Australia is home to many geographical treasures, and the Great Barrier Reef has to be one of my favourites. There's a magnitude, a depth, and a diversity of marine life that just leaves me in awe of this ecosystem that stretches more than 2,500 kilometres along the Queensland coast -- from Bundaberg up to Cape York.You can now use Google Maps to find and explore the largest reef system in the world. Through close collaboration ...

With rising fuel prices increasingly factoring into our driving decisions, Australians are feeling our fair share of pain at the petrol pump.To help Australians get the best value for their fuel dollars, Google Australia has partnered with Motormouth to help provide everyone with easily accessible information about petrol prices. We've developed an iGoogle gadget (here) that allows you to find out the price of various fuel types across parts of major metro areas in Australia.You ...

You may have read a few interesting articles (here, and here) about a new tool called Google Insights for Search, a new product that allows advertisers and marketers to better understand search behaviour across the globe.Like Google Trends, you can type in a search term to view search patterns, and we've also included some interesting new features like a geographic heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest.We figured it would be great ...

Ever sat in a seminar or conference and thought how much better it would be if you could learn all of the material being presented without being physically there?Well, we've started holding webinars for our advertisers, to provide further information and training in how to make the most of AdWords (Google’s online advertising program), which you can enjoy from the comfort of your own armchair (or, more likely, your desk).Our first webinar, "Introduction to Optimisation" ...

I suspect I'm not alone in admitting that I spent quite a while using Street View to look up some of my favourite spots in Australia yesterday. I first checked out my neighbourhood in Sydney and then took some time traveling down "memory lane" looking at some of the places I've lived and visited. It was the first time I could share street-level panoramic imagery from Australia with my friends who live overseas.It was almost ...

Ever since Google Maps was first developed right here in Sydney, those of us at Google Australia are excited by its continued developments. Today, we're really pleased to introduce Street View for Australia, a feature which enables you to view and navigate 360-degree street-level imagery of public roads in Australia, from the CBD to the outback, from Geraldton to Coffs Harbour.Check out the Street View page with introductory videos and tips here.Below is a slideshow ...

A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. We are also introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call ...

Olive Riley, who, at 108, was the "world's oldest blogger," passed away last Saturday at her nursing home near Sydney, Australia. Olive posted many YouTube vlogs retelling tales of her youth and sharing songs that helped to convey her most fundamental belief: "I want to be happy, but I can't be happy 'til I make you happy too."Back in October 2007, we were fortunate to have Olive be a part of the YouTube Australia launch ...

Posted by Andrew Foster, Partner SolutionsIf you've ever had trouble tracking down session times for a movie, Google Australia has heard your call, and is here for you. Today, for all the moviegoers out there, we added a cool new feature to our search called the movie onebox. Now, rather than having to click through individual sites, you can see session times side by side for the cinemas in your area, above your normal search ...

Posted by Raul Vera, Engineering Manager - GeoIt's against the laws of nature. If God had wanted engineers to wear suits, he would have given us social skills and motor coordination. I violated this law on Tuesday night, and woe befell me.Google Maps won the Australian PC Authority Magazine award for Best Web Application (we were co-winners with Facebook). We were naturally thrilled to get this recognition. Our Head of Engineering, Alan Noble and I ...