Through the Google lens: Search trends February 20-26

If you’re the kind of person who loves the Internet when it’s at its most Internet-y, you had a good week. From llamas to retro cartoons to that darn dress, here’s a look at the past week in search:

Internet gold
Is it white and gold? Or blue and black? That’s the question that had everyone searching, tweeting and generally freaking out Thursday after a Tumblr user posted a photo of a dress that seemed to appear different colors to different people. Debate over the true color of the dress raged for hours, while others tried to solve the mystery of its divisiveness. All we know is, there were more than two million searches for [white and gold dress] yesterday—more than for [blue and black dress]—proving once and for all that it’s white and gold… right?

Before #thedress, though, there were the llamas. In Phoenix, Ariz., yesterday, two llamas got loose from their handlers and took off on a trot through neighborhood streets, yards and sidewalks. Searchers were captivated by the “llama drama,” which ended when police (l)lassoed the animals after a low-speed chase.

Obama says (K)nope
Armed with waffles, Lagavulin and a lot of tissues, we said farewell to NBC’s Parks and Recreation on Tuesday after a seven-year run. Searchers turned to the web to revisit favorite characters, quotes and episodes from the show that brought us “Treat Yo’ Self” and the Cones of Dunshire, while (wackily) celebrating the value of hard work, friendship and public service.

Moving from the small-town politics of Pawnee to the big-time in D.C., this week President Obama issued his third-ever Presidential veto, rejecting a bill that would have approved the Keystone XL Pipeline project. People turned to the web to learn more about Presidential veto power throughout history and the pipeline itself. What would Leslie and Ron make of all this, we wonder?

Heroic comebacks
Woo-oo! Nineties kids are rejoicing following news that the Disney cartoon DuckTales is getting a reboot. Searches for the show spiked 8x the day after the announcement. Sounds like a lot of you are ready for some tales of derring-do in 2017.

And Madonna had a bit of a shaky week, after she fell backwards down a flight of stairs during her first performance at the Brit Awards in 20 years. But the Queen of Pop recovered quickly to finish her song “Living for Love.” She’s still an icon for a reason.

Tip of the week
This will be illuminating: if you have an Android device running Lollipop, you can flip the on/off switch on your phone’s flashlight just by saying “Ok Google, turn on my flashlight.” You can do the same trick to turn on or off WiFi or Bluetooth.

Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who searched for [lil sebastian] and [duck tales real ducks]

Rethinking office space

Not the sexiest title for a blog post, I know. But as we’ve inhabited a variety of workplaces—including a garage in Menlo Park, a farmhouse in Denmark and an entire New York city block—we’ve learned something about what makes an office space great. And we’re excited to put that into practice, starting here at our home in Mountain View.

Today we’re submitting a plan to redevelop four sites—places where we already have offices but hope to significantly increase our square footage—to the Mountain View City Council. It's the first time we'll design and build offices from scratch and we hope these plans by Bjarke Ingels at BIG and Thomas Heatherwick at Heatherwick Studio will lead to a better way of working.

A rendering of our proposed new campus. See more images on Google+

The idea is simple. Instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we’ll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas. (Our self-driving car team, for example, has very different needs when it comes to office space from our Search engineers.) Large translucent canopies will cover each site, controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air. With trees, landscaping, cafes, and bike paths weaving through these structures, we aim to blur the distinction between our buildings and nature.

Of course, this project is about much more than just office space; it’s about doing more with the local community as well. So we’re adding lots of bike paths and retail opportunities, like restaurants, for local businesses. We also hope to bring new life to the unique local environment, from enhancing burrowing owl habitats to widening creek beds. And we’re committed to do everything we can to save energy—our recent agreement to offset our energy consumption in North Bayshore with renewable energy includes the development of this proposal.

We chose Mountain View for our headquarters 15 years ago because we love the beauty of the bay, the close proximity to great universities, the family-friendly environment and the chance to work in a city at the heart of Silicon Valley. Today, we want to create office spaces that don’t just provide a great home for Google, but which also work for the city that has given us so much.

We look forward to working with our neighbors at the City Council on this proposal—and the future of Mountain View’s North Bayshore.

Posted by David Radcliffe, Vice President, Real Estate

Get away with Google Flights

While winds howl, frost bites and snow falls, people dream of getting away from it all. Every year around this time, we see an uptick in searches for spring and summer travel from people who have had it up to here with winter. And in the middle of one of the coldest, snowiest, iciest winters on record in the U.S., you better believe people are gearing up to grab their suntan lotion and their carry-ons, and hop on a plane. Enter Google Flights, which makes it easy to plan the trip that’s right for you. Here are a few tips to help you book this year’s dream vacation.

Flexibility is key when finding great deals
There’s a travel myth that you can always find the best deals on Tuesday. But actually, you can find good deals any day of the week—especially if you’re flexible with your travel dates. Though it’s sometimes hard to pull the trigger because you’re afraid the price will drop tomorrow (or next Tuesday, maybe?), our experience shows it’s usually best to book right away.

Regardless of which day you sit down to plan your trip, you can use the calendar in Google Flights to scroll through months and see the lowest fare highlighted for each day. If you’re planning even further out, use the lowest fares graph beneath the calendar to see how prices may fluctuate based on the season, holidays or other events. You can also set preferences (such as direct flights only) and our calendar will adjust to show you just those flights and fares that fit the bill. Finally, if you can save more by using a nearby airport or flying on a different day, we’ll show you a tip at the top of your results.

Not sure about your destination? No problem
Sometimes, you know exactly where your destination needs to be—say, when you’re taking a business trip, or headed to a wedding or family reunion. But there are times when all you know is that you want to go somewhere. Maybe you want to go somewhere with a beach, but don’t care if it’s in Greece or the Caribbean. Or you want to visit Southeast Asia, but aren’t sure which countries to visit.

Our research shows more than half of searchers don’t know where they’re going to travel when they sit down to plan. With Google Flights, you can search for regions or whole countries, like “Flights to Europe” and “Flights to Mexico." Or, expand the map to scan the entire world and see accurate prices for all the different cities you can fly to, along with filters for your flight preferences. If you’re in a particularly adventurous—or lazy—mood, select the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on the map and we’ll suggest ideas for where to go based on popular destinations and your past search history.

But… cheaper isn’t always better
We all love a good deal, but when it comes to choosing flights, cheaper doesn’t always win—and no wonder, when sometimes that means two connections instead of none. On Google Flights, the vast majority of people choose one of the Best flights—considered to be flights that are the best combination of price and convenience. Try it out next time you’re looking for something that fits your schedule, not just your budget.

So once you’ve warmed your hands on that cup of hot cocoa, put them to work on your keyboard or phone. Google Flights is ready to find the best destinations, dates, fares and flights for you to get away from it all.

Posted by Eric Zimmerman, Product Manager, Google Flights (dreaming of warmth from my Boston ice prison)

Expanding opportunities through computer science education

One student celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Another created a music video with a nod to a Frozen princess. A third invited a cold polar bear in for holiday cheer. All these students are participants in Google CS First, a program that teaches 9- to 14-year-olds how to use computer science (CS) to express themselves and their interests. In the process, they get a window into the world of coding and learn skills that may be useful to them in the future.

We launched CS First back in 2013, and since then more than 19,000 students have participated at one of 1,300+ CS First clubs around the country, most run by teachers, parents and volunteers. All our CS First materials are free and available online, and the curriculum is designed for everyone to work at their own pace, meaning it’s accessible even to people who are new to technology. It’s also designed to tap into students’ existing interests, showing them how CS can integrate with the rest of their lives. Inspired by fashion, art, music, politics and more, students have used code to build videos, games and stories on topics big and small, from how they met their best friends to solving global hunger.

CS First participants at Sedgefield Middle School in Goose Creek, SC look over a friend’s shoulder at her project

Now, we’re partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Corporation for National and Community Service to bring CS First to even more students across the country. A new group of 20 AmeriCorps VISTA members will spend a year helping local Boys & Girls Clubs incorporate CS First and other educational programs into their slate of activities, giving more young people, especially those who might not otherwise be exposed to coding, greater access to computer science education.

Computer science is increasingly important to building a successful career, in fields varying from medicine to architecture to music. But today, there aren’t enough computer scientists to fill the available jobs—and on top of that, many populations aren’t equally represented in the field. According to code.org, only 8 percent of people who take the Advanced Placement Computer Science Exam are students of color, and only 15 percent are women. And while women earn 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees, only 12 percent of computer science degrees are awarded to women. We want to expand the pool of technologists, and make sure that all young people, regardless of background or resources, have access to high-quality CS education from an early age.

That’s what this new effort is all about. Our partners have long been committed to supporting young people and communities. Boys & Girls Clubs of America gives young people access to opportunities to help them become productive and responsible citizens during out of school time. And AmeriCorps VISTA taps the skills and passion of more than 7,000 Americans annually to support community efforts to overcome poverty. Working together, we can empower more young people with the technical know-how they need to succeed in today’s society and economy.

Join us in making CS more accessible to more kids, and apply on the AmeriCorps website by March 1. If accepted, you’ll come to the Google headquarters in Mountain View for training before spending a year in one of six cities. Best of all, your year of service will make a real difference in the lives of young people.

Posted by Kate Berrio, Google CS First Program Manager

Our first building block in tech for tykes: YouTube Kids

When we were kids, if we wanted to learn more about gorillas or how to make friendship bracelets, our parents pointed us to an encyclopedia, or took us to the library. When we wanted to watch cartoons, we eagerly awaited Saturday morning. Today’s kids have it even better—they have all of these options, plus a world of knowledge and information at their fingertips via the Internet. That opens up wonderful opportunities, but also can cause some worry for those of us who are parents.

So over the past year, teams across Google—including many passionate parents—have been looking at how families are using our products, and how we can make it easier for children and parents to explore and play together. We decided to start with YouTube.

For years, families have come to YouTube, watching countless hours of videos on a variety of topics. And today, we’re launching YouTube Kids, a new family-friendly app that makes it easy for kids to explore a vast selection of videos on any topic.

In the new YouTube Kids app, available on Android and iOS in the U.S., videos are narrowed to focus on content that is appropriate for the whole family. You might explore DIY arts and crafts, learn how to find the circumference of a circle, or watch favorites from Mother Goose Club to Minecraft, as well as new series from National Geographic Kids and Reading Rainbow. And there are more train videos than even you can count.

We’ve designed the app to be easier for kids to use, with a brighter and bigger interface that’s perfect for small thumbs and pudgy fingers. For parents, we’ve built in options that let you decide how your family uses the app, including the ability to set viewing limits with a timer.

Head over to YouTube’s blog to learn more. This is just our first step—we’ll keep tinkering and hope to have more great products for your family soon.

Posted by Pavni Diwanji, VP of Engineering, and Shimrit Ben-Yair, Product Manager, both moms of two

Through the Google lens: Search trends February 13-19

What we learned this week on search: New England’s stuck in a winter wonderland, Cindy Crawford doesn’t need makeup to look better than the rest of us and Lady Gaga’s caught in a good romance. Read on to learn the details.

Baby, it’s (still) cold outside
What better way to start your morning than with seven feet of snow? That’s what the lucky people of New England are saying (or not saying) as they endure the wrath of the aptly named Thundersnow. This type of storm occurs when a thunderstorm features snow instead of rain, and is just the latest storm in a record-breaking month of winter weather. The phenomena led to 20,000+ searches, which might have at least a little to do with The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore’s on-air celebration when the storm hit. Whatever makes you happy, Jim.

A date with destiny 
All eyes will be on the Academy Awards this Sunday, and people are prepping for their Oscar parties turning to the Internet to find out who’s up for Best Actor and Best Actress. But the highlight of the event is the Best Picture Category, which many consider to be a tight race this year. The favorites are Boyhood and Birdman, but if searches this past month determined the winner, it would be Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.

And if we’re talking about a night out with the stars, does anyone know where Cindy Crawford is? This past week, unretouched photos of the American supermodel appeared online and, well—she still looked stunning. The photo went viral and drummed up a discussion on the media’s portrayal of female beauty.

Last call is in... 
The party didn’t stop at midnight this past Tuesday as people started their Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday celebrations. Searches for the holiday spiked on February 17, and there was an increase in searches for New Orleans delicacies beignets and King Cake. On the other side of the world, many people in Asia welcomed the Year of the Goat (or sheep...or ram...whichever you prefer) as they rang in the Lunar New Year with style, not to mention topping the charts with more than 2 million searches. 

Sparks are flying 
Lady Gaga electrified search this week when she announced that she’s switching her Poker Face for a wedding veil to marry boyfriend Taylor Kinney. Fans of the pop queen took to the web to find photos of her heart-shaped engagement ring and new fiancé, causing searches for Kinney to hit an all-time high. Doesn’t sound like a bad romance to us.

Speaking of electricity, this past Wednesday our doodle marked the 270th birthday of the godfather of all Energizer Bunnies, Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the first electrical battery. Searches for “Who is Alessandro Volta” and the “voltaic pile” hit highs, ensuring that the great inventor will be remembered for years to come.

Tip of the week
Don’t have time to watch the three-hour-long Academy Awards this weekend? Just search for the Oscars in the Google App and you’ll find the latest info on what just happened, from acceptance speeches to behind-the-scenes moments.

Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for [mother monster] and [doogie howser takes the oscars]

Swan Song

It's been a hoot, but we have come to the end of this road. I hope you have enjoyed this blog over the last two years and that you gleamed insight into the daily trials of a games engine in development, and the coder responsible.  I would like to thank the thousand or so followers of my daily rant, and together we have clocked just shy of half a million views which is pretty cool.  FPS Creator Reloaded was a pretty apt name for what was meant to be a simple revision of the classic version, but as you saw over the many months of progress we ultimately re-wrote most of it.  As we developed, it became clear that a new more expansive name was required, and finding that name would be very difficult.

As it transpired, after a full day dedicated to brainstorming a new name, and buying the required sites and a certain level of due diligence, we decided on a name, and it only remained to convince the entire pledger community it was a good one.  When we announced, I was pleasantly surprised that almost everyone liked it, and more crucially, understood what it meant in terms of the product direction and vision.

As my final post on this blog I would like to introduce my new blog, which can be found on the newly christened GameGuru website at https://www.game-guru.com/devblog/.  The general understanding is that this blog will be a little more official, and using approved images rather than back-door programmer art, but perhaps this is all for the best. A more professional polished blog will certainly have it's advantages.

It only remains for me to once again thank everyone who read my posts, and I do hope you will join me over at the new site to start a new adventure, which tracks my journey into the world of Steam development and the high and lows associated with being part of the largest game distribution channel on the PC. This blog-spot page will remain for prosperity and a lasting monument to the formative years of Game Guru.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kuvZ0zNhS4

www.game-guru.com

Getting Better Every Day

Each day brings fewer and fewer new bugs added to the list, and once more I fixed ALL of my bugs but as at 5PM I only have one bug remaining, which is a crazy one which takes 15 minutes to reproduce, but for the rest of my tests I have gone through the whole software, ever button and menu item, every key press and feature, and it stood up very well.

Also played some more multi-player today and it's holding up too, with the ability to host and join with built-in content instantly, and for custom and store assets the workshop auto-subscribe system also works well, and you can get up and running with a new level with only an extra 20 seconds added to the process, so everything is looking good for some kind of release next week, and allows me to relax a little on Friday and hopefully spend most of the time testing and making small games :)

Five Hours Later

After I walked the dog, I returned to the PC with every intention of making some food and watching a bit of Netflix, then I decided to see if I could get my task list down by one item, which was around 7PM, and now at 20 minutes to midnight I am perhaps half way through this 'one' task which just happens to be a text swap both in the IDE and the Editor to prepare what is called a Translation Kit.

I had not planned to do this before the Steam launch as it is quite pervasive to swap out lots of hard coded text for external file reference text, but it appeared in my Wrike list and would have prevented me from finishing my Steam release so I started it, and I think I can finish it by Thursday afternoon which will mean we can start the translation of GameGuru almost at the same time as the main release, and whether this was wise we will see.

Google Science Fair 2015: what will you try?

Science is about observing and experimenting. It’s about exploring unanswered questions, solving problems through curiosity, learning as you go and always trying again.

That’s the spirit behind the fifth annual Google Science Fair, kicking off today. Together with LEGO Education, National Geographic, Scientific American and Virgin Galactic, we’re calling on all young researchers, explorers, builders, technologists and inventors to try something ambitious. Something imaginative, or maybe even unimaginable. Something that might just change the world around us.
From now through May 18, students around the world ages 13-18 can submit projects online across all scientific fields, from biology to computer science to anthropology and everything in between. Prizes include $100,000 in scholarships and classroom grants from Scientific American and Google, a National Geographic Expedition to the Galapagos, an opportunity to visit LEGO designers at their Denmark headquarters, and the chance to tour Virgin Galactic’s new spaceship at their Mojave Air and Spaceport. This year we’re also introducing an award to recognize an Inspiring Educator, as well as a Community Impact Award honoring a project that addresses an environmental or health challenge.

It’s only through trying something that we can get somewhere. Flashlights required batteries, then Ann Makosinski tried the heat of her hand. His grandfather would wander out of bed at night, until Kenneth Shinozuka tried a wearable sensor. The power supply was constantly unstable in her Indian village, so Harine Ravichandran tried to build a different kind of regulator. Previous Science Fair winners have blown us away with their ideas. Now it’s your turn.

Big ideas that have the potential to make a big impact often start from something small. Something that makes you curious. Something you love, you’re good at, and want to try.

So, what will you try?

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Google for Education team

(Cross-posted on the Google for Education Blog)

Welcome to 1399

Ever seen such an ugly bunch of reprobates, well they are coming to a game maker near you, and they're bringing their weapons and bad breath with them in what is bound to be a medieval gathering to remember, so get ready to party until it's 1399!

Of course get too close and it turns from a wonderful fantasy adventure into a barbarian brawl, and it's gonna hurt!

In other news the day was spent putting our world to rights in our monthly strategy meeting, and it's good to report that we're on schedule for a successful launch of GameGuru on Steam.  We've all agreed the priority should remain on stability, performance and key functionality before launching into a gamut of new 'toys' but we will have resources to ensure a steady stream of new content in the form of DLCs and free assets added to the core product over time, so exciting times ahead and can't wait to play your crazy multi-player levels when we release in March!

And Then There Were Four

So I went from zero tasks up to something like twelve, and now I am back down to four, and a little more stability in the software for my trouble, so things are going well, with other cool stuff creeping in from time to time, including new thumbnails for our new as yet unannounced content:

Tomorrow is my monthly strategy meeting to decide some last minute things before the big reveal at the end of the month, at which time I will not even be in this country but in the States attending the GDC 2015 and dividing my time between talking about GameGuru and drinking Guinness (while talking about GameGuru).

As it's the last 'proper' week of tweaks before the week of 'testing', I am adding a third sentence to my blog today to show a screenshot of one of the sample multi-player levels, again created by a member of our kick-ass community of game makers!

Through the Google lens: Search trends February 6-12

Happy Valentine’s Day (and long weekend!) to all you searchers out there. Here’s a look at the past week in Google Search:

Artists in the spotlight
Around The Grammy’s last week, two artists were at the front of the search pack: Beck, who took home the Album of the Year award, and Kanye West. Kanye almost pulled a Kanye (of 2009 VMA’s fame) when he appeared on the verge of interrupting Beck’s acceptance speech; West was upset that Beck won the award over Beyonce, who (according to West) had the best album of all time.

Other top artists in search include Sia—along with Kristen Wiig, who appeared in Sia’s Grammy performance, although Sia’s face did not—and Annie Lennox, who’s still got it. Finally, searchers were struck by a sober moment during the ceremony: after domestic abuse survivor Brooke Axtell shared her personal story on stage, search interest in [domestic violence] spiked 93x.

News in the news
Shock followed shock for news hounds this week. First, a week after Brian Williams admitted that he had wrongly claimed to have been on a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003, he was suspended for six months by NBC’s Nightly News. Now he’s at an all-time high in search. Meanwhile, Jon Stewart announced he will leave The Daily Show after 16 years, devastating loyal fans everywhere and inspiring speculation over who will replace him. And finally, we said goodbye to two legends of journalism: Bob Simon, CBS News reporter and 60 Minutes correspondent for decades, and The New York Times’ media columnist David Carr are being mourned by colleagues and readers.

Jackpot
Some lucky viewers got a sneak peek at the third season of Netflix drama House of Cards when new episodes were accidentally posted online. More than 50,000 searches followed as people tried to get a glimpse before they were taken down. And speaking of lucky, this week’s $500+ million Powerball jackpot had people searching like crazy in hopes of winning the big bucks. There were 2 million searches for [Powerball] on Wednesday, and more for [mega millions] and [lottery numbers]. So far, one person has come forward to claim one of the three winning tickets, so maybe you should check your pockets...

Searching for love
Valentine’s Day has people scrambling and searching for flowers and gift ideas. Interestingly, there are three times as many searches for [gifts for a boyfriend], than [gifts for a girlfriend], but when it comes to married couples things are reversed: there are more searches for [gifts for wife] than for [gifts for husband]. (We’ll just leave that there.) People turn to search for planning all kinds of Valentine’s Day activities, from “What should I wear on a first date?” to choosing a romantic movie.

Tip of the week
Go on, tell that special someone how you feel this weekend. The Google app can help—when your own words just aren’t good enough, say “Ok Google, show me a love quote.” Pro tip: give credit where credit is due. No one likes a plagiarist.

Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who searched this week for [cut onion without crying] and [why is it called shrove tuesday]

Through The Mists Of Development

The second day, and with a few internal Steam keys out the door we're getting generally good responses, and a few tweaks we still need to solve before the main Steam launch, but we're knocking those tasks out the park and getting back down to a scatter of issues, with Ravey focusing on multi-player stability which is starting to take the strain of more than a few of us using it.

As more content comes online, it's great to start seeing the 'variety' of games that can be made with GameGuru now, and a glimpse of things to come. With the addition of creepy sounds and Zombies, the Asylum horror pack is starting to look like a real game which was of course always the intent, but it's nice to see it emerge slowly from the mists of development.

Launch Day With A New Name

It's the day we've been working towards, looking forward to and also dreading, the day we announced our Steam launch of GameGuru, the new face of game creation and our new home for the next decade.  I could not sum it up better than the press released from Develop, linked here:

http://www.develop-online.net/news/gameguru-teaches-players-to-develop-3d-titles/0203041

The ball is now in motion, and if there was ever a day one, this would be it. The world has been informed and it's now our responsibility to deliver on every single grand design we ever hinted at over the last two years. The current build which is being hammered, ready for Steam Early Access, is focusing on getting the basics very solid and the basics covered. The process is quite ruthless, but not much has been dropped and in fact we've added quite a lot of content in a short amount of time in terms of stock assets you'll get out the box.

By now all pledgers will have received the email containing details of the goodies you will be getting as an honored member of our pledge based development. You get the full Steam product for free, extra keys for your friends and family, plus if you are Silver or Gold, some great DLC vouchers which will allow you to get new model packs we will be releasing on Steam. One of our strategies is to commission content on a rolling basis so you will get new assets all the time, in addition to any assets created by third parties through the built-in store.

Not only have we added medieval buildings and scenery objects but also characters and weapons too, so you'll have a great place to start your own fantasy game (and if you want ye' old' rocket launchers in 7th century England, that's fine too).

Deciding on a name for our game creator was extremely difficult, if not impossible, and I am also pretty sure not everyone will like it. The simple reasoning behind it is that we have to move beyond FPS and the 'shooter only' constraints of the old title. Within the next few years we'll have expanded the product to include third person, driving, flying, deep diving, space adventures and everything in between. For this we need a brand name that is simple to remember that can over-arch all the genre's we plan to support, and speaking personally, I am a little sad to see the old name go, but our future is as much about Third Person and Adventures as it is about First Person and Shooting, and we're making a bold statement to the universe that this is what we want and we're going to do it.

Of course there is no rest for the weary, and I must dive right back into the code and continue the last of the tweaks before some seriously intense testing next week ready for the countdown to the actual Steam launch.  I hope the new pledger installer works for everyone, but don't worry if you get the occasional issue, chances are we've already fixed it for the Steam build, and rest assured our internal alpha team will be giving the Steam pre-build a blast before it goes live.

More than my usual two sentences, but no ordinary day you will agree. Might post a little more on Friday but for the next two weeks there will not be much more than 'tested the product today, it was better'. Standard stuff, but absolutely essential for a successful and trouble free launch. If anyone is attending GDC I will be there for all five days, on the GDC show floor for four of them and doing my fair share of Guinness tasting throughout. As always, you are welcome to track me down and join me for a few swifties, always a good time at GDC!  I will post my schedule and locations closer the time :)

And finally, as I cannot say it enough, a huge thanks to the entire community who have helped us get this far, and I hope you will join us on our continuing mission to explore strange new genre's, to seek out content and new model packs, to go boldly where no game maker has gone....before.

FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT GET THE EMAIL (YET), HERE IS THE TEXT SENT TO ALL PLEDGERS OF THE PROJECT:

Welcome to FPS Creator Reloaded Version 1.01

Today we are releasing V1.01 of FPS Creator Reloaded. You will find this new build in the My Products section of The Game Creators website;
http://www.thegamecreators.com/?m=my_products

With this release we’d like to tell you our news!

Announcing GameGuru
With the technology developed to date we are launching a brand new game creation tool called GameGuru - an easy to use game maker that allows anyone to make, share and sell any kind of game on their PC. You can see it listed here in the Steam coming soon list;http://store.steampowered.com/app/266310/

Heading to Steam
From 2nd March we’ll be distributing GameGuru exclusively through Steam as an Early Access title. The main reasons for this are:
* The multiplayer code is built on the Steam networking system
* GameGuru will be much easier to manage through Steam – for example, the taking advantage of the Steam Workshop makes sharing and playing multiplayer levels much easier
* A single build means single focus, better for everyone
* We’ll widen our customer base which in turn will strengthen the community and allow us to bring you more features
* The Game Creators will be able to help you publish the best games made in GameGuru onto Steam

Thank You to our FPS Creator Reloaded pledgers!
Your support has helped us complete the project and we are very grateful for your backing.
On launch day we will be sending you all a set of Steam keys based on the pledge level you made:

* Gold: 5 GameGuru Steam Keys + 4 Model Pack DLCs due in 2015 (total value over $120)
* Silver: 4 GameGuru Steam Keys + 2 Model Pack DLCs due in 2015 (total value over $90)
* Bronze: 2 GameGuru Steam Keys + 1 Model Pack DLC (total value over $39)

You’ll be free to share your Steam keys with friends and family and then play against each other in your own multiplayer maps!

GameGuru is now our main game making project here at The Game Creators and we have lots of developments planned for 2015 and beyond - you will get lifetime updates for Free :-)

One Steam Price
Our aim is to make GameGuru a mass market product and as such it will have a price that appeals to the Steam community - $19.99. 
Plus GameGuru is royalty free so if you create the next Skyrim or COD the revenue you generate is all yours!
All the original FPS Creator Reloaded model packs will be merged into the main Steam product. This means anyone who buys GameGuru will receive:

* GameGuru
* Modern Day Model Pack
* Horror Model Pack
* Zombies Model Pack
* Vegetation Plus Pack
* The ability to save their single player games as standalone exes

We’re also working on some new fantasy and cartoon models that will be part of GameGuru. The benefit of adding all the media into the core means that users can make multiplayer levels and easily link up with friends and only have to send their map file before a multiplayer session begins.

Over the coming months and years we plan to add many new features so our community can effortlessly design the games of their dreams.

We hope you enjoy GameGuru and as always please keep sending us your feedback and suggestions.

Down To One And At Number One

About two hours ago my task list had a SINGLE item in it, that's right just one fix and I have completed everything assigned to me at that point, alas the bug required some tricky multi-player stuff to reproduce so it was not a quick fix, and since then a few more items have emerged from a recent MP session so I guess it's back to work for me.

In other news, our Theory Test app, which teaches you how to pass your driving test, has just hit Number #1 on the Top Paid iOS UK charts, beating Minecraft and Angry Birds, which of course will not last for long, but it's a great feeling to be at the number one spot once again, and I am pretty sure it won't be the last either, now if I can just get our game maker to Number #1 on Steam ;)

From Altamont Pass to Mountain View: Getting more renewable energy on the grid

Technology can help us do more with less. For example, making use of natural climates has helped us make our data centers 50% more efficient than the industry average, and green building technology has helped us limit energy consumption in our offices around the world. Now, we’re doing more with less to power Google’s North Bayshore campus in Mountain View.

We’ve recently signed a long-term agreement to purchase enough local wind energy to offset the electrical consumption of our North Bayshore headquarters on an annual basis. While we’ve been committed to being a carbon-neutral company since 2007, and we purchase clean energy for our data centers, this agreement is the first of its kind when it comes to our offices.

The agreement with NextEra Energy Resources will help to repower an iconic Bay Area wind farm at California’s Altamont Pass with new turbines that will pour 43 MW of electricity onto the grid starting in 2016. This new technology is twice as efficient, and also safer—especially for wildlife.

The new turbines will generate energy that feeds into the grid that powers our North Bayshore buildings in Mountain View. While these electrons can’t be traced once they enter the grid, we can measure how many of them leave the turbines, as well as how many we use on campus on an annual basis (tracked through a system of renewable energy credits, or RECs). So even though the electrons follow an untraceable path through the California electricity grid, we can be sure that we're offsetting the electrical consumption of our North Bayshore headquarters with the renewable energy from the new turbines.

Since our first wind investment in 2010, we’ve developed close relationships with renewable energy providers, helping us secure renewable energy agreements like this one for our campus and data centers—more than 1.1 gigawatt’s worth to date—and it’s also made it possible for us to make equity investments in 17 utility-scale renewable energy projects. And over the years we’ve been thrilled to see other California leaders, from tech companies to universities, also working to bring more renewable energy online.

Finally, if we can geek out for a minute: We think this project is especially cool because back in the 1980’s, the golden hills of Altamont Pass were an early test bed for the first large-scale wind power technology in the U.S. We’ve been blown away (pun intended :)) by how far turbine technology has come since then. Once the installation is complete, and the 370 legacy turbines are replaced, it will take just 24 new ones to generate as much power as our campus uses in a year. Talk about doing more with less.

Posted by David Radcliffe, VP, Real Estate and Workplace Services

Just Four Left

Though delegation and blindly fixing stuff, I am now down to just FOUR items on my task list which is a nice feeling, and naturally the universe won't want me to be happy for too long so I expect the list to increase again in the next round of internal tests but at least I am on top of the project which is where I need to be.

As part of my fixes, I occasionally have to create small levels to test, and this lead me to test a possible collision show-down with the above statue, but it was in vein, the collision was super fast and smooth, and the ugly looking stone statues made no complaints either, so I think everyone was happy in the end.

Take a Security Checkup on Safer Internet Day

Online security is on everyone’s mind these days. According to a recent Gallup poll, more people are worried about their online accounts being hacked than having their home broken into.

Security has always been a top priority for Google. Our Safe Browsing technology identifies unsafe websites and warns people before they visit them, protecting more than one billion Chrome, Firefox, and Safari users everyday. 2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security, beyond your password, to your Google account; it’s like a second padlock on your account’s door. And our research teams regularly release new findings about nefarious online activity, like Gmail account hijacking attempts, so people can stay informed.

We have many protections in place to keep people, and their information, secure, but there's also a lot that you can do to protect yourself. Today, on Safer Internet Day, take a quick Security Checkup, an easy way to review and manage your Google Account’s security settings.

Here are some of the important items you can review during your Security Checkup:

• Recovery information: Adding a phone number can help us get in touch if you’re locked out of your account. We’ll only use your phone number to protect your account, unless you say otherwise.
• Recent activity: This is a quick overview of your recent sign-ins to Google. If you see any activity from a location or device you don’t recognize, change your password immediately.
• Account permissions: These are the apps, websites and devices connected to your Google account. Take a look and make sure you trust—and actually use—all of them. You might want to remove an old phone, or that dusty app you never use.

It takes just a few minutes to make sure your information is accurate and up to date. And as an extra thank you, we’ll add 2GB to your Drive storage plan if you complete the Security Checkup by February 17. Visit your Account Settings and take your Security Checkup today.

Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager

A remedy for your health-related questions: health info in the Knowledge Graph

Think of the last time you searched on Google for health information. Maybe you heard a news story about gluten-free diets and pulled up the Google app to ask, "What is celiac disease?" Maybe a co-worker shook your hand and later found out she had pink eye, so you looked up “pink eye” to see whether it’s contagious. Or maybe you were worried about a loved one—like I was, recently, when my infant son Veer fell off a bed in a hotel in rural Vermont, and I was concerned that he might have a concussion. I wasn’t able to search and quickly find the information I urgently needed (and I work at Google!).

Thankfully my son was OK, but the point is this stuff really matters: one in 20 Google searches are for health-related information. And you should find the health information you need more quickly and easily.

So starting in the next few days, when you ask Google about common health conditions, you’ll start getting relevant medical facts right up front from the Knowledge Graph. We’ll show you typical symptoms and treatments, as well as details on how common the condition is—whether it’s critical, if it’s contagious, what ages it affects, and more. For some conditions you’ll also see high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators. Once you get this basic info from Google, you should find it easier to do more research on other sites around the web, or know what questions to ask your doctor.

We worked with a team of medical doctors (led by our own Dr. Kapil Parakh, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.) to carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.

That doesn’t mean these search results are intended as medical advice. We know that cases can vary in severity from person to person, and that there are bound to be exceptions. What we present is intended for informational purposes only—and you should always consult a healthcare professional if you have a medical concern.

But we hope this can empower you in your health decisions by helping you learn more about common conditions. We’re rolling it out over the next few days, in the U.S. in English to start. In the long run, not only do we plan to cover many more medical conditions, but we also want to extend this to other parts of the world. So the next time you need info on frostbite symptoms, or treatments for tennis elbow, or the basics on measles, the Google app will be a better place to start.

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager

She's Dying To Eat You

A gruesome image below but a great day for completing tasks! Between the team we've knocked off off 26 in one day, and have dropped below the 40 item threshold which is cool considering it was over 200 at one point and we've been adding lots of items since that count.

I present to you one of our lovely Zombies, currently integrated into the main build along with Cartoon genre plus a few more game levels to flesh out the offering when you first install and use the product, and right now I am trying to get as much of the final asset assembly together as quickly as possible, so this is sure to be another hectic week but it will be worth it come the end of Feb!

Through the Google lens: Search trends January 30 - February 5

From a shark with two left feet to a sequel that has everyone buzzing, here’s what trended on search this week.

Haven’t we been here before? 
This past Monday, the U.S. turned to its dirt-dwelling psychic, the groundhog, to determine if it was finally time to put our snow boots back in the closet. Searches for “Did the groundhog see his shadow?” hit 100,000+ while other questions like “What is a groundhog?” also peaked on February 2. So did little Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and curse us with another six weeks of winter? In fact, he did. Can we get a do-over?

Sports news 101 
Now that the dust has settled from this past Sunday’s Super Bowl, there are several things we can take away from the game. First, Tom Brady might be the best quarterback in football history after winning his fourth championship—he was also the most searched Superbowl quarterback. Second, either Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll made the worst call ever or New England’s victory is all part of a conspiracy (you decide). Last but not least, Left Shark put on the best half-time performance of all time… with help from Katy Perry. The Internet fell hook, line and sinker for the choreographically inept shark. Searchers were also curious about Missy Elliot after her appearance in the show.

 Model Ashley Graham also made a splash this week. Don’t know her? You will soon enough. Graham is set to appear Sport Illustrated’s famous swimsuit issue, making her the first plus-size model to be featured in an ad in the magazine.

Back in the headlines 
The spotlight is back on Lance Armstrong and it’s not helping the cyclist’s already damaged reputation. Back in December, Armstrong and his girlfriend Anna Hansen were involved in a hit-and-run accident involving parked cars. At the time, Hansen said she was driving the car during the incident—but it turns out Armstrong was actually the one behind the wheel, leading to two misdemeanor charges, rising interest on trends and more embarrassment for the star.

Iconic and reclusive writer Harper Lee topped the search charts when news emerged that she will be releasing a new book, a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird, in July. The book comes 55 years after Lee’s first novel and the writer has a long history of avoiding the spotlight: She hasn’t granted any interviews or public appearances since Mockingbird came out. While many fans are rejoicing, the surprising announcement is leaving others skeptical. Lee turns 89 this April and is reportedly in ill health, leading some people to feel that the author might be being taken advantage of. We’ll have to wait and see how this story—as well as the one in Go Set A Watchman—unfolds.

Tip of the week
Ready for the long Presidents Day weekend? Look up flights for a last-minute escape. Just say, “Ok Google, show me flights from San Francisco,” to find where you can go to enjoy the day off.

Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched this week for [whistle pig] and [a girl named scout]

The Good The Bad

A good day in terms of getting a good solid build ready for an early submission to Steam which was always part of the plan to test things out, and everything looked good apart from a few niggles added to Wrike.

My own day however has been marred with the inability of my brain to work out why the Steam SHIFT+TAB does not work (the Steam UI Overlay system), and from 9AM to 9PM I've battled and mostly failed. About an hour or so ago I discovered the using the SetForegroundWindow() helped a little, but it's a dangerous command and flaky inside the child window setup I have for the software IDE and DX app.

I've finished on a high note with the toggle now working from the IDE, and if you ALT+TAB the app it also works in the game, but it does not work when you CLICK inside the editor or game, and the mouse highlighter and click definately do not work.  I've fired off an email to the Steam guys and maybe I can get some insight into how to debug the GameOverlayUI.exe module which so far has been the cause of all my Friday bane and suffering.

Also not eaten since 9AM too so going to put something on TV and eat food, forget about input focus, windows messaging, directinput cooperative modes, keyboard and mouse focus, activation and foreground permissions, and hopefully my brain will create a short list of new things to try when I return tonight or Saturday.

Also some fellow kindly reversed into my car which now has a very deep hole, bent plastic and shards of glass where my front bumper and fog light used to be. Only found out about it today when the garage asked about it, retraced the cars tracks to the pub car park, somewhere between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I could start an investigation, or an insurance claim, but there's no use crying over spilled milk and it was a nice reminder by the universe that leaving my car defenseless in the middle of an empty car park on a Wednesday night is not a good idea on so many levels. If the Steam launch goes well, I can just buy a new bumper, or if it goes really well a new car (not really, my Honda Accord is the best car I've had, anyhoo, back to the eating and developing stuff).

Marvelous Multiplayer

Ravey had another day (and night) to work on the multiplayer, and managed to reduce overall packet traffic by 75 percent, which meant our second eight player deathmatch went smooth, even with some users harboring high ping rates, which means we're good to go here with only minor tweaks and fixes to follow.

For my own efforts, knocked a few more items off the list, and added the same number back on as we continue to refine the software for a Steam release, but now faced with the strangest of bugs which manifests itself in the form of hiding all the sounds in the game, as though the game window itself is unable to play sounds or has zero volume, or something, so hopefully I can solve this before I log off for an early night, ready for the big Friday when lots of things are planned and also marks the end of the first week of 'solid testing'. 

Running Out Of Tasks

After obliterating my priority tasks with a vengeance, I am now working through the last five 'normal' items on my list, and I am sure there will be many more added but it's nice to get my work visible at a glance on a single page, good for moral, and with my Pool Night tonight I can hopefully come away with a win there as well.

In other news asset generation continues at a good pace on the Character Kit which will fool your gamer with a crafty use of beards, and thanks to a standard pipeline we're documenting it also means you can craft your own beards in a modeler and add them to the selection, not to mention the extra beards we will be selling through the store too (don't worry hair pieces and false noses to follow in the near future).

Multiplayer Mayhem

Today we tested the first EIGHT player multiplayer mode session with a map I created specially for the occasion, and aside from two issues relating to the dreaded 'guaranteed packet' effect, the whole experience was pretty cool, with players jet packing all over the sky, shooting fellow players in the midst of serious network testing and generally having a good old time in the level I affectionately entitled 'Holy Shotgun'.

In addition to testing the latest multiplayer code from Ravey, which was the fruit of a coding stint that kept him awake until 5AM, I also tested about ten fixes I made during my own late night session, all of which did not reduce the stability of the 'almost final build' except for a missing texture which was an easy tweak to the installer, and despite changing just one file, I still tested the whole software again, button by button, feature by feature, and I saw that it was good.

Google RISE Awards support girls and minorities in tech—from Australia to Mexico

(Cross-posted on the Google for EDU Blog)

When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need support, they turn to their daughters. In a culture whose history goes back 50,000 years, 70 young girls are using technology to give their families a new way to call for help in emergencies. Last year, Engineers Without Borders Australia taught a group of students to build an emergency response beacon using basic hardware and some code to transmit a user’s location and distress message via radio.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up less than 3 percent of Australia’s population, and they’ve historically faced discrimination in society, including in education. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, dropout rates exceed 60 percent in certain regions and Aboriginal students are, on average, 2.5 years behind their peers in scientific and mathematical literacy. The problem is often compounded for girls, who tend to be left out of educational opportunities.

So Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWBA) set out to close the educational and digital divide, developing a program which brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal girls to create emergency beacons from scratch by coding a Raspberry Pi to work with an LED, GPS module and FM transmitter. It will also work through issues of stereotyping and discrimination, and help the girls to better understand each other’s worlds.

This is just one example of an organization doing extraordinary work to make computer science (CS) education available to women and other underrepresented minorities. Computer science has tremendous potential to make a real difference in the world—but only when more people can access and harness it.

That’s the idea behind Google’s RISE Awards, through which we support organizations in their work to inspire students around the world with CS. Since 2010, more than 200 organizations have received an award, and this year, 37 organizations are receiving a cumulative $1.5 million to keep this vital effort humming along. Our partners facilitate programs and activities including teaching girls about the intersection of coding and music production in California, promoting computational thinking through game-design in Mexico, and inspiring children in Brazil to program alongside their parents.
This year, three nonprofits will receive a new “RISE Partnership Award”—a grant to work with one or two partner organizations to help grow their CS outreach to a wider scale. One of the three is Engineers Without Borders Australia, which plans to work with MEET—an organization with expertise on how coding skills can build relationships and break down stereotypes—to integrate their curriculum to reach up to 2,000 girls across Australia, including in Aboriginal communities.

With access to hands-on CS education, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls are preparing themselves for the digital economy, contributing to the diversity of our future’s technology, and taking concrete steps to rise above the inequities their community has faced for decades. They’re not alone. We hope that through the RISE Awards and our other efforts to support diversity in technology, these girls and others like them can have an even greater impact. We can’t wait to see it.

Posted by Roxana Shirkhoda, K12/Pre-University Education Outreach

Finished My Game

As you may know I've been occasionally playing far Cry 3 single player mission to learn how a great FPS game is put together, and I can proudly proclaim that I have completed the single player mission and finished as a goodie goodie, an experience that really reconnected me with what makes good combat AI, weapon handling and general level content, and I am sure these subtle lessons will leak into my work as a games engine engineer.

Today has been mainly about very minor tweaks and a whole lot of testing on a build which was almost the one ready for release, but we've identified a few issues that simply could not be ignored, and so we have decided to get those fixed and repeat the testing circus again on Tuesday, with the hope to have something REALLY solid later this week, so watch this space for announcements and I think you will like what you see!

Shooting stars and puppy ads: How the world watched the big game

From a “super brawl” to a giant lion, yesterday’s big game was filled with many notable moments. That’s true on YouTube and Google too—people watched more game-day ads and teaser videos on YouTube than ever before, YouTube hosted its first-ever halftime show, and a throwback PSA became a top trending search term. Here’s a look at the top trending searches, videos and more across Google and YouTube:

Battle of the brands
As the battle for football supremacy was taking place on the field, a very different one was raging across the country: Which ad would reign supreme? Whether via smartphone, tablet or laptop, people spent nearly 4 million hours watching game-day ads and teaser videos on YouTube—up from 2.2 million hours from this time last year.

This year’s most popular ads came from a wide range of advertisers—newcomers and veterans alike. But one thing’s for certain—puppies, pranks, and Kim Kardashian continue to “break the Internet.” Here are some of the ads that scored big on YouTube so far:

Tom Brady and Missy Elliott dominate on search
While people turned to YouTube to watch the ads, people turned to Google to search for everything from “how old is Tom Brady” to “buffalo chicken dip recipes” to “Katy Perry Halftime performance.” Before kickoff, people asked Google “Why did John Travolta call Idina ‘Adele'?”—a throwback to John Travolta’s infamous mispronunciation of National Anthem performer Idina Menzel's name at the 2014 Oscars. Searchers were also interested in Menzel’s performance, asking “How long will it take Idina to sing the National Anthem?”

Tom Brady, Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson were the top three searched players before, during and after the game. Thanks to some standout in-game performances, by the end they were sharing the spotlight with Rob Gronkowski and Chris Matthews (replacing Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor). And MVP Tom Brady wasn’t just a winner on the field—he captured the title of “Most Searched Quarterback” in every state except for the Seahawks’ home Washington.

Of course, for many people the halftime show is the highlight of the night, and Katy Perry’s performance delivered. She came in on a lion, danced with sharks and went out on a star—one that was, for some, reminiscent of NBC’s old “The More You Know” PSAs. The phrase "the more you know" spiked 190x in search for the 10 minutes after Katy’s starry flight. And although Missy Elliott was a late addition to the halftime lineup, she was a popular topic in search. Top questions related to Missy Elliott included “When was Missy Elliott popular?” and “How does Katy Perry know Missy Elliott?”

A very YouTube halftime show
For the first time ever, this year YouTube hosted a halftime show produced by Collective Digital Studio, with the help of more than 25 YouTube creators including Epic Meal Time's Harley Morenstein as host, Rhett & Link, Toby Turner, Freddie Wong and Tyler Ward. From Kurt Hugo Schneider’s "Epic Patty Cake Song" to the “Elephant’s Toothpaste” science experiment with Science Bob, the show delivered a one-of-a-kind experience for YouTube fans.

With the last touchdown scored, we’re taking votes for your favorite ad, so visit our AdBlitz channel to cast your ballot before voting ends on February 9 at 11:59pm ET.

Whether you’re a loyal 12th man or a Boston fan for life, chances are you turned to YouTube and Google to watch your favorite ads, answer your questions or witness a new generation of halftime entertainment. We’re happy we could be a part of your game.

Posted by Riki Nakasuji, Sports & Gaming Sponsorships Manager, YouTube