Emo band: Cute Is What We Aim For: The Curse Of Curve

This video is so damn hot. Its full of beautiful emo people. Shaant Hacikyan, the vocalist got the best emo haircut. Love his hair. Its amaizng and super cool. Shaant sings out of the side of his mouth. When he sings, his mouth goes to the side but its hot the way he does it. And oh, the song is awesome too.
Love his hair, love his lips.

Docs and Spreadsheets just got easier

Posted by Vanessa Krumb, Account Strategist

At work, we never stop collaborating within our own team and across teams internationally. This is where Google Docs & Spreadsheets are highly valuable. We use a shared document to update information as it evolves. People across the office, and the world, can be updating the same document at the same time, and even chat to each other in the document's discussion window while doing so.

At home, I have an old, but well loved Mac. At work, I use a Windows based laptop. My husband has a new Mac. Rather than transferring files between machines, I use Google Docs & Spreadsheets to create and store my documents online. That way, I can work on these documents no matter what machine I'm using, and share them with my husband as well.

We're expecting our first baby soon, and have been doing a lot of research online to figure out what we need and where to get it from. I created a document to keep track of different types of prams, baby monitors and the like. Instead of sending files back and forth as we edit them, we just share this document and add to it whenever we feel like it. Let's face it, if there's a time where we need our lives to be simplified and organised, this is it.

And like other Google products, Docs & Spreadsheets is of course free!

Now when you sign in to Docs & Spreadsheets, you'll see a brand new interface that lets you create personal folders, and drag your online documents and spreadsheets into them. On the left-hand side, you'll see a list of all the people you are collaborating with; click on any name to see all the files you're working on with them.


To read more about this great new interface, head over to the Docs & Spreadsheets blog. Available now in Australia of course!

Policy news @ Google Australia

Posted by Rob Shilkin, Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs

I wanted to update you with some great policy announcements that have been keeping us busy over the past week or so.

First, Google announced our plans to go carbon neutral worldwide by the end of 2007. You can read all about the specifics here. And you can see the video of the announcement on YouTube here.

In addition to taking part in this wide ranging global effort, Google Australia has an active self-powered commuting scheme. This scheme sees our employees rewarded for travelling to work by public transport or 'self-powered' means (such as bike, skateboard or walking) with a $100 donation to their chosen charity for every 20 days of participation.

Second, we launched a worldwide public policy blog here. This will be a great way to talk about many of the incredibly important and challenging global policy issues facing the internet - including privacy, child safety, copyright and content regulation. I really want to ensure that there are contributions by Google Australia to this forum, and would love you to post comments, as these issues affect our Australian users and the Australian community.

On that note, we have joined the Australian Information Industry Association (the Australian IT industry body) and are looking forward to very close involvement in their activities. Already, our Engineering Director, Alan Noble, has spoken at their events here and here and next week is speaking here. (In between this, and writing opinion pieces, I am assured that he does occasionally find time to work on Google products).

I'll post more updates on Google Australia policy news in future.

Poisonthehat, aka Electrocuute

This is Poisonthehat. Probably, most of you emo guys would like to have this look. Here is the instruction and the tools you need to achieve this emo hairstyle according to Poisonthehat himself.

In his own words:

"Well, there are a couple of different "emo hair styles" I guess you could say. If you're looking for something like the picture above, then I can pretty much tell you everything I do to my hair, because that's me. I can still help you with whatever you're looking for though, since I've been through a couple of different "emo hair styles". I didn't part my hair in the picture above, but I usually do."

The basics of emo hair:
-A flat iron straightener (a MUST have)
-Black hair dye
-Some sort of hair product, not sure what they're called but I use Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum
-Cut short in the back to prevent mullet-ness
-Conditioning your hair every night
-Combing your hair after you get out of the shower and whatnot helps

On the color of his hair:

"Yeah it's a blue black color but I don't remember what dye I used. I think it was some of that crap you mix up with the other crap and then you use the cap thingy and all that. If you cut the back short and then straighten your hair with a flat iron I'm pretty sure you could get a haircut close to mine. Oh, and make sure to let the sides grow out."

On Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Serum:

"Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum fixes up ugly "straggling" hair like woah. It's like this oil type stuff, and you put a small dot of it you hand, rub your palms together, and then run your palm through your hair or something like that. I know there are other brands of it out there, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. I always use it after straightening my hair because my hair gets all dry looking after I straighten it, and then this stuff fixes it right up.

I recommend you just ask one of your female friends to straighten your hair, or if your mom has a straightener or whatever, just use hers. I'm pretty sure it would end up looking something close to my hair. As for the part, I'm not really sure how I get that. I just use my hand and push my hair to the side and it works. I'm sure you can figure it out.

The moisture shine stuff keeps it from poofing and fix flyaways and makes it look straighter and thinner. Also, I use the straightener every day."

Final words:

"Just grow it out, use flat iron straightener, cut it short in the back, and you can spike the back if you wish. I usually don't but sometime I get bored and will do it. You don't have to dye it black if you don't want, especially if your hair is already naturally black. Yes it could take a couple of months for your hair to grow as long as mine. It's a long process but if that's what you want then it'll be worth it."

May I Offer You a Suggestion?

Posted by Alexis Battle, Software Engineer

We're always working on ways that you, our Australian users, can find what you're looking for more easily and quickly. In addition to the many things we do behind the scenes, such as constantly improving our search algorithms and crawling for more information to provide the best answer, we also look for ways to help you when you don't know what exactly to type into the search box to get to the perfect result.

This task has now become easier in Australia.

Now, when you are looking for information on a specific topic, we offer query suggestions at the bottom of the search results page that you can click on to find information faster. Sometimes, the suggestions allow you to quickly narrow down the search. We'll also present interesting related concepts that encourage you to explore further. In both cases, these algorithmically generated suggestions are shown only when they are the most helpful and useful, so you shouldn't expect them for all your queries.

For instance, when I was looking for information on netball (we probably need to practice to beat eBay), I got query suggestions for netball rules, netball drills, as well as an interesting related search on basketball.

Here are some other examples: national parks, scuba diving and Powderfinger.

So let us help you when you don't know quite what you're looking for!

About Emo Hairstyles

'Emo' stands for EMOTIONAL HARDCORE and not just EMOTIONAL! To call it "emotional" is just listing one of its traits. Besides, ALL music are emotional anyways so that's a pretty stupid definition. Emo is a culture that has its own values, ideals, an emotional investment and of course fashion. They do not believe in conforming to mainstream fashion or trends. Emos want to be different and therefore create their own distinct styles. That is why it’s not surprising that Emo hairstyles break the mold as well.



Probably nothing characterizes the Emo look more than the Emo hairstyle. Typical Emo haircuts are characterized by asymmetrical lines, bold highlights, usually red or white and a jet black hair. An emo girl or an emo boy dye their hair jet black and the bolder the effect the better. You don’t have to worry about the dye looking unnatural and can even shade the edges with frosted highlights, blue, orange, or purple. Emos usually wants to be alone and their haircuts are simply an extension of this belief. An Emo hairstyle is a one of a kind experiment. Its not the type that you can get at an ordinary salon. If you want an emo hairstyle, better bring a picture of Pete Wentz and tell the barber this is the style you want.

It is perfectly acceptable to create your own Emo hairstyle just with a pair of scissors, razor and dye. Emo hairstyles has no set technique. It maybe described as more of a personal art-form, a style of expressing yourself, of one’s deepest emotions. In other words, any style can pass off as an Emo hairstyle as long as it looks different and doesn’t look like one of those “dos” that you might wear to a prom. Being an Emo is all about being true to yourself, being unique and comfortable with one’s self. An Emo hairstyle is also all about the distinct personality of an individual and self-expression. If you feel that you are not one to follow the flock either, then you might just want to consider picking up any pair of scissors and doing up your hair the Emo way!

:: Farmers state "Ethanol Refinery is a Win Win for Barrie" ::

I fully appreciate the too often unrecognized contribution our local farmers have and continue to make to our community. Given that, I still have to question the statement made by the President of the Simcoe County Corn Producers in a letter to Barrie Mayor Aspden that an Ethanol Refinery would be a "win win situation for the City of Barrie, the local Economy and the environment."

There may be one win and that is the chance that our regional farmers will produce a portion of the corn needed to run an ethanol refinery in Barrie. How big a portion, will likely be influenced by the ability to compete on price with heavily subsidized US corn imported from "Mega" farms that receive two thirds of the multi billions of dollars per year in US federal farm aid. With our rising Canadian dollar that is not likely to drop any time soon, imported US corn gets even cheaper by the day.

In the US Midwest the international demand for ethanol producing corn has been responsible for dramatic shortages and price increases on foods dependent upon many traditional cash crops to produce. Fields that once contributed to food production are now used for more lucrative bio fuel-corn production.

Rail line re construction, more frequent road repair and the effects the odor of fermenting corn will have on tourism plus home and business values, puts the prospect of a financial "win" for the City of Barrie far into the future if ever. Why our previous Mayor welcomed an ethanol plant with disregard for the side effects to his city is baffling. Some say this was a one last gasp attempt by his former worship to kibosh the Park Place development which Borders the former Molson's property to it's south and east.

I have to assume that any farmer who has researched the clearly documented environmental and health risks and concerns associated with ethanol production would have great concerns if an Ethanol refinery was proposed one half mile up wind from where their livestock grazes let alone where their children live, play and go to school.

I respectfully wish all farmers due compensation for the hard work they do but not at the risk to the health and wellbeing of their children and grandchildren who may choose to live in Barrie.

For further information, please visit www.CAREinBarrie.com or call 705-309-2273 (CARE).

:: Park Place in Barrie - The 200 Acre Lifestyle Centre hoping to begin construction this summer ::

Park Place is a 200-acre mixed-use development planned for the former Molson Park property. Once complete, it will be home to: a prestige business park; medium format retail, one of Canada’s first "lifestyle" centres featuring up-scale retail, exciting restaurants, hotels and entertainment; industrial/manufacturing buildings; and a 20-acre environmentally protected area with walking trails for everyone’s use.

• The "lifestyle" centre will be one of the first of its kind in Canada.
• The pedestrian-friendly outdoor village will offer residents and tourists an up-scale, attractive venue for shopping, accommodations, dining, leisure and entertainment.
• The prestige Business Park will feature office buildings for corporate head offices.
• Second floor offices in the village will be highly sought after by doctors and other Barrie professionals.
• Space has been dedicated for industrial uses.
• Park Place is dedicating approximately 10 per cent of the land (20 acres) to the City of Barrie, so that it can remain an environmentally protected green space, for everyone’s leisure use.

To access video and audio media further detailing Barrie's Park Place project - click here>>>

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

:: Here's an extra Hundred thousand or so to start your retirement with ::

 

 

 

Front line Baby Boomers must be getting tired of the bombardment of not so subtle reminders that they are edging ever closer to their retirement years. Seems like overnight commercials went from trying to coax them out of that Jell-O tree to trying to woo them into a new side door step in bath tub and a bevy of performance enhancing pills. I know I have endured far more than my fill of TV commercials featuring happy-go-lucky Silver haired couples skipping slow-mo, hand in hand through sun drenched meadows of wild flowers!!! (I needed to vent on that.)
Looking to the future of real estate and how the market will evolve based on demographics and population forecasts - then pro actively positioning yourself for these changes is how some will manage to come out far ahead of others who pay no attention. I came to a realization I must share with you. It is simple yet sound financial reasoning, and those who act will profit by and be grateful for this advice.

At some point in life after the kids have moved out into the world many home owners find stairs becoming more difficult to handle and the desire for a one level lifestyle is more predominate. Statistically that is the point when most make the decision to sell the 3-4 bdrm two story home often to move to a condo or bungalow. That shift is taking place right now at greater numbers than any point in history across North America.
Based on housing demand forecasts, over the next 10 years a bungalow in Ontario (and your market too no doubt) is likely to appreciate as much as 30% to 50% beyond what a two story home equal to it in price today will appreciate over that same time frame, This is the direct result of increasing demands for single level housing, demands that out strip supply. If your scenario fits, apply the appropriate math using your current property value to see what this could mean in potential dollars to you.

Those who have the foresight will sell the two story home and buy the inevitable bungalow now at today's prices. That amount of increase we spoke of over 10 years is then equity earned by you over that time time rather than becoming the additional amount needed to buy later. Money that would likely be taken from your life savings or by borrowing at a time when most are hoping to have more disposable income.

Demand for bungalows is only going to increase as the Boomer generation advances on. Something to think about.

 BarrieRealEstateBlog.com     HotBarrieListings.com

Webpages for Australian & NZ small businesses

Posted by Ali Rush, AdWords Associate

Are you one of the many Australian or New Zealand small businesses without a website? We have a product that can really help. Today we launched AdWords Business Pages in Australia and New Zealand.

An AdWords Business Page is a small, free web page that you can create for your business when you sign up for an AdWords Starter Edition account.

You can create a business page to help potential customers learn about your products and services. AdWords Business Pages are quick and easy -- no knowledge of HTML or programming is required. You control your own business pages, and can edit the information on your page at any time through your AdWords account.

This feature has been really popular in the US. Here's what a very simple Business Page looks like:


And here's a testimonial of a small business that has used AdWords Business Pages to expand their customer base and business.

We hope that Business Pages will help Australian and NZ small businesses reach new customers here and overseas. (You can also get a free listing in Google Maps through the Local Business Centre.)

Happy page creating!

Sport and music dominate, but some found it all too taxing

Posted by Diana Starmer, Account Associate

Ed: We thought the blog was a great place to start announcing the monthly "top gaining searches" on Google Australia

Last month saw a curious mix of search terms gaining ground on the Google Australia Zeitgeist.

Hype began to build around the Socceroos playing in the upcoming Asian cup behind star defender Lucas Neill. We also had NFL fever and Kevin Sheedy’s troubles at essendon football club featured in the headlines.

Popstar Pink hit our shores for her huge national tour and all across Australia, fans went online in search of pink concert dates and ticket information. Tickets for xavier rudd also went on sale in May ahead of the release of his new album White Moth.

But it wasn’t all sport and music, Australians began to feel the end of the financial year approaching, turning their thoughts to their tax file number and interest rates at the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia).

On the celebrity front, Home and Away starlet indiana evans along with American actress and wrestler stacy keibler occupied our hearts and minds. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton’s visit to Sydney had us searching for our Hollywood gossip, but there was a nod to higher culture when an Andy Warhol painting broke new records at auction.

And finally… for the school holidays is everyone planning to go to seaworld? Maybe we’ve put two and two together to make five but these two were certainly popular search terms.

For breaking news and obscure information alike, Australians are searching on Google! What follows is a summary of Google Australia Zeitgeist results for the top gainers on Google.com.au in the month of May.

For more information, visit the Google Zeitgeist and Google Trends.

Top Google.com.au Gainers for May:

1. lucas neill
2. pink concert
3. rba
4. nfl
5. wireless broadband
6. indiana evans
7. tax file number
8. perez
9. concept cars
10. Mars
11. wheat
12. xavier rudd
13. childhood obesity
14. street fighter
15. stacy keibler
16. burberry
17. Andy Warhol
18. essendon football club
19. seaworld
20. school holidays

Our first guest blogger

Posted by Joel Stanley, Summer of Code participant

My name is Joel, and I'm a 21 year old student, studying Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

At the start of this year I attended a conference in Sydney. There, while kneeling in the back row of a talk on Linux kernel hacking, I saw it with my own eyes for the first time:

The XO-1; laptop of the One Laptop Per Child Organisation. A '$100' laptop for the world's children, enabling them to teach and learn, to explore, experiment and express themselves. Read more about that at laptop.org.

Being an Electrical Engineering student means I have a keen interest in the hardware side of comptuers, as well as software. I found the XO fascinating in both these aspects, and wanted to learn more. The first step was taken when I was given a beta - a test version - of the laptop by Jim Gettys, who works for OLPC on it's software systems. The second step was taken when I applied to work for OLPC through the Google Summer of Code.

The Summer of Code is a project where Google sponsors students from around the world to work on Free and Open Source Software; Firefox, Linux and OpenOffice are all examples of FOSS. Not only could students apply to work on pieces of software, but they could also work for organisations who used this software, such as the BBC, Nokia (through maemo) and, interestingly for me; OLPC.

I am thrilled to be given the chance to work for OLPC, to be mentored by the LCD-inventing, Electrical Engineering degree holding CTO of OLPC; Mary Lou Jepsen, as well as Richard Smith; an engineer who works on the low level programming of the laptop's systems.Working along side me will be Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero, a fellow Electrical Engineering student from Colombia.

My project is to revolve around the power systems of the XO laptop, specifically the gang chargers - large recharging units that can replenish up to 16 laptop batteries at once, running off mains or solar power by the way of an internal lead-acid battery. I will also work on the 'tinderbox'; an XO laptop with it's insides hanging out, connected to a multichannel voltmeter that logs the power usage on the XO's power rails.

Since being accepted into the SoC, I have been offered an internship at OLPC headquarters on MIT's campus in Boston, Massachusetts. I will join the team for three months, starting this July, thanks to the sponsorship of OLPC, and Google's Open Source Programs Office. I am still short on funds, so if you would like to support a young Australian free and open source software contributor and advocate, please get in touch.

I look forward to not only the technical challenges that this experience will provide, but also the humanitarian aspect. A good friend once told me she almost chose to study medicine over engineering, because she wanted to help people who were disadvantaged around the world and believed that being a doctor was the only way to do this. However, she decided that through her civil engineering degree, she could ”build bridges” for those who needed help. Like her, I would have never thought that an engineering degree, in particular one that focused on electronics, could enable me to do similar things; this is one of the many fascinating aspects of the OLPC project.

I plan on updating everyone back home on my progress while working at MIT; if you're interested, I have a blog: Welcome to Chaos.

Clean Air Day Balloon Launch in Barrie

Barrie Citizens Release 418 Balloons On National Clean Air Day To Protest Highly Controversial Ethanol Refinery

Barrie, June 6, 2007 – To mark National Clean Air Day and in a demonstration of their opposition to an ethanol refinery being located in the middle of their city, Citizens Against Refining Ethanol in Barrie will today release 418 biodegradable balloons into the air to signify the 418 tons of pollutants that would be emitted each year if the Ontario Ministry of the Environment approves the controversial chemical plant.

“The people of Barrie need to understand that they still have time to fight this and let the government know that the middle of the city is definitely the wrong location for Canada’s largest ethanol refinery,” said Warren Patterson, the owner of Botanix Garden Centre. “We have reviewed their submission to the Ministry of the Environment and what is under consideration is giving this start-up company approval to dump 418 tons of pollutants in the air of this community,” he said.

Concerned citizens have formed a group called Citizens Against Refining Ethanol in Barrie (CARE in Barrie) to help inform local residents and decision makers that the proposal to locate a 400 million litre ethanol refinery in the middle of a growing city of almost 130,000 makes no sense. “These facilities are classified chemical plants and there are reasons why almost all of the 120 or so of these refineries in North America have located in sparsely populated areas,” said local REALTOR^® Carl Rabinowitz. “As you look at the 418 balloons floating into the sky you begin to get a sense of how enormous this issue is for the future of Barrie,” he said.

All that stands in the way of 418 tons of pollutants being released into the community, thousands of rail cars shunting through an old spur line in a residential area and thousands more trucks delivering corn, gasoline and ethanol is approvals by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and the City of Barrie. “The people of Barrie need to let the government know that tearing down the old brewery and replacing it with a chemical plant to employ 40 or 50 people on prime real estate in the middle of our city is an outdated economic development strategy from decades ago,” said Sonya Anderson, a local resident and mother of two. “This is the fastest growing city in Ontario, and this refinery could impact the quality of life experienced by tens of thousands of local residents well into the future. This is the wrong location,” said Anderson.

For further information, please visit www.CAREinBarrie.com or call 705-309-2273 (CARE).

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

Australian Developer Day wrap-up

Posted by Julian Sonego, Consumer Marketing Manager

Couldn't make it to Developer Day yesterday?

The speeches are now all on YouTube, with the sessions in San Jose having just wrapped up, to complete a great 29 hours that started in Syd-a-ney!

Engineering Director Alan Noble's keynote address, which kicked it all off worldwide, is below:



A fuller wrap-up of the Sydney activities is here. If you came along, thanks so much for making it such a great day and please fill out the survey form!

Speedgeeking - best Aussie mashups

Posted by Alice Boxhall, Software Engineer

One of the highlights of Developer Day in Australia was the "speedgeeking" final. (I'm not sure why we chose that name - I might ask someone in our Events team).

We showcased 6 of the best Australian Google Maps "mashups", with everyone in attendance voting for the winner. (For the uninitiated, a Google Maps "mashup", is a website or application that uses the free Google Maps API, and other data, to present information on Google Maps).

Voting on the Finalists

The 6 finalists, chosen from hundreds of great Australian mashups, were all fantastic. The 6 sites deliver innovative and useful content to worldwide audiences. Some have commercial application, others are just great fun. Each mashup was displayed on a large screen, with attendees able to explore and interact with the site via a laptop.

When the voting was all said and done, the winner was PropertyGuru.

Properties for sale in Dianella, WA on PropertyGuru

As described by its creators:

PropertyGuru is a map driven real estate search engine, comprising of homes for sale throughout Australia. It features an intuitive interface, powerful search and property comparison tools. PropertyGuru was designed to alleviate the frustration experienced when buying a house. It allows the home buyer to locate potential properties by moving an interactive Google map to any area in Australia, bringing up pins for properties that meet their budget and requirements.

The site is complemented with many research tools such as suburb median prices to ensure that your next home purchase is at the right price.
With a comprehensive view of the property market, PropertyGuru.com.au is the best way to find your dream home.

Well done guys! (they're the ones in the middle with the slightly bigger trophy). Google is really pleased to provide developers with free tools and APIs on which amazing Australian websites can be based.


The other 5 finalists, all top sites I'm sure you'll agree, are detailed below (in their own words).

Bikely

Put very simply, Bikely helps cyclists share knowledge of good bicycle routes. It can be tricky traversing a car dominated city by bicycle, particularly when you need to travel an unknown route to a new destination. But the chances are, someone has cycled that way before you. Bikely makes it easy for him or her to show you the best way. Bikely is not about mapping technology - it's about leveraging community knowledge to make cycling safer and more fun.

Remember the Milk

Remember The Milk is an online task management service used by over 200,000 people which builds on a number of Google APIs. A Google Maps mashup allows users to visualise where tasks are located in the real world, and includes cool features such as filtering by time and clustering by zoom level. With the Google Gadget, users can review and manage their tasks from iGoogle. Remember The Milk also integrates with Google services by providing task management in Google Calendar (including another Maps mashup), and sends reminders via Google Talk. The service is available in 21 languages.

planOfile

planOfile is a trip collaboration system allowing users to publicly and privately share their trips on map browsers. It works for any type of trip: air travel, driving, sailing, bush walking etc... Users can minimize planning effort by including published trip legs for airline flights, bus tours, etc... Users can create events that allow attendees to add their own trip information, effectively providing a visual calendar for the event. e.g. reunion, family Christmas, fly-in etc...
Organisations can view past, present and future location of resources. e.g. Who is overseas today and when will they return?

FGMap

FGMap is a Google Map web app. developed to be used with FlightGear, a cross-platform open source flight simulator. It was first written to show air traffic on the FlightGear multiplay online server in real time. You can find out who (in the game) is flying online, and where in the world he or she is flying on the map. It was then extended with the capability to display "navaids" such as airport/runway data, radio navigation, and landing guidance.



Cannonade (The Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project)

Patrick O'Brian's series of twenty one novels, set in the Napoleonic age of sail, are the basis for this project. Despite the fictional nature of the series the plot is inspired by, and overlaps with, real historical events and the narrative often refers to real locations and even actual longitudes and latitudes. A minute examination of the text is used to find each reference to physical location, ship's course; wind direction and speed. I have interpreted these references and translated them into map markers. Marker info dialogs can include a quote that justifies position, a description and an image. Markers also have a concept of context so forward and back links (in the info dialog) can be used to iterate over the story.

We'll showcase more great Aussie mashups on the blog soon. Soon, we hope that some of these will be available on Google Maps itself, via the newly released Mapplets (still in Developer preview mode). More on that soon too!

Developer Day in Australia LIVE update

Posted by Leticia Macvean, Events Coordinator

Developer Day Australia is on and I wanted to update you live from Australian Technology Park in Sydney.



It's an awesome event - we're delighted that over 400 developers are here, making this the biggest event in Google Australian history.

This morning, Aaron Boodman announced the worldwide launch of Google Gears, an open source browser extension to enable web applications work offline (think: doing your internet banking without an internet connection!).

We've heard sessions from Aussie Googlers Alan Noble, Lars Rasmussen, James Macgill, Zhen Wang and Bo Majewski. Alice Boxhall is blogging the event live on the Developer Day Blog. Check it out.



We've got a "speedgeeking"competition where everyone is voting on the best Aussie Google mashup. We'll put the finalists on the blog in coming days. Winner announced today at 5:30pm.


More photos here. Wrap up to come!