Crenk » google

New Chrome OS Screenshots and Video

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:04:32 +0000

Yesterday, Google released public information about its new Chrome OS at the official press event. They showed videos of the OS and gave real-time demonstrations to reporters.

It looks a lot like the popular browser of the same name. It uses tabs like those in the browser instead of buttons in the task bar. The colour scheme is also very bright with a lack of colour. This may pose problems for laptop users in terms of battery life.

Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea:

I guess this would be the equivalent of the start menu in Windows. It’s called the applications panel and it’s where you launch programs from. May of these are affiliated with Google as you would expect such as YouTube, Google Reader and GMail however they also have others such as Facebook, Twitter and their old rival, Yahoo Mail.

The Chrome browser is integrated fully with the OS, as one would expect. Other Google services such as Google Talk also work seamlessly with it by launching discreet pop-ups and notifications when user interaction is needed.

Here is chess, an example of an app, running in a tab in the new OS. All apps can either run as a tab or can be viewed in full-screen.

Wipsace Ignites Online Collaboration

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:45:12 +0000

There’s a lot of sites out there that offer collaboration tools. From the simplified office collaboration tools like Google Documents and Zoho Writer, to the more sophisticated like Basecamp. In the end each of them appeal to different markets, different segments of the industry and each of them function differently. So with those options we choose one that best fits our needs and we run with it. But what if there was a sexier option, something with real personality, but still maintaining all the same functionality?

Now there is. Introducing WIPspace, the creative collaboration tool that offers up multiple levels of engagement in a sleek, sexy, yet functional package. The image blow is a visual diagram of all the things WIPspace is capable of.

You feeling it yet? There’s real fire under this engine, and the multitude of offerings it has makes it a very robust package. Working on projects or movies, this space allows you to fully interact with off-site teams, and engage the client all at the same time.

Be sure to watch the videos and test drive it. Let us know what you think and how it compares with Basecamp or some of the other collaboration tools out there.

Google Phone in Early 2010

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:09:02 +0000

For the last year or so we’ve all be yammering one about the Google phone. It appears as though every Android device that has been released – the media flock to it looking for evidence of the Google.

Google have now announced that they will be launching a proper, pure, Google branded phone. It won’t carry the manufacturer brand or have the OS tinkered with. No. This is going to be Google’s version of the iPhone – 100% Google just the the iPhone is 100% Apple.

What can we expect?

I’ve given this some though and asides from the obvious high-speed internet access etc… I think the Google phone will be putting more of an emphasis on communication than the iPhone has – which is largely an organisational and app tool. Adequate video calling, perhaps? Most definitely it will be fully integrated with Google Voice for users in the US. Dare I say it; maybe even a mobile version of Google Wave? (at least then Wave would have a purpose).

What would you like on the upcoming Google phone?

Internet Search Expanded, Online Information Drilldown

Luis Sandoval — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:42:13 +0000

Search has become a hot topic for the past year. Bing, Google, Yahoo, and others have fought for dominance and in this battle, users have been introduced to a bevy of innovations in their searches. The concept of search is nice, type in a few words, or phrases and find content directly related to your query. Some searches are more successful than others all the while introducing users to content across hundreds of thousands of pages. Still, most users will not go past the first two or three pages at most.

SurfCanyon strives to change the user’s search experience and focus not just on getting content, but becoming a tool for discovery. Much like a tool we spoke about some time ago, Worio, SurfCanyon attaches itself to your browser of choice and adds a target tab that allows for further discover of related content right from your normal search. The reason behind such an app is the fact that sometimes your content is not where you expect it. I with users not typically going past page 3, SurfCanyon will pull related content together for you and place it right under all the links you see on the first page.

You don’t just get deeper results, but as seen below you can dig even deeper into your results. This provides a real drill down experience for search discovery. This immersive search experience might be something you’ve been longing for. There’s lots of results to search through and the concept is to provide you answers for even the most complicated of queries.

Google Chrome OS To Launch Within a Week

Steven Finch — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:01:04 +0000

Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week.

Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project. It is expected that Google will be very careful are launch and will only endorse a small set of devices for installation.

There has been a lot of news around the Google Chrome OS, including Linux OS and reports that it was going to launch back in October.

Google Chrome for Mac is Coming in December

Steven Finch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:30:30 +0000

PC users have been able to use the Google Chrome browser for some time now, however for everyone using Macs they have been waiting patiently for their own non-developer version. Chrome day for the Mac is coming very soon.

CNET is reporting that recent discussion in a Chrome mailing list points to an early December launch. We could be just weeks away from a beta version of Chrome for Mac.

The Google group update in question is light on details, but by requesting that developers update to support Browser Actions, it also suggests that a December launch date for a Mac version is fast approaching.

Google Chrome’s product manager, Nick Baum, writes:

“The extensions team has been working hard to get BrowserActions ready, and
they’re already working great on Windows and Linux. We’ve noticed that many
of you have updated your extensions to take advantage of the new UI. We’d
like to encourage the rest of you to do so as well!

You can find the latest docs here:
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/browserAction.html

Why make the switch now? The earlier you switch, the more time you will have
to polish your experience for our Beta launch in early December. We realize
this means dropping Mac support for a couple of weeks, but we already have
people working on that. If you prioritize the Windows and Linux versions,
we’ll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can!”

The post provides an interesting clue to the future of Google Chrome for Mac. We can only hope the early December beta launch date is accurate.

The Internet Advertising Recession is Over

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:30:10 +0000

The other day here on Crenk with did a post about the major Internet giant Google buying AdMob - a mobile advertiser and we predicted that internet advertising was due to come up. Well it seems like it most definitely has – thanks to search.

Google reported the first rise in advertising revenue in over two quarters. The third quarter of 2009 stabilized the sector. However, as I mentioned above it was all due to the advertisements in the search results pages not so much the advertisements on websites.

While this is good news it’ll still be a while until the other advertisers such as AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft recover from the recession – these being the weakest of the search engines.

So it appears that the advertisements on web pages still aren’t doing as good as what they used to simply because there are less ‘big’ companies using them. As such, people don’t want to click on them. Crenk’s advice for bloggers and webmasters? Use Google AdSence to put advertisements on your website’s search page!

Online Collaborative Workspaces with OfficeMedium

Luis Sandoval — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:00:36 +0000

I’m not quite sure when things in the office changed, and why all of a sudden there’s been such a rush to do online collaborative tools for offices. While for some it screams efficiency, for others it screams TRAINING!!! Sadly no matter how much you “train” people to learn the new ways, someone always fumbles and things fall apart.

Nevertheless, this drive for online tools has driven companies like Google, Zoho, Microsoft, and many others to create online office tools that go where you go, and are accessible from anywhere in the world…provided you have an internet connection. So heavily used are these tools that even while on the go, your mobile devices are capable of accessing these tools which allows you to never miss a step.

While the above mentioned are great, and provide a level of collaboration that standard desktop office software does not, there is one that offers an all inclusive internet office for online work, OfficeMedium.

Nope, I’m not talking the crazy office worker who claims to see dead people, not that type of medium. I’m talking about the actual suite of online collaborative office tools that give you more than the standard faire. Aside from the typical presentation, word, and spreadsheet portions, you’re also given access to content management tools, events/tasks/calendar tools, social networking tools for your intranet, file sharing and storage, along with enhanced security to keep what’s happening within the company private.

This online web application is not free, there are minimal costs attached, and from I see, the cost is extremely affordable. But it still begs the question, what companies truly need this type of depth? I think it will come down to the size of your company and the needs it needs to serve. Google and Zoho seem appropriate for what I do, but perhaps a more enterprise level company would turn to OfficeMedium to help keep communication a little tighter within a company.

[Disclosure: OfficeMedium is a sponsor for Crenk]

Google Acquires AdMob and Gizmo5, Plus Playfish Acquired by EA

Steven Finch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:16:58 +0000

It has been a very big day in acquisitions for both Google and Accel partners. Google has announced that they have acquired Admob and Gizmo5. Admob is a mobile advertising network in which cost Google $750 million.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.

*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.

*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.

*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

Im very surprised that Admob sold out to Google on this occassion. I know that $750 million is not an average sum of money, but with Googles track record of advertising products that aren’t Adsense is pretty terrible. Back in February 2007 Google purchased Adscape, which still hasn’t really taken their in-game advertising product to the next level. Additionally, Google killed Feedburner’s very profitable advertising network and replaced it directly with a much worse product for the type of market, Google Adsense. Accel partners won out big on this acquisition as they and Sequoia Capital were the early investors.

Gizmo5 Acquisition:

Gizmo5 was the other company in which Google purchased today, but for only around $30 million in cash. Gizmo5 is a VOIP infrastructure. In previous months Gizmo5 was in talks with Skype about a potential sale, mainly because Skype was having big issues with their current infrastructure. This is a very interested move for Google, I’m not entirely sure why they purchased VOIP infrastructure. The only possible solution is that they are thinking about tying it in with their current Google Voice offering.

EA purchase Playfish:

After lengthy negotiations, Electronic Arts closed it’s anticipated acquisition of social gaming startup Playfish for $275 million in cash. An additional $25 million in stock will be set aside for retaining the top talent at the startup, and another $100 million in earnouts are part of the deal as well if the business hits certain milestones. This has no reaffirmed how lucrative this market current is. I would not be surprised to see a Zynga IPO or Playdom acquistion in the first half of 2010.

Google Open Sources Its Own Development Programs

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:29:32 +0000

It’s a great day when Internet giant Google open sources the programs it uses to build well-known favourites such as GMail, Docs and Google Maps. It announced on its blog that it will be making a lot of it’s own development software available to developers all over the world. This release comes as Google are undoubtedly upgrading their own tools especially with the upcoming launch of Google Wave.

The first of the three tools they released is called Closure Compiler which helps developers trim down code and optimize it for better performance. There is also a plug-in for Firefox released alongside this so they can view heir Java Script code in the browser.

The second one is called Library which is a tool to help build Java Script Apps. Here is what Google said on their official blog about the program:

The Closure Library is a JavaScript library that provides many features that are useful for building web applications across browsers. It helps to abstract browser differences and provides clean class and function interfaces for common tasks. Besides DOM interaction and UI tools, the library includes tools for arrays, objects, string manipulation and much more. The library also implements a name spacing and import standard, which helps keep scripts small and load fast when used with the Closure Compiler.

The third and final release until further notice was Templates. This is an app that is for creating HTML elements that can be used within Java Script.

Closure Templates simplify the task of dynamically creating HTML and have an easy-to-read syntax. They allow you to write templates for reusable HTML and UI elements that can be used within JavaScript or on the server side in Java. They also have excellent run-time performance because they are never parsed on the client side.

Over the next month or so there is undoubtedly going to be a big rush of new Java apps and programs onto the market thanks to the Google outsourcing. Be sure to stay in touch with Crenk to stay informed!

Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:53:50 +0000

Heard of Twitter? Sure the whole world has by now. Lone tribes on far islands have heard about Twitter. This massively immersive and widely used micro-blogging network has become a staple for both our personal and professional lives. The world seems to still be feeling the “Twitter effect” as industries adapt their existing messages to fit the fast paced world of this social network.

But do you ever feel like you’re being left behind? Perhaps not enough time to get the right message in a timely fashion? Now there’s a solution to that.

Twuffer presents itself as the buffer between you and your timed messages. By using the web application, you are able to preset messages on a timed schedule to be released on your network at the times you think most important. The possibilities of this type of functionality are as endless as your creativity.

The web app is easy to use and can serve you to better time your announcements, set reminders for yourself or others, engage in timed online activities, or, as the site suggests, make it appear as if you never sleep. The practicality of this app seems pretty straightforward.

The application is currently in beta, but your able to explore what it has to offer pretty seamlessly. I suggest you give it a try to announce regular days when your podcast or blog post will go live, or perhaps some other similar campaign to see if Twuffer is right for you!

Google Chrome 4 Beta Released on Windows

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:06:18 +0000

It has been amazing that Google have been able to pump out 4 releases of a browser that has only been in the market for a little over a year. Compare that to Firefox, which took over six years to reach 3.6.

We’ve improved performance scores on Google Chrome by 30% since our current stable release, as measured by Mozilla’s Dromeao DOM Core Tests, and by 400% since our first stable release.” – Idan Avraham and Anton Muhin

Expectedly, Google Chome 4 is currently only available for the Windows platform. Reports have come in that it works just fine with the latest release of Windows, despite the fact that it only specifies XP/Vista as being currently supported.

Download Google Chrome 4 Beta

Google Wave Federation Begins Testing – Start of SPAM

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:20:59 +0000

Google Wave has not been a big hit so far – everyone though it would be…but it hasn’t. The interface is complicated, buggy and unpractical. People aren’t staying long enough to build a community and worst of all – nobody is quite sure what exactly it’s for yet. However the development team are still making strides.

They have just opened up Wave to third party companies by releasing an API package. This allows companies to host their own Wave like services on their own servers and interact with other companies API Waves. This is currently only in sandbox testing and isn’t live on the internet as of yet.

One thing which concerns me is that this could mean the start of SPAM on Wave. Since its launch people have been confined to specific waves but now we’re seeing a growth in access. Although this growth isn’t enough to start a spamming campaign it could be the start of it. I’m pretty sure that soon the hackers and spammers will descend on Google Wave – then it’s up to Google to stop them on a platform which will supposedly be more open than e-mail.

Google Provides Virgin Airline Customers Free On-board Wifi Until 2010

Steven Finch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:59:40 +0000

Google has long wanted to make the internet faster and provide internet to everyone in the world. Google has now taken this to the next level as they are going to sponsor free wifi from November 15th to January 2010 for all Virgin Airline customers.

This wifi service normally costs $13 for computers over long haul flights and $8 for smartphones and handheld devices. Google has tried to state that they are just aiming to ease passenger stress during the busy holiday season, but im sure they will be focusing their sponsorship to get customers to use Google products while in flight.

Unfortunately Virgin Airlines only services major airport hubs in the U.S. although that service still means tens of thousands of passengers will have free access during that promotional period.

Google’s New Barcode Logo

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:11:02 +0000

If you’ve been surfing the web (do people still say that?) for a while today you may have noticed that Google’s doodle today is odd, in fact it’s not really a doodle – but a barcode. Oh, and in spite of the recent debacle when Google announced that it would no longer be paying artists to create their doodles, rather the publicity alone would act as payment, this isn’t the beginning of a decline in Google’s doodles as a result.

They are simply celebrating the anniversary of that little invention we all take for granted at the supermarket; the barcode. By clicking on the doodle you get search results for ‘Barcode’. I can only imagine what the image results would be.

Before I sign off for today, a few facts about the barcode.

v It was originally circular so it could be scanned from all angles. Often called a bull’s-eye.

v The first product ever to be scanned in a real life situation was a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum in a supermarket in Ohio in June of 1974.

v Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver (the inventors) never made much money from their invention as they sold the patent before it was commercialised. Silver never even lived to see its success as he died in a car crash before it was released to the public.

Googles New Look

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:21:56 +0000

Google’s minimalistic homepage has been a cornerstone of the internet for the past decade or so. Now, they’re testing out a new homepage which will take the word count from thirty down to one; ‘Google’.

Basically, it will look like the screenshot above with everything but the Google logo and search function being removed. This includes their famous ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button

When you move the mouse however near any area where buttons used to be they will appear. The thinking is that this new method will have the best of both worlds: minimalism and functionality.

However, they are only bucket testing the new homepage to see how it goes down so only a certain percentage of users will actually get access to the new design. For those of you who can’t, see the video below.

Fast, Simple and Free: New Google Chrome Themes from Artists

Steven Finch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:57:18 +0000

Nearly exactly a month after launch Google has announced more cool themes for Chrome. This release is based upon prominent artists which include Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Karim Rashid, Jonathan Adler, Oscar de la Renta, Anita Kunz, Tom Sachs, Kate Spade, Donna Karan, Kid Robot, Casey Reas, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Graves, Todd Oldham, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Mariah Carey (and that’s just to name a few!).

For a behind-the-scenes look at one illustrator’s unique creative process, check out the Google Chrome Blog. And for a preview of these themes, here’s a video flipbook we’ve compiled to showcase some of the artistry behind this project:

My favourite:

Google Chrome OS Arriving this Month?

Augusto Alvarez — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:40:47 +0000

I guess when there’s a lot of anticipation on something, sometimes things might get faster. We’ve talked before about Google Chrome OS announcement, and we’ve also said that users might get hands on it in the second half of 2010. But now, a Chinese netbooks manufacturer seems that is planning to release netbooks with a previous version of Chrome later this month.

Shanzai is announcing that the devices with the Loongson-CPU will have Google Chrome OS installed, and released by Lemote hardware manufacturer. And even though these are only rumors, there have been some snapshots available in the web of what seems to be Google’s OS:

The anticipation is increasing significantly, since we don’t have much data around this operating system. We know that it will be focused on netbooks, open source with a Linux kernel and user interface based mainly in a web experience.

Sounds good to me if an Asian hardware manufacturer is taking a chance with this new OS. We are all waiting for the moment to install and use Chrome OS.

Google Announced Website Translator Gadget and Firefox Addon

Steven Finch — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:16:19 +0000

Google has announced a lot of new additions to its translation offering. Firstly they have announced a new website translator gadget which is available in 51 languages. Now, when people visit your page, if their language (as determined by their browser settings) is different than the language of your page, they’ll be prompted to automatically translate the page into their own language. If the visitor’s language is the same as the language of your page, no translation banner will appear.

Additionally, Google has announced that they have improved their Toolbar, which now also includes in-page translation.

Google Acquisitions and Investments Chart

Steven Finch — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:08:48 +0000

Our friends at The Next Web have put found a great chart of Google’s Acquisitions and Investments. Click here for a larger view.

Big Google Wave Coming Up

Augusto Alvarez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:23:04 +0000

Well, it’s time. A lot of people have been waiting for this for several months now: Google Wave is releasing 100,000 invitations in the next few days (expected for September 30^th) for enlisted participants.

As we’ve discussed before, Google Wave will give users the chance to manipulate the same content at the same time, and displaying the information in real time for the rest of the users. This collaborative environment can be crucial in developers’ teams. Will be something like this:

I know what you are about to say: how do I get an invitation to Google Wave? Well, there’s no guarantee at this point that you may receive one of the 100k that Google’s releasing, but you might get a chance for a second Google Wave (mid-October maybe?):

Dev guys can click here and enlist to receive one of the invitations.

The rest of the mortals can click here.

And yes, if we receive one of those invitations you’ll hear from our experience.

Google Release Picasa 3.5 Their Free Photo Editing Software

Steven Finch — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:13:57 +0000

Today Google has announced that they have launched Picasa 3.5, a new version of their very popular free photo editing software. This version of Picasa gives the user the ability to add name tags to their photos, using the same facial recognition technology that powers name tags on Picasa Web Albums.

Name tags have been designed to help the user easily organise their photos by what matters most. Picasa identifies similar faces and puts these into an “Unnamed People” album. From there, you can easily add a name tag by clicking “Add a name” and typing the person’s name. After you’ve added name tags to some photos, you can use your tags to do creative things, like quickly find all the photos with the same two people in them, make a face collage with just one click or upload and share people albums with friends.

Additionally, Picasa 3.5 has integrated Google Maps, so it is easy to geotag your photos and then view them according to location. Finally, Google has completely redesigned the import process in which you can now import photos from your camera and upload the photos to Picasa Web Albums in one easy step.

Google Timeline

Augusto Alvarez — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:37:58 +0000

No, it’s not exactly Google’s Twitter Timeline; but you could consider these as tweets I guess. This list represents the entire life of Google represented in chronologically: Google Timeline.

Here you will see every significant milestone this company had since the first time Google was just a thought (BackRub search engine) until the newest ones like “Google Translates in 41 languages”, or “Picasa for Mac”.

A few months back we’ve talked about the history of Microsoft, the OTHER big company, and we had the chance to see how from a simple idea you can, not only build an entire company, you can design the future. Quite similar like they did with Google, here’s what they’ve called “Google Master Plan”.

(Click on the picture to see a large version. You would probably be amazed with all the stuff that appears there and they haven’t done it, just yet)

Getting back to Google Timeline, take a close look to that, because you would probably find some things that you didn’t even know.

Social Media Revolution

Augusto Alvarez — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:07:11 +0000

How much is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google involved in your common day activities? Did you ever ask yourself that? Where would you be if those didn’t exist?

Well there thousands of those existential questions that you may or may not asked yourself, and there’s no need to get real philosophical about this, but we sure can be certain that those technologies, web apps and more have an important presence in most of our days.

About those presences, here’s a very interesting video about the facts of several of these social tools, technologies and media: “Social Media Revolution”

Here are some of the facts that caught my attention:

Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
1 of 8 couples married in the US met via social media
If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest
TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users, Facebook took less than 9 months to reach 100 millions
Ashton Kutcher has more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panama
80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices
Wikipedia has over 13 million articles
80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
35% of books sales on Amazon are for Kindle

“Social media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate”

27 Circular Social Media Icons in 3 Sizes

Steven Finch — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:37:03 +0000

I have been after some great social media icons for a long time and I have finally come across a great set. All icons are circular and of the highest quality. Icons include AIM, Bebo, eBay, Hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Windows Live, Ning, Orkut, Twitter and more.

Download: Social Media Icons Pack 2.0 (.rar), Social Media Icons Pack 2.0 (.zip)