Statewide SketchUp Pro for K-12 schools

K-12 schools all over the world are using SketchUp. Ask any 7th grader if they’ve heard of it and they’ll say something along the lines of “SketchUp is awesome!” Shining examples of student work abound; take a look at Eric Yam’s space colony or Andrew Nathanson’s workshop presentation if you’re looking for inspiration. We made this short video to highlight other great SketchUp work in K-12 education.

Though lots of schools use the free version of SketchUp, we’d prefer that they get SketchUp Pro 8—there’s lots in the professional version that students and educators can use. To that end, we offer a special, no-cost license grant to U.S. states (and Canadian provinces) that want to install SketchUp Pro in every single one of their K-12 schools. There are currently 20 states in the program; collectively, they represent over 250,000 seats. Visit the SketchUp Pro Statewide K-12 Licence Grant website for information about signing up. Spreading the SketchUp love makes us happy. We invite your state (or provincial) technology director to apply.

We’re in the process of exploring a means of rolling out this program internationally, too. If you represent a state, province or other territory in a country other than the U.S. or Canada, and you’re interested in implementing something similar, please drop us a line at sketchupforeducation@google.com.

Google: Introducing the +1 Button

We all know what it’s like to get a bit of help when you’re looking for it. Online, that advice can come from a number of places: a tweet, a shared video, or a blog post, to name a few. With Google Social Search we’ve been working to show that content when it’s useful, making search more personally relevant.

We think sharing on the web can be even better–that people might share more recommendations, more often, if they knew their advice would be used to help their friends and contacts right when they’re searching for relevant topics on Google. That’s why we’re introducing the +1 button, an easy way for Google users to recommend your content right from the search results pages (and, soon, from your site).

+1 is a simple idea. Let’s use Brian as an example. When Brian signs in to his Google Account and sees one of your pages in the organic search results on Google (or your search ads if you’re using AdWords), he can +1 it and recommend your page to the world.

The next time Brian’s friend Mary is signed in and searching on Google and your page appears, she might see a personalized annotation letting her know that Brian +1’d it. So Brian’s +1 helps Mary decide that your site is worth checking out.

We expect that these personalized annotations will help sites stand out by showing users which search results are personally relevant to them. As a result, +1’s could increase both the quality and quantity of traffic to the sites people care about.

But the +1 button isn’t just for search results. We’re working on a +1 button that you can put on your pages too, making it easy for people to recommend your content on Google search without leaving your site. If you want to be notified when the +1 button is available for your website, you can sign up for email updates at our +1 webmaster site.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll add +1 buttons to search results and ads on Google.com. We’ll also start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals we use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, including social signals from other services. For +1’s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time. At first the +1 button will appear for English searches only on Google.com, but we’re working to add more languages in the future.

We’re excited about using +1’s to make search more personal, relevant and compelling. We hope you’re excited too! If you have questions about the +1 button and how it affects search on Google.com, you can check the Google Webmaster Central Help Center.

You’re invited to fly to the red carpet

This Sunday night is the 83rd annual Academy Awards, which makes a dazzling presence at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Oscar® Awards are the oldest awards ceremony in the media, and was created to honor film achievements. However, this event has evolved into something more of a spectacle and broadcast success over the years. There’s the extravagant red carpet, infamous paparazzi, buzzing interviews, entertaining ceremony and of course the fashion commentary.

Last year, I hosted an Oscars party for friends and got dressed up in high heels, rolled out a red carpet, made themed drinks & snacks and of course had the obligatory ballot with prizes. As we sat on the edge of our seats and critiqued the fashion, we pretended to be right there on the red carpet with the stars.

This year, we thought, why not take the experience one step closer to reality? Take a virtual tour of the Kodak Theatre in Google Earth — as if you’re actually there! It includes the red carpet, paparazzi and even the Oscar statues. Watch the video below to fly to the red carpet in 3D or download this KML to take a tour in Google Earth.

If you’d like to take your own trip on the red carpet in Google Earth, download a 3D model of the Red Carpet, Hollywood and Highland Center, and the Kodak Theatre.

You’ve probably already made your predictions, but if you’re curious about what other people are thinking, check out the Oscar Search Trends. See which nominees are being searched and also realtime news articles and mentions. I’m putting my bet on James Franco for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” but according to the graph I’m not alone.

There are two days left to take a virtual trip to the red carpet, see live search results for nominees and even have time to find the perfect pair of heels or cuff links. Enjoy watching the show!