I Love Google Search

Blogger Dynamic View

2011-11-04T19:02:00.001+05:30

Google unveiled the new feature "Dynamic View" for its blogging platform. View of dynamic blog is awesome. Readers who like decent look of the blogs, then your blog in dynamic view attract more and more visitors. I wont take much time of yours. Just watch this video to know more about this cool feature.

Gmail Now Supports ZIP and RAR

2011-07-19T09:57:00.000+05:30

From now on you can view Zip and RAR attachment files in your Gmail without opening them. Gmail now introduced View option for Zip and RAR files. According to Gmail blog now you know what is there in Zip and RAR files before you download them. Enjoy this new facility in Gmail.

Image Source: GmailBlog

Google's New Offering: Google News Badges

2011-07-16T17:08:00.002+05:30

Google come up with new offering "Google News Badges" to avid news readers based on number of articles they read. At present Google News Badges is solely for U.S based readers.

Different badges are bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Ultimate badge is highest level badge. As per official Google blog, Google lets users to share their badges with friends or stay private and at present they have over 500 badges for different type of news.

Will Google Plus Checkmate Facebook?

2011-06-30T12:06:00.001+05:30

Yesterday Google announced its new social network site Goolge+ which could checkmate Facebook. It is now in trial stage and open to limited people. Google+ is more private and smarter for real-life sharing.

"At the moment, we're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone. Leave us your email address and we'll make sure that you're the first to know when we're ready to invite more people."

Google Plus = Google + Buzz + +1 + Facebook + Gmail + Google Contacts + Wave + Picasa + Orkut + Profiles + RSS + Skype.

You can get more details at Google+

Search Images With Google Image

2011-06-16T08:58:00.001+05:30

Google Image Search is the new feature introduced by google for searching images by image. You can use google image search by uploading an image to search box or enter URL of the image in the search box or drag and drop images from your desktop to search box where you can see a camera icon in the search box You can avail this feature at images.google.com

Google Acquires AdMeld For $400 Million

2011-06-10T09:31:00.001+05:30

AdMeld, an advertising optimization platform for publishers, has been acquired by Google for around $400 million according to multiple sources. The company, which launched in 2007, has raised just $30 million in venture capital from Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments.

This is a sweet comeback for CEO Michael Barrett. As I noted in our first post about AdMeld in 2009, Barrett was fired from News Corp. in 2008 when the division that owned MySpace failed to meet a $1 billion revenue target. Most sources we spoke with at the time said he was the fall guy for an unrealistic revenue target to begin with, set by News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch in a previous earnings call.

Source: TechCrunch

PostRank Acquired by Google

2011-06-08T12:41:00.002+05:30

Search giant had just acquired web analytic aggregator PostRank. PostRank analyses updates of social networks and about the shared content of the publishers and its competitors performance.

PostRank posted this message officially at their website as follows

We are excited to announce that PostRank has been acquired by Google!

"We know that making sense of social engagement data is crucial for online businesses, which is why we’ve worked hard to monitor where and when content generates meaningful interactions across the web. Indeed, conversations online are an important signal for advertisers, publishers, developers and consumers — but today’s tools only skim the surface of what we think is possible"

"We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we now look forward to working with Google’s team to build more useful tools for measuring engagement online, and we’ll be sure to share details on our progress in the coming months."

source: PostRank

Maa Oh Maa.. Pyari Maa...

2011-05-08T16:57:00.000+05:30

When I listen Maa Oh Maa, Pyari Maa... I just dip into the warmth of the mothers love. It portrays love for mother. This year Google doodle for 2011 mother's day is simple and soothing with flower. I loved it. I salute every mother who made their childrens good citizens of this universe.

Google's +1 button

2011-05-07T09:41:00.002+05:30

Use the +1 button to publicly show what you like, agree with, or recommend on the web. The +1 button can appear in a variety of places, both on Google and on sites across the web. For example, you might see a +1 button for a Google search result, Google ad, or next to an article you're reading on your favorite news site. Your +1’s and your social connections also help improve the content you see in Google Search. Learn how to +1. Don't have the +1 button yet? Get it now.

Source: Google

Gmail New Feature: Send email in background

2011-04-27T12:29:00.000+05:30

There is a new feature in Google Gmail, Which enables to send email in background. This feature available in Google Labs. Users can work other tasks while email is being sent. Once your turn it on from the Google labs settings you can get on with what you are doing while Gmail quietly sends off your mail in the back ground. You can keep reading your inbox, compose new messages, chat with people. You can even send more than on message in the background at the same time.

Source: Gmail Blog

How to: Google Page Rank Graphical Guide

2011-04-18T13:12:00.004+05:30

Source: ZippyCart

Google’s SEO Starter Guide

2011-04-16T00:14:00.000+05:30

Google has updated its Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, now available in ten more languages. This is an official 32-page detailed guide on SEO from Google which covers important topics on SEO that are very helpful for new webmasters. The new version of guide has updated content and describes best practices for mobile websites. It discusses effective ways to optimize the SEO and content of site, thus to improve your sites’ interaction with both user and search engines and make it easier for search engines to crawl, index and understand your content.

Download SEO Starter Guide Here

Google Apps Certification Program

2011-02-24T07:38:00.000+05:30

Google has created a mechanism for endorsing its resellers of Google Apps products. Adoption of Google Apps is accelerating around the world with over 3 million businesses that have gone Google. Google Apps Authorized Resellers play a critical role in helping businesses get started. As our partner community has more than doubled in the last year to over 2,500 partners in over 70 countries, partners have been seeking opportunities to demonstrate their expertise and competence to a growing customer base.

We are therefore happy to announce the Google Apps Certification Program, which recognizes IT professionals for demonstrated abilities to sell, deploy, develop, and support Google Apps. Available today globally, is the first of these certifications, the Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist, which certifies IT professionals who have demonstrated the fundamental knowledge and skills required to migrate to, configure, and deploy Google Apps.

“As we continue to build out our global Google Apps practice, it is essential for us to differentiate ourselves and to gain recognition for the great depth of Apps expertise we have developed with so many customers. The Google Apps Certification Program will help generate new client interest by highlighting our commitment to offering the highest-value consulting services to the market," explains Jon Hallett, CEO of Cloud Sherpas, a Google Apps Authorized Reseller.

Like Google Apps, this certification is 100% web – any IT professional with a browser and an Internet connection can register to take the online proctored exam. It is available in English now, and will soon be available in additional languages. To learn more, go to certification.googleapps.com.

Source: Google Enterprise Blog

Intensifying Search Competition : Microsoft Bing, Google Battle

2011-02-14T21:03:00.000+05:30

Any doubts about Microsoft’s seriousness in its online efforts should have been dispelled this week, after the company lashed back at Google’s accusations that Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, copies its Web-search results.

“I didn’t expect that Microsoft would deny the claims so strongly,” Google Principal Engineer Matt Cutts wrote in a Feb. 3 posting on his personal blog. “One comment that I’ve heard is that ‘it’s whiny for Google to complain about this.’ I agree that’s a risk, but at the same time I think it’s important to go on the record about this.”

The tussle began Feb. 1, when the blog Search Engine Land published details of what it called Google’s “sting operation” against Bing. Google executives claim they grew suspicious of how closely Bing’s search results mirrored their own, and, after finding terms with no matches on either search engine, created “honey pot” pages that appeared on the top of search results for those terms. When a small portion of Bing search results seemed to mirror Google’s forced pages, the latter began leveling accusations.

“To me, what the experiment proved was that clicks on Google are being incorporated in Bing’s rankings,” Cutts wrote in his blog. “Microsoft is best company to answer the degree to which clicks on Google figure into their Bing’s rankings, and I hope they clarify how much of an impact clicks on Google affect Microsoft’s rankings.”

Microsoft claims that Bing is merely leveraging data fed by users of Bing Bar and similar applications. “In simple terms, Google’s ‘experiment’ was rigged to manipulate Bing search results through a type of attack known as ‘click fraud,’” Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s online services division, wrote in a Feb. 2 posting on the Bing Community blog. “As we have said before and again in this post, we use clickstream optionally provided by consumers in an anonymous fashion as one of 1,000 signals to try and determine whether a site might make sense to be in our index.”

Mehdi also seemed intent on stirring the already-roiled waters a bit more. “In October 2010, we released a series of big, noticeable improvements to Bing’s relevance. So big and noticeable that we are told Google took notice and began to worry,” he wrote. “Then, a short time later, here come the honey-pot attacks. Is the timing purely coincidence? Are industry discussions about search quality to be ignored? Is this simply a response to the fact that some people in the industry are beginning to ask whether Bing is as good or in some cases better than Google on core Web relevance?”

Bing has made slow but steady gains since its summer 2009 launch, but its 12 percent U.S. market share (as of December, according to research firm comScore) does not present an existential threat to Google’s 66.6 percent. Bing also powers back-end search for Yahoo, whose share stood at 16 percent. Even if you combine its share into Bing’s, however, the audience for Microsoft’s search engine remains half that of Google.

“I don’t know how old I will be when that’ll happen,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience in March 2010, during the Search Marketing Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., when asked if and when Bing would overtake Google in search.

Whatever the future holds, Microsoft seems determined to spend whatever it takes to keep Bing viable. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company’s Online Services Division suffered operating losses of $543 million, a significant downtick from the $463 million burnt during the same quarter in 2009. That contributes to total losses of $1.1 billion for the second half of 2010.

Microsoft also has yet to see substantial profits from cloud-based initiatives such as Azure. Over the next few quarters, the company will release cloud-based products, including Office 365, designed to fit a variety of business needs—and counter Google’s aggressive push into that area with offerings such as Google Apps.

Given Microsoft’s intensifying focus on online services and the cloud, and Google’s continued presence in those areas, a little verbal back-and-forth between the two companies’ executives is only to be expected. The vitriol of this latest salvo, though, hints at just how much both Microsoft and Google have riding on their respective properties.

Source: eWeek

Simplify wedding planning

2011-02-12T11:48:00.001+05:30

Explore how Google’s free tools can help you save time, stay organized and have fun while planning your big day.

Google has launched Google.com/weddings, an online platform that aims to help people in planning their weddings. According to Google, the company has created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at Google.com/weddings. The platform also helps users to create their wedding websites.

Share your story and event details with an easy to create website. Choose the style that fits your theme or venue, then edit your website with ease.

Use Picnik’s photo editing tools to create photos that are simply perfect. Then use them to create announcements, save the date cards and more.

Save time by collaborating with your bridal party on guest lists, schedules, addresses, and more. Access and edit your planning documents from the bridal shop, bakery or pretty much anywhere.

Create an online photo album to share your engagement and wedding pictures, or gather photos of floral arrangements, dresses and other inspirations.

Enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding designed by Michelle Rago.
See Official Rules.

Schmidt Out as Google CEO, Co-founder Larry Page will take charge

2011-01-22T07:59:00.000+05:30

Google just dropped a bombshell: Eric Schmidt is out as CEO (as announced in the company's earings report. We'll be covering the company's earnings call, which is sure to have more on this.
He will step down from the role starting April 4, and co-founder Larry Page will take charge of Google's day-to-day operations as CEO. Co-founder Sergey Brin will devote his energy to strategic projects like working on new products.

Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership--all of which are increasingly important given Google's global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

Source: WebProNews

Google Voice Tests Number Porting

2011-01-20T22:32:00.000+05:30

Google Voice users may soon be able to turn their cellphone numbers into their central Google Voice number for $20. The search giant recently started testing a number porting service for Google Voice with a small group of users. The feature requires you to cancel your mobile contract and move your phone number from your carrier to Google.

Google Voice is a freemium service that ties all your different phone lines, including your mobile device, office and home numbers, into one central phone number. If someone calls your Google Voice number, all your phones ring until you pick up the call on one of your phones. Google Voice includes other helpful services such as text messaging, voice mail transcripts and overseas calling rates.

One downside of Google Voice is that if the service is going to be of any use, you have to distribute your new Google Voice number to all your contacts. Otherwise, you will only get calls on your individual lines instead of routing calls through one central number. Google's new number porting service appears to solve this minor dilemma for a price.

On top of the $20 charge for moving your number to Google Voice, you have to cancel your mobile contract. That means you may also end up paying an early termination fee to your mobile carrier if your cellphone is still under contract.

The termination fees can end up costing you hundreds of dollars. Verizon came under criticism in 2009 when its fee went as high as $350, and there were reports last January that termination fees for the Google Nexus One handset on T-Mobile could reach $550.

To see if your account is sporting the new feature, log in to your Google Voice account and click on the "Settings" drop down menu in the upper right corner. Select "Voice settings" and you should see a port option under the "Phones" tab. Not all Google Voice users are seeing the new feature, so don't be surprised if it's not available.A Google spokeswoman, said, "We're continually testing new features to enhance the user experience. For a limited amount of time, we're making the Google Voice number porting process available to users. We don't have any additional details to share at this time, but plan to offer this feature to all users in the near future."

Engadget is also reporting that Google has pulled the number porting service, at least for now. Google said as early as 2009 that it wanted to provide a number porting service, so, as the Google representative said, you can count on seeing this service again.

Source: PC World

Google Chrome OS: Everything in the Browser Window

2011-01-19T12:50:00.000+05:30

Think about how little you may use your personal computer’s hard drive anymore. Unless you keep a music or video collection, or store your e-mail locally instead of using a Web-based service like Gmail, you might not use it at all.With that in mind, Google has developed Chrome OS, an operating system for laptops that does just about everything inside a browser window. As a result, forthcoming Chrome OS laptops from Asus and Samsung due later this year will be lightweight, low-maintenance and, most of all, inexpensive. Google’s chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, has said the target price range will be $300 to $400 for a model that’s not a flimsy netbook.

I’ve got a prototype Chrome OS laptop supplied by Google, which is not available for sale. Called the Cr-48 — the name is the chemical symbol for an unstable isotope of the element Chromium — the matte-black notebook boots up Google’s Chrome browser in seven seconds, and reawakens instantly from sleep. It has no hot, spinning disk drive because it doesn’t need one to hold the small Chrome OS operating system. Sixteen gigabytes of solid-state memory do the trick.

The Cr-48 weighs less than four pounds and runs silent and cool. To stay connected to the internet, it packs both Wi-Fi and a Verizon 3G account that includes 100 megabytes per month of free data. There may be different options when the real products go on sale.

The prototype has two nice nerdy touches. One is the matte screen, rather than a glossy one, much better for reading and writing text instead of watching video. And there’s no Caps Lock key, because YOU DON’T NEED TO SHOUT ON THE INTERNET.

But can you really live inside a browser window all day and night? For many, the answer is yes. There are Web-based versions of just about everything these days. Plus, Google has created a Chrome Web Store full of apps that install inside its browser. Many are free. Some even work without a live Internet connection. By adopting a do-it-online mindset, you can perform just about any task as long as you’re connected.

Use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo for email. Edit and review Microsoft Office files on the company’s Office Live site, or switch to Google Docs, which should work offline by the time Chrome laptops are available. Manage your personal finances on Mint. Edit and store photos with the free Aviary Photo Editor app. Build your music library on Grooveshark, Pandora or one of many other apps. Make phone calls using Skype or Google Talk.

To upload and download personal files, you can plug a disk or thumb drive into the Cr-48’s USB jack, or pop in an SD card. Many phones will also plug in as USB drives, so you can get your pictures off your phone and upload them to Aviary, Flickr or Google’s Picasa.

What can’t you do? There’s no way to sync your phone’s contacts to Chrome OS. And for now, printing is tricky. You have to use Google’s Cloud Print service to connect to a printer plugged into another computer. HP plans to sell printers this year that will let a Chrome laptop print directly.

Compared with a Windows laptop, a Chrome OS model will offer one big advantage: price. The Windows license for a laptop can run over $100. For a $400 computer, that’s a big part of the cost. Also, the much simpler operating system is likely to be virus-free and require little maintenance. It updates itself periodically over the Internet. And there aren’t many system configuration options to mess with, reducing another source of anxiety.

For people whose sole major computing task is uploading pictures to Facebook, a low-price, browser-only laptop that can upload and download files to plug-in storage seems like a cost-effective option. Without a disk or fan, or long boot times, it’s more relaxing to use, too.

Will these things sell? I think that, like netbooks and iPads, they’ll need to go viral and become a consumer fad if potential buyers are going to overcome their doubts that they’re somehow not getting a real computer.

Source: "The New York Times"

Facebook Tops over Google as Most visited site in 2010

2010-12-31T12:57:00.001+05:30

Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited website in the US in 2010, according to a survey by the web tracking firm Experian Hitwise.

The social networking site also claimed the top search term of the year, with variations on its name filling four of the 10 most popular searches, the survey found. In all, Facebook searches accounted for 3.48 percent of all web searches in the US in 2010, a 207-percent increase over 2009.

The study found that Facebook accounted for 8.93 cent of all US website visits in the year, ahead of Google.com's 7.19 percent and third-placed Yahoo Mail with 3.85 percent.

However if all Google's various properties are taken into account, the web search giant did overtake Facebook with 9.85 percent of all website visits. Microsoft's msn.com and bing.com also made it into the list of top ten websites, as did myspace.com.

Other terms in the top 10 searches included "youtube", "craigslist", "myspace", "ebay" and "yahoo".

Source: "NDTV"

5 Great Free Business Apps for Google Chrome

2010-12-28T13:48:00.000+05:30

Google's Chrome Web Store might only have been up and running for a few weeks, but it already hosts a stock of high-quality add-in apps.

Listed below are five free of charge productivity and business apps that caught our eye and are well worth investigating.

The Web Store introduces Chrome users to cloud working and, as such, most of the apps show the trend towards built-in intelligence that's common to many cloud applications. A notepad application offered in the Web Store is very unlikely to simply let you write memos, for example. It will probably integrate web searches or allow you to share your notes on Facebook and Twitter. Gathering data and interconnectivity is where the power of the cloud lies.

To visit the Web Store from within Chrome, click the link on the New Tab page and then click the Web Store icon under the Apps heading. If you don't see one, click here to go straight to the store. You'll need the latest version of Chrome, of course, because the Web Store has only just been added-in.

Needless to say, if you're lucky enough to have a CR-48 laptop, these apps will work fine for you too.

1. Rainmaker

Describing itself as an app that supercharges contacts, Rainmaker is able to automagically pull information about people in your Gmail address book from the web, Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook. This information includes mugshots, addresses, phone numbers, and Internet details. Some of it is publically available data and some you have access to because you friended the individual on Facebook, for example.

The process of seeking-out information is referred to as "raining on", and each time it's used a raindrop is spent. You get 10 of these free of charge when you sign-up, so can dig the dirt on 10 contacts, but you can buy more via various monthly subscriptions for as little as $9 per month.

All the data sought-out by Rainmaker is automatically imported into Google Contacts, which can be accessed from within Gmail by clicking the Contacts link above the Chat box. Rainmaker works with Google Apps for Domains too.

2. Springpad

The best way to describe Springpad is as a supercharged notebook and To Do list maker. Because it's a cloud application, your data can be accessed from anywhere in the world, and the app is built around HTML5 so will work on the majority of modern browsers, phones and smartpads too (although iOS and Android apps are available too).

Notes can contain text, or you can also build a note around a web search. For example, enter the name of a favorite recipe and you can look through the list of results and create a note from one that looks interesting. You can then add your own details below. Springpad is clever enough to realize what you're doing, so will add an "I want to cook this" field at the top, which you can change to "I've cooked this" once you've made the recipe! It'll also recognize things like movies, books, products, and more.

To Do lists are simple but effective, and you can set alerts to appear on due dates. All notes can be tagged for easy searching, and shared online with others.

Springpad is free of charge, although a small advertisement appears at the bottom left of the browser window.

3. Simplebooklet

Despite its title, Simplebooklet is actually an online presentations tool. It fills a blindingly obvious gap in the market: creating presentations that can be viewed within a browser, and accessed via a simple URL that you share with others. Forget about paper or projectors. Why not use the browser as the medium?

Simplebooklet is extremely easy to use, with bright colorful icons, drag and drop, and not a hint of technical language anywhere. Like any presentations tool it's based around individual pages/slides, to which you can add images, text, files, video, music, webpages (as screenshots), and even your own HTML code. Once the presentation is finished, it can be published via the major social networking tools (Twitter, Facebook etc.) and you can even embed it within your own website via an iFrame, for which the code is automatically generated.

Simplebooklet is free for up to 20MB of content, and allowing the creation of unlimited booklets, with various yearly plans starting at $10 for more storage space.

4. World Time Planner

Working across different timezones can be a pain, and if you frequently travel to other countries scheduling meetings can become a mind-melting exercise. World Time Planner is a simple app that lets you click and drag a slider to see what the time will be in various cities over the next 24 hours. Daytime and nighttime symbols appear alongside each city to indicate at a glance when the working day starts and finishes. Never before has it been so easy to schedule a breakfast meeting in Singapore while you're sitting in your Boston office.

World Time Planner is entirely free of charge and, unlike some of the apps listed here, works if the computer is offline too.

5. Read Later Fast

Falling under the "devastatingly useful but simple" category, Read Later Fast does exactly what its name suggests: one the app is installed, if you visit a page in Chrome that you want to save to read later, just right click in a blank spot and select the Read Later link in the menu.

The page will then be added to the Read Later Fast inbox, where it can be read even if the computer is offlne--ideal if your laptop has spotty connectivity, or you're about to jump on a plane for a long journey.

Read Later Fast can also be used to archive pages, which has a whole range of uses, especially bearing in mind pages tend to disappear remarkably quickly on the modern Internet.

One particularly nice feature is the Text View button, which intelligently presents only the core body text and images from the stored web page, stripping out everything else, such as advertising sidebars.

Source: PCWorld

Google: India could be cloud computing market

2010-11-11T20:25:00.001+05:30

Google- world's largest search engine administrator- is pinning hopes on the growing cloud computing market in India with plans to double its engineering headcount in the country in next two years, a senior company official said here today.

According to Peeyush Ranjan, head of engineering, Google India, the IT major is gearing up for tapping the market though the market is said to be still in its nascent phase.

He said the company is keen on putting in place the technologies and its engineering team to cater to the market demands.

"We target the SMB market in India for cloud. The country like China is a very price-sensitive market and the small and medium businesses are showing interest in adopting the cloud model primarily due to the cost advantages at various points of its implementation," Ranjan said.

He said Google already has about 3 million clients on cloud and in India, the number is at about one lakh comprising major educational institutions, corporate and SMBs.

"Between Google Bangalore and Hyderabad, we have a team of about 300 engineers working on the cloud technologies. This is the largest cloud focused team for the company outside US Now, in order to cater to the growing market opportunities, we are preparing to hire hundreds of engineers into this team," he said.

He, however, refused to provide the exact number of employees to be hired.

Google Apps, the company's offering for the enterprises to move into the cloud, have about 25 million active users currently.

"We are signing about 3,000 businesses every day and we are approaching the market through about 1,000 authorised resellers," he said.

Source: "The Economic Times"

Google AdSense New User Interface

2010-11-10T19:59:00.001+05:30

Google AdSense, the search giant’s ad serving application, is unleashing a brand new interface for its 2 million publishers. The AdSense interface is how publishers set up, manage, optimize and see reports on the ads on their sites.

AdSense actually has two products: one is AdSense for Content, which allows publishers to generate revenue from ads placed alongside their content. The other is AdSense for Search, which allows publishers to place a custom Google search engine on their site and generate revenue from ads shown next to search results. Although, we recently found out that the majority of AdSense publishers are using the content product.

A year ago, Google rolled out a private beta test for 30,000 publishers, but now is opening up the new interface to the public. The new UI will be available in more than 30 languages and in each of the 200+ countries where AdSense is available.

One of the main additions to the UI is that Google will present publishers with more data insights, including a number of new simple, graphical reporting tools. Publishers can run performance reports by ad type, ad size, ad unit, targeting type, and bid type for total earnings and other metrics, over custom date ranges. Google will also now provide detailed graphs of view impressions, clicks, and earnings.

Google has also made ad controls more powerful, allowing publishers to filter which ads and advertisers they want on their site. Publishers can now filter ads from specific advertisers, categories, and ad networks. And it’s easier to review and manage ads that have been placement-targeted and publishers can now search for ads in the ad review center by ad type, keyword, URL, or ad network, and choose to allow or block them.

And AdSense now make it easier to see earnings and payment information, to run reports, or make account changes.

Google will be steadily allowing publishers to access the new interface over the next few days. While publishers can continue to use the older version of the management interface, the search giant expects the new UI to be popular, especially with the new reporting analysis and controls.

Source: "CrunchBase"

The World's First Internet Television Unvieling by Sony on October 12

2010-09-29T12:21:00.000+05:30

Get ready for more details on Google TV.

Sony has just dispatched an invitation for a New York City media event slated for October 12 that promises the introduction of "the world's first Internet Television." Sony's "Internet Television" is one of the first home video products that will include built-in support for Google TV, the new Web video service from the search giant that promises to integrate Google search and any Web-based Flash video directly into the TV.

The product was first announced at the Google I/O conference in May, and subsequently demoed at the IFA show in Germany earlier this month (see photos below). In addition to the Sony TV, there have been persistent rumors of a Google TV-enabled Sony Blu-ray player as well. The Sony products will compete with the Google TV-powered Logitech Revue set-top box, which is also scheduled to be released this fall.

CNET will be covering the October 12 event live, and we're hopeful that we'll be getting details on pricing and availability on Sony's products. For Sony and Google, it's certainly a case of the sooner, the better. These streaming TV products will be going head-to-head with the already refreshed Roku line, the soon-to-be-released Apple TV update, and the much-anticipated Boxee Box--not to mention Sony's own SMP-N100

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20017615-1.html#ixzz10wp8oM5H

Happy Birthday Google

2010-09-27T18:48:00.000+05:30

If you're wondering what that cake was for when you opened Google this morning, let us inform you that it was today, 12 years ago, that the company was born.

Founded then by two Phd students (now billionaires) Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the website is arguably the most common and most visited website on the planet. Google has since then "diversified" from being a search engine to becoming a mail provider (Gmail), photo sharing site (Picasa), maps service provider (Google Maps) and even social networking platforms (Orkut, Buzz). It is also now a big player in the mobile smart phone operating system segment with its Android OS which is fast becoming the OS of choice for many. It also has a Web Browser, Chrome and also an upcoming PC Operating System sharing the same name - Chrome OS.

Most of Google's services were roaring successes except for a few exceptions like Wave and even its latest social networking platform, the Buzz. Google had also released a mobile phone called the Google Nexus One (as if you don't know!) which did see moderate success.

As for the "actual" birthday of Google, the debate is still on as to what can be considered the real birthday of the site. The Google.com domain was registered on September 15, 1997 and in the past, Google has celebrated its birthday on September 7 and of late, mostly on September 27. The company seems to have more or less fixed September 27 as its "official birthday" and it could well be the way forward in the coming years.

Anyway, here's wishing Google a very happy birthday!
Techtree

Project 10^100 Winners

2010-09-27T12:18:00.000+05:30

Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted over 150,000 ideas. Final list is out. Following are the projects which got funded by Google under Project 10^100.

Idea: Make educational content available online for free

Project funded: The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organisation that provides high-quality, free education to anyone, anywhere via an online library of more than 1,600 teaching videos. We are providing $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages.

Idea: Enhance science and engineering education

Project funded: FIRST is a non-profit organisation that promotes science and maths education around the world through team competition. Its mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by giving them real-world experience of working with professional engineers and scientists. We are providing $3 million to develop and jump-start new student-driven robotics team fundraising programmes that will empower more student teams to participate in FIRST.

Idea: Make government more transparent

Project funded: Public.Resource.Org is a non-profit organisation focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States. We are providing $2 million to Public.Resource.Org to help bring legal materials of the United States online, so that they are accessible to all.

Idea: Drive innovation in public transport

Project funded: Shweeb is a concept for short-to-medium-distance, urban personal transport, using human-powered vehicles on a monorail. We are providing $1 million to fund research and development to test Shweeb’s technology for an urban setting.

Idea: Provide quality education to African students

Project funded: The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a centre for maths and science education and research in Cape Town, South Africa. AIMS’ primary focus is a one-year bridging programme for recent university graduates that helps build skills and knowledge prior to Masters and PhD study. We are providing $2 million to fund the opening of additional AIMS centres to promote graduate-level maths and science study in Africa.

Google Announces Google Instant - Streaming Search Results

2010-09-09T20:57:00.000+05:30

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.

Benefits

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

Source: Google

Google introduces new mail experience "Priority Inbox"

2010-09-03T11:04:00.000+05:30

Priority Inbox can help save you time if you’re overwhelmed with the amount of email you get. It attempts to automatically identify your important incoming messages and separates them out from everything else. Gmail uses a variety of signals to prioritize your incoming messages, including who you emailed most frequently and which messages you’ve recently opened as opposed to which messages you’ve deleted.
When you click the Priority Inbox navigation link on the left-hand side of your mail, you’ll see messages grouped in three sections: Important and unread, Starred, and Everything else. This is the default setup, but you may customize your sections on the Priority Inbox in Settings.
If Priority Inbox mistakes an email as important or doesn’t flag one that’s important to you, you can teach it to make better selections. Just select the message in question, and click the “mark as important” or “mark as not important” button; they’re the buttons with plus and minus icons just to the left of the Move to and Labels drop-down menus.
When you mark a message as not important, it will move out of the Important section. Over time Priority Inbox will learn what’s important to you and incorporate the feedback you give via these buttons.
The signals that Gmail uses to prioritize your email are never surfaced to other users -- they’re only used to prioritize your mail for you. So if you always ignore email from Bob and those messages are marked as “not important” in your inbox, it won’t affect how Bob sees the conversation in his inbox.

Source: Gmail

Google launches Health Speaks: Online health information in local languages

2010-09-01T15:32:00.001+05:30

Google has introduced a new initiative called Health Speaks that aims to help increase the amount of high-quality online health information in local languages. To begin with, the company has launched pilot projects to support community-based, crowd-sourced translation of health information from English into Arabic, Hindi and Swahili.

“Language should not be the barrier that denies millions of people worldwide the opportunity to improve their health with valuable health information,” Jennifer Haroon, manager, health initiatives, Google.org, has said. “We encourage anyone with health knowledge who is bilingual in English and either Arabic, Hindi or Swahili to take part in the pilot projects for Health Speaks.”

Google has also decided to provide a donation incentive to encourage community translators to participate. “For the first 60 days, we will donate 3 cents (US) for each English word translated to the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, the Public Health Foundation of India and the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) for the pilots in Arabic, Hindi and Swahili, respectively, up to $50,000 each,” Jennifer Haroon has added.

Alootechie

Google new launch: Google Realtime

2010-08-27T20:47:00.002+05:30

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

2010-08-27T13:19:00.001+05:30

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

2010-08-21T12:12:00.000+05:30

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

2010-08-16T23:09:00.004+05:30

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

2010-08-13T16:49:00.001+05:30

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

2010-08-09T17:46:00.000+05:30

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

Google Planning to Build Facebook Rival

2010-07-28T23:14:00.003+05:30

Google is planning to build a social-networking service which could compete with Facebook. The Wall Street Journal reported.

Playdom Inc, Electronic Arts Inc. 's Playfish and Zynga Game Network Inc (company in which Google recently took a financial stake) are the top developers to with whom Google has been in discussions to offer their games on a new service Google building.

Google's partnership with Zynga was reported earlier by the blog TechCrunch. Zynga is currently the leader in the fast-growing social gaming space with over 230 million monthly active users of its games, which include "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and "Treasure Isle."

Facebook growth is potential threat to Google. Over the past year, several former Google executives who ran the company's core advertising business left to work for Facebook.

Facebook, now with over 500 million users, sells advertising on its own site. But speculation is growing that it could launch an advertising network across other sites, rivaling Google's ad network AdSense.

The Journal said Google's push into social games is an effort to capture users and advertising dollars that are increasingly flowing to social networks like Facebook.

"Google Me" might be Google's new social network.

Google To Cease Nexus One Sales Soon

2010-07-19T21:41:00.001+05:30

Google indicated on Friday, July 16, that it has received its last shipment of Nexus One handsets. It will sell through this final bit of inventory, and then will close up shop. The company said in a blog post, "Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google. Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers. And Nexus One will continue to be sold by partners including Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea, and possibly others based on local market conditions."

How did Google get to this spot?

Google's little experiment to sell Android handsets online directly to consumers was a failure from the start. It just didn't work. With partners Verizon Wireless and Sprint throwing in the towel on the Nexus One completely before the device even launched for their respective networks, there was little reason for Google to keep the store open.

Google's Andy Rubin said in May, "As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from."

Google made the right call with this decision. It is one thing to sell a device online that customers at least have the opportunity to see in real life somewhere else (such as a store). But when consumers can't put their hands directly on the thing that they are going to buy, things get tricky.

Phones are extremely personal devices. I would never recommend that anyone buy a mobile phone sight unseen. It's just not a good idea. Why? It's something you spend hours with each day. It has to be good, it has to be what you want.

When Google first announced that the Nexus One online store was going to be shuttered, it said that the device would eventually be available from brick-and-mortar retailers. To-date, however, the big national retailers (such as Best Buy, RadioShack, etc.) have remained mum on the Android handset's availability. Google's latest word on the subject only implies availability in Europe, though developers will always have access to the Nexus One through the Android developer program.

Despite the failure of its online sales model, Google has maintained that the Nexus One was a profitable business.

Source: Informationweek
By Eric Zeman

Google to Push Android OS in India and China

2010-07-07T20:54:00.000+05:30

Do not even think that Android-based smartphones have always been expensive mobile devices. As a matter of fact, your notions can be changed. It turns out that Google is going to push the Android OS on low-cost mobile devices in the markets of China and India.

Vice president of Engineering at Google, Andy Rubin revealed in his recent interview that the down-market opportunity can happen. It can be regarded as a revolution. In order to reach this dream, Google facilitates the way for app developers to accept payments from apps and offer subscriptions so as to make more money from Android. Such handset manufacturers as LG and Huawei are planning to take advantage of the Android OS.

Actually, such a move comes after it was revealed that Android is ready to pip iOS of Apple sometime in 2012 in order to become the second most popular mobile operating system in the world being behind Symbin OS of Nokia.

Source: Freshnews.in

Google's China website expires at midnight

2010-06-30T20:06:00.000+05:30

The license for Google's China website expires at midnight, but as the workday ended it had not been renewed. The US firm antagonized Beijing this year by refusing to censor its search results.

Google closed its Beijing offices for the day Wednesday still uncertain whether its Chinese website would be legal in the morning.

As a midnight deadline for an annual license renewal loomed, Google was still awaiting a decision by the Chinese authorities on its application for a new permit to act as an Internet content provider.

The fate of the American search engine giant – which in January announced that it would no longer submit searches by mainland Chinese users to official censorship as required – has been watched as a test of Internet freedom in the country.

“We are still waiting to hear from the government,” said Marsha Wang, Google spokeswoman in Beijing, on Wednesday afternoon. “We do not know.”

Google said it decided to stop censoring its search results after it had detected cyberattacks coming from China against human rights activists’ Gmail accounts.

It has circumvented Chinese censorship since March by automatically redirecting any user who visited google.cn to the company’s uncensored website in Hong Kong, at google.com.hk.

The Chinese authorities objected, however. “It is clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable – and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed,” Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said on Google’s official blog.

“Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn – so Google would effectively go dark in China,” Mr. Drummond wrote.

Compromise solution?

Google responded this week to government concerns by adding a step that users on the Chinese mainland must take themselves to find their way to the Hong Kong site. It was still unclear Wednesday evening whether Beijing would accept this technical gesture.

The uncertainty over Google’s website, which channels about one third of Chinese Web searches, has also raised doubts over the company’s other business activities in China, such as its research and development center and its bid to persuade Chinese mobile phonemakers to install its Android software.

On Tuesday, Sina.com published screenshots from the Beijing Municipal Administration of Industry and Commerce website, apparently showing that the four companies through which Google operates in China have all had their business licenses renewed. Those pages could no longer be accessed on Wednesday, and Ms. Wang said she could not comment on the status of Google’s business license applications.

In any case, Google’s website requires a separate license from the Beijing Communications Administration. The agency’s spokesman was not available for comment Wednesday evening.

Source: CSMONITOR

Google’s new kind of display ads let advertisers attract more followers to their Twitter accounts

2010-06-11T18:36:00.001+05:30

Google is testing out a new kind of display ad that lets advertisers attract more followers to their Twitter accounts. Ads appear in a box with the Twitter bird icon, the advertisers’ latest tweet and a button prompting viewers to follow the advertiser on Twitter, which they can do without having to leave Google. Clicking on any other part of the ad directs the user to the advertiser’s Twitter page.

“To provide more marketing opportunities for our advertisers to reach users in moments that are relevant and useful to them, we are currently testing different ways that allow advertisers to better update their ads in real time,” a Google spokesperson has said, adding, “We are currently in a limited test with a small number of advertisers and publishers.”

Source: ClickZ via Mashable

AG Blumenthal probes Google use of private data

2010-06-08T13:51:00.000+05:30

Turkey bans Google's Services, Twitter and Friendfeed

2010-06-05T01:49:00.002+05:30

The Turkish government has reportedly blocked access to some or all of Google’s services in that country. Turkish citizens on Twitter and other social networks such as FriendFeed have also reported access problems, and have been sharing comments about the blockage using hashtags such as TurkeyCensorGoogle, TurkeyGoogleBan and NoGoogleNoWeb.

It’s not clear whether this is a deliberate attempt to block all of Google’s websites and services, or whether the latest access restrictions are related to the government’s ongoing attempts to block YouTube. Access to Google’s video service was cut off in 2008 after complaints that videos critical of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk — the founder of modern Turkey — were available on YouTube. Criticism of Turkey, or any “insult to Turkishness,” is a criminal offence in that country, reports GigaOm.

A Google spokesman has said, “We have received reports that some Google applications are unable to be accessed in Turkey. The difficulty in accessing some Google services in Turkey appears to be linked to the ongoing ban on YouTube. We are working to get our services back up as soon as possible.”

The telecommunication and communication ministry (TIB), a government body that can control internet accessibility in Turkey are reportedly attempting to block certain IPs (internet protocol addresses) belonging to Google due to ‘legal reason’. ISPs in the country are understood to have told users that they would suffer accessibility problems to Google’s home page in Turkey, websites that use Google Analytics, and use of the Google Toolbar. [Source: National Turk]

September 2010 witness Google Chrome OS

2010-06-03T14:06:00.003+05:30

At the on-going Computex 2010 Expo, Google announced that Chrome OS would be released in Fall (September) this year.

Google's vice president of product management, Sundar Pichai said, "We are working on bringing the device later this fall." So now, we have a fixed time frame when Chrome OS will finally be made available on notebooks and desktops. It was in July 2009 that Google had announced Linux kernel based Chrome OS for desktops and notebooks. This open source operating system is based on Google's Chrome browser and is designed to work seamlessly with web applications.

Pichai added, "It's something which we are very excited by ... We expect it to reach millions of users on day one." Untill we come across and use a Chrome OS based device, we cannot say whether Google will beat Microsoft or not. Google Chrome OS would be available on notebooks and desktops from partners like Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo. Techtree

Google Security Concern: Mac or Linux, No to Windows

2010-06-01T17:37:00.003+05:30

According to the Financial Times, the technology titan has been slowly phasing out the use of Windows internally since January, not long after it was assaulted by Chinese hackers. For example, new hires are no longer offered Windows PCs — the choices are now an Apple Mac computer or a PC loaded with Linux.

Google’s policies surrounding the internal use of Windows aren’t clear-cut, though. Some employees can still install Windows on their laptops, but not their desktop computers. However, Googlers need explicit permission from “quite senior levels” in order to keep using the Windows OS.

The move makes sense: Windows and Internet Explorer have been implicated as vectors in which hackers accessed personal accounts and confidential data from Google’s servers. And of course, Microsoft is one of Google’s primary competitors.

It’s important to note that later this year, Google is expected to release Chrome OS, the company’s web-centric operating system. However, the decision to leave Windows behind doesn’t seem to be motivated by the impending release of its experimental OS.
Source: Mashable

Google's Latest Launch: Its Own Trading Floor

2010-05-30T16:48:00.001+05:30

The search giant is hiring Wall Street vets to manage a $26.5 billion pile of cash

Last fall, some unusual job listings began cropping up on Google's (GOOG) website. Amid the requests for programmers and engineers were postings for bond traders and portfolio analysts. By spring, tech blogs were speculating about what was going on at Google.

The answer was very un-Silicon Valley. Google, it turns out, has launched a trading floor to manage its $26.5 billion in cash and short-term investments. The hoard is the third-biggest cash pile among U.S. tech companies, after Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco's (CSCO).

One of the company's goals is to improve the returns on its money, which until now has been managed conservatively. Google doesn't disclose its rate of return on investments or the targets it has set, but analyst Aaron Kessler of ThinkEquity estimates the company's 2010 return (including interest income and realized and unrealized gains before tax) at around 2.5 percent. That's a higher return than some other large Internet outfits, such as Yahoo! and Amazon, he says.

Google is using some of its money to buy back shares in the wake of its $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob, which was an all-stock deal. The transaction was cleared by U.S. regulators on May 21. Investors have been wondering what else the company intends to do with its cash. IBM (IBM) recently announced plans to spend $20 billion over five years on acquisitions. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) just bought Palm (PALM) for $1.2 billion. "Google could do 10 Palm kind of deals," says Michael Yoshikami, president and chief investment strategist of YCMNET Advisors, which owns Google shares. "That would be a pretty decent use of their money." Beyond the AdMob buybacks, Google has said it has no plans to return cash to shareholders.

Google's trading room opened in January. The plan is to keep the war chest growing safely and ready to be deployed should the right mergers-and-acquisitions opportunities arise. The investment team has grown to more than 30 people, up from six three years ago. Many of the new arrivals are former Wall Streeters who left lucrative careers at Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and other banks. The man in charge is Brent Callinicos, Google's 44-year-old treasurer, who joined from Microsoft in 2007, back when Google had $11 billion in cash. "This isn't fast money, this is patient money," he says. His crew works in a recently remodeled finance building on the company's corporate campus in Mountain View, Calif., complete with a rock climbing wall, massage chairs, murals of tropical sunsets, and bamboo wall panels. In a second-floor space accessed by key card—the trading room—the Wall Street vets tap out trades at desks with six computer screens.

Craig A. Jeffery, managing partner of Atlanta-based consultant Strategic Treasurer, says the financial technology at banks and most corporate treasuries tends to be an unwieldy hodgepodge of disparate software applications. If you're crunching numbers in Excel, you probably have to cut and paste the results manually into your foreign- exchange analytics software. Callinicos got around the coordination problem by tapping in-house engineers to meld the various pieces of software into one dashboard for trading and managing cash. "Callinicos built this mosaic of systems and a way of relating them together," says Jeffery.

That woven-together technology gives Google a trading advantage: It shows the value of the company's holdings all over the world in near-real time. This is harder than it sounds. Jeffery says that most treasuries with dozens of bank relationships in multiple countries can see the values of only 60 percent or 70 percent of their positions at any given time. Google's systems can monitor 98 percent of its holdings in real time, says Callinicos. "One of the toughest parts of [managing cash] is extracting the right data for the right decisions at the push of a button," says Wolfgang J. Koester, CEO of FiREapps, a maker of financial software. Callinicos "has been an industry leader on this."

Born in South Africa, Callinicos came to the U.S. at age 16. After receiving an MBA from the University of North Carolina, he landed in Microsoft's finance department in 1992 and became treasurer in 2000. By the time Microsoft's cash neared $60 billion in 2004—the year the company paid out a one-time $32 billion dividend—it was generating returns of more than 7 percent.

After a couple years of cautious cash management at Google, Callinicos says he's beginning to build a higher-risk, higher-return portfolio. Since last year he has pulled away from U.S. government notes and moved into corporate debt securities ($4.9 billion as of Mar. 31, up from $695 million the year before), agency residential mortgage-backed securities ($3.3 billion, up from $60 million), and foreign government bonds ($332 million, up from zero).

Google is still building its team. Its website lists openings for a foreign government bond trader, a risk analyst, and a portfolio analyst of agency mortgage-backed securities. Callinicos says he's looking for different qualities than those that large banks are seeking. "We're not trying to become a Wall Street firm," he says. "This is Google. It's eclectic." He cites Ranidu Lankage, who came to Google after a full-ride at Yale and a two-year stint at Lehman Brothers. When he's not analyzing Google's portfolio, Lankage is a star of Sri Lankan-style rap and R&B. He landed his first record deal with Sony (SNE) at age 19.

Callinicos wouldn't comment on what he pays his staff, though Gustavo G. Dolfino, senior managing director at financial recruiting firm Accretive Solutions, says Google pays finance staffers significantly less than what they would make on Wall Street. (Google has not retained Accretive Solutions.) He adds that what Google jobs lack in pay they make up for in stability. "Everybody knows that Google isn't going anywhere."

The bottom line: Google built a state-of-the-art cash-management system to improve returns. It may use that money on future deals.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

One Laptop Per Child is now a $75 Android Tablet

2010-05-30T12:57:00.003+05:30

The first OLPC was an underpowered, 'designed-by-committee' laptop that cost at least double of what it was supposed to. Most importantly, didn't adapt to the needs of the children who used it. For instance, it didn't have a method for non-Latin characters to be input. It was also made of plastic and had moving parts that would often break in rugged environments.

The new OLPC devices will take the lead from Apple's iPad but use Google's (GOOG) Android OS, at least initially. The keyboard will be virtual and be able to adapt to different languages.

XO-3 will also have some specs that might appeal to a broader audience (myself included). Quoting the WSJ (subscription req):

The new tablets will have at least one, and maybe two, video cameras. They'll sport Wi-Fi connections to the Internet, multi-touch screens and have enough power to play high-definition and 3-D video. Unlike Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet, the device will also work with plug-in peripherals such as mice and keyboards.
[I'm aware that iPhone's Touch OS doesn't need a mouse (and one's been hacked, anyway) and Apple supplies both keyboard docks and Bluetooth Keyboards as well]

Negroponte said the new tablets will not use Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 7 because the software requires too much memory and computing power. That's been a common theme lately and might be a reason that HP (HP) picked up Palm.

Going tablet might be something he picked up from Apple (AAPL). Negroponte got advice from Apple's CEO Steve Jobs on the eve first OLPC launch:

"I got an email from Steve Jobs (the night the laptop was revealed) he said you can't build it for a hundred dollars, and my answer was oh yes I can," Negroponte said as part of a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Thursday night.
"He was actually a very good critic, and each time we got to a point, I did talk to him," Negroponte added. Negroponte also mentioned his displeasure with Microsoft, both in terms of Windows 7 performance, and Microsoft's attempts to thwart the OLPC initiative.

The device will be based on Marvell's Moby platform and will initially cost $99 for the hardware, but that price is expected to drop to $75 by 2011. What does the Moby platform buy you? According to Marvell, Moby is:

Powered by high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell® ARMADA™ 600 series of application processors, the Moby tablet features gigahertz-class processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™ and Windows Mobile. The ultra low power Moby tablet is designed for long-battery life.

XO-3 will come loaded with an application able to access two million free books available on the Internet, cutting down on the high costs of textbooks in the developing world.

Source: CNN Money

Image Credit: OLPC

Google Introduces Web Software for TV

2010-05-22T19:14:00.001+05:30

Google found new way to generate revenue through their new software which enables web content on television to encourage viewers to use internet in their living room and view advertisements to generate revenue.

Google TV empowered with Intel Corp, Sony Corp and Logitech International.

The companies are trying to benefit from growing demand for Web-based programming and information on large screens, in more rooms of the house. Google, with the largest share of online advertising, wants a slice of the $175-billion TV-ad market. Intel aims to land its chips, already in about 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, into a wider range of electronics.

“Television is becoming the true third window, with the computer and the phone, allowing you to access what you want when you want it,” Eric Kim, who heads Intel’s digital home division, said in an interview. “The dumb tube is turning into an intelligent device, a smart TV.”

Google TV serves as an “entertainment hub” that lets viewers search channels, recorded shows and web sites, Google said in a video on its YouTube entertainment site.

The company isn’t currently selling ads specifically designed for the new platform, said Rishi Chandra, a product manager at Google. Users could see Google’s ads as they browse web sites when accessing the Internet on the new TV service.

“We want to get the product experience right first,” Chandra said. “Over time, there will be opportunities to really rethink how ads can actually work better on this TV experience.”

The service will include video-on-demand products from Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Hulu, a video site partly owned by Walt Disney Co., Google said at the conference.

“There is still no better medium to reach a wider and broader audience than the television,” Rishi said during the company’s developers’ conference in San Francisco. “Video should be consumed on the biggest and brightest screen in the house.”

Google has adapted a version of its Android software and Chrome Internet browser to display television programming from cable and satellite sources and video from the Web. Applications that have been written for existing versions of Android, used in mobile phones, will now work on television screens.
Bloomberg News

Google TV

2010-05-18T15:15:00.003+05:30

Google Inc. will make an ambitious bid to extend its reach into the living room when it debuts its Internet television software this week. Through a joint initiative with other prominent technology and consumer electronics companies, the Web search giant is expected to showcase technology that TV viewers can use to flip seamlessly among familiar shows, YouTube videos and home videos on their sets.

Google and partners Sony Corp, Intel Corp. and Logitech International will unveil the new television platform at a conference in San Francisco for 3,000 software programmers in hopes of generating a flurry of independent development.

Google isn't the first online company to make a grab for the TV. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, manufacturers displayed a plethora of televisions, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes with Internet services, including online photo delivery, music streaming, news reports, weather forecasts and stock quotes.

Source: "LA Times"

Google integrates eSpeak in Google Translate

2010-05-13T13:31:00.001+05:30

Google has integrated eSpeak, an open source software speech synthesizer for English and other languages, in its online translation service Google Translate. The move will allow users of Google Translate to hear translations spoken out loud ('text-to-speech') by clicking the speaker icon beside some translations.

According to Google, the company had earlier developed its own technology for the purpose and rolled this feature out for English and Haitian Creole translations a few months ago and added French, Italian, German, Hindi and Spanish a couple of weeks ago. “Now we’re bringing text-to-speech to even more languages with the open source speech synthesizer, eSpeak,” Fergus Henderson, a software engineer at Google, has said.

“By integrating eSpeak we are adding text-to-speech functionality for Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh,” Fergus Henderson has added

Source: AlooTechie

Virtual Onscreen Keyboard for Google Search

2010-05-02T10:41:00.003+05:30

Google enabled onscreen virtual keyboard for regional language search. Now search can be performed in regional language on search giant.

google.co.in

google.ad/
google.ae/
google.am/
google.ba/
google.com.bh/
google.com.by/
google.cz/
google.com.eg/
google.fi/
google.hu/
google.co.il/
google.jo/
google.kg/
google.com.kw/
google.kz/
google.mn/
google.pl/
google.com.sa/
google.se/
google.si/
google.com.ua/
google.rs/

Google new tool: Script converter

2010-04-30T00:06:00.000+05:30

Google launches new tool script converter, which can be used to convert 17 languages script in to another script you wish to read. People often speak languages, but they dont know how to read them. This tool will allow you to to read text in any script you want.

Screen shot of Google Script Converter:

This tool convert text or web page to desired script in 17 languages. Bengali, English, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Google Page Rank Checker

2010-04-26T18:00:00.003+05:30

Higher page rank is most vital for any website or blog to be in Google search list in first page. If you have a blog or website, then please do page rank check and try to improve your site Google page rank.

Google Page Rank Checker

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

I Love Google

2010-04-25T11:25:00.000+05:30

Six years back I don't know about Google and how to search Google to get information. Internet definitely made lot of difference in my life. Now I am an excellent web researcher, and internet research is my passion. Google transformed me from a nobe to a expret in web searching. Google have lot of good things through which lot of people benefiting. Online business exploring rapidly and running parallel to traditional business.

Many online marketers earning from Google Adsense program. I had registered to Adsense program in 2006, but not taken initiative to make money out of it. Now I am committed to make money using Adsense.

I am started this blog to explore my knowledge and for the reason of "I just love Google"