August 2012 Summaries

Google Developers Live continues to facilitate interaction between Google's developer advocates and the tech community beyond the annual Google I/O event through various online sessions, interviews, and reviews, maintaining a steady stream of engaging content. In addition to these tech-oriented activities, recent astronomical discoveries have captured attention, notably a binary star system with planets orbiting it, one of which lies within the habitable zone, drawing speculative parallels to Star Wars' Tatooine. Meanwhile, Google Maps for Android has expanded its features to include bicycle navigation, an update that complements the innovative strides in human-powered aviation demonstrated by the University of Maryland's new helicopter. Amidst these technological advancements, the community pays tribute to Neil Armstrong, honoring his legacy and inspiration.

Google's WebP team, led by Jyrki Alakuijala, has released version 0.2 of the WebP library, which introduces lossless and transparency modes for image compression, aiming to enhance web page loading speeds by reducing image sizes. This update, crucial for mobile device efficiency in terms of bandwidth and battery usage, achieves file sizes 26% smaller than PNG while maintaining comparable CPU and memory performance. The improved compression leverages advanced techniques like dedicated entropy codes and color caching, alongside traditional methods like dictionary and Huffman coding. WebP's support for alpha transparency in lossy images further positions it as an efficient alternative to PNG, with native support in the latest Chrome Beta. The finalized bit stream specification and updated container specification mark significant progress, and Google invites further community feedback and experimentation with these new compression methods.

BigQuery has enhanced its flexibility for both developers and analysts by introducing batch queries and a connector for Microsoft Excel, catering to a wide range of business use cases such as optimizing advertising campaigns and understanding customer behavior. The new batch priority queries allow developers to execute queries at a lower cost, suitable for non-urgent tasks like nightly report updates, with execution times ranging from 30 minutes to 3 hours. Additionally, the BigQuery Connector for Excel enables users to run BigQuery queries directly from Excel, facilitating data integration, pivot tables, and chart creation, thereby expanding BigQuery's usability for those familiar with Excel's 'External Data' functionality. These updates aim to provide more cost-effective and accessible data analysis tools for businesses, encouraging feedback and further feature development through community engagement on platforms like Google+.

Google Developers Blog Editor Scott Knaster highlights several intriguing developments in a Fridaygram post from August 24, 2012, spotlighting the entrepreneurial spirit of U.S. military veterans, who own a significant portion of small businesses across America, such as PubCakes and Precious Paw Prints. Google for Entrepreneurs partnered with Startup Weekend to support these veterans in their business ventures. In another exciting innovation, a research team developed a robot capable of changing its external coloring using synthetic skin and dye-filled veins, with potential applications in search missions due to its chameleon-like abilities. The post also celebrates a milestone achieved by the Mars Curiosity rover, which completed its first drive on the Martian surface, marking a significant achievement in space exploration. Each Fridaygram curates a collection of fascinating topics, some unrelated to developer issues but still of interest to tech enthusiasts.

In August 2012, Google announced a new integration that simplifies the process of transferring Google Analytics data into Google Apps Script-supported products like Google Spreadsheets, Docs, and Sites, allowing users to effortlessly manipulate, visualize, and build internal dashboards from this data. This integration includes a script called Google Analytics Report Automation (Magic), accessible via the Spreadsheets script gallery, which enables the automatic creation of dashboards without requiring coding skills. For developers interested in customizing their solutions, the integration allows for the retrieval of data such as total visitors, visits, and pageviews, which can be inserted into a spreadsheet with minimal code. To encourage exploration and innovation, Google offered developer t-shirts to the first 15 developers who created and published a solution using the integration, showcasing how it can solve business problems by enhancing data manipulation and presentation capabilities.

In the August 17, 2012 edition of the Fridaygram, Scott Knaster highlights various intriguing initiatives and activities, starting with Google Developer Relations Lead Fumi Yamazaki's efforts to encourage women developers in Japan through GTUG Girls, a community aimed at increasing female participation in tech events. Her blog post shares insights and principles from the group's first year, offering guidance for replicating its success globally. Additionally, the Fridaygram mentions the ongoing Maker Camp, where participants engage in daily projects, including a virtual field trip to CERN. It also recommends exploring Boing Boing's Cow Week for a unique perspective on dairy products. The Fridaygram serves as a collection of interesting tidbits from Google and beyond, appealing to those with a passion for technology and quirky content.

Google's Tech Workshop in Tunisia, scheduled for September 22-23, 2012, aimed to engage the local tech community by offering hands-on, interactive sessions on various Google technologies, including App Engine, APIs, Mobile Development, HTML5, and more. Organized by Rania Hadi, MENA Outreach Manager, the event sought to gather talented developers and tech enthusiasts in Tunis at the City of Sciences, providing an opportunity for participants to learn, share projects, and network using the #gtwtunisia hashtag. Registration was open to those with outstanding applications, and successful applicants would be notified by September 10. Additionally, participants in the Google Apps Developer Challenge who reached the semi-finals could present their projects at the workshop, further enhancing the event's interactive and community-focused nature.

Sergio Alvarez of Vizzuality and Deroy Peraza of Hyperakt collaborated with Min Li Chan from the Chrome Team to create "The Evolution of the Web," a project that visualizes the history and rapid advancements of web technologies and browsers. Launched at Google I/O 2012, the interactive visualization features 43 web technology strands across seven browser timelines, highlighting key developments and the web community's continuous innovation. Built using HTML5, SVG, and CSS3, with the support of the D3 JavaScript library, the project allows users to explore intersections of browser support and new technologies, offering day and night viewing modes for large-screen projection. During development, a bug in SVG rendering was quickly resolved by the Chrome team, demonstrating the real-time evolution of the web. The project underscores the excitement of being a designer or web developer in a rapidly advancing digital landscape, aiming to capture the dynamic spirit of web evolution.

In 2012, Sam McCall, a software engineer at Google, announced the development of an open-source library designed to enable Dart developers to connect with Google's popular APIs, such as Google+, YouTube, and URL Shortener. This initiative emerged from Google's 20% time policy, which allows employees to pursue projects outside their regular responsibilities. An example application, called roulette, demonstrates how developers can create web apps using Dart and Google APIs, offering functionalities like URL shortening and playful surprises like rickrolling. The library was in its alpha stage at the time and actively sought community feedback and bug reports through an issue tracker and discussion forum. Sam McCall was part of Google's Corporate Engineering Team in Munich and engaged in this project as a part-time Dart enthusiast.

Fridaygram highlights intriguing developments in technology and space exploration, such as Google Street View's launch of panoramic images from the Kennedy Space Center, allowing virtual visits to iconic locations like the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Firing Room #4. It also covers Russia's advancement in space travel with a rapid docking of a cargo ship at the International Space Station, potentially improving the efficiency and comfort of future Soyuz crew missions. Additionally, the post anticipates the Mars Rover Curiosity's scheduled landing, inviting readers to follow the event on NASA's website. These updates reflect the dynamic nature of space exploration and Google's continuous efforts to offer unique digital experiences.

In August 2012, Google introduced a new optimization feature called "Cache and Prioritize Visible Content" as part of its PageSpeed Service, which aims to enhance web page loading times by enabling users to interact with content more quickly. This rewriter optimizes web pages by making HTML cacheable and prioritizing the rendering of visible content, thus reducing competition among resources needed for page rendering. Additionally, it defers JavaScript execution until after the page loads to prevent blocking the display of visible content. Early implementations of these techniques demonstrated significant improvements in perceived load times, as evidenced by the positive feedback from Power Line, a US-based political commentary website. The rewriter is most effective when the majority of the web content is generated server-side with minimal personalization, and it is set to be accessible to App Engine users of PageSpeed Service in the future.

Google launched the first Google Places API Developer Challenge in 2012, inviting developers worldwide to create applications that enhance community or government functions using the Google Places API. Participants are encouraged to develop innovative solutions across various platforms to address issues such as health, crime, and commerce by leveraging the extensive global database of over 95 million places that power Google Maps. The challenge collaborates with local governments in several major cities and the White House, providing access to diverse datasets to aid app development. The winning developers will receive a VIP experience at Google I/O 2013. The challenge emphasizes the potential of combining creativity with technology to benefit local communities, with the submission period running from August 15th to October 31st, 2012.