Google new launch: Google Realtime

Google has launched Google.com/Realtime as a separate page for its Realtime Search feature that allows users to view latest search results from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The company first introduced real-time search results as a part of its general search engine in December 2009. According to Google, the Realtime Search page is rolling out in phases and should be available soon. In the meanwhile, one can use this link to try out the new features right away.
“On the new homepage you will find some great tools to help you refine and understand your results. First, you can use geographic refinements to find updates and news near you, or in a region you specify,” Dylan Casey, product manager, Google, has said. “In addition, we have added a conversations view, making it easy to follow a discussion on the real-time web... We have also added updates content to Google Alerts, making it easy to stay informed about a topic of your choosing.”

Source: AlooTechie

 

Google unveiled a Gmail phone-calling application

Google may have generated a lot of publicity with its Aug. 25 announcement of an application that makes phone calls through Gmail, but the company is staying mum about any international expansion of the upcoming U.S.-centric service.

“We don’t have anything to announce about international roll-out today,” a Google spokesperson told eWEEK Aug. 26, “but we’re looking forward to bringing localized versions to more people in the future.”

The application requires Google’s voice and video plug-in, which can be found here. Once activated, Gmail users can click a “Call Phone” tab, opening a window with a virtual keypad. Those with a Google Voice phone number will find their Gmail calls display that number as their outbound caller ID.  

According to Google's Twitter feed, more than 1 million calls had been placed through Gmail in 24 hours. 

“We’re rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days,” Robin Schriebman, a Google software engineer, wrote in an Aug. 25 posting on the Official Gmail Blog. “If you’re using Google Apps for your school or business, then you won’t see it quite yet. We’re working on making this available more broadly—so stay tuned.”

But if Google is aiming to compete with Skype—an easy assumption, given the company’s recent acquisitions in the VOIP (voice over IP) market—then the international market will play a key factor. Skype sees its business as a global one, and the recent preliminary prospectus for its IPO suggests that a decline in volume of international calling could have a severe effect on its bottom line, the margins of which are already razor-thin. However, Skype’s base of more than 560 million registered users also makes it a formidable contender to any upstarts.

Via Gmail, calls to certain countries—including landlines in France and Britain—will cost 2 cents per minute. That represents the low end of the price scale; at the other extreme, a cost to Cuba will run you 98 cents. A complete list of rates can be found here. An international expansion would presumably make that country-to-country list exponentially more complicated.

But Skype may not be Google’s primary target.

“We assume Google’s ulterior motive is less about disrupting the telecommunications industry (it will still pay termination fees to telcos) and more about driving engagement within Gmail and its social networking activities, to better compete with social networks such as Facebook,” Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell wrote in an Aug. 26 research note, as reprinted on Fortune’s Website. 

But Facebook and other social networks are also looking internationally to expand their user base, which leads back to the original question: when will Google expand Gmail phone-calling offshore?  

Source: eWeek

Google Chrome OS tablet launching on 26 November

Google is most likely to release a Chrome OS tablet on 26 November. This date has been making the rounds for the release of the latest gadget from the search giant. The reports say that the new machine is being developed by HTC. Its sales in the US will be through Google’s new pal Verizon.

26 November is a significant date in the US as it is traditionally the busiest day for shops in the States. On this date, the Chrome OS tablet is bound to fly off the shelves.

However, not many details about the tablet are available expect the date and that HTC is involved in it. Some experts have speculated that it may have NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 chip and a multitouch panel. 

Source: "LatestGadgetNews"

Google Buys Online Currency Management Company Jambool

Google has bought Jambool, a company that makes a platform for managing online payments for virtual goods sold on gaming and social networking sites.

Jambool made the announcement on Friday on its Web site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company develops Social Gold, which can be used for managing virtual currency or processing payments within applications for websites such as Facebook.

In a statement, Google said "we are committed to offering consumers and merchants innovative digital payment solutions, and Jambool will help Google evolve our payments offering and expand into digital goods and content."

The Social Gold platform was launched in 2008, and Jambool wrote that they processed more than double the payment value in the first half of 2010 than they did in all of 2009.

"We've welcomed hundreds of developers to our platform," according to the post. "The fact that our highest revenue day was in the last week attests to the continued growth of online gaming."

The company says it has the only platform with an API (application programming interface) that can manage purchases done in a Flash-based game during game play and even for first-time users who do not have their details yet on record. Jambool charges 10 percent per transaction, but that fee goes down to 7 percent if a client is processing at least US$25,000 per month.

Jambool said Social Gold is PCI (Payment Card Industry) Security Standards Council Level 1 compliant, the highest rating. The company said it uses a "combination of algorithmic detection, analytics and human verification to control and manage fraud."

Jambool published a set of questions and answers for its customers about how they may be affected by the acquisition.

"We are thrilled to be part of Google, and we look forward to the exciting road ahead," the company said.

Source: PCWorld

Google is retiring the old version of AdSense for Search

Google is retiring the old version of AdSense for Search and telling users to switch to the new version powered by Google Custom Search, which has been offered for a while.

If you see "powered by Google" on the logo on the search results page, then you’re using the old one. In a post on Google’s Inside AdSense blog, Katrina Kurnit writes:

AdSense for search with CSE gives you more control over your search results without changing how you earn money showing AdSense for search ads. For example, with the new version, you’ll have access to advanced features like refinements and promotions. Our team has developed a number of updates and improvements during the past few months, and you can access more advanced features at www.google.com/cse.

Your existing AdSense for search box will continue to work normally for a few more months, and we’ll be sure to update you when we retire this version. To take advantage of the benefits offered by the new version of AdSense for search and ensure you don’t miss any revenue during the transition, we encourage you to update your code now.

To upgrade go to AdSense setup and "AdSense for Search" then select the sites you want your users to be able to search across, customize the look and feel and update the code for your site. Google offers more info here.

Source: Microments

Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser

I have a couple different Gmail addresses that I use for different purposes. Historically, Google Accounts – including Gmail accounts — have only let people access one account at a time per browser, so using both accounts has been a bit inconvenient. I’ve either had to sign out and sign back in, use a second browser for my second account, or use a Chrome incognito window. And I'm not alone; lots of people have asked us for a better way to use multiple accounts at once in the same browser.

Now, you can visit google.com/accounts and click the link next to "Multiple sign-in." After you sign into your first account, you can sign in with up to two additional accounts from the new accounts menu in the upper right hand corner of Gmail, then easily toggle back and forth between them. You can even open multiple Gmail tabs — one for each of your accounts.



Please keep in mind that this is a feature for advanced users, and there are a couple things to watch out for:

1) Not all Google services support multiple account sign-in yet. For the services that don't support it (like Blogger and Picasa Web Albums), you'll be defaulted to the first account you signed in with during that browser session. So if you click a link from Gmail to Blogger, for example, you'll be logged into Blogger with the first account you signed in with, even if you clicked the link to Blogger from your second Gmail account.

2) We’re still working on making Gmail and Calendar work offline with multiple sign-in. If you rely on offline access, you probably don't want to enable this feature quite yet.

3) Multiple account sign-in only works on desktop browsers for now, so if you use Gmail on your phone's browser you won't see this option yet.

Since Google Apps customers can already sign in to their accounts at the same time as their personal Google Accounts, we won’t be adding this new feature to Google Apps until the new infrastructure is in place.

If you use more than one Google Account, we hope this makes you more efficient. If you have any questions, check out our help center.

Source: Gmailblog