C5 Galaxy military transport plane over Hungary
If you’ve ever wondered how detailed google maps satellite imagery could be, or perhaps how big a C5 Galaxy military transport plane really is, look no further than google maps!
Google CEO Says Company is Letting Cash “Pile Up”
“We’ve not really discussed a dividend payment. At the moment our view is to let the cash pile up.”
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Despite its $8.6B USD cash surplus, Mr. Schmidt said that Google would only make “very very conservative investments”.
via DailyTech – Google CEO Says Company is Letting Cash “Pile Up”.
Google is still rich! Whoever thought Microsoft was going to rule the world … was wrong!
Control all information, then everyone will go to you for information. That drives traffic and thus ad hits!
I wonder what Google has in store for its huge surplus. Perhaps if the economy hits Microsoft hard enough, Google could potentially buy it up!
Subject to US anti-competition approval of course. However, they don’t exactly produce the same line of products …
“This site may harm your computer” on every search result??
If you did a Google search between 6:30 a.m. PST and 7:25 a.m. PST this morning, you likely saw that the message “This site may harm your computer” accompanied each and every search result. This was clearly an error, and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to our users.
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We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately and here’s the human error, the URL of ‘/’ was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and ‘/’ expands to all URLs.
via Official Google Blog: “This site may harm your computer” on every search result??.
It is a pretty unfotunate incident, but I guess that’s the drawback with processing huge amounts of data. One wrong keystroke can cause a whole system to fail.
Presumably, all test cases cannot be accounted for, and, like this one, will have to be dealt with when it occurs.
I suppose no one would have thought to flag as potential invalid data if the value for a URL contained just one character.
Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.
I think it’s great that the Google team managed to find this error within 40 mintues. I wonder what the algorithm or process they went through to find this error. It is literally looking for a needle in a haystack. The “/” really does look like a needle. :P
Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat
That’s why today we’re launching voice and video chat — right inside Gmail. We’ve tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video — all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.
Official Gmail Blog: Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat.
Gotta hand it to Google. They come up with the most innovative products, available to users … for free!
A while back, we were all afraid that Microsoft was going to take over the world. Now, Google actually is taking over the world!
Are people afraid Google knows too much? Afterall, they index your documents via Google Docs, desktop computer via Google Desktop and even know your email via GMail and Google Chat.
Now, they not only know what you are talking about, but putting a face to that name too!
But, they provide it all for free and that makes me happy.
It keeps me wanting to click on links that say Google Ads on them! Don’t you? ;)
Google’s Charity, At Your Expense
Google gets a bit more than that out of the deal. It gets thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars of free publicity out of its sponsorship of the contest. That’s the sort of thing Google, as an advertising provider, knows and values. Were Google’s interest purely philanthropic, it could donate $10 million without announcing its generosity to the world.
But more subtly troubling is that Google’s insistence that contest participants part with their ideas without compensation echoes the company’s tradition of making use of people’s intellectual property without payment. What is Google’s index after all, not to mention YouTube, but a treasure trove made from words copied from copyrighted content? Those words might be worthless in isolation but they’re invaluable aggregated and indexed.
If you have a good idea, a really good idea, the sort of brilliant idea that might win Google’s contest — a way to produce a $0.01 straw that removes all impurities from contaminated water, for example — why give that valuable idea away when you could commercialize it? You could start a company to support your idea, provide jobs to people, and help humanity at the same time.
Google’s Charity, At Your Expense – Google Blog – InformationWeek.
There was a reply to my post about Google’s 10^100 project that brought this post to light. I would like to clarify a few things.
It is true that you will not make anything out of this idea. It is true that technically, Google will gain publicity from your idea.
However, that train of thought, in itself, makes you as bad as the picture the author paints of Google. If you have an idea that will save the world, and you’re thinking about making money out of it, then you are just “like Google” and trying to figure out how to profit from it.
If your idea can be implemented faster and reach further with Google’s support, would you not give it up? Or would you rather hold back from saving the rest of the world, so you can profit from it?
Would you slowly sell bits of your global warming averting services to companies seeking “carbon credits”, or would you give it freely so the whole planet avoids destruction?
Would you rather die that rich man, having profited from the world’s impending destruction, knowing that you your riches doomed countless generations, including your own?
Or would you rather die knowing you freely gave away technology that saved the generations to come and made the world “a better place for your children and grandchildren”?
Maybe if it were possible and your idea was well thought out, Google could actually employ you to consult on your own project.
Also, it would be interesting to see if Google patents the technology in their name, or in the name of humanity, and free in pertpetua to the world for humanity’s use. If this is the case, I would have no reservations with giving my idea freely, even if Google gains through publicity.
The politics of which one entity profits, always stalls the benefit for the greater good of the current people and generations to come.
T-Mobile G1 (Google Android Phone)
The G1’s contacts, calendar and e-mail apps all sync with Google’s online services, T-Mobile reps said. The calendar is sleek and simple. The contact book includes presence information on Google Talk, and lets you dial, e-mail or IM with a tap.
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Android’s browser, which T-Mobile reps described as “Chrome Lite,” looks great. It had the best JavaScript performance of any mobile browser we’ve seen yet, popping down even complex JavaScript calendars that the iPhone struggles with.
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There are separate Gmail and e-mail icons, though the e-mail program can also handle Gmail. It pushes Gmail and pulls IMAP accounts. The IM program handles AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live and Yahoo!. Once again, it prefers Google services – Google Talk online status is integrated into the contact book, but none of the other IM statuses are.
T-Mobile G1 (Google Android Phone) – The G1 As a Smartphone – Reviews by PC Magazine.
After reading this review, I think the Android Phone is not the super iPhone killer that I was hoping it would be. It’s not that I want something to kill an iPhone, I’m actually quite liking everything that’s a Mac, but it was just that I expected a lot more from Google.
That being said, from a marketing point of view, I think they needed to release this handset asap to compete. Blackberry has the corporate market, with the iPhone being a sensation in the consumer market. If they did not release the handset now, they risked the iPhone saturating the market by Christmas time. Even that is not including all the other competitiors that will come into the market.
Since neither started out all that spectacular, I guess we will have to see if Apple or Google improves at a better rate. Perhaps that means I can hold off getting either the iPhone or the Andriod phone until Rogers’ ridiculous rates drop even more.
On the side, why do we need a separate data/phone plan? Mobile phones, if anything, are the best VOIP candidates! People buy mobile phones so often that new technology can be introduced in a couple of years, as opposed to having to dig up all the old infrastructure for land base VOIP.
Google: Project 10 to the 100th
A Couple of things that should be brought to your attention.
To mark our 10th birthday and celebrate the spirit of our users and the web, we’re launching Project 10^100 (that’s “ten to the hundredth”) a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life. CNN will be covering this project, including profiles of ideas and the people who submit them from around the world. For a deeper look, follow along at Impact Your World.
and
We’re committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.
I’m all for promoting Google Project 10^100. If you have some idea that you think will save the world, don’t forget to participate in this! You never know, even the most simple idea could save the world!
Imagine the first time when someone managed to kick a stone or a log around, then realized, it could’ve turned into a wheel!
Personally, I’m all for commiting this to some kinda alternate power/fuel source! Low cost, easily implemented and abundant.
Good luck! Our futures could depend on it!
Android, Chrome, Gears, Google
By offering mobile developers an alternative way for making their mobile applications run on handsets, even when no wireless connection exists, Google is paving the way for developers to build browser-based applications that can run on any mobile platform, as opposed to having to build separate versions of their applications in order to support those same mobile platforms.
I was browsing around for information about whether Google Apps would be available in an offline version when I came across this article.
It speaks of how Google, by releasing Chrome with built in Gears and open sourcing it, encourages the development of web applications that can be used even when not connected to the internet!
This means that you will get platform independent, yet offline capable applications. Add Android to the mix and you have the perfect platform for developing applications that run on mobile devices of many different varieties. All they need in common is a standards compliant web browser that supports Google Gears. Since Chrome and Gears are open sourced, it is more appealing to the developers to widely adopt it’s usage.
Do we then still need to learn a host of other programming languages? Or is Javascript the only language we need?
Google Chrome Review
Visit http://www.google.com/chrome to download and start exploring. (For the moment, it’s available only for Windows users, but you can sign up on the download page to learn when the Mac and Linux versions are available.
So to start of with, I am about 90% sure I want Chrome to be my main browser on my PC. The 10% holding me back is the lack of bookmark synchronization with my Mac.
Granted that I don’t really use my PC much anymore anyway, this might not affect me.
Now Chrome is fast … really fast … I’ve been looking for javascript intensive web sites to test them on. Google Docs comes to mind as one such site, as well as Meebo where you can drag windows around. On my two and a half year old Dell, (which also happens to be dual core) the multi-process and compiled javascript is a distinct advantage.
If I was a a public terminal, opening the Incognito windows will be a distinct advantage. I’m sure there will be some way to force it to only open those windows.
I’m not quite sure what other featues people use on their browsers, but on Firefox, the only plugins I use are Foxmarks, Firebug and Google Notebook.
I’m sure there will be equivalents for them on Chrome. It’d rather not have to install a full blown Google Toolbar.
I’ve noticed some minor cosmetic rendering errors from time to time, but as this is in “beta”, I defnitely can understand it. Besides, I only saw it twice on all the pages I’ve seen so far.
On Facebook, when clicking the next button to view pictures, the link stops working after a few clicks. Using the arrow keys or clicking the picture allows an advance to the next picture. This was just confirmed by my friend Linda.
Some people mentioned the lack of the Home button. It is an option under Basics -> Homepage. You can customize what you would like as your “homepage”.
So far, Chrome has not crashed but from reading about the technology from the comic book, I blog here with confidence that when I open a tab mid way through blogging, I will not lose all of this. (Although Wordpress now auto saves, so that helps!)
A better bookmark organization window would be helpful.
I kinda like using “/” to do inline searches, although it is simply because I am used to it in Firefox.
I love how the default home page lists recently closed tabs, just in case I accidently closed a wrong tab.
All I need now is Foxmarks for Chrome and a Mac version!
Google Chrome
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web.
Oh god no, not another browser! Mozilla is open source, why can’t Google just contribute to the Mozilla project? Why create confusion with another browser?
Afteralll, in that quote I just took from the google blog, it isn’t the browser that matters. So why would anyone use Google’s new browser?
A little further down the blog, they mention a new javascript engine. One that will do things that even “current browsers cannot do”.
We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.
That means that … things will be non cross platform compatible. Things designed for Google’s browser will not work on other browsers.
If only Google simply contributed that code to the Mozilla project. Then at least, there would be one less browser to worry about. If Google just worked with Mozilla, they could have a browser that keeps all those awesome qualities about Mozilla … like it’s multitude of plug-ins … and improve on it with Google’s contributions. Now, if there is something I really like about Google’s Chrome, I will need to switch between Chrome and Firefox.
Then I took a look at the comic book, and I was instantly excited about Google’s new browser. So excited in fact, that I can’t wait for a Mac version to be released!
In particular, I am amazed by it’s multi-process capabilities and it’s sandboxing. If any tab crashes, all the other tabs stay alive. I have lost my share of data due to tab crashes.
Furthermore, if there is malware on one site you’re visiting, as soon as you exit, that process gets destroyed and along with it, the malware. There will be no prying eyes silently sitting on your system.
The multi-process will also take advantage of the fact that many computers now and, as far as I know most if not all new ones being sold, have multiple processor cores in them.
One other part of the browser that interests me is the Javascript Virtual Machine. That means that the code is compiled and not simply interpreted leading to fast run times. With all new Web 2.0 interfaces being heavily javascripted, this would give a tremendous performance advantage for the web application!
As for choosing between Chrome and Firefox, in time, Firefox plugins will migrate their way to Chrome (or equivalents will be developed), or as Google hopes, that Chrome code will find it’s way into Firefox and other browsers.
What’s in it for Google? More traffic to it’s web site, better integration with it’s online application suites, possibly ads … we’ll have to see.
Now my personal mission will be to find a way to use Chrome without sacrificing much of what I love about Firefox.
Google Chrome can be found here.