
- Start Control Panel
- In the search box, type "Performance Information and Tools"
- In the left panel, click "Adjust visual effects"
- On the first tab "Visual Effects", disable "Enable Aero Peak"
- Click "Apply" or "OK"
terça-feira, 8 de novembro de 2011
Who is connected to my SQL Server database?
segunda-feira, 7 de novembro de 2011
Get closer to your customers with Google+
Editorial note: Many of you have already verified your Place page via Google Places for business. We encourage you to continue maintaining the information in your Google Places account to help ensure that potential customers can find accurate information about your business on Google Maps and local search. You may also want to supplement your Google Places account with a Google+ Page for your business, which provides you with additional ways to engage and directly interact with customers using Google+. Currently, however, Google Places accounts and Google+ Pages must be managed separately.
Since the initial launch of Google+ just a few months ago, we’ve welcomed over 40 million people and introduced more than 100 new features. For all these people, one important part is still missing - your business.
We want to help you make the same kinds of lasting connections with your customers online the way you can in real life. That’s why we are introducing Google+ Your Business, a collection of tools and products to help you get closer to your customers. At the heart of this is Google+ Pages, your business’s identity on Google+.
Google+ Pages: Have real conversations with the right people
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Hangouts
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Circles
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+1 button and Google+ badge: Inspire current customers to recommend new ones
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To help your customers find your page and start sharing, we have two buttons you can add to your site by visiting our Google+ badge configuration tool:
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In the coming days, we’re introducing the Google+ badge, which lets people add your page to their circles, without leaving your site, to start getting updates from your business via Google+.
Make your +1’s count, improving the performance of your ads
Coming soon, we will also make it possible to link your Page to your AdWords campaigns for your site, so that all your +1s -- from your Page, your website, ads and search results -- will get tallied together and appear as a single total.
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Consumers will be able to see all the recommendations your business has received, whether they are looking at an ad, a search result or your page, meaning your +1’s will reach not only the 40 million users of Google+, but all the people who come to Google every day. In the coming days. you'll be able to link your page to your AdWords campaigns by following the instructions in the AdWords Help Center.
Or, if you're using AdWords Express from your Google Places account, you can link your ads to your Google+ Page by simply selecting the option to direct viewers of your ad to your Google+ Page, and entering the Google+ Page URL in the appropriate field.
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Bringing Google+ to the rest of Google
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Just the beginning
We wanted to help you get your business on Google+ as soon as possible, so we’re opening the field trial for Google+ Pages to everyone today. Creating a Google+ Page only takes a few minutes. To get started, you’ll need a personal Google+ profile. If you don’t have a Google account, it’s very quick and easy to join. And if you are looking for inspiration, check out some of the companies that are already starting to set up their Pages:
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To learn more about how Google+ works for your business, check out the Google+ Your Business site. We’re just getting started and have many more features in the coming weeks and months. To keep up to date on the latest news and tips, add the Google+ Your Business page to your circles. If you have ideas on how we can improve Google+ for your business, we’d love to hear them.
Posted by Dennis Troper, Product Management Director, Google+ Pages
quinta-feira, 3 de novembro de 2011
Automatic start of Empathy when logging into Ubuntu
- Start a terminal window (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-T)
- Run: "sudo cp /usr/share/applications/empathy.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart"
Garmin & OpenStreetMap
You can use this tool to convert your GPX tracks (containing Saved tracks) to one that is compatible with OpenStreetMap.org:
FxGpxOpenStreetMapConverter
Requires .Net Framework 3.5.
The source code is also available:
FxGpxOpenStreetMapConverter
You can use Visual C# Express Edition (free) to compile the source code.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209
quarta-feira, 2 de novembro de 2011
Discovering Talented Musicians with Acoustic Analysis
In an earlier post we talked about the technology behind Instant Mix for Music Beta by Google. Instant Mix uses machine hearing to characterize music attributes such as its timbre, mood and tempo. Today we would like to talk about acoustic and visual analysis -- this time on YouTube. A fundamental part of YouTube's mission is to allow anyone anywhere to showcase their talents -- occasionally leading to life-changing success -- but many talented performers are never discovered. Part of the problem is the sheer volume of videos: forty eight hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute (that’s eight years of content every day). We wondered if we could use acoustic analysis and machine learning to pore over these videos and automatically identify talented musicians.
First we analyzed audio and visual features of videos being uploaded. We wanted to find “singing at home” videos -- often correlated with features such as ambient indoor lighting, head-and-shoulders view of a person singing in front of a fixed camera, few instruments and often a single dominant voice. Here’s a sample set of videos we found.
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Then we estimated the quality of singing in each video. Our approach is based on acoustic analysis similar to that used by Instant Mix, coupled with a small set of singing quality annotations from human raters. Given these data we used machine learning to build a ranker that predicts if an average listener would like a performance.
While machines are useful for weeding through thousands of not-so-great videos to find potential stars, we know they alone can't pick the next great star. So we turn to YouTube users to help us identify the real hidden gems by playing a voting game called YouTube Slam. We're putting an equal amount of effort into the game itself -- how do people vote? What makes it fun? How do we know when we have a true hit? We're looking forward to your feedback to help us refine this process: give it a try*. You can also check out singer and voter leaderboards. Toggle “All time” to “Last week” to find emerging talent in fresh videos or all-time favorites.
Our “Music Slam” has only been running for a few weeks and we have already found some very talented musicians. Many of the videos have less than 100 views when we find them.
And while we're excited about what we've done with music, there's as much undiscovered potential in almost any subject you can think of. Try our other slams: cute, bizarre, comedy, and dance*. Enjoy!
Related work by Google Researchers:
“Video2Text: Learning to Annotate Video Content”, Hrishikesh Aradhye, George Toderici, Jay Yagnik, ICDM Workshop on Internet Multimedia Mining, 2009.
* Music and dance slams are currently available only in the US.
quarta-feira, 26 de outubro de 2011
Introducing the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program: Connecting you with partners to help maximize your AdWords campaigns
As a small business, we know you spend a lot of valuable time trying to reach more customers. Many of our advertisers build and create successful AdWords campaigns on their own, and others prefer to work with partners to get their Google advertising up and running. We think it’s important to provide you with the options that work best for your business, which is why we’re excited to announce a partnership program dedicated to helping small- and medium-sized businesses reach new customers with Google AdWords.
The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program (PSP) connects Google’s trusted and experienced partners with businesses to create, manage, and optimize AdWords campaigns that help you reach more customers and make the most of your advertising budget.
Premier SMB Partners bring to the table years of industry knowledge and meet Google’s highest standards for qualification, training, and customer service. Teaming up with a PSP gives you a marketing and search engine advisor who can take the guesswork out of online advertising, to save you time and resources so you can focus on running and growing your business.
Check out the video below to see how a Google AdWords customer named A&D Automatic Gate & Access has worked with a Premier SMB Partner to find new customers with their Google AdWords campaigns.
To learn more about working with a Premier SMB Partner, visit our website, www.google.com/ads/premiersmbpartner/.
Posted by Todd Rowe, Director of Global Channel Sales