Google Friends Newsletter - April 2007

Google Friends Newsletter - April 2007

Hello and welcome to the Google Friends Newsletter. We hope
you enjoy
this month's update on our products and services.

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POWER TIP

Create your own Google Maps

A new Google Maps feature lets you easily create maps with
placemarks
that incorporate your text comments, photos, and videos from
YouTube
and Google Video. It's a great way of sharing your stories
on a map,
whether it's stops you enjoyed on a recent vacation or the
best places
to grab a quick bite to eat in your city. To get started,
just click
the "My Maps" tab on the left-hand side of the
Google Maps homepage.
You can take a look at the maps other people have created
(there's
even one of the Googleplex), and then get started making
your own by
clicking "Create new map." If you make your map
public, we will make
it searchable for other folks who use Google Maps.
http://maps.google.com

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Call 800-GOOG-411

Use the new Google Voice Local Search experiment to connect
to local
businesses anywhere in the U.S. from your phone, for free.
Just dial
the toll-free number 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) and
speak the
name of a business ("Giovanni's Pizzeria") or its
category ("pizza").
You can choose to connect to the business directly over
phone or, if
you are calling from your mobile phone, you can also say
"text
message" and we'll send you the business's details by
SMS. Google
won't charge you for a thing, but note that regular phone
charges may
apply based on your phone service provider.
http://labs.google.com
/goog411

Updates to Google Docs & Spreadsheets

This month, you'll notice some changes in the spreadsheets
portion of
Google Docs & Spreadsheets. In addition to improving its
general
performance, we've added several new features: you can
create simple
charts, including column, bar, line, pie and scatter charts;
attach
comments to individual cells; quickly duplicate a
spreadsheet; and
search the web for the text in a cell by using the
right-click menu.
And heads-up: this summer, watch for a new addition to the
Google Docs
& Spreadsheets family: presentations.
http://docs.google.com

Find your next home with Google

Searching for a place to live is rarely fun, so we've made
the search
experience on Google a lot easier. Now when you type in
queries like
[New York real estate] or [homes for rent in San Francisco],
you'll
see the location you're interested in and type of listing at
the top
of your search results. Clicking the "Go" button
will display details
of individual homes that Google has indexed. If a certain
listing
interests you, click on the provided link or image, to go
straight to
the listing source.
http://www.google.com

Google Desktop beta for the Mac

If you're a Mac user, you can now search your computers
using Google
Desktop. In addition to searching everything on your Mac,
you can also
search your emails (including Gmail), web history and
deleted files.
Just click the ⌘ key twice to start using the Quick Search
Box.
http://desktop.google.com

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MISCELLANY

We knew Google Earth was remarkable when we first saw it,
but at that
time we didn't imagine all the uses to which it might be
put. Since we
unveiled it in 2005, millions of people have enjoyed zooming
in to
their homes, zooming out to far-flung places around the
globe. More
recently, many information providers outside of Google have
developed
"layers" you can add to your personal Earth. You
can explore Africa
through the eyes of National Geographic photographers and
writers; you
can see "America's Favorite Buildings" from a
contest held by the
American Institute of Architects; you can study historical
maps from
the renowned Rumsey Collection. But a recent project with
the United
State Holocaust Memorial Museum demonstrated even a newer
use: Google
Earth as a powerful current events resource. By showing
recent imagery
from the Darfur region of the Sudan, suddenly millions of
people can
see the destruction and desolation for themselves. We hope
this
powerful combination of information and technology spurs
enlightenment
and action on the part of many. You can search YouTube or
Google Video
for 'google darfur" and find the videos talking about
the project. Or
visit the Museum and read more about this important
geography
education initiative.
http://earth.google.com
http://www.ushmm.org/


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our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blog
spot.com

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