Monthly Archives: July 2013

Map of the Week: Hill Mapper San Francisco

Map of the Week: Hill Mapper San Francisco
Hill Mapper San Francisco uses the Elevation API to show how steep streets are in San Francisco.


Streets that go uphill, relative to the current location of the marker, are red, and downhill streets are blue. The opacity of the color represents how steep the hill is.
If you drag around the marker, the Polylines change color, as the marker’s elevation changes the relative elevation of the streets.


It’s particularly powerful if you view it with satellite imagery.
If you want to search for a particular location, the search box uses Places Autocomplete to help you find it.
All around, this is a nice, innovative use of our APIs to show off useful information.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations Team

AdX – Delivering for our Partners

By all measures, this year has been an incredible one for DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) and its partners. From NYC to London to Tokyo (and everywhere in between), more buyers and sellers are using AdX than ever before, and they’re doing it across a broader range of use cases – including direct programmatic deals, tag-based ad network optimization, and of course, RTB.

From Q1 to Q2, AdX saw a 33% increase in RTB spend in the US and a 24% increase globally. But it’s not just about quantity: as marketers continue to embrace the programmatic opportunity, publishers such as Gannett, British Telecom, and The Weather Company are using the platform to identify and capture this spend. 

Part of what’s driving this shift for publishers is the availability of more powerful tools to specify the exact terms of each transaction and understand how buyers are buying. In the past, doing this required some publishers to stitch together many technologies at once. Although we’ve been working on unifying Admeld and AdX for more than a year, in March we unveiled a key milestone on that road with a major series of updates. In addition to its advanced programmatic tools like Preferred Deals and Private Auctions, AdX now includes the best features of Admeld such as ad network optimization and increased transparency and control. The response has been amazing: To date more than 50% of Admeld publishers by volume have migrated their inventory onto AdX. Hundreds of publishers – including CBSi, Jagex, and Stardoll – have already made the switch, and everyone else is scheduled to transition shortly. 

Though the legacy of Admeld continues to inspire our design decisions, we believe strongly that consolidating our efforts behind a single platform is more effective for our clients and more conducive to providing them with the best possible service. For that reason, we’ve notified all our clients in recent weeks that we’ll be sunsetting the Admeld platform and brand on September 30, before the holiday ad spend begins to ramp up.

We've done a lot of preparation to make the migration process as smooth as possible for you. Your account manager should already be in touch with you about what the migration will mean for you.


Posted by Scott Spencer, Director, Product Management

Make the most of the last weeks of summer

A couple of weeks ago, I took a summer trip with friends. I found myself using plenty of Google tools while we were on vacation: from finding the best flight there and a last-minute hostel reservation, to discovering hidden gems in each city we visited, even I was surprised by how much Google made everything easier and smoother.

With that inspiration, we’ve created a one stop shop at g.co/summer with tips to help you also make the most of these last few weeks of summer.

SummerTimes

Here are a few tips you might find useful too:

Tips 1
Tips 2

Meanwhile, my mom back home in New York found some great local activities and museum exhibits, like the MOMA Rain Room, using Google Now in her Google Search app. She even tried some Google+ MakerCamp classes, which inspired her to create her own DIY projects at home.

Post about your summer using hashtag #SummerTimes, and see what other folks are up to.

Happy summer!

Source: Translate


Make the most of the last weeks of summer

A couple of weeks ago, I took a summer trip with friends. I found myself using plenty of Google tools while we were on vacation: from finding the best flight there and a last-minute hostel reservation, to discovering hidden gems in each city we visited, even I was surprised by how much Google made everything easier and smoother.

With that inspiration, we’ve created a one stop shop at g.co/summer with tips to help you also make the most of these last few weeks of summer.

SummerTimes

Here are a few tips you might find useful too:

Tips 1
Tips 2

Meanwhile, my mom back home in New York found some great local activities and museum exhibits, like the MOMA Rain Room, using Google Now in her Google Search app. She even tried some Google+ MakerCamp classes, which inspired her to create her own DIY projects at home.

Post about your summer using hashtag #SummerTimes, and see what other folks are up to.

Happy summer!

Source: Translate


Make the most of the last weeks of summer

A couple of weeks ago, I took a summer trip with friends. I found myself using plenty of Google tools while we were on vacation: from finding the best flight there and a last-minute hostel reservation, to discovering hidden gems in each city we visited, even I was surprised by how much Google made everything easier and smoother.

With that inspiration, we’ve created a one stop shop at g.co/summer with tips to help you also make the most of these last few weeks of summer.

SummerTimes

Here are a few tips you might find useful too:

Tips 1
Tips 2

Meanwhile, my mom back home in New York found some great local activities and museum exhibits, like the MOMA Rain Room, using Google Now in her Google Search app. She even tried some Google+ MakerCamp classes, which inspired her to create her own DIY projects at home.

Post about your summer using hashtag #SummerTimes, and see what other folks are up to.

Happy summer!

Source: Translate


Make the most of the last weeks of summer

A couple of weeks ago, I took a summer trip with friends. I found myself using plenty of Google tools while we were on vacation: from finding the best flight there and a last-minute hostel reservation, to discovering hidden gems in each city we visited, even I was surprised by how much Google made everything easier and smoother.

With that inspiration, we’ve created a one stop shop at g.co/summer with tips to help you also make the most of these last few weeks of summer.

SummerTimes

Here are a few tips you might find useful too:

Tips 1
Tips 2

Meanwhile, my mom back home in New York found some great local activities and museum exhibits, like the MOMA Rain Room, using Google Now in her Google Search app. She even tried some Google+ MakerCamp classes, which inspired her to create her own DIY projects at home.

Post about your summer using hashtag #SummerTimes, and see what other folks are up to.

Happy summer!

Source: Translate


Make the most of the last weeks of summer

A couple of weeks ago, I took a summer trip with friends. I found myself using plenty of Google tools while we were on vacation: from finding the best flight there and a last-minute hostel reservation, to discovering hidden gems in each city we visited, even I was surprised by how much Google made everything easier and smoother.

With that inspiration, we’ve created a one stop shop at g.co/summer with tips to help you also make the most of these last few weeks of summer.

SummerTimes

Here are a few tips you might find useful too:

Tips 1
Tips 2

Meanwhile, my mom back home in New York found some great local activities and museum exhibits, like the MOMA Rain Room, using Google Now in her Google Search app. She even tried some Google+ MakerCamp classes, which inspired her to create her own DIY projects at home.

Post about your summer using hashtag #SummerTimes, and see what other folks are up to.

Happy summer!

Source: Travel


Helping publishers grow with DFP Small Business

Since we launched DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business, we’ve been constantly innovating to meet the evolving needs of growing publishers.

From introducing free mobile and video ad serving functionality, to streamlining the tagging process, we’ve been committed to building a complete and easy-to-use platform that helps publishers grow their digital advertising business.

To help publishers continue to grow with the platform, we’re making available a set of features, such as creative templates, competitive exclusion, and configureable roles, that had previously only been available to our largest publishers. These features will help DFP Small Business publishers unlock new revenue opportunities and have even greater flexibility and control over their ad operations.

A full list of features now available to DFP Small Business publishers can be viewed here. If you don’t have a DFP Small Business account, sign up for free today.

Posted by Chealsea Conroy, Product Manager

Unlocking More Users, with Tablets and Games

Posted by Purnima Kochikar, Director of Business Development, Games & Applications

Last week, we unveiled a number of new things in the world of Android. And while we already showcased the new tools available at your disposal in Android 4.3, we also unveiled a new Nexus 7 tablet, as well as the Google Play Games app, both of which represent opportunities to take advantage of a growing number of users.

Nexus 7 and the Android tablet revolution

If you’re a developer optimizing your app for Android tablets, no doubt you’re familiar with the original Nexus 7. It was Google’s statement on what a great Android tablet experience should look like, and since then, the Android tablet ecosystem has come a long way. There have already been more than 70 million activations of Android tablets, with more than 1 in 2 tablets sold today running Android. We’re starting to see with Android tablets what could be the hockey stick growth all of us experienced a couple of years ago with Android smartphones, and we hope that the new Nexus 7 continues to fuel this growth even further.

Most top developers on Android have already prepared their applications for this wave of new Android tablet users, including many of the essentials, like the New York Times, Zappos, Evernote, Flipboard, Pinterest and more. To help users find your tablet-designed apps more easily on Google Play, you can now choose to only see apps designed for tablets in the top lists. There are also over 50 new collections, which highlight outstanding tablet apps.

To take advantage of the Android tablet revolution, check out our Tablet App Quality Checklist, which has tips and techniques on how to deliver a great app experience for tablet users. It details all of the key things you need to do to optimize your app for tablets, like taking advantage of the extra screen real estate and adjusting font sizes and touch targets, to things you can do on the distribution side, like declaring support for tablet screens and showcasing your tablet UI on Google Play by uploading tablet-specific screenshots. Optimizing your app for Android tablets will unlock a whole new group of users, like those who are about to receive their new Nexus 7 tablets.

Taking your game to the next level

The Android games category on Google Play is on fire; in fact, the vast majority of top mobile game developers are building Android tablet games, and most new titles launch immediately on Android. To help game developers take advantage of the next generation of games, at Google I/O in May, we introduced Google Play game services, our gaming platform for Android, iOS, and the web. By building on Google’s strengths in mobile and cloud services, Google Play game services allows game developers to focus on what they’re good at: creating great gaming experiences for their users.

Turbocharging that growth even more, on Wednesday we introduced the Google Play Games app, which brings your friends together with the games you love, where you can invite a friend and start challenging gamers around the world, compete for top achievements, and race to the top of the leaderboard.

Since the launch at Google I/O, just over two months ago, over one thousand games have added Google Play game services, with millions of users enjoying features like leaderboards and multiplayer inside of the games they love. Some of those early developers using Google Play game services are reporting incredible upticks in vital engagement metrics; for instance, Concrete Software is seeing session length up 15%, and Glu is reporting a 40% increase in 7-day user retention.

Here are a few things you can do to take your game to the next level with Google Play:

  • Integrate with Play Games using achievements and leaderboards to activate your players.
  • Add real-time multiplayer to competitive and cooperative games and increase engagement.
  • Use Play Games branding guidelines and create rich visuals that bolster your presence in the Google Play Games app.

Whether it be getting your app ready for the wave of new Android tablets that are lighting up each day, or opening up a whole new set of features for your users with Google Play game services, a great Android experience starts with a great app or game. That’s why we’re working hard to help provide you with the tools and features needed to create those great experiences for your users, and to help you reach as many of them as possible in the process, with Google Play.