Weekly Google Code Roundup for June 18-22th

By Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

It has been a busy week as usual, especially for those interested in the world of Geo.

In API and developer-product news...

Base diving with Google Gears covers an application that we built that searches Google Base and saves the information with Google Gears allowing for off-line use.

The Safe Browsing API was released, which allows your application to use the API to download an encrypted table for local, client-side lookups of URLs that you would like to check. Now you can stop phishers and malware abusers.

Guicing Up Your Testing is the first article in a series on Google Guice by our own Dick Wall.

The Google AJAX Feed API's Slide Show Control is now available as a Google Gadget.

The mapping world was busy as always:

• Add Traffic to Your Mashup (Button + Legend, too)!
• Three new KML resources up
• Set Country/Viewport Restrictions in your GClientGeocoder for More Tailored Results

Around Google

T.V. Raman has discussed his experience using the new open source OCR that we are working on, comparing it to commercial alternatives that he uses.

Put your business on Google Maps with the Local Business Center which has launched a new look.

The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit took place at Google last week. For more information read the wrapup article.

Google Tech Talks

Semantic Web: The Semantic Web is a field aiming a the creation, deployment, and interoperation of machine readable data on the Internet. In the talk we present some projects in DERI on Semantic Web technologies - notably Semantic Interlinking of Online Community sites, Social Semantic Collaborative Filtering, and ActiveRDF, a library for Browsing, programming and navigating Semantic Web data.

View more tech talks.

Podcasts

In Google Developer Podcast Episode Four we had the chance to interview Mark Limber on Google SketchUp, and how developers can use the Ruby, C++, and other APIs.

The OpenMRS Project: You'll get a chance to learn from Paul about the history of OpenMRS, life as a brand new organization in Summer of Code, and the social change uses of open source in developing nations.

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Weekly Google Code Roundup for June 4-8th

By Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

This week it felt like the day after the wedding. The developer day was complete, and now we need to move on, gather up the feedback from the community, and start on the real work of producing APIs and tools for you all.

In API and developer-product news...

DragZoomControl v1.0: Easier zooming, coming right up!

Andre Lewis has contributed his GZoom control to the Google Maps Utility Library which is a set of useful additions to the Maps API, distributed under an open source license. The new control is DragZoomControl, and does what it says on the box.

New KML Developments and Documentation

Mano Marks told us about the new documentation available that tells us about how to get Google to search your KML files, and the release of KML 2.2 beta reference material. KML will now support use of the Atom Syndication format atom:author and atom:uri elements for attribution.

AJAX Feed API Slide Show Enhancements

Mark Lucovsky upgraded the AJAX Feed API Slide Show to allow you to tweak the experience by using various callbacks that let you hook slide transitions, clicks, etc. For an example, he created a slideshow view
of PodTech that allows you to play videos inline as the appropriate image shows up.

Around Google

Google Calendar Gallery

The Google Calendar Gallery helps you find public calendars that may interest you. Plug in the Red Sox schedule, or the Netflix release dates, directly into your calendar.

FeedBurner Acquisition

FeedBurner lets you manage your feeds in interesting ways. You offload the traffic to the service, can add features on top of your own feed (enable Podcast on the fly, advertising, etc), and see great statistics on how your users are using it. We are proud to have the FeedBurner team part of the Google family.

Featured Projects

San Francisco Giants Mashup

Paul McDonald, of the Google Mashup Editor team, has put together a nice mashup on all things SF Giants. As with all Google Mashups, everyone is open source, and you can "view source" on anyones application. Take a peak at this example to see how you can use the mashup editor to do some sophisticated application building.

Remember The Milk Offline

The Remember The Milk team had an advantage. They were in Sydney where we released Gears, and they were obviously on the case. They quickly released an offline version of their TODO list application.

Google Tech Talks

Java on Guice: Dependency Injection, the Java Way

Bob Lee has been traveling the world speaking on Guice recently. This week he got to give his talk right here in Mountain View, and it was recorded for your viewing pleasure.

Hey, What's That? A Map Hack

Michael Kosowsky came to chat about his cool Maps application that lets you see what you could see from a high point (e.g. Longs Peak). Fun math and visualizations indeed.

Podcasts

Google Developer Podcast Episode Three: Mike Tsao on Google Gears

We got to interview Mike Tsao of the Google Gears team on how Gears came about, the design decisions, and lessons for developers as they go about offline-enabling their applications.

The Mono Project

Miguel de Icaza was joined by three former students for Mono: Aaron Tomb, Alan McGovern and Michael Hutchinson. They chat about the past, present, and future of Mono and what the summer of coders are working on now.

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Google Developer Podcast Episode Two: Pamela Fox on the Google Maps API

By Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

We have published the second episode of the Google Developer Podcast, just in time to get you ready for Google Developer Day which kicks off this week.

This weeks episode discusses:

News for Google Developers

• Check out the latest schedules and information about the event. Check the location!
  
• JavaOne recap: thoughts about the show, and the Google booth
• Discussing the new AJAX Feed controls
• Our thoughts on Searchology and Universal Search
• The new YouTube API blog was announced
  
• Featured project: GWT Maven Support
• Featured project: Hey, What's That?

Interview with Pamela Fox of the Google Maps team

We want to thank Pamela for taking the time to chat to us about Google Maps, and the Google Maps API.

What you will learn from Pamela:

• Her role, and background
  
• A little history on the Google Maps API
  
• Information about mashups
  
• How you can overlay map content such as MapWOW, Lord of the Rings, and your own
  
• How to be hard code with custom tiles, to give you a full level of detail
  
• How to use simple ground overlays
  
• About the Google Moon API
  
• How KML and Google Earth fit into Google Maps
  
• The magic of GGeoXml()
  
• What the Maps group is going to be doing for developer day
  
• How to use the JavaScript API
  
• How you can use Maps from within GWT, Rails, and other platforms
  
• What's GMap2, and how does the API handle versioning
  
• Enjoying the scroll-wheel zoom
  
• How My Maps fits into Google Maps
  
• How Google Maps helped launched the Ajax meme
  
• Pamela's favorite recent Maps mashups (bones, crop circles, and more)
  
• The sample code available in the gmaps-samples
  
• Using the Google Spreadsheet Data API as a data store
  
• Understanding the limitations on Google Maps API use
  
• What are the hidden features in the Google Maps API that people tend not to use
  
• Why you should GLog
  
• What the common issues that new Maps API users come across
  
• Best practices for developing Google Maps Mashups

You can download the episode directly, or subscribe to the show.

As always, please contact us to let us know if there is anything that you would like to see on the podcast.

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World Cup Cricket 2007: Don't pray for rain

Posted by Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs



If ever cricket lovers needed an excuse to take a trip to the Caribbean, now they have one. The Cricket World Cup 2007 has started today, and it should be a great party. (I myself am a Brit who will hopefully not be praying for rain.)

Once again, the developer community has outdone itself creating useful mashups. The Radioactive Yak has detailed a few of the resources available which include:

• A Google Gadget module that shows the current games on a map of the area
• A Google Earth tour of the venues via a World Cup 2007 Venues KML file
• An up-to-date game schedule on a Google Calendar.

Google India has also made a site available at http://www.google.co.in/cricket with useful tools of its own:

• World cup news gadget
• World cup scores gadget
• A blogging contest for the event
• And much more. Visit the site to participate

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