News Quotes About Google 2006

"About a month ago I alluded to a data center called “Bigdaddy” that people could check out as a preview. We’re ready to collect feedback on the Bigdaddy data center now."

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bigdaddy/

Bigdaddy

http://64.233.179.104/

Links:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-05-n16.html

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060104-170002

Google Pack

Google Pack

(January 7, 2006)

http://pack.google.com/

"System Requirements"

"Windows XP with Administrator privileges"

"Firefox 1.0+ or Internet Explorer 6.0+"

http://pack.google.com/pack_installer_required.html

Google Software Included

Google Desktop

Google Earth

Google Pack Screensaver

Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer

Additional Software Included

Ad-Aware SE Personal

Adobe Reader 7

Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar

Norton Antivirus 2005 Special Edition

http://pack.google.com/pack_installer_required.html

"What is the Google Pack?"

"Google Pack is a free collection of essential software from Google and other companies."

"Google Pack also takes the hassle out of downloading, installing, and updating software. You can download and install the entire Google Pack in just a few clicks. And the included Google Updater helps you discover new programs and keep your current software up to date."

"What is the Google Updater?"

"The Google Updater is the program that downloads and installs all the software in the Google Pack. You can use the Google Updater to monitor the status of your installation, run software that's been installed, or uninstall software."

"Is all the software in the Google Pack free?"

"Yes, all the software in the Google Pack is free. Some programs may offer paid versions that provide additional features or ongoing updates, but you'll never have to install the paid versions, and your free version will continue to work as long as you have it installed."

http://pack.google.com/about.html

Learn more about each of the programs

http://pack.google.com/product_earth.html

Google Pack Help

http://www.google.com/support/pack

Google Updater

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=30252&topic=8326/

Google Desktop

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=10101&topic=8313

Google Earth

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31710&topic=8314

Google Pack Screensaver

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=28076&topic=8315

Google Talk

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31712&topic=8316

Google Toolbar

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/topic.py?topic=8317

Picasa

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=11147&topic=8318

Ad-Aware

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31730&topic=8319

Adobe Reader

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31731&topic=8320

GalleryPlayer

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=28075&topic=8321

Mozilla Firefox

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31729&topic=8322

Norton AntiVirus

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31732&topic=8323

RealPlayer

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31736&topic=8324

Trillian

http://www.google.com/support/pack/bin/answer.py?answer=31737&topic=8325

Google Video Store

Google Video Store

(January 10, 2006)

http://video.google.com/videostore

Google Video Help

http://video.google.com/support

Google Video forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Google-Video

Official Google Video Blog

http://googlevideo.blogspot.com/

Links:

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/video_marketplace.html

http://googlevideo.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-videos-new-year.html

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/10/google-video-store-updated/

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/07/google-opens-video-store-for-vod/

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-10-n82.html

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-07-n43.html

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060109-223133

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060106-190001

The Google Podium

The Google Podium

(January 12, 2006)

"Here you'll find a selection of public presentations made by Google executives. From time to time, we will continue to add transcripts, audio or video clips and links to presentations hosted elsewhere."

"You'll need to have RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed as well as a computer capable of playing sound to play the video or audio files."

http://www.google.com/press/podium.html

Examples:

http://www.google.com/press/podium/ces2006.html

http://www.google.com/press/podium/eric.html

http://www.google.com/press/podium/brin.html

http://www.google.com/press/podium/ana.html

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail795.html

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail818.html

http://www.google.com/press/factorytour.html

Google Personalized Homepage for mobile

Google Personalized Home for mobile devices

January 12, 2006

"Today, Google continued the expansion of its mobile offerings with the announcement of Google Personalized Home for mobile devices, a new service that enables users' access to their personalized Google homepage on their mobile phones and PDAs. With Personalized Home, users on-the-go can view the information they access most frequently from one screen on their mobile device. For example, business travelers can easily keep up with their personal stock quotes while they're on the road, and news junkies can stay on top of their favorite headlines when they're away from their desktops and TVs – all without having to search multiple web pages from a mobile device."

http://www.google.com/press/annc/p_home_mobile.html

Google Personalized Homepage Mobile

January 12, 2006

" the Google Personalized Homepage is now also available for certain mobile phones. Just point your phone to “www.google.com/ig/mobile”. "

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-12.html#n44

Google Makes Personalized Home Page Portable

January 12, 2006

"Google has expanded the personalization of its home page beyond the browser and onto the cell phone; it's called Google Mobile Home. This page explains how to do it; you must customize the portable page separately from the browser page. This is a good thing, as it allows the user to select different content for the road"

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/01/12/google-makes-personalized-home-page-portable/

Links:

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060112-115505

http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3577286

Google News: Recommended News and Most Popular News

And now, News

January 23, 2006

"We're taking Google News out of beta! When we launched the English- language edition in September 2002, we entered untested waters with a grand experiment in news browsing - using computers to organize the world's news in real time and providing a bird's eye view of what's being reported on virtually any topic."

"today we're adding a way to automatically recommend stories for users with Personalized Search. Here's how it works: You can sign up for Personalized Search to view and manage your history of news searches and the articles you've read. When you're signed in to your Google Account, you'll receive recommended news stories based on the previous stories you've read. These recommendations will be highlighted just below the top news stories on the page, in a clearly marked section. You can also get a full page of recommended stories by clicking on the section. All of this is done automatically using algorithms."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/and-now-news.html

Links:

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/23/notice-anything-different/

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-21-n38.html

http://addict3d.org/index.php?page=viewarticle&type=news&ID=16833&title=Google%20News%20Adds%20Most%20Popular,%20Recommended

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060123-142418

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-news-leaving-beta/

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177103029

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1881298449;fp;16;fpid;0

Google Patents and Patent Applications

Google Patent Application: "Call-on-select Advertisements"

Name: Advertisements for devices with call functionality, such as mobile phones

Number: 20060004627

Date: January 5, 2006

"Abstract"

"The serving of one or more ads to a user device considers determined characteristics of a user device, such as whether or not the user device supports telephone calls. At least some ads may include call- on-select functionality. When such an ad is selected (e.g., via a button click), instead of loading a document (e.g., Web page) for rendering, a telephone number associated with the ad by an advertiser can be automatically dialed."

"Claims"

1. "A method for serving one or more ads to a user device, the method comprising: a) accepting a request for one or more ads; b) determining characteristics of a user device associated with the request; and c) determining a set of ads to serve using the determined characteristics."

2. "the user device has characteristics of having a small display and call functionality, and wherein the set of ads includes at least one ad which, if selected, initiates a telephone call"

3. "the user device has a display having a diagonal measurement of about 3 inches or less"

4. "the user device has a display having a diagonal measurement of about 1.5 inches or less"

5. "the user device has characteristics of having a slow communications connection and call functionality"

15. "A machine readable medium having stored thereon an ad data structure comprising: a) a first machine-executable code for rendering an ad creative on a device; and b) a second machine-executable code for initiating a telephone call in response to a user selection of at least a portion of the ad creative rendered."

23. "Apparatus for serving one or more ads to a user device, the apparatus comprising: a) an input for accepting a request for one or more ads; b) means for determining characteristics of a user device associated with the request; and c) means for determining a set of ads to serve using the determined characteristics."

"Description"

[0002] "The present invention concerns advertisements ("ads"), such as ads served in an online environment. In particular, the present invention concerns adapting an online ad environment to make ads more useful for devices with call functionality, and/or a limited ability to render Web pages in a manner satisfying to a user (e.g., due to small displays, slow communications connection speeds, and/or slow rendering), such as mobile phones for example."

[0008] "Although using Web pages, such as those authored in HTML or some other markup language for example, as ad landing pages is useful when the user is using a browser on a device with an adequate display monitor (e.g., 13'', 15'', 17'', 19'', 21'', etc., or perhaps even smaller), the use of the same Web pages as ad landing pages is much less useful when the user is using a device with a smaller and/or lower resolution display. Similarly, although using Web pages as ad landing pages is useful when the user device has an adequate communications connection to the Internet (e.g., a 56 Kbps modem, a higher speed digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, or a higher speed cable modem) and an adequate processor for rendering the Web page, using Web pages as ad landing pages is much less useful when the user device has a slow communications connection (e.g., 9.6 Kbps) and/or a slow processor."

[0021] "The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, message formats, and/or data structures for considering device type information such as display size and/or resolution, communications connection speed, processor speed, and/or call functionality for example, in an on-line advertising environment. The following description is presented to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of particular applications and their requirements. Thus, the following description of embodiments consistent with the present invention provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise form disclosed. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles set forth below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. For example, although a series of acts may be described with reference to a flow diagram, the order of acts may differ in other implementations when the performance of one act is not dependent on the completion of another act. Further, non-dependent acts may be performed in parallel. No element, act or instruction used in the description should be construed as critical or essential to the present invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article "a" is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term "one" or similar language is used. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown and the inventor regards his invention as any patentable subject matter described."

[0027] "FIG. 2 illustrates an environment 200 in which the present invention may be used. A user device (also referred to as a "client" or "client device") 250 may include a browser facility (such as the Explorer and pocket-PC Explorer browsers from Microsoft, the Opera Web Browser from Opera Software of Norway, the Navigator browser from AOL/Time Warner, the Mozilla browser, etc.), an e-mail facility (e.g., Outlook from Microsoft), etc. A search engine 220 may permit user devices 250 to search collections of documents (e.g., Web pages). A content server 210 may permit user devices 250 to access documents. An e-mail server (such as Hotmail from Microsoft Network, Yahoo Mail, etc.) 240 may be used to provide e-mail functionality to user devices 250. An ad server 210 may be used to serve ads to user devices 250. The ads may be served in association with search results provided by the search engine 220. However, content-relevant ads may be served in association with content provided by the content server 230, and/or e -mail supported by the e-mail server 240 and/or user device e-mail facilities."

[0038] "When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be used to describe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parameters are referred to as "serving parameters" below. Serving parameters may include, for example, one or more of the following: features of (including information on) a document on which, or with which, the ad was served, a search query or search results associated with the serving of the ad, a user characteristic (e.g., their geographic location, the language used by the user, the type of browser used, previous page views, previous behavior, user account, any Web cookies used by the system, user device characteristics, etc.), a host or affiliate site (e.g., America Online, Google, Yahoo) that initiated the request, an absolute position of the ad on the page on which it was served, a position (spatial or temporal) of the ad relative to other ads served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of the ad relative to other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other ads served, types of other ads served, time of day served, time of week served, time of year served, etc. Naturally, there are other serving parameters that may be used in the context of the invention."

[0042] "A "conversion" is said to occur when a user consummates a transaction related to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion may vary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when a user clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's Web page, and consummates a purchase there before leaving that Web page. Alternatively, a conversion may be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on the advertiser's Web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). In yet another alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser to be any measurable/observable user action such as, for example, downloading a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of a Website, viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending at least a predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page, registering on a Website, etc. Often, if user actions don't indicate a consummated purchase, they may indicate a sales lead, although user actions constituting a conversion are not limited to this. Indeed, many other definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible."

[0051] "A limited or small display may be thought of as one that cannot render Web pages in a manner satisfying to most users, or a target set of users, due to size, and/or resolution. A 3'' diagonal display common on most current generation PDAs is one example of a limited display in the context of most Web pages authored for personal computers. A 1.5'' diagonal display common on most mobile telephones is another example of a limited display in the context of most Web pages authored for personal computers. Similarly, a slow communications connection speed may be thought of as one that is too slow to permit loading Web pages in a manner satisfying to most users, or a target set of users. A 9.3 Kbps modem is one example of a slow connection speed in the context of loading most Web pages authored for personal computers. Similarly, a slow processor may be thought of as one that is too slow to permit a loaded Web page to be rendered in a manner satisfying to most users, or a target set of users. Finally, a limited user device may be thought of as one that cannot render requested Web pages in a manner satisfying to most users, or a target set of users (e.g., due to some combination of screen size, communications connection speed, and/or processor speed). What constitutes a limited user device, a limited display, a slow connection speed, and/or a slow processor may be defined by an advertiser, an ad serving system, an end user, or some combination of definitions from these parties and entities."

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060004627%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060004627&RS=DN/20060004627

Links:

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/01/13/google-patent-application-for-click-to-call-advertising/

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060112-125312

http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3576931

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=13598&Page=1&pagePos=3

http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5160

Google Search Privacy Examination

Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Flowchart To Tracks You Leave Behind

January 23, 2006

"anyone who assumes they've protected themselves by using an anonymizing tool is probably not eliminating the important ISP aspect. Meanwhile, laws being considered to force search companies to destroy data must consider the role of ISPs to fully provide the intended protection."

" I'll take you step-by-step about how your search privacy data gets exposed from all the way from your desktop to the sites you visit."

"1. Search Privacy On Your Own Computer"

"Anything you do on the internet gets recorded on your own computer in various ways. Pages you've visited are stored in your computer's cache, and a history of the URLs you've seen and things you've searched for may also get stored in your browser."

"Running any desktop search tools? They may be storing information you want to delete. For example, Google's desktop search tool also stores all the pages you view on the web. When I last looked, deleting your browser cache did not destroy the data Google Desktop itself keeps."

"even if you delete files, people with the right tools and knowledge might still be able to bring back the data. Some of the tools mentioned above may be able to make this easier so that something you've deleted really stays deleted. But the most surefire way to do so would be to physically destroy your computer's hard drive, literally prying out the metal platter where the info is recorded and ideally breaking it up into multiple parts that would be disposed of in various places."

"2. Search Privacy & Your ISP"

"The weakest link in protecting your search privacy is your ISP. Everything you do is going to flow out of your computer and through your ISP to a search engine. Your ISP will see the pages you are requesting and in all likelihood have some type of records of what you've done for a set period of time. Whatever deletions you do on your own computer -- plus whatever things you do to be anonymous with search engines -- these have no impact on your ISP. It sees all."

"3. Search Privacy & Your Search Engine"

"Visit a major search engine, and it keeps track of every request you make. It will also assign you a cookie, unless you reject these. That's easy enough to do, and the Wired article gives you some tips on that."

"Rejecting cookies still leaves behind your internet address. My Search Privacy At Google & Other Search Engines article and the other one I've just posted, Private Searches Versus Personally Identifiable Searches explains this a bit more. Basically, it links your request back to your ISP and thus still back to you, if someone has access to your ISP."

"4. Search Privacy & Your Personalized Results"

"you might decide you want to get rid of some or all of your search history. At Google, it's easy. Here are the instructions. Ah, but even though you removed those items, they aren't necessarily deleted! Here's the Google privacy policy on personalized search. Notice that while your information is "removed from the service," it does NOT say that the information is destroyed entirely."

"Over at Yahoo, you can clear your search history, though there's no help page I can point you at about this (go to My Search History, then use the Clear History link on the left-hand side). However, it's again not clear that this wipes out all the information entirely."

"Many web sites make use of third party analytic services, such as ClickTracks, WebSideStory, WebTrends or Google Analytics. That means these services are almost like clearinghouses of search data. They see what many people are searching for -- and clicking on -- from all over the web through the data from thousands of clients using them. Potentially, they are just as rich a target for any government agency to mine as the search engines themselves."

"5. Search Privacy & Sites You Visit / Tracking Services"

"All the major search engines embed the search terms you used into the URL that appears in the address field of your browser. When you click on a listing, that URL is sent as "referrer" information to the web site you go to. That means what you searched on is sent to the web site you ultimately visit from a search engine. They're able to know the search terms you used plus your IP address."

"Referrer information is precious data to web sites. It allows them to know exactly how people found them."

"In Conclusion: Securing Search Privacy Is Tricky"

"As you can see, ensuring your search privacy is tricky. The information you send is leaving traces in multiple places. The solution to ensuring privacy isn't going to be as easy as passing a law that targets Google, Yahoo and the others. Ideally, the entire lifecycle of a search beyond the computer desktop needs to be considered from ISP through to tracking services. Searchers themselves also need to consider what they do on their own computer desktops."

"There's also an issue of what should be private. I wrote earlier today that most people probably think the conversations they have with search engines as being private. But to date, we don't have any protected searcher-search engine relationship as we do with attorney- client privilege or between clergy and worshipper. Perhaps that needs to be enshrined in some way. But then again, others may feel that going out on to the public web and using publicly accessible search engines entitles no one to an expectation of privacy, or perhaps a more limited one."

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060123-112156

AdWords Editor

AdWords Editor

(January 26, 2006)

"AdWords Editor is Google's free, downloadable account management application for your computer. Now you can download your AdWords account to your computer, make your changes, then upload your revised campaigns."

http://services.google.com/adwordseditor/index.html

AdWords Editor FAQ

"At this time, AdWords Editor has only been tested for Windows 2000 and Windows XP (Home/Pro). However, the application is designed for cross-platform functionality. We're working on expanding to additional operating systems, including Macintosh and Linux."

http://www.google.com/support/adwordseditor/bin/static.py?page=about.html

AdWords Editor Help Center

http://www.google.com/support/adwordseditor/

AdWords

http://adwords.google.com/

AdWords Help Center

http://adwords.google.com/support/

StopBadware.org

Putting a stop to spyware

January 25, 2006

"We're really excited to tell you about StopBadware.org, a new initiative aimed at combating the growing problem of spyware and other deceptive software."

"Google, along with Sun Microsystems and Lenovo, are co-sponsors."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/putting-stop-to-spyware.html

StopBadware.org

http://www.stopbadware.org/

StopBadware.org FAQ

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/faq

StopBadware.org forum

http://groups.google.com/group/stopbadware

What is badware?

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/help

About Us

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/about

Google Toolbar 4 Beta for Internet Explorer

Google Toolbar Gets Personal

January 30, 2006

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the latest version of Google Toolbar and a new Google Toolbar for Enterprise. The new beta versions of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer are open and customizable, with new features that enable users to customize their search experience and share information with friends."

"Google Toolbar was designed to make the Internet easier to use and help people find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. The new versions of Google Toolbar now offer customizable buttons, online bookmarks, enhanced search features, new sharing capabilities, and an open API. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta also includes administration and control for business environments."

"Users can now personalize their Toolbar through the addition of Custom Buttons. Custom Buttons enable users to run search queries directly on any website, receive alerts, and subscribe to feeds, right from their Toolbar. For example, news enthusiasts can now add Custom Buttons to search all their favorite news and see top news stories directly from their Toolbar"

"Google offers users three ways to get Custom Buttons. They can create their own by simply right clicking the search box on any website and selecting “Generate Custom Search”. They can install a Toolbar button offered on one of their favorite websites. Or, they can select ready made buttons from Google’s new Button Gallery."

"The new version of Google Toolbar also enables users to create, label and manage bookmarks for their favorite sites with a single click. Bookmarks are now saved to a user’s Google Account making them accessible from any computer."

"Additional product enhancements include expanded search functionality that offer users helpful query suggestions and spelling corrections as they type in the search box. Enhanced sharing capabilities allow users to easily send and share web page content via Gmail, SMS, or a blog by selecting the section of page they want to share and clicking the new "Send To" button."

"With this release, Google is also offering a new version of the Toolbar for enterprise environments. Google Toolbar for Enterprise beta includes all the new functionality of Google Toolbar, offering the same level of personalization and customization to corporate users. In addition, Google Toolbar for Enterprise includes group policy for administrative control of features, as well as Microsoft System Installer for easy corporate deployment. For example, an enterprise could distribute customized Toolbars to their users pre- loaded with Custom Buttons for Intranet sites, employee directories, and frequently used information sources."

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/toolbar4.html

Google Toolbar 4 Beta

http://toolbar.google.com/T4/

Google Toolbar Beta for Enterprise

http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/T4/enterprise/

Google Toolbar 4 Beta features

http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/static.py?page=features.html&v=4

Google Toolbar button gallery

http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/gallery

Google Toolbar API

http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/apis/index.html

http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/apis/started.html

http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/apis/howto_guide.html

Google Custom Buttons forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Custom-Buttons

Google Toolbar Help

http://www.google.com/support/toolbar

BearingPoint partners with Google

BearingPoint partners with Google to launch Search Solutions Practice

February 14, 2006

"Today, BearingPoint announced a new search practice for enterprise customers through an agreement with Google. We'd like to say thank you, and welcome."

"BearingPoint is the leading global management and technology consulting firm. As search becomes more of a critical business application, BearingPoint will help expand Google's search capabilities through proprietary technology plug-ins, customized search software and integration services."

http://www.google.com/press/annc/bearingpoint.html

A NEW WORLD OF SEARCH SOLUTIONS FROM BEARINGPOINT AND GOOGLE

"By combining BearingPoint's enterprise strategy and systems integration expertise with the world's most powerful search technology, we can help you harness the untapped value of information across your global infrastructure."

"Beyond web content, the BearingPoint | Google search solution can deliver real-time data and business intelligence from a wide spectrum of enterprise applications - all courtesy of the familiar Google search function."

http://www.bearingpoint.com/portal/site/bearingpoint/menuitem.6b87f1711e4fdef420c9d310c22026a0/channel/published/enterprise%20search/?source=4

Google Enterprise Solutions

http://www.google.com/enterprise/

Gmail Skins

Gmail Skins

(February 16, 2006)

"Gmail Skins is a Firefox extension that lets you change the look of your Gmail inbox (amongst some other things)."

http://gmailskins.mozdev.org/

Gmail's Chat Feature

Gmail chat features

(February 16, 2006)

"Now Gmail accounts are automatically enabled with chat features. You don't have to do anything special, it just works. See when your friends are online and decide for yourself how you want to get in touch with them. Email and instant messaging don't have to be so different. And why should you always have to remember whether something important was said over email or IM? We've made it easy for you to save chats, so you can search for them, print them, even reply to one over email."

"How do I use it?"

"When you're signed in to Gmail, you should always see a Quick Contacts box along the left of your screen. Clicking on a name in Quick Contacts will start a chat session or an email. The people you can chat with have colored balls next to their names—green means they're online, yellow means they're idle and red means they're busy."

"What's the difference between this and Google Talk?"

"Gmail's new chat features, while integrated with the Google Talk network, do not allow you to make or receive calls to your friends over your computer. You still need to download the Google Talk Windows client for that."

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/chat.html

"Can I use emoticons?"

"Yes. Emoticons make your chats more fun! To use emoticons, just type the appropriate combination of keys, and hit Enter. Here's a list of our emoticons:"

" < 3 , : ( | ) , \ m / , : - o , : D , : ( , X - ( , B - ) , : ' ( , = D , ; ) , : - | , = ) , : - D , ; ^ ) , ; - ) , : - ) , : - / , : P "

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=34056

"Which browsers support chat in Gmail?"

"Internet Explorer 6.0+ and Firefox 1.0+. Also, make sure you're using http:// when you log in -- chat in Gmail doesn't work in https:// quite yet, but it will soon."

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=33540&topic=8405

"Can I chat with people who don't use Gmail?"

"Yes. You can chat with anyone who uses the Google Talk instant messaging service, regardless of whether they use Gmail as their email service. Just invite your friend to chat, and look for him or her online!"

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29300&topic=8405

"How do I invite someone to chat with me?"

"There are three different ways to invite someone to chat with you. You can:"

"Mouse over any person’s name in Quick Contacts, and click Invite to chat in the profile card that pops up."

"Click Add contact at bottom of Quick Contacts -- then, enter your friend's email address in the box, and click add."

"Use auto-complete by entering your friends' name in the box at the top of Quick Contacts. Once the name of the person you'd like to invite appears, select Invite to chat."

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=33508&topic=8405

"How do I change my status?"

"Under Quick Contacts, click the arrow next to Set status here. Select the status you'd like to appear next to your name in your friends' Contact lists. Here’s what the different statuses mean:"

"Green: Available"

"Yellow: Idle. Your status automatically changes to idle when you're away from your computer for 15 minutes. You can't manually select to appear idle."

"Red: Busy. This lets your contacts know you’re busy and don’t want to be interrupted."

"Grey: Signed out of chat"

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29298&topic=8405

"How do I block a contact?"

"Blocking a contact prevents the person from talking to you and seeing when you're signed in to Gmail or Google Talk. Here's how:"

"Click Contacts along the left side of any Gmail page."

"Locate the person you'd like to block."

"Under Show in Quick Contacts?, select Block."

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29295&topic=8405

"Why don’t I have Gmail's chat features?"

"Gmail’s chat features are currently available to a limited set of users, but we’re actively rolling them out in stages so they'll be available for all Gmail users as soon as possible. For now, the Gmail chat features are available through the US English interface only, and you'll need to use a supported browser. Also, make sure you're using http:// when you log in -- chat in Gmail doesn't work in https://."

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=33504&topic=8405

Gmail Help Center

http://mail.google.com/support

Google China Blog

Google 黑板报

(February 16, 2006)

http://www.googlechinablog.com/

Google China Blog

February 14, 2006

"Google now has an official Chinese blog."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-02-14.html#n58

Google in Time magazine

In Search Of The Real Google

"An inside look at how success has changed Larry and Sergey's dream machine. Can they still be the good guys while running a company worth $100 billion?"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1158961,00.html

Google in Time

February 13, 2006

"Time has a cover story on Google."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-02-13.html#n50

Kamambe: Customize Google in Firefox

Kamambe

(February 16, 2006)

"customize the google menu"

http://kamambe.com/

"Requirements"

"Firefox 1.5 and the Greasemonkey extension. You will need to install the extension before the script will work."

http://kamambe.com/firefox.php

Customized Google with Kamambe

February 11, 2006

"Kamambe lets you customize the links shown on top of the Google search box by generating a Firefox Greasemonkey script."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-02-11.html#n61

Measure Map Joins Google

Here comes Measure Map

February 14, 2006

"Today [--] the Measure Map team joins Google"

"I check my stats a half-dozen times a day, anxious to see if anyone has linked to me or see what posts are most popular today"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/here-comes-measure-map.html

Measure Map

"Measure Map provides free, easy stats for your blog"

"Measure Map helps you understand what people do at your blog, and what influence you are having on the world."

"Track links to see who sends you traffic"

"Find out what people do at your site"

http://www.measuremap.com/

Measure Map Support Forums

http://forums.measuremap.com/

Unplayable Google Videos

What Good Are Unplayable Google Videos?

February 15, 2006

"If so many videos in Google Video, like all the Olympic videos, are unplayable outside the U.S., then why are they showing up in search results outside the U.S.?"

"If you don't live in the United States, the recent upgrade of Google Video has made it absolutely useless. Almost every video now is U.S. only. If it's U.S. only and you know I don't live there, then why not exclude those from the results in the first place?"

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/02/15/what-good-are-unplayable-google-videos/

Google and Santy.a Worm

Worms prey on Google for victims

February 15, 2006

"Using Google's search tool to hunt for system vulnerabilities is the latest way for Malware developers to find their next victims."

"Recently, the Santy.a worm targeted vulnerability in some versions of the phpBB bulletin board system application, that it took advantage of to damage content on websites. This was done by simply creating an automated search in a Google query string."

"Google was able to stop the worm quickly once they figured out what was going on by blocking any searches used for malicious purposes."

"The most common Google hacks involve queries that call up user names and passwords on unsecured servers. Log files for these particular users were put in jeopardy by not placing security measures and access privileges on important documentation."

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/02/15/worms-prey-on-google-for-victims/

Google PageRank Update

Google PR update

February 19, 2006

"It looks as thoough Google has updated PageRank at a bunch of Google Data centers. The rollout has been taking place for some time now. It was previously expected that the PR update was to take place early February, too much disappointment."

"The PR updates started to take place on Feb 18 at two Google datacenters, and are quickly making their way to other locations. However there is also a rollback at other datacenters."

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/02/19/google-pr-update/

Google Trusted Tester Program

Google Trusted Tester Program

(February 21, 2006)

"What is the Trusted Tester Program?"

"The Trusted Tester Program gives the friends and family members of Google employees a chance to test early Google confidential betas and let us know what they think. To become a Trusted Tester, you first must be invited by a friend or family member who currently works at Google. You can then log on to the Trusted Tester website with a Google Account in order to access and test out betas of new Google products as they become available."

"What is a Google beta?"

"A Google beta is a Google product that is still early in the product development process and that may not be feature complete or polished. That is why we hope to get your feedback at this early stage so we can make the product even better."

"Am I obligated to test Google betas as a Trusted Tester?"

"Certainly not; you're welcome to test only those betas that you're interested in, and for which you have time. Of course, we value all your feedback, so the more betas you test, the more you can help us make better products."

http://www.google.com/tester/faq

Google Current

Google Current

(February 23, 2006)

http://www.current.tv/google

About Google Current

http://www.current.tv/google?section=about

Google Current message board

http://www.current.tv/studio/community/1652422

Google Current

"Current TV is a new cable and satellite channel available throughout the U.S. Through a partnership, we provide access to Google Zeitgeist information - up to the minute aggregated search query results - for the Current staff to use in creating new TV stories. The resulting program, "Google Current," airs every half hour on Current TV and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google."

http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/msg/7e677453815fe6c7

Google Page Creator

Google Page Creator

(February 23, 2006)

http://pages.google.com/

About Google Page Creator

"Want to create an online photo tour of your vacation to Bali? An overview of the South American precipitation cycle for your science class? A shrine to your pet ferret?"

"Now's your chance. We're testing a new product that makes creating your own web pages as easy as creating a document in a word processor. Google Page Creator is a free tool that lets you create web pages right in your browser and publish them to the web with one click. There's no software to download and no web designer to hire. The pages you create are hosted on Google servers and are available at http://yourgmailusername.googlepages.com for the world to see."

"At Google, we've found that listening to our users early helps us develop the best possible products. So we're giving our users a chance to play with Google Page Creator even though it's not yet fully baked, and we're counting on you to send us your feedback and suggestions. If you'd like to stay up to date on all the latest Google Page Creator happenings, sign up for our updates mailing list."

"What do I need in order to use Google Page Creator?"

"You need to have a Gmail account and be using either Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 1.0, or higher, with JavaScript and cookies enabled."

"What does "beta" mean?"

" "Beta" means that that the product is still being tested and refined. Google finds that the best way to improve a product is to get feedback directly from our users. We invite you to let us know what you think about Google Page Creator by sending us your feedback and suggestions. "

"Are there space restrictions?"

"Yes. You can use up to 100MB of space for your pages and uploaded files."

"I don't want my landlady to find out about my pet ferret. How can I unpublish my pages?"

"Don't stress; if you want to unpublish any given page, simply go to the Page Manager page, select the pages you want to take offline by clicking their checkboxes, and select "Unpublish" from the "More Actions..." dropdown menu."

http://pages.google.com/-/about.html

Google Page Creator Help Center

http://www.google.com/support/pages

Google Page Creator forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Page-Creator

Google Page Creator Terms of Use

http://pages.google.com/-/terms_of_use.html

Google Page Creator Shortest Google Beta Ever?

Shortest Google Beta Ever?

February 23, 2006

"Well, I'm sure this has to be a new record! Google has closed Google Pages to new registrations already. Since Stu was the first to report this to me at 11 a.m., and I first noticed Pages at around 2 a.m., that would mean a nine-hour beta. Wow. Either Google had a very specific number of people they wanted for this, or the word-of-mouth network is extremely good."

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/02/23/shortest-google-beta-ever/

Google Stops Page Creator Enrollment

February 23, 2006

"Gary Price reports that Google has temporarily stopped "people from registering to use" Google Page Creator, which was released this morning. If you go to http://pages.google.com/ you will notice on the bottom right hand corner, a message that reads;"

"Due to heavy demand, we are unable to offer new accounts for today. If you'd like to be added to our waiting list, please enter your email address."

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060223-124416

Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac

Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac

(February 24, 2006)

"Welcome to the Google Mac Dashboard Widgets page. Widgets are mini- applications that you download and install into Dashboard to add new functionality."

http://www.google.com/macwidgets/

Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac forum

http://groups.google.com/group/macwidgets

Google Photos in Time Magazine

Life in the Googleplex Photo Essay

(February 24, 2006)

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/inside_google/

Official Google Research Blog

Official Google Research Blog

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/

Source:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ -> "More Google Blogs"

Google News for mobile devices

Google News for mobile devices

(March 1, 2006)

http://mobile.google.com/news/index.html

Overview of Google News for mobile devices

http://mobile.google.com/news/tour.html

Google News for mobile devices FAQ

http://mobile.google.com/news/faq.html

Google Recruiting Video

Google Recruiting Video

(March 5, 2006)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8618166999532839788&q=google+recruiting+video&time=30000

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/robots-and-writers-and-googlers-oh-my.html

Videos from the Googleplex

Videos from the Googleplex

(March 5, 2006)

"In addition to helping distribute content from across the world, Google would like to share videos featuring our company. The videos on this page give you an overview of our culture, products and business. Whether it's a scientist discussing their latest work or one of our campus events, we hope to provide a sample of great conversations and presentations."

http://video.google.com/googleplex.html

Google Switching to AMD Servers

Google Switching to AMD Servers

March 2, 2006

"Google is reprovingly switching its over 200,000 servers to run on Advanced Micro Devices Inc. chips instead of Intel chips."

"They have been utilizing the AMD chips on all new purchases recently. With winning a customer like Google, AMD has sparked greater interest in their brand, and will greatly increase their server business side."

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/02/google-switching-to-amd-servers/

Gmail Security Flaw

Gmail Security Flaw Fixed

March 3, 2006

"Google fixes a recently uncovered Gmail security flaw that allowed the attacker to run JavaScript in the context of Gmail (which often lead to XSS exploits)."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-03-03-n10.html

Google fixes 'minor' Gmail flaw

March 2, 2006

"Google has fixed a flaw in its Gmail Web based e-mail service after the problem was disclosed by a blogger, the company said Thursday."

" The flaw could allow JavaScript code to run when viewing a message in Gmail, potentially allowing malicious code to be used by an attacker to compromise a Gmail account, according to a blogger who calls himself "Anthony." "

"The blogger, who claims to be a 14-year-old student, found the flaw when sending code from his Yahoo Web mail account to his Gmail account, he wrote on Wednesday. The Web log is hosted by Google's Blogger service."

"Google fixed the flaw "very shortly after the initial blog post went up," a representative for the Mountain View, Calif., company said. "We learned of a minor security flaw in Gmail a little while ago and worked quickly to fix the problem, which has now been resolved," the representative said."

"Because the vulnerability was fixed quickly, it likely never was exploited in any attacks, the representative said. Still, Google would have preferred to have been alerted to the flaw privately, instead of via a public blog."

" "We encourage all vulnerability reporters to follow responsible disclosure practices and notify vendors first before making the vulnerability public," the representative said. "

"Flaws in online services are found regularly. Last December, Google fixed a security hole in the mechanism it uses to generate error pages for forbidden redirects and pages that don't exist on the Google Web site. The flaw opened the door to phishing scams, account hijacks and other attacks."

"Similar flaws have been discovered and fixed in other parts of Google's Web site, as well as in Microsoft's Xbox 360 Web site and Yahoo's Web-based e-mail service."

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6045416.html

Google Page Creator Security Flaw

More Google Authentication Flaws

March 8, 2006

"Garett Rogers reports that by sharing the URL you get after logging in to the Google Page Creator, you may inadvertedly also allow others to get into your Page Creator account... without ever having to enter your password. (I could reproduce this problem.) This security flaw is related to a previous one for Google’s book search, which also had the “auth” parameter in the URL. Just to be sure, if you ever see this “auth” parameter in your URLs, remove it before sending the URL to anyone."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-03-08-n45.html

Marissa Mayer

Google's Marissa Mayer tells how she works:

How I Work

"Marissa Mayer"

"VP, Search Products and User Experience, Google"

"I use Gmail for my personal e-mail -- 15 to 20 e-mails a day -- but on my work e-mail I get as many as 700 to 800 a day, so I need something really fast."

"I use an e-mail application called Pine, a Linux-based utility I started using in college. It's a very simple text-based mailer in a crunchy little terminal window with Courier fonts. I do marathon e- mail catch-up sessions, sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday. I'll just sit down and do e-mail for ten to 14 hours straight. I almost always have the radio or my TV on. I guess I'm a typical 25- to 35-year-old who's now really embracing the two-screen experience."

"I almost always have my laptop with me. It's sitting with me right now. We are a very laptop-friendly culture. It's not uncommon to walk into a meeting at Google where everyone has a laptop open."

"To keep track of tasks, I have a little document called a task list. And in the same document there's a list for each person I work with or interact with, of what they're working on or what I expect from them. It's just a list in a text file. Using this, I can plan my day out the night before: "These are the five high-priority things to focus on." But at Google things can change pretty fast. This morning I had my list of what I thought I was going to do today, but now I'm doing entirely different things."

"My day starts around 9 A.M. and meetings finish up around 8 P.M. After that I stay in the office to do action items and e-mail. I can get by on four to six hours of sleep. I pace myself by taking a week- long vacation every four months."

"I have an assistant, Patty, who handles calls from the outside, answers e-mails, letters, and requests. She does a great job with scheduling. In an average week I'm getting scheduled into about 70 meetings, probably ten or 11 hours a day. On Friday, Patty lets me out early -- around 6, and I go up to San Francisco and do something interesting."

"From 4 to 5:30 every day that I can, I'll sit at my desk to answer any question that shows up on my doorstep. We have a big sign-up sheet outside. We joke that we should get one of those deli number tickers -- "Now serving No. 68!" But we have nice couches and power for laptops and things outside the door where people wait." "The average seems to be around 13 people per day. Sometimes they show me mockups or new demos of ideas they want to advance. Sometimes they have a presentation they're working on. Or sometimes they just want to ask me a question about Google's overall management. Anything is fair game. So if they ask, "Why are we in China?" I try to answer as candidly as I can."

"Interviewed by David Kirkpatrick"

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fortune/how_i_work/frameset.exclude.html

Writely is Part of Google

Writely so

February 9, 2006

"For the last five months, I've been part of a Silicon Valley startup called Upstartle, which makes Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser. Well, as of Monday, I'm happy to say that I, and the rest of the Writely team, are now part of Google."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/writely-so.html

Writely - The Web Word Processor

"...that's now part of Google."

"Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time."

"Pick exactly who can access your documents."

"Edit your documents from anywhere"

"Nothing to download -- your browser is all you need."

http://www.writely.com/

Writely Tour

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowTourPage1.htm

Writely FAQ

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowFAQ.htm

"What exactly can I do with it?"

"You can:"

"Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text (or create documents from scratch)."

"Use our simple WYSIWYG editor to format your documents, spell-check them, etc."

"Invite others to share your documents (by e-mail address)."

"Edit documents online with whomever you choose."

"View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version."

"Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose."

"Download documents to your desktop as Word, OpenOffice, RTF, PDF*, HTML or zip."

"Post your documents to your blog."

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowFAQ.htm#faq1

"What browsers does Writely support?"

"Writely will work wherever you have access to the Internet via a Windows or Macintosh computer with one of these browsers:"

"IE 5.5+ (Windows)"

"Mozilla 1.4+ (Mac & Windows)"

"Firefox 1.0.6+ (Mac & Windows)"

"Regardless of your browser type, you must:"

"Enable cookies"

"Enable Javascript"

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowFAQ.htm#faq4

"What blogs can I post to?"

"Writely supports posting to most of the popular blog sites, as well as to any blog that supports the Blogger, metaWeblog or MovableType APIs."

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowFAQ.htm#faq26

"How much storage space do I get?"

"During the beta period, there is no limit on total storage space. To prevent abuse, there are (generous) limits on an individual document: the document itself can be up to 500K in length; each embedded image can be up to 2 megabytes; each document can be shared with up to 50 people."

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowFAQ.htm#faq42

Google Mars

Google Mars

http://www.google.com/mars/

About Google Mars

"This map of Mars, published by Percival Lowell in 1895, was the result of many years spent carefully studying the Red Planet through his telescope. Now you can do the same through your web browser. In collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University, we've created some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made."

"We've included three different types of data in Google Mars:"

"Elevation - A shaded relief map, generated with data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. This map is color-coded by altitude, so you can use the color key at the lower left to estimate elevations."

"Visible - A mosaic of images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. MOC is like the digital camera you have at home. Basically, this is what your eyes would see if you were in orbit around Mars."

"Infrared - A mosaic of infrared images taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Warmer areas appear brighter, and colder areas are darker. Clouds and dust in the atmosphere are transparent in the infrared, making this the sharpest global map of Mars that's ever been made."

http://www.google.com/mars/about.html

@Last Software acquired by Google

A new home for @Last Software

March 14, 2006

"When I went to sleep last night, I was employed by a small start-up called @Last Software. This morning, although I’m going to the same office, sitting at the same desk, and seeing the same people, I’m going to work as a Google employee."

"People see SketchUp and they love it. Now that we’re part of Google, how many of those ah-ha moments will happen every day? Already we’ve had hundreds of users create 3D content in SketchUp and place their models in Google Earth. (A free plug-in enables you to do this.)"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-home-for-last-software.html

@Last Software acquired by Google

March 14, 2006

"Google Inc. has acquired @Last Software"

"You have to be wondering what this means for SketchUp. Are we going to give up on design and all the cool new features and products we have in the pipeline? No way! In fact, the mission doesn’t change at all. We’re all about enabling users to express themselves in 3D and share their vision with others. Architects, builders, woodworkers, gamers, students and my Uncle Bob all want basically the same thing: the most intuitive tools to help them create and share their 3D dreams. So we’ll stay the course."

"SketchUp is still SketchUp, but now it will go places it couldn't possibly have gone before."

"Here’s the story. We got to know a bunch of Googlers while we were building the Google Earth Plugin for SketchUp, and it quickly became apparent that we could really stir things up together. At first, it was kind of hard to imagine; after all, we'd been blazing our own trail for so long. But after we kicked it around awhile, it started to seem right. One thing led to another, and here we are."

http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=1439

Judge Tells DoJ "No" on Search Queries

Judge tells DoJ "No" on search queries

March 17, 2006

"Google will not have to hand over any user's search queries to the government. That's what a federal judge ruled today when he decided to drastically limit a subpoena issued to Google by the Department of Justice."

"The government's original request demanded billions of URLs and two month's worth of users' search queries. Google resisted the subpoena, prompting the judge's order today. In addition to excluding search queries from the subpoena, Judge James Ware also required the government to limit its demand for URLs to 50,000. We will fully comply with the judge's order."

"This is a clear victory for our users and for our company, and Judge Ware's decision regarding search queries is especially important. While privacy was not the most significant legal issue in this case (because the government wasn't asking for personally identifiable information), privacy was perhaps the most significant to our users."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/judge-tells-doj-no-on-search-queries.html

Documents:

http://www.google.com/press/images/ruling_20060317.pdf

http://www.google.com/press/images/subpoena_20060317.pdf

Google Finance

Google Finance

http://finance.google.com/

Google Finance FAQ

"What is Google Finance?"

"Google Finance is an early beta product that offers a broad range of information about North American stocks, mutual funds and public and private companies along with charts, news and fundamental financial data."

"Here are some specific Google Finance features:"

"Company Search — With Google Finance you can search for stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies, using both company names and (where available) ticker symbols."

"Interactive Charts — Google Finance charts correlate market data with corresponding dated news stories to help you determine if there is a relationship between them (for instance, by seeing news stories that came out about a certain company in the context of what that company's stock did that day). You can also click and drag the charts to see different time periods and zoom in to see more detailed information."

"News and More News — Google Finance incorporates our Google News service, which gathers stories from more than 4,500 English news sources worldwide. Stories are clustered by topic so you can see different opinions on a single subject; you can also review news stories by monthly date range and by importance (which is determined by algorithms)."

"Blogs — If you want the opinions of citizen journalists, you got 'em; Google Finance includes company-related postings from Google Blog Search."

"Company Management Team — Google Finance helps you put a face to a name. Mousing over an executive name shows you their picture as well as links, where available, to their biography, compensation details and trading activity."

"Discussion Groups — Talk amongst yourselves. Google Finance offers high-quality Discussion Groups whose dedicated team of moderators work to keep conversations on and spam-free."

"Portfolios — Google Finance offers a fast, easy and powerful way to keep create and maintain your portfolio of stocks and mutual funds."

"How does Google Finance work? Where does your financial content come from?"

"Google Finance works by combining content we've licensed from financial data providers with content we've crawled and indexed from the web. The result is an easier approach to helping you find and manage financial information online."

"Why is Google Finance in "beta"?"

"The "beta" label means that the product is still being tested and refined; we generally find that the best way to improve new products is to get feedback directly from users on what works and what doesn't. So if you have comments or suggestions about Google Finance, we'd love to hear from you."

"What are the minimum system requirements for using Google Finance charts?"

"To use Google Finance charts, your system must meet the following requirements:"

"1. Macromedia Flash; Player 7.0+. If you don't have a Flash Player plug-in installed on your computer, you can download it from the Adobe website."

"2. Microsoft Windows 2000 or higher with the latest updates installed: IE 6.0, Windows Firefox 1.0, Windows Opera 8.0"

"3. Mac OS: Macintosh Firefox 1.0, Safari 1.2.4 and 2.0"

"4. Linux: Firefox 1.0.4"

"How can I create a Google Finance portfolio? How many companies can I track?"

"To create a Google Finance portfolio you simply need to have a Google Account. Once you have a Google Account, click on the portfolio link at the top of the Google Finance page."

"Does Google Finance cover bonds?"

"No, we don't offer any bond coverage at this time."

"Does Google Finance support international companies? Why don't I get the same amount of information for international companies as I do for U.S. companies?"

"Google Finance currently covers international markets such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris and Toronto. We're working to expand our international coverage for these markets and other international markets, so stay tuned."

"Does Google Finance work on SMS?"

"Right now you can indeed get Google Finance stock quotes on SMS. Finance content such as business description and news aren't yet available on SMS."

"How are Google Finance Discussion Groups different from regular finance message boards?"

"We've created a few tools to help ensure the Discussion Groups are filled with real people with real opinions. We also have a team at Google dedicated to ensuring these discussions are as high-quality as possible, so you can enjoy thoughtful conversations about the companies or mutual funds you care about."

"How do I participate in a Google Finance Discussion Group?"

"In order to post and participate in the Google Finance discussions, you'll have to create a Google Account if you don't have one already. We also ask that you tell the community a few things about yourself by creating a Google Finance profile Google Finance profile. After that, simply submit your posts and our team will review to ensure compliance with the Discussion Group community guidelines. We strive to review all posts within one business day."

"If you'd prefer to just read content on Google Finance Discussion Groups, however, you can do so without signing up for the service."

"How will I know if my post has been disapproved?"

"If your post isn't approved, you'll receive a notification email at the email address associated with the Google Account you used to sign up. Otherwise, you can expect to see it live very soon."

http://www.google.com/googlefinance/faq.html

Google Finance discussion group

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Finance

Google Finance Community Guidelines

http://www.google.com/googlefinance/communityguidelines.html

Social Tagging With Google Reader

Google Jumps Into Social Tagging With New Google Reader Feature

March 22, 2006

"Philipp Lenssen notes that the Google Reader Blog has announced that you can now share the content you read with your friends, family, colleagues and others. This is a big move for Google, what seems to be the first time they've allowed people to both tag and importantly share that tagged content with others."

"Google's had tagging in the form of "labels" at Gmail for some time and recently added (and also see here) bookmark/tagging features to the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. However, items you tagged couldn't be shared with others."

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060322-090845

Share Google Reader Feeds

March 22, 2006

"Just when you thought Google didn’t get “social,” Google Reader introduced a nice new feature: sharing of feeds. Click on the new “Share” tab and it allows you to publish items by label or by their star."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-03-22-n89.html

Reader learns to share

March 21, 2006

"Google Reader has the ability to share what you like to read with your friends. You can send a link to your starred items in Reader, or you can put a clip on your blog with recent items from your reading list"

http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2006/03/reader-learns-to-share.html

Official Google AdSense Group

Official Google AdSense Group:

AdSense Help

http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help

Source: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/03/now-you-can-help-each-other.html

https://www.google.com/support/adsense/

Google Personalized Homepage Directory Change

Google Personalized Homepage's (GPH) directory has changed. It now contains pictures with titles:

More feeds for speed

April 3, 2006

"The personalized homepage has a new directory with more content and more ways to browse, search and add it to your Google homepage."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-feeds-for-speed.html

GPH directory pages:

http://www.google.com/ig/directory

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=news

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=tools

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=communication

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=funandgames

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=finance

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=sports

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=lifestyle

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&cat=technology

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?num=24&q=Google&hl=en

Google User Interface Experiment: Green Bars In Sections

More Experiments on Google Result Pages

January 26, 2006

"Google seems to be experimenting with a new kind of search result page. As usual, from what we can assume, Google only tests their prototypes on a relatively small amount of users and then analyzes the “feedback” (clicks, time spent on page, and so on)."

"While the sections which moved to the left side aren’t new (we spotted this a while ago), I’ve never seen the green bars next to the sections. Possibly, they indicate the page count of this section’s result, or another type of relevance measurement."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-26-n64.html

Google Related Links

Google Related Links

"Google Related Links use the power of Google to automatically bring fresh, dynamic and interesting content links to any website. Webmasters can place these units on their site to provide visitors with links to useful information related to the site's content, including relevant news, searches, and pages."

"Getting started is simple. Just choose a format, copy and paste the code we provide onto your pages, and Google Related Links units will appear on your site, providing your visitors with links to related news, search, and pages."

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks/index.html

Google Related Links FAQ

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks/faq.html

Google Related Links forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Related-Links

Google Related Links Terms of Service

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks/terms.html

Google Related Links Program Policies

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks/policies.html

National Google Blogs

National Google blogs:

Google Blog (China)

Google 中国的博客网志，走近我们的产品、技术和文化

http://googlechinablog.com/

Google Blog (Italia)

Il blog ufficiale di Google Italia

http://googleitalia.blogspot.com/

Google Blog (Japan)

Google のサービスや技術についての最新情報が気になる方へ

http://googlejapan.blogspot.com/

Google Blog (Korea)

http://googlekoreablog.blogspot.com/

Google Blog (Mexico)

Planteamientos de empleados de Google sobre productos, tecnología y nuestra cultura

http://googlemexicoblog.blogspot.com/

Inside AdSense (German)

Das offizielle deutsche AdSense-Blog

http://adsense-de.blogspot.com/

Source:

http://www.google.com/press/ -> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Google Calendar

Google Calendar

http://www.google.com/calendar

Google Calendar Overview

"we've created Google Calendar – our free online shareable calendar service. With Google Calendar, it's easy to keep track of all your life's important events"

"Fully supported browsers:"

"- Microsoft IE 6.0+ (download: Windows)"

"- Mozilla Firefox 1.07+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)"

"JavaScript and cookies must be enabled on all browsers."

http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/overview.html

Google Calendar Help Center

http://www.google.com/support/calendar

Google Calendar Tour

http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/tour.html

Google Calendar and Your Privacy

http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/privacy_info.html

Google Calendar forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Calendar-Help/

"How do I sign-up?"

" If you have a Google Account, you're already signed up. Just visit the Google Calendar homepage, enter your Google Account email and password, and click on "Sign in." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37005&topic=8556

"How do I create an event?"

"You can create an event in a number of ways:"

"- Click and type to create an event."

"Click on the day where you'd like to create a new event. If the event spans over an hour, click and drag. Type the title and event time for your new event in the box. Finally, click "Create Event" to publish the event to your calendar immediately, or click "edit event details" to add additional information."

"- Create an event using the "Quick Add" feature."

"Click on "Quick Add" or type the letter "Q," then enter your info--[ Dinner in North Beach 8PM Friday ], for instance."

"- Create an event using the "Create Event" link."

" Just click on "Create Event" in the left column of your calendar. This will bring you to a page where you can enter as much information as you'd like about your event. On this page, you can also add guests, change a reminder setting, and publish your event to other users. Once you've entered the appropriate information and selected the desired settings, make sure to click "Save." "

"- Create an event from the "Calendars" menu."

" Under "Calendars" in the left column, click on the down-arrow button next to the appropriate calendar. Then, select "Create event on this calendar." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37249&topic=8599

"How do I create repeating events?"

"To create a repeating event, just follow these steps:"

"Create an event and go to the event details page."

" Click into the event time section of the page, and select the appropriate time interval from the drop-down menu entitled "Repeats." "

" Select the appropriate time interval from the drop-down menu entitled "Repeats." "

"Fill in the event's other details."

" Click "Save." "

"To make an existing event repeat, follow these steps:"

"Click on the event."

" Select "edit event details." "

" Click into the event time section of the page, and select the appropriate time interval from the drop-down menu entitled "Repeats." "

"Select the appropriate time interval from the drop-down menu entitled "Repeats." "

" Click "Save." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37115&topic=8599

"How do I invite guests to my event?"

"Google Calendar lets you create invitations for special events, send those invitations to friends, and keep track of responses and comments all in one place."

"To invite someone to your event, just follow these steps:"

" 1. Click on the event and select "edit event details." "

" 2. In the "Guests" section, click on "Add Guests." "

"3. Enter the email addresses of the guests, separated by commas."

"4. Click on "Save." "

"5. If you'd like to notify your guests of your changes, click "Send"; if not, click "Don't Send." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37161&topic=8600

"How do I add a comment to an event?"

"Adding a comment is a handy way to communicate with other guests to coordinate meeting-agenda topics, discuss who's bringing what, or share other info about the event."

"To add a comment to a particular event, just follow these steps:"

"1. Click on the event."

" 2. Select "edit event details." "

"3. In the "Discuss this event" section, click on "Add a comment." "

"4. Enter your comment."

"5. Click on "Post comment." "

" 5. Click on "Save." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37160&topic=8600

"How do I create an event in Gmail?"

"Gmail offers an easy, convenient way to create events from your inbox. If you're reading an email that contains info you'd like to add to your Google Calendar, just follow these steps:"

"Open the email"

"Select Create Event from the More actions... drop-down menu"

"Edit and add event details as desired"

"Click Save Changes"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37169&topic=8602

"How do I add a map to an event?"

"Just fill in the "Where" field on the "Create Event" page, and Google Calendar will create a link to a Google Map's search result. To ensure an accurate result, please enter a full address, including city and state."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37114&topic=8599

"How do I change calendar views?"

"With Google Calendar, you can view calendar information by day, by week, and by month. You can also customize your calendar view to display as many days as you want in one view."

"To change between different views, just click on the tabs in the top -right corner of your calendar. To quickly customize your view, just click and drag on your mini-calendar from your desired start date and drag to your desired end date."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37189&topic=8556

"How do I change the time format (e.g. 1:00 PM, 13:00)?"

"To change the time format, just follow these steps:"

"1. Click on "Settings" at the top of any Google Calendar page."

"2. Select the "General" tab if it isn't selected already."

"3. In the "Time format" section, select a format from the drop-down menu."

" 4. Click on "Save." "

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37068&topic=8557

"How do I add calendars?"

"You can add four types of calendars: additional personal calendars, public calendars, friends' calendars, and holiday calendars."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=36602&topic=8556

"Will Google share my information?"

"Google takes your privacy as seriously as our own. We won't share your personal information with anyone, except under the limited circumstances required by law. For more details, please refer to the "Information Sharing" section of our Privacy Policy."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37054&topic=8560

"Is Google reading my calendar information?"

"Google's computers process the information in your calendars to offer you the best possible service, including formatting and displaying the information to you and backing up your calendars' contents. Google employees will not read your private calendar information except in the limited circumstances described in the "Information Sharing" section of our Privacy Policy."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37055&topic=8560

"Will my calendar information be visible to others?"

"Your calendar information stays private unless you adjust your calendar-sharing settings. If you choose to share, you decide who to share with, and which details they can see."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37056&topic=8560

"How can I protect my password?"

"To help protect your password, follow these guidelines for creating a unique password:"

"- Be creative. Don't use words that can be found in a dictionary."

"- Use at least six characters."

"- Don't use a password that you have used elsewhere."

"- Include punctuation marks. Mix capital and lowercase letters. Include numbers."

"- Find ways of collecting random letters and numbers, such as opening books, looking at license plates or taking the third letter from the first ten words you see."

"Tips for keeping your password secure:"

"- Never tell anyone your password. Don't write it down."

"- Never send your password by email. Neither Google Calendar or Google will ever ask you for your password by email."

"- Periodically change your password."

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37053&topic=8560

"Does Calendar have keyboard shortcuts?"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37034&topic=8556

"Import & Export"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=8566

"Notifications"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=8567

"Mobile Access"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=8568

"Gmail Integration"

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=8569

Google Groups Forum Moved

Today the official Google Groups Beta (GG2) forum has moved to:

Google Groups Guide

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Guide

More info:

http://groups.google.com/group/past-discussions/msg/94aa0fc62628769b

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Basics/msg/1bdecb3d0df38874

http://groups.google.com/support

Google Summer of Code 2006

Google Summer of Code 2006

http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html

FAQs

http://code.google.com/soc/studentfaq.html

http://code.google.com/soc/mentorfaq.html

Forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Summer-Discuss-2006

Google Notifying Webmasters Of Penalties

Notifying webmasters of penalties

April 26, 2006

"Google’s Webspam team is working with our Sitemaps team to alert some (but not all) site owners of penalties for their site. In my world (webmasters), this is both a Big Deal and a Good Thing, even though it’s still an experiment. Sign up for Sitemaps to try it out."

"In the early days when Google had 200-300 people there was no way we could do everything we wanted to do. But as Google grows, we get more of a chance to “go back and fix things,” to build the ideal search engine. And part of doing that is having more and better communication with webmasters."

"I believe the ideal search engine would help site owners debug and diagnose crawl problems, and the Sitemaps team has made great strides with that in Google’s webmaster console. But I think the ideal search engine would also tell legitimate site owners when they risk not doing well in Google."

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/notifying-webmasters-of-penalties/

Links:

http://www.threadwatch.org/node/6413

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060426GoogleAddsWarningsToSitemaps.html

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/27b3101297b1ce8e

Google Sponsored Links

Google Sponsored Links

http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks

Links:

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/001309.html

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/4668.htm

http://www.researchbuzz.org/2004/12/get_just_google_adwords_result.shtml

http://adwords.google.com/

www.google.com/ie

Google Bare-bones Interface

what is google/ie

"Google.com/ie is designed to be displayed in the left hand 'search pane' of internet explorer, if you set Google to be the default search engine within IE"

"However it's become popular with webmasters who are checking the positions of a particular site and so don't need to see anything but a bare-bones interface."

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/21455.htm

www.google.com/ie is mentioned in Google's Windows Registry file on page "Make Google Your Default Search Engine":

Make Google Your Default Search Engine

"Download this file to make Google the default search engine for Internet Explorer versions 4.0 - 6.0. (Note: you will need Administrator privileges on your computer in order to install this file.)"

"The "search" button will bring up a Google search box down the left side of your browser."

http://www.google.com/options/defaults.html#default

And here are the contents of the Windows Registry file:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]

"Use Search Asst"="no"

"Search Page"="http://www.google.com"

"Search Bar"="http://www.google.com/ie"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL]

""="http://www.google.com/keyword/%s"

"provider"="gogl"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search]

"SearchAssistant"="http://www.google.com/ie"

http://www.google.com/google.reg

Links:

http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/35957/Windows_Tip_Let_Google_Take_Over.html

http://alexamancini.com/blog/index.php?print=3

http://www.regxplor.com/tweak22.html

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=87

http://www.visakopu.net/ie5google/

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/Google/

Google SketchUp & 3D Warehouse

Google SketchUp

http://sketchup.google.com/

"Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program whose few simple tools enable you to create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships. You can add details, textures and glass to your models, design with dimensional accuracy, and place your finished models in Google Earth, share them with others by posting them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies."

http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html

Google 3D Warehouse

"Search, share and store 3D models"

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

http://sketchup.google.com/product_3dwh.html

The SketchUp Product Family

"Google SketchUp (free)"

"SketchUp Pro 5"

http://sketchup.google.com/products.html

Google SketchUp Online Documentation

http://download.sketchup.com/OnlineDoc/GoogleSketchUpHelp.htm

Google SketchUp Video Tutorials

http://sketchup.google.com/tutorials.html

Google SketchUp Help Center

http://sketchup.google.com/support/

Google SketchUp Forum

http://groups.google.com/group/sketchup

Google Suggest on Google News

Google Suggest on Google News

http://news.google.com/news?complete=1

News + Suggest join forces

April 28, 2006

"I've always been a big fan of both Google News and Google Suggest. So in my 20% time, I've worked on a way to bring them together, and I'm now happy to report the launch of Google Suggest on Google News, which provides you with search suggestions specific to news in your country, in real time, while you type."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/news-suggest-join-forces.html

Google Labs

http://labs.google.com/

Google's Webmaster Pages Have Changed

Google has reorganized its pages for webmasters. There are no more much of "Google Information for Webmasters" pages, but instead there are now "Webmaster Help Center" pages.

Below are some examples of redirections from old pages to new pages (with links to old versions in Google's cache or in Wayback Machine archive):

Example 1:

"Google Information for Webmasters"

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

-> "Webmaster Help Center"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/

(Wayback Machine version)

http://web.archive.org/web/20050203014039/http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Example 2:

"Webmaster Guidelines"

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

-> "What are Google's webmaster guidelines?"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

(Wayback Machine version)

http://web.archive.org/web/20050203192058/http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Example 3:

"Googlebot: Google's Web Crawler"

http://www.google.com/webmasters/bot.html

-> "Googlebot"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8460

(Google's cached version)

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:tdNGnYQ1nBAJ:www.google.com/webmasters/bot.html+&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Example 4:

"Feedfetcher: Google's Feed Grabber"

http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html

-> "Feedfetcher"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8461

(Google's cached version)

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:wfWAohZVOUsJ:www.google.com/feedfetcher.html+&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Example 5:

"Need to remove content from Google's index?"

http://www.google.com/webmasters/remove.html

-> "Removals"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8459

(Google's cached version)

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:__Mnbe32KmgJ:www.google.com/webmasters/remove.html+&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Example 6:

"My Site's Listing is Incorrect"

http://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html

-> "My site's no longer included in the search results. What happened?"

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34443&topic=8523

(Wayback Machine version)

http://web.archive.org/web/20050203181855/http://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html

Google Code Jam Europe 2006

Google Code Jam Europe 2006

http://www.google.com/codejameurope/

http://www.topcoder.com/pl/?module=Static&d1=gecj06&d2=overview

Google Code Jam Europe 2006 FAQ

http://www.topcoder.com/pl/?module=Static&d1=gecj06&d2=faq

Google Code Jam Europe 2006 forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Code-Jam-Europe

Google Co-op

Google Co-op

"Google Co-op is about sharing expertise. You can contribute your expertise and benefit when others do the same. Help other users find information more easily by creating "subscribed links" for your services and labeling webpages around the topics you know best."

"This is a work in progress, but even in its early stages, Google Co- op has the potential to let you contribute your expertise to the overall goal of making information more discoverable for everyone."

http://www.google.com/coop/

Google Co-op FAQ for users

"Google Co-op is a community of organizations, businesses, and individuals working together to help improve Google search. The benefit to you as a Google user is new ways to quickly refine your searches to find what you're looking for more quickly. Check out the Google Co-op directory for a list of providers who have contributed labels and subscribed links that you can add to your Google search results."

"How will subscribing to someone affect my search results?"

"When you subscribe to someone in the Google Co-op directory, all of that provider's labels and subscribed links will be added to your Google search results for relevant searches. The labels and links provide new and useful ways to refine your searches."

http://www.google.com/coop/docs/faq_users.html

Google Co-op FAQ

http://www.google.com/coop/docs/faq.html

Google Co-op Directory

http://www.google.com/coop/directory

http://www.google.com/coop/directory?cx=lifestyle

http://www.google.com/coop/directory?cx=health_devel

http://www.google.com/coop/directory?cx=information

http://www.google.com/coop/directory?cx=news

http://www.google.com/coop/directory?cx=destination_guides_devel

Google Co-op: Manage Co-op profile

"Your profile lets others know about your interests, background, and contributions to Google Co-op. Send others a link to your public profile page so they can subscribe to your contributions."

http://www.google.com/coop/manage/profile

Google Co-op forum for contributors

http://groups.google.com/group/google-co-op

Google Co-op: Subscribed Links Developer Guide

"With the Google Subscribed Links API, you can add your services directly into Google search. This can help make those services more accessible, giving your users another entry-point to them when they're making a related search on Google."

http://www.google.com/coop/docs/guide_subscribed_links.html

Google Co-op: Topics Developer Guide

"This document explains how you can help improve Google search by contributing annotations to topics that are currently being worked on, as well as how to create an entirely new topic in your area of expertise."

"You create annotations by associating labels with URL patterns."

http://www.google.com/coop/docs/guide_topics.html

Yes, we are still all about search

May 10, 2006

"Google Co-op is a way for users to help us improve search. It lets people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise. Whether it's information about a hobby, a profession, or an unusual interest, everyone can contribute to making Google search more relevant and useful for the entire community."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/yes-we-are-still-all-about-search.html

Google Desktop 4

Yes, we are still all about search

May 10, 2006

"Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. New "Google Gadgets" deliver an array of information--ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news--straight to your desktop."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/yes-we-are-still-all-about-search.html

What's new in the latest version?

"Google Gadgets: These new interactive mini-applications can be anything from games to search tools to media players, and you can also build your own. You can also configure certain gadgets to back up your gadget content and settings on Google Desktop's servers to protect your information. Saving your information in this manner also allows you to access it from your other computers by logging into your Google Account with Google Desktop. For instance, you can now 'synch' the To Do list on both your laptop and your desktop."

"Improved indexing: When you move files, Google Desktop now updates your index more quickly and accurately. With the new “Re-Index” feature, you can also manually re-index your computer."

"Search Across Computers: Through a secure login, you'll now have the ability to search your Google Desktop index from other computers. This feature will allow you to search your home computer from your work computer, for example."

http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14638&topic=168

http://desktop.google.com/features.html

Google Gadgets for Google Desktop

http://desktop.google.com/plugins

Google Desktop Help Center

http://desktop.google.com/support

Google Desktop forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop

Google Trends

Google Trends

"See what the world is searching for."

http://www.google.com/trends

Google Trends FAQ

"With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often."

"Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results -- our search-volume graph."

"Located just beneath our search-volume graph is our news-volume graph. This graph shows you the number of times your topic appeared in Google News stories. When Google Trends detects a spike in the volume of news stories for a particular term, it labels the graph and displays the headline of an automatically selected Google News story written near the time of that spike."

"You can use the drop-down boxes in the upper-right corner of the Google Trends results page to restrict your results to a particular time frame or region. The restrictions will affect both the search volume and news volume graphs, and the city, region, and language data that appear below the graphs, though news volume may not be available on a per region basis. When you restrict your results to a specific year or multi-year period, each point on the graph will represent a week's worth of searches. When you restrict the results to a specific month, each point on the graph will represent one day of searches."

"When the Cities tab is selected, Google Trends looks at a sample of all Google searches to determine the cities from which we received the most searches for your first term. Then, for those top cities, Google Trends calculates the portion of searches for your term coming from each city, relative to all Google searches coming from the same city."

http://www.google.com/trends/about.html

Google Trends forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Trends

Yes, we are still all about search

May 10, 2006

"Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/yes-we-are-still-all-about-search.html

Google Notebook

Google Notebook browser extension

http://www.google.com/notebook/

Google Notebook Overview

"Google Notebook makes web research of all kinds – from planning a vacation to researching a school paper to buying a car – easier and more efficient by enabling you to clip and gather information even while you're browsing the web."

"And since Google Notebook lives in your browser, you won't be left with a scattered collection of notes, Word docs, and browser bookmarks to sort through; all your web findings will be gathering into one organized, easy accessible location that you can access from any computer."

http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/overview.html

Google Notebook FAQ

"How do I get started?"

"Just sign in to the Google Notebook homepage with your Google Accounts username and password, then download the Google Notebook browser extension (if you haven't already). As soon as you restart your browser, you should see a Google Notebook icon in the bottom- right corner of your browser window. Click on this icon to open your mini Google Notebook"

"Why do I need to download a browser extension?"

"Downloading a browser extension enables you to use the mini Google Notebook. The mini Google Notebook allows you to clip information from the web without ever leaving the page you're on. You'll never again need to toggle between windows, or copy and paste info from your browser window to another application."

"What browsers does the Google Notebook extension support?"

"To take advantage of Google Notebook's full functionality, you'll need one of these up-to-date browsers:"

"Internet Explorer 6"

"Firefox 1.5+"

http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/faq.html

Google Notebook forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Notebook

Google Web Toolkit

Google Web Toolkit

"Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle incompatabilities between web browsers and platforms, and JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile."

"GWT lets you avoid many of these headaches while offering your users the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML."

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

Building User Interfaces

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.doc.DeveloperGuide.UserInterface.html

Remote Procedure Calls

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.doc.DeveloperGuide.RemoteProcedureCalls.html

Class History

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.user.client.History.html

Debugging in Hosted Mode

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.doc.DeveloperGuide.Fundamentals.HostedMode.html

Deployment in Web Mode

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.doc.DeveloperGuide.Fundamentals.WebMode.html

JavaScript Native Interface (JSNI)

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/documentation/com.google.gwt.doc.DeveloperGuide.JavaScriptNativeInterface.html

Making AJAX development easier

May 16, 2006

"we're bringing you Google Web Toolkit. GWT is a new publicly available software development tool that makes creating AJAX applications much easier. With GWT, you can develop and debug your own AJAX applications in Java code using the Java development tools of your choice. When you deploy your application to production, the GWT compiler simply translates your Java application to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-ajax-development-easier.html

Google Continues To Dominate Search Engine Competition

Google Continues To Dominate Search Engine Competition

"Google was estimated to have handled 2.9 billion searches which is a key component of revenue for the company. The more searches that are conducted on the search engine, the more money they can charge for advertising and placement."

"While Google continues to dominate the search engine world, it is still lagging behind the competition in other areas. Yahoo! mail has 42 percent of the e-mail market while MSN Hotmail has 23 percent and MySpace Mail has 19.5 percent. Gmail from Google has only 2.5 percent of the market."

"Google Finance only had 0.3 percent of the market, well behind Yahoo! and MSN while Google finished third in map services with 7.5 percent."

"So, while Google continues to dominate the search engine sweepstakes, it still has a ways to go to make serious inroads in other services."

http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2006/May/EEN447357c758889.html

Google increases US web search market share to 43%

May 29, 2006

"In April 2006, web search company Google gained in search market share for the ninth consecutive month and maintained its status as market leader with 43.1 per cent of all US searches conducted on its sites, according to figures from internet research firm Comscore Networks. Internet company Yahoo remained in second place with 28 per cent, while MSN ranked third with 12.9 per cent."

"Americans conducted 6.6bn searches online in April, up 4 per cent from last month."

"Google sites led the pack with 2.9bn search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (1.9bn), MSN-Microsoft (858m), Time-Warner Network (457m), and Ask Jeeves/Ask Network (384m)."

"MySpace.com has been added to the search engine rankings for April 2006, coming in at 6th place with 43m search queries performed (0.6 per cent share of the U.S. search market)."

"Google and Yahoo continued their dominance among toolbar searches, combining for more than 95 per cent of the market share in April. Google grabbed 48 per cent of toolbar searches, while Yahoo captured 47.6 per cent."

http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=15683

Google Tops Another Search Survey

May 22, 2006

"[Google] won a lot of users over the last five years, but it could easily lose them," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Search is one of the least 'sticky' Internet applications, which is why Google has been so busy launching new features."

"Google has come out on top of yet another survey of the search-engine market, following the company's top rankings on recent surveys by HitWise and Nielsen//NetRatings. Analysis firm ComScore Networks' latest rankings report indicates that, in April, Google gained market share for the ninth consecutive month."

"The Reston, Virginia-based firm said that Google maintained its top position by capturing 43.1 percent of all U.S. searches. Yahoo remained in second place with 28 percent, while MSN came in third place with 12.9 percent."

"These figures are very similar to recent survey data from HitWise and NetRatings," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "They are also very similar to a U.S. survey Forrester Research carried out last fall which put Google in top place for Internet searches."

"The ComScore report indicates that Google's market share rose from 36.5 percent in April 2005 to 42.7 percent in March 2006, while Yahoo fell from 30.7 percent in April last year to 28 percent in March 2006. MSN also declined, with its market share falling from 16.1 percent in April 2005 to 13.2 percent in March."

"While Google continues to dominate the world of search, experts say that the company cannot afford to be complacent in light of the fierce competition for Internet users."

"It won a lot of users over the last five years, but it could easily lose them," said Li. "Search is one of the least 'sticky' Internet applications, which is why Google has been so busy launching new features."

"Li noted that both Yahoo and Google are developing advanced search services that are designed with better, more-personalized recommendations in mind."

"They are using different approaches," she said. "Google is adopting a technological approach using complex search algorithms based on past searches by a user, while Yahoo looks at its records of what other people with similar interests are searching for."

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Google-Tops-Another-Search-Survey/story.xhtml?story_id=112003LQMRAO

Links:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/index.php?p=188

http://oraclewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/05/22/10226.aspx

http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/blogtalk/wpn-58-20060522GoogleStillMakingFootstoolofYahooandMSN.html

http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_1281860.html

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=43637

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/tm.site/news/TOP%20STORY/265284/

Google To Shut Down Orkut Communities

Google to shut down Orkut communities

May 24, 2006

"Google (GOOG) said Wednesday that it has agreed to shut down some communities on its popular Orkut social networking site because the Brazilian government says they advocate violence and human rights violations."

"Google agreed to shut down any sites that violate Orkut's terms of service, which forbid "any illegal or unauthorized purpose," after the company met Tuesday with a Brazilian human rights commission, which presented evidence that Brazilians have been using the invitation-only networking site to promote crimes and violence."

" "Orkut does not condone any of the communities that advocate violence and are a threat to human rights," Nicole Wong, a Google attorney, said in a statement. "

"Brazilian Rep. Luiz Eduardo Greenhalgh, a member of the congressional commission, said Google had agreed to remove six websites from Orkut and help police identify those who posted the pages as part of a preliminary accord."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-05-24-google-brazil_x.htm?csp=34

Links:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2006/05/22/daily48.html

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25191491.htm

http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-6077136.html

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-commission-orders-closure-six-orkut-communities-/2006/05/25/1659614.htm

Google's Picasa for Linux

Picture this: Picasa for Linux

May 24, 2006

"today we're launching Picasa for Linux on Google Labs. It incorporates nearly all the features of the current Windows version of Picasa, providing you with the tools you need to easily find, edit, and share the photos on your computer. And because it runs on a carefully tested version of Wine, Picasa avoids the slowing effects of an OS emulation or a virtual machine."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/picture-this-picasa-for-linux.html

Google Picasa Now on Linux

"Google has ported over its popular free Picasa photo organization tool to the Linux operating system. It has released a new build of version 2.2. In order to support the open source OS, Google developers are using a special version of Wine, along with code from Mozilla."

"The new release is expected to run on any of these Linux distros running on a an x86 compatible processor:"

"Debian Sarge"

"Debian Etch"

"Fedora Core 4"

"Fedora Core 5"

"Linspire 5"

"Mandriva 2006"

"Mandriva 2005"

"Red Hat Workstation 3"

"Red Hat Workstation"

"Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)"

"SuSE 9.3"

"SuSE 10.0"

http://www.sda-india.com/sda/news/psecom,id,9063,nodeid,4,_language,India.html

Google Sends Picasa To Linux

May 26, 2006

"The call for Google to port its software applications to Linux got off to a good start with the company's photo sharing and editing software Picasa making the jump."

"Google's Picasa for Linux utilizes Wine and Mozilla's Gecko engine to operate on Linux systems. The 24MB download brings most of Picasa's functionality from Windows to Linux, though there are a few exceptions."

"The software has minimal hardware requirements. Google said Picasa will run on 386-compatible processor machines with glibc 2.3 or greater, and a working X11 display system. Google listed some optional system requirements that would support other Picasa functions:"

"XVideo extension on your display driver (to view things full screen); having a newer kernel (>= 2.6.13) to get notified of file changes; having a new kernel and HAL to automatically detect new media insertion. Note: There are other variations -- for example, setting screensavers and desktop backgrounds only works on certain Linux windowing environments."

"Desktop Integration features require a current version of Gnome or KDE."

"Camera detection and integration requires kernel >= 2.6.13, hal >= 0.56, and gnome-volume-manager or equivalent."

"To make Picasa work with Linux, Google made some changes to Wine. Those changes have been contributed back to the Wine project."

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060526GoogleSendsPicasaToLinux.html

Google releases Picasa for Linux -- and 100+ Wine patches

May 25, 2006

"Picasa is a photo organizing and editing tool from Google that does most of what most people need to do with their digital pictures. Now Picasa, previously a Windows-only program, has binaries available for most popular GNU/Linux distributions. The Linux version of Picasa is still a beta release, but it's ready to handle photo storage, organizing, and light photo editing on your Linux computer."

"Even if you don't want to use Picasa, Google's creation of the Linux version may help make your Linux computer more versatile. The Picasa Linux port is being made with Wine, and in the process more than 100 patches are being contributed back to the community."

" Google spokesperson Chris DiBona says, "At the end of this, a lot of people will be able to use Wine who weren't able to before." "

"Google hired CodeWeavers to do much of the work needed to get Picasa to run on Linux with Wine, but long-time Wine community contributor Dan Kegel also helped; he works for Google."

"According to DiBona, the Picasa Linux beta release currently lacks these features:"

"CD Burning"

"TiVo Export"

"Support for languages other than English"

"Hello™ instant picture chat"

"Picasa does not work with SELinux due to problems with camera recognition caused by SELinux's security features."

"DiBona cautions all downloaders: "This is a beta version. We're expecting bugs." But he also says that, except for the features specifically noted as not working, this is a fully-functional program, ready for everyday use."

http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/06/05/25/2343255.shtml?tid=138&tid=75&tid=131

Links:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7038481273.html

http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1148651322.html

http://www.osdir.com/Article8757.phtml

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_Ports_Picasa_to_Linux/1148662939

http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=33074&src=site-marq

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/content/view/1258/1/

Some Gmail & Google Mail Users Locked Out

Some users locked out of Google Mail

May 29, 2006

"Google said it is "working to resume normal service soon" for Google Mail after a number of users of the e-mail service were left without access."

"The search giant last Thursday confirmed the outage after some people complained they couldn't access their e-mail accounts. Problems were also reported with Google Desktop."

" "By midmorning on last Thursday users were reporting the service as being back to normal, although many were questioning the root of the problem. A Google representative declined to comment, other than to say Google was "investigating this." "

"Back in March, several Google Mail users complained that they were struggling to use the free service. Two said their accounts had actually been deleted."

"The search giant eventually admitted some accounts had indeed been wiped, but claimed it was not responsible."

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044246,39362009,00.htm

Users irked by Gmail glitch

May 25, 2006

"An apparent outage left many users unable to access Gmail, Google's free web-based email service, on Wednesday."

"Gmail, like many web services, experiences occasional availability problems. But the issue of Wednesday lasted several hours and hit a substantial number of users, judging by our postbag and posts on a Gmail forum."

" By Thursday, the Gmail service was restored to normal. Nobody from Google with knowledge of the issue was available for comment at the time of going to press."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/gmail_glitch/

Google Green Maps Mashup

Google Green Maps

http://maps.google.com/green/

Map your way to greener travel

May 31, 2006

"we started working on a Maps mashup that would highlight some fun summer activities that also respect the environment. The result is our Summer of Green travel mashup site. We've teamed with Earth Day Network to highlight some planet-friendly travel tips for top U.S. travel destinations as well as how to use Google Maps in your daily routine to find and support green activities."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/map-your-way-to-greener-travel.html

Google Video: Movie Trailers

Google Video: Movie Trailers

http://video.google.com/movietrailers.html

Google Spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets (Limited Test)

"Create, store and share spreadsheets on the web."

"Imagine a spreadsheet that's always current and that others can update from their own computers, even at the same time."

"Get started quickly."

"Import your existing spreadsheets or create new ones from scratch."

"Edit your spreadsheets from anywhere."

"All you need is a Web browser - your spreadsheets are stored securely online."

"Share changes in real-time."

"Invite people to your spreadsheets and make changes together, at the same time."

"Google Spreadsheets is a limited test. If you fill in your email address below, we'll send you an invitation – first-come, first- served."

http://spreadsheets.google.com/

Google Spreadsheets Sneak Peek

http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/tour1.html

Google Spreadsheets Help Center

http://www.google.com/support/spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Spreadsheets

Google Terms of Service

http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/terms_of_use.html

Google Spreadsheets Privacy Policy

"The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's services, including information provided to Google Spreadsheets. In addition, the following describes our practices that are specific to Google Spreadsheets."

"Google's servers automatically record certain information about your use of Google Spreadsheets. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (e.g., storage usage, number of log-ins, actions taken), data displayed or clicked on (e.g., UI elements, links), and other log information (e.g., browser type, IP address, date and time of access, cookie ID, referrer URL)."

"Files you create with Google Spreadsheets may, if you choose, be read, copied, used and redistributed by people you know or, again if you choose, by people you do not know. Information you disclose using the chat function of Google Spreadsheets may be read, copied, used and redistributed by people participating in the chat. Use care when including sensitive personal information in spreadsheets you share or in chat sessions, such as social security numbers, financial account information, home addresses or phone numbers."

http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/privacy.html

Google Spreadsheets Legal Notices

"Google Spreadsheets includes portions of OpenOffice.org Calc documentation authored by Magnus Adielsson, Richard Barnes, Peter Kupfer, Iain Roberts and Jean Hollis Weber and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.0"

http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/legalnotices.html

Google Labs: Frequently Asked Questions

"What does "limited test" mean?"

"Some Google Labs prototypes can handle only a limited number of users in their initial stages. When we know that's the case, we do our best to let you know too, by putting "limited test" next to its name, along with some screenshots and/or more information about the product for those of you who weren't able to get there in time to actually try it out."

http://labs.google.com/faq.html#limitedtest

Inside Google Spreadsheets

June 6, 2006

"At this time, Google is sending out invites to the first people who signed up for what must be the 15th or so product launch this year."

"Google spreadsheets works quite smoothly. There were no noticeable lags in-between editing, and the multi-user editing is superb (and somewhat similar to Writely). The look and feel is that of Excel, but Google-branded and webified. There are less icons, less menu entries, and there is also only the most needed functionality. Your files can be exported into several formats (Excel, CSV, and HTML)."

"You’ll notice Google put a focus on sharing and multi-user editing. You can invite others to your document, you can chat with them, and edit along with them on the same document, at the same time. (When you’re used to Microsoft Excel showing weird messages like “the document is currently being edited” on your intranet, this is a refreshing change.)"

"Google Spreadsheet usability is quite good. As ever so often, this is a Google product with no ads so far (ads might be on the horizon, of course); it’s more a tool than a site, clearly fitting into the growing array of Google OS products. The only thing I really missed so far was right-clicking rows to apply formatting changes or to copy & paste text. (It’s not trivial working around the default browser context menu, which in certain contexts can’t be replaced at all by a web page.) That, and the ability to create graphs from your data (and the help file also needs to be completed yet). But that’s the good thing about web apps; they can be constantly updated by the developers in the background without any of us ever having to install a new version."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-06-06-n86.html

Google Spreadsheets hands-on

June 6, 2006

"I got access to Google Spreadsheets this morning, shortly after I wrote up my quick take based on the screenshots on Google's site."

"Google Spreadsheets is easy to use, free, and works much like every other spreadsheet you've ever worked with. It takes very little time to learn to use it."

"You can't lose your work. Once you name the spreadsheet you're working on, or right after you import an XLS file from your computer, Google Spreadsheets saves your file. From that point, every change you make is immediately saved."

"The sharing function lets you collaborate with other users (Google account holders only so far). Alternatively, you can invite people to view, but not edit, your work. All changes are live, so you can be talking on the phone and editing the same work at the same time. This is very useful, and it's something you can't easily do with Excel."

"There's a good list of mathematical, financial, statistical, and other function types. You won't find many calculations that you can't perform."

"The service imports your existing Excel (and CSV) files pretty well. It's not 100%, however: I found that some text formatting (colors, in particular) and date formatting did not import."

"Google Spreadsheets does support multi-sheet spreadsheets, just like Excel"

"There's no print function. But you can export your spreadsheet as a static HTML file."

"I'd recommend this service for the new spreadsheet user or the person who just wants to work with numbers or small data tables from time to time. It has functionality most people need, except the critical graphing and printing functions. The collaboration features are just dynamite."

http://news.com.com/2061-12572_3-6080622.html

Google Spreadsheet - it's not about Microsoft

June 6, 2006

"The critical point about Google Spreadsheet is not that it threatens Microsoft's Excel sales. It is the continuing disruptive impact that free Web-based programs will have on computer users."

"Thanks to Web-based e-mail, word processors, calendars, to do lists, drawing programs, whether I'm working on a Mac or a Windows, PC is becoming irrelevant. This should worry PC makers. Bundled software becomes less of a selling point when all the programs you want to run, and that your friends run, are out there in cyberspace and don't need to be started from the desktop."

"An example. A famous Mac user declared he is "sick and tired of being a beta tester for Apple." In the course of a recent Daily Source Code podcast, Adam Curry described how his third Mac had died, within a year. And how easily he was able to switch over to a much-lighter (and probably cheaper) PC laptop, because he was able to find Web-versions of many of the same services (GMail, among them), as well as free or shareware analogues of Mac programs for audio processing and file maintenance."

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7BDB29470C-0C11-4179-9D75-B2BA94CF9FD0%7D&keyword=

Links:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002213.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/index.php?p=202

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2732

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2006/06/06/google_announces_spreadsheet_press_reaction_is_clueless_as_usual.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Google-to-launch-online-spreadsheet-to-compete-with-Microsoft/2006/06/07/1149359773881.html

http://www.forbes.com/markets/equities/2006/06/06/google-microsoft-0606markets06.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5051610.stm

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_to_Test_WebBased_Spreadsheet/1149561176

http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188701833

China Restores Google.com

China Restores Google.com

June 9, 2006

"China has lifted its online blockade of Google.com after a two-week crackdown that had prevented direct access to the site and temporarily thwarted popular workarounds, a media watchdog group reported Friday."

"The Paris-based journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said that tests revealed the uncensored version of the search site was accessible again to internet users in Beijing and Shanghai. The crackdown overlapped with the June 4 anniversary of the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square protests."

" A Google spokesperson confirmed this, saying that "we have heard no further reports from users in China of problems accessing Google.com." "

"On June 6, RSF reported that Google.com was blocked throughout much of China, and that programs like DynaPass and Ultrasurf, which allowed users in China access to censored web content, were also being blocked on a large scale successfully for the first time."

" "It's always the same thing that happens in China -- they heavily censor the internet because they think people will be discussing the event," said Julien Pain, RSF Internet Freedom desk chief. "

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,71121-0.html?tw=wn_politics_1

Google’s China wobbles

June 9, 2006

"Google was probably hoping its Chinese troubles would fade into memory but events seem to be conspiring it after its main search engine, Google.com, appeared to have fallen foul of the country’s authorities once again."

"Chinese internet users reported serious problems using the international search engine, prompting speculation it is being disrupted by government censors."

"Although China rarely announces which websites are being screened, the problems suffered by Google are similar to other censored sites."

"Google was blocked entirely by the government in 2002, but was reinstated after worldwide protests. However, bloggers suspected that the state was up to its old tricks again because it had been emboldened to act against Google’s main website after the company set up a censored China-based version of its search engine, Google.cn."

"Google.cn continued unaffected - although if Google’s own estimates are right that only 1 per cent of Chinese users use Google.cn, government agents may be the only people enjoying the smooth service."

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/294b51e4-f7b8-11da-9481-0000779e2340.html

Google Browser Sync

Google Browser Sync

"Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions."

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/index.html

Google Browser Sync FAQ

"Which browsers does this extension work with?"

"This extension works with Firefox version 1.5 and later. Currently, it doesn't work in the Mozilla Suite, Internet Explorer, or Opera."

"I'm using Firefox, but the extension isn't working. Why not?"

"Here are a few things you can try:"

" Check which version of Firefox you're using and confirm that it is version 1.5 or later. To do so, just click on the "Help" menu, then select "About Mozilla Firefox." "

"If you've just installed Google Browser Sync, be sure to restart your browser."

"Make sure Browser Sync appears in your browser's list of extensions. To see this list, select "Tools" > "Extensions." If Browser Sync appears, make sure it's enabled (i.e. not grayed out). If it's grayed out, you can enable it by right-clicking the extension name, selecting "Enable," and restarting your browser."

"Why shouldn't I install Google Browser Sync on computers that other people can access?"

"Browser Sync keeps all your browsers in sync with each other, so it needs to send potentially sensitive information like your stored passwords, bookmarks, and browser history to the other computers where you've installed it. Also, once you install Browser Sync, you don't need to log in every time you start the browser to access this info. Therefore, someone who uses a computer where you've installed browser sync will have access to all the info you've chosen to sync across your computers. Any new browser settings they create, such as browsing history, will also show up on your other computers."

"Why do I need to provide a PIN?"

"The PIN you create during setup is used to encrypt information that's synced between your computers, which may include sensitive information such as your passwords for websites. We use your PIN to unlock that information. Without your PIN, no one will be able to read the information that's being transmitted between your computers via Google Browser Sync."

"What's the point of encrypting my information?"

"By encrypting your information, it will be transmitted to and stored on Google's servers in a format that is nearly impossible to interpret without the PIN. That means that without the PIN, no one, not even Google, will be able to read your data. Therefore, it's important to choose a good PIN (at least 8 characters including both numbers and letters) that's hard to guess and to keep your PIN safe. Note that encrypting all of your browser settings may affect the performance of Google Browser Sync and Firefox."

"What if I want to start synchronizing my settings with a different Google account?"

"To change Google accounts, just click on the "Settings" menu under your username in the upper-right corner of the page, then click the "Stop syncing" button. This will close all of your open browser windows and take you back to the setup wizard, where you can log in with a different Google account. Remember that this will import all the settings from the current browser under that account, so you'll get everything that had been synchronized from your last account."

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/faq.html

Google Extensions for Firefox

http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/index.html

Google Firefox Extensions forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Firefox-Extensions

Links:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/get-in-sync.html

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4583/53/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=224

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/K4uAWRyHMg75mb/Google-Puts-Firefox-in-Sync.xhtml

http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-6081609.html

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/113F833D0708BFA2CC257187006B798F

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/06/08/google-browser-sync-turns-firefox-gives-firefox-consistency-across-computers/

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=21869

Google Earth 4 Beta

Google Earth (Release 4 - BETA)

"The latest version of Google Earth is being released in beta form. We've added several new features that will make your Earth browsing even better."

"Less Is More - A New UI"

"The most obvious change is a new and, we think, simpler user interface."

"Free Feel To Change Your World"

"Seeing buildings in 3D is one of the coolest things about Google Earth. And with this release, this feature is even better. For the first time, we support "textured" 3D buildings, meaning the bricks look like real bricks, the glass like real glass, and overall, the world looks more like, well, the real world."

"With Google Sketchup, you can now create your own textured 3D models."

"Creating and Sharing Geographic Information – A New Type Of KML"

"The best thing Google Earth's got going for it is the creativity of the millions of users who are adding and sharing geographic information. And with Google Earth (Release 4 BETA), we've expanded that capability in “KML,” the file format Google Earth uses to add and share data."

http://earth.google.com/earth4.html

Google Announces Major Imagery Update For Google Earth, New Tools And Innovations in Mapping

June 12, 2006

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a series of updates to the company's mapping product suite, further illustrating Google’s commitment to creating powerful tools for sharing geographic information. Announced live at Google's first Geo Developer Day, these innovations both connect users to information about the world around them, as well as address the growing needs of the developer community."

"Google Earth news announced today includes:"

"Satellite imagery update: A significant high-resolution imagery update for Google Earth increases the product's index of high- resolution imagery by four times."

"New version of Google Earth: In the product’s first major update since its launch one year ago, Google Earth now features a more streamlined user interface and new tools that enable the creation and display of third party and user generated content. The addition of textured buildings brings a new level of realism and detail to Google Earth’s 3D world. Google Earth is also now available for the Windows, Mac and, for the first time, Linux operating platforms; and is fully localized in French, Italian, German and Spanish."

"Google SketchUp with textured buildings: In coordination with the release of Google Earth, Google SketchUp now enables the creation of textured buildings for visualization in Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse."

"Google also announced several updates to Google Maps and the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface), the developer tool that enables users to easily embed Google's interactive, dynamic maps into their own websites. These innovations include:"

"Google Maps API: In response to developer feedback, an update to the Google Maps API enables developers of Google Maps-powered mash-ups, or websites that merge geographic information with Google Maps, to integrate data based on addresses. This ability to geocode addresses using the Google Maps API is the most requested feature from Maps API users."

"KML for Google Maps: A new feature of Google Maps enables the display of KML (Keyhole Markup Language, the file format used by Google Earth and other applications to share geographic information) on Google Maps. This innovation enables data created in Google Earth to be viewed in a web browser as a simple mash-up. Requiring no computer programming expertise, KML for Google Maps makes the sharing of geographic information even easier."

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/geoday.html

Local Times In Google

You can get local times in Google:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+San+Francisco

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+Madagascar

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+Finland

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+Sri+Lanka

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+Tokyo

http://www.google.com/search?&q=time+in+Canberra

Source:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-06-12-n80.html

New Official Google Blog: Inside Google Book Search

Inside Google Book Search

http://booksearch.blogspot.com/

Source:

http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/bards-thing.html

Picasa Web Albums

Picasa Web Albums (Limited Test)

"Post your photos online in seconds"

"One-click web upload directly from Picasa."

"View and save your friends' photos"

"Keep track of your favorite people and see when they've added something new. Download entire albums to Picasa in just one click."

http://picasaweb.google.com/

What is Picasa Web Albums?

"Picasa Web Albums is Picasa’s newest feature, designed to help users post and share their photos quickly and easily on the web."

"Cost: The latest version of Picasa with the Web Albums feature is free. It’s also free to use Picasa Web Albums for posting, sharing and viewing photos."

"Access: You need an invitation to post and share photos on Picasa Web Albums. You can sign up for an invitation using your Gmail username. No invitation or sign-in is required to view a friend’s photos online."

"Storage: Each Picasa Web Albums account comes with 250MB of free storage space, or room to post and share approximately 1,000 wallpaper-sized photos (at 1600 pixels each). For $25.00 per year, users can get a subscription to an additional 6GB of storage – room to post and share approximately 25,000 photos."

"System requirements:"

"Picasa: Windows 2000/XP, Internet Explorer 6.0+"

"Picasa Web Albums Internet Explorer 6.0 (also works with IE 7 Beta 2), Firefox 1.0+ or Safari 2.0"

http://picasa.google.com/web/help.html

Picasa Web Albums Program Policies

"Picasa Web Albums may refuse to host content that violates its policies including:"

"illegal content"

"invasions of personal privacy"

"violations of copyright. Please see our DMCA policy for more information"

http://picasa.google.com/web/policy.html

Picasa Web Albums Privacy Notice

"You need a Gmail Account to set up an account on Picasa Web Albums and upload photos. Google asks for some personal information when you create a Gmail Account, including your email address and a password, which is used to protect your account from unauthorized access. You may view photos posted on Picasa Web Albums by other users without registering for an account."

"Picasa Web Albums stores, processes and maintains your photos, Favorites List and other data related to your Account in order to provide the service to you."

"When you use Picasa Web Albums, Google's servers automatically record certain information about your use. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage and number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI links); and other log information (including browser type, IP- address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL)."

"Other Picasa Web Albums users who view your albums will see information about you including your photos and the user name you have selected. If you do not select an alternate user name, the Gmail username associated with the account will appear as part of the page URL."

"If you designate an album “public,” anyone who visits your public gallery will see your album. If you designate an album “unlisted,” those photos will not appear in your public gallery but can be seen by someone who knows the URL."

"You may organize, modify or delete your pictures, albums, and associated information such as captions following instructions in the FAQ. Such changes will take immediate effect in your account view. Residual copies of deleted photos may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems."

http://picasa.google.com/web/privacy.html

Picasa Web Albums Terms of Service

http://picasa.google.com/web/tos.html

Picasa Home Page

http://picasa.google.com/

Picasa Customer Support

http://picasa.google.com/support/

Picasa forum

http://groups.google.com/group/picasa

Google U.S. Government Search

Google U.S. Government Search

http://usgov.google.com/

Google U.S. Government Search FAQ

"Google U.S. Government Search offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news. You can choose to search for content located on either U.S. federal, state and local government websites or the entire Web -- from the same search box. Below the search box, the homepage includes government-specific news content from both government agencies and press outlets. You can personalize the page by adding content feeds on government or other topics that you're interested in."

"How do I search across U.S. government sites?"

"To search across content from U.S. government sources on Google U.S. Goverment Search, all you have to do is enter a query into the search box and click the "Search Government Sites" button. This launches a search across U.S. federal, state and local government sites with domains such as .gov, .mil, and other select ones."

"What sites are included in the Google U.S. Government Search index?"

"The Google U.S. Government Search index includes U.S. federal, state and local sites with domains such as .gov, .mil as well as select government sites with .com, .us, and .edu domains (eg. .usps.com, .ca.us and ndu.edu). We add content from these sites to our search index on a regular basis."

"Will personalizing the Google U.S. Government Search homepage change the content on my Google.com homepage?"

"No, it will not. You can have seperate personalized content on both your Google U.S. Government Search and Google.com homepages."

"Can I add Google Gadgets to the Google U.S. Government Search homepage?"

"Currently you can add content feeds from sources all over the web -- and on all sorts of topics -- to the homepage. You can't, however, currently add Google Gadgets. We're working hard to add this functionality."

http://www.google.com/help/about_usgovernmentsearch.html

Google Checkout

Google Checkout

"Find it with Google. Buy it with Google Checkout."

"Stop creating multiple accounts and passwords."

"With Google Checkout™ you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place."

http://checkout.google.com/

Google Checkout Tour

https://checkout.google.com/buyer/tour.html

Google Checkout Help and FAQ for Buyers

http://checkout.google.com/support/

Google Checkout Help and FAQ for Sellers

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell

Google Checkout Privacy Policy

https://checkout.google.com/files/privacy.html

Google Checkout: Terms of Service for Buyers

https://checkout.google.com/termsOfService?type=Buyer

Google Checkout: Terms of Service for Sellers

https://checkout.google.com/termsOfService?type=Seller

Information for sellers

https://checkout.google.com/sell

A few places to shop

http://www.google.com/buy/m.html

"What credit or debit cards can I use with Google Checkout?"

"You can use any of the following credit or debit cards to make purchases with Google Checkout:"

"Visa"

"MasterCard"

"American Express"

"Discover"

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29064

"In what locations is Google Checkout available?"

"At this time, Google Checkout is available to anyone who has a United States billing and mailing address. We look forward to expanding our service in the future."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43348&topic=

"Can I use Google Checkout at any online store?"

"No. Not all online stores accept Google Checkout. To find stores that accept Google Checkout, search Google for items you'd like to buy, and look for sponsored links with the shopping cart logo."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30868

"How much does it cost to use Google Checkout?"

"It's free! You'll only be responsible for paying for your purchases, including taxes and delivery fees (if applicable). You won't be charged any additional costs for making a purchase through Google Checkout."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29062

"How secure are my transactions and account information?"

"Your payment information and shipping address is saved in your Google Account to make future purchases more convenient and secure for you. We guarantee that:"

"Your account information is stored on our secure servers."

"Your purchase information is encrypted during transmission with industry-standard SSL (secure socket layer) technology."

"Google doesn't share your full credit card number with sellers."

"Google won't disclose personally identifiable information about your purchase history to advertisers or merchants."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29075

"How can I tell if it's safe to enter my credit card information when checking out?"

"Once you click the Google Checkout button on a store's shopping cart page, you'll be redirected to a site within the https://checkout.google.com domain where you can safely enter your personal information."

"Always verify that a site belongs to Google before entering personal information."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43092&topic=

"How does Google protect my account from unauthorized activity?"

"Protecting your account and personal information is our top priority. That's why our fraud protection policy covers you against unauthorized purchases made through Google Checkout. If we find that an unauthorized purchase is made with your Google Account, we'll make sure you aren't charged for it."

"Please file a report with Google immediately if an unauthorized purchase is made with your account. Unauthorized purchases must be reported within 60 days of the transaction. Once we receive your report, we'll begin an investigation, and we may contact you for further details, if necessary."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=41201

"How can I protect my account?"

"There are a number of things you can do to help keep your personal information safe. Review the list below for some useful tips:"

"Always sign out when you've completed your purchase, especially if you use a public or shared computer."

"When using a public computer, clear forms and passwords so none of your personal information is accessible by other people using the computer."

"Keep secrets! Never tell anyone your password; if you do tell someone, change it as soon as possible."

"Choose a good password."

"Enter a secondary email address in your Google Account. By doing so, you'll be able to gain access even if you lose access to your primary email account."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=42817&topic=

"Why was I automatically logged out of my account?"

"If your account sits idle for an extended period of time, you'll automatically be logged out -– this helps protect your personal information. If you're automatically logged out, please sign back in to continue shopping."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43206&topic=

"I never signed up for Google Checkout. Why is my credit card being charged, and what should I do?"

"If you see charges on your credit card statement for purchases made through Google Checkout, but you've never created an account, please contact us immediately so we may begin an investigation."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=42822&topic=

"What is a Card Verification Code?"

"A Card Verification Code, or CVC, is a number that provides extra security to credit and debit card holders, in case an unauthorized person gets a hold of your account number. CVCs are one way to make sure someone has the actual card in his or her possession."

"The CVC on American Express cards is four digits, and is located on the front of the card, on the right side. Discover, MasterCard, and Visa use three-digit CVCs, which are listed on the back of the card. The CVC is the last three digits of the number that appears on your signature bar."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43073&topic=

"What information does Google share with sellers?"

"We will not sell or rent your personal information or purchase history to third parties. When you make a purchase through Google Checkout, we may share portions of your credit card number with the seller to identify the transaction, but we don't share your full credit card number with the seller."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=42825

"What does it mean if a seller tracks affiliate advertising?"

"Google Checkout allows stores to track affiliate advertising by adding a web beacon to the Google Checkout order confirmation page. A web beacon is an electronic image (1x1 .gif) within a web page that helps a seller analyze customer traffic, and track transactions."

"Google does not allow sellers to collect personal information through web beacons. We'll will show a message along the bottom of your order confirmation page when a seller is tracking affiliate advertising, but if you'd like to opt-out of affiliate tracking, please visit the provider's site listed on the confirmation page for more information, or clear your cookies from the provider's domain."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43192

"How will purchases made with Google Checkout appear on my credit card statement?"

"Each time you make a purchase through Google Checkout, we'll let you know exactly how a charge will appear on your credit card –- once you complete an order, look at your receipt for details."

"Your credit card will be charged by Google and we will not share your full credit card number with the seller. The standard format for charges on your statement is: GOOGLE * [Seller's name], but please check your receipt for exact details."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43057&topic=

"How long does it take for a payment to post to my credit card?"

"It depends. Charges generally post to your credit card within a few days. Look at the receipt in the Purchase History section of your account to see the exact date your credit card was charged for your purchase."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43058&topic=

"How do I review the status of my order?"

"After you make a purchase, you can review its status by signing in to your Google Account."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29067

"How do I request a refund or cancel an order?"

"If you need to cancel an order or request a refund, you should contact the seller. Here's how:"

"Sign in to your Google Account."

"Click Purchases along the left side of the page."

"Locate the order containing the item you'd like to cancel or have refunded, and click the link in the Item column."

"At the top of the receipt, click Contact [Seller's Name]."

"Cancellation and refund policies vary by seller. In some cases, you may be unable to return an item, or you might be charged a return, restocking, or processing fee. Please review the seller's refund or cancellation policies (if available) for more information before you make a purchase."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29071

"My credit card was declined. What should I do?"

"If you placed an order and your credit card was declined, you'll receive an email from Google to notify you of the failed charge. After receiving notification, you must sign in to your Google Account and update your payment information within three days. If you do not update your payment information within three days of receiving the notification, your order will automatically be cancelled."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43075&topic=

"I share a credit card with someone. Can we use the same credit card to open separate Google Accounts?"

"No. You can't use the same credit card for more than one Google Account. To ensure that you are the only person making purchases with your credit card, and that your information remains secure, we only allow one account per credit or debit card."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29065

"I don't want to save payment information in my Google Account. Can I still use Google Checkout?"

"Yes. If you don't want to save your payment information in your Google Account, you can delete it after making a purchase. Keep in mind that if you return an item to a seller, your payment information must be saved in your Google Account so the store may issue a refund."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29073&topic=

"Can I receive payments by signing up for Google Checkout?"

"No. You aren't able to receive payments through Google Checkout. If you sell or want to sell items online, and would like to accept Google Checkout, you can sign up for a seller account."

http://checkout.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43054&topic=

eBay Bans Google Checkouts

eBay Bans Google Checkouts

July 7, 2006

"eBay has added Google Checkout to its list of payment services not allowed in its marketplace. Google joins an illustrious list:"

"AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com"

"All of these services have been banned due to being unsafe for eBay buyers, that they are in some way poorly designed or secured and thus aid fraud. Google Checkout, however, is too new and untested to fall into this category, so it is far more likely that this is being done for political reasons. Checkout is very similar to Paypal, just cheaper, so if a large number of eBay’s merchants switched over, a huge portion of their revenue model would just go away."

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/07/07/ebay-bans-google-checkouts/

Google Gmail Users Targeted By Phishers

Phishers target Google Gmail users

July 11, 2006

"IT security experts warned today of a "widespread phishing email campaign" that tries to swindle unwary recipients by pretending to offer a cash prize from Gmail, Google's popular free email service."

"The emails claim that the recipient has been randomly selected for a $500 cash prize, and that the money can be paid automatically if they click on the embedded web link. Part of the email reads as follows:"

"'You won $500! Gmail congratulates you!"

"CONGRATULATIONS!"

"YOU WON $500!"

"Gmail gives members random cash prizes. Today, your account is randomly selected as the one of 12 top winners accounts who will get cash prizes from us. Please click the link below and follow instructions on our web site. Your money will be paid directly to your e-gold, PayPal, StormPay or MoneyBookers account.'"

"The embedded link takes users to a web page saying that there has been a problem sending the payment. They are then asked to enter their bank details and pay a membership fee of $8.60."

" "Of course this email wasn't really sent by the folks at Gmail, and the $500 cash prize doesn't exist. Anyone tempted to try and collect it is in danger of walking straight into a trap set by these fraudsters," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "

"People need to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and be much more wary of unsolicited email communications whoever they may appear to come from."

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2160080/phishers-target-google-gmail

Links:

http://www.securitypronews.com/news/securitynews/spn-45-20060711SophosWarnsofGmailPhishingScam.html

http://sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/07/gmailphish.html

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/07/12/11367.aspx

http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/news.php?id=88528

Google Pages Allows AdSense Ads

Google Pages Allowing Google AdSense Ads

July 7, 2006

"Google Page Creator, the site building and hosting service offered by Google and launched this year, is now allowing the implementation of Google AdSense ads into user sites; which will lead to some bonus revenue for Google Pages users while also helping Google to monetize their service."

"Darren Rowse @ ProBlogger.net points to an email received by Google Pages users today:"

"1. Log into your AdSense account at www.google.com/adsense"

"2. From the AdSense Setup tab, customize and generate your AdSense code"

"3. Copy the generated code from the ‘Your AdSense code’ box"

"4. Log into your Google Page Creator account"

"5. Select the web page you’d like to dis play AdSense ads"

"6. Select the field where you’d like the ads to appear"

"7. Click ‘Edit HTML’"

"8. Paste the AdSense code in the HTML source code of the page"

"9. Save your updated web page"

"10. Publish your web page"

"After taking the steps above, your ads should appear shortly. If you have trouble implementing the Ad Sense code onto your web page, please feel free to respond to this email."

"Good luck,"

"The Google AdSense Team"

"Google Pages, when launched, was compared to the old ‘build your own personal site system’ of Geocities, which is now part of the Yahoo network. Yahoo does serve contextual advertising within its Geocities pages, however, does not have the advertising set up as a revenue sharing structure like that of Google’s."

"In the same fashion as Google’s steps in sharing the wealth with their Blogger members (Google used to serve AdSense ads on Blogger blogs hosted on Blogspot.com without sharing the earnings with bloggers), Google’s new sense of giving within Google Pages may spark some excitement in the project, while maybe also adding a new free hosted service which will be targeted for AdSense spamming."

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3598

Links:

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/07/04/google-pages-allows-adsense-ads/

http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2006/07/05/google-pages-adsense/

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=250

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060703-092737

Google Pages Used to Host Trojan Horse

Google Pages Used to Host Trojan Horse

June 19, 2006

"Security vendor Websense warned last week that a Trojan horse is being hosted on a site with the same IP (Internet protocol) address as the main Google Pages Web site."

"Trojan horses present themselves as legitimate programs but actually conceal malicious code inside. They can be engineered to steal information from computers and are frequently spread by unsolicited e -mails or via instant messaging (IM) links."

"Users are enticed to open attachments or click on Web links to launch the Trojan, releasing the malicious code on their computer."

"The Trojan appears to have been noticed before its authors have managed to launch an attack, Websense said. The company has not yet detected e-mails or IM links leading back to the Trojan, which is designed to steal bank details relating to certain financial institutions."

"The Trojan, also known as a "keylogger" for its ability to record keystrokes, is programmed to know when a user visits a bank site, and to then activate the keystroke recording function, said Ross Paul, a senior product manager at Websense."

"Criminals often use free hosting services to post dangerous code, Paul said. "Anywhere there is anonymous access to create content is a pretty useful tool for criminals," he said."

"The Trojan's file size has been reduced using ASPack, a file compression tool."

"Google Pages is the hosting complement of Google Page Creator, a free WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web page editor that doesn't require HTML knowledge. Google Page Creator offers numerous templates and 100MB of storage for uploaded files and pages."

"Within hours of its launch in February the service was taken down due to overwhelming demand. It was restored three days later."

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,126152,00.asp

Google Pages Used To Host Trojan Horse

June 19, 2006

"The security vendor Websense sent out a warning on Friday that Google's Web page hosting service, known as Google Pages, was being used to host a Trojan horse. It is believed the discovery was made before the malware's author(s) could launch an attack."

"Websense had this to say about the Google-hosted Trojan: "The file is packed with ASPack and is a banking Trojan Horse which is designed to steel banking credentials upon visiting pre-defined financial institutions sites." The company's solution was to simply block the website."

"Google can't be blamed for the event-any free hosting service is likely to encounter such problems. Still, the search engine giant would do well to run some sort of check or scan on files as they are uploaded. Imitators (or even the same party) may follow up this first attempt with others."

"In order for Trojans to launch, they require users to open an attachment, run a program, or click on a link, as the case may be. The Trojan horse on Google Pages was no different in this respect. And so while this new incident is somewhat disturbing, it shouldn't make individuals any more vulnerable than they were in the past. Just continue to exercise caution in your Web browsing."

http://www.securitypronews.com/news/securitynews/spn-45-20060619GooglePagesUsedToHostTrojanHorse.html

Trojan Hosted on Google Pages

June 19, 2006

"Google has been the target of some folks who have been up to no good as its hosting server was targeted when attackers uploaded a malicious file to the Google Pages server. Google Pages is the Google service which lets Google Account holders create and host web pages with Google."

"A Google Spokesperson told the press:"

"Google Page Creator enables users to upload and serve files on their Web site. We understand some users are hosting and serving malicious files, and we are removing these Web pages when notified. We are working on a more permanent solution to guard against these malicious efforts. However, we encourage users to continue to notify us when they encounter sites that host or serve malicious files."

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3546

Links:

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/06/21/google-pages-used-by-hackers/

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1695533406;fp;2;fpid;1

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6085295.html

http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39159722,00.htm

Google Reader Security Fix

Google Reader Security Fix

July 6, 2006

"Google has fixed a minor security issue with Google Reader that could potentially enabled hackers to steal sensitive information from readers."

"An attack could be initiated by hackers embedding a script into web postings or input fields on sites, making the Google RSS feed tool extremely vulnerable to attacks."

"The fix was made to the Reader as soon as Google discovered it, and was reported as a minor security flaw."

http://www.google.weblogsinc.com/2006/07/06/google-reader-security-fix/

Links:

http://news.com.com/Google+fixes+security+flaw+in+Reader/2100-1002_3-6090974.html

http://www.betanews.com/article/Security_Hole_Fixed_in_Google_Reader/1152203957

Orkut Users Attacked By A Worm

Data-thieving worm targets Orkut users

June 16, 2006

"A new worm that attempts to steal online banking credentials is propagating on Google's social-networking Web site, a security company warned Friday."

"The worm, dubbed MW.Orc, primarily targets Brazilian users of Google's Orkut Web site. It uses a message in Portuguese to entice people to click on a file that is disguised as a JPEG image, FaceTime Security Labs said in a statement."

"The initial file, called "minhasfotos.exe," creates two additional files on a user's system, "winlogon_.jpg" and "wzip32.exe," FaceTime said. When the user, after the initial compromise, clicks on the "My Computer" icon in Windows XP, an e-mail with his or her personal data is sent to the anonymous attacker, the security company said."

"Additionally, the compromised computer may be added to a network of hijacked PCs, known as a botnet. The pest also tries to propagate by placing a malicious link on the profiles of people in the Orkut user's network, FaceTime said."

" Google confirmed the worm. "We are aware of this issue and will have a temporary fix in place within the hour," a company representative said in an e-mailed statement. "We are working on a more permanent solution for users to guard against these malicious efforts." " "For their protection, Orkut users, just as users of all online services and applications, should always be careful when opening or clicking on anything suspicious, the Google representative said."

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6084932.html

Links:

http://oraclewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/06/19/10909.aspx

http://tech.moneycontrol.com/news/orkut-targetted-by-new-worm/1591/india/

http://www.scmagazine.com/uk/news/article/564925/malware+targets+orkut+social+networking+site/

http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2006/06/20/mworc/

http://google.weblogsinc.com/2006/06/21/orkut-is-the-home-to-an-infectious-worm/

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-06-19T211345Z_01_N19197360_RTRIDST_0_TECH-ORKUT-VIRUS.XML&rpc=66

http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189500744&subSection=Cybercrime

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1195057,00.html

http://www.sda-india.com/sda/news/psecom,id,9476,nodeid,1,_language,India.html

Replace DMOZ (ODP) Snippets

More control over page snippets

July 13, 2006

"The way we generate the descriptions (snippets) that appear under a page in the search results is completely automated. The process uses both the content on a page as well as references to it that appear on other sites."

"One source we use to generate snippets is the Open Directory Project, or ODP. Some site owners want to be to able to request not using the ODP for generating snippets, and we're happy to let you all know we've added support for this. All you have to do is add a meta tag to your pages."

"To direct all search engines that support the meta tag not to use ODP information for the page's description, use the following:"

"<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP">"

"Note that not all search engines may support this meta tag, so check with each for more information."

"To direct Google specifically from using this information to describe a page, use the following:"

"<META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOODP">"

"Once you add this meta tag to your pages, it may take some time for changes to your snippets to appear. Once we've recrawled your pages and refreshed our index, you should see updated snippets."

http://sitemaps.blogspot.com/2006/07/more-control-over-page-snippets.html

Links:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35264&topic=8523

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060713-131905

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060713GoogleYouCanSayNoToODP.html

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-07-13-n78.html

Google Crawls JavaScript

Google Crawling Javascript Links with Clean URLs

May 1, 2006

"Well, if Yahoo can crawl and index links surrounded by “no follow” command, then Google is going to have to do something just as crazy to throw a wrench into the world of SEO, links, and text advertising."

"Barry Schwartz points out on SERoundtable that the GoogleBot is now crawling Javascript with “clean” URLs"

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3352

GoogleBot Can Crawl JavaScript With Clean URLs

May 1, 2006

"I have been noticing a patters of posts where more and more people are claiming that Google is posting JavaScript forms. All of those posts, including this one, all have the same story. Basically, if you have a clean URL in the JavaScript, GoogleBot will try to explore that URL."

"The same type of story spring up over the weekend at a WebmasterWorld thread. As you can tell by the thread, the JavaScript included some clean URLs, which GoogleBot extracted and explored."

"Just be careful your JavaScript doesn't opening contain a method to delete your whole Web site."

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003737.html

Bot Obedience: Herding Googlebot

July 8, 2006

"S.E.W., in general I’d be cautious of relying on JavaScript to keep bots from following a link. Google for one has gotten better at crawling even when links are in JavaScript."

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bot-obedience-herding-googlebot/

Googlebot finally decided to crawl!!!!!

April 21, 2005

"Do you people notice something? Gooeglebot was logged as being javascript enabled. So there goes the notion that bots are not javascript enabled. At least some of them are - the mightiest of all as a matter of fact."

http://forum.statcounter.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16588

Google Crawls Javascript

March 16, 2004

"you might want to simplify your JavaScript. Google can often extract urls from JavaScript, but I can believe that doing utterly weird stuff might mess things up"

http://www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/archives/discuss-google-crawls-javascript.html

Links:

http://www.hawaiistreets.com/seoblog/?itemid=876

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/34087.htm

http://blog.stevex.net/index.php/2005/12/24/does-google-run-javascript/

http://www.searchengineforums.com/apps/searchengine.forums/action::thread/forum::seo-general/thread::1150727297/

Google Page Creator's Page Editor Allows JavaScript

With Google Page Creator (Google Pages) you have been able to use JavaScript from the beginning with uploaded files, but since around June and July 2006 you have been able to add JavaScript code also in Google Page Creator's Page Editor. There are still limitations, because some features of JavaScript are designed to be used in the head section of an HTML document (but there are some workarounds).

Add Google Adsense to Google Page Creator

July 7, 2006

"Google Page Creator now allows JavaScript. This opens you up to earning money with your Google Page Creator Web Site. Add Google Adsense to your Google Page Creator Web site and earn a little money from your Google Page Creator Web site.People have been using Google Adsense for years to make money from their Web sites. Read the rules before using Google Adsense. If you misuse it they will cut you off in an instant."

http://personalweb.about.com/b/a/256463.htm

Google Page Creator Supports Javascript

June 30, 2006

"Google Page Creator, the service that lets you create and publish static web pages hosted by Google, lets you embed Javascript code in the pages. You just have to go to a editable area, click "Edit HTML" and type your script. That means you can include in your pages AdSense, Analytics code, Ajax and other interactive features."

"Until now, users had to create HTML files offline and upload them in Page Creator, which was pretty difficult, especially if we think that the service wants to let you "build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software"."

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/06/google-page-creator-supports.html

JavaScript and Google Page Creator

July 7, 2006

"Google Page Creator now allows JavaScript. This is great news, as you can now include AdSense code and other advanced features in your site. Because this is such a new feature, though, we're still working out some of the kinks."

http://groups.google.com/group/gpc-updates/browse_frm/thread/777dd65bd97ef3d2/0a59229fb4f03fdc#0a59229fb4f03fdc

Google Pages allows JavaScript

July 1, 2006

"Google Pages now allow you to insert JavaScript in your page, and Google want you to insert your AdSense codes there. The AdSense team invited/emailed some Google Page Creator users to give it a try."

http://googlified.com/2006google-pages-allows-javascript/

Links:

http://groups.google.com/group/GPC-How-to-Advanced/browse_frm/thread/e39197857328af2c/8d33b97d3b332fca#8d33b97d3b332fca

http://www.google.com/support/pages/bin/answer.py?answer=35213&topic=0

http://personalweb.about.com/b/a/256463.htm

http://easywebbers.blogspot.com/2006/07/google-pages-now-allows-javascript.html

http://digg.com/programming/Google_Page_Creator_(googlepages.com)_now_supports_JavaScript

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=250

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/1cf4e01e51cb7688

http://gpsgfaq.googlepages.com/google_page_creator.html#features

Google Accessible Search

Google Accessible Search

http://labs.google.com/accessible/

Google Accessible Search FAQ

"What is Google Accessible Search?"

"Accessible Search is an early Google Labs product designed to identify and prioritize search results that are more easily usable by blind and visually impaired users. Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set."

"How does Accessible Search work?"

"In its current version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of signals by examining the HTML markup found on a web page. It tends to favor pages that degrade gracefully --- pages with few visual distractions and pages that are likely to render well with images turned off. Google Accessible Search is built on Google Co-op's technology, which improves search results based on specialized interests."

"How can sites make their content more accessible to the blind?"

"Some of the basic recommendations on how to make a website more useable and accessible include keeping Web pages easy to read, avoiding visual clutter -- especially extraneous content -- and ensuring that the primary purpose of the Web page is immediately accessible with full keyboard navigation. There are many organizations and online resources that offer Website owners and authors guidance on how to make websites and pages more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. The W3C publishes numerous guidelines including Web Content Access Guidelines that are helpful for Website owners and authors. Broad adherence to these guidelines is one way of ensuring that sites are universally accessible."

http://labs.google.com/accessible/faq.html

Google Labs FAQ

"What is Google Labs?"

"Google Labs is a playground where our more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them on which ones are interesting and which ones are just crazy, and why, and how you think they might be improved. Please note that Labs is the first phase in a lengthy product development process; none of this stuff is guaranteed to make it onto Google.com"

"What happened to that cool thing I was playing around with last week?"

"The prototypes on Google Labs are meant to be low-maintenance experiments. If one disappears it may be because no one was interested enough to use it, or because it wasn't stable enough for users to try it out, or because it was so wildly successful that heavy usage brought the server to its knees. Don't worry - while that particular application may not reappear, there will be something just as interesting to replace it shortly."

http://labs.google.com/faq.html

New Official Google Forums

I noticed a few new official Google discussion groups, which probably have been created this summer (2006).

"Google Web Search Help" has existed since about June 29, 2006:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help

http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-UsingWS/msg/2cc3c56aa58592e1

http://www.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1592

"GoogleToolbar Firefox Help" and "Google Toolbar IE Help" have existed since about June 3, 2006:

http://groups.google.com/group/FFToolbar-Group

http://groups.google.com/group/FFToolbar-group-GettingStarted/msg/51ff1b7cd2f418b8

http://groups.google.com/group/IEToolbar-Group

http://groups.google.com/group/IEToolbar-Group-GettingStarted/msg/1bcbacd7d5a7748e

http://www.google.com/support/toolbar

"Google Maps" has existed since about June 23, 2006:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-Past-Discussions/msg/2a58933069276c1d

http://local.google.com/support

"Google Checkout Merchants Forum" and "Google Checkout Developers Forum" have existed since about June 17, 2006 and June 22, 2006:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-checkout-merchants-forum

http://groups.google.com/group/google-checkout-basics/msg/885bf11e2e0fb0fd

http://groups.google.com/group/google-checkout-developers-forum

http://groups.google.com/group/google-checkout-api-updates/msg/be54a57fc6719abd

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell

"Google-Labs-Spreadsheets" has existed since about June 6, 2006 (I didn't find a charter/welcome message for that group, so I searched for the last topic in the topic list):

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Spreadsheets

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Spreadsheets/msg/8565f204a9dcbb35

http://labs.google.com/

"Writely Discussion Group" has existed since about June 2, 2006:

http://groups.google.com/group/Writely-Discussion-Group

http://groups.google.com/group/getting_started/msg/c5402d77ee5c47cc

http://www.google.com/support/writely

Gmail: Delete & Select All In Label

Since about May 2006 some Gmail users have been able to delete/select all messages in Trash, Spam or in other labels. Since about July 2006 even more Gmail users have been able to do that. More info: "Now you can apply the same action to all messages in a label or section of your account (Inbox, Sent Mail, Spam, Trash, etc.), in just a few steps. Use this feature to archive all mail in your Inbox, apply labels to every message meeting certain criteria, delete all messages in Spam or Trash, or apply a filter to all relevant messages in your account."

"Here's how to take an action on all messages in a label or section of your account:"

"Open the view (Inbox, Sent Mail, etc.) containing the messages on which you'd like to take an action."

"Click Select: All along the top."

"Click the link that says Select all [number] conversations in [current view]."

"Select the action you'd like to take from the More Actions... drop- down menu."

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=35088

"Take an action on multiple messages"

"Now you can apply the same action to all messages in a label or section of your account, such as archiving all mail in your Inbox, deleting all messages in Spam, or applying a label or filter to all relevant messages in your account."

http://gmail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html

Google Help Pages A-Z

Google has created a page where you can see links to many of the help pages of various Google services:

Help Topics A-Z

http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=alpha_index.html

Google Personalized Homepage for mobile

Google Personalized Homepage for mobile

http://www.google.com/ig/cp

Google Maps for Mobile with Traffic and Customized iGoogle for Mobile Devices

June 25, 2006

"Google Personalized Home now makes it even easier for mobile phone users to quickly get the information they need when they're away from their desks. When users log in to Personalized Home on their desktop and click on the "mobile" link at the bottom of the page, they will be able to customize the content they see the next time they log on to their Personalized Home on their mobile device. Not only can they customize content, but users can also specify the order in which that content appears on their mobile devices."

http://www.google.com/press/annc/mobile_traffic_ig.html

Google AJAX Search API

Google AJAX Search API

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/

Google AJAX Search API FAQ

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/faq.html

Google AJAX Search API Documentation

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/reference.html

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/samples.html

Google AJAX Search API Community Samples

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/community-samples.html

Google AJAX Search API Terms of Use

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/terms.html

Google AJAX Search API discussion group

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-AJAX-Search-API

Google AJAX Search API Blog

http://googleajaxsearchapi.blogspot.com/

Google Jobs Temporary Positions FAQ

Google Jobs Temporary Positions FAQ

"Why does the position I'm interested in say it's through WorkforceLogic?"

"Google recognizes that there are times during the course of business that workloads increase and additional staff is needed to accomplish specific tasks or projects. Google has elected to manage these temporary needs by partnering with WorkforceLogic to assist with Google's temporary staffing needs. The position you are interested in is an WorkforceLogic-sponsored position. If you are selected to work on this position, you will be working on a temporary assignment at Google, but you will be employed by WorkforceLogic."

"Who is WorkforceLogic?"

"WorkforceLogic (formerly ABE Services) is a leading provider of professional level on-site Contingent Workforce Program Management. WorkforceLogic provides its employees with an excellent and robust employee benefits package. Their benefits will be offered to temporary workers on assignments at Google who work a minimum of 30 hours per week."

"How do I apply for a temporary assignment at Google through WorkforceLogic?"

"For immediate consideration, please send a text (ASCII) or HTML version of your resume to temporaryjobs@google.com. Important: The subject field of your email must include the job title of the temporary position."

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=37620

Google Toolbar 4 for Internet Explorer

Google Toolbar 4 for Internet Explorer 6 is out of beta:

Google Toolbar

http://toolbar.google.com/T4/

IE Toolbar Version 4

http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/static.py?page=features.html&hl=en&v=4

Make your own buttons

July 28, 2006

"Custom Buttons are by far my favorite feature in the new Google Toolbar, which comes out of beta today. Clearly I’m not the only one, either -- we have over 600 buttons in the gallery, with new buttons being added every day -- and here are some some of my favorites, if you'd like to add them to your Toolbar."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/make-your-own-buttons.html

Google Hands Over Gmail Account Info

Google Hands Over Gmail Account Info

July 28, 2006

"If someone sends hate speech through Gmail, Google may hand out the account information based on gov’t requests – it happened in this case, eWeek reports:"

"The [Federal] agents requested the records on June 22nd, 2006 after the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) notified the FBI they had received a threatening e-mail."

"The recovered records included the offending e-mail, registration information, session timestamps, and originating IP addresses for amgonow@gmail.com."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-07-28-n33.html

Links:

http://computerworld.com/blogs/node/3094

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1995743,00.asp

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=2247383

http://oraclewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/07/27/11852.aspx

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1995747,00.asp

http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article/Gmail+Used+For+Hate+Speech+Feds+Examine+Google+Records/184664_1.aspx

Google Talk: File Transfer, Voicemail and Music Status

Testing a new version of Google Talk

July 26, 2006

"We've been working hard to add your top-requested features to Google Talk, such as fast and reliable file transfer, and the ability to send and receive voicemail messages for free. We've even created a fun little feature for you music lovers."

"So today, we're excited to be releasing these features to a small percentage of Google Talk users. We'll be rolling these features out to all Google Talk users on the U.S.-English interface in the coming weeks."

http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/07/testing-new-version-of-google-talk.html

New Google Talk Features: File Transfer and More

July 28, 2006

"Google Talk has been updated with a bunch of new features:"

"File transfer: Send unlimited files & folders to your chat friends."

"Voicemail: Leave voice messages when your friend’s not around. They’ ll get your message sent as email attachment."

"Music status: You can let your friends know about the music you’re currently listening to."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-07-28-n31.html

Links:

http://www.google.com/talk/whatsnew_more.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=276

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3668

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060728GoogleTalkHasVoicemailNow.html

http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2006/07/29/google-talk-now-supports-file-transfer/

Google International Code Jam 2006

Google International Code Jam 2006

http://www.google.com/codejam2006

http://www.google.com/codejam/

Code your way to Gotham

August 14, 2006

"New York, New York -- A place so nice, we're holding the Google Code Jam finals here! I'm excited to tell you about our fourth annual competition, the 2006 Google International Code Jam. This year the last round will be held at our second-largest development center, right in downtown Manhattan. The best coders in the world (and that includes you, if you're up for the challenge) compete on speed and accuracy to solve challenging problems with only their brains, fingers, and a computer. If this is your idea of fun, then sign up -- registration opens today. We'll fly the best 100 coders to New York in October, all expenses paid, for the final competition, to meet Google software engineers and to experience Manhattan. First prize is $10,000; all finalists are guaranteed a minimum prize of $750."

"Of course, we'll be on the lookout for future Googlers -- those who love solving tricky coding challenges, and are excited about solving the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal of organizing the world's information."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/code-your-way-to-gotham.html

Google Sitemaps is now Google webmaster tools

New name better reflects our commitment to communicate with you

August 4, 2006

"To better reflect our goal to provide tools and information to keep you, the webmasters, informed and help you increase your crawl coverage and visibility on Google, we're renaming Google Sitemaps to Google webmaster tools. The Sitemaps protocol remains unchanged and Sitemaps submission mechanisms and reporting is still available from the Sitemaps tab. We're also renaming our blog and Google Group to be more broadly focused on webmaster topics."

"You can find handy links to all the tools, the new blog, Google Group, help center and more from our newly launched Google webmaster central. Join us at the blog's new location at googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com where you'll learn about all the exciting things we're planning. Oh, and please don't forget to update your bookmarks and feed!"

http://sitemaps.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-name-better-reflects-our.html

Google Webmaster Central

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Google Webmaster Help Center

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters

Google's discussion group for webmasters

http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help

Google's blog for webmasters

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

Coupons on Google Maps

Print and Save - Coupons on Google Maps

August 15, 2006

"Today, Google announced printable online coupons on Google Maps. When searching for local information, discount coupons from businesses are now displayed on Google Maps search results and business listing pages. These coupons can be printed out directly from a computer and redeemed at a physical store location of a neighborhood or local business. For users of Google Maps, coupons provide additional relevant business information and ultimately contribute to a better local search experience. For businesses, coupons provide another way to reach customers online."

"Google has partnered with Valpak, one of the leading direct marketing companies in North America, to provide coupons from current Valpak advertisers on Google Maps."

"Coupons are available in Google Maps at no cost to businesses and consumers. Businesses simply need to log into the Local Business Center at Google Maps to enter in coupon information www.google.com/local/add. In addition, businesses can easily add or update their local business listings on Google Maps from the Local Business Center. Once coupon information is entered, the coupon is displayed on Google Maps within hours. Businesses do not need a web site to participate."

http://www.google.com/press/annc/maps_coupons.html

"What are coupons?"

"Coupons are provided by business owners and can be seen on the business details page of a local business listing on Google Maps. You can print coupons and redeem them for use at the corresponding business. At this time, coupons are only eligible to appear for business listings in the U.S."

"If you're a business owner interested in creating coupons for your business, please visit our Google Local Business Center."

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45982&topic=1467

Google Maps: Local Business Center

http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup?hl=en-US&gl=US

Google WiFi Mountain View

Free citywide WiFi in Mountain View

August 16, 2006

"Today, Google launched a WiFi network in our hometown of Mountain View. Radios hanging on lampposts throughout the city are now broadcasting a "GoogleWiFi" wireless (802.11b/g) signal that brings wireless Internet access to the city's residents, businesses, and visitors. All anyone needs is a laptop or other wireless-enabled device and a web browser to get online. Then Mountain View users can select the "GoogleWiFi" signal, open their web browser and sign in with a free Google Account. To learn more about the network's coverage area and the location of the WiFi radios, we've published a map."

"This network is a way for us to give back to and engage with the community where our headquarters are. As the product manager for Google WiFi, it has been has been tremendously rewarding to partner with the local government, the schools, the library, the neighborhood associations, and all of our trusted testers to introduce the power of free, wireless Internet connectivity to the city."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/free-citywide-wifi-in-mountain-view.html

Google WiFi Mountain View Help/FAQ

http://wifi.google.com/support

"What is Google WiFi?"

"Google WiFi is a free wireless Internet service offered in the city of Mountain View, California, as part of Google’s ongoing community outreach efforts. The service is available for anyone to use, provided they have what is required to access the Google WiFi network. Google WiFi is primarily an outdoor network, although there are ways to access the Google WiFi network from inside your home or office. An exception to this is the Mountain View Public Library, where we have installed WiFi access points inside to ensure good coverage throughout the building."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=44967&topic=9087

"Where is this service available?"

"The goal of Google WiFi is to eventually cover the entire city of Mountain View, California, with our network."

"Initially there may be areas where the signal is not received within the city limits. However, we are working to continually improve this service. Please reference our map (may load slowly) of Google WiFi nodes to confirm that Google WiFi is available from your present location."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30791&topic=8330

"Should I cancel my current DSL or cable Internet service?"

"We are not encouraging our users to cancel their current Internet accounts. However, this decision is up to each individual. We recommend testing the Google WiFi network extensively before deciding whether it can fulfill your Internet needs."

"The Google WiFi service is primarily meant for outdoor use. With that said, you may choose to extend this service inside your home by purchasing third party network equipment."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30855&topic=8297

"Is there a limit on data rate or total amount of data I can send?"

"Google WiFi is a community resource to be shared among the residents of Mountain View. Our philosophy is to support the maximum possible per-user data rates and consumption while ensuring the network capabilities are able to be equally enjoyed by everyone. To that end, we have capped the upload and download data rate each to 1000 kbps -- note that typical DSL rates are 350 kbps down and 125 kbps up."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30862&topic=8297

"What should I do if there is a tree/building/obstacle between me and the closest Google WiFi node?"

"We apologize that your service is being obstructed. We hope that you are able to use Google WiFi in other outdoor areas of Mountain View."

"Additionally, you may wish to reference our map of Google WiFi nodes and known ‘dead zones’ (may load slowly) to confirm that Google WiFi is available from your current location."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30811&topic=8330

"Will Google WiFi work inside my home or office?"

"Google WiFi will be strongest when a user is outdoors. It is unlikely that a WiFi enabled laptop or a computer with a conventional WiFi card will work indoors in most locations. If you want to use the service indoors, we suggest purchasing a WiFi modem. An exception to this is the Mountain View Public Library, where we have installed WiFi access points inside to ensure good coverage throughout the building."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=44036&topic=9012

"Will Google WiFi be a secure network?"

"In order to make our service easily accessible to a large number of WiFi-enabled devices, Google WiFi is an open-access wireless network, and our signal is not encrypted. As such, we encourage our users to take security precautions such as using a firewall and a virtual private network (VPN)."

"Google offers a free, downloadable virtual private network (VPN) client that a user may install and use to prevent others from accessing or seeing the data he or she receives or transmits on Google WiFi. Please reference our section on Google Secure Access (GSA) for more information."

"Please note that Google WiFi users may elect to use a different third-party VPN client. Click here to view a list of recommended third-party VPN clients."

"Even without a VPN client, any Google Account information submitted through our login process will be encrypted for your protection. Additionally, any information submitted through a secure site indicated by an ‘https://’ URL or a padlock at the bottom corner of your browser will be encrypted. As with any wireless network, users should take certain precautions to secure their online experience from security violations by third parties or unintentional security breaches."

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30815&topic=8296

Connecting with your Laptop

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8290

Troubleshooting

http://wifi.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8292

Gmail Opens Up In Japan, Australia and New Zealand

Google Gmail Japan opens to anyone interested in opening an account

August 24, 2006

"Search engine giant Google has announced that Japanese users are now free to open up a new account on their Gmail webmail service in the country."

"With this, Japan becomes the third market where Google has opened up their Gmail service for invite-less registrations."

"Australia and New Zealand are the other two countries where Gmail is open for public registrations. Users in other markets require an invite from existing users to create a new account."

" Angela Lee, Tokyo-based product manager at Google spoke on this new development: “We want as many people to have access to our service. The change has had quite a significant impact in Australia and New Zealand.” "

http://stuff.techwhack.com/archives/2006/08/24/google-gmail-japan/

Google opens up Gmail to Japan

August 24, 2006

"Google has reportedly opened up access to Gmail for users in Japan, after a successful launch of open access for Australia and New Zealand users. Google is trying to raise its presence in the mobile phone capital of the world, where more people access the internet from mobile phones than from personal computers."

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/24/google-opens-up-gmail-to-japan/

Google gives open access to Japan version of GMail

August 23, 2006

"Google Inc., the world's biggest Internet search engine, said on Wednesday it is opening the Japanese-language version of its email service to anyone who wants to sign up."

"Japan is the third market after Australia and New Zealand in which the U.S. Internet conglomerate has allowed open access to GMail, which it offers in more than 40 different languages."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-08-23T064746Z_01_T264574_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-JAPAN-GOOGLE.XML

Google has opened Gmail to all of Australia

August 10, 2006

"Google has just announced that it has opened up Gmail for Australian users. Normally, Google only allows Gmail sign-ups by invitation only. Australian users just have to visit www.gmail.com and sign up for an account to gain access to the popular email service. Google has decided that they want to broaden the availability of the free 2.7 GB of free email space, and are trying it out in Australia and New Zealand first."

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/10/google-has-opened-gmail-to-all-of-australia/

Gmail parties in Australia without invitation

August 12, 2006

"Australian and New Zealand residents are the first in the world to be able sign up for Gmail without having to scrounge for invites from existing users."

"As of today, users can sign-up to Google's Web-based e-mail program by simply registering on the site www.gmail.com"

"As we prepare to broaden availability, we have decided to launch these efforts in Australia and New Zealand first," said a Google Australia spokesperson. "We understand the extreme interest and passion that people around the world have for Gmail and we look forward to making Gmail generally available in more places as soon as we are able."

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/news/2677519.php

Gmail now freely available in NZ

August 11, 2006

"Google's Gmail service is now available to anyone with internet access in Australia and New Zealand."

"The service offers users 2.7 gigabytes of free space, and Google says that it has superior spam protection to other email services. Previously, the service was only available to people who received an invitation from an existing user, or by signing up through Google SMS."

http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=15889&cid=3&cname=Technology

Google Apps for Your Domain

Google Apps for Your Domain

(August 28, 2006)

"Now you can offer private-labeled email, IM and calendar tools to all of your users for free*, so they can share ideas and get things done more effectively. You can design and publish your organization's website, too. It's all hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain."

"Gmail - Offer email to your members with 2 gigabytes of storage per account, search tools to help them find information fast, and instant messaging built right into the browser."

"Google Talk - Your members can call or send instant messages to their contacts for free -- anytime, anywhere in the world."

"Google Calendar - Members can organize their schedules and share events, meetings and entire calendars with others."

"Google Page Creator - Create and publish web pages for your domain quickly and easily with this what-you-see-is-what-you-get website design tool."

http://www.google.com/a/

Google Apps for Your Domain Help/FAQ

http://www.google.com/support/a

Google Apps for Your Domain forum

http://groups.google.com/group/hosted

Google Apps for Education

"With Google Apps for Education, you can offer all of your students innovative email, instant messaging, and calendaring, all for free."

"Gmail - Give students email with huge storage capacity, less spam, search tools to help them find information fast and built-in instant messaging."

"Google Talk - Keep students in contact even when not on campus with instant messaging and voice calling over the Web."

"Google Calendar - Help students stay on top of their schedules, share plans with others and keep up-to-date on campus events."

http://www.google.com/a/edu/

Google Apps for Education Help/FAQ

http://www.google.com/support/a/?wrapper=edu

Google Launches Hosted Communications Services

August 28, 2006

"Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google Apps for Your Domain (http://www.google.com/a), a set of hosted applications for organizations that want to provide high quality communications tools to their users without the hassle of installing and maintaining software or hardware."

"In addition to customizing the user interface with their own branding and color scheme, organizations can tailor the service to their needs by mixing and matching the email, messaging, calendaring and other tools offered through Google Apps for Your Domain."

"Google Apps for Your Domain, an expansion of the Gmail for Your Domain service that launched in February 2006, currently includes Gmail web email, the Google Talk instant messaging and voice calling service, collaborative calendaring through Google Calendar, and web page design, publishing and hosting via Google Page Creator. Domain administrators use a simple web-based control panel to manage their user account list, set up aliases and distribution lists, and enable the services they want for their domain."

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gafyd.html

Google Adds Malware Warnings

Google Adds Malware Warnings

August 3, 2006

"Google now shows a warning when you click on certain potentially harmful search results. For example, when you search for list keygen mirc and click on the first result, instead of the target page you’ll see this (Google links to the StopBadware.org initiative, which it also sponsors):"

"Warning - the site you are about to visit may harm your computer!"

"You can learn more about malware and how to protect yourself at StopBadware.org."

"Suggestions:"

"• Return to the previous page and pick another result."

"• Try another search to find what you’re looking for."

"The URL of above warning is google.com/interstitial?url=http://asta- killer.com/list.html. To test if a specific domain is considered to host malware, you can replace the URL parameter; apparently, only if it’s considered malware will the warning show (otherwise you’ll get a “forbidden” message)."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-08-03-n78.html

Malware Warnings on Google Search Results

August 3, 2006

"Google has started to issue malware warnings for some of the search results. If you search for list keygen mirc (which is a bad thing, but mIRC should be free anyway), and click on the first result, Google will show you this page:"

"Of course, you can still go to the page, but Google warned you."

" Google and Sun Microsystems fund a non-profit anti-spyware group called StopBadware and this is one of the Google's contributions to the project. "The internet has the extraordinary capacity to allow anyone, anywhere, to develop software, and to instantly distribute it, without cost, throughout the world. StopBadware.org was established in an effort to preserve this positive ability to generate and share information by exploring ways to solve the badware problem. With the advice and input of a panel of internet experts, we isolated seven categories of behaviors that many users reported as unwanted in software they download: deceptive installations, unclearly identification, causing harm to other computers, modifying other software, transmitting user data, interfering with computer use, and being difficult to uninstall completely." "

"There are many solutions that provide safety ratings for sites. One of the most popular is SiteAdvisor, a plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox. When you search with Google, SiteAdvisor displays different colors (green, yellow, red) next to search results and ads to show if the site sends spam, has malware, pop-ups, or links to dubious sites."

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/08/malware-warnings-on-google-search.html

Google Image Labeler

Google Image Labeler

"Welcome to Google Image Labeler, a new feature of Google Image Search that allows you to label random images to help improve the quality of Google's image search results."

"You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a 90-second period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn some points and move on to the next image until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session."

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

Google Image Labeler FAQ

"How was Google Image Labeler developed?"

"Google Image Labeler is based in part on technology licensed from and developed at Carnegie Mellon University."

"Do I need to provide my Google account or my name?"

"If you'd like to keep a record of your contribution, we suggest you sign in to your Google account. You'll also be asked to provide a nickname. Note: If you'd like to remain anonymous, you don't need to log in to your Google account to label images."

"What information will my partner and I be able to see about each other?"

"None. Unless you choose a nickname, in which case your partner can see that."

"How do I earn points?"

"When you and your partner match labels on an image, you both earn points."

"Where can I see all the points that I have earned?"

"When you sign in to your Google account, you'll be able to access the points that you have earned while you were logged in. If you weren't logged in, you will not be able to access points from all of your sessions."

"What are these points for? Can I redeem them for anything?"

"They're intended to help indentify contributions from participants. But they're not redeemable."

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/help.html

Google News Archive Search

Google News Archive Search

http://news.google.com/archivesearch

About Google News Archive Search

http://news.google.com/archivesearch/about.html

Google News Archive Search Help

http://news.google.com/archivesearch/help.html

Google News

http://news.google.com/

Sitelinks In Google Search Results

Information about Sitelinks

September 7, 2006

"You may have noticed that some search results include a set of links below them to pages within the site. We've just updated our help center with information on how we generate these links, called Sitelinks, and why we show them."

"Our process for generating Sitelinks is completely automated. We show them when we think they'll be most useful to searchers, saving them time from hunting through web pages to find the information they are looking for. Over time, we may look for ways to incorporate input from webmasters too."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/09/information-about-sitelinks.html

How do you compile the list of links shown below some search results?

"The links shown below some sites in our search results, called Sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for."

"We only show Sitelinks for results when we think they'll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn't allow our algorithms to find good Sitelinks, or we don't think that the Sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user's query, we won't show them."

"At the moment, Sitelinks are completely automated. We're always working to improve our Sitelinks algorithms, and we may incorporate webmaster input in the future."

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=47334&topic=8523

UI fun: Better snippets

August 19, 2005

"For a small number of sites, we’re not just showing our regular snippets: we try to expose useful links from within a site. In this Berkeley example, Google shows links for Berkeley departments, academics at Berkeley, etc. Pretty neat (and more importantly, useful) stuff."

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ui-fun-better-snippets/

How Much Data Does Google Store?

How Much Data Does Google Store?

September 10, 2006

"In case you were wondering how much information Google stores, the paper about BigTable I was talking about last week gives some interesting insights."

"Google search crawler uses 850 TB of information (1 TB = 1024 GB), so that's the amount of raw data from the web."

"Google Analytics uses 220 TB stored in two tables: 200 TB for the raw data and 20 TB for the summaries."

"Google Earth uses 70.5 TB: 70 TB for the raw imagery and 500 GB for the index data."

"Personalized Search doesn't need too much data: only 4 TB."

"Google Base uses 2 TB and Orkut only 9 TB of data."

"If we take into account that all this information is compressed (for example, the crawled data has compression rate of 11%, so 800 TB become 88 TB), Google uses for all the services mentioned before 220 TB."

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-much-data-does-google-store.html

Bigtable: A Distributed Storage System for Structured Data

"Over the last two and a half years we have designed, implemented, and deployed a distributed storage system for managing structured data at Google called Bigtable. Bigtable is designed to reliably scale to petabytes of data and thousands of machines. Bigtable has achieved several goals: wide applicability, scalability, high performance, and high availability. Bigtable is used by more than sixty Google products and projects, including Google Analytics, Google Finance, Orkut, Personalized Search, Writely, and Google Earth. These products use Bigtable for a variety of demanding workloads, which range from throughput-oriented batch-processing jobs to latency-sensitive serving of data to end users. The Bigtable clusters used by these products span a wide range of configurations, from a handful to thousands of servers, and store up to several hundred terabytes of data."

"Table 2 provides some data about a few of the tables currently in use. Some tables store data that is served to users, whereas others store data for batch processing; the tables range widely in total size, average cell size, percentage of data served from memory, and complexity of the table schema."

"Project name, Table size (TB)"

"Crawl, 800"

"Crawl, 50"

"Google Analytics, 20"

"Google Analytics, 200"

"Google Base, 2"

"Google Earth, 0.5"

"Google Earth, 70"

"Orkut, 9"

"Personalized Search, 4"

http://labs.google.com/papers/bigtable-osdi06.pdf

Google Campus Activities Calendar

Google Campus Activities Calendar

"Google is coming to campus! Take a look to see when we're visiting your university. You can even place a reminder on your calendar if you wish!"

"The United States is a big place, so we've created four calendars each dedicated to a specific region and set of schools. If you don't find your school on our calendars, we still want to hear from you! Please take a look at our opportunities and apply online."

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=students.html&sid=calendar

Examples:

UC Berkeley, September 12, 2006

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=ZXJpZzFhanZrcTdqa2xwZDFlMDJvYzJiNGMgMmpoYzRsYjQ1aTg0N29mN2Y3YWxydXZnZWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

USC, September 13, 2006

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=cTFmdGFidnRwMDl1cTI5cG90NTJnM2U0ZWcgMmpoYzRsYjQ1aTg0N29mN2Y3YWxydXZnZWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

Arizona State University, September 20, 2006

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=ZGZxazdja29xdnAwc29kcXR0M2c3cjN1MnMgMmpoYzRsYjQ1aTg0N29mN2Y3YWxydXZnZWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

Alberta, September 21, 2006

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=aTJsYm1pc280cWFpb2YydXN1cnR0ZWxwM2cgMmpoYzRsYjQ1aTg0N29mN2Y3YWxydXZnZWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

U British Columbia, September 28, 2006

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=aW9sdXI4ZGN0dDhkbWptY3Y3NnRoaG5ua28gMmpoYzRsYjQ1aTg0N29mN2Y3YWxydXZnZWtAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

Google Desktop Gadget Contest Winners 2006

Results of the Google Desktop Gadget Contest!

September 5, 2006

"3rd place – Day/Night World Clock by Beatrix Gottanka – We couldn't have designed a better world clock. Not only does this clock show you the local time, but there's also a map that indicates where it's night or day at any given hour. And if you want options, this gadget has them."

"2nd place – Multiplayer Reversi Game by Turhan Aydin – Immerse yourself in the fun game Reversi with this visually rich gadget. Not only can you play against the computer, but this gadget takes advantage of our Google Talk API so you can also play with your friends."

"1st place – diGGGadget by Marius and Yannick Stucki – Stay on top of the latest stories from digg.com. Click on a few buttons and you'll know why we think it's so great. It also takes advantage of our advanced APIs to enable sharing news with friends plus personalization based on your interests."

http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2006/09/results-of-google-desktop-gadget.html

Google Desktop

http://desktop.google.com/

Google Desktop Help

http://desktop.google.com/support

Google Desktop Forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop

Google Desktop SDK Developer Guide

http://desktop.google.com/developerguide.html

Google Desktop Blog

http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/

Google Gadget Awards

Google Gadget Awards

"If you're a student with an email address ending in .edu, the Google Gadget Awards is your chance to win a Google programming competition – even if you're not a programming ninja. If you've ever taken a web design class, you can probably create a gadget in a few minutes – no need to download anything or even own hosting space. Once you've submitted your gadget, people can add it to their Google homepage with a few mouse clicks."

"1 Create a Google Gadget."

"2 Submit your gadget by November 1, 2006."

"3 Check out the competition – and the winning gadgets."

http://www.google.com/gadgetawards

http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/gadgetawards/index.html

Google Gadget Awards Contest Rules

http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/gadgetawards/rules.html

Google Scholarships

Google Scholarships

"As part of Google's ongoing commitment to advancing computing and technology, we are pleased to provide scholarships to encourage students to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders. We hope these programs also help in dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields."

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=students.html&sid=scholarships

Google Public Service Search Login Problem

For Those Wondering About Public Service Search

September 15, 2006

"We recently learned of a security issue with our Public Service Search service and disabled login functionality temporarily to protect our Public Service Search users while we were working to fix the problem. We are not aware of any malicious exploits of this problem and this service represents an extremely small portion of searches."

"We have a temporary fix in place currently that prevents exploitation of this problem and will have a permanent solution in place shortly. Unfortunately, the temporary fix may inconvenience a small number of Public Service Search users in the following ways:"

"* Public Service Search is currently not open to new signups."

"* If you use Public Service Search on your site, you are currently unable to log in to make changes, but rest assured that Public Service Search continues to function properly on your site."

"* The template system is currently disabled, so search results will appear in a standard Google search results format, rather than customized to match the look and feel of your site. However, the search results themselves are not being modified."

"If you are a Public Service Search user and are having trouble logging in right now, please sit tight. As soon as the permanent solution is in place the service will be back on its feet again. In the meantime, you will still be able to provide site-specific searches on your site as usual."

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/09/for-those-wondering-about-public.html

Google Talk Now Available For Everyone

Now anyone can Talk

September 28, 2006

"Last year, we launched Google Talk, a free and easy service for making voice calls and sending instant messages. It used to be that only Gmail users could use Google Talk but now anyone can sign up for Google Talk."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/now-anyone-can-talk.html

Create a Google Account - Google Talk

"Your Google Account gives you access to Google Talk and other Google services."

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?service=talk

Google Talk

http://www.google.com/talk/

Google Groups Beta (GG3)

Google has launched Google Groups Beta (GG3): "Today, the Google Groups team launched a new beta version, available to anyone at groups-beta.google.com."

"Group owners can now create a welcome message, upload a group logo and customize your fonts and colors. You can make your group your own, in other words — something you had been telling us you really wanted."

"Another thing I'm particularly proud of is the Pages feature, which lets you create web pages inside your group, and work on them with others. Instead of only offering rigid templates, we integrated many of the functions of Google Page Creator right into Groups, so you can create exactly what your group needs: an essay for school, the history your family, a web page with photos, a list of links, and so on."

"Some of the other improvements to Groups include:"

"Using Gmail's message cards for discussions, which makes them easier to follow"

"Adding a Files section so users can share and collaborate on documents"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-groups-experience.html

Links:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Basics/browse_frm/thread/ed404d3ea3d7db85/ac3627f9127cd29a?#ac3627f9127cd29a

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-04-n43.html

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-google-groups.html

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3860

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002891.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=348

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/05/another-google-groups-beta/

Historical information about DejaNews, Google Groups 1, and Google Groups 2:

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html

http://www.pandia.com/searchworld/2001-26-usenet.html

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-past-discussions/browse_frm/thread/7a92653357cbad54/9ae8221d8ad46b65?#9ae8221d8ad46b65

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Basics/msg/bcdcd16b3c0f168c

Google's SearchMash.com

Google's New SearchMash Test Site

October 2, 2006

"Google's gained a new unbranded site called SearchMash where it plans to test user interface ideas without Google's brand somehow skewing the tests."

"Web results are presented in the main left-hand column after a search and seem ranked the same as at Google. Unlike Google, presentation is different. Results are numbered."

"After the first ten results, there's a "more web pages" link at the bottom. Click on this, and you get another 10 results magically appearing on the same page, inserted below the first 10. You can keep going, adding 10 more results at a time."

"Unique to SearchMash is the ability to drag-and-drop web search results. Click on the number next to any listing, and you can move that listing higher or lower in the search results. The number doesn't change after you move it."

"Those are the features at the moment, which you can also find described on the site's features page. What you won't find is much about Google on the site. The About page doesn't mention them. You've got to go into the privacy page where you discover:"

"SearchMash is a website operated by Google Inc. The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use our products and services, including information provided when you use SearchMash. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to SearchMash."

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/061002-192616

Google launches SearchMash.com

October 5, 2006

"Google has recently released a new search site called SearchMash.com. Although there isn’t a Google logo in sight, a quick look at the privacy policy reveals that the site is well and truly owned by Google Inc."

"So why have Google launched another search engine? I can only assume that they plan to test some new user interface ideas out on the site. Take a look at the ‘Features’ page and see which new functionality appeals to you as a searcher."

"Being a search marketer, my favourite has got to be the ability to drag and drop your site’s listing to the top of the search results!"

http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/361814/google-launches-searchmash-com.html

Google's Other Search Engine Exposed

October 3, 2006

"Google has another, somewhat secretive search engine called SearchMash.com. Kudos to Nathan Weinberg for releasing this valuable piece of information! Search Mash appears to be a testbed of sorts for AJAX search technology (the same technology that Microsoft's new Live.com search engine uses). Check out the Search Mash features list and you will see how some of the options seem to steer more toward a higher level of personalized results; a direction Google is forging towards."

"I can't say I like the search engine all that much but I know it isn't meant to win any popularity contests. It appears to be Google's playground for search technology; something not meant to be taken too seriously by mainstream searchers."

"At any rate by testing Search Mash you are bound to get a glimpse at some of the features that will be present in the future AJAX version of Google. A version that is very likely to appear within the next couple of years (unless a better technology is in their sites)."

http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2006/10/googles-other-search-engine-exposed.php

Google Running SearchMash

October 3, 2006

"Google is running an alternate search engine called SearchMash, which includes some useful and “out there” features that might not be right for Google.com, but could make a really interesting search engine. Of course, if any of the features turn out to be huge hits, who knows? Google hasn’t commented on SearchMash yet, but they admit they own it in the privacy policy (and their name is in the WhoIs, anyway)."

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/03/google-running-searchmash/

Google’s SearchMash.com

October 2, 2006

"A new sign of Google’s upcoming Search Mashup service appeared: SearchMash.com, a Google-operated site from what it looks like. This might be a sample application of a customized search engine (in that case, Search Mash may be a quick n’ easy tool to create your own search engine). On a light purple and white background, you can drag & drop specific search results, and to the right side of the web results you’ll see 3 image results. A combo-box next to the search input box allows you to toggle between web and image search."

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-02-n30.html

Google’s SearchMash : Google 2.0

October 3, 2006

"After acquiring several related domain names last week, Google has estinguished the rumor flames of their Search Mashup ambitions with the quiet launch of SearchMash.com."

"Google’s new Search Sandbox (not to be confused with the other Google Sandbox) for playing with search result toys includes the addition of Ajax URL menus, integrated A9 style image search, and the ability for users to reorder their results."

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3853

SearchMash

http://www.searchmash.com/

Google Blog Search Pinging Service

Got blog? Will ping.

October 5, 2006

"Today we're launching the Google Blog Search Pinging Service, which is a way for individual bloggers and blog platform providers to inform us of content changes. Blogging providers who syndicate RSS/Atom/XML and want to be included in our Blog Search index can now ping us directly."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/got-blog-will-ping.html

Google Blog Search Pinging Service FAQ

"What is the Google Blog Search Pinging Service?"

"The Google Blog Search Pinging Service is a way to inform Google Blog Search of weblog updates. These updates are then published and shared with other search engines to allow them to discover the changes to your weblogs. In addition, Google Blog Search will add submitted weblogs to the list of blogs it needs to crawl and index."

"Who should use the Google Blog Search Pinging Service?"

"The Google Blog Search Pinging Service is for bloggers who wish to have their blogs crawled by Google and have them updated in Google Blog Search. It is also for blogging services that wish to provide the service to their blog writers."

"How often should I ping Google Blog Search?"

"You should ping as often as your blog changes."

"I pinged the Google Blog Search, but why don't I see the results in Google Blog Search?"

"While the Google Blog Search Pinging Service helps us stay informed about updates to your blog, it doesn't guarantee that your blog will be included in our Blog Search results. Since our inclusion process is automated, many factors, such as delays between when we receive the ping and when we then crawl your blog, can affect your blog's inclusion."

http://www.google.com/help/blogsearch/about_pinging.html

About Google Blog Search Pinging Service API

http://www.google.com/help/blogsearch/pinging_API.html

Google Blog Search

http://blogsearch.google.com/

Google Code Search

Google Code Search

http://www.google.com/codesearch

Google Code Search FAQ

"Google Code Search helps you find function definitions and sample code by giving you one place to search publicly accessible source code hosted on the Internet. With Google Code Search, you can:"

"Use regular expressions to search more precisely"

"Restrict your search by language, license or filename"

"View the source file with links back to the entire package and the webpage where it came from"

"What kind of code are you crawling?"

"We're crawling as much publicly accessible source code as we can find, including archives (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar, and .zip), CVS repositories and Subversion repositories."

"What regexp syntax does Code Search support?"

"Google Code Search supports POSIX extended regular expression syntax, excluding backreferences, collating elements, and collation classes. To search for a space character, escape it with a backslash, as in hello,\ world. You can search for literal strings by enclosing the strings in quotation marks, as in "hello, world". We also support Perl extensions \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W."

"How do I restrict by language, license or filename?"

"You can either use the Advanced Code Search page or use our operators. Our operators include:"

"The lang: operator, which restricts by programming language (e.g., lang:"c++", -lang:java, or lang:^(c|c#|c\+\+)$)"

"The license: operator, which restricts by software license (e.g., license:apache, -license:gpl, or license:bsd|mit)"

"The package: operator, which restricts by package URL (e.g., package:"www.kernel.org" or package:\.tgz$)"

"The file: operator, which restricts by filename (e.g., file:include/linux/$ or -file:\.cc$)"

http://www.google.com/help/faq_codesearch.html

Google Code Search forum

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Code-Search

Google Code Search Terms of Service

http://code.google.com/tos.html

Google Labs

http://labs.google.com/

Google Mac Blog

Inside Macs at Google

October 9, 2006

"There are a lot of people who love Macs at Google, and we're really excited to contribute to the Mac OS X platform. I know how frustrating it is to not get a regular dose of Mac news or find the Mac application you want. So check out the new Google Mac Blog to get all the news, tips, and insider stories about Macs at Google. Another site you might want to visit is www.google.com/mac. Created by Ryan Brown, an engineer on the Mac team, this site showcases all of the Google applications for the Mac."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/inside-macs-at-google.html

Official Google Mac Blog

http://googlemac.blogspot.com/

Google Press Center

http://www.google.com/press/

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

What's new in Google Docs & Spreadsheets?

"Writely and Google Spreadsheets have come together!"

"You can see, create, and share all of your web-based documents and spreadsheets in one place. As your collection grows, you can manage and find them using tags, stars, and searches."

"The document and spreadsheet editors now share the same UI, as features of one product. Not every little detail is the same, since they do different things, but they certainly have a similar feel."

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

http://docs.google.com/

Writely (the old website)

http://www.writely.com/

Google for Educators

Google for Educators

"Google recognizes the central role that teachers play in breaking down the barriers between people and information, and we support educators who work each day to empower their students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. This website is one of the ways we're working to bolster that support and explore how Google and educators can work together."

"To your left, you'll find a teacher's guide to 12 Google products, including basic information about each tool, examples of how educators are using them, and lesson ideas. You'll also find lesson plans and videos from our partners at Discovery Education focusing on two of our most popular teaching tools: Google Earth and Google SketchUp."

"Web Search, Earth, Book Search, Maps, Video, Docs & Spreadsheets, Blogger, SketchUp, Calendar, Picasa, Personalized Homepage, Google Apps for Education"

http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Google Apps for for Education

"Google Apps for Education is a broad IT solution that schools can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Google manages all the technology details, so you can focus your time, energy and budgets on teaching your kids."

"Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools. Google Apps for Education for your domain lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace."

http://www.google.com/educators/p_apps.html

Google Teacher Newsletter

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Teacher-Center

Google SMS

Google SMS

"Text message your search query to 46645 ('GOOGL' on most devices) and we'll text message back results."

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/

http://www.google.com/sms/

Access Google from anywhere, anytime.

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/index.html

Google SMS Help

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9123

"What is Google SMS?"

"Google SMS is a service that enables you to search for certain kinds of information with Google from a mobile device (such as a Blackberry), and returns your search results as text messages. With Google SMS, you can get phone book listings, movie showtimes, weather, facts, dictionary definitions, product prices, and more. Please visit the Google SMS homepage to see sample queries and the types of results you might get."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40396&topic=9126

"How much does Google SMS cost?"

"Google doesn't currently charge users to send a query or to receive results, but your mobile provider's standard rates for sending and receiving text messages still apply."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40403&topic=9126

"Which mobile service providers does Google SMS support?"

"Google SMS works on all major mobile providers in the US, including Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Cingular, Dobson, Nextel, Sprint PCS, T- Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Virgin Mobile."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40407&topic=9126

"Where does Google SMS work?"

"Google SMS is currently available in Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the US. We're working diligently to make it available for more users."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40406&topic=9126

"Does Google SMS work in other languages?"

"At this time, Google SMS only works in English."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40408&topic=9126

"Will Google SMS work on my mobile phone or hand-held device?"

"It should, as long as you have a mobile device that's able to do text messaging or to send and receive SMS messages. Please note, however, that Google SMS only works on major mobile providers in the US. Supported mobile providers currently include Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Cingular, Dobson, Nextel, Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Virgin Mobile. You also need to make sure that you have text messaging enabled on your service plan. If you're not sure whether you have this capability, please check with your mobile provider."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40401&topic=9126

"What does "1of2" stand for?"

"If you see "1of2" on your screen, that means you're looking at the first of two messages. You'll likely get more than one result message per search, and we use this notation so you can read your messages in the correct order."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40487&topic=9128

"What's the maximum number of results I can get for each query?"

"Three."

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=40485&topic=9128

Business Listings

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9095

Movie Showtimes

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9096

Driving Directions

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9098

Weather

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9099

Sports Scores

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9100

Google Q&A

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9104

Prices by Froogle

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9106

Currency Conversion

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9109

Google Website Optimizer (for AdWords)

Google Website Optimizer (for AdWords)

"Take the guesswork out of landing page testing. Website Optimizer makes it easier to determine which version of your landing page users like best. Graphical reports show which page resulted in the highest conversion rate. Complete the steps below and sign-up to participate in our beta test. We can only invite a small number of advertisers at this time, but hope to open the tool to all Advertisers over the coming months."

"While Website Optimizer is integrated into AdWords, it tests all traffic to your site – including traffic from your AdWords ads, Google search results and any other source of traffic to your site."

http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/

Google Website Optimizer FAQ

https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/siteopt/help/FAQ.html

Google Website Optimizer Overview

https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/siteopt/help/overvw.html

Google Country Manager For Finland

Google appoints first country manager for Finland

October 23, 2006

"Internet search engine company Google has chosen Petri Kokko as its first country manager for Finland, the company said in a statement Monday."

"According to Google the nomination is part of an investment in Nordic countries that aims at enhancing the availability of Google's products and services for local users and advertisers."

"Mr Kokko is best known in Finland for his career as one of the country's most successful figure skaters. He has also worked as the chief executive of Stream Helsinki and Nike Finland."

http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=14092&group=Business

http://virtual.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=14092&group=Business

Links:

http://www.tietokone.fi/uutta/uutinen.asp?news_id=28492

http://www.taloussanomat.fi/page.php?page_id=97&news_id=200618480

http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/Googlen+ensimm%C3%A4iseksi+Suomen-johtajaksi+Petri+Kokko/1135222511107

http://www.nelonen.fi/uutiset/arkisto_uutinen.asp?d=1135222511107

http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/txt/mediait.shtml/arkistot/mediait/2006/10/478544

http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/haku.php?action=page&id=232487&search=Petri%20Kokko

http://www.digitoday.fi/page.php?page_id=13&news_id=200618478

http://www.marmai.fi/doc.te?f_id=1050665

http://www.google.fi/intl/fi/corporate/address.html

Google Custom Search Engine

Google Custom Search Engine

"Harness the power of Google search to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Specify the websites that you want searched - and integrate the search box and results into your own website."

http://google.com/coop/cse/

Google Custom Search Engine FAQ

"What is a Custom Search Engine?"

"A Custom Search Engine is a tailored search experience, built using Google's core search technology, which prioritizes or restricts search results based on websites and pages that you specify, and which can be tailored to reflect your point of view or area of expertise."

"What does this have to do with Google Co-op?"

"The Custom Search Engine is built on the Google Co-op platform, the goal of which is to enable people to build upon, customize and tailor Google Web Search."

"Who hosts my Custom Search Engine results pages?"

"We host the search results pages for you; you don't have to pay for software or hosting services, or possess the technical expertise to add your Custom Search Engine results to your site. You can customize the look and feel of your Custom Search Engine search results to make it feel like your own, and you can also host the results in an iframe on your own site if you prefer."

"What does it mean to collaborate on a Custom Search Engine?"

"Your Custom Search Engine can benefit not only from your hard work, but also from that of others who collaborate with you. Collaboration is an optional feature which allows you to let other people whose expertise you trust contribute to your Custom Search Engine. You can either invite people explicitly, or allow anyone to volunteer to collaborate, with your approval."

http://google.com/coop/docs/cse/faq.html

Google Co-op

http://www.google.com/coop/

Google Co-op forum

http://groups.google.com/group/google-co-op

Google Blog Alerts

Now Google Alerts offers blog alerts:

On the alert for bloggers

October 26, 2006 "So many interesting blogs and so little time! If you're anything like me, you like to pick and choose what posts you read on any given blog. You may only want to read a post about a topic of your interest, or perhaps you only want to read blog posts by a particular writer or two. Hence the new Blog Alert, which notifies you about new blog search results. We've also added a Comprehensive Alert, which can show results from multiple sources (including Google News, the web, and blogs) so you get fuller information whenever your favorite topics appear online."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/on-alert-for-bloggers.html

Google Alerts

http://www.google.com/alerts

Gmail Java Application for Mobile

Email On-the-Go Now Even Easier -- Google Launches New Mobile Application for Speedier Access to Gmail

November 2, 2006

"Google Inc. today announced the release of an innovative new mobile client, Gmail for mobile devices. This freely downloadable Java application delivers Gmail users the look and feel of Gmail through a fast, feature-rich interface that's optimized for handheld devices. With the release of this client, Google is taking one more step toward its goal of providing users with quick and easy access to the information they need, when they need it."

"Gmail users can already access their accounts through the browser on their mobile devices, but this application brings users the same great Gmail experience -- complete with search, conversation view, and automatic synchronization with the desktop version -- with the following new benefits:"

"Up to five times faster access and use, thanks to automatic pre- fetching of messages"

"Drastically reduced clicks and scrolling to access email"

"Fewer keystrokes for reading, composing, or searching mail"

"Attachments, including files and photos, viewable and automatically resized to fit the user's phone"

"Getting started is easy: users can go to gmail.com/app from their mobile browser to download the app. If users don't already have a Gmail account, they can sign up for an account via SMS by going to gmail.google.com and clicking on “sign up for Gmail.”"

"The application is available completely free of charge from Google (carrier mobile data charges may still apply). It is currently compatible with all J2ME-enabled phones in the U.S. and works with a variety of carrier service plans."

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/mail_mobileclient.html

Google Acquires JotSpot

JotSpot

http://www.jot.com/

"Who is JotSpot?"

"JotSpot, a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is the first application wiki company. Founded in 2004 by Excite.com co-founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, the company is pioneering do-it-yourself application publishing to enable anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications."

"What is a wiki?"

"A wiki is a website designed for collaboration. In a wiki everyone can edit, update and append pages with new information, all without knowing HTML. Wikis can be either publicly accessible or privately secure."

"What is JotSpot's product?"

"While other wikis only support plain old text, JotSpot's wiki allows you to create rich web-based spreadsheets, calendars, documents and photo galleries. It's as easy as using a word processor — you don't need to know HTML. Thousands of businesses are using JotSpot to manage projects, build an intranet, share files and stay in sync with colleagues and customers."

http://www.jot.com/google/faq.html

Spot on

October 31, 2006

"JotSpot is now part of Google"

"Joining Google allows us to plug into the resources that only a company of Google's scale can offer, like a huge audience, access to world-class data centers and a team of incredibly smart people."

"Our first order of business is to move JotSpot to Google's software architecture. While we're doing so, we've turned off new registrations. But if you're interested, sign up for our waitlist and we'll keep you posted."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/spot-on.html

What Joe said

October 31, 2006

"We'd like to welcome Joe, Graham, and the rest of the JotSpot team to Google. They've truly pioneered do-it-yourself application publishing, enabling anyone from individuals to small businesses and large enterprises to use wikis for online collaboration. Since we're just getting started on a long and exciting road in online collaboration for both consumers and our enterprise customers, joining forces with the JotSpot team comes at a great time."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/what-joe-said.html

Google acquires Web applications pioneer JotSpot

November 1, 2006

"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. said on Tuesday it bought JotSpot, a Silicon Valley start-up that helped pioneer the market for collaborative business software like online spreadsheets, in the latest move by the Web search leader into territory dominated by Microsoft Corp."

"In a statement on Google's Web site, JotSpot's co-founder and chief executive, Joe Kraus, said his company agreed to the takeover following a growing push by Google to offer competing software."

"Three-year-old JotSpot had developed a series of online productivity software programs that offer many of the functions of Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheets. But instead of running on individual computers, JotSpot applications are delivered as Web-based services."

"Following the lead of companies like JotSpot, Mountain View, California-based Google entered the market this year by acquiring the Writely word processor and introducing other Web-based applications such as Google Spreadsheets and Google Calendar."

" It was pretty apparent that Google shared our vision for how groups of people can create, manage and share information online," said Kraus, who was also a co-founder of Excite, one of the Web's first search sites started in 1994. "

"JotSpot's programs run on collaborative wiki software, a flexible form of Web publishing for groups that allows any approved user to edit or change individual documents."

"The 27-employee company has helped popularize the idea that wikis are not just for software geeks but can be used within small groups by non-technical office workers or family groups to accomplish practical scheduling or financial tasks."

"Based in Palo Alto, a few miles from Google's headquarters, JotSpot has temporarily shut down new user registrations while it moves its Web services and existing customer data onto Google's computer systems."

"JotSpot has attracted 2,000 companies to use its software. It counts 30,000 paying customers and about 300,000 free users of its Web software tools. Kraus said his company would continue to support existing customers during the transition."

"JotSpot was founded in 2003 with $300,000 from Kraus and co-founder Graham Spencer, who also helped start Excite.com. Two years ago, Silicon Valley venture capital firms Mayfield Fund and Redpoint Ventures invested another $4.2 million in JotSpot."

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-11-01T073307Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-274488-1.xml

Google buys JotSpot, dips into wiki world

October 31, 2006

"JotSpot co-founder and CEO Joe Kraus announced the acquisition on a blog Tuesday morning, saying that being part of search giant Google will give JotSpot access to "world-class" data centers and engineers."

"JotSpot's product is a platform for building wiki-based applications. For example, the company has an online spreadsheet and calendar that multiple people can edit."

"The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has sold its wiki system primarily to business customers as hosted collaboration software. Wikis are catching on within businesses as lightweight alternative to large-scale document management systems."

"Kraus said that the first order of business as part of Google is to move JotSpot's software to Google's software architecture."

"In an interview Tuesday morning, Kraus indicated that that the JotSpot team will work to link its wiki software with Google's current hosted applications."

"The company earlier this year signed a deal with eBay, which chose JotSpot's platform to run a member wiki."

http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-6131024.html

Links:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-31-n10.html

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2430810,00.html

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1936033,00.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVq8iq1WBzJI&refer=home

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/31/business/jotspot.php

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/01/BUG25M3J531.DTL

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_Dives_into_Wikis_with_JotSpot_Buy/1162330759

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/10/31/jotspot/index.php

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3867

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/technology/01google.html?ref=business

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Google_Eyeing_Microsoft_Territory/551-76908-580.html

http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/technet/10319030.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8L3S9LO0.htm

http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193500815

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-briefs1.2nov01,1,4943986.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/11/01/google_buys_maker_of_collaboration_tools/

Doodle 4 Google Winners 2006

Doodle 4 Google Winners 2006

http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google/winners.html

Doodle 4 Google

"At Google, we like to reflect the ever changing world of our users through the logo designs on our homepage. These "doodles" celebrate different people, events or special dates and, until now, have been designed by our original Doodler, 28-year-old Dennis Hwang."

"The 'Doodle 4 Google - My Britain' competition asks young people across the UK to design a doodle that represents what it means to be British today. The winning doodle, which will be displayed on the Google UK homepage for a day, will be seen by around 18 million people."

http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google/

Links:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/history-is-cool-for-school.html

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-11-06.html#n25

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/browse_frm/thread/5fc3c4edd5663205/652e3e9806be0a4b?#652e3e9806be0a4b

Google Earth and Discovery Education unitedstreaming

Google Earth and Discovery Education unitedstreaming

"Google and Discovery Education have teamed up to make it easier for K-12 educators to use technology in the classroom. We've created a series of lesson plans that use Discovery Education unitedstreaming and a couple of Google products, Earth and SketchUp, to teach social studies, language arts, math and geography. Available for elementary, middle and high school classrooms, these lessons are available for download right here on the Google for Educators site."

"This page includes lessons developed for use with Google Earth; for lessons that use Google SketchUp, click on the SketchUp tab at left."

http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth_discovery.html

Google Earth and Geography Awareness Week 2006

Google Earth and Geography Awareness Week 2006

"Google and My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign for geographic literacy, have teamed up to use Google Earth as an educational tool for spreading awareness about people, places and diversity of our wonderful planet. Since 1987, National Geographic and other organizations have celebrated "geography awareness" during the third week of November, promoting the importance of geography in the U.S. and Canada. Each year, the focus is on a different area of the world. This year, it's Africa."

"This page contains an interactive quiz on Africa, details on multimedia content in Google Earth and daily themes for the geography awareness week."

"Please download Google Earth for viewing the content described on this page."

"For an overview of how to get started with Google Earth, please download the Google Earth User Guide."

http://www.google.com/educators/gaw.html

Google Search History for Google Maps

Google Search History now includes Google Maps searches:

Google Search History

http://www.google.com/searchhistory

Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/

Keep track of your Maps searches, too

November 10, 2006

"Google Personalized Search now includes Google Maps, which means you'll no longer have to remember searches you do for addresses, businesses, or directions on Maps. Instead, you'll be able to browse, search for, and bookmark them directly from your search history, just as you already can with your web, images, news, Froogle, and video history."

"If you already have Personalized Search enabled, you can access your history through the "Search History" link in the upper right corner of Google Maps. Otherwise, you can sign up for Personalized Search, and make sure you're signed in to your Google Account when searching."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/keep-track-of-your-maps-searches-too.html

Virtual Hosts Vs. Dedicated IP Addresses

Myth busting: virtual hosts vs. dedicated IP addresses

November 13, 2006

"I hear that there was recently a discussion on a NANOG (North American Network Operators Group) email list about virtual hosting vs. dedicated IP addresses. They were commenting on the misconception that having multiple sites hosted on the same IP address will in some way affect the PageRanks of those sites. There is no PageRank difference whatsoever between these two cases (virtual hosting vs. a dedicated IP)."

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/myth-busting-virtual-hosts-vs-dedicated-ip-addresses/

About Matt Cutts

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/701edcc1553c714c

Google Answers: Bye-bye

Adieu to Google Answers

November 28, 2006

"Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here. The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months. For two new grads, it was a crash course in building a scalable product, responding to customer requests, and discovering what questions are on people's minds."

"If you have a chance, we encourage you to browse through the questions posted over the last 4+ years. Although we won't be accepting any new questions, the existing Qs and As are available. We'll stop accepting new Answers to questions by the end of the year."

"Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users. We'll continue to look for new ways to improve the search experience and to connect people to the information they want."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/adieu-to-google-answers.html

Google Desktop 4: Improvements

Newest version of Google Desktop 4 (version 5.0.0611.15590) has some new improvements:

Check out the new Sidebar

November 14, 2006

"now there's Google Desktop 4.5, featuring a Sidebar with a new look."

"The new Sidebar is transparent, so it fits seamlessly with your desktop environment. Gadgets that fought for attention now look right at home, and content-heavy gadgets get new frames and icons that make it easier to tell them apart."

"this version is compatible with all of the latest software including Microsoft Vista, Office 2007 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0."

http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2006/11/check-out-new-sidebar.html

"What's new in the latest version?"

"The latest version of Google Desktop offers several new features:"

"Compatibility with the newest releases of your most used programs: We’ve updated Google Desktop to be compatible with Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Microsoft Office 2007."

"Visual refresh of the Sidebar: We’ve given the Sidebar a facelift, adding transparency and new icons for default gadgets. It’s also easier to resize the Sidebar and undocked gadgets; simply hover over any edge or corner to activate the resize feature."

"Compatibility with over 1000 Google Desktop and personalized homepage gadgets: It’s now easier than ever to customize your desktop with items that can increase your productivity, or simply entertain you."

"Sidebar font size: You can now change the font size of your Sidebar gadgets."

http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14638&topic=168

Google Spreadsheets Data API

Google Spreadsheets Data API

"The Google Spreadsheets data API allows client applications to view and update Spreadsheets content in the form of a Google data API ("GData") feeds. Your client application can request a list of a user's spreadsheets, edit or delete content in an existing Spreadsheets worksheet, and query the content in an existing Spreadsheets worksheet."

http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/spreadsheets.html

Links:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/11/google-spreadsheets-has-api.html

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-12-01.html#n38

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/index.php?p=406

How Google Handles Hacked Sites

Matt Cutts: How Google handles hacked sites

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-google-handles-hacked-sites/

http://slashdot.org/articles/06/12/03/2049202.shtml

http://digg.com/security/How_Google_Handles_Hacked_Sites

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20061204GooglesStaunchOppositiontoHacking.html

Google Talk, IBM, AOL, and Yahoo! Co-operation

IBM Lotus Sametime, AOL's AIM, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger Create World's Largest Business Instant Messaging Community

December 7, 2006

"IBM today announced that IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging customers can now communicate with users of AIM and the Google Talk instant messaging service and interoperability with Yahoo! Messenger will be available in the coming weeks. Connecting the instant messaging communities will enable Lotus Sametime users to send and receive instant messages with, and view the presence awareness status of, more than 157 million instant messaging users worldwide."

"Integrated access between Lotus Sametime and AOL's AIM, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger is possible through the use of both industry standards for instant messaging -- the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) standard and the Session Initiated Protocol (SIP/SIMPLE) standard."

"Industry standards are propelling change and growth in the real-time collaboration industry, helping the technology evolve beyond its basic chat roots to the centerpiece for varied types of communication such as VoIP and Web conferencing. IBM is joining AOL, Google, Jabber and Yahoo! in support of the SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP standards."

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/20728.wss

Lotus Sametime 7.5 Interoperates with AIM, Google Talk

December 6, 2006

"IBM has thrown its weight behind the use of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol standard for interoperability, and will announce on Dec. 6 that Lotus Sametime 7.5 instant messaging customers can now communicate with users of AIM and Google Talk, and will be able to do so with Yahoo Messenger in a matter of weeks."

"This is also the first time IBM has publicly announced its support of the XMPP standard for interoperability with Sametime, but it has been a longtime supporter of the Session Initiated Protocol (SIP/SIMPLE) standard, Akiba Saeedi, the program director for IBM Lotus Sametime, told eWEEK."

"Interoperability with Yahoo Messenger is also expected within the next few weeks, meaning that Lotus Sametime 7.5 users will then be able to send and receive instant messages, and view the presence awareness status, of more than 157 million instant messaging users worldwide—some 70 percent of the worldwide instant messaging user base."

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2068781,00.asp

Links:

http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200612/ij_12_06_06a.html

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3647456

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128093-c,instantmessaging/article.html

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=937AE19B-D6CE-45EC-B279-4E13D3A02AE8

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/06/HNsametimeaimgoogle_1.html

http://press-releases.techwhack.com/6025/ibm-lotus-sametime-aols-aim-google-talk/

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=192209

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/chatting-with-lotus-sametime.html

Google Patent Search

Google Patent Search

http://www.google.com/patents

Google Patent Search FAQ

http://www.google.com/googlepatents/about.html

Google Patent Search Help

"As part of Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, we’re constantly working to expand the diversity of content we make available to our users. With Google Patent Search, you can now search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you."

http://www.google.com/googlepatents/help.html

Google Toolbar 3 Beta for Firefox

Google Toolbar 3 Beta for Firefox

http://tools.google.com/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/

Nifty Toolbar upgrades for Firefox

December 12, 2006

"Ever since the latest version of the Google Toolbar for IE came out, Firefox users have been asking when they'll see the same new features in their favorite browser. Well, we've been hard at work on a new version of the Toolbar for Firefox -- Google Toolbar 3 Beta -- that lets you access your bookmarks from any computer, add custom buttons to your Toolbar, and share web pages via Blogger, Gmail, and SMS."

"In addition to adding all the features from the Google Toolbar for IE, there's another one just for Firefox users. When I surf the web, I want to be able to look at all the files I come across right in my browser. But a lot of times, I have to download files and view them with a separate application instead. Since Google Docs & Spreadsheets launched, I've been able to look at those files right in my browser. Except the process is kind of clunky right now: I have to right-click on a link, download the file to my machine, and then upload it to Google Docs & Spreadsheets. I want to be able to just click on a link to a document or spreadsheet and have it show up in my browser. So I added a feature to the Google Toolbar for Firefox to do that."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/nifty-toolbar-upgrades-for-firefox_12.html

Google Web Toolkit Source Code

The Official Google Web Toolkit Issue Tracker & Source Code

http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/

Links:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/opening-up-google-web-toolkit.html

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/64cc080b07607cb4

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

http://code.google.com/

Google's IPv6 Plans

Google’s secret IPv6 plans

June 24, 2006

"Google Operating System reports on Alex Lightman's theory why Google is buying up "dark fiber" — to pursue IPv6 initiatives. According to Lightman, Google has a huge block of "slash 20" addresses — exactly what is needed to be a large scale service provider."

"That got me wondering — what does it take to get a block of IPv6 addresses? I turn to ARIN to find the answer — the information I found seems to provide some confirmation to Lightman's speculation."

"To qualify for an initial allocation of IPv6 address space, an organization must:"

"a) be an LIR;"

"b) not be an end site;"

"c) plan to provide IPv6 connectivity to organizations to which it will assign /48s, by advertising that connectivity through its single aggregated address allocation; and"

"d) be an existing, known ISP in the ARIN region or have a plan for making at least 200 /48 assignments to other organizations within five years."

"If you take ARIN's policies at face value, these statements must be true:"

"a) Google is an LIR (Local Internet Registry). LIRs are generally an ISP whose customers are typically end users or other ISPs."

"b) Google is not considered an "end site" (therefore must be a service provider)"

"c) Google has plans to provide IPv6 connectivity to organizations."

"d) Within 5 years Google will provide connectivity to at least 200 organizations."

"How do we know that Google falls under these policies? Well, if we look up "Google" on ARIN, we can see that in March 2005 they registered a block of IPv6 addresses. The parent of that block is ARIN."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=241

Google Zeitgeist 2006

Google Zeitgeist 2006

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2006.html

Last modified: January 10th, 2011

Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)

URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/news-quotes-google-2006

Back to news index. List of changes.

News Quotes About Google 2006

News Quotes About Google 2006

Introduction

Contents

Google's Bigdaddy data center

Google Pack

Google Video Store

The Google Podium

Google Personalized Homepage for mobile

Google News: Recommended News and Most Popular News

Google Patents and Patent Applications

Google Search Privacy Examination

AdWords Editor

StopBadware.org

Google Toolbar 4 Beta for Internet Explorer

BearingPoint partners with Google

Gmail Skins

Gmail's Chat Feature

Google China Blog

Google in Time magazine

Kamambe: Customize Google in Firefox

Measure Map Joins Google

Unplayable Google Videos

Google and Santy.a Worm

Google PageRank Update

Google Trusted Tester Program

Google Current

Google Page Creator

Google Page Creator Shortest Google Beta Ever?

Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac

Google Photos in Time Magazine

Official Google Research Blog

Google News for mobile devices

Google Recruiting Video

Videos from the Googleplex

Google Switching to AMD Servers

Gmail Security Flaw

Google Page Creator Security Flaw

Marissa Mayer

Writely is Part of Google

Google Mars

@Last Software acquired by Google

Judge Tells DoJ "No" on Search Queries

Google Finance

Social Tagging With Google Reader

Official Google AdSense Group

Google Personalized Homepage Directory Change

Google User Interface Experiment: Green Bars In Sections

Google Related Links

National Google Blogs

Google Calendar

Google Groups Forum Moved

Google Summer of Code 2006

Google Notifying Webmasters Of Penalties

Google Sponsored Links

www.google.com/ie

Google SketchUp & 3D Warehouse

Google Suggest on Google News

Google's Webmaster Pages Have Changed

Google Code Jam Europe 2006

Google Co-op

Google Desktop 4

Google Trends

Google Notebook

Google Web Toolkit

Google Continues To Dominate Search Engine Competition

Google To Shut Down Orkut Communities

Google's Picasa for Linux

Some Gmail & Google Mail Users Locked Out

Google Green Maps Mashup

Google Video: Movie Trailers

Google Spreadsheets

China Restores Google.com

Google Browser Sync

Google Earth 4 Beta

Local Times In Google

New Official Google Blog: Inside Google Book Search

Picasa Web Albums

Google U.S. Government Search

Google Checkout