When I introduced the Letters to the Next President writing project last month, 962 middle and high school students had published their letters. Since then, thousands of new letters have been written and published (there are now more than 5,200 total).
High school juniors and seniors from rural Alaska have voiced their concerns about gas prices and paying for college. Ninth and tenth graders from Brooklyn, NY have written persuasive pieces on war and global warming.
Although most of these students are too young to vote in tomorrow's presidential election, they've proven that they can participate in the democratic process by expressing their concerns and hopes for our country. You can read their letters at Letters2President.org and hear some of their thoughts in this video.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Plug in to the latest release of Google Chrome
When we launched Google Chrome two months ago, the response was overwhelmingly positive. We got all sorts of support and encouragement from many users, but we also got the most valuable resource we could ask for: feedback! Because of the variety of software and hardware configurations that exist "in the wild," users were able to find a few issues that we hadn't come across. In particular, they reported problems with Google Chrome's support for plugins used to play videos and show PDFs.
I am happy to report that we've made great progress in addressing plugin problems. The release that just went live is packed with plugin fixes, and early developer-channel users noted that plugin performance improved dramatically. You can read more about one of the improvements to viewing PDFs on the official Chromium Blog. Most importantly, if you tried the first version of Google Chrome but found that there were some bugs giving you headaches, give it another try. If you already have Google Chrome, you will get updated automatically, or you can download the latest version from www.google.com/chrome.
We've still got a long list of planned improvements, so stay tuned. And keep the interesting questions, helpful bug reports, and stellar code contributions coming!
I am happy to report that we've made great progress in addressing plugin problems. The release that just went live is packed with plugin fixes, and early developer-channel users noted that plugin performance improved dramatically. You can read more about one of the improvements to viewing PDFs on the official Chromium Blog. Most importantly, if you tried the first version of Google Chrome but found that there were some bugs giving you headaches, give it another try. If you already have Google Chrome, you will get updated automatically, or you can download the latest version from www.google.com/chrome.
We've still got a long list of planned improvements, so stay tuned. And keep the interesting questions, helpful bug reports, and stellar code contributions coming!
Visualizing data in the cloud
More and more companies are storing data in the cloud, and as this data grows, so does the need for reporting tools to make sense of this information. To address these growing needs, earlier this year we introduced the Google Visualization API, a powerful API that enables anyone to build apps on top of Google Spreadsheets. Companies can create and use reporting applications from the Google Visualization Gadget Gallery that can be integrated anywhere on the web, displaying data from a Google Spreadsheet. Today, we are expanding the capabilities of the Google Visualization API by enabling developers to display data from any data source connected to the web (any database, Excel spreadsheet, etc.), not just from Google Spreadsheets. From pivot tables and heat graphs to motion charts and timelines, the Google Visualization Gallery holds a growing set of 40+ visualizations that appeal to a multitude of businesses.
We're also pleased to announce that Salesforce.com has made available some tools to make the Google Visualization API even easier to use. These tools enable their customers to build sophisticated reporting and analysis applications using the API that works with data inside Salesforce.com's CRM. The Visualization API also enables developers to create custom reporting applications to sell to Salesforce customers or to other companies with data in the cloud. Earlier today at the Dreamforce conference, Adam Gross, Vice President, Developer Marketing, Salesforce.com, commented that "The enhancement of the Google Visualization API represents a significant opportunity for developers. We expect to see the creation of new tools for our users to quickly generate reports and dashboards for their Salesforce CRM data and in their Force.com applications. These enhanced analysis capabilities will provide our customers with greater productivity and deeper insight into their businesses."
As companies open their platforms, we expect to see increased integration of data and services across clouds, benefiting the enterprise community.
We're also pleased to announce that Salesforce.com has made available some tools to make the Google Visualization API even easier to use. These tools enable their customers to build sophisticated reporting and analysis applications using the API that works with data inside Salesforce.com's CRM. The Visualization API also enables developers to create custom reporting applications to sell to Salesforce customers or to other companies with data in the cloud. Earlier today at the Dreamforce conference, Adam Gross, Vice President, Developer Marketing, Salesforce.com, commented that "The enhancement of the Google Visualization API represents a significant opportunity for developers. We expect to see the creation of new tools for our users to quickly generate reports and dashboards for their Salesforce CRM data and in their Force.com applications. These enhanced analysis capabilities will provide our customers with greater productivity and deeper insight into their businesses."
As companies open their platforms, we expect to see increased integration of data and services across clouds, benefiting the enterprise community.
