Picasa Web Albums now offers 1GB of free storage, which means you can upload up to 4,000 standard resolution photos for free. We've also made it easier for you to share your photos and albums with friends.

Just click the "Link to this..." link next to any Picasa Web photo or album, and copy the code provided. You can paste the code into an email, IM or the code for your website for others to see. 

Google Notebook has now graduated from Google Labs and is officially out of beta. Besides launching in 17 new languages, we've added a slew of improvements to the user interface and new features too. You can add your own comments to individual notes, view your notebook content
on Google Maps, and export your notebooks to Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The next time you're planning an event with friends or researching places to go for a family vacation, organize your findings with Google Notebook. 

Have a tough decision to make? With the latest feature from orkut, you can get an entire orkut community's input on any question you have.

Simply post a poll to any community you belong to and watch as members vote and leave comments on your question. Next time you're deciding between a holiday weekend in Aspen or Hawaii, look to your friends on orkut.

Read more: orkut.com 

Google Pack is a free collection of essential software from Google and other companies. The software in the Google Pack helps you browse the web faster, remove spyware and viruses, organize your photos, and more.

Google Pack is:

• Essential: Enjoy safe, useful software for your computer
• Simple: Download and install everything in just a few clicks
• Customizable: Choose only the software you want
• Up to date: Get updates and new software via Google Updater

Google Pack is only available for Windows XP or Vista

Download: Google Pack 2.0.810.31257 Beta 

Google's commitment to "green" means that the company sources carpet and sofas made without PVC, paints without volatile organic compounds, and cafeteria food from local growers. It's not surprising, then, that they would roll out the largest commercial solar deployment in the US—a 1.6MW installation that covers most of the buildings at Google's campus and extends even to shaded parking spaces. At the ETech conference in San Diego this week, Google's Anthony Ravitz explained how Google did it, and why.

Full article: Ars Technica 

NEW ORLEANS -- Google's popular map portal has replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pictures taken before the storm, leaving locals feeling like they're in a time loop and even fueling suspicions of a conspiracy.

Scroll across the city and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and everything is back to normal: Marinas are filled with boats, bridges are intact and parks are filled with healthy, full-bodied trees.

Full article: Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

YouTube Downloader is a free tool that downloads videos from youtube and saves it as Avi file to your local computer.

YouTube Downloader allows you to easily grab and save desired youtube video.

Simply paste the URL of a video into the program, press Start , and the AVI or MPEG file will be downloaded into the selected folder.

You dont need any players to play flash video just play it on the defult media player clasic.

YouTube Downloader is a completly FREE Software. It contains absolutely NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE, NO REGISTRATION, NO POPUPS, NO MALWARE or other unwanted software.

Download: YouTube Downloader 2.11 

Number crunching our way to understanding

Google dreams of a world where hundreds of languages can be simultaneously translated by machines which compare texts using statistics rather than applying grammatical rules.

Statistical machine translation uses a computer to compare two documents - one in the original language and one translated by a human. It finds patterns and links between the two and uses them to create its own future translations.

Google has used documents from the European Commission and United Nations to feed its machines.

Full article: The Register 

New language in the third draft of the GNU General Public License, GPL v3, has the potential to reach beyond big Linux vendors with its proposed licensing rules that govern how most open source software is deployed and modified.

Some of the terms in the just-released draft also have the potential to adjust software practices at search engine giant Google, which uses open source widely within its own infrastructure. But Google manager of Open Source Programs, Chris DiBona, told internetnews.com he doesn't see a problem with the draft license.

DiBona noted two points in the latest version. One is a clause that said "mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying," in a reference to how license terms are conveyed.

The other is the so-called "Affero" clause, which refers to the Affero General Public License (or AGPL). The AGPL is a derivative of the GPL, v2 and is intended to provide GPL rights over a network application.

Full article: internetnews.com 

Korea's LG will pre-install Google software on its phones as internet giants court handset makers

Google is to pre-install its software in LG mobile phones as the internet search giant broadens its footprint in the market for handheld devices.

Handsets made by LG, of South Korea, will be shipped to Europe, the US and Asia with Google products and services, including Google Maps, Gmail and Blogger, the blogging platform, from next spring.

The two companies will market the handsets jointly.

Full article: Times Online 

The winners of YouTube's first awards have been announced. Prizes were awarded in seven different categories for the best videos submitted in 2006.

Visitors to the popular video-sharing website were invited to the vote for their favourites in each category. Awards including Best Series, Best Comedy and Most Inspirational Video were up for grabs.

“2006 was a groundbreaking year for YouTube, user-generated content, and entertaining online videos. With this in mind, we established the YouTube Video awards to recognise the ingenuity and achievements of our community,” said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing for YouTube.

Read more: webuser.co.uk 

Free Monitor for Google is free web promotion software designed for search engine specialists and webmasters. With it, you can find position of your web site in Google Top for popular keywords and get more traffic from Google. Google Monitor will query Google and show you the position of your site by your target keywords and also how well your competitors are doing. It keeps statistics for several URLs and several lists of keywords. You can add notes.

Google is the most popular search engine. Monitor Google with our free software.

Download: Free Monitor for Google 

Mobile search tool targets handsets

Google has released a new mobile search engine designed to make it easier to find web information using a handheld device.

Launched today, Google’s mobile service can be accessed from a mobile browser and customised to feature pre-selected weather, news, stocks and movies information, tailored to a specific geographic area.

Full article: pcadvisor.co.uk 

Google said on Tuesday that it is packing more stuff into its Google Pack software bundle. In an e-mail message, the company said that it was adding a number of new programs to "satisfy users fun and sensible sides.

Read more: InfoWorld 

Fearful of the growing dominance of Google, some of the country's most powerful media companies are seeking to rein in the digital giant. Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube and the recent deal between NBC Universal and News Corp./Fox to establish a rival online video site have made the headlines. But this is just the beginning of a larger effort designed to weaken and undermine Google.

Read more: The Nation 

Despite all the rumors and speculation about a Google Phone, the Web search company is working on software to run services on mobile phones rather than building its own phone, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray says.

The Google mobile phone software would work with, not compete with, Apple's iPhone and other mobile phones, Munster wrote in a research note on Thursday reported on by Reuters.

Full article: news.com.com 

Google is beta testing a different business formula for its AdSense product that eases up on its lucrative pay-per-click model in favor of a pay-per-action model. The new program could help address the click fraud problem that dogs the per-per-click sector of the online ad industry.

The idea with the beta test is to provide advertisers more latitude with ad contracts by stipulating payment only for pre-determined actions that result from a Google ad, such as a certain product purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

Could the pay-per-action model help Google lead the way in addressing the industry's problem with click fraud? It could, if advertisers are provided more certainty that they are being charged for clicks made by humans, rather than automated programs, for example.

Full story: internetnews.com 

SAN JOSE, Calif.- A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Google Inc. abused its position as the Internet's leading search engine by wrongfully banishing dozens of Web sites from its index.

In a March 16 ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel concluded there were insufficient grounds for the case brought by Kinderstart.com to proceed. Fogel also ordered Kinderstart and its lawyer to pay a portion of Google's legal costs.

Read more: San Jose Mercury News 

Increase your advertising reach while paying only for actions that you define. First, you'll create an ad and define the action that you want a user to perform when they visit your site, such as signing up for your newsletter or purchasing a product. Then you'll set the amount that you're willing to pay when this action is completed. Finally, you'll install conversion tracking code on your website so that we can verify when an action has been completed.

Once you've completed these steps, publishers in the Google content network can choose to place your ads on their website. You'll only pay when a user clicks on your ad, visits your site, and completes your desired action.

Pay-per-action ads complement your current campaigns by providing a new pricing model that extends your reach and allows you to pay only when a defined action is completed on your site. This beta feature is currently available to AdWords advertisers in the United States on a limited basis as part of our beta test.

Find out more: Google AdWords 

Open industry collaboration group sees membership grow to 72

Microsoft and Google have joined the OpenAjax Alliance, swelling the group's membership to 72 organisations, with a further 32 companies dedicated to developing and expanding the programming technique.

"Microsoft is joining the OpenAjax Alliance to collaborate with other industry leaders to help evolve Ajax-style development by ensuring a high degree of interoperability," said Keith Smith, a group product manager at Microsoft.

Full article: vnunet.com 

A few days ago, a high-level executive at Google said that her company has a mobile phone in development. Yesterday, though, a different executive at this company said that Google isn't planning in any such thing.

Speaking at a conference in Australia, Richard Kimber, Google's South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations, said that his company is not interested in entering the cut-throat, often low-margin, mobile phone business.

Read more: brighthand.com 

Yahoo and Google are at it again. The race and fight that often benefits more than hurts the consumer is still going strong between the leasers of online search. Yahoo and Google are the clear winners when it comes to accessing content and information online. Both can claim millions of users each month and both are touted as the best one the web. The numbers to determine who is number one or who comes in second are often too close to call.

Full story: Monsters and Critics 

Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

Google Desktop doesn't just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web with Sidebar, a new desktop feature that shows you your new email, weather and stock information, personalized news and RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to).

We've also improved your desktop search experience. With Quick Find, you can now launch applications and see search results as you type without even opening a browser. We've also extended our Outlook integration, so you can search Google Desktop with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself. Finally, you can search even more stuff, including your Gmail, files on network drives, many Outlook data types (including Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes and Journal) and MSN Messenger chats. And if you yearn for even stronger security, you can encrypt your entire index.

Improved Sidebar and Google Gadgets. Add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and Sidebar, Developers: Create and share your own gadgets.

Requires Windows Windows 2000 SP3+/XP/Vista

Download: Google Desktop 5.1.0703.13372 Beta | Gadgets 

Google announced the testing of a new pay-per-action, or PPA, advertising product today. It’s important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Google controls so much of the online advertising market that just about anything they do in advertising has real consequences around the Internet.

Read more: Techcrunch 

Google has embarked on a European spending spree, but it doesn't want servers, bandwidth, or programmers: it wants lobbyists. The company has advertised for lobbyists in at least 10 European capitals, according to the Financial Times. The job postings are designed to find people who believe in "the expansion of a free and open Internet." But why now, and why in Europe?

Read more: Ars Technica 

TreeHugger attacks search giant for 'wasting electricity'

Google is famous for offering one of the most uncluttered user experiences on the internet, but the search giant's website has come under fire for not being environmentally friendly.

Environmental awareness site TreeHugger blasted Google's predominantly white web page because it uses more electricity to display on a CRT monitor.

A CRT monitor apparently uses about 74 watts to display an all-white web page, but only 59 watts to display an all-black page.

Full story: vnunet.com 

NEW YORK — Google Inc. commanded 55.8 percent of the search engine market in February, gaining further ground over rival Yahoo Inc., according to market research firm NetRatings Inc.

Google's share of searches climbed from 53.7 percent in January of this year. An estimated 3.6 billion search queries were conducted on Google, up 40.3 percent year-over-year.

Read more: chron.com 

NEW YORK -- If there is one application that propelled the term AJAX into the mainstream it is Google Maps.

Before Google Maps, the Internet world was a flat place without dragable maps and without online mailboxes that looked like their desktop counterparts.

Google project manager Bret Taylor said AJAX has become a mainstream development approach since he and his team rolled out the first AJAX version of Google Maps in 2005, with sites big and small implementing the technology.

"AJAX has revolutionized the way people expect Web applications to behave," Taylor told a capacity crowd at the AjaxWorld conference here. "Users now expect the same level of interactivity as the desktop."

Read more: internetnews.com 

Into Africa...

Google has signed deals to supply software to students and government workers in two East African nations, in a bid to put them on the technical footing of more developed countries.

The web search leader said it has agreed to separate partnerships with the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure and the Kenya Education Network (Kenet), which represents students and staff at 32 universities in Kenya.

Read more: silicon.com 

Call it phase two. Google first launched its personalized home page for users almost two years ago. Today, the search giant is adding to the personalization options with its first set of "dynamic themes."

The six themes, or "skins," are the first of many Google plans to release. "Beach, City," "Sweet Dreams," "Teahouse," "Seasonal Scape," and "Bus Stop" are the themes being released today. Google calls them "dynamic" because the themes are not a static one-off that only the user can change; rather Google itself pushes out the changes based on certain algorithmic and other factors throughout the day.

To get a theme added to your Google home page, you have to register with your zip code. Google uses that little bit of location information. In one example, the Bus Stop theme shows people waiting at a bus stop and a gentleman's toupee is seen blowing off his head. This is directly tied to a weather report (windy in this case) for that zip code.

Google said it researched how other sites added themes and thinks its dynamic approach adds unique value.

Full article: internetnews.com 

Search giant scoops up Adscape Media

Google has agreed to purchase in-game advertising firm Adscape Media for an undisclosed sum.

Adscape specialises in in-game advertisements which may appear as banners or pop-ups designed to integrate with the storyline and environment of the game.

An in-game ad could appear to players as a billboard or sign painted on the side of a building, for example.

Full article: vnunet.com 

YouTube community to vote for winners across seven categories
SAN BRUNO, CA -- March 16, 2007 -- YouTube, the leader in online video, today announced the first-ever YouTube Video Awards (www.youtube.com/YTAwards), established to recognize the creative achievements of the YouTube community.

The 2007 YouTube Video Awards commemorate the best original user created videos of 2006 and the artists who made them in the categories of: Most Creative – Innovative And Cutting Edge Video, Most Inspirational – Things That Make You Think Or Feel, Best Series – The Best In Serial Entertainment, Best Comedy – They Had Us In Stitches, Musician Of The Year – Celebrating YouTube’s Home-Grown Musical Talent, Best Commentary – The Bloggers Who Caught Our Attention, Most Adorable Video Ever – So Cute It Hurts.

Read more: YouTube Press Room 

Though best known for their pioneering search engine technology, Google have their digits in many slices of the internet pie. From mapping the planet with Google Earth to online movie clips with Google Video, not to mention more obscure developments emanating from Google labs, such as Google Mars and Google Ride Finder, the search engine king is certainly not afraid of exploring new areas of technology.

One of the most hotly speculated Google offshoots is the somewhat mythical Google Phone. Bigmouthmedia first reported on the Google Phone in December 2006, but since then, Google has remained tight lipped on the subject.

Full article: Bigmouthmedia 

A Google exec has confirmed that the search engine giant is working on a mobile phone project, but the company has refused to divulge any further details. Isabel Aguilera, head of Google Spain and Portugal was quoted in the Spanish-news service, Noticias as saying that some Google engineers were using some of their allocated "blue sky" research time as working on a Google mobile phone. The comments do seem to suggest however, that the research is a low priority and that any product which may exist is a long way from commercialization.

Read more: cellular-news.com 

A new Google gadget lets users embed the company's Talk instant-messaging service in web pages, expanding the reach of the product, which was originally introduced as a downloadable PC application.

The Google Talk Gadget, released on Wednesday, displays a Flash-based interface on web pages for users to exchange text messages with people on their Google Talk contacts list. Unlike the Talk PC application, the gadget requires no software download. It loads automatically with the web page it's on.

"This is definitely a smart move on Google's part to promote and increase Talk's exposure," says industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

Full article: Computerworld 

GooglePreviewIE - GooglePreview for Internet Explorer

An Internet Explorer (IE) toolbar that inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites and Amazon products into the Google and Yahoo search results pages. Thumbnails are created and provided by GooglePreview servers.


Download: GooglePreviewIE 1.2 

WASHINGTON -- The impact of the Internet on political campaigns has increased with each election cycle. Google plans to be a part of that leap and face all issues, good and bad, that might arise when you mix politics and Internet technologies.

Elliot Schrage, Google vice president of global communications, told an audience during his keynote address at George Washington University's annual Politics Online Conference that new technologies redefine what political participation means.

"The apparent benefit is transparency. You see the candidates as they are and candidates can be held to their words and actions."

Schrage said the candidates have been invited to talk "tech and policy" with the Google team, which hopes to film the interviews and make them available on YouTube's "You Choose 08" channel, which already includes 10 presidential candidates' videos.

Full story: internetnews.com 

Think referrals

A Google executive has confirmed the existence of one of its best-kept secrets. The advertising giant is designing a mobile phone, according to the company's Iberian chief.

Spanish IT site Noticias Isabel Aguilera, Google's chief for Spain and Portugal, as explaining the move as a way of extending the "information society" (translation: Google's advertising business) into less developed countries.

As the personal project of co-founder Larry Page, Google's phone is also one of its best-protected secrets. When a report surfaced in the New York Times discussing the possibility of a mobile phone project, the famously grumpy Page threw a hissy fit, and the suspected leakers took the bullet.

Full article: The Register 

The idea is simple. It’s a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now.

Google Earth is free for personal use. No registration is required. You may (optionally) choose to upgrade to Google Earth Plus.

Features:

• Free for personal use.
• Sophisticated streaming technology delivers the data to you as you need it.
• Imagery and 3D data depict the entire earth - Terabytes of aerial and satellite imagery depict cities around the world in high-resolution detail.
• Local search lets you search for restaurants, hotels, and even driving directions. Results show in your 3D earth view. Easy to layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share with others.
• Layers show parks, schools, hospitals, airports, shopping, and more.
• KML – data exchange format let your share useful annotations and view. thousands of data points created by Google Earth users.

Use it for:

-Planning a trip
-Getting driving directions
-Finding a house or apartment
-Finding a local business
-Exploring the world

Download: Google Earth 4.0.2742 Beta Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux 

Big mouth strikes again...

While many investors have knocked Microsoft for not moving as quickly as Google, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested his chief rival may be trying to grow too fast.

Microsoft took nearly three decades to grow to 75,000 people, while Google has become a very large company in a fraction of that time, Ballmer told a crowd of Stanford Graduate School of Business students. "They are trying to double in a year. That's insane in my opinion," he said.

But, he added, "it doesn't mean they won't do it well".

Full story: silicon.com 

Google is expanding its Google Summer of Code 2007 initiative by over 30 percent from 2006, taking some 134 projects into the program, compared to the 102 it took in 2006.

The news comes one week before the deadline for student applications for Google's open source program.

The Google Summer of Code 2007 is the third year of the program that offers students and open source organizations cash grants for developing open source projects. The program notched 41 projects in 2005, its inaugural year.

Read more: internetnews.com 

SysSense is your personal desktop Google AdSense monitor. It keeps your current Google AdSense information in the Windows system tray. You can monitor an unlimited number of Google AdSense accounts. A sound and/or system tray icon balloon can be configured to alert you when your statistics have changed.

Main Features:

• View your current Google AdSense statistics at anytime by holding your mouse over the SysSense system tray icon. These statistics are sometimes even more up-to-date than what is showing up on the Google AdSense website.
• Receive a system tray icon balloon alert when any of the following is updated: page impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate, CPM, earnings.
• Monitor an unlimited number of Google AdSense accounts.
• Easily log into your Google AdSense account from the SysSense system tray icon menu. There is no need to log into the Google AdSense webpage -- Just a few clicks of the SysSense system tray icon menu and you're there.

Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista, Google AdSense account

Download: SysSense 1.3.1 

Google is changing its data-retention practices to make it harder to identify the specific computers used in searches.

Google's servers log information every time someone conducts a web search, keeping data such as the keywords used, the internet protocol address or unique number assigned to that person's computer, and information from web cookies, which are small bits of data exchanged between a server and a web browser each time the browser accesses the server. Cookies are used to authenticate the user and maintain information such as the user's site preferences.

Full story: ZDNet.co.uk 

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A consortium of big tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, and Phillips, would like to introduce high-speed Internet access to consumers, utilizing TV airwaves. A key device related to the project is on its way to be delivered to federal agencies Thursday - much will depend on whether or not the device will live up to its expectations.

The coalition of tech giants are lobbying the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to "allow idle TV channels, known as white space, to be used to beam the Internet into homes and offices", reports Washington Post.

However, the FCC has to discern whether the service would not "bleed outside its designated channels and interfere with existing broadcasts."

Full article: All Headline News 

Inside the rumour mill...

The mobile industry likes nothing more than a good piece of gossip. One particularly juicy nugget of whisper that has refused to die is the Google phone, a piece of mobile kit the search giant is supposed to be working on.

Rumour hounds have been hard at it in recent weeks. Among the evidence used to back up the theory are patents the company has filed on predictive mobile location-based search tech; the blog of one venture capitalist, saying he has been told by sources of a BlackBerry-like gadget in the offing that may be Google-made or run a Google OS; and The Observer's recent report of a partnership struck between operator Orange and Google with a view to producing a branded device made by HTC.

Full story: silicon.com 

The deal puts Windows Live services in Lenovo-branded PCs, ThinkPad notebooks, and ThinkCentre desktops.

Lenovo Group on Wednesday said it has agreed to preload Microsoft's Windows Live online services in its PCs, giving a potential boost to the software maker's lagging search service.

Full article: InformationWeek 

New Delhi: With World Cup fever at all-time high, Google India has unveiled a Cricket World Cup Campaign, promising cricket fans an interactive experience through the Internet.

The campaign will help users write, share, debate about and enjoy the Cricket World Cup through an integrated platform of Google products like Google Desktop, personalized homepage, Blogger and Orkut through a special landing page www.google.co.in/cricket . This would be a one-stop shop for all information related to the World Cup, allowing visitors to access regular updates, post individual comments and analysis and express their love for the game.


Full story: indiatimes.com 

Lawsuit alleges that thousands of unauthorised clips of Viacom's programming have been viewed on YouTube more than 1.5 billion times

Media company Viacom International is suing online video provider YouTube and its parent company, Google, for more than US$1 billion, saying the companies are infringing on Viacom's copyrights because almost 160,000 unauthorised video clips are available for viewing on YouTube.

New York-based Viacom also says it is seeking an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement. Google acquired YouTube in November for US$1.65 billion.

Full article: Computerworld 

This layer contains highly informative, multimedia-enhanced data about various places around the planet, overlaid on Google Earth imagery. So now you can not only see high-resolution satellite imagery, but also read detailed information from various sources. See this animation to learn how to use the layer. Overlays in this release of Featured Content for Google Earth include:
United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) – includes successive time-stamped images illustrating 100 areas of extreme environmental degradation around the world.

• Discovery Networks World Tour – enables you to take a virtual tour of major world landmarks, cities, and natural wonders through Google Earth.

• Jane Goodall Institute – you can visit Flirt and the other Gombe preserve chimpanzees and follow their daily exploits with the Institute’s "geo-blog" in Google Earth.

• National Geographic – this features articles, pictures, live webcams and more around the world from National Geographic.

• Tracks 4 Africa - Community generated map data across part of Africa along with photographs and interesting snippets about various places.

• Spotlight on Africa - Flags and snippets of information about the 53 sovereign nations of Africa

• Rumsey Historical Maps - Historical maps around the world spanning from year 1680 to 1892, including a Map of Africa from 1787.

• European Space Agency – More satellite imagery of beautiful places and phenomena around the world

• The Geographic Web layer contains similar content contributed by various user communities around the world, such as Wikipedia and Panoramio.

Learn more: Google Earth 

 

Labels: Mother's Day

Gspace (Gmail File Space) turns the 2.8 GB of your Gmail account into free online storage.

With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface.

Listen your favourite stored music directly from your Gspace, view your collections of pictures and manage your Gdrive files as well.

Download Gspace now and transfer files between your computer and Gspace at anytime, from everywhere!

Requires Firefox 1.5 - 2.0.0

Download: Gspace 0.5.5 Windows, Mac, Linux 

The Viacom/YouTube spat has officially graduated from a "kerfuffle" to a "brouhaha" with the news that Viacom has just sued YouTube in federal court.

The lawsuit seeks massive damages from YouTube for what Viacom terms its "brazen disregard of the intellectual property laws." According to the complaint, Viacom has managed to identify 150,000 of its clips on the service; in total, these clips have been viewed an "astounding" 1.5 billion times. That might sound like incredible free publicity for Viacom, but the company sees it instead as deliberate copyright infringement. Viacom is outraged at having to file "takedown" notices for every single clip, just to see clips of the same material appear again on the site, often the same day.

Full story: Ars Technica 

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Gmail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google Gmail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

Download: GMail Drive 1.0.11 Beta 

Al Gore promised to “democratise television” today with the launch in the UK of Current TV, his successful American channel aimed at a youth audience.

The user-generated programming will feature three to eight-minute short documentaries, known as pods, and half-hourly “news” bulletins describing the UK’s most popular Google search terms.

A third of the films will be made by members of the public and the rest voted onto the channel by viewers.

Full article: Times Online 

Google is currently running a trial of test ads on cable as part of its larger plan to move into television advertising.

Google didn't offer many details about the trial but in an e-mail sent to internetnews.com, a company spokesperson said the company is running a small, early-phase trial working closely with a small number of partners and advertisers.

Google's plan is to "add value to TV advertising by making this important medium more relevant for users, measurable and more accountable for existing and new advertisers," the spokesperson continued.

Read more: internetnews.com 

New Delhi: The perks of working at Google are the envy of Silicon Valley—unlimited amounts of free chef-prepared food at all times of day, a climbing wall, a volleyball court and two lap pools, on-site car washes, oil changes and haircuts, not to mention free doctor checkups. But the biggest perk may come with the morning commute.


In Silicon Valley, a region known for some of the worst traffic in the nation, Google, the Internet search engine giant and online advertising behemoth, has turned itself into Google, the mass transit operator, reports The Daily Mail.

Full story: ibnlive.com 

Google on Thursday rolled out a new version of its Picasa Web Albums service, which enables users to upload their photos free of charge. While the service previously focused on private use, the update brings new community features like those offered by Yahoo's Flickr.

Read more: BetaNews 

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The world is being "disrupted," and that's a good thing, said IDC. At its Directions show here this week, the company made some predictions regarding changes in IT and how to find the good in them.

If you believe Frank Gens, senior vice president of research at IDC, one of those changes is that Salesforce.com will be bought sometime this year, and not by a company you'd think would buy the software as a service (SaaS) darling, either.

He predicted Google or Yahoo would purchase the firm as a way of moving upstream into the enterprise market from their consumer roots. The notion flies in the face of Google's own feelings on the subject.

Full article: internetnews.com 

'Wiki search tech will find a way... '

The online collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google and Yahoo!.

Wikia, the commercial counterpart to the not-for-profit Wikipedia, is aiming to take as much as five per cent of the lucrative internet search market, said Jimmy Wales, founder of the popular internet encyclopedia, at a news conference in Tokyo.

Wales said: "The idea that Google has some edge because they've got super-duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now."

Read more: silicon.com 

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Internet stocks were broadly higher in early trading Thursday, with Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc. rising as much as 2% and Google Inc. slightly higher after the search market leader won a courtroom victory in a patent dispute over its Google Earth mapping service.

Google said late Wednesday a U.S. district judge in Massachusetts ruled that its
three-dimensional mapping technology doesn't infringe patents held by Skyline Software Systems Inc., which filed suit in 2004 seeking unspecified damages.

Full article: MarketWatch 

The centuries-long feud between Turkey and Greece took a technological turn yesterday.

Internet video hosting site YouTube has become the latest battleground for patriots from the two neighbouring countries to trade insults.

However, a video posting alleging that all Turks are gay, as was the modern Republic’s beloved founder, Ataturk, proved too much.

Turks are devoted to the memory of Ataturk, and slandering his name is punishable by imprisonment.

Full story: pinknews.co.uk 

As Baidu snaps at its heels...

Google and its top rival in China, Baidu.com, are racing to build out their online library services as they battle for a slice of the world's second-largest internet market.

Baidu has already secured a strategic partnership with Peking University Library in Beijing, one of Asia's largest academic libraries, in preparation for the launch of its online book service, according to publishing and internet sources familiar with the situation.

Read more: silicon.com 

NEW YORK: Is Google planning to forge closer ties with Apple? There are indications. Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt almost said so when he was asked at a technology conference in San Francisco whether the company is planning to come out with a device to compete with Apple's iPhone.

He said Google and Apple are doing more and more things together and the two companies had similar goals and similar competitors.

Read more: earthtimes.org 

Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It's a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

Google Desktop doesn't just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web with Sidebar, a new desktop feature that shows you your new email, weather and stock information, personalized news and RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to).

We've also improved your desktop search experience. With Quick Find, you can now launch applications and see search results as you type without even opening a browser. We've also extended our Outlook integration, so you can search Google Desktop with the Outlook Toolbar and see results within Outlook itself. Finally, you can search even more stuff, including your Gmail, files on network drives, many Outlook data types (including Contacts, Tasks, Calendar, Notes and Journal) and MSN Messenger chats. And if you yearn for even stronger security, you can encrypt your entire index.

Improved Sidebar and Google Gadgets. Add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and Sidebar, Developers: Create and share your own gadgets.

Requires Windows Windows 2000 SP3+/XP/Vista

Download: Google Desktop 5.1.0703.05398 Beta | Gadgets 

Yahoo Answers is the undisputed leader in the Q&A space, vanquishing Google Answers to the DeadPool late in 2006.

But now, a number of researchers who previously worked on Google Answers have started their own new service: Uclue. The team has also posted on the TechCrunch Forums looking for people to help out with the project.

Full article: TechCrunch 

NEW YORK -- Microsoft copyright attorney Thomas Rubin accused rival Google of profiting handsomely from online theft, the latest arrow slung between two software giants struggling to corner online markets.

Rubin, who made his accusation in an address to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) here today, said that Google employees "actively encouraged advertisers" to build ad programs around key words referring to pirated software, music and movies illegal copies of digital content.

"These actions bolstered Web sites dedicated to piracy and reportedly netted Google around $800,000 in advertising revenues from just four such pirate sites," Rubin said

"These are not the actions of a company that has the interests of copyright owners as one of its priorities," he added.

Full story: internetnews.com 

Search giant accused of committing huge copyright infringement

Comments made by a top Microsoft lawyer about Google are drawing criticism from the search giant and third parties.

Thomas C. Rubin, associate general counsel for copyright, trademark and trade secrets at Microsoft, made the comments in a speech to the Association of American Publishers.

"Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people's content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and IPOs," he said.

Full story: vnunet.com 

Finding files and documents that you've misplaced on your PC should now be even easier for users of Google's Desktop search tool.

Google Desktop 5 beta is now available to download and it will allow you to preview search results inside the browser, so you won't have to wait while an application such as Word or Excel opens up just to see if you've got the right file.

Other improvements have been made in the new version, including some to increase the security of the application.

Read more: webuser.co.uk 

I feel as if I have been traversing the country with Google CEO Eric Schmidt this week!

Yesterday I enjoyed lunch with him during his address to the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco (read my first-hand report in “Google CEO extols $800 billion advertising opportunity”).

I spent this morning over breakfast with him during his talk to the Bear Stearns Media Conference in Palm Springs.

All from the comfort of my New York City-based PC!

Over the past two days I have heard Schmidt drill-down on the Google business case for YouTube. I share with you below what Google CEO Eric Schmidt really thinks about YouTube.

Full article: ZDNet Blogs 

There is this theme in the technology world where high-profile executives get an annual salary of $1. Apple's Steve Jobs has been earning one dollar for years. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin earn $1 each, as well. Even, Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel makes a whopping $1 per year. But don't feel bad for Schmidt, Page, Brin or Semel, they are all doing pretty well.

Full story: searchengineland.com 

Microsoft is set to launch a blistering attack on rival Google on Tuesday for what the software giant argues is the web search leader's "cavalier" approach to copyright protection.

In prepared remarks to be delivered to the Association of American Publishers, Microsoft associate general counsel Thomas Rubin argues that Google's move into new media markets has come at the expense of publishers of books, videos and software.

The Microsoft attorney's comments echo arguments at the heart of a 16-month-old copyright lawsuit against Google brought by five major book publishers and organised by the Association of American Publishers, an industry trade group.

Full article: ZDNet.co.uk 

Patrolman Brian Johnson of the Franklin, Mass., Police Department studied a surveillance video showing two men using allegedly stolen credit cards at a Home Depot.

But when Johnson didn't recognize either man, he decided to involve people — a lot of them — to help crack the case. He posted a clip from a security camera on YouTube.com, Google's video-sharing website, then e-mailed the clip's link to about 300 people and organizations saying the department was looking for the men.

Full article: USA TODAY.com 

The company that recently won the rights to the GMail trademark in the UK has taken its case Stateside. And if Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is successful claiming its stake to GMail in the US as well, your @gmail.com address could change to @googlemail.com instead.

Late last month, IIIR filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel Google's ownership of the GMail trademark, alleging the company had improperly acquired their application for it in 2004.

Full article: WebProNews 

NEW YORK: IBM announced a partnership with Google to add Google Gadgets to its WebSphere Portal pages. This will facilitate users to customize their webpages with web-based applets like maps and translators and surveys, which are part of Google Gadgets.

The partnership will allow IBM, the largest provider of employee portal software used by large corporations, to offer personalized home pages for office workers, who can make use of Google Gadgets to improve the look and feel and usability of the home pages.

Full article: Earthtimes.org 

Short clips of forthcoming BBC programmes such as Doctor Who and Spooks will soon be appearing on YouTube.

However, this move isn't going to get the popular video-sharing website, owned by Google, into trouble, as it has been officially sanctioned by the BBC.

The two companies have teamed up to provide preview trailers and specially commissioned promotional content to YouTube's visitors.

Read more: webuser.co.uk 

We heard the rumors, we felt its existence, and we discussed about it in various forums and discussion boards; and now, it’s official. The online giant, Google has finally revealed the data about the click fraud that was thought to exist. In its “Adwords” blog, Google declared that the invalid clicking accounts to a total of ten percent in the total adsense business.

Although Google accepts the problem, it is not willing to accept the seriousness of the problem as yet. Contrary to what advertisers and industry experts believe, Google says problem has not grown out of hand. According to Google the estimated loss to advertisers due to invalid clicking is $100 million a year.

Full article: VoIP for Enterprise 

Applications software vendor Etelos showed it has a little bit of Google in it with the beta availability of CRM for Google.

The software, which takes the look of the search giant's standard search interface homepage, is available in a hosted or on-premises server version. Etelos founder and CEO Danny Kolke said his company built on one of its existing CRM applications and took advantage of Google's open APIs to create something new.

"We've always been the little guy integrating with other apps. Enterprises choose us because our applications are commonly open source and developers can tweak them," Kolke told internetnews.com. "With CRM for Google, we're letting users start from a place that's very familiar to most of them."

Full story: internetnews.com 

Google and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been in dispute since March over "various issues" including the way in which Google accounts for income tax, the search giant revealed on Friday.

According to Google's annual report for 2006, filed with the SEC on Thursday, the issue remains unresolved (See paragraph 32, "Unresolved Staff Findings", in the Google document.)

The commission has expressed concerns about "various issues with respect to our public filings, including our provision for interim period effective", said Google in its filing. The dispute has been batted backwards and forwards seven times between Google and the SEC, the last time on 30 January this year.

Read more: ZDNet UK