Google legs burn at Balmoral

Posted by Joel Lohrey, Recruiting Specialist

Each year for the last 7, the Humpty Dumpty Foundation has run a charity fun run called the Balmoral Burn. 2007 was the first year Google Australia entered a team in the race.

After an awesome dinner on Friday night, which raised well in excess of $400K for the charity, Sunday was race day!

Team Google

The Balmoral Burn is a 420 metre course up one of Sydney's steepest streets - Awaba St. Balmoral. As part of the corporate relay event we entered a team of four runners. The idea is that once the first runner makes it past the finishing line, the team number is radioed back to the bottom of the hill for the second team member to start.


In order to prepare for the race, we went on a training run last Thursday. I'm still not sure whether that was a positive thing or not - sometimes ignorance can really be bliss.

Unfortunately, we lost one of our brave team members (Tanya Cochran) to a calf strain during training and I swear, if the course was 5 metres longer, I would have ended up in hospital myself! This hill is seriously steep.

The Elite Men's invitational was won in a little over 1min 20 sec. With approximately 40 corporate teams in our event, our aim was simply to not come last.

Team Google was led off by our adventure racing star Guy Gibbs. Angela Lawrence took over, followed by me. Michael Fox brought up the rear. We managed to cross the line in 25th with a combined time of a little over 9 minutes. A pretty good job for a team of amateurs.

Attention Web publishers: the Google AdSense team is in Australia!

Posted by Melissa-Ann Chan, AdSense Account Coordinator

We're excited to introduce ourselves at the Google AdSense Australia team, which joined our growing Sydney office last September.

As you may know, AdSense connects Australian and New Zealand web publishers with Google's local and international advertiser base, delivering text, image, and even video ads. Google returns only the most targeted ads to a web page, allowing publishers to display ads that their user community will find relevant and interesting, as well as providing them with a steady stream of revenue.

We'd be delighted to hear from you to discuss what AdSense can do for your website. Since September, our team has expanded to offer localised service and support, and has driven some exciting initiatives in the Australian and NZ online advertising sector. We've toured Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Auckland with the AdSense Roadshow, and gathered plenty of local interest along the way.

Thousands of Australian and New Zealand publishers have joined the AdSense content network to make use of the many customised advertising options available. We're excited to partner with a wide range of publishers - from those who cater to a wide Australian audience, such as Fairfax Digital, to popular community sites like eatability.com.au. AdSense also benefits niche sites, such as ozoutback.com.au and vorb.org.nz, by connecting them with advertisers that offer content relevant to their readers' interests.

We'll be posting up regular hints and tips for optimising your AdSense performance, as well as notifying our publishers of new product developments. You might see us at the next trade show or industry meeting. In the meantime if you have any questions, drop us a line.

Google vs eBay Netball Championship

Posted by Christine Knight & Shaden Mohamed, Maximiser Associates

The gauntlet was thrown during a catch-up with the eBay team. Paraphrased version of the conversation: eBay: “Our team kicks butt at netball”. Google: “Don’t be so sure. We challenge you to a game of netball. Only one team can be champion netballers.”

Note to reader: Google doesn’t actually have a netball team. eBay does. We were the underdogs from the beginning. After much trash-talking, the game was set for May 3.

The competitive bar was raised when a video from eBay arrived in our inboxes one unsuspecting morning, filled with interviews, game highlights and general firey "we are the champions"-type statements.

Was this intimidation? Was this a challenge? Whatever the reason, we couldn’t let them have all the fun! And so our Google netball video project was born. Each team enlisted the help of their office for various scare tactics and dodgy marketing campaigns to throw the other team off their game. Watch Google’s retaliation video and eBay’s final video below.






In the end, it came down to skills alone. Sadly for us, eBay were the team who had the required skills, winning 23 to 17.

The real winner of the day however was the Make-A-Wish Foundation, for whom we raised over $5,000 through donations from big-hearted Googlers and eBayers.

The newly formed Google netball team hasn’t taken this defeat lying down. We are preparing for the next netball challenge to take the trophy back to its rightful home. Bring it on, eBay!

Google Australia at MGSM

Posted by Jared Evans, Account Coordinator

Despite the GPS's best efforts to send us into the depths of Chatswood's woodlands (we should have checked Google Maps first), a team of Googlers arrived at MGSM last week to present at a careers information session for MBA students and alumni.

(Google was last week named the No. 1 preferred destination for US MBA students and we hope to emulate that in Australia!)

The aim of the evening was to promote the many career opportunities available at Google Australia and to create awareness of the nature of our operations here. Australian Googler #1, Kate Vale, Head of Sales and Operations, outlined Google Australia's foundations and gave an insight into our activities in Australia, our company culture and our aspirations for the future. The key message for the evening? "We've got a long way to go toward achieving our mission. We need your help to get there."

The audience of full time "MBAers", managers and professionals studying part-time yielded many job-seekers, which our recruitment team are quite excited about!

During the networking session afterwards, the attendees revealed a very keen interest in what Google Australia does beyond search, consumer products and providing an advertising platform. Many were pleasantly surprised to learn that Google provides business solutions.

We are extremely pleased with the positive feedback from those that attended and will endeavour to bring the presentation to similar arenas in the near future.

Thank you to all of you who gave your time last week. If you have any further further feedback to add, we'd be very interested to hear it!

Developer Day Australian kickoff is T-1 week

Posted by Julian Sonego, Consumer Marketing Manager

We are counting down the days until May 31st when Google Australia kicks off Google's global Developer Day - that's right, we're the very first of ten Google offices around the world hosting this huge event.

Due to the size of the response from the Australian community, we have moved the event to the larger Australian Technology Park which means we'll be able to host all those who waitlisted (thank you for your patience) as well as those who were lucky enough to get in early.

Registration of delegates kicks off at 8.30am. Australian Engineering Director, Alan Noble presents his welcome keynote at 9.15am. Make sure you get in early to secure a good seat.

We'll have many great speakers on the day, including one of the Google Maps creators, Lars Rasmussen, talking about the Google Web Toolkit, Google APIs and why Open Source code plays an important role at Google.

Maps API tech lead Bo Majewski will lead an interactive session that teaches people how to build and optimise their maps mashups.

James Macgill, lead developer on the Open Source Java code library GeoTools prior to joining Google, will take you through an innovative approach to making all those maps mashups more discoverable by our millions of Australian users and hundreds of millions of global users.

There'll be heaps of other activities and opportunities to chat with Googlers and other developers. Check out the sessions page for more details.

The Australian Technology Park is easy to reach from central Sydney or the airport and there is an entrance to the heritage-listed facility directly from platform 10 at Redfern station. If you're coming from outside of Sydney, be sure to get your hotel booked asap. An attendance confirmation e-mail was recently sent out to those that had registered and been waitlisted. It is important that we get your "yes" response to this email as we may open up unconfirmed spots to those who missed making the waitlist.

If you have any additional questions, feel free email the Developer Day team. Or follow the Developer Day blog.

We're looking forward to the 31st May. See you then!

Doin' it for the Dogs

Posted by Christine Knight, Maximiser Associate

At Google, we love dogs. So much so that we have a policy regarding acceptable dog behaviour in certain Google offices. (It works on a one “incident” and you’re going home basis). Not only do Googlers love dogs, it seems that Australians in general adore their canine friends. As shown by Google Trends, Aussies do more searches for dogs than any other country.

It was with much tail wagging and drooling that a team of Googlers represented Google Australia at the annual RSPCA Million Paws Walk on May 20 at the Sydney Olympic Park.

Our team consisted of several tiny fluff balls that made up in pure cuteness what they lacked in stamina. Some puppy carrying was necessary over the 3km walk – when your legs are only 10cm long, you need a hand keeping up with the pack from time to time.


It was great to see many thousands of dog owners out in force with their beloved pooches (plus the odd chilled-out cat and ferret). Some dogs came in fancy dress, some in strollers. They were all beside themselves with excitement, including the X-Rhodesian Ridgeback (pictured with a Googler) that decided to join our group and wallow in affection. Despite its owner’s continuous pleas for it to “come” and “sit”, it decided to “roll over” and “present the belly” instead. Such obedience was heart-warming to behold. That dog sure knew a group of dog-loving suckers when it saw one.



So let’s hear it for all the dogs out there. Scruffy, funny-looking, miniature and bear-like, we love them all.

More questions for software engineers

Posted by Ben Appleton, Software Engineer

We get a lot of questions about software engineering opportunities at Google Australia. Here are some of the most frequent questions people ask me about engineering careers.

Are you happy with the software engineering career you’ve chosen? What are the good sides? (& the downside?)

Before coming to Google I studied electrical engineering, mathematics, and a PhD in image analysis at the University of Queensland. I've always enjoyed solving problems and I've been coding from a young age.

The biggest downside to engineering is the large gap between solving a problem in theory and in practice - you can think that you've solved a problem, only to discover when you try to build the solution that it was far more complicated than you had imagined. On the other hand, it's a lot of fun to see millions of people use something that you've built.

What are the key skills required for working in your area?

In software engineering, very strong problem solving and coding skills are an absolute
must. Team work is also important as we work in small, self-directed teams; everyone’s contribution is critical.

What sort of advancement opportunities exist within your area? How easy it is to progress and what sort of career path exists?

On one hand I'd say that it can be hard to stand out at Google because we hire such talented engineers. On the other, Google is growing fast so there's a huge number of opportunities for motivated individuals.

MSc, PhD, Bachelors? What's the difference when it comes to recruiting people into your field?

At Google, we take candidates equally from Bachelors, Masters and Ph.Ds. I think individual differences dominate here - a bright candidate will stand out regardless. Having said that, I'd expect a PhD graduate to have a stronger understanding of CS theory whereas someone with industry experience will have stronger coding skills. A research MSc often suggests a motivated candidate who wanted to get a taste of research before moving to industry.

Academia or Industry -- Which is best if you want to do research?

In my experience, academia is the more flexible research environment, whereas industry research is generally better funded. Also, industry research has immediate application whereas academic research tries to look further ahead. Google provides a great combination of the two: you can build products quickly that are used by millions, underpinned by pioneering research and resources few others have access to. To get a feel for the sort of research we do, take a look at some of our recent publications at: http://labs.google.com/papers.html

Apart from completing their degree, what are the most important things a student should do to prepare for life after graduating?

Take courses that interest you and learn as much as you can, because you'll use everything. Try participating in competitions like the ACM and TopCoder; you'll get to meet other bright people and really stretch yourself.

6 months at Google teaches you what?

Posted by Dave Barker, soon-to-be former receptionist

My name’s Dave and I’m the outgoing Google Australia receptionist (outgoing in the sense that Mark is the incoming receptionist). I’m finishing my 6 month stint with Google Australia in about 15 minutes before travelling up the coast in a tiny little van with no air-conditioning.

So what have I done and what have I learned while being here?

2 major things that the receptionist needs to have here is a quick wit and a big smile. When I started here at Google I thought I knew a thing or two about what they [we?] did. I thought I knew about our products and exactly what they do… … oh how wrong I was; and who better to highlight my ignorance than the person on the other end of the phone! People phone up about products that I never knew existed, new releases I had no idea about, and BANG! I was expected to know.

The Google support pages became my bible as I would quickly guide people to the answer on the interweb or ping experts around the Google world. Every query that I passed on to my colleagues around the world was answered promptly. There is a fantastic sense of co-operation between Googlers on all shores and I think the recruitment team deserve a big well done for their efforts in selecting people who will gel as a team. Which brings me to the people…

…The people here are some of the most intelligent and vibrant people I will ever meet. I can’t point fingers or name names as the space is limited but laughs in this place are infectious, and I have never once felt like ‘just a receptionist’ or a temporary visitor – I have been part of the family. I was told that there are lots of dark horses in this office and that is very much the truth. Someone I’d known for weeks mentioned off-hand that they have a doctorate in philosophy; another – doubtless the queen of charisma with tiara to match – used to be an actress.

So how do you go about joining? We’re always looking for talented people to join us and expanding all the time. The bar is high, but if you’ve got the skills and enthusiasm then you'll fit right in. Go to the jobs page and apply. You’ll love it.

Ed: We'll miss you, Dave!!

Working with Fairfax

Posted by Julian Persaud, Strategic Partner Development Manager

Since we opened in Australia in 2003, we have developed a large number of great partnerships with a wide range of Australian businesses.

Today, we're delighted to announce a partnership with Fairfax Digital.

I'm happy to welcome their sites (including www.smh.com.au and www.theage.com.au) to the Google AdSense for Content network. These sites will feature contextually relevant Google AdWords.

In addition, an increasing amount of Fairfax Digital's video content will be available through Google Video. Plus, Google Maps will be integrated across the Fairfax Digital network, which will greatly enhance users' experience.

We're delighted to be working with Fairfax Digital in this way to help monetise, enhance and extend the reach of, its online content. Going forward, we're excited to build on these foundations to further expand our relationship.

Google Australia is also looking forward to building partnerships with many other Australian website owners and partners in coming months and years.

University Programs in Australia

Posted by Will Blott, University Programs Manager

This year saw the launch of Google’s University Programs team for Australia and New Zealand. We’re looking to encourage more students to tackle some of the complex and highly rewarding technological challenges at Google Australia. There’s a myriad of opportunities (and it’s a lot of fun).

Program initiatives run year round with opportunities for both students and staff, including student competitions, scholarships, technical presentations and challenges, research grants and work opportunities amongst many others.

We get a lot of common questions when we visit Australian and New Zealand universities, so we thought we’d help shed some light on some of the most frequently asked questions by students.

What opportunities are there for students this year?

Our engineering teams are looking for as many good student software engineers as we can find . Opportunities exist for graduates, summer interns and through partnerships with Google’s Summer of Code.

Google’s Anita Borg Scholarships and Global Community Grace Hopper Conference Scholarships are provided to encourage more females to study ICT.

Do you have opportunities outside of Engineering?

Yes indeed. More positions will be announced on our student website later this year.

What type of student do you look for?

Within engineering, students who’ve studied computer science/engineering (or closely related fields such as Maths, Physics) from all degree levels: Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. For non-engineering roles, Googlers join us with all sorts of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

Degrees aside, if you’re smart, inquisitive, love to innovate, relish tough problems and working in teams with like minded individuals, then you’ll fit right in.

When should I apply by and what do I need to do?

Various opportunities become available throughout the year. See the student section of our website for more details. The application process is simple.

What are the perks?

There are so many! Where to begin…the food? The toys? World travel? The relaxed, informal environment? Jeans and t-shirt to work? The colleagues? Secondments to Google’s lunar base? (Just checking if you’re still reading)

Tomorrow, we'll answer the most common student FAQ’s put to Software Engineers.

Great to say G'day

Posted by Mike Knapp, Software Engineer

With the prospect of free Australian food and beer, what self respecting Aussie wouldn't turn up to Googleplex in Silicon Valley to say "G'day Google"?

The Aussie expat grapevine worked well, with well over 150 people turning out last week to learn what Google's been up to down under. In the spirit of the evening, there was Australian beer and wine, lamb chops, lamingtons and other Aussie delicacies. Best of all was the opportunity for the Sydney Google Engineers to chat with some amazingly talented Australian expats, pursuing a range of careers abroad - including software engineers, scientific researchers, business development professionals and more.


It was great to hear the Aussie accents throughout the room. Interestingly, many of the people I spoke with had left Australia for Silicon Valley with the intention of working here for only a year or two, but ended up staying 4 years, 11 years, 13 years and more. There's obviously a love by Australian engineers and technology workers for Silicon Valley, but there's an unmistakable fondness for Australia as well.

Alan Noble, our Engineering Director in Australia, is in the same boat - he left Adelaide to head to Silicon Valley, only to come back to work for Google. Alan introduced the event with a presentation about the Google business in Australia and our strong focus on building our research and development team in Australia. He outlined some of the game-changing innovations that have come out of Australia in the past -- for instance, the world's first feature film, the pacemaker and Google's very own "Google Maps." Alan said his personal hope is that many of Google's future innovations will come from Google Australia.

Thank you to everyone who came to the event. We hope you had a great evening. We really enjoyed meeting all of you. I'm assured that a video of the event on YouTube is coming soon!

P.S. if you are a talented Australian software engineer working overseas and would like to return home, why not check out our jobs page!

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:: Revolutionary new device saves on home Energy ::

Being, or at least appearing to be environmentally conscious has taken hold in Canada and the US. It is inevitable that once you have a mindset shared by a significant number of people, politicians begin to take notice and of course being the capitalist society that we are, so does the business community. An entire industry is emerging, catering to the growing masses who are more likely to hug than cut down the hundred foot Oak leaning precariously over the kids bedrooms.

I am all for any efforts that result in the reduction of damage we are doing to the planet though I am often frustrated by the approaches and attitudes taken by many who purport themselves to be the new caretakers of mother earth.

The glass half full result of high gas prices is increased demand for more energy efficient and alternate sources of transportation. My car gets good gas mileage. I am not ready to stuff my 6'4" carcass in to a smart car that looks like it came from a Kinder egg but I am making efforts in other areas.

The energy efficient fluorescents light bulb will soon completely replace the incandescent bulb. I am just waiting for environmentalists or someone in a position of power to come to the realization that "hey, fluorescent bulbs contain mercury." That mercury turns to carcinogenic dust for us to breath when we break one on the kitchen floor and at some point millions upon millions of them will be spent and making their way into our landfill. I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I have wandered here. What I really wanted to do in this post was point out that in one hour a typical clothes dryer will negate the energy savings gained from using 20 energy/flourescent bulbs 24/7 for an entire month. One of the best energy efficient devices man invented hundreds of years ago and it has been cast aside for the sake of perceived style. The clothes line.

Many residential areas have restrictive covenants banning the use of clothes lines. These were put in place back in the day when people were more concerned with seeing Mrs. Jones bloomers on the line than they were with pollution or energy prices. Most of these rulings are still on the books today though most people are unaware.

Some might respond here by saying "I'm not hanging my clothes out in that dirty air". Guess what?, that air is cleaner now than it was 60 years ago when most of us were burning leaded fuel and many were burning their garbage and heating their homes with coal and oil. The bigger difference today is our pollution covers a much greater portion of the planet, including the polar regions.

What is wrong with using a clothes line? It has a Norman Rockwell kind of aura to it and if millions of Americans and Canadians were to use one for at least part of the year, think of the savings to our pockets and to our environment.

gimmeshelter.ca HotBarrieListings.com BarrieHomeworth.com mikemontague.com

:: Don't go home hunting without the "bear" necessities ::

A rule of thumb that buyers and Realtors should treat more as the first golden rule of Real Estate purchasing is shop for your mortgage before you begin to shop for a home. Yes do some online research, check the weekend listings in the paper and even visit a couple open houses to establish what it is you want from a home and what price range your preferred home is going to fall within.

Beyond that, home hunting without first obtaining mortgage approval is akin to going bear hunting without checking first to see if you bothered to bring any bullets. Once face to face, “pretty sure” is the wrong answer.

Pre approved and pre qualified are not the same thing. Again using the bear analogy the pre qualified hunter has been told by a third party that he is most likely carrying bullets because he is in the woods and he has a gun. The pre approved hunter has had the gun tested, bullets counted and both barrels loaded.

A written pre approval for a home mortgage gives you concise knowledge of the price range of homes you should be looking within whereas the pre qualification is handed out without verification of your credit or income and is of no real worth. No sense in falling in love with the perfect home only to learn you are a few thousand dollars shy of putting your name on the mail box. (Visit http://www.OntarioMortgageTeam.com for some sound mortgage advice)

A pre approval from a certified lender will typically be valid for a 60 to 90 day period during which time you should consider that any credit purchases you make will change these results. (Resist the urge to go out and buy the new car or 60” Plasma TV until after your closing date)

Consider as well that should you come into competition with another buyer when making an offer on a home, the offer that is less likely to be conditional upon the buyer arranging a mortgage can carry added weight.

The next course of action is to team up with a Realtor who has given you good reason to believe they know the market you are interested in and find out if they position themselves as a buyers agent or as a sellers agent.

The agent with a full catalogue of listings in the papers each weekend is less likely to have or be willing to invest their own time to go out and view 30 homes over three consecutive weekends with potential buyers whereas the agent who focuses their efforts on buyers is more likely to adapt to your schedule rather than burden your efforts with their tight schedule.

Listing agents are paid a fee (commission) and in turn pay the buyers agent who brings a purchaser for their listing. The loyalty of the listing agent is to the vendor and their first order of business is to get the house sold and get the highest possible price in doing so.

The buyer is not required to pay added fees to the buyers agent and it is the job of the buyer's agent to negotiate the terms and price their buyer expects or move on to the next home that meets with the buyer's needs.

As a buyer, going it alone and without a mortgage pre approval makes absolutely no rational or financial sense given this knowledge and the competitive nature of real estate sales in Ontario.

Visit www.hotbarrielistings.com to begin your home hunting journey

gimmeshelter.ca BarrieHomeworth.com mikemontague.com

New version of Analytics in Australia

Posted by Deepak Ramanathan, Marketing Manager

When we first launched Google Analytics, a free tool that helps webmasters and website operators understand how users find and navigate their site, Australians took to it rapidly.

As you may have seen, the redesigned Google Analytics launched this morning. It's now available in Australia.

Here's a screenshot of the new-look interface which is easier to navigate and understand. In addition to the redesigned interface, the new version contains many new, useful features.

If you're using Analytics at the moment, you'll get an email over the next few weeks that will notify you that your interface will be moved across to the new version. If you're not using it, give it a try!

The new version of Analytics is a great tool to help Aussie websites continue to become more and more relevant for users. Of course, we'd love your feedback so that we can make the product even more effective for you.

Aussies do "good" searches

Posted by Kate Conroy, AdWords Coordinator

One of the cool things about search engines is that they seem to mirror the collective psyche of all the people who search on them. Australians are no different, and we've noticed that we Aussies have our own special profile when it comes to searching Google.

If you take a look at Google Trends we like to search for 'good' more often than people in any other country. This makes us seem like an up-beat and happy crowd, but we also do the most searches for 'loser' and 'idiot' which seem to indicate the opposite. The Kiwis, on the other hand do the most searches for 'winner' and 'thinking'. But they also do the most searches for 'sheep', so we can keep making sheep jokes for a while longer.

The way we search is in some ways not surprising. Proportionally, Australians do the most searches for meat pies, Aussie Rules, sunshine, sunburn, sea change, air conditioning, beer, Torana, snake, water restrictions, roast lamb, quit smoking, backyard, child care, kids and almost all of the searches for cubby house. Melbournians search for spring carnival, Sydney-siders search for harbour and red wine, and the good folk of Brisbane search for lifesavers and cattle dog. In Canberra they want a home loan and in Perth they’re all looking for mine jobs.

But it’s the non-stereotypical searches that have us scratching our heads, and so now’s your chance to enlighten us on some of your oddball search behaviour.

Why does Sydney, city of sin and parties, do the most searches for Easter and bored? How come everyone in Perth wants a trip to the chocolate factory?

Why do we only come second to the Brits on searching for help? What does it say about our appreciation of our native fauna that we do fewer searches for Koala than Slovakia and Spain? Does it mean something that we do the most searches for hate while at the same time we’re all searching for happiness?

Why on earth in this hot, dry country do we do the most searches for ski hire? Are we all so tired that all we want to search for is sleeping in? Does Australia have more lost dogs than any other country? Perhaps it’s about time we added a ‘Pet’ tab to Google search for Australia!

If you can offer any illuminating insights into the search behaviour of Australians we’d love to hear your feedback.

Google Australia at CeBIT

Posted by Ashley Gorringe, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Last week, amid a sea of 100" plasma screens and innumerable cool gadgets, Google Australia took its place at CeBIT, the large information and communications technology show held in Sydney.

Google's presence at the event was headlined by Dave Girouard, our Vice President, Enterprise. Dave's keynote speech focused on the opportunity that Google Apps (calendar, e-mail and office software) and other Google Enterprise products offer in the workplace. Over 1,000 Australian businesses have started using Apps since its release. Glen Speckert, also from the Enterprise team, spoke about Google's role in providing geospatial services to Governments.

The Google stand gave us the opportunity to meet some of the estimated 30,000 attendees who went through the event. Our AdWords online team members, who spend a lot of their time answering requests via email or the phone, got a fantastic face-to-face opportunity to walk clients through the sign-up process and, in the course these sessions, provide advice on how to get the most out of AdWords.

We received plenty of great stories about how AdWords has worked for different clients. We're going to continue to reach out and communicate with our Australian users and partners. And, of course, our engineers are always working to develop and roll out new innovations.

Collaboration (and coffee) with ISOC

Posted by Andrew McRae, Software Engineer and Director of ISOC Australia

Google engineers often wear multiple hats. As well as being a Google software engineer, I'm a founding member and director of the Australian chapter of the Internet Society. So I was doubly glad to hear that Google Australia has become a Silver sponsor of ISOC Australia.

Google this week hosted the annual ISOC Australia Board strategy meeting. Board members were apparently impressed with "Big Red", the espresso coffee machine in the Engineering section. Apart from frothing cappuccinos, the meeting was also a great opportunity to use the collaborative aspects of Google Apps. Board members in different locations participated in editing our strategy plans via Google Docs, over teleconference.

ISOC Australia's motto is "The Internet is for Everyone". ISOC and Google Australia are committed to promoting the development of the Internet, based on the local needs of Australian consumers.

Ed: Among other Australian industry organisations, we're also a proud member of the Internet Industry Association, which provides input to Governments to enhance access, equity, reliability and growth of the internet medium within Australia. Our Australian Engineering Director, Alan Noble, published an article in The Australian newspaper this morning about the development of the IT industry in Australia.

G'day Google

Posted by Alice Boxhall, Software Engineer

You may have seen my post on that "other" Google blog: Google Australia is hosting G'day Google at the Googleplex in Mountain View next Tuesday, 8 May, 2007.

G'day Google is an open house we're hosting for IT professionals from Google and from other San Francisco Bay Area companies to showcase the exciting work that Google Australia and the Australian IT sector are doing. It's the first such event we're holding; hopefully there will be more to come.

I reckon we can convince quite a few Aussie expats to come home. And it shouldn't take much to convince a few California engineers to work here, either.

Joking aside, we're really keen to bring the best and brightest international software engineers down under, as well as bringing Aussies home. We want to give a boost to the Australian IT sector (which needs more skilled workers in this area) and keep innovations coming from Google Australia.

Express yourself with iGoogle

Posted by Christine Knight, Maximiser Associate

You may have noticed that we like to keep designs simple. That doesn't mean you have to, though. With Google Personalised Homepage, you can add links, news, videos – whatever you like – to your own Google homepage. (I've set my page up to include Google News Australia, the Chaser, World Clocks, Quotes of the Day, Sticky Note and more).

And Google has just got a lot more personal in Australia with some exciting news today.

First, we've renamed Personalised Homepage "iGoogle", reflecting your own personalisation and ownership of your homepage.

But more importantly, now Australians can further personalise iGoogle with six different themes. Go to www.google.com.au/ig to check them out. Each theme is fun and dynamic, changing to match the weather or time of day. So when it's raining outside (hopefully over the Murray-Darling and our dams), you might see characters don their wet weather gear (or just stand there getting wet). When the sun is setting outside your office window, you might notice a sunset over the beach to make that Whitsundays holiday seem just a bit closer.

But we're not content to rest on our laurels. We want to make an Aussie-specific theme available to iGoogle users here and everywhere. So we want your suggestions. A game of beach cricket? A famous Aussie painting? An outback scene? If you have a unique idea for an Aussie iGoogle theme, email us. (Brief thoughts are ideal; no artwork necessary!). We'll post the best ideas here and work to make an Aussie theme available.

Up and running

Posted by Noel Gordon, Software Engineer (and co-creator of Google Maps)

We were thinking the other day -- how is it that Australians can break the 132-year America's Cup drought, host the world's best Olympics, win Nobel Prizes and Oscars -- and yet not have an official Google Australia Blog?

Too right. So without further ado, consider this oversight fixed.

Welcome to the official Google Australia blog!

We’re proud that Google Australia was one of the first international Google offices and is now a hub for the entire Asia Pacific region. Google Maps started here, but lots of Australians are keen for more information about Google in Australia: Who works here? What do we do all day? Can we bring snakes to the office? Do we use Pigeon Rank or Kookaburra Rank?

We’ll be using this blog to make announcements and share all kinds of information -- details of Google products and technology in Australia, partnerships with Australian businesses, our involvement in the Australian community, and inside info about Google in Australia. We’re going to keep this page offbeat and informal and, hopefully, reader-friendly. A whole assortment of Aussie Googlers will be posting to the blog.

You may find this page to be a handy place to access specific Google Australian sites –- from Google Maps to Google News to jobs and much more. (See the right hand side of this page).

We hope you'll find this blog useful and entertaining. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please send them to AUblogfeedback@google.com.