Let’s play some games!

I’m a huge gamer at heart. And because of this, I love working with Google In-App Payments and helping developers make money from their awesome games. Many of us will be spending the holidays at home enjoying family time and some rest and relaxation. What better way to rest and unwind than with some awesome games that you can play in the browser instantly? Below are some of my favorite games that showcase how developers are utilizing the web platform and creating immersive, monetizable games.




Bastion
Bastion is a story-driven action RPG with beautiful 2D visuals. You control ‘the kid’ (protagonist) with your keyboard and mouse, navigating him around the world to collect pieces and rebuild the bastion. The action is intense and rewarding, and the RPG elements addictive. If you haven’t already purchased the full game, check out the first area for free before buying the full game.

Cordy
Cordy is an adorable puzzle platformer. The goal is to complete a level as quickly as possible while collecting all of the items and enough energy to charge/unlock the exit. It’s gorgeous, fast-paced, and fun to play. Try it for free and you can upgrade to the full version in-game.









Fieldrunners
I’ve been addicted to Fieldrunners (and tower defense games in general) for years, and now it’s available in the browser. Personally, playing in the browser totally fixes my fat finger issues with tower placement. For those of you that have never tried tower defense games, the goal is to prevent enemies from reaching their goal by building a maze of towers that damage them.










GT Academy
Motorsports has always been one of my hobbies, and GT Academy is great because it’s a browser-based racing sim. You can progress through your career achieving better licenses and unlocking faster cars. Once you’ve honed your keyboard driving skills, challenge other players in online multiplayer.









Dragons of Atlantis
I honestly can’t define why this game is so addictive, but I keep going back over and over. Dragons of Atlantis is an empire game where you build your cities, develop your armies, establish alliances, and raid other empires. If you haven’t tried this game, run through the tutorial and you’ll be thoroughly hooked.









Angry Birds
It’s the classic Angry Birds that everyone loves, but with new holiday-themed levels to challenge you. Check out the latest HTML5 Angry Birds.








In addition to the games highlighted here, there are more great games to be found in Chrome Web Store and on Google+. After your holiday feast, have some fun and take a look at what you can now do within your browser.

Posted by Peng Ying, Developer Advocate

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Commerce API World Tour

Over the past few months, the Google Commerce Developer team has been very busy spreading the word about Google’s In-App Payments and Shopping APIs for Search and Content. In addition to meeting developers at events in the United States, we had the opportunity to engage with developer communities around the world.

We started our world tour in Japan at Google Developer Day, Tokyo. We continued globetrotting to Australia for GDD Sydney, then to Spain for Google DevFest, Barcelona and finished in Germany with events at the Berlin GTUG and GDD Berlin.

Peng Ying and Mihai Ionescu presented distribution and monetization strategies for web applications to developers in Tokyo, Sydney and Berlin while Danny Hermes spoke about using the Google Shopping APIs in Barcelona.

We love meeting and talking to developers, and we’re looking forward to continuing to connect with developer communities worldwide. With the recent international expansion of In-App Payments, we’ll be hosting a hangout on Google+ tomorrow December 20th at 11AM PST to answer monetization questions.

For future events, keep an eye on this blog, our social media channels and the Google Developers events page, or join a Google Technology User Group.

Posted by Mihai Ionescu, Commerce Developer Advocate

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In-App Payments Expands its Borders

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Code and Chromium Blogs)

Since Google In-App Payments launched in July for developers in the United States, we’ve received great feedback on how easy it is to integrate as well as how simple it is for consumers to use. While the API has been off to a strong start, there’s been a growing demand for availability outside of the United States.

So starting today, we are opening developer enrollment for Google In-App Payments to 17 additional countries. In addition to the United States, developers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom can now use the Google In-App Payments API to incorporate an in-context payment experience into applications on the Chrome Web Store and their own sites.

Developers using In-App Payments are seeing strong conversions and revenue streams thanks to these key features:

• Ease of use: the short payment process for consumers takes place right in the developer’s app or site.
• Large existing user base: there are millions of Google Wallet online users in over 140 countries.
• Low fees: developers pay just 5% on all transactions.

You can get started accepting payments in your web apps by following the tutorial and get answers to any questions in the forum. We look forward to expanding to even more countries in the future, as well as continuously working to improve the Google In-App Payments experience.

Posted by Pali Bhat, Group Product Manager

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Trends from the biggest shopping days of the year

(Cross-posted on the Google Retail Blog)

With the biggest shopping weekend of the year behind us here in the U.S., we decided to take a step back, crunch the numbers and look at how people shopped during the extravaganza that spans Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Using Insights for Search and data from Google’s annual consumer intentions shopping study, conducted with our research partner OTX, we identified two stand-out trends this year. One, shoppers are searching more for deals online than ever before and they’re heavily relying on their mobile device as an on-the-go, personal shopping assistant. Here’s what we learned from the data:

It’s all about saving money and time
The search trends clearly showed consumers are more aware of and interested in special deals available over the holiday shopping weekend. Searches for [black friday deals] were up by 30% from last year, and searches for [cyber monday sales] and [cyber monday coupons] grew 15% year over year. Further, on Black Friday, half of the top 20 rising searches on Google involved retailers or deals.

Closing out the long weekend, [cyber monday deals 2011] made the top five growing search term on Cyber Monday. In addition, searches for [black midnight] jumped by over 30% over last year, indicating shoppers were planning to hit the stores when retailers opened their doors at 12am on Black Friday.

Most interesting to us was the growth in queries indicating that shoppers were using the web to plan out their trips to the store. Searches for [black friday store map] were conducted more than twice as often this year as in 2010, and searches for [black friday store hours] were up over 40% for the same time period.

Mobile matters
More and more shoppers are reaching for their phones to compare prices, look for store locations and inventory and find deals. In fact, searches for [mobile coupons] were up 90% over last year’s volume and mobile search volume for retail-related searches on Black Friday this year was up 200% over Black Friday last year.

According to our study, 55% of participants said they will use their smartphone’s location features on some or most shopping trips, while 47% will use a smartphone to compare prices and 42% will use their phone to search for the nearest store.

They might not fit in your pocket, but tablets are a rising device for getting some serious shopping done: 47% of study participants said they use their tablets to search for coupons or rebates and 44% use them to make purchases.

What’s hot this holiday season
It’s always fun to take a look at the most popular product searches just after Thanksgiving and try to predict what this year’s Tickle Me Elmo will be.

While netbooks emerged as a popular product last holiday season, this year’s data shows tablets overtaking netbooks in search popularity.

Also, the most popular products searched for on Google Product Search over the long weekend was the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer. Other top products in their categories include:

• Kitchen Appliance: Keurig Special Edition B60 coffee maker
• Board game: Angry Birds Knock on Wood game
• Video game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Doll: Lalaloopsy Silly Hair doll - Jewel Sparkles
• Digital camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i digital SLR Camera

Finally, our survey found that 43% of consumers embraced the craziness of the Black Friday weekend and as of Cyber Monday, had finished the majority of their holiday shopping. But don’t panic if you’re part of the 57% majority. If last year’s trends hold true for 2011, we’ll see a big spike in shopping traffic in mid-December, when procrastinators like myself rush to get their shopping done.

Posted by Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management, Google

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Google Offers Now Live in Columbus, OH

If you live in the Columbus, OH area and are looking for something fun to do with the family this holiday season, then today’s inaugural Google Offer is for you: $5 for one admission to the Wildlights holiday light display (up to $14 value) at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

For the past 24 years, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has been spreading holiday cheer with its annual Wildlights holiday light display and festival. From the millions of holiday LED lights, to the Magical Tabernacle Forest Chorus, the Wildlights event is a holiday tradition for locals. This year’s festival features live music and a new attraction called ‘Global Celebrations’, which is a newly designed eight-minute music and light show on Conservation Lake. Today’s Google Offer for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium also includes general admission to see the zoo’s 700+ wildlife species and exhibits.

To subscribe to Google Offers in these cities and other locations across the U.S., please visit: www.google.com/offers. You can also find and buy great deals with the free Google Offers app for Android.

Posted by Eric Rosenblum, Director of Product Management, Google Offers

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Five tips for stress-free holiday shopping

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

Today, on Cyber Monday—the biggest online shopping day of the year—digi-savvy shoppers will take to the web to get ahead on their holiday shopping. You’ve managed to avoid the Black Friday crowds, but are your online shopping skills up to snuff? Just in the nick of time, here are five tips on how to use Google tools to save time and money this holiday shopping season.

Tip #1. Avoid the lines and parking nightmares—shop from your couch with Google Catalogs
Today we’re announcing a version of Google Catalogs for Android tablets, available for free in Android Market. Now shoppers can browse Google Catalogs on both iOS and Android tablets. With over 125 of your favorite brands and 400 issues across a myriad of categories, Google Catalogs puts all your favorite print catalogs right at your fingertips. You’ll find pages of gift and decorating ideas and get a head start on your holiday shopping list.

Browse Pottery Barn’s Christmas 2011 catalog on Google Catalogs - now available for Android tablets.

Tip #2. Let Google Product Search do your research for you
With so many brands, models and features to choose from, sometimes finding the perfect gift—especially when it comes to electronics and gadgets—can be overwhelming. Google Product Search gives you detailed product information, reviews and price comparisons for all the gifts on your list.

We recently launched a new comparison feature for electronics that lets you quickly see how a particular product stacks up against other similar models and brands. For example, on the Nikon D3100 product page, you can now see—at a glance—feature comparisons between the D3100 and other Nikon models as well as cameras from other brands. Read more about other recent Product Search updates on the Google Commerce blog.

A quick comparison shows the differences in resolution and other camera features.

Tip #3. Bring Google Shopper along as your mobile shopping assistant
Have you ever found yourself standing in a store, trying to decide between, say, two blenders, and wishing you could consult an expert? Google Shopper can help. Wherever you are, this free mobile app for Android and iPhone lets you scan a barcode or search by voice or text to get detailed product information, read reviews and compare prices online and at local stores. You can also use Google Shopper to see if a product is in stock nearby.

Research, share and find products near you with Google Shopper.

Tip #4. Take advantage of holiday savings with Google Offers
Before you hit main street for a shopping extravaganza, check out Google Offers for great deals and save 50% or more on local places to eat, shop and play. Google Offers has teamed up with a number of great retailers this holiday season, making it easy to save while you shop. You can also find and buy great deals from Google Offers with the free Android app.

Tip #5. Simplify your online and offline shopping experience with Google Wallet
Save time and money by shopping with Google Wallet — a smart, virtual wallet that stores your payment cards, offers and more on your phone and online. When you shop with merchants that accept Google Wallet online just use your Google Wallet username and password to complete your purchase—there’s no need to pull out your credit card or enter your shipping address with every transaction. If you’re at the register at stores like American Eagle, Macy’s, Gap, Inc or any of our other merchant partners, take a minute to try the Google Wallet app, available on Nexus S 4G for Sprint, to tap, pay and save.

I hope these tips and Google tools help to make your shopping experience a little easier (and fun!) this Cyber Monday, and throughout the holiday season.

Posted by Stephanie Tilenius, Vice President of Commerce

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Make smart holiday shopping decisions with Google Product Search

Just in time for the holidays, we’ve made a number of improvements to Google Product Search that make it easier for you to find the products you want and feel confident in your purchases.

‘Best match’ for specific products

Sometimes you may visit Google Product Search with a specific product in mind. With our new ‘Best match” feature, we highlight the product we think you’re looking for even faster. When you search PowerShot SD1400, for example, you’ll see a ‘Best match’ product at the top of the page.

‘Popular products’ appearing for more searches

Let’s say you’re in the market for a netbook this year, but you’re just starting your research. When you search for a general term like ‘netbook,’ you’ll see a list of products ranked in order of popularity, which can help you quickly focus your search on a few models. We’ll also give suggestions on how you can refine your search, in this case by brand and operating system. Over the past few months, we’ve added popularity ranking to more search results pages, like wireless routers, heart rate monitors, vacuum cleaners, toddler car seats, and many more.

More rich information to help you with your research

When you click on a product that catches your eye, you’ll be taken to a product page containing product spec, reviews, prices, and local availability. We’ve updated the ‘Product Features’ section of the product page (ex: Samsung Chromebook) to help you interpret detailed product specs. You’ll also see a product info bar at the top of the page that contains basic information about the product you’re viewing and remains in place as you scroll down the page.

Additionally, the product page now also displays the date that the product first appeared on Google Product Search, so it’s easy to tell if you’re viewing a newer or older product model. Of course, our pages still let you read reviews, compare prices, and find items in stock nearby.

Improving the apparel shopping experience

Back in September, we introduced the first of our efforts to improve the apparel shopping experience on Google Product Search, incorporating the most popular features from Boutiques.com. We’ve now expanded this experience to include shoes (ex: platform pumps), displaying larger product images and giving you more ways to refine your search by brand, color, style, and other criteria.

As with dresses, when you click on a particular shoe, the product page displays visually similar styles giving you more products to browse and consider as you shop.

Browse for gift ideas on the new curated Mobile Product Search homepage

This holiday season, many of us will be using our smartphones to research products when we’re out and about. With the mobile version of Google Product Search, you can get instant access to detailed product information, reviews, and prices wherever you are.

If you find yourself with some extra time on your hands in line at the mall or simply need more gift ideas, get inspired by browsing the new curated homepage for Mobile Product Search. To access the page, open the Google Search app and select the ‘Shopping’ tab. We update this page regularly, so check back frequently for seasonal gift ideas, fashion trends, and more.

Posted by Andrew Poon, Senior Product Manager, Google Shopping team

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