Map of the Week: Vote Night

Map of the Week: Vote Night

Why we like it: Vote Night shows current projected outcomes for the 2012 US Presidential Election, on a state-by-state basis. The site allows you to make predictions about the outcome of the election by changing the projected results in a given state to see how that would alter the outcome. You can also view historic elections going back to 1932.



The site uses Styled Maps to mute the map background, providing the context of the map but highlighting its own data. The individual states and the District of Columbia are rendered as clickable Polygons, allowing you to change their color (red for Republican, blue for Democrat, gray for undecided). This makes for an easy interface to interact with the map to change the data. There’s also a drop down list you can select from.



You can embed your prediction into your blog or website, or share it via social media.









The site also restricts the zoom levels you can view on the map, so that you don’t get too far away or too close and lose track of what they are looking at. All around a great user experience packed into a deceptively simple package.



Post Text Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations team

Exclusive promotions for fall

Google Affiliate Network exclusive promotions are back! Over 40 limited-time deals are available only to Google Affiliate Network publishers from September 21st to September 24th. 

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Apply for Google Affiliate Network with your AdSense Publisher ID (or sign in if you're already a Google Affiliate Network publisher).


2. Once approved, review the available promotions and click "Apply Link" for each one that you wish to promote.

When can I post these promotions on my site?
All promotions will be live on 12 am Central Time on September 21st, and they will expire at 11:59 pm Central Time on September 24th. You can find the promotions in your Google Affiliate Network Home tab or by searching for “September Exclusive” in the Links tab.


For additional questions, check out the Help Center or contact us.



Posted by Erica Sievert, Product Marketing Manager

Nicknames for Google Groups

Google Apps administrators now have the ability to create nicknames for Google Groups. If your Google Apps account includes more than one domain, you can add a nickname that has a different domain from the original group. Note that this can only be done in the administrator control panel.



Languages supported:

All languages



Editions included:

Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



For more information:

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2727156



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Scheduled Release track features update 9/11/12

Calendar: Users with an active Google+ profile can add a Google+ Hangout to calendar events. Invited guests can join the hangout by clicking on “Join hangout” on the event details page. These hangouts will respect any restrictions in the administrator control panel.



The following features are intended for release to these domains on September 18th:

Spreadsheets: Users now have the ability to collaborate more efficiently with discussions in Google Spreadsheets. This updates brings features like the ability to +mention users to add them to the discussion.



Release track:

Scheduled



Editions included:

Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



For more information:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/08/bringing-google-to-work.html

http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2690797

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2012/09/google-spreadsheets-now-with-discussions.html



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Need help? Now you can get it right inside the DFA UI

We've made it easier to get right from DFA to the help you need. In fact, you don't even have to leave DFA at all: now you can access a help pane from within the DFA UI. Use it to find and read articles, as well as contact the support team with questions or comments.

To open in-product help, click the Help link in the upper right of the DFA interface. This brings up a search bar you can use to find popular Help Center articles.

If you need more help, try the full Help Center by clicking Explore Help in the lower right of the product help page. Or click Contact Support to send questions to the support team.

In-product help even offers tools to accompany your question or comment with a screenshot of your page. You can highlight areas of the screenshot that are especially relevant to your issue.

Plus, your question or comment will automatically include the URL you’re on, along with key trafficking details and information about your browser type. You can review all this data before you send your message by just clicking on the Included system information link.

Help content may be a route, but we know the product is your destination. That's why we developed in-product help with this in mind: the quickest way back to DFA is never leaving in the first place. So try it out and let us know what you think.

Posted by Jeremy Axelrod, Technical Writer, DFA

Retiring support for v201108, v201111, and v201201 of the DFP API

Today, we are announcing the deprecation of versions v201108, v201111, and v201201 of the DFP API. In roughly 3 months, on Dec 10th, these versions will be turned off. Turning off older versions allows us to make sure that everyone can benefit from the improvements in more recent releases and to focus on releasing new features.

Although we are not announcing the deprecation of any other versions at this time, we would still like to give our developers using v201203, v201204, and v201206 notice that those versions will most likely be deprecated next. Upgrading to v201208 now will reduce any future development time needed for an upgrade later.

As mentioned in previous deprecation announcements, we will always give at least 3 months notice before turning off a version. Our release notes page also contains changelogs for each version, which will help you migrate to a newer version. If you aren’t using one of our client libraries, now would be a great time to start as well. If you have any feedback or comments about this deprecation, or the API in general, please feel free to leave them on our forum.

 - Adam Rogal, DFP API Team

Google Drive: Updates for iOS and Android

[Cross posted from the Google Official Blog]



Every day, more and more people are choosing to live online and get things done in the cloud the cloud. Helping to make this experience as seamless as possible, Google Drive is one place where you can create, share and keep all your stuff. Drive is available on the web, as well as Mac, Windows and Android and iOS.



Updates for iOS

Starting today, if you’re using the Drive app on your iOS device you can also edit Google documents, just as you can with the Android app. From your iPhone or iPad, you can create a new document, edit an existing one or format text. And, just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.

You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Google presentations on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff (like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.



Updates for Android 

We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.



More to come... 

Looking ahead, we have plenty more planned for the Drive mobile apps—including native editing and real-time collaboration for Google spreadsheets. Stay tuned.







Get Drive in the App Store for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and visit the Play Store to get the latest on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about Google Drive, visit drive.google.com/start. 




Posted by Anil Sabharwal, Senior Product Manager