CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-18 08:24:54 (37 comments, 12 reshares, 324 +1s)

Standing under the noon-day sun in Barcelona, squinting...  Made my skin look a bit harsher than I wish it were.  I love the subtle improvements.

2013-05-18 08:20:04 (4 comments, 7 reshares, 141 +1s)

Like many of you, I've been pretty amazed by the sometimes subtle (and sometimes stunning) magic of Google+ Photos Auto Enhance.  It's one thing to watch this demo'd with other people's photos, and quite another to appreciate it on your own photos.

I made a community where, if you wish, you can share your own examples.  (The first post is a bit of a "How to...")

As Vic explained, we're just getting started...  

2013-05-18 08:12:03 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

How to post here...

Hi folks.  I'm eager to see your own examples of Auto Enhance doing its magic on your own photos.  Here's the simplest way I've come up with to do a bit of show and tell...  If you've got a better idea, let me know.

1. Find a great example, from your own photos, that you'd like to share publicly.  Please ensure that you own rights to the photo, and as a courtesy, you may want to make sure that any other folks in the photo would be comfortable with you sharing this publicly (e.g. ask your husband or wife!)

2. View the enhanced photo in the Lightbox.

3. Go to More -> Download photo, save to your local hard drive, and rename as "After."

4. Temporarily remove the enhancement on the photo by clicking More -> Auto Enhance.

5. Go to More -> Download photo, save to your local harddri... more »

2013-05-18 17:06:54 (2 comments, 21 reshares, 17 +1s)

Standing under the noon-day sun in Lisbon, squinting...  Made my skin look a bit harsher than I wish it were.  I love the subtle improvements.

2013-05-17 19:10:46 (14 comments, 27 reshares, 100 +1s)

2013-05-15 14:18:47 (28 comments, 56 reshares, 192 +1s)

Google+ Photowalk!

2013-05-15 01:03:19 (18 comments, 1 reshares, 193 +1s)

The man.
The myth.
The legend.

Ladies & Gentlemen....
Mr +Vic Gundotra !

2013-05-15 10:03:19 (15 comments, 9 reshares, 148 +1s)

Sitting by the Dock of the Bay (REPRISE)

I inadvertently deleted a post I shared this morning, so I'm resharing it.  My bad!  As a peace offering for spamming your stream, I've tucked in a couple of bonus photos of the live action at Google IO, included an animated GIF I made of people mulling around outside of Moscone!.

=======

+Vic Gundotra and I are already in San Francisco preparing for Google IO 2013.  The excitement is building.

This morning I walked from my hotel to the Google San Francisco offices, and the city was impossibly beautiful.  These shots were taken as I ate my breakfast in the Google office.  What a view!

2013-05-14 01:09:29 (6 comments, 9 reshares, 75 +1s)

Content Recommendations for your Mobile Website

Today we’re announcing smart content recommendations for your mobile website. Recommendations consider Search Authorship, Google+ activity (including +1's and shares), and content on the visitors' current page to keep the quality high. And they only appear when people tap for more, so as not to interrupt their browsing experience.

Check out the mobile website of +Forbes on your favorite iOS or Android device to see it in action.

#googleplusupdate   #googleplusplatform  

http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.com/2013/05/content-recommendations.html

2013-05-13 18:13:47 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 64 +1s)

Google just helped me rediscover this gem, beautifully lounge-y and atmospheric...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_Antena

2013-05-13 16:50:20 (8 comments, 4 reshares, 79 +1s)

Congrats to our friends +Dylan Casey and +Marissa Mayer!

As an ex-Yahoo, I'm definitely cheering you all on!

2013-05-12 16:03:12 (18 comments, 17 reshares, 191 +1s)

Happy Mother's Day - to all the mothers in the world...  

And for everyone who, like mothers, puts the needs of others before their own...

Our heartfelt thanks...

2013-05-09 17:23:26 (20 comments, 12 reshares, 82 +1s)

Awesome photo of Bald Eagles flocking around a pickup truck

2013-05-08 00:57:55 (16 comments, 34 reshares, 182 +1s)

Some highly-requested improvements to Hangouts On Air

Have you ever missed the beginning of a live Hangout On Air and wanted to rewind? How about viewing and sharing your recording right after your broadcast, versus waiting for "processing…"? Today we're launching these, and two other features, to improve your Hangouts On Air experience: 

- Rewind live broadcasts. Regardless when you start watching, you can always go back to the beginning.

- Access recordings immediately after your broadcast. Once you're no longer On Air, your recording will be waiting for you on YouTube.

- Watch higher quality Hangouts On Air on the go. If you're tuning in from your mobile device, you'll notice better-looking video.

- Start live broadcasts without having to refresh. When you visit a page with a Hangout OnAi... more »

2013-05-15 09:18:27 (23 comments, 3 reshares, 94 +1s)

Bez.

2013-05-15 09:18:18 (11 comments, 7 reshares, 140 +1s)

Stormy skies over Mountain View!  (Literally, not metaphorically!)

2013-05-06 18:44:26 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 17 +1s)

2013-05-06 18:44:23 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 35 +1s)

2013-05-06 14:58:09 (4 comments, 8 reshares, 60 +1s)

Until someone writes a great biography of +Stewart Brand this profile of him will have to serve as his introduction. Stewart has a lot to teach you. Read any of his books.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/05/stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog

2013-05-15 09:16:33 (60 comments, 7 reshares, 131 +1s)

Apropos of nothing, I couldn't help but notice the front page of the +The New York Times this morning had a photo of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that looked strikingly like Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett.

2013-05-01 15:41:52 (16 comments, 13 reshares, 139 +1s)

"Painting the Eiffel Tower" and other accidental products...

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Stanford-Accel Symposium yesterday, and in addition to seeing some old friends I had a chance to muse on the role of "data-thinking" on product development.

There was one rambling "for instance" I mentioned, that had a bit of pickup in the press.  This was not a well-formed soundbite and I'm not sure was "gettable" via the quotes I saw... so I thought I'd take a moment to explain.

I'll start by saying here, as I said there, that I don't work on the Google Glass team.  I'm not even a dogfooder (tester) of the product.  In fact, I've tried on a Glass for literally a matter of minutes.  So these musings are unrelated to actual products plans, and instead are just meant to illustrate what I think are theend... more »

2013-04-30 20:08:37 (10 comments, 17 reshares, 85 +1s)

+Nilofer Merchant's TED Talk just posted!  

+Vic Gundotra and I took her advice and went on a walk-and-talk this morning.

Watch through the very end as there is a bonus video for you!

(Better link Nilofer Merchant: Got a meeting? Take a walk )

2013-04-30 16:16:15 (11 comments, 7 reshares, 89 +1s)

#googleplusupdate  
Just announced and demo'd at +TechCrunch conference by +Seth Sternberg 

2013-04-26 17:25:28 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 30 +1s)

The Innotech Summit is this Friday 26th in London led by +Jennifer Arcuri who has massive energy and drive. You can meet London Mayor Boris Johnson there plus +Euro Maestro from Paris and I hope many other plussers. 
Tickets are here 
http://innotechsummit.eventbrite.com/
further details here
http://innotechsummit.com/speakers-at-the-summit/keynotes
https://plus.google.com/101811698305357796315/posts

2013-05-15 09:07:10 (34 comments, 10 reshares, 208 +1s)

A few photos from our Moroccan vacation

Last week, we entered a time-machine and took a wonderful, short vacation to Marrakech and Fes Morocco.  It was a delightful, intriguing, stimulating step into another place and time.  Here are just a few photos...

The food was amazing, the people were warm and welcoming...  The weather was gorgeous.  Our company (we went with another couple, dear friends) was perfect.  An experience I won't soon forget!

2013-04-24 16:40:41 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 42 +1s)

Live now.

2013-04-23 18:48:56 (4 comments, 4 reshares, 54 +1s)

+Tim O'Reilly is doing a Google+ hangout in 20m...  

Hangout is here: Reinvent Regulation with Tim O'Reilly

2013-04-23 15:56:48 (9 comments, 9 reshares, 71 +1s)

Join us Tuesday, April 23rd at 9am PST for a special Google+ Hangout for After Earth!

The After Earth Day Google+ Hangout will be moderated by futurist +Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering. Joining Kurzweil will be Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and the co-founder of Tesla Motors and PayPal; the environmental advocate, explorer and filmmaker +Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau; NASA astronaut +Sunita Williams, an Indian American astronaut and a United States Navy officer who holds the record for longest space flight by a woman; and Jaden Smith and Will Smith, the stars of After Earth. On the literal day after Earth Day, they will discuss the future that awaits the human race on Planet Earth, in the context of the overall themes of the action-adventure. After Earth will inspire a conversation focusing on the important questions we face about the present... more »

2013-04-22 23:49:25 (11 comments, 26 reshares, 149 +1s)

Join us Tuesday, April 23rd at 9am PST for a special Google+ Hangout for After Earth!

The After Earth Day Google+ Hangout will be moderated by futurist +Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering. Joining Kurzweil will be Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and the co-founder of Tesla Motors and PayPal; the environmental advocate, explorer and filmmaker +Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau; NASA astronaut +Sunita Williams, an Indian American astronaut and a United States Navy officer who holds the record for longest space flight by a woman; and Jaden Smith and Will Smith, the stars of After Earth. On the literal day after Earth Day, they will discuss the future that awaits the human race on Planet Earth, in the context of the overall themes of the action-adventure. After Earth will inspire a conversation focusing on the important questions we face about the present... more »

2013-04-22 17:48:17 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 51 +1s)

Reinventing Regulation

I'm doing a Google+ Hangout next week (April 23, 11 am PT) on a subject that I've been thinking about for a while: how should government regulation be updated for the 21st century?  Regulation has a bad name, largely because it is so easy to think of so many examples where it's done badly. When regulatory systems work, we take them for granted.

For example, without the "regulation" imposed by anti-spam efforts on the net, email would be unusable, search results would be useless, and reasonable discussions on blogs and other online forums impossible. Without the regulatory efforts of credit card fraud detection, e-commerce would be impossible. Without the regulatory efforts of the fuel injection system in your car, the traffic control system on a subway system, or the autopilot in an aircraft, transportation would be reduced to a... more »

2013-04-18 17:00:11 (44 comments, 17 reshares, 280 +1s)

This launch pulled me out of my exotic vacation to say HOORAY to the team that made this happen. A very significant step.

2013-04-10 15:15:57 (7 comments, 4 reshares, 71 +1s)

I learned on the way into work today that filmmaker and Berkeley resident Les Blank died yesterday.  From Wikipedia:

"Most of his films focused on American traditional music forms, including (among others) blues, Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, Tex-Mex, polka, tamburitza, and Hawaiian musics. Many of these films represent the only filmed documents of musicians who are now deceased."

My favorite was a 1978 film called Always For Pleasure, which documented the phenomenon of the "Mardi Gras Indians", and in particular the Wild Tchoupitoulas tribe.

2013-04-08 21:01:26 (12 comments, 15 reshares, 109 +1s)

Growing up, I worked summers in the family flower shop.  To pass the time, my brother and I used to play a game.  We'd bring each other the tiniest part of a flower, and the game was to identify it.  Oftentimes you'd have to depend on smell and taste to augment what you saw...  We got very good at this.

Anyway, these are beautiful and cool...

Be sure to click through to here (http://fqwimages.com/2011/08/exploded-flowers-3/) to see them all...

2013-04-03 22:36:44 (12 comments, 14 reshares, 101 +1s)

Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ gets a hard rock makeover

2013-03-31 23:18:28 (17 comments, 25 reshares, 168 +1s)

Your photos +Emotion

Google+ Photos is all about sharing your experiences and emotions with the people you care about. We’re constantly looking for ways to help you create richer, more expressive photographs. 

Many months of research on how people communicate on the Internet have convinced us that when it comes to expressing yourself, nothing beats the richness and elegance of a few properly placed colons, parentheses, letters and hyphens.

:-)  :P :O :/

These representations of your innermost emotions are simple, and best of all, unambiguous :P 

So starting today, we will give you the option to add stylized emotions to your photos. To give it a try, simply open one of your pictures in the lightbox, and click the “Add emotion” button at the top left of the screen. 

We will plumb the emotional depths of everyone in thephoto, th... more »

2013-05-15 07:29:05 (23 comments, 10 reshares, 198 +1s)

It was supposed to rain... and may yet.  

But this morning we (and lots of other folks) had the notion to take a walk up at the Stanford dish: http://dish.stanford.edu/  

Not intending this to be a photowalk, these shots were taken with my Motorola RAZR M, some processed through the phone's HDR setting.  Apologies for the grainy ones.

2013-03-28 15:57:09 (25 comments, 23 reshares, 176 +1s)

Last weekend I got engaged. I wanted to make it something special, so I found a fun improv theater troupe who were excited to help make my little dream come true.

If this made you laugh or just brightened your day a little bit, please feel free to #sharethelove --literally :)

Thank you everyone at improvsociety.com we had a blast and will be back soon!

I love you +Becka Peterson 

2013-03-28 00:41:06 (4 comments, 13 reshares, 86 +1s)

Join us for a White House Hangout on the Maker Movement. On Thursday, March 28th at 3:00 pm ET, White House innovation advisor Tom Kalil will discuss the #Maker  Movement with leading innovators and Makers from around the country.

You can watch the Hangout live on the White House Google+ page, and join the conversation with the hashtag #WHHangout .

2013-03-26 18:11:51 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 34 +1s)

Washington Post is hanging out with 6 people right now in a live Hangout On Air! #hangoutsonair

2013-03-25 16:10:28 (0 comments, 29 reshares, 232 +1s)

Big improvements in the Android and iOS Google+ mobile apps this morning.  Please, as usual, share your feedback with us... (leave comments on +Amar Gandhi's post...)

2013-03-22 21:47:37 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 21 +1s)

I'm really not sure how I feel about a squirrel grilling a hot dog? Totally cute or totally creepy?

See it here: http://www.brit.co/the-britlist-03-22-13/#squirrels

2013-03-21 06:45:47 (12 comments, 1 reshares, 82 +1s)

OK, complementing +Vic Gundotra and +Jonathan Terleski 's posts tonight. Here is something completely different. Couldn't get it out of my head today.

2013-05-15 06:45:28 (9 comments, 6 reshares, 182 +1s)

Here's another...

2013-05-15 06:44:43 (19 comments, 16 reshares, 190 +1s)

Dramatic skies over Mountain View!

2013-03-20 05:12:03 (13 comments, 26 reshares, 243 +1s)

Feeling Optimistic... 

(Love the bass run in this song!)

2013-03-15 00:27:04 (20 comments, 36 reshares, 160 +1s)

Adjust the volume of community posts in your Home stream

You can already adjust the volume of What's Hot and Circle posts in your Home stream (see http://goo.gl/d2nlU and http://goo.gl/wrHDD). Today, and by popular demand, we're bringing this option to Communities.

Say you want to see more posts from your travel community: now you can dial it up! Or maybe you don't want to be tempted by your dessert community (too often): choose to see fewer posts in your Home stream, or none at all. It's completely up to you!

To try it out, just visit a community that you've joined and click the "Actions" menu. You'll see options at the bottom to adjust the volume of posts in your Home stream. This will roll out throughout the day today.

As always, let us know what you think in the comments!

#googleplusupdate  

2013-03-11 16:28:21 (11 comments, 57 reshares, 132 +1s)

In terms of the TED talk that most changed my mind...

Walked in thinking "overhead in charity" was an unconscionable breach of trust... walked out thinking this is a lot more complicated.

2013-03-11 16:19:58 (35 comments, 195 reshares, 466 +1s)

Inventables

The inventables.com site has some pretty strange and esoteric industrial materials that might be fun for various maker projects.  Oh, and silly putty.

One of the coolest is this heat shielding gel.  

Start here:
https://www.inventables.com/categories/inspirational/inspirational-materials

2013-03-10 19:39:43 (9 comments, 28 reshares, 130 +1s)

Sneak preview today on Google+ -- the mini-trailer for Bono's upcoming TED Talk. He shares the new facts -- and his surprising hope -- about fighting global poverty: "Forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, my usual tricks. The only thing singing today will be the facts."
Watch for it Thursday, March 14, on TED.com.
Read more now: http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/26/eradicating-extreme-poverty-doesnt-have-to-be-a-dream-bono-at-ted2013/

2013-03-07 00:31:33 (15 comments, 1 reshares, 58 +1s)

One of my best friends, +Odell Nails, just signed on as a music journalist for Artrocker, a British music magazine / site...  (He's a lawyer for NYC's Channel 13 by day.)

I've been friends with Odell for 20+ years, and he was drummer for my band.  No one who loves music more, and he's the friend I turn to for recommendations.  Perfect gig.