My Heart is Full of Gratefulness Today

Many, many years ago I made a wish list. It's a list that I hoped I'd be able to contribute for my country through my work. My heart is super full of gratefulness because my tenth wish has come to fruition.

It was a long, challenging road to complete my wish list and I am so grateful to all the people who believed in me, who trusted me, who supported me throughout these many years. It has been a long journey for me. I was alone in the beginning, but from the start I knew I couldn't do things alone. I was never afraid to seek help. Communities embraced me and I have never been alone since then.

I am so grateful. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me and continues to support me. I work hard because of all of you. <3 <3

CB//134 #StuckAtHomeDay/164 #WFH96 #StayHome #BeKind

Congratulations Google Philippines!

Finally after more than ten years Google Philippines finally has it's own home! The journey has been a very long one and now I can say my mission/wishlist has finally come into fruition. For the second time though I was unable to attend the office launch (traveling!). I'm kilig though that DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez mentioned me during his speech. I had the privilege of working with him on some early days Google projects which allowed me to travel across provinces with the GoNegosyo team. =)

November 2007 at the STI National Youth Convention in Baguio City.

I think though the greatest achievement lies on all the communities and users who have helped Google Philippines grow. From one measly person (me) who used to just work at home and anywhere I crashed (thanks to Yehey.com who adopted me for awhile), the office has grown a lot (and I haven't visited for a year already sorry). For five long years I was alone but very much supported by the communities. The knowledge, learning and use of the platforms grew a lot with the help of the communities and this will forever be appreciated.

The Philippine community leaders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao with the Filipino Google Student Ambassadors at the Search Summit in 2013.

Some of the Filipino Google Student Ambassadors (2013).

I learned a lot from the 5 years I was country consultant for Google in the Philippines. I had the opportunity to work across many different products and programs. The skills and experience I got from working in my country and meeting many supportive people across different sectors will continue to be my inspiration for the work that I am now doing for other countries. Of course, I will continue to serve for the education programs and crisis response work for the Philippines as long as I could.

Congratulations Google Philippines!

gPhilippines 2012

Google is giving lots of love for the Philippines this year with gPhilippines 2012! It's a 2 day conference for businesses, marketing professionals, webmasters, developers, government, academe and students. Lot of really great talks have been prepared for this two days. First day is for businesses and government agencies. Second day is for the academe (faculty and students). The GDG DevFest will also happen on the second day.

It's a free event so to attend just send in your application at the gPhilippines 2012 site.

How to be a Super Google Searcher

Ahhh, kids nowadays are so lucky! The internet and search engines only came into being towards the end of my college life. Doing research back then made me browse through several encyclopedias, sift through the card catalogue in the library, made me sneeze through old newspapers and made me go physically to the resource and even other libraries.

Things were much easier though during the time I was taking my MBA. Google was new back then and I immediately started using it. For a nerd like me, Google was heaven sent and I can say that I've been using Google for 12 years now! Wow!



Last week, Google Asia Pacific's regional product marketing manager for consumer products Jay Trinidad came to Manila to demo some new stuff on Google's search product. The following makes Google search faster, fresher and more intuitive:

Google Instant. Search results show as you type keywords. This saves you 2 to 5 seconds per query.

Caffeine. Caffeine is a new search index that provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches compared to its previous index. It is also the largest collection of web content Google has ever offered and will be the foundation in building a faster and more comprehensive search engine. (This is good news for bloggers too!)

Real-time search. Get highly relevant and freshest content from across the web. Shows results from micro blogs, news sites, blogs, web pages and public pages of social networks. This is great especially if you want to see fresh content about ongoing events because it provides information that is happening now.

Re-designed image search. I just tried this awhile ago and it's awesome. Try this: (1) search for "jeepney" on Google Image Search; (2) click on the color red at the lower left side of the page and notice that the results would page would show red jeepneys! (3) now try the other colors. Jay (my hubby) and I tried searching for celebrity photos too!

You can also use other "operators" to make searching on Google easier. The operators I use more often are "define" and "site:" (for searching only a specific website), and I use Google often as a calculator. Check out the Google Cheat Sheet to become a super Google searcher like me!

Google Pilipinas - July 2010 Zeitgeist

The July 2010 Google Zeitgeist goes to show that Filipinos are thinking about a lot of things. Here's the top 5 things Filipinos were searching for last month of July:

1. Pacquiao - newly elected congressman. Perhaps Pinoys want to know what he's up to now and whether the Mayweather fight is going to happen.

2. Charice Pempengco - of course! Everyone wants to know about her Glee gig.

3. Panfilo Lacson - if only we can find out where he is hiding with a simple search. May Tito Bubby rest in peace.

4. Basyang - ahh the typhoon that hit Manila when it wasn't supposed to pass at all. I really thought there was a helicopter on our roof during the height of the typhoon!

5. 73rd Season of UAAP - college basketball! Quite awesome too that it's my alma mater hosting this year.

Here's Anne Espiritu of Google reporting the July 2010 Zeitgeist.

Mapping the Philippines

The only map that I can draw perfectly is the map to my home. I don't have a good sense of direction and more often than not I get lost. So that's one of the reasons why I don't drive. I'm also bad at understanding maps! Geeezzzz.

But! Since there's available information arleady in Google Maps and Google Mapmaker for the Philippines I can now easily get around with street and landmark information. Yay!

Last week I had the pleasure of attending (and fixing up a bit) the Google Mapmaker event which brought together mappers, developers, bloggers and even geologists! It was really exciting to see more updates from different parts of the country. Here are some -

Angeles City

Cagayan de Oro City

Dagupan City

Pangasinan City

More videos available on these Youtube channels: Mapmaker and GooglePhilippines.

It's quite easy to put together a mapping event, there's a lot of info on the Google Mapping Kit.

Here are some photos from the party -

Super duper thanks and hugs to everyone who came despite the rain and the tornado, especially to the all-star mappers - Leonel, Dante and Wayne. Do join them in the unofficial Google Mapmaker Philippines group and learn more about how to map your area (please do edits on Google Mapmaker so I won't get lost as often! LOL).

Read more about the event:

Filipino Voices

Pinoy Tech Podcast

Regnard Raquedan

Google Maps Twit
Out of Town

Wayne Manuel

The Social Geek in Me

Nah, not really a geek, but I do like meeting people and I'll be in Cebu and Davao next week!

Calling, calling people in Cebu (hey Kristine!!!) and Davao... let's meet up! I want some lechon Cebu and durian coffee!!! I'm going t get so fat again gee...

Anyways, I'd like to thank the really vibrant and active Davao Web Group for being so supportive and helpful! Baka malampasan niyo na Manila niyan ha!

June 27 - 28
Cebu ICT

June 27 (evening) ---> moved to June 28 6 p.m.
Meet-up with bloggers/SEOs
Bo's Cafe, Ayala Mall, Cebu

June 28 (evening)
Marketing your Business Online
Meet-up with SMEs

June 29
Marketing Your Business Online
Department of Trade & Industry - Davao
with Yehey.com
9:00 a.m. to 3:30 pm.

June 30
Google University
Blugre Cafe
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Meet-up with Bloggers/SEO (evening)
venue TBA

July 2
Google University
University of Mindanao, Davao
8:00 to 11:00 a.m.

And then I fly back to Manila for another series of engagements:

July 3
Google and Research
Department of Labor and Employment
Intramuros, Manila

Blogger Food Fest at Tasia Asia
Mall of Asia, Bay City