Monthly Archives: June 2014

AdWords API – Using CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD feed placeholder will throw errors

The CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder was deprecated on April 28th, 2014. Starting July 21st, 2014, using this placeholder with the FeedMappingService will result in a FeedMappingError.INVALID_PLACEHOLDER_FIELD error for all AdWords API versions.

See this post for details on how to set your conversion duration going forward with the CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder instead.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

Announcing New Google Mobile Ads SDK for Android

We're enthused to announce a new version of our Mobile Ads SDK for Android.

Our big change for this version are our new Custom Event APIs. After updating our mediation APIs in our last release, Custom Events were up for a refresh. Our new-and-improved Custom Event APIs make it even easier to implement your own mediation adapter or show a custom view in your ad space.

Remember that after August 1st the Play Store will no longer accept submissions using the legacy SDK, so please update your apps to use the latest version of Google Play Services.

For a full list of SDK changes, check out our release notes. For technical questions, post them on our forum. We're stoked about these improvements, and hope you find them useful!

 - , Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Searching for World Cup trends

The World Cup continues to inspire feverish discussion around the globe. Here are some highlights from our search results from the second week of action.

Dutchman Robin Van Persie's flying header won honors for the best goal.



Brazilian striker Neymar won for the most searched hairdo.



Englishman Howard Webb lost out for the most searched referee to a Japanese rival.



Find out more about World Cup by tuning into this special trends edition.

Posted by William Echikson, Google Europe Blog editor

Make our world better, faster, with Google Impact Challenge Australia

From conceiving the Hills Hoist to inventing the bionic ear and WiFi, Australia has a rich history of innovation, fuelled by a desire to solve tough problems with technology solutions. We believe technology can help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges, and today we’re announcing a new program to support Aussie innovators in the new program to support Aussie innovators in the non-profit sector who want to use technology to make an impact.

Starting today, Australian non-profits can submit their technology-driven ideas to Google Impact Challenge | Australia for the opportunity to share in $2 million of funding. We’ll reward the four winning submissions with a $500,000 grant plus mentoring and support from Google employees to help make each project a reality.

Australian non-profits with DGR status can apply online today at: g.co/australiachallenge.



We’ll announce ten finalists in October, and then open up public voting so Australians can select their favourite idea. On October 14, a judging panel made up of Glenn McGrath, Kim Williams, Anne Geddes, Maile Carnegie and Jacquelline Fuller will select three awardees. The fourth awardee will be chosen based on online votes from the public.

Other Google Impact Challenges around the world have supported ideas ranging from smart cameras for wildlife conservation to solar lights for off-grid communities to a mobile application that helps to protect women from domestic violence.

Non-profits, you have four weeks to submit your ideas. Entries close on July 29.

Whether it’s new technology to help alert residents of an approaching bushfire or an innovative way to tackle homelessness in a CBD, we look forward to hearing some big ideas about how technology can make a real difference to tackle some of the world’s biggest social challenges.

Posted by Alan Noble, Director of Engineering, Google Australia

Two Australians selected for the Google PhD Fellowship program

The Google PhD Fellowship program supports PhD students in computer science and related fields, and is part of our commitment to building strong relationships with the global academic community. To date we’ve awarded 193 Fellowships in 72 universities across 17 countries.

In our most recent round two Australians have been recognised for their efforts.

  • Guosheng Lin, from the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies at the University of Adelaide, was awarded the Google Australia Fellowship in Machine Perception Research for his work in binary code learning with deep neural networks for image retrieval. Guosheng’s research is focused on exploring fast and accurate machine learning techniques for solving large-scale object recognition problems. 

  • Kellie Webster, from the School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney, was awarded the Google Australia Fellowship in Natural Language Processing for her work in efficient cognitively informed coreference resolution. Kelly’s research is focused on working to improve coreference (that’s when two or more pieces of text refer to the same thing) resolution simultaneously in two dimensions, by more faithfully representing cognitive and psycholinguistic insights to improve the time and space efficiency of our coreference resolution system. 

This program recognises and supports outstanding PhD students pursuing work in computer science, related disciplines or promising research areas. Australia’s two recipients are a part of a cohort of 38 outstanding PhD candidates from America, Canada, Europe, China, and India. By supporting these two Australian Fellows we recognise their significant academic achievements and hope that they will go on to be leaders in their respective fields. We look forward to building even stronger links between industry and academia to help push important research forward in Australia.

Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Google Engineering Community and Outreach Manager

Google Drive Update to Protect Shared Links

We recently received a report via our Vulnerability Reward Program of a security issue affecting a small subset of file types in Google Drive and have since made an update to address it. Please refer to the post on the Google Online Security blog for details.

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Increased accessibility with Braille display support for Google Docs, Slides and Drawings

If you use a Braille display, you can now enable Braille support in Google Docs, Slides and Drawings to read and enter text. This option is currently available for Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Release track:
Rapid release and Scheduled release

For more information:

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Get Studio Certified using the new DoubleClick Studio Certification training guides

A few months back, we launched a campaign to encourage creative partners to Get Studio Certified. Since then, we've focused on improving our training content to help developers grow their skills and get more comprehensive Studio training.

As we continue our revamp of the DoubleClick Studio Certification program, we're thrilled to announce our new Studio Certification study guides. These guides bring Studio training content from presentations, videos, & separate help articles into a central location in the Rich Media Help Center. Use these guides to walk through the details of exactly what you need to know to pass each exam.

DoubleClick Studio Certification study guides include:
  • Core certification for Flash & HTML5
  • Updated QA badge: The QA badge guide covers all areas for testing Flash, HTML5, and dynamic creatives. If you took the QA Certification exam before March 13th, 2014, you'll need to get re-certified with the new QA badge by July 1st, 2014.
  • Advanced badges: Engagement ads, Dynamic creative, YouTube mastheads, & VPAID.
Visit the Rich Media Help Center and try these guides today!

Questions about the Studio Certification program? Download our Certification poster to learn the benefits of getting Studio Certified (including a few tips and tricks). Find out more in the Rich Media Gallery.

Even if you're already certified with one badge, keep developing your skills by reviewing the new training guides and getting certified with new badges.

Reminder: If you took the QA Certification exam before March 13th, 2014, you'll need to get re-certified with the new QA badge by July 1st, 2014.

Posted by Paige Birnbaum, DoubleClick Studio Certification Training

Commemorating World War I

A century ago, a Serb nationalist assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, sparking World War I. Today, we are launching a new channel dedicated to commemorate the war’s centenary. It brings together World War I content, paintings, photographs, letters, documents, soldiers’ poems and more, from a range of Museum partners, ranging from the German Federal Archives to the Belgian Mundaneum to the Imperial War Museum.



A search for Franz Ferdinand brings up photos relating to the Archeduke’s assassination. They show the Franz and his wife Sophie arriving in Sarajevo. Outfitted in regal dress, treated with the pomp and circumstance of royalty, they stroll through the streets. A final image shows police arresting Serb assassin Gavrilo Princip.

Other exhibits explore the art around the conflict and personal impact of the conflict. Belgium’s Mundaneum has collected postcards sent from POW camps. The Imperial War Museum’s features Christopher Nevinson's bleak landscapes. The British authorities censored some of the paintings for being too “negative.” At the same time, the museum also features John Nash’s patriotic paintings.

The German side of the war is well represented, with more than 200 new items in 13 new exhibits. Items include photographs, newspapers, letters, army documents, ration cards, and unusual items like the anti war poem written by a German soldier which lead to his detention. Exhibits range from German policy around the Sarajevo assassination to the rise of German airships to problems of nutrition due to the conflict.

The exhibits are designed for for a wide audience and full of exciting details for specialists. More content will be added over the coming months and years as commemorations around the Great War continue.

Posted by James Davis, Google Culture Institute, Paris

Look ahead: creator features coming to YouTube

VidCon is the place where thousands of creators and fans come together every year to share their passion for YouTube and online video. We came to Anaheim today to offer them a sneak preview of new features and updates we’re releasing in the coming months. Here’s a look at the things we’ve been working on to help you make more your videos even more awesome, to reach global audiences and grow your businesses on YouTube.

  • YouTube Creator Studio: Did you know that after Rebecca Black uploaded “Friday,” she went on a school trip, not knowing for several days the video was going viral? To help you manage your videos on the go, the new YouTube Creator Studio app lets you see analytics, manage your videos and more. The app is available now on Android and launching on iOS in coming weeks and you’ll see some redesign of the Creator Studio on desktop too.
  • Audio Library, now with sound effects: You’ve used the hundreds of free songs in the Audio Library on millions of your videos. But until now, you’ve had to go through extreme lengths to make your own zombie screams and fighter plane sounds. To make your lives easier and videos better, from today you now have thousands of royalty-free sound effects at your disposal. We’ve also added more tracks to the Audio Library. 
  • 60 (yeah, six-zero) frames per second: Your video game footage with crazy high frame rates will soon look as awesome on YouTube as it does when you’re playing, when we launch support for 48 and even 60 frames per second in the coming months. Take a look at some preview videos on the YT Creator Channel. Make sure you’re watching in HD! 
  • Creator Credits: Collaboration is a key to great videos on YouTube. You’re already giving your collaborators shout outs in your video descriptions. But what if those text-based shout outs were tags that let viewers click through to their channels, or let you search for a collaborator based on their work and location? That’s our vision for Creator Credits, stay tuned for more. 
  • Subtitles contributed from fans: More than a billion people watch YouTube each month, but not all of them speak the same language and some are deaf or hard of hearing. Automatic speech recognition and automatic translation on YouTube can help, but your fans can do an even better job. In the coming months, your fans will be able to submit translations in any language based on the subtitles or captions you’ve created, helping you reach even more viewers. You can try this out now on Barely Political, Fine Art-Tips, Got Talent Global and Unicoos. 
  • Info Cards: Annotations are useful, but not as ridiculously good looking as say, Blue Steel. In the near future, you’ll see our new interactive information cards with a clean look, which you’ll be able to program once to work across desktop, phones and tablets. 
  • SiriusXM & YouTube: We love supporting artists, and so do our friends at SiriusXM. That’s why we teamed up to launch “The YouTube 15,” a weekly show on SiriusXM’s Hits 1 hosted by Jenna Marbles and featuring the biggest names and rising stars in music from YouTube. 
  • More ways to playlist: Along with playlists analytics we recently added to analytics, expect to see more ways to create playlists, so that all the time you spend building them translates into easier discovery for viewers and better results for you. 

We take your feedback seriously, which is why we’re focusing on these areas that you’ve told us are most important for you. So keep your comments coming on Google+ or Twitter. We’ll be working closely with you to bring these features and more to the creator community in the future.

Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Director of Product Management for Creators, and Oliver Heckmann, Vice President of Engineering for Creators, recently watched “VGHS Season 2 Trailer - HFR Version”