September 2012 Summaries

Google Maps has expanded its features to include underwater panoramic images, offering users the opportunity to explore oceanic wonders like sea turtles and ancient coral without leaving their homes. This initiative highlights the significant portion of the Earth covered by water. Meanwhile, misconceptions about the vampire squid have been clarified: despite its ominous name, it feeds on ocean detritus rather than blood. In space-related news, NASA considered moving the International Space Station to avoid potential collisions with space debris by utilizing the engines of a docked cargo ship. These diverse tidbits were shared as part of a lighthearted "Fridaygram" post, contrasting with the usual developer-focused content, and coinciding with Google's 14th anniversary.

redBus, an online travel agency in India, transitioned to using Google BigQuery to efficiently manage and analyze large volumes of data generated from its online bus ticketing services, which cover over 10,000 routes. Initially relying on relational databases, redBus explored open-source frameworks like Hadoop but found them demanding in terms of expertise and infrastructure. BigQuery, offering SQL-like querying capabilities, enabled redBus to perform rapid iterative analysis with minimal upfront investment. This allowed the company to track customer booking trends and system health, making data-driven decisions. The integration included using RabitMQ to pipeline data into BigQuery, and the insights gained have informed the development of internal dashboards and other analytical tools.

AngelHack's Big Data hackathon in San Francisco brought together over 100 developers at the HUB co-working space to explore and innovate with big data technologies. The event featured interactive discussions on Google BigQuery and the Google Cloud Platform, with participants testing new features and exchanging insights with companies like Firebase and Couchbase. A highlight was the real-time demonstration of a query processing 1TB of data in just 23 seconds, showcasing BigQuery's capabilities. Developers competed for a $250 Google Play Store gift certificate, awarded to Deepti and Sushma Yadlapalli for their project analyzing stock data correlations using BigQuery and the Veritable API. The event, organized by AngelHack, fostered collaboration and creativity, and the team expressed gratitude to participants and organizers. Following the event, the team planned to attend several international meetups and conferences to continue engaging with the big data community.

DevFest season began with a series of community-organized events led by local Google Developer Groups across six countries. These gatherings offered developers technical sessions, hackathons, and code labs focused on various Google products. Highlights included DevFest London, which attracted over 100 developers and featured a keynote by Michael Mahemoff, and DevFest Shanghai, attended by 350 developers with sessions on Android, Chrome, Golang, and HTML5. Other notable events were held in cities like Lille, Jalandhar, NIT Trichy, Gandhinagar, BITS Pilani, Manipal, and Tijuana, each offering unique sessions and activities. The DevFest season kicked off on September 21st and will continue through November 11th, inviting developers to engage with their local communities and explore Google's technological advancements.

Google Code-in is an international contest designed to introduce 13-17 year old pre-university students to open source software development, scheduled to commence on November 26, 2012. The competition aims to engage students in a variety of projects and tasks, offering them exposure to different aspects of open source, such as coding, documentation, outreach, quality assurance, and user interface design, with guidance from mentoring organizations previously involved with the Google Summer of Code. Over the past two years, the contest has attracted 904 participants from 65 countries, culminating in a grand prize trip to Google's Mountain View headquarters for the winners. The event encourages global participation and seeks to foster interest in open source among young students, providing a platform for those who may not yet be expert coders but are eager to contribute to open-source communities. Participants and teachers interested in the contest can find more information on the Google Code-in site, with the announcement of participating organizations set for November 12.

Google has launched the Civic Information API to facilitate the development of applications that provide comprehensive U.S. voting information, including polling places, early voting sites, election contests, and local election official contacts. Aimed at fostering innovation, the API allows developers to push relevant civic information to communities effectively. The API, which replaces the Google Election Center API, will be fully operational with live data by mid-October 2012, although developers can start building with test data. Google plans to expand its scope to other countries and additional civic data in the future. Developers are encouraged to join the Google Civic Information API Forum for updates and to share their creations, while Google will also use the API for its election tools.

Movi.Kanti.Revo is a groundbreaking Chrome experiment developed by Cirque du Soleil and Subatomic Systems, launched at the Big Tent event in New York City, which leverages modern web technologies to create an immersive, gesture-controlled experience that transports users into a world of Cirque du Soleil performances. Utilizing HTML5, CSS 3D transforms, and the getUserMedia API, the experiment allows users to navigate through a 3D environment without the need for a keyboard or mouse, instead using a web cam for gesture recognition. This innovative project works across all devices by employing features like the accelerometer on mobile devices, showcasing the potential of HTML5 and CSS in creating interactive web experiences. Users can learn more about the technical aspects of the project through a case study or a special Google Developers Live event, encouraging developers to explore the capabilities of web technologies in creating dynamic applications.

Google Analytics has enhanced its Core Reporting API by adding over 40 new metrics and dimensions, allowing developers to generate detailed reports akin to those available in the Google Analytics web interface. These additions enable a deeper analysis of social interactions, mobile device usage, geographical traffic origins, and hierarchical website performance. The update includes new social data metrics that offer insights into on-site and off-site interactions with social buttons, as well as mobile metrics detailing device brand, model, and input type. A new dimension for Designated Market Area (DMA) provides geographic campaign performance data, while app and exception tracking features cater to mobile app analytics. Additionally, the update introduces user timing metrics for more comprehensive performance reporting, and developers can refer to the Dimensions & Metrics Reference and Query Explorer for further exploration and query building.

In an effort to improve authentication security, Google announced the addition of OAuth 2.0 support for IMAP/SMTP and XMPP, enhancing the protection of user information by eliminating the need for passwords in client applications. This move allows developers to create more secure apps using Google's platforms while enabling users to maintain greater control over their data access. The company is deprecating older authentication methods like XOAUTH for IMAP/SMTP and X-GOOGLE-TOKEN and SASL PLAIN for XMPP, as these rely on outdated or less secure standards. The transition to OAuth 2.0 aligns with Google's long-term goal of strengthening user data protection through advanced security features such as 2-step verification. The initiative is part of Google's ongoing commitment to enhancing application security, which began with the initial support of OAuth in 2008.

In a move to enhance functionality and user experience, Google announced the deprecation of the Google Documents List API v3 with the introduction of the Google Drive API v2. The new Drive API promises to incorporate all existing features of the Documents List API while offering improvements such as integration with the Drive UI, a more refined security model, and an improved client library experience. Although the Documents List API v3 will remain operational according to Google's deprecation policy for over a year, developers are encouraged to transition to the new API with the help of comprehensive documentation and a migration guide. Support for this transition is available through StackOverflow, where the Google Drive Developer Relations team is ready to assist. The announcement was shared by Ali Afshar, a tech lead at Google, who has a background in open-source advocacy and a keen interest in the intersection of technology and healthcare.

In a recent edition of the Google Developers Blog's "Fridaygram," editor Scott Knaster highlights three intriguing developments. Google launched an online course, "Power Searching with Google," which was so successful that its creators, including Peter Norvig, transformed it into an open-source project called Course Builder, now available for broader use despite being an experimental tool. In research news, scientists from various institutions have discovered a method to boil water without creating bubbles, a breakthrough with potential applications in preventing vapor buildup and reducing surface drag. Additionally, Google has introduced a playful feature where users can find the "Bacon number" of their favorite actors, adding a fun twist to search activities. The "Fridaygram" series aims to share diverse and engaging stories, appealing to both developers and enthusiasts.

The Python Client Library for Google APIs has officially exited its Beta phase, bringing an array of new features that enhance its functionality for developers. These features include support for OAuth 2.0 service accounts, media resource uploads, request batching, asynchronous requests, resumable media uploads, and feed paging. The library simplifies the process of calling RESTful Google APIs and managing data returned from these calls, while also handling the OAuth 2.0 authentication protocol and error management without additional coding. Developers are encouraged to explore the updated documentation, now available with new content and a revamped look at developers.google.com, for guidance on downloading, installing, and utilizing the library. Joe Gregorio, a Software Engineer at Google, and Antonio Fuentes, a Product Manager, emphasize the library's ease of use for building Python applications that interact with Google APIs.

Tal Raviv, CTO of Ecquire, discusses strategies for developing impactful Chrome extensions, highlighting their ability to transform from simple browser add-ons to robust applications with significant user value. Raviv emphasizes leveraging the unique capabilities of extensions, such as easy installation from a home website and synchronization across devices. He suggests using event-based analytics to gain insights into user interactions, integrating third-party APIs to enhance functionality, and employing secure hosted payment systems for efficient financial transactions. Raviv also advocates for using front-end frameworks like JQuery and BackboneJS to build dynamic interfaces and stresses the importance of continuous testing to ensure extension reliability in diverse web environments. The article underscores the potential for innovation in browser extension development, positioning it as a powerful platform for future technological advancements.

Google's Developers Blog, in a lighthearted "Fridaygram" post, highlights recent updates and features from their maps team, including voice-guided navigation and live traffic updates for towns in India, biking directions in New Zealand, and new Street View images for over 150 university campuses. The post also touches on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which, after 35 years, is slowly nearing the edge of the solar system. In a nod to pop culture, the blog references a tribute by the U.S. National Hurricane Center to the man who popularized the phrase "going where no one has gone before," while playfully noting Google's own tribute in their Google Doodle. The post concludes with a whimsical sign-off, encouraging readers to enjoy their weekend.

During the Google I/O event, more than 30,000 developers participated in over 350 I/O Extended events in 172 countries, where they were invited to take part in the Develop for Good hackathon. This initiative aimed to inspire teams to create technology solutions for social good, leading to innovative concepts such as 'Green It' from Pakistan, an app for reporting environmental concerns; 'Silent Lens' from the U.S., an Android app for safely reporting issues in repressive regimes via encrypted messages; and 'Assembly Bills' from Nigeria, a platform for citizen engagement in legislative processes. The winning teams were awarded tickets to attend I/O 2013 and were honored with the title "Google Developer for Good, 2012." The hackathon highlighted Google.org's commitment to leveraging technology for positive global impact, as emphasized by Anna de Paula Hanika, a Product Marketing Manager at Google.org.

The GDG DevFest season is a series of community-organized developer events taking place worldwide, inspired by the collaborative spirit seen at Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O. These events, initiated by the Google Developer Groups (GDG), aim to foster innovation and idea exchange by offering technical sessions, hackathons, and code labs focusing on various Google products. Each DevFest is uniquely customized to meet the specific needs of the local developer communities hosting them. The inaugural season, running from September 21 to November 11, features events in cities like London, Shanghai, Bangalore, Buenos Aires, Auckland, and Mountain View. Program Manager Uttam Tripathi coordinates the global initiative, emphasizing outreach in India, and encourages developers to check devfest.info for event details or to organize local events if none are planned in their area.