Its success was "wake-up call"...

Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie doesn't necessarily think Google has all the answers but he does credit the company with opening Microsoft's eyes.

Speaking to analysts at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in Las Vegas, Ozzie said: "Google's success very clearly caused an inflection point within our industry and within Microsoft in terms of understanding advertising as an economic engine. It was a wake-up call within Microsoft."

Full story: silicon.com 

Google has persuaded more big-name multimedia content providers to test its video syndication program, which was rolled out in beta in 2006, The program lets participants spread their video clips to non-Google sites while also monetizing them via online advertising.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) on Monday confirmed that it has signed on several new, big-name partners in its program to distribute video content along with advertising over its AdSense online network.

Included among the new partners are the National Basketball Association (NBA); CondeNet's Epicurious.com and Style.com; The Wall Street Journal Online; and LX.tv.

Full article: E-Commerce Times 

Google cites Singapore's 'very vibrant' infocommunications and technology space, active promotion of technology

Netizens around the world may soon get to use Google products developed in Singapore, with the Internet giant's move to set up a research and development (R&D) centre here.

The move by the industry giant and household name is a coup for Singapore, which is branding itself as the region's technology hub.

The centre -- Google's first in South-east Asia -- signals its foray into tailoring its search engines and advertisements for the region.

Full article: AsiaMedia 

Not great software, but certainly good enough

Comment: Google is now head-to-head with Microsoft in the Office Apps market, as you may have guessed from the recent Google Apps announcement. What you get from Google is word processing, spreadsheet, calendar, chat, web page creation, and email.

There are two price points:

1. It's free. Just log on to Google and register. But prepare to be advertised at and you'll get less storage space (what Google gives you is still all you're ever likely to need if you archive your email every year or two).

2. Google Apps Premier Edition costs $50 per user per year and you can use your own branding and domain name on email, etc.

Read more: The Register 

At first glance, Google Apps appears to be nothing too revolutionary.

The product, which won Datamation’s Product of the Year award in the Enterprise Email category, is a grab bag of personal productivity software. It includes the popular Gmail email service, a calendar tool, an instant messaging feature, word processing and office apps, and Web design software.

Take a closer at this package, however, and you realize it has real rock-the-boat potential.

Full article: EarthWeb 

System will automatically block copyrighted material

Video sharing site YouTube has reportedly reached a deal to automatically filter out copyrighted material.

Digital 'fingerprinting' technology from content protection firm Audible Magic will be used to pre-screen user-submitted videos for copyrighted work, according to the San José Mercury News, which cited "anonymous" sources.

Spokespersons for YouTube and Audible Magic declined to comment to vnunet.com.

Read more: vnunet.com 

Book retailers look forward to embracing Google

Google's mission is to organise the world's information, but what effect is this having on the oldest information technology - books?

In the slow moving book industry there have been few seminal moments. In the third century BC, Ptolmy II of Egypt established his great library at Alexandria and commanded all visitors to the city to surrender their books to be copied by his scribes.

Around 1,700 years later Johannes Gutenberg revolutionised the document industry with his invention of moveable type for the printing press, allowing the first efficient, mass production of books and other pamphlets which could then be distributed across the known world.

Half a millennium later and now Google has stepped up to the mark with its audacious plan to bring books from print into the digital age. The Californian internet search and advertising giant is over two years into two pilot projects: one to digitally copy the collections of libraries, and another to allow users to search for, and order, any hard copy publication.

Full article: The Register 

 

Google Inc. is set to start filtering videos and other content on YouTube for copyrighted materials, taking a key step in helping the online video-sharing site comply with one of the biggest complaints it faces — rampant piracy.

MediaNews has learned that Mountain View-based Google will use technology from Los Gatos-based Audible Magic Corp. That company's software was mentioned in the U.S. Supreme Court's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios vs. Grokster ruling as evidence that file-sharing services could keep pirated files off their networks.

Yet Google's move may simply drive YouTube's audience to other sites, where copyright violations are even more egregious.

Full article: InsideBayArea.com 

Wouldn’t it be neat if Google offered developers a way to write scripts to extend the functionality of Google Writely, Google Spreadsheets, Gmail and so on?

Right now, if you want to do this you have to go for things like user stylesheets or Greasemonkey scripts, or other specific Firefox extensions, all approaches that are sub-optimal at best because installing them takes a certain browser and isn’t really “one-click” easy, and there’s also the risk you disobey the Google terms of service.

An officially supported Google Apps add-on API – sort of like macros for Microsoft Office, but something different than Google’s current Apps API – on the other hand would guarantee easy installation. Additionally, Google could then link to these extensions right from the specific product pages. E.g. a link at the top right side of your Gmail account may bring you straight to the Gmail add-ons of the Google Apps API directory. You could then subscribe to several extensions, Personalized Homepage directory-style, and extend your Google Apps with new functionality.

Full article: webpronews.com 

New Options for Custom, Private Web Pages Take Groups Beyond Message Boards

Starting today, the latest version of Google Groups can give your group its own easy-to-build home on the web for sharing and maintaining information, including tools for creating customized web pages that help you give your group its own special look and feel. Whether you're running a forum for technology lovers, sharing the latest reviews from your book or wine club, posting practice schedules and team information for your soccer league, or planning a neighborhood barbecue, Google Groups gives you a colorful, central place to collect photos, documents, links, messages, and more over time.

Read more: Google Press Center 

A viable and cheaper alternative to Microsoft, say IT bosses

Google's email and office software is a genuine - and much cheaper - alternative to Microsoft for business users, according to UK IT chiefs.

The reaction is in response to the launch this week of enterprise versions of Google's online software. The Google Apps Premier Edition will cost $50 per year for every end-user and offers email, word processing and spreadsheets, with 24-hour phone support and 10GB of storage per user.

Three-quarters of silicon.com's 12-strong CIO Jury IT user panel said they would consider using the enterprise version of Google's software in their corporate IT infrastructure.

Mark Foulsham, IT director of eSure, said most people currently use only about 10 per cent of the functionality of existing Microsoft Office applications.

Read more: new window 

Google has repackaged and enhanced its business-oriented software offerings into a paid-subscription suite known as Google Apps Premier Edition.

The new suite, announced Thursday, replaces the set of programs previously known as Google Apps for Your Domain, which included the Start Page feature for creating a home page at a specific domain name, Gmail Web-based e-mail services, the Google Calendar shared calendar program, and Google Talk for instant-messaging and voice chat. The new Google Apps Premier Edition is comprised of those programs in addition to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets software.

Read more: ZDNet News 

Wayback Machine Allows you to see what Google's Front Page has looked like about every month since Nov. 98... 

Proposed content deal collapses

A proposed deal which would have seen clips of CBS shows posted on YouTube has collapsed, Reuters reports.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google and CBS had been agreeing a "multi-year" contract but finally "could not agree on issues such as how long the deal would run". Accordingly, YouTubers will now not be able to (legally) enjoy excerpts from faves such as The Late Show with David Letterman.

Read more: The Register 

Users of this latest search tool can customize the appearance of the news bar widget and indicate what searches it should perform on Google News content.

Web site owners can now add a dynamic list of Google News headlines to any Web page, thanks to Google's new Ajax Search Wizard.

Read more: Informationweek 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The media industry is clashing with YouTube over its proposal to offer anti-piracy tools only to companies that have distribution deals with the top online video-sharing service, media insiders said.

YouTube, owned by Google Inc., plans to introduce technology to help media companies identify pirated videos uploaded by users. But the tools are currently being offered as part of broader negotiations on licensing deals, they said.

The move contrasts with YouTube's biggest rival, News Corp.'s, popular Internet social network, MySpace, which said on Monday it would offer its own version of copyright protection services for free.

Full story: Reuters 

YouTube Surfing shows you the best videos on YouTube by learning from what you already like.

YouTube Surfing finds and plays great videos based on the ones you already like. To take full advantage of the site, sign up above. Once you've signed up, you can import your favorite videos from your YouTube account, or simply copy and paste URLs. And then the magic begins..

Read more: YouTube Surfing 

Google fancy algorithms more than human editing and that's why all most everything, from search results to advertisement delivery system, are all automated. But when it comes to languages, Google might need some help from humns to make it sound more natural. One of the ten things Google found to be true, is The need for information crosses all borders.

Read more: gSpy 

Perhaps looking to adopt Howard Stern's (self-proclaimed) "King of all media" title, Google has entered another business: gaming. Red Herring reports that Google and Adscape Media have formalized a small, $23 million deal that will see the in-game advertiser become the latest chunk of the Google monolith.

The deal has been rumored for some time—we covered it weeks ago—but it still is not complete. Neither company is yet commenting on the reports, and nothing has been publicly announced.

Full story: Ars Technica 

A handful of domains were transferred to Google today — all of which are likely related. The one that sticks out is "Google-Express.com" though — it sounds like the service it is referring to will be used for something "fast" or to "expedite" something. Here is the complete list of domains transferred to Google:

GOOGLE-EXPRESS.COM
GET-ME-ON-GOOGLE.COM
GETMEON-GOOGLE.COM
GETONGOOGLE.NET
GETON-GOOGLE.COM
GET-ON-GOOGLE.COM
GETUSONGOOGLE.COM
GETUONGOOGLE.COM
UONGOOGLE.COM
YOUONGOOGLE.COM

Read more: ZDNet Blogs 

 

Google Web Accelerator works with your browser to help web pages show up in a snap.

Google Web Accelerator is...

‣ Designed for Broadband – Web pages load even more quickly on DSL and cable connections

‣ Easy to use – Simply install and enjoy faster web browsing in seconds

System Requirements
Operating System: Win XP or Win 2000 SP3+
Browser: IE 5.5+ or Firefox 1.0+

Download: Google Web Accelerator 0.2.70.88 Beta 

YouTubeInterface

Search and view YouTube videos using an animated interface.

Download: YouTubeInterface 1.0 

A ruling against Google in a copyright case in Belgium may influence courts in other European countries, but not the US where laws are more permissible, copyright lawyers said on Tuesday.

A Belgian court on Tuesday ordered the search giant to refrain from showing excerpts of articles from French- and German-language Belgian newspapers on Google News and Google's web search site for Belgium, reaffirming an earlier ruling by the same court against the company. However, in a nod to Google, the court reduced the daily fine Google faces if it fails to heed the order, from $1.3m (£665,000) to $32,500 (£16,640).

Read more: ZDNet.co.uk