The Google AJAX Feed API's got a small addition today in the form of the Dynamic Feed Control.
It is a control that expands on the base FeedControl and allows user's to embed multiple feeds for convenient display on their webpage. It offers several layouts, including our popular horizontal layout similar to the NewsBar, and also two forms of vertical layout. You have access to the full source code. We include default CSS styling, but all of this can be changed to suit your needs. We have also supplied a full programming guide, a wizard for easy setup, and it exists as an iGoogle Gadget so you can add it to your iGoogle homepage.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Direct Access to YouTube Channels
This morning, we made an update to the AJAX Search API that provides you with direct access to YouTube Channels, Most Viewed Videos, Top Rated Videos, and Recently Featured Videos.
As millions of you have already discovered, our insanely popular Video Bar Control is a great way to showcase your favorite videos on your site. Using this new feature, you will be able to "subscribe" a Video Bar to the lonelygirl15 channel, the Most Viewed YouTube Videos Channel, or any combination of channels and search expressions.
As part of this update, the Video Bar Wizard has been modified to make it very easy for you to configure a Video Bar with a mix of channels and search expressions. In addition, the control has been updated to include a new player style and location. This lets you continue to have multiple Video Bars all over your pages while ensuring that the player is always positioned very close to the Video Bar.
If you have an existing Video Bar on your site and just want to modify it in place to take advantage of the new features, take a look at the updated reference guide. What you will find in the reference guide is pretty straight forward:
A query expression of ytchannel:fordmodels will access the fordmodels channel
A query expression of ytfeed:most_viewed will access the Most Viewed YouTube Videos
A query expression of ytfeed:top_rated will access the Top Rated YouTube Videos
A query expression of ytfeed:recently_featured will access Recently Featured YouTube Videos
All of the ytfeed: based expressions also accept time modifiers of .today, .this_week, .this_month, or .all_time. For example, the search expression ytfeed:most_viewed.this_month provides access to the Most Viewed YouTube Videos this month.
We, along with the YouTube team are excited to be able to deliver these features to you and hope that they meet your needs. Make sure to let us know what you think by posting a message or two in our developer forum.
While I have your attention, and while we are discussing Video, I'd like to also show you some clever things that you can do with video that is not hosted on YouTube. One of our good customers, The Real News Network, in addition to their YouTube Channel, has a large collection of high quality video that is exposed via an RSS Feed. Using the AJAX Feed API in conjunction with the Slide Show Control, multimedia developer Allen Booth has built a very compelling Gadget. Try out the gadget on your Google Personalized Home Page. Note how it uses the Slide Show control to show off the high quality video thumbnails present in the feed, and that when you click on a thumbnail, the associated video will play in place using a custom and highly optimized video player. In future posts, we will take a deeper look at this approach.
Update: Something important that I forgot to mention in this post... The new functionality we are delivering today is based in part on the YouTube Data API, part of the large and growing family of GData APIs.
As millions of you have already discovered, our insanely popular Video Bar Control is a great way to showcase your favorite videos on your site. Using this new feature, you will be able to "subscribe" a Video Bar to the lonelygirl15 channel, the Most Viewed YouTube Videos Channel, or any combination of channels and search expressions.
As part of this update, the Video Bar Wizard has been modified to make it very easy for you to configure a Video Bar with a mix of channels and search expressions. In addition, the control has been updated to include a new player style and location. This lets you continue to have multiple Video Bars all over your pages while ensuring that the player is always positioned very close to the Video Bar.
If you have an existing Video Bar on your site and just want to modify it in place to take advantage of the new features, take a look at the updated reference guide. What you will find in the reference guide is pretty straight forward:
A query expression of ytchannel:fordmodels will access the fordmodels channel
A query expression of ytfeed:most_viewed will access the Most Viewed YouTube Videos
A query expression of ytfeed:top_rated will access the Top Rated YouTube Videos
A query expression of ytfeed:recently_featured will access Recently Featured YouTube Videos
All of the ytfeed: based expressions also accept time modifiers of .today, .this_week, .this_month, or .all_time. For example, the search expression ytfeed:most_viewed.this_month provides access to the Most Viewed YouTube Videos this month.
We, along with the YouTube team are excited to be able to deliver these features to you and hope that they meet your needs. Make sure to let us know what you think by posting a message or two in our developer forum.
While I have your attention, and while we are discussing Video, I'd like to also show you some clever things that you can do with video that is not hosted on YouTube. One of our good customers, The Real News Network, in addition to their YouTube Channel, has a large collection of high quality video that is exposed via an RSS Feed. Using the AJAX Feed API in conjunction with the Slide Show Control, multimedia developer Allen Booth has built a very compelling Gadget. Try out the gadget on your Google Personalized Home Page. Note how it uses the Slide Show control to show off the high quality video thumbnails present in the feed, and that when you click on a thumbnail, the associated video will play in place using a custom and highly optimized video player. In future posts, we will take a deeper look at this approach.
Update: Something important that I forgot to mention in this post... The new functionality we are delivering today is based in part on the YouTube Data API, part of the large and growing family of GData APIs.
Search Result Limit Increase
Early this morning we turned on a highly requested feature... The AJAX Search API now supports up to 32 search results as well as pagination through result sets. I understand that this might not match everything that you have been asking for, but at this point in time, delivering a 4x increase in the number of available search results is all that we are able to support.
You can see the new code in action in all of our samples that are based on the default search control:
Tabbed Hello World (web, news, and book tabs)
Custom Search Engine Sample
etc.
The pagination logic is built into the default search control. If you like to code your own search control, we have updated the Raw Searcher sample with a few lines of code that implements result pagination.
For a number of complex reasons, this feature is not implemented in Blog Search or in Local Search.
You can see the new code in action in all of our samples that are based on the default search control:
Tabbed Hello World (web, news, and book tabs)
Custom Search Engine Sample
etc.
The pagination logic is built into the default search control. If you like to code your own search control, we have updated the Raw Searcher sample with a few lines of code that implements result pagination.
For a number of complex reasons, this feature is not implemented in Blog Search or in Local Search.
The PartnerBar - Contextual Cross Linking
A few weeks ago, our team received a call from the Executive Producer of EW.com, the online extension of Entertainment Weekly Magazine. She asked if our Feed API could be used to build a module that they could configure to promote and link to their partner's sites. The result of that phone call is our brand new PartnerBar control.
Working closely with the Executive Producer and production staff, we developed the control to meet the demanding needs of EW.com's site while ensuring that the same code and model could support the rest of the Time Inc. network, as well as the network of sites you are likely to care about. The result is a professional level component that gives the design team complete control over all aspects of styling and site integration and delivers a widely used control at a very low integration cost.
Looking around the web, we see many sites using a wide variety of technologies to provide functionality that is similar to our AJAX based PartnerBar. Depending on a site's architecture and infrastructure, these modules can be somewhat expensive to build, test, maintain, and extend. Sometimes there are cron jobs that have to be run to pull and process partner feeds, sometimes there are back end code and templates that need heavy changes, etc. The PartnerBar that we built is coded as an AJAX control and as a result, it's typically very easy to integrate onto your site, requiring the resources of your HTML team and designers, but not your back end team. At this level of the stack, integrations are typically very efficient in terms of both time and impact on related infrastructure. They are able to take a control like our PartnerBar and go from idea to live in a matter of hours. Our team's design standard: "If you can tweak your HTML template, you can have the PartnerBar (or VideoBar, NewsBar, SlideShow, etc.) up in minutes."
Working closely with the Executive Producer and production staff, we developed the control to meet the demanding needs of EW.com's site while ensuring that the same code and model could support the rest of the Time Inc. network, as well as the network of sites you are likely to care about. The result is a professional level component that gives the design team complete control over all aspects of styling and site integration and delivers a widely used control at a very low integration cost.
Looking around the web, we see many sites using a wide variety of technologies to provide functionality that is similar to our AJAX based PartnerBar. Depending on a site's architecture and infrastructure, these modules can be somewhat expensive to build, test, maintain, and extend. Sometimes there are cron jobs that have to be run to pull and process partner feeds, sometimes there are back end code and templates that need heavy changes, etc. The PartnerBar that we built is coded as an AJAX control and as a result, it's typically very easy to integrate onto your site, requiring the resources of your HTML team and designers, but not your back end team. At this level of the stack, integrations are typically very efficient in terms of both time and impact on related infrastructure. They are able to take a control like our PartnerBar and go from idea to live in a matter of hours. Our team's design standard: "If you can tweak your HTML template, you can have the PartnerBar (or VideoBar, NewsBar, SlideShow, etc.) up in minutes."
Calling all JavaScript developers: Hack the Day Away with Google
Google will be hosting a hackathon at the Mountain View campus on Friday, February 29th from 2pm until 10pm. The hackathon will be covering multiple JavaScript APIs, including our AJAX Search/Feeds APIs. There will be some quick introductions to the APIs, then we'll get you guys coding with our APIs (bring your laptops!).
This is a great chance to learn a bit about APIs you haven't played with and to ask more advanced questions about the ones you love. You'll also have the chance to meet some of the product engineers who create these APIs as well as win prizes and shwag.
This is a great chance to learn a bit about APIs you haven't played with and to ask more advanced questions about the ones you love. You'll also have the chance to meet some of the product engineers who create these APIs as well as win prizes and shwag.
gearsAJAXHelper: Use Google Gears with AJAX APIs for Faster Queries
Google Gears is an API that is known for giving developers the ability to have their webpage viewable offline. However, it can also be used to speed up your website. In the case of the AJAX APIs, you can use the Google Gears local cache and client-side database to have queries load fast with cached data while requests for fresh data are done in the background.
We decided it would be cool to write a small library to make it easy for you AJAX APIs developers to write quick-loading, always fresh searches/feeds. The gearsAJAXHelper has two main features - it allows you to store and return key/value pairs from the local database, and it allows you to choose whether you want all resources files on the page (images, CSS, Javascript, HTML) to automatically be cached in the Gears cache.
The key/value pair database feature let's you store the query/results as a key/value pair. Then, the next time the query is made, the results can be served from the database while fresh results are being retrieved. This dramatically reduces the latency in queries/feed grabs.
The (optional) automatic cacheing of resource files will make it so that each time the user visits your webpage they will be getting resources served from their Google Gears cache, not new versions from the internet. Be careful when using this feature, as you might not want stale content to be served. There is also a refresh function, to clear the Google Gears cache of old files.
Here is a sample application that uses the gearsAJAXHelper to quick-load feeds. Notice that after you have clicked on a candidate (or state) once, the next time you click it will quick-load the results. If the results in the database are stale, you will see fresh results populate the content area. Here's how the gearsAJAXHelper library is used in this code:
gearsAJAXHelper.initialize("election", "election", false);
This initializes the library. The first two parameters you pass in are what you want the name of the Gears LocalServer ResourceStore and Gears Database to be named, respectively. The third parameter specifies whether you want your page's resources to be automatically cached.
Then there are just three other main calls that are used:
gearsAJAXHelper.storeKeyVal(key, value);gearsAJAXHelper.returnKeyVal(key);gearsAJAXHelper.refresh();
When you make any requests, store the results using gearsAJAXHelper.storeKeyVal(key, value). Use the query/feed address as the key, and the results as the value. In the case of the Presidential Application, in the NewsBox.prototype.searchComplete function I wait until the results have been turned into the desired HTML, then I store that as the value and the query as the key.
The NewsBox.prototype.loadNewsBox function is called before any search is executed. In here, I use gearsAJAXHelper.returnKeyVal(key) to check if the query has been done before - if it has we will use the HTML returned. This should be a near-instantaneous operation. Immediately after, I execute the search we would have done so that when it completes fresh results will be served. If the database doesn't have the key/value pair stored, then we will execute the query as normal.
In some cases, you might want to clear the database of old entries as well as clear the Gears LocalServer cache - use the gearsAJAXHelper.refresh function for this.
We decided it would be cool to write a small library to make it easy for you AJAX APIs developers to write quick-loading, always fresh searches/feeds. The gearsAJAXHelper has two main features - it allows you to store and return key/value pairs from the local database, and it allows you to choose whether you want all resources files on the page (images, CSS, Javascript, HTML) to automatically be cached in the Gears cache.
The key/value pair database feature let's you store the query/results as a key/value pair. Then, the next time the query is made, the results can be served from the database while fresh results are being retrieved. This dramatically reduces the latency in queries/feed grabs.
The (optional) automatic cacheing of resource files will make it so that each time the user visits your webpage they will be getting resources served from their Google Gears cache, not new versions from the internet. Be careful when using this feature, as you might not want stale content to be served. There is also a refresh function, to clear the Google Gears cache of old files.
Here is a sample application that uses the gearsAJAXHelper to quick-load feeds. Notice that after you have clicked on a candidate (or state) once, the next time you click it will quick-load the results. If the results in the database are stale, you will see fresh results populate the content area. Here's how the gearsAJAXHelper library is used in this code:
gearsAJAXHelper.initialize("election", "election", false);
This initializes the library. The first two parameters you pass in are what you want the name of the Gears LocalServer ResourceStore and Gears Database to be named, respectively. The third parameter specifies whether you want your page's resources to be automatically cached.
Then there are just three other main calls that are used:
gearsAJAXHelper.storeKeyVal(key, value);gearsAJAXHelper.returnKeyVal(key);gearsAJAXHelper.refresh();
When you make any requests, store the results using gearsAJAXHelper.storeKeyVal(key, value). Use the query/feed address as the key, and the results as the value. In the case of the Presidential Application, in the NewsBox.prototype.searchComplete function I wait until the results have been turned into the desired HTML, then I store that as the value and the query as the key.
The NewsBox.prototype.loadNewsBox function is called before any search is executed. In here, I use gearsAJAXHelper.returnKeyVal(key) to check if the query has been done before - if it has we will use the HTML returned. This should be a near-instantaneous operation. Immediately after, I execute the search we would have done so that when it completes fresh results will be served. If the database doesn't have the key/value pair stored, then we will execute the query as normal.
In some cases, you might want to clear the database of old entries as well as clear the Gears LocalServer cache - use the gearsAJAXHelper.refresh function for this.
Introducing the latest AJAX API: Google Visualization API
We are excited to launch the Google Visualization API, a new API designed for visualizing structured data. The API adds the ability to send queries to data sources and process the response. The first data source that already supports this API is Google Spreadsheets. We are also launching a set of visualization gadgets that use this API.
With this API, you can read data from a data source that supports the API. You can read an entire table, or you can run a query on the data source using the API's query language. The query response is an easy to process data table designed to simplify data visualization. It includes both the underlying values and the formatted values, column types, headers and more.
Use this API to create your own data visualization that is decoupled from data source implementation.
The API is loaded using the Google AJAX API loader: google.load("visualization", "1");
Every data source is identified by a URL. For example, each spreadsheet has it's unique data source URL. Using the google.visualization.Query class, you can run a query on the data source:
var q = new google.visualization.Query(DATA_SOURCE_URL);q.send(responseHandlerCallback);
Use the query language to select specific columns, filter rows, aggregate values and more.
var q = new google.visualization.Query(DATA_SOURCE_URL);q.setQuery("select A, sum(D) group by A");q.send(responseHandlerCallback);
With this API, you can read data from a data source that supports the API. You can read an entire table, or you can run a query on the data source using the API's query language. The query response is an easy to process data table designed to simplify data visualization. It includes both the underlying values and the formatted values, column types, headers and more.
Use this API to create your own data visualization that is decoupled from data source implementation.
The API is loaded using the Google AJAX API loader: google.load("visualization", "1");
Every data source is identified by a URL. For example, each spreadsheet has it's unique data source URL. Using the google.visualization.Query class, you can run a query on the data source:
var q = new google.visualization.Query(DATA_SOURCE_URL);q.send(responseHandlerCallback);
Use the query language to select specific columns, filter rows, aggregate values and more.
var q = new google.visualization.Query(DATA_SOURCE_URL);q.setQuery("select A, sum(D) group by A");q.send(responseHandlerCallback);
Introducing the AJAX Language API - Tools for Translation and Language Detection
The AJAX Search and Feeds team is happy to announce a new member to their API family -- the Language API. This new API boasts two functions, language translation and language detection - which cover 13 languages and 29 translation pairs.
The best part? Using the API is simple. To begin, go ahead and add the script tag below to your page:
Next, load the API functions into the page with the AJAX API Loader:
google.load("language", "1");
Before we can start using those functions, though, we have to wait until the page is loaded. The AJAX APIs have a standard method for this that will call whatever function specified when the page has loaded:
google.setOnLoadCallback(onloadCallback);
Once in the onloadCallback function, we are ready to use either the translation or the language detection methods. To do a translation call, simply specify the text you would like to translate, the language you are translating from, the language you are translating to, and then a callback function. Here's what it looks like:
google.language.translate('Gato', 'es', 'en', function(result) { alert(result.translation);});
Here is the list of language name to abbreviations. When specifying a language, you can either use the enumeration to do them such as google.language.Languages['SPANISH'] or just write the string abbreviation 'es'. But what if you don't know what language your text is in? We've got you covered -- if you leave the language you are translating from blank then the API will auto-detect what language the text was written in.
You'll see that in the callback function, we receive a result object. The translation property is the word in the translated language. For a full list of properties returned in that object, check out the translation result reference.
The language detection method is quite similar:
google.language.detect('Questa linea di rilevare che questa è la lingua.', function(result) { alert(result.language);});
This line will detect what language "Questa linea di rilevare che questa è la lingua." is written in, and return the result to the callback function. In the callback I alert the answer, result.language. Here is the language detection result object reference. There are two other important properties that you should take note of -- isReliable and confidence. These will let us know how sure the language detector is.
All right, enough with the technical stuff, let's see these APIs in action...
Here are two simple Hello World applications:
Language Detection:
Translation:
And here's a fun mashup I made with the Language, AJAX Search, and Google Gadgets APIs. It's a game that has a list of nouns, and you have to translate the nouns to a given language. If you add this to your iGoogle homepage, you can change the settings so that it uses the AJAX Search API to grab image hints for you.
Language Learner
Gadgets powered by Google
The best part? Using the API is simple. To begin, go ahead and add the script tag below to your page:
Next, load the API functions into the page with the AJAX API Loader:
google.load("language", "1");
Before we can start using those functions, though, we have to wait until the page is loaded. The AJAX APIs have a standard method for this that will call whatever function specified when the page has loaded:
google.setOnLoadCallback(onloadCallback);
Once in the onloadCallback function, we are ready to use either the translation or the language detection methods. To do a translation call, simply specify the text you would like to translate, the language you are translating from, the language you are translating to, and then a callback function. Here's what it looks like:
google.language.translate('Gato', 'es', 'en', function(result) { alert(result.translation);});
Here is the list of language name to abbreviations. When specifying a language, you can either use the enumeration to do them such as google.language.Languages['SPANISH'] or just write the string abbreviation 'es'. But what if you don't know what language your text is in? We've got you covered -- if you leave the language you are translating from blank then the API will auto-detect what language the text was written in.
You'll see that in the callback function, we receive a result object. The translation property is the word in the translated language. For a full list of properties returned in that object, check out the translation result reference.
The language detection method is quite similar:
google.language.detect('Questa linea di rilevare che questa è la lingua.', function(result) { alert(result.language);});
This line will detect what language "Questa linea di rilevare che questa è la lingua." is written in, and return the result to the callback function. In the callback I alert the answer, result.language. Here is the language detection result object reference. There are two other important properties that you should take note of -- isReliable and confidence. These will let us know how sure the language detector is.
All right, enough with the technical stuff, let's see these APIs in action...
Here are two simple Hello World applications:
Language Detection:
Translation:
And here's a fun mashup I made with the Language, AJAX Search, and Google Gadgets APIs. It's a game that has a list of nouns, and you have to translate the nouns to a given language. If you add this to your iGoogle homepage, you can change the settings so that it uses the AJAX Search API to grab image hints for you.
Language Learner
Gadgets powered by Google
Come Meet the AJAX API Team Engineers at Google I/O on May 28-29 in San Francisco
We recently announced Google I/O, our largest developer event of the year. It takes place May 28-29 in San Francisco. The purpose of the event is to bring developers together to learn about and to discuss the latest web development technologies. Over the two days, Google engineers and other leading software developers will share their knowledge in breakout sessions, hands-on Code Labs, and Q&A at Fireside Chats.
This year's event features an entire track devoted to AJAX and JavaScript including a series of sessions on our AJAX APIs:
Spice up Your Web Apps with Google AJAX APIs
Advanced Gadget and UI Development Using Google's AJAX APIs
Visualize Your Data: Google Visualization API
Members of the AJAX API team will also be participating in a "Fireside Chat" where you get the chance to tell the team what you want, discuss issues and design decisions, and hear the team's thoughts on whatever you want to ask.
Visit the Google I/O Website to learn more and register. Space is limited, so be sure to make plans to attend now. We're excited to meet and interact with so many members of the developer community, and we hope to see you there in May.
If you can't make it to SF, we're still having a global Google Developer Day series. We'll be hosting Developer Days in a number of countries around the world. Look for an announcement with dates and locations soon.
This year's event features an entire track devoted to AJAX and JavaScript including a series of sessions on our AJAX APIs:
Spice up Your Web Apps with Google AJAX APIs
Advanced Gadget and UI Development Using Google's AJAX APIs
Visualize Your Data: Google Visualization API
Members of the AJAX API team will also be participating in a "Fireside Chat" where you get the chance to tell the team what you want, discuss issues and design decisions, and hear the team's thoughts on whatever you want to ask.
Visit the Google I/O Website to learn more and register. Space is limited, so be sure to make plans to attend now. We're excited to meet and interact with so many members of the developer community, and we hope to see you there in May.
If you can't make it to SF, we're still having a global Google Developer Day series. We'll be hosting Developer Days in a number of countries around the world. Look for an announcement with dates and locations soon.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Catch Up With Three AI Alums During Results Show Bookmark This
This Wednesday, April 2nd at 9:00pm EDT on FOX, Bucky Covington will return to "American Idol" in a taped interview from his new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. He will update the show's 30 million viewers on the latest happenings since competing on season five, including the release of his debut CD. The segment also features fellow AI alums Phil Stacey and Bo Bice.
Bucky is also excited to celebrate his second consecutive top 10 hit as "It's Good To Be Us" jumps four spots to #9 on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase chart. The song's music video includes a cameo by freestyle motocross champion Cowboy Kenny Bartram, and is currently on CMT and GAC's Top 20 countdown shows.
Bucky's self-titled CD released in April 2007 and opened at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, with the biggest first week sales for any debut country artist that year. He wrapped 2007 as Country Aircheck's #1 New Artist based on the strength of his top 5 first single "A Different World" and his current hit, "It's Good To Be Us." Bucky is currently on tour with Dierks Bentley on the singer's "Throttle Wide Open" tour.
Bucky is also excited to celebrate his second consecutive top 10 hit as "It's Good To Be Us" jumps four spots to #9 on the Country Aircheck/Mediabase chart. The song's music video includes a cameo by freestyle motocross champion Cowboy Kenny Bartram, and is currently on CMT and GAC's Top 20 countdown shows.
Bucky's self-titled CD released in April 2007 and opened at #1 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, with the biggest first week sales for any debut country artist that year. He wrapped 2007 as Country Aircheck's #1 New Artist based on the strength of his top 5 first single "A Different World" and his current hit, "It's Good To Be Us." Bucky is currently on tour with Dierks Bentley on the singer's "Throttle Wide Open" tour.
The Song Choices of the Top 9 Bookmark This
With so many hits to choose from during Dolly Parton week, the Idols had their work cut out for them. They picked some great songs, and really seemed to have a blast with this week's theme. Check out the song choices below:
David Archuleta
"Smoky Mountain Memories"-Dolly Parton
David Cook
"Little Sparrow"-Dolly Parton
Jason Castro
"Travelin' Thru" -Dolly Parton
Michael Johns
"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" - Dolly Parton
Brooke White
"Jolene" - Dolly Parton
Carly Smithson
"Here You Come Again" - Dolly Parton
Kristy Lee Cook
"Coat Of Many Colors" - Dolly Parton
Ramiele Malubay
"Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" - Dolly Parton
Syesha Mercado
"I Will Always Love You" - Dolly Parton
David Archuleta
"Smoky Mountain Memories"-Dolly Parton
David Cook
"Little Sparrow"-Dolly Parton
Jason Castro
"Travelin' Thru" -Dolly Parton
Michael Johns
"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" - Dolly Parton
Brooke White
"Jolene" - Dolly Parton
Carly Smithson
"Here You Come Again" - Dolly Parton
Kristy Lee Cook
"Coat Of Many Colors" - Dolly Parton
Ramiele Malubay
"Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" - Dolly Parton
Syesha Mercado
"I Will Always Love You" - Dolly Parton
Idol Gives Back Tickets Bookmark This
American Idol is pleased to announce that there are just a few seats left for the taping of Idol Gives Back special this Sunday, April 6th at the Kodak Theatre.
The most recent announcement notes that the following stars are now scheduled to appear: Robin Williams, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, Kiefer Sutherland, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Connolly, Elliott Yamin, Fantasia and Amy Adams.
They join previously announced international talent and sports figures like Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, Heart and Gloria Estefan.
The most recent announcement notes that the following stars are now scheduled to appear: Robin Williams, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, Kiefer Sutherland, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Connolly, Elliott Yamin, Fantasia and Amy Adams.
They join previously announced international talent and sports figures like Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, Heart and Gloria Estefan.
Carrie Underwood Adds More Dates On Tour Bookmark This
Carrie Underwood’s headline tour, the “Carnival Ride Tour,” will continue with an additional run of shows in the month of June and will feature opening act, Jason Michael Carroll. The tour launched February 18 and all shows to date have been sell-outs.
Carrie wraps her co-headline dates with Keith Urban April 26 in Lexington, KY on the “Love, Pain, & The whole crazy Carnival Ride Tour” while Josh Turner, special guest on the “Carnival Ride Tour,” closes out his run of shows May 28.
Carrie’s current album, Carnival Ride, which contains her #1 co-written smash hits “So Small” and “All-American Girl,” was certified double-platinum within 2 months of its release. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was recently certified 7x-Platinum, becoming the best-selling solo female country debut in RIAA history. With this certification, Some Hearts now also surpasses all other releases as the all-time U.S. top-selling album by any American Idol contestant
Carrie wraps her co-headline dates with Keith Urban April 26 in Lexington, KY on the “Love, Pain, & The whole crazy Carnival Ride Tour” while Josh Turner, special guest on the “Carnival Ride Tour,” closes out his run of shows May 28.
Carrie’s current album, Carnival Ride, which contains her #1 co-written smash hits “So Small” and “All-American Girl,” was certified double-platinum within 2 months of its release. Her debut album, Some Hearts, was recently certified 7x-Platinum, becoming the best-selling solo female country debut in RIAA history. With this certification, Some Hearts now also surpasses all other releases as the all-time U.S. top-selling album by any American Idol contestant
Even More Celebs Added To Idol Gives Back Bookmark This
The Emmy Award-winning IDOL GIVES BACK returns with an illustrious group of celebrity participants to help raise awareness and funds to benefit various U.S. and international charities Wednesday, April 9 (7:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Robin Williams, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, Kiefer Sutherland, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Connolly, Elliott Yamin, Fantasia and Amy Adams join previously announced international talent and sports figures Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, Heart and Gloria Estefan.
There are still a few tickets for the star-studded event that are currently on sale to the general public. The event will tape at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, April 6. For more information, visit here.
The brainchild of Simon Fuller, IDOL GIVES BACK has been recognized as a life-changing program, earning praise from many of the world’s best known figures including President George W. Bush, HRH Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Last season, IDOL GIVES BACK raised over $76 million for charity and garnered a prestigious Governor’s Award Emmy.
During the show, viewers will be able to make donations via toll-free lines and the Internet. Money raised by the charity special will be distributed by IDOL GIVES BACK to the following beneficiaries: Children’s Defense Fund; The Children’s Health Fund; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Make It Right; Malaria No More; and Save The Children’s U.S. Programs.
There are still a few tickets for the star-studded event that are currently on sale to the general public. The event will tape at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, April 6. For more information, visit here.
The brainchild of Simon Fuller, IDOL GIVES BACK has been recognized as a life-changing program, earning praise from many of the world’s best known figures including President George W. Bush, HRH Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Last season, IDOL GIVES BACK raised over $76 million for charity and garnered a prestigious Governor’s Award Emmy.
During the show, viewers will be able to make donations via toll-free lines and the Internet. Money raised by the charity special will be distributed by IDOL GIVES BACK to the following beneficiaries: Children’s Defense Fund; The Children’s Health Fund; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Make It Right; Malaria No More; and Save The Children’s U.S. Programs.
Jon Peter Lewis Breaks The Silence Bookmark This
Jon Peter Lewis is primed for a big-time breakthrough courtesy of his new full-length album, Break The Silence.
The new album finds a more seasoned JPL balancing 'sitting in my bedroom all alone' melancholia, with the inviting, offbeat wit that put him on the short list of Idol cult favorites. Silence was produced by Chris Garcia (Santana, Michelle Branch) and features the talents of drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Indigo Girls) and guitarist Nick Lashley (Alanis Morissette, Natasha Bedingfield).
Emotionally charged and overflowing with brainy pop hooks, the debut single and title track, available now online, is an assured, infectious cut that recalls equal parts Ben Folds, Duncan Sheik and vintage Beatles.
The new album finds a more seasoned JPL balancing 'sitting in my bedroom all alone' melancholia, with the inviting, offbeat wit that put him on the short list of Idol cult favorites. Silence was produced by Chris Garcia (Santana, Michelle Branch) and features the talents of drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Indigo Girls) and guitarist Nick Lashley (Alanis Morissette, Natasha Bedingfield).
Emotionally charged and overflowing with brainy pop hooks, the debut single and title track, available now online, is an assured, infectious cut that recalls equal parts Ben Folds, Duncan Sheik and vintage Beatles.
Ramiele Malubay Reflects On Her AI Journey Bookmark This
Although Ramiele Malubay admits that "Idol" has taken over her life since her initial audition, she is grateful for the experience. As she said, " It’s exposure, it’s a future and I’m very grateful for the judges to get me as far as I did to let America judge." She's taking away a lot from being on the show. Ramiele said it taught her humility, and to be courteous to each and every person that works on the show, as everyone was there to help. As far as advice for any future contestants, Ramiele said, "Totally be yourself and enjoy every single minute of it because if you think too far ahead you’re going to miss the fun stuff, when you look back. And I’m just glad that I took everything in and I didn’t regret anything."
She might have no regrets but Ramiele does admit to some missteps along the way. When asked about singing Heart's "Alone," which Carrie Underwood tackled so wonderfully during season four, Ramiele said she knew what she was up against. She watched Carrie's performance, but her whole goal was to get back to the great critiques she was getting earlier on in the show. In fact, Ramiele said that the initial praise she received didn't seem all that important at the time, and she even let it get to her head. But once she started getting some criticism, she really started over-thinking things, and that's when she thinks things fell apart.
When asked about her lack of experience in comparison to some of the other Idols, Ramiele downplayed the value of that, saying that they were on an "even playing field," as they were all learning the same things from the same vocal coaches, etc. As she put it, the judges chose them all for various reasons, and experience wasn't the end-all, be-all feature they were seeking. Her diminishing confidence throughout the competition, however, did play a big part, and Ramiele said she never should have started second-guessing herself.
Ramiele did say that each Idol seemed to handle the pressure in different ways, and her outlet was definitely her crying! Her emotions were her way of getting out the stress that she was feeling. She also decided not to read the things being said about her on the internet, as she felt that would only make it worse. To boot, Ramiele also felt some added pressure to not only live up to her own expectations as well as her family's, but to other Asian-Americans that were in her corner. When asked about the toll that Simon's comments took on her, Ramiele was surprisingly upbeat about the critical judge. She called him a "very nice guy," and said he even offered her a shoulder to cry on after the show. He told her that, ultimately, song choice might have been her downfall, and she seemed to agree.
Ramiele admitted to listening to her family way too much toward the beginning in regards to song choice. Her family would get upset when she wouldn't pick what they wanted her to sing, and she decided that it wasn't a healthy way for her to go about choosing. As far as her song choice this week went, Ramiele had never even heard the Dolly Parton song before. However, she was pleased with herself that she took a song in a genre she wasn't comfortable in, and she made it her own.
The biggest thing that Ramiele seems to be taking from the show are the strong bonds she formed with the other Idols, as many probably noticed from watching her week to week. She called the Idols one big family, and said that none of them even thought about it as a competition until Wednesday nights, when they realized someone would be going home. When she got back to her room the other night, Brooke, Syesha, and Kristy Lee had left her a very sweet card saying goodbye. Kady Malloy sent her encouraging text messages after she left. Even David Archuleta, who's actually younger than Ramiele, treated her like a younger sister and would come and pat her on the head! But the strongest bond she formed was with another fallen Idol, Danny Noriega. She said she talks to Danny every day and they are going to move in together after the tour, calling them a "friend duet." When it came to naming a winner for this season, Ramiele was at a loss. In other years, she said that people probably had an inkling at this point in the competition, but with everyone being so good this year, it's anyone's to win.
As far as the future goes, Ramiele couldn't be happier to be a part of the upcoming tour. After that, she says she will try to pursue a singing career here in L.A., and would even like to do some acting. If that doesn't work, she said she will probably go back to school to pursue a career in nursing. As far as what her fans could expect from an album, Ramiele said, "I grew up listening to a lot of what my parents listened to, a lot of 60s, 70s, 80s – a lot of 80s – and I would love to just make an R&B solo album and kind of just make it a little bit more upbeat and add my flavor to some old songs or covers or something."
She might have no regrets but Ramiele does admit to some missteps along the way. When asked about singing Heart's "Alone," which Carrie Underwood tackled so wonderfully during season four, Ramiele said she knew what she was up against. She watched Carrie's performance, but her whole goal was to get back to the great critiques she was getting earlier on in the show. In fact, Ramiele said that the initial praise she received didn't seem all that important at the time, and she even let it get to her head. But once she started getting some criticism, she really started over-thinking things, and that's when she thinks things fell apart.
When asked about her lack of experience in comparison to some of the other Idols, Ramiele downplayed the value of that, saying that they were on an "even playing field," as they were all learning the same things from the same vocal coaches, etc. As she put it, the judges chose them all for various reasons, and experience wasn't the end-all, be-all feature they were seeking. Her diminishing confidence throughout the competition, however, did play a big part, and Ramiele said she never should have started second-guessing herself.
Ramiele did say that each Idol seemed to handle the pressure in different ways, and her outlet was definitely her crying! Her emotions were her way of getting out the stress that she was feeling. She also decided not to read the things being said about her on the internet, as she felt that would only make it worse. To boot, Ramiele also felt some added pressure to not only live up to her own expectations as well as her family's, but to other Asian-Americans that were in her corner. When asked about the toll that Simon's comments took on her, Ramiele was surprisingly upbeat about the critical judge. She called him a "very nice guy," and said he even offered her a shoulder to cry on after the show. He told her that, ultimately, song choice might have been her downfall, and she seemed to agree.
Ramiele admitted to listening to her family way too much toward the beginning in regards to song choice. Her family would get upset when she wouldn't pick what they wanted her to sing, and she decided that it wasn't a healthy way for her to go about choosing. As far as her song choice this week went, Ramiele had never even heard the Dolly Parton song before. However, she was pleased with herself that she took a song in a genre she wasn't comfortable in, and she made it her own.
The biggest thing that Ramiele seems to be taking from the show are the strong bonds she formed with the other Idols, as many probably noticed from watching her week to week. She called the Idols one big family, and said that none of them even thought about it as a competition until Wednesday nights, when they realized someone would be going home. When she got back to her room the other night, Brooke, Syesha, and Kristy Lee had left her a very sweet card saying goodbye. Kady Malloy sent her encouraging text messages after she left. Even David Archuleta, who's actually younger than Ramiele, treated her like a younger sister and would come and pat her on the head! But the strongest bond she formed was with another fallen Idol, Danny Noriega. She said she talks to Danny every day and they are going to move in together after the tour, calling them a "friend duet." When it came to naming a winner for this season, Ramiele was at a loss. In other years, she said that people probably had an inkling at this point in the competition, but with everyone being so good this year, it's anyone's to win.
As far as the future goes, Ramiele couldn't be happier to be a part of the upcoming tour. After that, she says she will try to pursue a singing career here in L.A., and would even like to do some acting. If that doesn't work, she said she will probably go back to school to pursue a career in nursing. As far as what her fans could expect from an album, Ramiele said, "I grew up listening to a lot of what my parents listened to, a lot of 60s, 70s, 80s – a lot of 80s – and I would love to just make an R&B solo album and kind of just make it a little bit more upbeat and add my flavor to some old songs or covers or something."
Idol Gives Back Tickets Bookmark This
A final block of tickets to the Idol Gives Back performances at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday, April 6th have just been released!
The most recent announcement notes that the following stars are now scheduled to appear: Robin Williams, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, Kiefer Sutherland, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Connolly, Elliott Yamin, Fantasia and Amy Adams.
They join previously announced international talent and sports figures like Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, Heart and Gloria Estefan.
The most recent announcement notes that the following stars are now scheduled to appear: Robin Williams, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Billy Crystal, Dane Cook, Kiefer Sutherland, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Connolly, Elliott Yamin, Fantasia and Amy Adams.
They join previously announced international talent and sports figures like Bono, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Fergie, Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox, John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, Heart and Gloria Estefan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
