Personalized YouTube Homepage

YouTube tests a new homepage that is customizable and centered on your activities. Instead of displaying the same content for all YouTube users, the new homepage looks different, depending on your preferences and your activities. Here's what's new:

* recommended videos, a feature that relies on your previous activity: favorite videos, subscribed channels
* latest from your subscriptions: 12 videos from 3 of your subscribed channels
* friend activity: a list of videos uploaded, favorited or rated by your YouTube contacts. This information is displayed only if your contacts added it to their public profiles.
* inbox: messages, friend invites, received videos.
* statistics about your videos (total views, subscribers) and your activity (subscriptions, comments).
"The goal with all of this is to gauge people's interest in having a YouTube that's tailored to the individual. Ultimately, we want to get you one step closer to the videos you'll enjoy most every time you come to the site," explains YouTube.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/personalized-youtube-homepage.html

Google switches on Apps Script

Google officially rolled out its Apps Script functionality for enterprise users on Wednesday, following a limited pilot release earlier this year.
Google Apps Script works mainly within the Spreadsheets app to automate various processes. For example, you can automate the sending of e-mails messages based on data held in a spreadsheet, or create scripts that communicate with other Web services.
"Back in May, we announced a pilot release of Google Apps Script, and after thousands of hours of use, and lots of valuable feedback, we're excited to launch Google Apps Script to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers today," Google Apps products manager Evin Levey on Wednesday.
Giving an example of how Apps Script can be used, Levey described an expense approval scenario, where the script automatically converts foreign currency to local currency, pulls historical exchange rates from external Web services, picks up on missing data and flags certain expense categories for review.
"Even more useful, the script can figure out whose approvals are needed and automatically request approval from those people," Levey wrote. "And once approved, the script sends a note to the finance department for payment--all without writing a single e-mail."
Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers can locate the scripts functionality through the Tools menu in the Spreadsheets app. Levey wrote that the Apps team is seeking feedback on what customers come up with in their use of the tool.
Also on Wednesday, Google's enterprise team announced another tool called Side-by-Side search. The tool allows users to compare the results of two separate searches based on the same body of data, which the team said would allow the evaluation of the Google Search Appliance (GSA) against a company's existing enterprise search product.
The team also announced an upgraded suite of GSA Connectors, including an Enterprise Labs release of a connector for the Salesforce CRM system.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62057072,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw