Labels: Halloween

Google is pitching its vaunted Gphone to Verizon Wireless, but the odds are still against the search giant striking a major deal with the second largest phone company in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported Tuesday evening that Google is in "serious discussions" with Verizon Wireless to put its mobile "GPhone" software on Verizon phones.

For months, people have been speculating about the rumored Google "GPhone." Most people believe that it's not a specific phone, but is more likely an operating system or software that integrates many of Google's mobile services, like Web search, Gmail, Youtube, and Google Maps, onto phones made by existing handset makers. But more than simply integrating Google services onto handsets, the new Google mobile OS is believed to be an open platform on which application developers would have free reign to develop a slew of new applications and services.

The WSJ said in an earlier article published Monday that Asian cell phone makers HTC and LG Electronics will be the first two handset makers to use the software.

Full article: news.com 

Labels: Google Phone, Gphone, mobile, phone, Verizon

The No. 1 search engine is banding together with other sites and software developers to build its own social networking ecosystem

Google has reached its share of dizzying heights—a share price of almost $700, a penchant for consistently beating Wall Street's financial expectations, and an outsize influence on the computer industry. It has done so by controlling the rich vein of advertising that flows from Internet searches. But there's a new online frontier Google (GOOG) has largely failed to tap: the rapidly growing world of social networks, which promises advertisers the ability to reach users where they live online.

Read more: businessweek.com 

Labels: Facebook, Network, social

Google has again "upped the ante" in the free webmail game by offering free IMAP access for Gmail.

Unlike POP access, which Gmail has offered for some time now, IMAP synchs Gmail automatically with any and all email programs. So if a user has five new messages, puts two in folders and reads the rest, the changes will appear on "webmail from work, your iPhone on the road, and Thunderbird at home," according to Ars Technica.

Full article: marketingvox.com

Labels: Gmail, IMAP, mail, Outlook

Ask anyone in India what their favorite video site is and the most probable answer could be YouTube. Little wonder that Google is seriously considering a major push to launch YouTube with a strong India focus.

Hindustan Times confirms the news by quoting Shashi Seth, the head of monetization (wow! that’s a new designation I’m hearing), “We plan to launch YouTube India anytime between January and March 2008″.

Ofcourse, it makes perfect sense from the monetization angle. Google already has a fairly strong sales team and adding YouTube to the portfolio will be a major weapon in their sales artillery. Google is targeting television production houses and film production houses for revenues.

Read more: blognation.com 

Labels: India, video, youtube

Google's phone-based automated local business search has gone live.

Users may dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (presumably North America only), give their location, and then the type of business they are looking for. Using speech recognition, GOOG-411 provides a list of matching entries and then connects callers to their choice.

No charges are involved apart from any associated with the original call.

Read more: itwire.com 

Labels: business, GOOG-411, local, mobile, phone

Technology designed to catch illicit materials posted on YouTube

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. on Monday unveiled widely anticipated technology designed to prevent illicit access to copyrighted material on its YouTube video-sharing service, hoping to defray a nasty, ongoing spat with large media companies that has resulted in a $1 billion lawsuit.

The technology can identify video content owned by media companies and dictate its usage on YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion in October of last year.

Full article: marketwatch.com 

Labels: Copyright, tools, video, youtube

ONLINE video search service blinkx has taken on Google, launching a video advertising platform last week to challenge the one released by the internet giant one day earlier.

The blinkx AdHoc platform lets people embed ad-laced videos in their websites and then share in advertising revenues in the same way that Google's AdSense video units work.

Blinkx promises website operators half the money taken from advertising, but Google has not disclosed the percentage of revenues going to publishers.

Although Google provides the advertising option only with video from YouTube, which it bought last year in a $US1.65 billion stock deal, blinkx offers content from varied sources, including YouTube and DailyMotion.

Read more: australianit.news.com.au 

Labels: advertising, Blinkx, service, video, youtube

SAN FRANCISCO: Vivek Shah at Time magazine spent six months assessing whether Google, Yahoo or Microsoft could most effectively attract advertisers to the publisher's Web sites. His decision: none of them.

In June, Shah awarded a three-year, $100 million contract to Quigo Technologies, a venture capital-backed New York company that will handle ad space on more than 15 sites, including CNNMoney.com and People.com.

After beating down rivals, Google's dominant position in the $40.6 billion online advertising market is showing cracks. Google has mined keyword auctions, where the highest-bidding advertiser may end up on a heavily trafficked news site like that of The New York Times and the lowest bidder might end up on an obscure blog - neither knowing in advance where their ads would land.

Full article: iht.com 

Labels: market, shares

 

Labels: Luciano Pavarotti, music, opera

Google posted earlier today on its efforts towards building a workplace that provides equal treatment to all staff. Google noted that it has ranked highly on the U.S. Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index during a “time of rapid growth for our population of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees (whose group name is, naturally, Gayglers) around the world.”

Google’s inclusive work environment for GLBT employees should be commended, but does equality in Google extend to old people? Brian Reid doesn’t think so.

Read more: techcrunch.com 

Labels: employees, Gayglers, Rights, workplace

Virtual explorers can now discover and watch YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) videos while they traverse the globe. Starting today, a YouTube layer will be available in the Featured Content folder of Google Earth (http://earth.google.com).

The new layer enables users to zoom in on any location on the planet and view YouTube videos related to that place. For example, a trip to Maui offers videos of surfing, snorkeling and exotic sea life, while users who fly to Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France, can watch breathtaking videos filmed at the highest points of the Alps.

The integration of YouTube functionality into Google Earth offers a new way to experience destinations as seen through the eyes of YouTube users who have visited them, enabling people to watch, hear and feel what's happening in locations theythank may never have otherwise visited. For instance, armchair tourists to Rome can now watch YouTube videos filmed at the Colosseum, providing a holistic experience and adding a new perspective for users who enjoy looking at the Colosseum and other noteworthy locations from above through satellite imagery, as 3D buildings created with SketchUp, and in user-contributed photos uploaded to Panoramio.

Read more: Google Press Center 

Labels: Earth, video, youtube

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was one of the featured speakers at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando yesterday. His appearance wasn't streamed live, but archived video is now available via this page.

One of the big topics was the trend toward software applications being delivered as online services. In that specific area, Ballmer disputed Gartner analyst Yvonne Genovese's assertion that some of Microsoft's efforts look a lot like what Google has done. She was alluding to its Google Apps and Google Docs & Spreadsheets services.

Read more: seattlepi.com 

Labels: apps, business, docs, Spreadsheets, Steve Ballmer

Finnish firm Jaiku markets a social-networking service similar to Twitter.

Google Inc. continued its acquisition spree with the purchase of Jaiku Ltd., a Finnish company that offers a social-networking service similar to Twitter.

Jaiku describes the service as one that lets users share their "activity streams," which it defines as "a log of everyday things as they happen." An activity stream can include recommendations, details of events the user is attending, photos and questions. Users can post new items online, via instant message and on mobile phones using text message.

Full article: pcworld.com 

Labels: Google Phone, Gphone, Jaiku, mobile, phone, Twitter

Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:

· Store and serve application resources locally
· Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
· Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

Google Gears (BETA) is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Download: Google Gears 0.1.54.0 Beta | Google Gears 0.2.2.0 Developer Release 

Labels: browser, Gears, javascript, Linux, Macintosh, Windows

'I own mobile data centers'

Google now owns a patent for data centers stuffed into shipping containers. You know, data centers like Sun's Project Blackbox.

The Mountain View outfit first filed for this "Modular Data Center" patent in December 2003, and today it was rubber stamped by the US Patent Office.

The patent describes a data center based on an "intermodel shipping container". That's a shipping container that's shipped by multiple carriers. "Rack or shelf mount computing systems," the patent explains, are "mounted within the container and configured to be shipped and operated within the container".

Full story: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: Blackbox, container, project, Sun

Google distributing YouTube video clips through the AdSense network is kind of analogous to what Google was doing with YouTube on the YouTube site, said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "People have been speculating over how Google would make money with YouTube. This is one way."

Google is extending its YouTube brand, with plans to show videos on sites all over the Web. AdSense publishers now can display relevant, targeted video content within a customized, embedded player that is supported by advertising.

Google announced the new content-distribution channel on Tuesday, reckoning that as media becomes more and more fragmented, content providers and advertisers will look for new ways to distribute their messages to the right audiences.

Google said it is working with selected YouTube content partners, including TV Guide Broadband, Expert Village, Mondo Media, lonelygirl15, Extreme Elements, and Ford Models to supply the video content. No homegrown videos are included, and the clips will play only after users click on them.

Full article: newsfactor.com 

Labels: ads, Adsense, clips, video, youtube

Australia and Japan are far apart on the issue of whaling

The Australian government has launched an anti-whaling message aimed at Japanese children on video-sharing internet site YouTube.

In the video, which carries Japanese subtitles, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull urges all countries to stop catching and killing whales.

The video includes footage of humpback whales, as well as Australian children proclaiming support for a whaling ban.

Japan opposes the international prohibition of commercial whaling.

Read more: news.bbc.co.uk 

Labels: Australia, Japan, Whales, youtube

Is Google about to produce the next iPhone? Find out here!

Google, the internet media giant, has had a large group of engineers working on a secret project for nearly two years now. Rumors had leaked that Google was planning to manufacture a next generation of cell phones, which some observers creatively dubbed the "GPhone." Now as a new report indicates Google's true intentions, it appears that the company has not only done a good job keeping the wraps on its secret project, but that the project is much more complex than expected.

Google has been working on developing a software platform for cell phones, which it hopes will create a new business sector. It begins with the phone operating system (OS).

Full article: dailytech.com 

Labels: Google Phone, Gphone, microsoft, mobile, phone

Shares in Google moved past the $600-a-share mark for the first time on Monday extending a rally that has lifted the internet search and advertising giant's market value by about $25bn in just the past month.

Although the shares fluctuated around $600 during the morning in New York, their performance will serve as another reminder of the enormous wealth created by the nine-year-old Mountain View, California-based company since it went public at $85-a-share in August 2004.

Based on its current share price, Google has a market value of $187bn - more than many bigger, more mature businesses such as Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

Read more: msnbc.msn.com 

The Skinny: "GPhone" Is An Operating System Using Open-Source Software

Google wants a place in your pocket.

The search giant's ambitions for the cell phone market have been obvious - if not exactly clear - ever since it successfully lobbied the Federal Communications Commission this summer to impose rules keeping part of wireless spectrum open to any handset and software application in its coming auction.

This morning the New York Times attempts to take a peek into the Googleplex, where a team of developers has been working on the so-called "GPhone" for two years, to see just what game Google is planning to play on this newly leveled playing field.

Read more: cbsnews.com 

Labels: Google Phone, Gphone, phone, Software

Google and IBM, expanding an effort that began at the University of Washington, will launch an initiative to help computer science students and researchers learn a form of programming increasingly significant in the Internet age.

The companies are dedicating a data center of several hundred computers for universities to use to teach "Internet-scale" programming -- the development of software applications that can harness thousands of processors to deal with massive amounts of data.

Well-known examples of Internet-scale applications include Wikipedia, Facebook and search engines, such as the one for which Google is famous. Such programs are also needed for commercial and research projects that use huge data sets.

Full article: seattlepi.com 

Labels: data, IBM, Internet, Programming, research

Microsoft's Ballmer: Google Reads Your Mail
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took a knock at one of his chief rivals during a speech to an audience in the U.K., saying Google reads customer email as part of a failed bid to drive ad-based revenue.

The software giant's chief made the remarks during a discussion about consumer software revenue models, and Ballmer used the dialogue as an entry point to take his shot at Google. The video is available to watch via the web site Mydeo.com. Ballmer made his remarks after an audience member asked him if an advertising model could support software business in the future. The CEO said a combination of models - - commercial and ad-paid - - would go forward.

"What's a good example? Will online publications be largely ad-funded as things move from the physical world to the online world?" Ballmer said. "I think the answer is yes.

Full story: crn.com 

Labels: Gmail, mail, microsoft, Steve Ballmer

ZebDisk is a free software, and you can store, and share your files on the internet with it using Google’s Picasa service.

Google’s Picasa service gives its users the ability to share their photos on the internet. ZebDisk places other files in these photos using a technic similar to steganography.

· Download : Users can connect to any Picasa address shared via ZebDisk, and they can download and save any file which was accessible publicly.

· Upload : Users can sign up a Picasa account, and can send any file to this account. They can set these files accessible publicly or restricted to themselves only.

Download: ZebDisk 0.0.1.1 

Labels: freeware, photos, picasa, share, Web, ZebDisk

Google has just announced the latest project to bubble up out of Google Earth--International Cleanup Weekend, a coordinated global effort taking place Saturday, October 13, and Sunday, October 14, 2007, at locations throughout the world.

Who's doing the organizing? You are, naturally, using Google Maps to plot cleanup sites.

What began as an internal corporate eco-venture for local involvement has now been embraced by communities in 15 countries. Google Earth's outreach team is asking groups of six to 10 people to pick a modest project close to home, do it, then share their accomplishments by posting photos and videos to the team's Google Map.

Individuals can coordinate their own events or try to contact Google's partner organizations, like Idealist.org, Sierra Club, and The Scout Association in the U.K., which are urging their members to form local projects.

Full article: news.com 

Labels: Cleanup, international, Maps, Weekend

Russia on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 

Labels: anniversary, Russia, satellite, Sputnik