What's new in DoubleClick for Publishers

Spring is here and so are a couple of new features in DFP! For a complete list, please visit the DFP or DFP Small Business Help Centers.

Available in DFP and DFP Small Business:

• Integrated Change History: To help you keep a closer eye on your ad operations, we’ve integrated our change history feature into the orders page in addition to its home in the Admin tab. The change history can help you quickly identify and review all changes made to your orders and line items, including: what has changed (e.g., line item), what change occurred (e.g., from "Paused" to "Ready"), who made the change, and the date and time the change was made.


• Creative Preview Links: “What will my creative look like on your site?” You've told us that this is one of the most common requests that you hear from advertisers. With our creative preview tool, you’ve been able to create an internal test page for QA purposes, and send screenshots to advertisers to see how their ad would appear, but advertisers could not interact with their creative on your site unitl it went live. We’ve changed that with the release of external creative preview links. You can now send your advertisers a link to a test page that displays their creative on your site so they can easily preview and interact with their creative on your site before it’s live.


• Bulk Creative Upload: We’ve designed DFP so there are less steps, clicks, and screens throughout the trafficking process to help you save time when trafficking your campaigns. In efforts to help you streamline your workflows even further, we’ve introduced the ability to bulk upload multiple creatives. With this tool, you can easily drag and drop multiple image, Flash, or text creatives from your desktop directly into your line item with a single gesture rather than uploading multiple individual creatives, helping you save time and minimizing clicks.

Available in DFP:

• DFP Optimization: Publishers can now supercharge ad performance with DFP Optimization - an advanced optimization system that supercharges ad performance to help publishers increase the value of their premium inventory, and boost yield for non-premium inventory. DFP Optimization leverages Google’s infrastructure and processing capabilities to automatically deliver the best ad, to the best user, at the best time. Read more.

• First-party audience segmentation: Publishers are increasingly taking control of their audience data as one of the key assets of their digital businesses. To help you manage and control this data, we’ve introduced the ability to define and manage audience segments directly in DFP to help you increase the value of their inventory while gaining insights on how different audience segments engage with your content. Read more.

Available in DFP Mobile:

• Click-To-[Action] Creative: As mobile advertising becomes a greater emphasis for your advertisers, it’s important to recognize that their campaign objectives may differ from their web-based campaigns. On mobile, advertisers may define success as driving downloads of a mobile application, calling a telephone number, or opening a map versus visiting a website. To provide your advertisers with uniquely mobile experiences, we’ve released a new mobile creative type that enables you to specify an action (ie. download) as the destination. This new creative type will help you differentiate your mobile offering and provide your advertisers with the latest mobile formats and functionality.

Available in DFP Video:

• VPAID Linear SWF Creatives: Creative agencies are building more VPAID compliant video ads than ever before. DFP Video now supports the VPAID standard as defined by the IAB, allowing you to accept more video ad campaigns without needing extra technical development. VPAID introduces a common language between ad servers and video players for handling interactive video ads for Flash and HTML5 environments.

 Posted by Alex Strittmatter, DFP Product Specialist

Moving to the New Blogger Interface

Last September, we introduced a new user interface that makes it easier to find what you need and focus on writing great blog posts. Since then, we’ve implemented a number of updates and improvements based on your feedback.

In the coming weeks, we will change the default interface for those of you still using the old version, and bring the advantages of Blogger’s improved interface to everyone. If you are already on the new interface, there will be no change.

If you have been using the old interface, give the new look a try today by clicking “Upgrade Now” at the top of the page. This is, of course, a free upgrade and all major features are present in the new interface. You can still temporarily switch back to the old interface by clicking the “Old Blogger interface” link located in settings, but not for much longer.

We recommend that anyone currently using the old interface switch to the new one, as all accounts will be permanently upgraded very soon.

When you switch to the new interface, you'll find a number of new features that we've released recently, including:

• Integration with Google+


• Dynamic Views


• Search engine preferences

To help you get a better sense of what’s changed and how to navigate the new interface, check out the short video below or read the friendly guide “Using our upgraded interface”.

We hope you enjoy the new interface and welcome your thoughts about the new look. If you have suggestions or feedback, sign in to Blogger and click “Send Feedback” at the bottom right of the screen.

Happy April Fools! The Google Cloud API: cloud coverage anywhere, anytime

We are thrilled to announce a project the App Engine team has been working on for a long time: the Cloud API. The Cloud API allows developers unprecedented control over cloud deployments in their area.

We think the Cloud API is a huge step forward for developers. For the first time, developers can simply and easily gain cloud coverage in locations around the globe within minutes. With the Cloud API developers can drive increased cloud awareness for a wide range of new users and enterprises. This will not only allow totally new applications in the agricultural and metrology sectors to flourish but also provide a welcome addition to mobile, social and gaming. The Cloud API provides the scalability you would expect from App Engine with clouds seeded on demand and dispersed when they are no longer needed. Clouds are created using cloud engines which are specially designed jet engines with three fins. 



A Cloud Deployed Using the Cloud API. Imagery ©2012 GeoEye, DigitalGlobe, Cnes/Spot Image, TerraMetrics



The Cloud API is supported in Python, Java and Go, check out the Getting Started Guide to find out how simple it is to integrate clouds into your applications.





As with other parts of App Engine, the Cloud API is backed by an SLA of 99.95% uptime along with an accuracy of ±5m. Clouds come in configurable sizes ranging up to 5m³ for free customers with paid and premier customers able to extend clouds to 10km³.

Pricing for the Cloud API are based on the likelihood of cloud in the location the cloud is requested. A cloud pricing calculator will be released in the coming days, however example pricing is provided below:

Example Location	Likelihood of Cloud	Price/Cloud Hour/10m3
Seattle, WA, US	55%	Free*
Brisbane, AU	20%	$0.10
Yuma, AZ, US	10%	$0.20

*Removal of cloud from high cloud areas such as Seattle has a cost of $0.10 per Cloud Hour per 10m³.

If you have any questions or comments send them to the App Engine group. We'd love to hear from you.

- Posted by the App Engine team

A New Way to Multitask

On December 9, 1968, Douglas Engelbart rocked the computing world with The Mother of All Demos. One of the many advancements Engelbart discussed was the creation of a simple, intuitive pointing device that would allow you to manipulate a cursor on a screen with the movement of your hand. The world met the mouse.



Before the mouse, the primary way to interact with a computer was to type a command, wait for a response, and type a second command. The ability to coordinate between the movement of a marker on the screen and a flick of the wrist was truly revolutionary, and has transformed the way we interface with our machines today.



However, for decades, the full power of the mouse has been limited. While we’ve been mousing away with one hand, our other hand has often been idle. As information has moved faster and faster, our mousing capacity has stayed the same.



On the Chrome team, we’ve been working to address this problem. Today, we’d like to announce a new way to get twice as much web from your browser. We call it Multitask Mode.







Multitask Mode lets you have access to multiple mice at the same time, so you can make a chess move while you watch a dance move, or draw a horse while you draw on a friend for relationship advice.



Chrome can handle as many mice, touchpads, styli, joysticks, trackballs, and other pointing devices as you can plug into your computer, so you and your friends can browse dozens of sites at the same time.



Try it out and let us know what you think!



Posted by Glen Murphy, Designer and Stylus Stylist

Announcing App Engine Research Awards

One of the most rewarding things about working on App Engine is watching our customers use the platform in new and unexpected ways. We're lucky to have a front row seat to the growth and success of so many innovative new projects, and in that spirit, we are pleased to announce the Google App Engine Research Awards.

This new awards program will support 15 projects by providing App Engine credits in the amount of $60,000 to each project for one year, additional Google services such as Google Cloud Storage will be coming soon as part of the program.

We are committed to supporting scientific and academic research and welcome university faculty from all fields to participate.  Award projects may focus on activities such as social or economic experiments, developing academic aids, analysis of gene sequence data, or using App Engine MapReduce in ways we hadn’t even considered!  If your research has the potential to advance discovery, generates heavy data loads or is in need of an easy-to-use, easy-to-scale platform, we encourage you to submit your proposal.

You can find details on how to apply on our Google Research website. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. PST, May 11, 2012.



- Posted by the App Engine Team

Crossing the 50 billion km mark & giving Google Maps for Android a fresh look

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)



Every day, millions of people turn to Google Maps for Android for free, voice-guided GPS navigation to guide them to their destination. So far, Navigation on Google Maps for Android has provided 50 billion kilometers of turn-by-turn directions, the equivalent of 130,000 trips to the moon, 334 trips to the sun, 10 trips to Neptune or 0.005 light years! When getting to your destination matters most, Google Maps for Android will get you there:

A new look for Navigation on Android 4.0+ phones

In today’s release of Google Maps 6.5 for Android we’ve redesigned the Navigation home screen in Android 4.0+ to make it easier to enter a new destination or select from recent and favorite locations by swiping left or right.

Left: New Navigation home screen Right: Navigation in Google Maps for Android



Crisper, faster maps for high pixel density devices

If your device has a high pixel density screen, such as those on Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, Droid Razr and others, you’ll now get higher resolution map tiles that take better advantage of the pixels-per-inch on your screen. The result is a crisper, less cluttered map that is easier to read:

Left: Previous style Right:New style in Google Maps 6.5 for Android



Compare our new map on the right to the previous map on the left. The road network is easier to see, less obstructed by labels, and has more color contrast. At more zoomed-in levels, you’ll notice a more controlled amount of maps labels to avoid cluttering the map and blocking out street names. The new style also helps maps react faster to panning, zooming, and twisting.



You'll start seeing the new style as you navigate around new areas on the map; however, you can see these changes immediately by clearing your cache from the Maps settings.



Pick your preferred public transit mode and route option

Google Maps 6.5 for Android now lets you choose to prioritize a particular transit mode (such as the bus or subway) and route option (like taking the recommended route, one with fewer transfers or one with less walking). Whether you just need to get somewhere as fast as possible, or you want to avoid the risk of a missed connection or you prefer not to tire your legs, you can get the transit directions that best suit you. Transit directions and schedules are available for 475 cities around the world.

To start using Google Maps 6.5 for Android, download the update from Google Play. Learn more about how to use other great features of Google Maps for Android on the redesigned Google Maps YouTube channel that has 12 new videos available today.



Posted by Harlan Hile, Software Engineer

Crossing the 50 billion km mark & giving Google Maps for Android a fresh look

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)



Every day, millions of people turn to Google Maps for Android for free, voice-guided GPS navigation to guide them to their destination. So far, Navigation on Google Maps for Android has provided 50 billion kilometers of turn-by-turn directions, the equivalent of 130,000 trips to the moon, 334 trips to the sun, 10 trips to Neptune or 0.005 light years! When getting to your destination matters most, Google Maps for Android will get you there:

A new look for Navigation on Android 4.0+ phones

In today’s release of Google Maps 6.5 for Android we’ve redesigned the Navigation home screen in Android 4.0+ to make it easier to enter a new destination or select from recent and favorite locations by swiping left or right.

Left: New Navigation home screen Right: Navigation in Google Maps for Android



Crisper, faster maps for high pixel density devices

If your device has a high pixel density screen, such as those on Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, Droid Razr and others, you’ll now get higher resolution map tiles that take better advantage of the pixels-per-inch on your screen. The result is a crisper, less cluttered map that is easier to read:

Left: Previous style Right:New style in Google Maps 6.5 for Android



Compare our new map on the right to the previous map on the left. The road network is easier to see, less obstructed by labels, and has more color contrast. At more zoomed-in levels, you’ll notice a more controlled amount of maps labels to avoid cluttering the map and blocking out street names. The new style also helps maps react faster to panning, zooming, and twisting.



You'll start seeing the new style as you navigate around new areas on the map; however, you can see these changes immediately by clearing your cache from the Maps settings.



Pick your preferred public transit mode and route option

Google Maps 6.5 for Android now lets you choose to prioritize a particular transit mode (such as the bus or subway) and route option (like taking the recommended route, one with fewer transfers or one with less walking). Whether you just need to get somewhere as fast as possible, or you want to avoid the risk of a missed connection or you prefer not to tire your legs, you can get the transit directions that best suit you. Transit directions and schedules are available for 475 cities around the world.

To start using Google Maps 6.5 for Android, download the update from Google Play. Learn more about how to use other great features of Google Maps for Android on the redesigned Google Maps YouTube channel that has 12 new videos available today.



Posted by Harlan Hile, Software Engineer