The Literary Landscape on Google Maps

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The British Library's recently held a 'Writing Britain' exhibition exploring how the landscapes of Britain have influenced great literary works. To complement and accompany the physical exhibition the British Library also created a crowdsourced project, Pin-a-Tale, to enable the public to contribute locations that have influenced literary works.

Users can search the map by location to discover locations nearby that have featured or influenced works of literature. You can also search the map by author. So, for example, if you are a fan of Dickens you can search the map to find locations that have featured in the author's work.

If you select a map marker you can read a short summary of how the location inspired the relevant writer. If you then click on the 'Find out more' link, in many cases, you are even taken to an online edition of the featured poem or prose.

Some Google Maps Friday Fun

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This video is one of Google's more subtle (and fun) attempts to remind iOS6 users what they are missing in Apple Maps. Yes, transit directions are very useful.


Has the Street View cameraman stumbled upon a murder scene or is this just an advertising agency's clever attempt to get more people to view them on Google Maps?

Via: Street View Funny

GPS Shoes

British designer Dominic Wilcox has created a pair of shows that can guide you home, using LED lights that light up to show you the correct distance to your destination and how far you have to travel.

Via: Maps and the City

Google Release Updates, Apple an Apology

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Leaning Tower of Pisa

Google has updated its satellite imagery in areas of 112 countries and added new 45° imagery in 51 countries around the world.

The cities with new 45° aerial imagery include Pisa in Italy,   Lyon and Dijon in France, and Detroit and Michigan City in the US.

Apple, on the other hand, has released an apology for the introduction of Apple Maps.

You can view a full-list of the new satellite and 45° imagery on the Google Lat Long blog.

Near Real-time Surfing Media

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SwellPhone is an interesting attempt to use photos submitted to Instagram, videos on YouTube and Google Maps to provide real-time updates at surfing locations around the world.

The application aggregates photographs and videos taken around surf spots worldwide. Users can select a country, region and beach from drop-down menus and then view the location on a Google Map and see recently submitted photos and videos.

Each of the videos and photos include a time heading saying how long ago they were submitted to Instagram or YouTube. If users are lucky enough to find media submitted in the last few hours they effectively have access to an almost real-time  report on the current surf conditions.

Two Years of Global Cloud Cover Animated

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Cloud Globe is a very impressive Google Chrome experiment, that animates over two years of cloud data on top of a globe.

The animated cloud imagery was compiled from hourly snapshots of the cloud layer on Google Maps. It is possible to use the timeline beneath the globe to fast-forward or replay a part of the animation. It is also possible to select 'Storms' to enable the naming of major storms on the globe, 'Vegetation' to view an attractive vegetation layer and 'Currents' to view the major sea currents in the world.

Meet our September “On The Rise” nominees!

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Reaching 100,000 subscribers is a big milestone for our dedicated YouTube partners. In our monthly On The Rise program, we identify four partners whose channels are seeing significant growth but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 subscriber mark, and we give them a chance to jumpstart their audience development and channel growth. This September, our candidates for the On The Rise feature are still in the early stages relative to that milestone, but their content is engaging and they’re passionate about building their YouTube presence.

We’re sharing their channels with you so you can help them grow their presence on YouTube: one of these candidates will have the opportunity to be featured on the YouTube homepage later this month. Check out their videos below and vote for your favorite here. In addition to your votes, each channel will be evaluated on criteria such as viewer engagement and channel optimization techniques to decide which partner will be featured on the homepage, Google+, Facebook and Twitter at the end of the month.

In past months, featured On The Rise partners like thevfxbro and mikeyssmail have gained many subscribers and seen their careers take off, in large part due to your support. This month’s poll will be open until September 19, 5pm PT, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite channel. Check back to see who secured the homepage feature on September 27.

stampwithtami
Tami White loves to stamp! She’s created hundreds of cards for all occasions using stamps, sponges, ink pads, and cardstock. Her channel hosts tutorials on how to make different themed cards and crafts using different stamping techniques and tools.



wcfoodies
Rebecca Lando of Working Class Foodies focuses on making inexpensive dishes using local and seasonal foods. Not a great cook? Not to worry, her channel has instructional recipe videos for all experience levels.
 


photoshopCAFE
Designers, photographers, and videographers - if you’re looking for editing assistance, look no further than photoshopCAFE! Colin Smith showcases some of his best tutorials on Adobe editing solutions, backed up by his website forums where you’re guaranteed to find advice and tips from like-minded artists.



GoneToTheSnowDogs
Your dog may be able to sit and stay, but has she been featured on a lottery ticket, vacuum ad, or Animal Planet show? Even if your answer is yes, we’re pretty sure you’ll admire these fun and often educational videos featuring huskies Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley.



If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

Devon Storbeck and Christine Wang, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “Edward and Bella - A Bad Lip Reading of Twilight.”

Finding the next generation of talented video educators with YouTube Next EDU Guru

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Across the Northern Hemisphere, students and their teachers are heading back into the classroom for another year of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. While what we learn has broadly stayed the same for years, how we learn is changing rapidly as technology advances. The rise of online educational videos is giving learners access to the world’s greatest thinkers and teachers, leveling the playing field for all.

We believe that inspiring online educators can come from all walks of life, and we want to find the next generation of educational YouTube stars - people with a talent for explaining tough concepts in compelling ways, and the passion and drive to assemble a global classroom of students. YouTube educational channels like Khan Academy, CrashCourse, Veritasium, Numberphile, MinutePhysics and Ted-Ed have grown to millions of views and subscribers - could you be next?

Today we’re teaming up with Khan Academy to start a search for the Next EDU Gurus--10 super talented and engaging content creators who we’ll support with training, promotion, and a $1000 B&H gift card for production equipment, so they can take the next step in their YouTube - and education - careers.

Do you set historical events to music? Doodle your geometry? Sing your Shakespeare? We’re looking for content creators who create all kinds of curriculum-related videos, from grammar to geography, history to histograms. You can submit any style of video as long as it’s educational and family-friendly--just bear in mind that we’re looking for content creators who can take people on a journey through a topic, so if you could imagine making ten, twenty, or fifty more videos on the topic in the future, all the better!

The 10 YouTube Next EDU Gurus will be selected by a panel from the YouTube Education team and the Khan Academy. One of these 10 will also be awarded the Khan Academy EDU Guru Prize. The program is open to creators in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand; it opens today and closes on October 1.

Our new EDU Gurus will help meet the growing demand for great educational content on YouTube. In the last year, you all spent 50% more time learning from YouTube Education’s 700,000 videos, and the number of subscribers to YouTube’s educational channels more than doubled. Check out the YouTube.com homepage today for the latest videos from some of our most engaging educational creators. You can also see a playlist of their latest and greatest below.

 

If you’re an educator, visit youtube.com/teachers to view more than 300 playlists curated by teachers to align with common education topics. And if you’re looking for inspiration about incorporating YouTube in your school curriculum, see how one school from Kent, WA uses YouTube to experience the world beyond the walls of their classroom.

 

Angela Lin, YouTube Education team, recently watched “Capitalism and Socialism: Crash Course World History #33.”

Watch The Killers UNSTAGED, directed by Werner Herzog

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Today at 4 pm PT, YouTube brings you the next installment of the American Express UNSTAGED concert series, in partnership with VEVO. This may be the most experimental UNSTAGED pairing yet: The Killers’ show will be helmed by German avant garde director Werner Herzog. You can watch the whole thing live on youtube.com/thekillersVEVO at 4pm PT, followed by an immediate rebroadcast.



In 2003, The Killers were an anomaly: a rock band from Las Vegas who played rock’n’roll like Brits. They didn’t fit into Vegas’ nu-metal-obsessed scene, and they couldn’t seem to grab the attention of any labels stateside. Then the band got picked up by England’s Lizard King Records...and suddenly the U.S. started to perk up its ears. After their debut single “Mr. Brightside” began to hit the airwaves, they signed with Island Def Jam, and the rest is history. A slew of hit singles followed, and pretty soon bands like Coldplay and U2 counted themselves as fans. Their albums began selling like proverbial hotcakes.



They also established their strong video aesthetic right out of the gate, dropping the lush, Moulin Rouge-esque video for “Mr. Brightside.” The piece resonated, billowing with a big storyline and sumptuous burlesque visuals. It deserved -- and won -- a VMA in 2005, and the band went on to make a bevy of videos that inhabit an American West which is both a comedic and an uneasy place: “For Reasons Unknown,” “All These Things,” and “Human.” But these guys aren’t just serious: for every mini-film like “When You Were Young” or “Boots,” they’ve got a poker-faced, antics-laced offering like “Read My Mind.”



To pair such visually gifted musicians with Werner Herzog is nothing short of inspired. Herzog is an iconoclast of the first order, a German director whose work compels, fascinates, and alienates in equal measure. Herzog is drawn to the margins, outliers and extremes whether in his fiction or documentary offerings. His output is so varied we can’t list it all here, but you can get a taste of his style with films like Grizzly Man, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Into The Abyss -- or with this recent interview.



We’re thrilled to present to you such a potent, creative combination. Be sure to tune in today for what may be the show of a lifetime.

Sarah Bardeen, music community manager, recently watched “Battle Born Studio Tour.”

5 Questions with Nirvan Mullick, the man behind 'Caine's Arcade'

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Q: How did the Caine's Arcade video catch fire? Did you have a distribution strategy in place or was it all organic? 
A: It was a mix. While making the film, I put together a flashmob invitation to surprise Caine with customers. The flashmob invitation went mini-viral, hitting reddit’s front page and HiddenLA’s facebook page. This brought Caine a global community of supporters that were waiting for the film to be finished. Once the film was finished, I submitted a follow up link to reddit and also sent the link to BoingBoing. BoingBoing re-posted the film right away, and it hit the front page of reddit shortly after. Then it just took off.

Q: What was the reaction of Caine & his family once the video became so popular and viewers donated hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to a college fund? 

A: None of us were expecting that level of response. I had been hoping to raise $25,000 for Caine’s Scholarship Fund over the course of maybe a year... the first day we raised over $100k. Caine’s dad was in tears, overwhelmed by phone calls from parents and media around the world; he had never experienced that level of kindness from strangers, who put together a college fund for his son overnight. George was the proudest dad in the world. Meanwhile, Caine couldn’t really process how much money had been donated- he just knew it was a lot. But he was super excited to have so many customers visiting his arcade. The first weekend after the film went viral, over a thousand people showed up to play. There was a 4 hour line stretching around the block. 5 months later, people still come every day from around the world. It’s amazing.

Q: Tell us about the Imagination Foundation. Was it always something you had hoped to launch or did it originate solely from the video? 

A: The formation of the foundation was inspired by the global response to the video. After the film went viral, I didn’t sleep the first 2 days. The response was overwhelming, and I was trying to take it all in and absorb as much of the feedback as I could. I got emails from thousands of people, including videos from kids around the world sharing their creativity. I began to think about ways that this project could transition from helping Caine to helping other kids as well. On the third day, I wrote the mission statement for the Imagination Foundation on a napkin: to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in more kids like Caine. While the Imagination Foundation wasn’t something I’d planned before the film, I have worked in the non-profit space for the past 12 years, and have always been interested in the intersection of media and social change. So when this happened, I knew there was an lightning-in-a-bottle opportunity to try and make something that could have an impact for more kids. Two days after I wrote the mission statement, I connected with the Goldhirsh Foundation, who recognized the opportunity to make an impact and put up a $250,000 Matching Challenge Grant (matching public donations to Caine's Scholarship Fund dollar-for-dollar) to help us start the Imagination Foundation. To date, we have raised $215k of the goal.

Q: How do you intend to use video going forward to tell the story of the Global Cardboard Challenge? 

A: I met Caine by chance when I went to buy a door handle. But there are so many more kids like Caine out there. We started the Imagination Foundation to build a discovery platform to help find amazing stories of creative kids like Caine, and to then share those stories with the world. With the Global Cardboard Challenge, we are inviting filmmakers and storytellers around the world to document local Cardboard Challenge events on video, and to then share those videos with us so we can celebrate the creativity of kids everywhere. Send us your videos by October 13th and we will have some cool prizes and opportunities to share the videos with our community. As we build our community further, we plan to continue using video to share inspiring stories of creative kids around the world while inspiring creative actions in line with our mission.

Q: Do you have any advice for fellow filmmakers who are looking to drive awareness for causes they care about? 

A: I think it is really important to be authentic and personal, and to find the details that communicate the heart of your story. It’s also important to have a clear call to action, and to keep it simple and engaging. The success of videos like Kony 2012 (30min) and Caine’s Arcade (11 minutes) show that videos don’t need to be super short to keep people’s attention. If your story is strong, your audience will stay with you, and you can take the time you need to tell your story. That said, don’t make it a second longer than it needs to be.

Arthur Woods, YouTube partner operations associate, recently watched "John Hockenberry: We are all designers"

Music Tuesday: Carly Rae Jepsen, Brother Ali and more

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We celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Mexican Independence Day over the weekend, and we even offered a sneak preview of Pink’s new album, courtesy of the lady herself. What’s in store on youtube.com/music this week? Check it out.

Carly Rae Jepsen Speaks!
In “Call Me Maybe,” the diminutive Canadian singer created what will likely be the one of the viral sensations of 2012. No other song has inspired so many lip-syncs, covers and creative re-imaginings -- which is why we’re so pleased that Carly Rae took the time to share some of her favorite YouTube videos with us just as her album Kiss releases today. Wondering which “Call Me Maybe” cover she most prefers? Wonder no longer.



Brother Ali: Mourning in America and Dreaming In Color
This midwestern emcee has an interesting backstory which often overshadows his talent. So let’s just get it out of the way: yes, he’s an albino. Yes, he’s legally blind. Yes, he’s been a practicing Muslim for nearly two decades. Now, let it go. Because in his new album, released today and available on YouTube with a full video, Ali has made the album of a lifetime, a release that’s as thoughtful as it is political and as sympathetic as it is pointed. He takes on big issues, but he does it with such lyrical finesse you don’t feel assaulted (and that soul-laced production doesn’t hurt either). As an added bonus, check out Ali’s song-by-song commentary on the album -- all linked to in the video itself.



Live Music Extravaganza
The next week sees a veritable bonanza of live music happening on YouTube. Mark your calendars...it’s going to be a musical ride!

Friday, September 21: Bon Iver
Saturday, September 22: Farm Aid
Sunday, September 23: Metric
Monday, September 24: Grizzly Bear
Wednesday, September 26: Avicii

Sarah Bardeen, music community manager, recently watched “Instituto Mexicano del Sonido - Es-Toy.”

Hanging out for Jewish-Arab dialogue in Israel

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Despite the fact that Israeli Arab and Jewish youth live in the same country and even study at the same universities, they often grow up without meeting. When tensions rise in the region, this lack of mutual understanding can lead to stereotyping, hostility and even violence.

We believe the Internet can help break down these barriers. In honor of today’s 30th annual International Day of Peace, we’re partnering with the Peres Center for Peace, a non-profit organization founded by the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres. The center promotes cooperation and peacebuilding between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors.


Together, we’ll be holding a series of Hangouts on Google+ designed to enable dialogue between Israeli Arab and Jewish students. “Hanging Out for Peace” is a six-month project that will involve nearly 150 Israeli university students, women and men, with an equal number of Arabs and Jews. Students will be divided into mixed Jewish and Arab ‘circles’, matched with other students who study the same subject at university.

The circles will meet via Hangouts on Google+, led by instructors from the Peres Center, and will undertake online and offline projects related to the circle’s area of academic focus. After a series of Hangouts, the students will meet face to face, present the projects they’ve developed to the larger group of participants and discuss issues that arose during their work together.

The Internet provides a perfect platform for dialogue and cooperation. It can help overcome physical barriers and connect people from different cultures who have shared interests and common values. We’re excited to see how this project develops and hope that, in a small way, it will help foster coexistence and understanding between Israeli Jews and Arabs and, in the future, build bridges between other communities, too.

Posted by Doron Avni, Head of Policy, Israel

Arts and entertainment take the stage at our most recent Big Tent

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What happens when you bring together the head of the Metropolitan Opera, YouTube creators, Comedy Central and Justin Bieber’s manager to discuss the Internet’s impact on arts and culture?

In partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, our Big Tent in New York City, held this week, fostered a constructive and sometimes challenging conversation that saw more opportunities than challenges for artists through the Internet and technology.

While the speakers recognized the disruptive force of the Internet, they also saw the possibilities that technology creates for artists of all stripes to connect with audiences and tell stories in creative ways. As Scooter Braun, manager to artists including Justin Bieber, said, “I don’t think the music industry has changed as much as people think it has. It starts with music. All we have to do today is study interaction, which is the same thing we’ve always had to do.”

Many speakers saw the Internet as essential to their own creative endeavors. YouTube creators like Michelle Phan, Issa Rae and Julia Nunes all used online platforms to launch their careers.

Newsweek Daily Beast’s art and design critic Blake Gopnik, while seeing benefits to new cultural platforms like Google Art Project, reminded the audience of the importance of appreciating the space that contextualizes a work of art. His message of the communality and shared experience of viewing art live was one that resonated with speakers from the performing arts who stressed that the live experience could not be replicated or replaced by technology.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt made a surprise appearance and emphasized the power of mobile and new platforms to change the way we live. He highlighted how the Internet has led to an increase in content and lower costs of distribution. One of the accompanying challenges, he noted, is how, in this shift to abundant content and cheaper distribution, business models adapt to build audiences and deliver value.

The afternoon ended with drinks under a literal big tent, hosted by Cirque du Soleil, which launched Movi.Kanti.Revo—a new sensory Chrome experiment—to close out the day.



Each Big Tent gives us the opportunity to engage with our audience on the impact of the Internet and society. Our next event is on innovation and entrepreneurship in Seoul, South Korea. Keep up with us at www.google.com/+googlebigtent.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe Middle East and Africa

Google News turns 10

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Google News launched on September 22, 2002—exactly a decade ago.

Inspired by the widespread interest in news after the September 11 attacks, we invested in technology to help people search and browse news relevant to them. Google News broke new ground in news aggregation by gathering links in real time, grouping articles by story and ranking stories based on the editorial opinions of publishers worldwide. Linking to a diverse set of sources for any given story enabled readers to easily access different perspectives and genres of content. By featuring opposing viewpoints in the same display block, people were encouraged to hear arguments on both sides of an issue and gain a more balanced perspective.

In the last ten years, Google News has grown to 72 editions in 30 languages, and now draws from more than 50,000 news sources. The technology also powers Google’s news search. Together, they connect 1 billion unique users a week to news content.

Google News today
As we have scaled the service internationally, we have added new features (Local News, Personalization, Editors’ Picks, Spotlight, Authorship, Social Discussions), evolved our design, embraced mobile and run ancillary experiments (Fast Flip, Living Stories, Timeline). In parallel, we have monitored our quality and challenged our engineers to improve the technology under the hood—increase freshness, group news better, rank stories more accurately, personalize with more insight and streamline the infrastructure.

Take a look back at the past decade in Google News through the top stories from each year and a few notable features that have launched in the interim:



It’s undeniable that the online news landscape has changed immensely. Smartphones and social networks have transformed how news is accessed and sourced, and shifted the relationship between readers and authors. Open journalism is the norm, and aggregation by humans and machines is an integral part of the ecosystem. New technologies such as Hangouts on Air have the potential to connect users, journalists and opinion makers and transform how stories are discussed.

Opportunities abound, and we are excited for where we can take this product in the next decade. While change is inevitable, one thing remains the same: our mission is to bring you the news you want, when you need it, from a diverse set of sources.

Posted by Krishna Bharat, Distinguished Scientist and Founder, Google News

(Cross-posted on the Google News blog)

Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship with the new Google for Entrepreneurs

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Startups and entrepreneurs have the power to build technologies and creative solutions that transform the world and move us forward. Innovation is happening everywhere: There are approximately 400 million entrepreneurs across 54 countries, and 69 million early-stage entrepreneurs offering new products and services. As Google turns 14 this month, we’re celebrating this creative spirit and officially launching Google for Entrepreneurs, the umbrella for our several dozen programs and partnerships around the world that support startups and entrepreneurs.

Our focus is threefold:

1. Partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities
2. Google-led programs to bring our teams and our tools directly to entrepreneurs
3. Placing relevant Google tools in the hands of startups as they are getting off the ground and ready to scale

We’re already on a roll, with current projects ranging from support for the annual journey of entrepreneurship through India by train, to partnering with a number of accelerator and incubator programs around the world, like iHub in Kenya and Le Camping in France. And, this week, we’re rolling out our newest partnership: teaming up with Women 2.0 to bring their Founder Friday events to more cities. These events bring together current and aspiring female entrepreneurs once a month to connect with mentors and one another to build community. We’re partnering to launch Founder Fridays in Detroit, New Orleans, Sao Paulo and Moscow over the next year.

To celebrate both our birthday and the spirit of entrepreneurship that’s helped get us where we are today, we are hosting our first annual Google for Entrepreneurs Week, which will bring together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and Googlers around the world. We kicked off over the weekend with a Startup Weekend event hosted at the Google Ventures Startup Lab in Mountain View, Calif., where Bay Area entrepreneurs came together to create their own startups in 54 hours. Over the course of the next week, Googlers in 28 cities across 13 countries will be hosting an event in their communities to bring their passion and expertise to local entrepreneurs. We’re teaming with a number of partners to make this happen, including the Idea Village in New Orleans, Communitech in Waterloo, Tetuan Valley in Wroclaw, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg and the Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce in Iowa.

For more on these existing programs and to stay connected on upcoming events, visit google.com/entrepreneurs and follow us on G+.

Posted by Mary Grove, Head of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach

Dive into the Great Barrier Reef with the first underwater panoramas in Google Maps

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Today we’re adding the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean’s most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.


Get up close and personal with sea turtles at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef
Starting today, you can use Google Maps to find a sea turtle swimming among a school of fish, follow a manta ray and experience the reef at sunset—just as I did on my first dive in the Great Barrier Reef last year. You can also find out much more about this reef via the World Wonders Project, a website that brings modern and ancient world heritage sites online.

At Apo Island, a volcanic island and marine reserve in the Philippines, you can see an ancient boulder coral, which may be several hundred years old. And in the middle of the Pacific, in Hawaii, you can join snorkelers in Oahu’s Hanauma Bay and drift over the vast coral reef at Maui's Molokini crater.



We’re partnering with The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, to make these amazing images available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps. The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture these photos.


The Catlin Seaview Survey team on location on the Great Barrier Reef, encountering a manta ray
Whether you’re a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps. Check out our complete underwater collection, featuring a Google+ underwater Hangout from the Great Barrier Reef. And you can always explore more imagery from around the world by visiting maps.google.com/streetview.

Explore more underwater images
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth (and snorkeling enthusiast)

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

More renewable energy for our data centers

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We announced our commitment to carbon neutrality back in 2007, and since then we’ve been finding ways to power our operations with as much renewable energy as possible. In our latest step toward this end, we just signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to green the energy supply to our Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma, which is expected to come online later this year.

We’ve been working with GRDA, our local utility, to procure additional renewable energy since we “plugged in” our data center in 2011, and in February of 2012, GRDA approached us about purchasing power from Canadian Hills. In conjunction with the electricity GRDA already supplies Google to operate its data center, Google will pay GRDA a premium to purchase renewable energy generated by Canadian Hills. This brings the total amount of renewable energy for which Google has contracted to over 260 MW.

This agreement is a milestone for GRDA because it’s their first-ever wind energy project. It’s also a milestone for Google because it’s a little different from the previous Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) we’ve signed, where we agreed to buy the energy directly from the developer who built the wind farm. This agreement, by contrast, marks the first time we’ve partnered with a utility provider to increase the amount of renewable energy powering one of our data centers.

Although both options can make sense depending on the circumstances, we’re excited about this collaboration because it makes the most of our respective strengths: utilities like GRDA are best positioned to integrate renewable energy into their generation mix and to deliver power; we’re a growing company with a corporate mandate to use clean energy for our operations in a scalable way. We’ve been working closely with all of our utility partners to find ways to source renewables directly, and we look forward to working with other suppliers to deliver clean energy to our data centers.

Posted by Gary Demasi, Director, Global Infrastructure team

5 Questions with Nirvan Mullick, the man behind 'Caine's Arcade'

To contact us Click HERE


Q: How did the Caine's Arcade video catch fire? Did you have a distribution strategy in place or was it all organic? 
A: It was a mix. While making the film, I put together a flashmob invitation to surprise Caine with customers. The flashmob invitation went mini-viral, hitting reddit’s front page and HiddenLA’s facebook page. This brought Caine a global community of supporters that were waiting for the film to be finished. Once the film was finished, I submitted a follow up link to reddit and also sent the link to BoingBoing. BoingBoing re-posted the film right away, and it hit the front page of reddit shortly after. Then it just took off.

Q: What was the reaction of Caine & his family once the video became so popular and viewers donated hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to a college fund? 

A: None of us were expecting that level of response. I had been hoping to raise $25,000 for Caine’s Scholarship Fund over the course of maybe a year... the first day we raised over $100k. Caine’s dad was in tears, overwhelmed by phone calls from parents and media around the world; he had never experienced that level of kindness from strangers, who put together a college fund for his son overnight. George was the proudest dad in the world. Meanwhile, Caine couldn’t really process how much money had been donated- he just knew it was a lot. But he was super excited to have so many customers visiting his arcade. The first weekend after the film went viral, over a thousand people showed up to play. There was a 4 hour line stretching around the block. 5 months later, people still come every day from around the world. It’s amazing.

Q: Tell us about the Imagination Foundation. Was it always something you had hoped to launch or did it originate solely from the video? 

A: The formation of the foundation was inspired by the global response to the video. After the film went viral, I didn’t sleep the first 2 days. The response was overwhelming, and I was trying to take it all in and absorb as much of the feedback as I could. I got emails from thousands of people, including videos from kids around the world sharing their creativity. I began to think about ways that this project could transition from helping Caine to helping other kids as well. On the third day, I wrote the mission statement for the Imagination Foundation on a napkin: to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in more kids like Caine. While the Imagination Foundation wasn’t something I’d planned before the film, I have worked in the non-profit space for the past 12 years, and have always been interested in the intersection of media and social change. So when this happened, I knew there was an lightning-in-a-bottle opportunity to try and make something that could have an impact for more kids. Two days after I wrote the mission statement, I connected with the Goldhirsh Foundation, who recognized the opportunity to make an impact and put up a $250,000 Matching Challenge Grant (matching public donations to Caine's Scholarship Fund dollar-for-dollar) to help us start the Imagination Foundation. To date, we have raised $215k of the goal.

Q: How do you intend to use video going forward to tell the story of the Global Cardboard Challenge? 

A: I met Caine by chance when I went to buy a door handle. But there are so many more kids like Caine out there. We started the Imagination Foundation to build a discovery platform to help find amazing stories of creative kids like Caine, and to then share those stories with the world. With the Global Cardboard Challenge, we are inviting filmmakers and storytellers around the world to document local Cardboard Challenge events on video, and to then share those videos with us so we can celebrate the creativity of kids everywhere. Send us your videos by October 13th and we will have some cool prizes and opportunities to share the videos with our community. As we build our community further, we plan to continue using video to share inspiring stories of creative kids around the world while inspiring creative actions in line with our mission.

Q: Do you have any advice for fellow filmmakers who are looking to drive awareness for causes they care about? 

A: I think it is really important to be authentic and personal, and to find the details that communicate the heart of your story. It’s also important to have a clear call to action, and to keep it simple and engaging. The success of videos like Kony 2012 (30min) and Caine’s Arcade (11 minutes) show that videos don’t need to be super short to keep people’s attention. If your story is strong, your audience will stay with you, and you can take the time you need to tell your story. That said, don’t make it a second longer than it needs to be.

Arthur Woods, YouTube partner operations associate, recently watched "John Hockenberry: We are all designers"

Make voting go viral

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Today is the first annual National Voter Registration Day in the U.S. and with just six weeks to go before Election Day, there’s never been a better time to register to vote.

A bunch of top creators agree. In honor of Voter Registration Day, they’ve put together their own videos about why it’s important to cast your vote on November 6 -- and why it’s important to register today.

For example, Nerdfighter extraordinaire Hank Green created this appeal which already has more than 150,000 views:
 


And SoundlyAwake is making his voice -- err, make that voices -- heard on the issue:



You can view these videos and more on the YouTube homepage and our YouTube Politics channel today.

You can also use your own channel and videos to encourage voter registration by using our new Voter Registration annotation. It functions just like a normal annotation but allows you to link out to www.google.com/elections/vote, a dedicated page where you and your subscribers can register to vote.

You can add this annotation to a video in a few easy steps:

1. Go to Edit Video on any of your uploads
2. At the top of the page, you'll see a tab marked Annotation (fourth tab)
3. Click "Add Annotation" and select "Cause" at the bottom of the list
4. Under "Select a Cause" choose "Register to Vote"
5. Choose the times you want it to appear and click "Save"

Join other members of the YouTube community to make sure everyone’s voice is heard on Election Day this year.

Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched “#WeWill Rock the Vote”.

Our September featured On The Rise partner is GonetotheSnowDogs

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Congratulations to Jessica of GonetotheSnowDogs! Her channel, featuring her huskies Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, is our September featured “On The Rise” partner. Check out the “Spotlight” section of the YouTube homepage today to meet these quirky, entertaining pups.

Jessica has been filming her dogs and sharing their antics with the world via YouTube, of course for the last three years. While all centered around the three star huskies, the videos run the gamut from fun and entertaining to educational and instructional. Head on over to Jessica’s channel to see Shiloh and Shelby ‘singing’ a duet (it earned them a feature on Animal Planet!) and all three dogs reacting to a new present meant to help them cool down in the summer. If you have a dog of your own, you might be interested in Jessica’s tutorial videos, which cover topics like how to make your own chicken jerky dog treats.


Here are a few words from Jessica:

Almost three years ago, I put up a silly video of my dogs onto YouTube, and look what it has now grown to! I never thought that our dogs would be so loved by people all over the world! It started off as just showing the dogs and the silly things they do day by day, and it has turned into a combination of fun, and educational videos uploaded 3 times a week. You ask, and we will do our best to answer when it comes to questions about Siberian Huskies, or dogs in general! We are always willing to help when we can! We hope you enjoy what you see on our channel! How can someone not love dogs! And with the three we have, you get a variety of personalities you will come to love! Shiloh is the quite one, Shelby is the crazy one, and Oakley is the oddball still finding her place here (we just adopted her this past February.) We want to say thank you to YouTube for giving us this amazing opportunity, Thank you to our fans, friends, and family, for all of your love and support! Thank you to the stars of the channel, Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, for allowing me to point a camera at you all the time! Subscribe to our channel, and experience the joy that a dog can bring into your life! 

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Christine Wang and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “The Hunger Games - A Bad Lip Reading.”