Traffic Payout

A presentation (below and here) by Eyal Yaron [pictured], Director Product Solutions, Allot Communications delivered at Global Broadband Traffic Management Congress 2013 (here).

Slide 10 shows how tigo Internet (see "DPI Deployments: Millicom (9 affiliates) Deployed Allot" - here and "PCC Deployments: Tigo [Africa] Uses BroadHop for Quota and Self Top-Up - here) implements application based

So, there is a 3rd way - instead of losing customers to OTTs, or build your own (and sometimes fail, such as the case of Telefonica and Tu Me - here), MNOs can outsource such services (e.g. "Bouygues Telecom Deploys GENBAND's fring OTT Service" - here). 



A recent report by Declan Lonergan [pictured], VP, Yankee Group finds that "The growing popularity of over-the-top (OTT) communications

Reinhardt Krause reports to the INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY that "A U.S. District Court is likely to scale back the Federal Communications Commission's authority to impose broadband Net neutrality regulations on Internet service providers, says Stifel Nicolaus in a research report. A ruling could come soon, says analyst Christopher King". 



This opinion may be reinforced by the recent statement

CDN consolidation continues. After the acquisitions of EdgeCast (by Verizon , here) and Verivue (by Akamai, here). PeerCDN founders, John Hiesey, Feross Aboukhadijeh, & Abi Raja (pictured, left to right) announced recently (in PeerCDN home page) that they have been acquired by Yahoo!. 

"When we started PeerCDN, our vision was to build a next-generation content delivery network — cheaper,

Gigamon announced recently a "new applications and enhancements designed to provide Traffic Intelligence – the next phase of the Visibility Fabric evolution. As part of the Applications and Services Layers of the Unified Visibility Fabric architecture, new applications and feature enhancements offer advanced filtering capabilities such as stateful correlation, subscriber awareness, and deep

Elitecore Technologies announced that its "SMP [see "Elitecore Helps Operators Monetize Wi-Fi (w/Location, Analytics and Revenue Generator)" - here] has been deployed by O-Zone Networks, to fulfill its vision of becoming India’s largest Wi-Fi operator. Elitecore SMP will help in delivering seamless connectivity and rich user experience across nationwide hotspots at affordable prices. O-Zone

   
Tektronix Communications announced that it has ".. acquired Newfield Wireless, a privately held pioneer in next-generation mobile network optimization with geoanalytics intelligence. Newfield Wireless brings a rich layer of geoanalytics and visualization tools for the RAN, enabling MNOs to dynamically pinpoint issues at the subscriber and network level in real-time across 2G, 3G and 4G

The countdown is over. Santa and his elves have been preparing around the clock for the big day, opening up new pieces of Santa’s Village throughout the month. Santa’s been skydiving, the elves catapulted presents, and Santa even sent custom voice messages to friends and family.

The elves are now reporting that the sleigh is ready for takeoff!

Join Santa as he delivers presents around the globe. Whether you’re in Sydney or South Dakota, hop in the driver’s seat by checking out Santa’s Dash(er) Board. See where Santa’s been, where he’s going, and his real-time jolly status ("mmm, those cookies were delicious!”). Don’t forget to check out the photos and local info for places he visits on the route.

For the next 24 hours, tune in on your desktop, tablet, or phone to the Santa Tracker website. Still worried you’ll miss a minute of Santa’s big day? The developer elves have been hard at work so you can:

• Stay updated on Santa’s real-time location with the Santa Tracker app for Android
• Light up your TV by casting from the Android app
• Keep tabs on Santa across the web with the Santa Tracker Chrome extension
• View the journey in 3D in the Tour Guide feature of Google Earth and Google Earth mobile

And follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook and Twitter to get up-to-the-minute details on Santa’s journey around the world.

With more than 300,000 kilometers to go, Santa’s got a lot of the map to cover. So set out those cookies and a glass of milk and get ready to #tracksanta!

Posted by Brian McClendon, Vice President, Google Maps

telecompaper reports that "Czech regulator CTU has published new rules [see below] for operators using traffic management techniques ..  The rules prohibit ISPs from slowing or blocking services in such a way that the contracted speed and bandwidth is impacted, nor can they can discriminate against certain content, applications or services delivered over the network. Exceptions are allowed in

Following the UK Government decision to enforce opt our parental control on all ISPs (here), BT  announced recently a new, network-based, Parental control service.



Tim Guest, BT's Homepage and marketing manager, explains: "We’ve offered free parental controls to customers for years, but the protection focused on desktop computers and laptops – now the new controls cover any internet-enabled

Tired of trading Bitcoins? Residents of Hong-Kong can sell and buy LTE bandwidth.

Telecom Lead reports that "China Mobile Hong Kong announced a faster 4G LTE network from Hong Kong to Kowloon station will be available by mid-February 2014. 4G LTE coverage will be extended to other MTR stations.

Through 1cm [see screenshot] app and website, customers can check their data usage balance as well

A new report by Simon Stanley [pictured], research analyst, Heavy Reading finds that "Providers of DPI (deep packet inspection) technologies are shifting their focus to emerging software-defined network (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) in an effort to boost network performance".

See related posts on Procera Networks (here), Allot Communications (here), Sandvine (here, here),

James Kelly [pictured] explains in a Juniper Networks' forum how Sandvine DPI was integrated with Juniper's SDN controller, Contrail [see "Sandvine Join Juniper's SDN Partnership"- here].

".. The way we have Sandvine integrated with Contrail, the virtualized Policy Traffic Switch (vPTS) [see "Sandvine: 'leading edge CSPs around the world are currently working with Sandvine on virtualization

By Noel Brady

Gov. Jay Inslee presents Steve Marsh with the Governor’s Recognition Award, naming him Washingtonian of the Day.

Our charge to short-circuit the range barrier for electric vehicles passed milestone 100,000 on Dec. 16, when a Kent man stopped in Tumwater on the West Coast Electric Highway.

The fast-charge station at a Shell station in Tumwater is a regular stop for Steve Marsh on his way to work at Taylor Shellfish in Shelton – a 130-mile roundtrip commute. When he pulled up Monday in his Nissan LEAF, his odometer flipped to 100,000 miles.

Suddenly Steve was an EV-VIP, shaking hands with the likes of Gov. Jay Inslee and Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. They and others congratulated Steve for reaching the six-digit milestone and saving nearly 30 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

By the Numbers Steve Marsh purchased a Nissan LEAF in May 2011 for his 130-mile roundtrip commute. After 100,000 miles, here are the numbers. 62-65 Marsh’s daily commute in freeway miles each way, depending on route 60+ Freeway miles he can drive on a single charge; 75+ when LEAF was new $1.80-$2 His cost in electricity per one-way commute $11,660 His savings in gas he didn’t purchase over the last 2 1/2 years (based on his previous 2006 Honda Accord EX) $8,700+ Total net saving, counting out changes 29.6 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent Marsh would have released if he kept his 30-mpg Accord (EPA greenhouse gas calculator).

The Governor handed Steve a plaque declaring him the Washingtonian of the Day and vowed his administration’s commitment to reducing use of fossil fuels in Washington. One strategy will be extending our network of electric charging stations west-to-east across the state, he said. 

Already the West Coast Electric Highway enables EV travel between British Columbia and Oregon with a network of 12 fast-charge stations along I-5 and parts of U.S. 2. They can fully charge an electric car in about 30 minutes. We are working with Oregon and California on the West Coast Green Highway to extend the charging network to Baja, Mexico.

Steve said cash was his biggest motivator for being among the first in the state to buy a LEAF – some $9,000 he saved by passing the pump and plugging in on his long commutes.
 
Shortly after he bought his electric car, he suggested his company install a public-use charging station at his office. 

Here’s the shocker: They did!

Accedian Networks announced that "Neutrona Networks has renewed its commitment to provide superior service experience to its customers by combining Accedian Networks’ Performance Assured Networking solutions with Neutrona’s pan-regional network.

As a “carrier’s carrier” that is uniquely focused on providing extended reach network access to many of the world’s largest international carriers

Be safe in snow… you don’t have nine lives.

By Alice Fiman

For #ThrowbackThursday, I’ll share a photo I took on a recent trip back to my high school. I hadn’t been there in many years. Yes, we are the mighty Tigers. And like tigers, many of us here aren’t very comfortable in the snow. We make that face when we hear it’s coming.

So, let’s talk snow and driving and safety. Please take a few moments to get ready for Friday’s commute. Plan ahead and leave yourself extra time. And if you do have to travel, drive for conditions and don’t take chances.

Forecasts call for a short duration snowfall in the Puget Sound region, starting tonight (Thursday). They say it should be gone by Friday afternoon.  For those of you who have the day off, well, lucky.

WSDOT crews, our partners at the Washington State Patrol and many, many others are out treating roads and keeping traffic moving. We do need your help. We have a list below. Please add any additions to the comments section. Thanks!

For those of us who will be on the road Thursday night and Friday:

• In ice and snow, take it slow.
• Protect yourself and your passengers.
• Allow extra time to reach your destination during inclement weather.
• Drive for conditions – slower speeds, slower acceleration.
• Use your headlights.
• Four-wheel and all-wheel vehicles do not stop or steer better on ice.
• Leave extra room between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.
• Remember, the larger the vehicle, the longer the stopping distance.
• Slow down when approaching intersections, offramps, bridges, or shady spots.
• If you find yourself behind a WSDOT truck, stay behind it until it is safe to pass. Remember that truck provides the driver a limited field of vision.

Know before you go:

• Check traffic, road temperatures and highway cameras across the state.
• Find out what’s happening in the Puget Sound region.
• Call 511. WSDOT’s driver information phone line provides real-time traffic, incident and closure information. Out-of-state callers can dial 1-800-695-ROAD (7623). TTY users can call 1-800-833-6388.
• Sign up for email updates and social media tools such as Facebook.
• Follow traveler information on Twitter. Look for #wasnow on @wsdot, @wsdot_traffic (Seattle area), @wsdot_sw (Vancouver area), @wsdot_tacoma, @srtmc (Spokane area) @wsdot_passes, @SnoqualmiePass.

We launched the Transparency Report in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we’re releasing new numbers showing requests from governments to remove content from our services. From January to June 2013, we received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content—a 68 percent increase over the second half of 2012.

Over the past four years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content. Judges have asked us to remove information that’s critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don’t want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes. These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from our services. In this particular reporting period, we received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.

You can read more about these requests in the Notes section of the Transparency Report. In addition, we saw a significant increase in the number of requests we received from two countries in the first half of 2013:

• There was a sharp increase in requests from Turkey. We received 1,673 requests from Turkish authorities to remove content from our platforms, nearly a tenfold increase over the second half of last year. About two-thirds of the total requests—1,126 to be exact—called for the removal of 1,345 pieces of content related to alleged violations of law 5651.
• Another place where we saw an increase was Russia, where there has been an uptick in requests since a blacklist law took effect last fall. We received 257 removal requests during this reporting period, which is more than double the number of requests we received throughout 2012.

While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. As we continue to add data, we hope it will become increasingly useful and informative in policy debates and decisions around the world.

Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director

  
A new report by Joe Hoffman [pictured], research director, ABI Research finds that "The leading Policy and Charging Control (PCC) vendors are “kicking it up a notch” to help operators increase financial performance, especially in relation to their mobile broadband operations .. The Policy and Charging Control market will reach nearly US$3 billion in 2018 with growth coming as subscribers

Ericsson announced that "SingTel has chosen Ericsson's SON Optimization Manager to extend benefits of network automation to their WCDMA networks. The solution adapts intelligently to network traffic conditions, delivering optimum coverage, capacity and quality at all times .. With this system, SingTel and Ericsson optimize multiple network elements and domains, allowing the integration of

 by Claudia Bingham Baker

The tragic collision that took place on Monday, Dec. 16 on southbound Interstate 5 at Mounts Road reminds us all how fragile life is and how the status quo can change in an instant. Loss of life, injuries and property damage were the immediate results of yesterday’s collision. But the effects only started there. Most importantly, of course, were the victims, whose lives were irrevocably altered. First responders then came upon a complicated and dangerous scene. With a road strewn with debris and multiple fires burning, it was clear southbound I-5 had to close.

Thousands of motorists got caught in miles-long backups, and even people in surrounding communities were affected as they experienced floods of traffic trying to bypass the clogged highway.

It’s not often that a collision is severe enough to close an interstate for hours. Yesterday’s was. We are taking this opportunity to help explain our role in highway collisions.

Just after 10 a.m. the collision was reported. Several agencies, WSDOT included, began the simultaneous process of responding. The Washington State Patrol dispatched troopers, local fire stations dispatched fire engines and medic units, and we dispatched Incident Response crews. We also began alerting motorists via social media channels and variable-message-signs, which are the large electronic signs that span the highways and give information. Our closed-circuit TV cameras gave media and the public a first-hand look at the carnage on a freeway that had essentially closed itself from the widespread debris field and active vehicle fires. We sent highway advisories and posted the closure on our website.

Within 15 minutes of the reported collision, we had set up a detour for one lane of southbound I-5 traffic via the Mounts Road exit. Variable-message-signs as far north as the King County line and as far south as Tumwater warned motorists to avoid the area.

In responding to roadway collisions, our immediate role is to support the first responders while they care for the injured and take control of the scene. We do that by notifying the public of traffic impacts, creating detours and diverting traffic from the scene. During this incident, we performed that role while fire units extinguished the fires, Ecology responded to a fuel spill, the Washington State Patrol investigated the incident, and the deceased’s body was removed from the scene by the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office.

We were able to open one southbound lane to traffic two hours after the incident occurred. As the day progressed, we performed as much concurrent roadway clean-up as we could, but we were unable to remove the burned semi until cleared by the responding authorities to do so.

The removal of the burned-out semi proved to be extremely difficult. The trailer was full of heavy steel. The shell, and thus the structural integrity, of the trailer was decimated by the fire. The steel cargo had to be unloaded before the trailer could be moved. Once emptied, crews used heavy equipment to start pushing the trailer onto the shoulder, but the friction reignited a fire. With the fire risk that high, crews chose to instead to remove the trailer by loading it onto a lowboy. Even then, the shell was very unstable and removal was approached deliberately and carefully to keep the trailer intact. Once the trailer was finally removed, crews cleaned and re-opened the road.

Because the road is built out of concrete pavement, rather than asphalt, the intense vehicle fires did not damage the roadway, therefore no pavement repairs were necessary.

The Dec. 16 collision at Mounts Road in Pierce County was about as difficult as highway collisions can get. It combined the challenges of multiple re-igniting fires, injuries, a fatality, tremendous amounts of debris, fuel spills, commercial and passenger vehicles, limited alternate routes, and difficult extractions from the freeway. We are sympathetic to those of you who were caught in the traffic backup. We know that while sitting in traffic, you missed important meetings and family gatherings, ran out of gas, had medical concerns and other misadventures during that very long day.

Some of you have asked us if this collision scene could have been cleared more quickly. In evaluating an event this size, the agencies involved will meet to debrief and evaluate the anatomy of the response with exactly that question in mind. Our goal is to always improve our service to the public. We will look for lessons we can apply toward that next response.

By guest blogger Joe Irwin

We’ve probably all done it. Taken an on-ramp onto I-5 during rush hour thinking maybe this time it won’t be so bad only to run into a sea of red brake lights, and then subsequently cursing Henry Ford for inventing the automobile.

As most Washington drivers can attest, traffic congestion is becoming routine on certain sections of highway statewide. In addition to numerous projects to improve traffic flow, we analyze and report on highway trends.

We’ve been doing this for the past 12 years, but this year we took our in-depth review a step further and in a new direction. The idea is to provide a much finer level of detail in telling the story behind traveling on our state’s highways.

We recently released the 2013 Corridor Capacity Report, providing an unprecedented look at how transit and park and rides fit into the overall transportation scheme on our state highways, while making note of empty seats and parking spots along specific corridors.

This unused capacity on buses is a big deal because it shows us and transit agencies exactly where we can add more riders, park and rides and/or transit services to make things more efficient on the highways at reasonable costs.

According to the report, mass transit took more than 43,800 vehicles off the road each day in 2012, reducing daily carbon dioxide emissions by 674,700 pounds. Even so, our findings show we can improve transit use and reduce emissions by using the existing capacity we have and filling unused seats during the tail ends of the peak periods.

The report focuses closely on routinely congested sections of highway, which also allows us to figure out exactly where the problem areas are located. Traffic patterns differ during the morning and evening commutes, and determining where congestion is worst, when and for how long, helps us as we work to alleviate it.

As more and more people hit the roads each day, the corridor capacity report is providing us a new tool with which to decide the best ways of helping everyone get from Point A to Point B as efficiently and reliably as possible.

Qwilt's CEO expectations for "Full-Scale Deployments in Japan and Korea During 2013" [here] are coming through.

The transparent caching solution vendor [see "[Vendor Review] Qwilt: 'We can Save US Operators Hundreds of $Millions in Few Years'" - here] announced that "..Cable Television Toyama, a cable network operator in Japan, has selected and deployed its Qwilt Video Fabric Controller,

Every day, around the world, we search. We want to find out more about our heroes, explore far-away destinations, or settle a dinner table dispute between friends. And sometimes we just search to find out how many calories are in an avocado.

In our annual Year-End Zeitgeist (“spirit of the times”), we reflect on the people, places, and moments that captured the world’s attention throughout the year. This year marks our most global Zeitgeist to date—with 1,000+ top 10 lists across categories like Trending People, Most-Searched Events and Top Trending Searches from 72 countries.

As we get ready to turn the page to 2014, we invite you to take a global journey through the biggest moments from the past 12 months in our Year in Review video:

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the #1 trending search of 2013 was an international symbol of strength and peace: Nelson Mandela. Global search interest in the former President of South Africa was already high this year, and after his passing, people from around the world turned to Google to learn more about Madiba and his legacy.

Tragedies like the Boston Marathon, the 6th trending term globally, and Typhoon Haiyan, #2 on our global events list, also captured the world’s attention. And our human desire to help came through, with [donate to the Philippines] ranking highly around the world.

2013 also had moments that made us move. People uploaded more than 1.7 million video versions of the Harlem Shake to YouTube, propelling it to the #5 spot on our global list; it was also the second most trending video on YouTube. And unashamedly, we all wanted to learn about twerking, which topped this year’s "what is…" list of search terms (although I’m still not sure I understand that one!).

Here’s a full look at our top 10 global trending searches of 2013:

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Paul Walker
3. iPhone 5s
4. Cory Monteith
5. Harlem Shake
6. Boston Marathon
7. Royal Baby
8. Samsung Galaxy s4
9. PlayStation 4
10. North Korea

You can also explore more global trends this year—directly from our Zeitgeist homepage. Check out the top 100 trending searches of 2013, and simply click one to dig deeper on Google Trends. Or if you’d rather be nostalgic, you can take a look back at each year's Zeitgeist from 2001 on.

Finally, we've made an interactive 3D global map showcasing the top search trends of 2013 by day in cities around the world. You can easily spin the globe, select a city and explore the topics that brought people to search on any day of the year—from local sports games to international news stories.
As I reflect on the year behind us, I’m excited about what’s to come in the year ahead. What will you be searching for?

Posted by +Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President and Google Fellow

Redknee Solutions [see "[Vendor Review]: Redknee Policy Management Strategy" - here] announced that it has ".. signed a multi-year contract worth more than $10 million dollars for Redknee’s integrated charging and policy solution. The significant upgrade of the charging solution and new win for Redknee’s policy management (PCRF) solution, with an acquired customer in EMEA, reflects the positive

   
A new report by Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi, Infonetics Research finds that "Over the 5 years from 2013 to 2017, operators will spend a cumulative $8.5 billion on carrier WiFi equipment, led by mobile operators using carrier WiFi for data offload. This strong growth will gain additional impetus from the proliferation of small cells with integrated WiFi over

Ixia announced the " .. expansion of its IxNetwork application portfolio. The solution validates the scale and performance of OpenFlow controllers by emulating OpenFlow v1.3 switches and is the first to help enterprises and service providers ensure that their networks are carrier grade – enabling faster service delivery: 



IxNetwork now validates the controller, which must communicate with all

Sonus Networks announced that they have ".. entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Sonus will acquire Performance Technologies (PT) for $3.75 per share in cash, or approximately $30 million, net of PT’s cash and excluding acquisition-related costs.


The acquisition of PT enables Sonus to expand and diversify its portfolio with an integrated, virtualized Diameter and SIP-based

Actix (recently acquired by Amdocs for $120M - here) announced the ".. successful implementation of ActixOne Geo-located Customer Experience Analytics and Network Optimization for BaikalWestCom, the largest mobile network operator in East Siberia ..a subsidiary of Rostelecom",

Anton Shalin, Head of the Department RNP&O, BaikalWestCom, said: “Automating RAN data collection and analysis with

Optimizing service plans becomes a challenge - the service tiers (speed, data caps) should answer the demand for bandwidth and QoE, while maximizing revenues and minimizing churn. Here is a short example that considers all the ingredients:  

Stacey Higginbotham reports to GigaOm that "Thanks to a UBS note from Monday we now have some good data on broadband usage at Time Warner Cable. 

The

Nelson Mandela devoted his life to promoting democracy and equality, and he leaves behind a legacy of peaceful change. In advance of Mandela’s funeral service on Sunday in Qunu, South Africa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Mpho Tutu, the first female Irish president, Mary Robinson, and Sir Richard Branson will come together for a digital eulogy using Google+ Hangouts.

Join them tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. EST. The conversation will be hosted by PeaceJam and The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, and moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Share your questions for the participants with #MandelaTribute. Tune in to celebrate the life of an individual who changed the world.

Posted by the Google Blog Team

The holidays are here, and that means eggnog lattes, festive lights and spending time with the people you love. It’s also the season to give back and help make the world brighter for those in need. Today we’re unveiling six new Global Impact Awards—totaling $11.5 million in grants—to innovators using technology to tackle the world’s toughest challenges.

This year, we’re inviting you to get in the giving groove with 12 Days of Giving—an interactive holiday calendar where you can explore a Google-backed cause, donate to what inspires you and unwrap a surprise each day—such as meeting Pamela the polar bear or experiencing how far people walk to reach clean water. To spread cheer throughout the year, download OneToday for a daily reminder to give back.

The 12 Days of Giving include our six newest Global Impact Awardees. Join me in celebrating these tech-fueled initiatives:

• Zooniverse: Advanced crowdsourced research hub that allows anyone, anywhere to help create scientific breakthroughs as a citizen scientist.
• Kiva: Finance lab that enables anyone to provide affordable loans to entrepreneurs, students and farmers in poor countries, to support people left out of traditional finance.
• Landesa and FrontlineSMS: Mobile system that transforms the inefficient and confusing process to establish land rights into an accessible, efficient way for poor farmers to get title to their land.
• Get Schooled: Online platform that provides free college prep for underserved students by aggregating resources on scholarships, tests and applications, and setting personal reminders for staying on track.
• Samasource: Platform to train data workers in developing countries and provide jobs.
• DoSomething.org: Comprehensive data initiative to empower more young people to lead and share powerful and effective social impact campaigns.

In 2013, we donated more than $100 million in grants, $1 billion in free ads and apps and 60,000 volunteer hours to nonprofits around the globe.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org

In “The Hobbit,” a company of Dwarves tries to reclaim the lost kingdom of Erebor from Smaug the Terrible, a fire-breathing Dragon. While the Dwarves’ quest is fraught with danger, your journey to Erebor is just a click away in “A Journey Through Middle-earth,” the Chrome Experiment released a few weeks ago from Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM).

You can now follow the Dwarves’ journey to Erebor and try to outsmart Smaug on your desktop, mobile phone or tablet. But it might be wise to first pay a little visit to the folks who live in nearby Thranduil’s Hall and Lake-town—locations that recently became accessible in this Chrome Experiment—just in case you need their help against the mighty Dragon.

To best equip you on your journey, you may want to stop by Google Play. There you'll find all sorts of Hobbit-related apps, games, books, music and films*. Together with the recent recording of a Google+ Hangout with director Peter Jackson and actors Evangeline Lilly and Richard Armitage, these can also help you get up to speed for the upcoming release in theaters of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.”

And for those of you more interested in web development than Dragon-slaying, check out the second technical case study on “A Journey Through Middle-earth” (the first one is already available on HTML5 Rocks). You can also watch a Hangout with North Kingdom, the team of designers and hackers who built it, on December 18. We'll be posting more updates for the developer community on +Google Chrome Developers.

Posted by Adrian Soghoian, Product Marketing Manager & a Fool of a Took

*Available content and promotions vary by country.

The following announcement appeared in a blog post (rather than a traditional press release): "I’m happy to share that Citrix has acquired Skytide, a privately-held company that enables service providers to measure and monitor streaming video as a critical part of their CDN video delivery infrastructure [see "Why Should Telcos Build their Own CDN?" - here]. 




The holistic understanding

Whether you’re crunching big data or tracking your family budget, you don’t want to waste time waiting for files to load or re-doing edits that were lost because your Internet connection dropped. You can now get more done by switching to the new version of Google Sheets. It’s faster, supports larger spreadsheets, has a number of new features, and works offline.

Bigger, faster spreadsheets
The new Sheets supports millions of cells and kicks many of the old size and complexity limits to the curb. Scrolling, loading and calculation are all snappier, even in more complex spreadsheets.

New features based on your feedback and requests 
Filter views is a new feature unique to Google Sheets that lets you quickly name, save and share different views of your data. This comes in handy when you’re collaborating so you can sort a spreadsheet without affecting how others see it.
Whether you’re new to formulas or a whiz at running complex functions, it’s now easier to set up and perform calculations. New function help and examples guide you as you type, and error highlighting and coloring make it easy to spot and fix mistakes.
As another time-saving improvement, text now automatically flows into empty adjacent cells—no manual merge needed.
With the improved conditional formatting, you can add rules to change the colors and styles of cells in your spreadsheet based on custom formulas.

No Internet connection? Work offline with Chrome 
You shouldn’t have to think about whether you have a WiFi connection when you want to work. So just like Google Docs and Slides, you can now make edits to Sheets offline. When you reconnect to the Internet, your edits will automatically sync. If you've edited Docs or Slides offline in the past, then you’re already set up to edit Sheets offline. If not, follow these one-time instructions for setting up offline in Chrome.

Ready to try it out? 
Turn on the new Sheets by checking the “Try the new Google Sheets” box in Google Drive settings. From then on, all new spreadsheets you create will work offline and include these new features. We’ll be adding a small list of missing features in the coming months, so if you rely on any of them, you may want to wait a little longer before opting in.

We hope you enjoy these and the many other updates that come along with the new Google Sheets, including colored sheet tabs, custom number formatting, paste transpose and more. Let us know what you think on our Google+ page!

Posted by Zach Lloyd, Software Engineer

   
Comptel Corporation announced that ".. Finnish communications service provider (CSP) DNA Ltd has extended its use of Comptel Policy Control. The operator has leveraged the company’s roaming cost control functionality to launch defined data packages for a fixed price, to enable customers to affordably use their services while abroad and to reduce their fear of experiencing ‘bill shock' .. 

A Norwegian Army Dance Troupe. An Epic Split. The Fox. And a Rap Battle with an 18th century Austrian composer.

As 2013 comes to a close, these are some of the videos, channels and moments that shaped our year. While each annual list is unpredictable (what's up, Mr. Miley Cyrus impersonator), trending videos just get bigger each year. And with 80 percent of all views on YouTube coming from outside the U.S., the global community is driving pop culture unlike ever before.

You watched The Fox more than 275 million times, making it the top trending video of 2013. You also made it a top searched Halloween costume, and you’ll maybe even read it as a children’s book. You turned out in record-setting numbers to see PSY’s post-"Gangnam Style" performance. You even made more “Harlem Shake” videos than there are people in Manhattan (1.7 million videos if you’re counting).

To celebrate all these moments, more than 60 top creators on YouTube got together and made a little video for everyone:


Here are the top trending and music videos for 2013:

Top Trending Videos for 2013
1. Ylvis - "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" by tvnorge
2. "Harlem Shake (original army edition)" by kennethaakonsen
3. "How Animals Eat Their Food" | MisterEpicMann by MisterEpicMann
4. "Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Chatroulette Version)" by SteveKardynal
5. "baby&me / the new evian film" by EvianBabies
6. Volvo Trucks - "The Epic Split feat. Van Damme" by VolvoTrucks
7. "YOLO (feat. Adam Levine & Kendrick Lamar)" by thelonelyisland
8. "Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise" by CarrieNYC
9. "THE NFL : A Bad Lip Reading" by BadLipReading
10. "Mozart vs Skrillex. Epic Rap Battles of History Season 2" by ERB

Top Music Videos for 2013
1. PSY - "GENTLEMAN M/V" by officialpsy
2. Miley Cyrus - "Wrecking Ball" by MileyCyrusVEVO
3. Miley Cyrus - "We Can't Stop" by MileyCyrusVEVO
4. Katy Perry - "Roar (Official)" by KatyPerryVEVO
5. P!nk - "Just Give Me A Reason ft. Nate Ruess" by PinkVEVO
6. Robin Thicke - "Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell" by RobinThickeVEVO
7. Rihanna - "Stay ft. Mikky Ekko" by RihannaVEVO
8. Naughty Boy - "La La La ft. Sam Smith" by NaughtyBoyVEVO
9. Selena Gomez - "Come & Get It" by SelenaGomezVEVO
10. Avicii - "Wake Me Up (Official Video)" by AviciiOfficialVEVO
... see even more top music videos.

Check out the YouTube Rewind 2013 channel for even more top lists of the year from around the world, and stay tuned at Google.com/zeitgeist next week for Google's annual look at the people, places and events that captured the world's attention this year.

Posted by Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture and Trends

A message I got from a creditable source said that Sandvine's R&D center, in Jerusalem, Israel has been closed and a staff of 30 S/W developers and QA testing engineers has been dismissed.

I asked for Sandvine's comment, and got the following: "While the process is still underway, as part of our ongoing strategy to shift resources towards sales and marketing activities, we are considering the

At the Cultural Institute we’ve been taking a break from our holiday shopping to feast our eyes on a different kind of gift—the gift of ingenious art that plays tricks on our eyes.

Called Trompe l'oeil, which means “fool the eye” in French, these techniques require complete control over every detail of size, color, light and gradation of color so that a two-dimensional work appears to be three-dimensional. You can see several examples amongst the new content being launched by 34 global partners today on the Cultural Institute and across our entire collection of more than 57,000 artworks.

Trompe l'oeil has been used on things as large as a ceiling—like this fresco at the National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara which uses clever architectural form to momentarily confuse:

And as small as a vase:

Sometimes the trickery lies in the deft organization of the elements in the picture, like this one. Can you find the secret image lurking within this seemingly innocent painting of a young man and woman?

Other new works exhibit a similar visual trickery. This relic from the Qing dynasty comes from the National Palace Museum of Taiwan—does the cabbage look good enough to eat?

Or take a look at the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibition of its unusual history, and then compare the details of the former station to the indoor Street View imagery of today's modern museum:
From Trompe l'oeil to archaeological artifacts, royal portraits and famous scientists, there’s a lot to discover in the latest collection, which comes from all over the world. Enjoyed the visual trickery? See what else can you spot and tell us your favorite examples on our Google+ page.

Posted by Simon Rein, Program Manager, Cultural Institute

  
Verizon announced a "definitive agreement under which the company will acquire EdgeCast, an industry leader in content delivery networks. Verizon Digital Media Services will integrate EdgeCast complementary capabilities to further improve and increase its ability to meet the exponential growth in online digital media content, as well as broaden its portfolio of site acceleration services for

by Alice Fiman

Can’t get any more simple, right? Tonight, depending on where you are, you may see both ice and snow. And the combo – which  freezing rain can be the toughest for road crews to treat. Why? Weather.com has a great explanation… just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, conditions must be just right.

And the way freezing rain impacts traffic, I would change that to just wrong.

The forecast calls for a blast of moisture mixing with the temperatures hovering near freezing overnight and into Tuesday. Our road crews will be out treating roadways, and working to keep traffic moving, now the rest is up to you. We need you to be prepared for black ice, especially those traveling on shaded roadways, bridges and overpasses.

What do we need you to do?  Take the time to protect yourself and your passengers.

• Drive for conditions – slower speeds, slower acceleration. 
• Allow extra time to reach your destination.
• Fill up your gas tank before heading out.
• Prepare for cold temperatures.
• Use your headlights. 
• Four-wheel and all-wheel vehicles do not stop or steer better on ice. 
• Leave extra room between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.  
• Remember, the larger the vehicle, the longer the stopping distance. 
• Slow down when approaching intersections, offramps, bridges, or shady spots.  
• If you find yourself behind a WSDOT truck, stay behind it until it is safe to pass. Remember that truck driver has a limited field of vision. See here for someone who didn’t heed this advice.

Know before you go:

• Check road temperatures and highway cameras across the state.
• Find out what’s happening in the Puget Sound region.
• Call 511. WSDOT’s driver information phone line provides real-time traffic, incident and closure information. Out-of-state callers can dial 1-800-695-ROAD (7623). TTY users can call 1-800-833-6388.
• Sign up for email updates and social media tools such as Facebook.
• Follow traveler information on Twitter @wsdot, @wsdot_traffic, @wsdot, sw, @wsdot_passes, @wsdot_tacoma, @SnoqualmiePass,.

As it seems that the FCC is considering more flexible Net Neutrality rules (see "FCC Chairman re-defines Net Neutrality: 'we're going to see a two-sided world'" - here), it is time to evaluate the business models for the relations between the customers, carriers and OTT content providers.

A new report by Ronan de Renesse, Principal Analyst, Glen Ragoonanan, Senior Analyst, Eva Weidinger [

Intel announced "..Highland Forest, a new communications platform that combines the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v2 with the next generation of the Intel® Communications Chipset Series 89xx. 




According to Steve Price [pictured], general manager of Intel’s Communication Infrastructure Division, Highland Forest will boost the performance of network traffic, delivering up to 255 million

   
PeerApp announced that ".. The company has been winning new network operator customers around the globe by enabling them to deliver the best performance to their customers. The largest operators in countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Israel -- all known for their high-speed broadband and mobile services -- have deployed PeerApp UltraBand. In South Korea, the country reported to have the

By guest blogger Kate Elliott, Eastside Corridor Constructors

This raptor perch, or “snag”, located just east of the Bellevue Way bridge over SR 520 in Bellevue is an ideal hunting perch for birds of prey.

If you’re used to seeing evergreens along Western Washington roadways, you may have noticed an odd sight as you travel on SR 520 near Bellevue Way: a group of 20 seemingly lifeless trees.

This fall Eastside Corridor Constructors, the contractor building the SR 520 Eastside Transit and HOV Project, added the salvaged spindly evergreen trees just east of the Bellevue Way overpass to provide perches for birds of prey, including owls, eagles and hawks. Adding these perches is part of the 520 project’s efforts to restore animal habitat along nearby Yarrow Creek.

I chatted with Ken Otis, the environmental superintendent for ECC, and he said that while the trees may look unconventional, this is just what critters need to thrive in this urban environment. He’s proud that we’re taking these extra steps to sustain the environment in the middle of a construction zone. Birds and bats alike will hunt and roost for years to come.

While not the handsomest tree you’ll ever see, the perches are attractive to Western Washington’s abundant population of raptors, like Red-tailed and Cooper’s hawks. And this habitat not only serves birds but also mosses, lichens and insects that will consume the wood and hide in the bark.

Adding these perches is part of the project’s efforts to restore animal habitat along nearby Yarrow Creek.

Michael MacDonald, WSDOT’s National Marine Fisheries Service liaison, told me that the added features make for a more holistic environment than merely building a pond that could quickly be overrun with bullfrogs and blackberries, along with other animals and invasive plants.

To keep these perches – or “snags,” as biologists call them – upright, crews buried them at least 4 feet in the ground. In 15 to 30 years, after the landscaping has matured a bit, the perches will eventually fall to the ground to become woody groundcover. Crews placed each perch so that it will fall into the habitat area – and away from the nearby roadways.

Later this year, crews will mount bat houses on the side of the perches to house some of the 11 species of bats in Western Washington that roost in fabricated structures. Although these perches look odd now, next spring crews will plant native trees and shrubs to provide cover for the perches and excellent hunting grounds for the birds.

While there are doubts if Bandwidth on Demand (or some of its use-cases) is a viable business model (see "Bandwidth on Demand - 'will not necessary translate to additional, new near-term revenue'" - here), the vendors are not giving up.

Huawei announced that is has "recently helped successfully demonstrate a Turbo Button solution for dramatically boosting delivered LTE speeds with a simple

CSG International announced that it has "purchased key assets of Volubill [see "Volubill Entered Liquidation" - here] .. Volubill products, which are used by service providers globally to bring to market and monetize the new generation of digital, communication-based services, are a natural extension of CSG’s current market-leading billing and revenue management portfolio".

CSG has a PCC

Richard Chirgwin, reports to The Register that the FCC maybe re considering its Net Neutrality rules - "That is, if the definition of “net neutrality” means there is never any scope for a provider to apply quality of service as a product differentiator – something which becomes contentious when people begin debating neutrality. As things now stand, the FCC takes a dim view of payment to get

After 11 months soaking up the sun in the tropics, Santa and his elves are back at the North Pole getting ready for Christmas Eve. In addition to making toys, they need to clear the snow off 23 elf homes, candy factories and command centers in Santa’s Village.

To join in the flurry of preparations for Christmas Eve, visit the Village every day through December 24. You'll have the chance to join the elves as they catapult presents and race with reindeer—and you'll be able to send holiday wishes to friends and family from Santa himself. The elves make a little more progress each day, so be sure to stop by the Village to see the latest.


Meanwhile, a team of Google engineers are working hard to track Santa’s sleigh with the most advanced maps and holiday technology available. On December 24, grab some cookies and apple cider and settle down in front of your computer, phone or TV to follow the big guy across the globe with our Santa Tracker. See where Santa’s going, the number of presents he’s delivered, and what he’s thinking throughout the evening.

Keep up the holiday cheer across all of your screens. Once the elves approve, we’ll launch the Google Santa Tracker app for Android in mid-December. Use your phone for on-the-go flight practice with the elves or cozy up near the fireplace with your tablet to follow Santa around the world as he delivers presents Christmas Eve. If you have Chromecast, cast from the Santa Tracker Android app to explore the Village or track his route right from your TV. Or, worried you’ll forget the big day? Download the Chrome extension to count down to Santa’s takeoff while browsing the web for holiday gifts.


Be sure to come back to Santa’s Village each day to find new ways to celebrate—and from all of us at Google, happy holidays!

Posted by Sandy Russell, Elf Creative Director

(Cross-posted from the Lat Long Blog)

Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research provided some additional information from Infontics' 2013 Policy Management Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey:

Bandwidth management continues to be a primary driver behind policy management spending, but this year’s survey confirms once again that policy is

The day is not over yet, and winning announcements continue to come - earlier it was Procera (here) and now it's Sandvine with one large order and a general statement following the closure of its 4th quarter.

The company said it has "..received a follow-on order of over $5 million from a Tier 1 North American fixed line operator that first became a customer in 2007" [see "Sandvine CEO: '

The Latin America region continues to feed the DPI industry. Following Sandvine's recent $4M MNO group win (here), Procera Networks announces 2 new customers as well.

The vendor said it has "received first-time orders for its PacketLogic™ Intelligent Policy Enforcement (IPE) systems from two Tier 1 fixed line operators in the LATAM region, including one cable MSO and one DSL operator. Both

Ying Kang Tan [pictured], research associate, ABI Research reports that "Spectrum repurposing is gaining momentum. The launch of Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services  [see "[ABI]:VoLTE will Help MNOs Fight OTT Voice and Messaging" - here] by major carriers first in South Korea and soon in the United States is part of the effort to move voice calls from the circuit switched 2G and 3G networks to the

By guest blogger Mike Allende

New flashing lights bring added visibility to I-5 express lane gates.

The I-5 express lanes have been getting some much-needed attention during the past couple years. From automating the way we switch the directions of the lanes to new signs and important communications equipment, we continue to look for ways to help the always-busy stretch through Seattle run more efficiently and safely.

We’re in the middle of a $4.9 million upgrade to the express lanes between Northgate and downtown Seattle. The signs along the express lanes hadn’t received any significant improvements in about 20 years. We’ve already replaced five of them near the entrance at Northgate, and more are going up in December at the northbound James Street entrance. LED lights on the new signs will clearly let drivers know whether the lanes are open or not. While the express lanes normally operate on the same daily schedule, these improvements will still help guide drivers who might be unfamiliar with their hours of operations.

New LED signs let drivers know if the I-5 express lanes are open or closed.

Besides the signs at Northgate, we’ve installed flashing lights on the directional gates. When they swing out during the midday switch to northbound, the lights will flash. When the gates are completely closed, they’ll stay red. We did this to improve safety around the gates: The lights should reduce the number of gate strikes while giving drivers another notice of whether the lanes are open or closed. The added visibility will also help alert drivers to merge if the lanes are closed, which should help ease some of the congestion southbound drivers approaching the Northgate exit know all too well.

We also replaced a variety of communications equipment near the Northgate entrance and will do the same near James Street. The equipment remotely relays information that lets our staff in the Traffic Management Center know that everything is ready for the switch. Once our road crews drive through the lanes to ensure they are clear, our TMC staff can efficiently switch the lanes with the press of a button.

New LED signs let drivers know if the I-5 express lanes are open or closed.

These improvements come a little more than a year after we completed another major part of the project. We automated the express lanes last year, which reduces the amount of time it takes to switch directions. We also added 45 new cameras, signs, signals and communications equipment.

More than 50,000 vehicles use the I-5 express lanes on weekdays, with 60 percent of them heading north. Since automating the lanes, northbound drivers have seen about four minutes cut from their commute. Look for even more improvements with these new signs and equipment.

As the holidays approach and our calendars become full, it can be hard to find time to give back to the causes you care about most. Tomorrow, on Giving Tuesday—an annual one-day event that encourages people to make donations to their favorite charities—we’re making it easier for you to connect with a worthy cause through the first-ever “Hangout-a-thon” on Google+.

Starting at 9 a.m. EST tomorrow on the Giving Tuesday Google+ page, you can join nonprofit organizations working to improve clean water access, eliminate bullying, and provide disaster relief in the Philippines. Learn more about their work, ask questions and connect directly to the people they’re helping. Celebrities such as Jennifer Garner, Chris Daughtry and Sophia Bush will stop by to join in on the fun, and you can also donate to the charity of your choice while watching the Hangout.

Here’s a preview of what you can do:

• Connect with people engaging in relief efforts on the ground in the Philippines through Save the Children and UNICEF
• Join conversations with the founders of Warby Parker and TOMS about gifts that give back, moderated by our partner Mashable
• Get inspired during a morning yoga tutorial with the Africa Yoga Project in Kenya
• Hear how the Malala Fund is working to promote education as a peace-building tool in developing nations
• Participate in a quick coding lesson from Code.org, Girls Who Code and Code2040 and learn what you can do to support digital literacy

We hope you’ll participate by watching the Hangout-a-thon, donating to a cause you care about and posting about the event with #givingtuesday on Google+. And to keep the giving going throughout the holiday season, download One Today, our Android app that lets you donate to a different nonprofit every day.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, Head of Politics and Causes for Google+