Nearby Intersections on GOOG-411

It is amazing how much information can be displayed on even the smallest map, yet we sometimes forget that geographic content is not always available visually.

If you're out and about, you can call GOOG-411 and get local information about businesses. Now we've made it even easier to orient yourself without a map in front of you: call GOOG-411, ask for 'details', and in addition to the address and phone number of the business, we'll also point you to the nearest street intersection or adjacent streets.

You can try it now: call 1-800-466-4411, look up 'Google in New York', ask us for more 'details', and we'll tell you that our Chelsea office is 'near the intersection with West 16th Street'. Unless you're a seasoned New Yorker, this might very well save you from walking up or down a few blocks.

The nearby intersections are available for most businesses in the US and Canada. They are derived automatically by an algorithm written on 20% time by Googlers in New York and London. Tell us other ways you would want to use this new feature -- we hope to expand it to other products soon!

Posted by Vincent Vanhoucke, Research Scientist and Arnaud Sahuguet, Geo Product Manager

Calling all developers for Android Developer Challenge 2!

I'm excited to announce the second Android Developer Challenge (ADC)! The first challenge was a huge success with over 1,700 entries that resulted in 50 excellent winners. With the recent release of Android 1.5, as well as the availability of devices in multiple markets around the world, I'm pleased to announce the second ADC.

We've expanded ADC 2 to involve a very important part of the Android community—the users who will be running these applications. Users of Android-powered devices with Android Market will be able to download a special Android judging application and use it to download and rank applications submitted to the Challenge. The results from this round will determine the top ranking applications in each of the 10 categories. These top applications will then be ranked by a combination of users and a panel of Google selected judges through a similar process as the first round to determine the final winners.

I've already seen a lot of great apps on Android and I look forward to seeing even more innovative and unexpected cool apps that will come out of this Challenge! For more details on ADC 2, please see the official site. Start your engines and good luck!

Android Icon Guidelines

For our second post in our series on Android UI, we're releasing our Icon Design Guidelines and an Android Icon Templates Pack. These should make it a lot easier for you (or your designer) to develop all the icons your applications need, so they fit with the other icons in the Android environment.

The Icon Design Guidelines document describes how to design and export icons that fit within the Android framework. It includes a wealth of detail about icons in the Home screen, menus, the status bar, tabs, dialogs, and lists.

The Android Icon Templates Pack is a collection of template designs, filters, and settings that make it easier for you to create icons that conform to the general specifications given in this Guidelines document. We recommend downloading the template pack archive before you get started with your icon design.

The Templates Pack provides templates in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator file formats, which preserves the layers and design treatments we used when creating the standard icons for the Android platform. You can load the template files into any compatible image-editing program, although your ability to work directly with the layers and treatments may vary based on the program you are using.

Lightning talks at Google I/O

Google I/O is approaching, and with over ten quality talks lined up, we should all strive to be attentive, avid learners. But for the last Android session of the conference, we thought it would be fun to unwind and open up the podium for lightning talks. This is where anyone can take the stage for six minutes and talk about anything. If you've done a cool hack involving Android, if you've devised a clever technique for a common problem, or even if you just want to get up on your soapbox for six minutes to appeal to your fellow developers, this is your time to be heard.

For those planning on attending Google I/O, we need you to submit and judge lightning talk proposals through a Google Moderator series we've set up. Please go ahead and start submitting your proposals. You only have 250 characters to describe the talk, which may be 110 more characters than you've been used to these days.

Voting is open from now until the moment the session starts. We'll take the eight highest rated talks and will call upon each speaker to take the stage. Remember you only have six minutes. Exceed that, and our security force tackles you off the stage. Thanks and see you all at I/O!

Google Sync Beta - Now for S60

We love to hear user feedback and one of the most common questions we get is, "When is this coming out for my phone?" Well, for those of you who have been asking about Google Sync for mobile on your Nokia S60 smartphone, we're happy to announce that you can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars with your mobile device.

Google Sync offers two-way, over-the-air contacts and calendar synchronization. This means that you can make changes to your contacts and calendar on your phone or in your desktop Google account. Since Sync uses push technology, the changes should automatically appear within minutes. And your information is constantly syncing, so it's up-to-date and securely stored within your Google account, even if you lose your phone.


Please note: Google Sync for S60 requires Nokia software to be installed on the phone. We also recommend backing up your calendar and contacts before setting up Sync. To find out more about setting up Google Sync on Nokia S60 phones, please visit our help center.

To try Google Sync, visit m.google.com/sync from your desktop.

Posted by Jon Skeet and Douglas Gresham, Software Engineers, Google Mobile

The Iterative Web App - Gmail for Mobile Gets Labels

On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release new features that users have been asking for, as explained in our first post. We'd like to introduce The Iterative Webapp, a series where we will continue to release features for Gmail for mobile. Today: Labels. --Shyam Sheth, Product Manager, Google Mobile.

You asked for it, and we listened. We've added labels to Gmail for mobile on Android-powered devices and the iPhone. Labels in Gmail allow you to use color-coded tags to manage your inbox.



To label an email, select a message then tap 'Label as..." from the drop-down menu on the Floaty Bar. In the pop-up menu, select the label(s) you would like to use and tap 'Apply'. Please note, you can add and remove existing labels to your emails in Gmail for mobile, but labels can only be created, renamed and deleted in the desktop version.

To label your emails on the go, point your mobile browser to gmail.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device. To make it easy to check your Gmail, try creating a home screen link. The new Gmail for mobile supports iPhone/iPod Touch OS 2.2.1 or above, as well as Android-powered devices, and is available for US English only.

Posted by Heaven Kim, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile

Google Product Search for Android now with Barcode Scanning

Since we launched Google Product Search for mobile a few weeks ago, I've been using it to check prices, reviews and product details on my Android phone. In addition to typing in my product searches, I've also had some fun speaking them. Sometimes, though, when I'm looking up a specific item in a store rather than a category of products (like "bluetooth headsets"), I'd rather just scan a barcode to see results for the exact product I'm searching for. That's why we've integrated barcode scanning with Google Product Search for mobile.

Here's how to get started. First, visit the Google Product Search for mobile homepage by going to Google.com in your browser and selecting 'Shopping' from the 'more' tab. Next, tap on the 'Scan Barcode' button to install the latest version of the Barcode Scanner app -- if you don't already have it -- from Android Market.

After you've installed the application, go back to Product Search in your browser and tap on the 'Scan Barcode' button again. Select "Use by default for this action" and tap on the Barcode Scanner option. After the app opens, center the red line over the barcode and hold the phone steady. When the barcode is read successfully, you'll see a Google Product Search results page back in the browser.

You can also access the scanner directly from the top of the Product Search results page by tapping on the barcode button.

Today, barcode scanning works best for products like electronics, books, movies or video games, but we're working on adding more barcodes for other items. Of course, if your scan does not return a result, you can always type in the product name just as before.

The integration of Barcode Scanner and Product Search for mobile is available in the US and UK, for Android-powered devices.

Posted by Eiji Hirai, Software Engineer, Google Mobile team