Google By Numbers
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Google Chrome 4.1 Beta with Auto Translate
Google Chrome team is preparing a new release of their browser, 4.1. And you can access to the beta where you can try on some of the new features, including the auto translate option.
The auto translate option works in a very simple way, when you are browsing your sites, Chrome will detect which is the language that is displaying and pop the question to you: Would you like for me to translate this? Here’s a short video about the feature.
Some of the other features that this beta includes:
- NoScript: The possibility to configure some sites where you can exclude them to run any type of script.
- New privacy features: You’ll get the chance to use incognito mode, where you won’t leave any track of the websites you are visiting (one of the most wanted features).
- New control panel: Better control of cookies, images, plug-ins and pop-ups.
To download the latest beta, visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/chrome/beta/
Chile Earthquake: Google Launches Person Finder
A few days ago Chile suffered one of the worst earthquakes in the history of the world, reaching 8.3 of Richter scale. With a large number of missing persons, desperation appears as the common feeling for thousands and thousands of families today; Google offers for those a new service: Person Finder.
The service is quite simple, it does not need all that much for people that are looking for answers right now; contains two main options: “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information for someone”; where you can enter the name of the person you are looking or trying to help. Already contains over 33500 of records loaded.
There’s an important disclaimer saying that Google is not reviewing or verifying the accuracy of this data; which in a state of emergency like this we shouldn’t expect that people will use this as some kind of scam.
The number of casualties now is over 700; and the missing persons continue to grow every minute; so I salute the people and companies who are helping in this catastrophe and providing any type of assistance.
Google Attacks Definitely From China
Two universities, funded by the Chinese military to train computer scientists for use in their forces, have had their computers used on the recent cyber attacks on major companies such as Google. This news comes as Google contemplates its withdrawal from China following disagreement with the Chinese government over censorship.
Interestingly enough, the universities are also part of a network which is operated by Baidu who stands to gain millions of users upon Google’s departure.
The Chinese government has denied any involvement of sanctioning of these cyber attacks upon US-based web companies and stressed it has been the victim of many cyber attacks itself.
“Computers at Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School in China reportedly played a role in the attacks, according to unnamed sources cited in The New York Times.” reported Information Week.
Cyber attacks are on the increase and are frequently becoming a method for governments to send diplomatic messages to one another. When the US asked Twitter to keep the service up (as apposed to taking it down temporarily for maintenance) during the Iran elections, it became clear that social networks and internet giants are the key targets in all of this. But how long will it be until utility companies and government databases are targeted on a big scale?
Google Can Now Buy and Sell Energy
Need proof that Google can simply barge into whatever industry they want to and be given the go-ahead? Take one look at how they’ve been given clearance to buy and sell energy having just put in a request to do so a little over a month ago and you’ll see what I mean..
Basically, Google can now buy and sell energy just like any other electricity company in the US. This could involve targeting the commercial market or even residential. As for now though, it appears as though they will be using their new found rights to get some cheap energy for their own use. Running huge servers and data centres uses up a lot of energy so getting it at wholesale prices wouldn’t be bad for business at any rate.
That said, it might not be too long until we have Google bills coming through our letter box as they’re currently toying around with the idea of becoming an ISP too!
Improve Gmail Productivity Instantly
I’m a huge Gmail fan. Yes I’ve heard everyone talk about how much power Google has, and how dangerous it is to put things in the cloud, and the numerous complaints about privacy issues, but I’m a fan, plain and simple. I get what I need to get done, it’s all streamlined and integrates well with one another. I could probably fine ten apps that each one do one thing in the Google system, but why depend on so many? Keep it simple is what I say.
Recently I’ve been alerted of a way to make my Gmail productivity even more effective, and that’s with the use of Gtriage. While many of us are inundated with email after email, sometimes finding that hundreds have come into our inbox at any given time away from the computer, who wants to go through all of that?Gtriage does the work of training your inbox instantly, and over time it learns to grow with you and identify which emails are vital and which can be touched later. I won’t say it’s perfect, the key word is train, so while you have parameters to set in the beginning, it will grow with you based on how you feed it information.
Emails that it determines to be important will be labeled “IMPORTANT” and put into a singular folder that is accessible on the desktop or on your mobile. Because the application runs in the background, there’s no apps to install, no third party plugins, no anything, so desktop or mobile, everything just works. It’s a good way to never miss important messages, and if you’ve got the patience to allow it to learn your habits, can be very powerful. I’ve only been using this for a few days, but I’ll probably circle back in 30-60 days to see if it’s really learned who I am and what emails are important to me.
Windows 7 Phone Sexes Up the Market
When I saw the Windows 7 phone my jaw hit the ground like the cartoon characters of yesterday. You know, when the eyes bugged out and the jaw hot the ground with the tongue rolling out? Yes, this phone is sexy. Windows haters beware. iPhone killer? Maybe not, but this phone is sure to turn some heads as it lays out an UI unlike any other mobile phone out there. Zune owners might see some familiarities in the interface, but even those users can expect to see something new.
There was a day when Windows Smartphone would have been an oxymoron, but today, the mold is broken with this experience and it all lies in the UI. For starters, the interface is focused on dedicated “hubs” of information giving the users an interesting way to group like applications under one roof instead of being overwhelmed with information. The touch movement is fluid, the layout easy to understand, and by nature the device is social. A person’s social activity makes this phone a great pleasure to have as you are able to keep up with their status updates integrated into the UI.
You can take photos, create albums, record videos, access Xbox Live, a store to purchase your application needs, and a productivity store for those of us looking to get a little work out of it while having fun too. The phone currently has no pricing, but it’s sure to wow folks who are not familiar with Microsoft making anything this cool and sleek. I don’t necessarily think it’s an iPhone killer, but we’ll see what happens when it hits the market. Remember, Microsoft still needs to compete with Apple and Google which are the current giants in the sandbox.
Free Geeky Icon Set: The Dream Geek Team
The team over at Iconshock have been putting out some amazing icons over the past 6 months. Their latest professional icons are The Dream Geek Team.
The set features well-known IT celebrities: Bill Gates, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Steve Jobs, and Steve Ballmer. There are 8 PNG files included in this set. We hope that you find a good and fun use for these!
You can use these for any purpose, commercial or personal, but you cannot redistribute the files as-is without first notifying the Six Revisions staff.
Cancel Google Account
Canceling your Google account and the Google services you use can be a little difficult at times.
Google maintains a help page that explains the process. The Google user needs to log into the account first, click on Settings > Google Account Settings afterwards and then on the Edit link next to My Products.
This leads to a new page with the option to cancel the Google account completely by clicking on “Close account and delete all services and info associated with it”.
But canceling the complete account is sometimes not the user’s intention. Some users want to cancel a specific Google service, like Gmail or Google Picasa instead.
The steps outlined above to cancel the Google account can also be used to cancel Google services that the user has signed up for.
Both solutions require that the Google user is able to log into the Google account. Users who have troubles doing that can request a password reset if the password that they enter is not accepted in the login.
Google and Apple To Compete Over Search Engine Marketshare, Maps and more…
It has been rumoured that having Google as the default search engine on the iPhone earns Apple more than $100 million per year in a revenue sharing deal. A lot of sites have been talking about Apple developing their own search engine, while others have been reporting Bing will become the iPhone new default search engine. However, Google still seem to be the leader in this area, so unless Microsoft offer more than $100 million per year nothing will change.
In addition to being the search provider for Safari on the iPhone, Google also powers the native Maps application included with Apple’s handset. The source claimed that making Google Maps a provider for the initial iPhone in 2007 was a simple two-week process. But when GPS was added to the iPhone 3G, negotiations between the two technology giants allegedly lasted six months.
“Google wanted access to all sorts of data from the maps, but Apple didn’t want to give it up, according to this person,” the report said.
Last summer, Apple purchased Google Maps competitor Placebase. Later in the year, it sought to hire a full-time employee to take its iPhone Maps application “to the next level.”
Apple has also entered the mobile advertising business after its purchase of Quattro Wireless, believed to be worth $275 million, in December. Through the acquisition, Apple also named the former CEO of Quattro Wireless, Andy Miller, to a new position: vice president of Mobile Advertising.
Watch out Google, Apple could soon become a real competitor in the search engine space, while also moving into your current markets and revenue streams.
Sneak Peak at New Google News Design
It has been reported by our friends over at SE Roundtable that Google News might be changing its user interface. Here is what the new Google News will look like:
WordPress Plugin for Google Buzz
You probably know that the WordPress community is a very significant one, and they are continuously improving the blogging experience; and they didn’t use so much time to develop the WordPress plugin for Google’s new toy: Google Buzz.
The Google Buzz impact maybe wasn’t as they expected; no surprise there, so far is representing a mix of a social network with micro blogging; both fields currently being dominating by Facebook and Twitter. But still, some of the features included are interesting to evaluate, and possibly the Gmail integration is one of the engines that will keep this app alive (even though there are already people hating it).
The configuration of this plugin (created by Ivan Lazarevic) is quite simple; just use your Gmail account that you want to associate with Google Buzz and the number of updates to be shown.
