Model your campus in Mexico using SketchUp

Back in February we told you about the 2008 Model Your Campus Competition, a call for students to submit 3D models of their college campuses created with Google SketchUp. We got submissions from campuses around the world, and Mexico stood out with submissions from 13 different campuses. At that time we also ran a parallel contest with a top Mexican school, ITESM (The Technology Institute of Monterrey), and offered a separate prize for the best models submitted by ITESM students. The students come from all over Mexico, so there is a truly national mix of competitors. In total, ITESM participants designed 111 buildings, representing 22 ITESM campuses. All of the submissions will live in a collection within the Google 3D Warehouse, an online storage space for all your 3D needs. From intergalactic space vehicles to cucumbers, the 3D Warehouse is flush with downloadable models made by the SketchUp community.

Last week we announced the winners of the contest: David Gómez-Urquiza Madero y Ricardo Pfeiffer Hurtado, both students of Mechatronics at ITESM's Santa Fe Campus. Since a digital Earth needs some digital buildings, we're thrilled that ITESM students have submitted their designs to create a more livable Google Earth-the winning models will be included in the 3D Buildings Layers of Google Earth. The school leadership plan on encouraging students to construct detailed 3D models of all 33 ITESM campuses, and the contest will return for another run next year. Here's to the winners!

one of the models

the winning team

Posted by Ana Paula Blanco, Head of Mexico Communications and Public Affairs

YouTube in 9 more domains

Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTube

The YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of content makers and viewers. With a noteworthy number of YouTube visitors now coming from outside the U.S., it's high time we go multilingual.

Today at a Google press event in Paris, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are announcing the launch of nine new domains in Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Ireland, and the UK.

In response to many requests, each new site is fully translated and localized for each country including content (Featured Videos, Director Videos, Promotions), as well as the interfaces, search, user support, and such community features as video ratings, sharing, and content flagging. And these new localized versions are built using Google search technology, so you can quickly find more of what you want to see. Perhaps best of all, you can continue to use youtube.com, or move to one of these localized sites -- and switch seamlessly between the two. Happy creating, viewing and sharing!

Update: Removed link to user content.

TechnoServe in Tanzania

Posted by Alex Mkindi, Tanzania Deputy Country Director, TechnoServe

Google.org supports efforts to promote economic development in developing countries. From time to time we invite guest bloggers from grantee organizations to tell us about their work.

Today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, TechnoServe and Google.org launched a national business plan competition called "Believe, Begin, Become". The program is designed to help Tanzanian entrepreneurs develop skills, obtain seed or expansion capital and establish the networks that help transform their business ideas into successful enterprises that create jobs and other income sources that transform the lives of all Tanzanians.

We know, from our experience in Latin America and other African countries, what this kind of program can provide to entrepreneurs, who gain not only immediate benefits but a crucial business network that carries on long after the competition ends.

Our Organizing Committee colleague David Bulengo puts it this way: “The network of professionals and business leaders involved with Believe Begin Become will allow a new generation of young entrepreneurs the chance to learn from their experience and to create wonderful business opportunities.”

If you would like to get involved, please get in touch.

Don't miss your opportunity to be part of Google's first Code Jam Latin America!

Posted by Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, Engineering Site Director

There are only 5 days left until registration closes for Google Code Jam Latin America 2007. So far over 4,000 competitors have signed up for a chance to showcase their programming skills and win an all expenses paid trip to Google's Brazil engineering office, where they will compete for R$75,000 (Brazilian reales) in cash and prizes. The finals will be held on March 1. Latin Americans have registered in large numbers from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador as well as many other countries.

The top 50 finalists will be flown to Belo Horizonte to show us what they've got. Think you've got what it takes to Code Jam? Click here to register!

Latin American Code Jam opens

Posted by Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, Engineering Site Director

Programmers from Latin America and the Caribbean ready to test their coding skills against the region's best can register now for Google Code Jam Latin America. The top 50 contestants win an all-expenses-paid trip to our Brazilian engineering office in Belo Horizonte to compete in the finals. Registration is open until January 23, when the first round of the competition begins -- spread the word!

Get News in Portuguese

Posted by Bruno Fonseca, Software Engineer

We've just launched two different editions of Google News: one for Brazil and one for Portugal. Google News gathers stories from more than 200 news sources in Portuguese worldwide, and automatically arranges them to present the most relevant news first. We're very pleased to be able to help Brazilian and Portuguese readers stay informed about the issues that matter most to them. Read more (in Portuguese) about this launch.

For a group of Google Engineers, it's especially exciting, because in July, we opened an engineering office in Brazil. These Google News Portuguese editions are the first launches our team in Belo Horizonte has participated in. Here's to many more!

Of course, Google News Brazil and Google News Portugal are small steps towards our mission. You can help by sending your feedback, thoughts and ideas. Divirta-se!

News happens everywhere

And so should news websites. So we've launched seven new editions of Google News; franchise operations, if you will, offering the usual wide (and occasionally startling) variety of stories which our computers think you'll be particularly interested in reading if you happen to live in, or otherwise care intensely about, Argentina, Chile, Canada Français, México, Österreich, Schweiz or Suisse. Vive la difference.

Michael Krantz
Google Blog Team