Send Gmail attachments while offline

One of the most requested features for Offline Gmail has been the ability to include attachments in messages composed while offline. Starting today, attachments work just the way you would expect them to whether you are online or offline (with the exception that when you're offline you won't be able to include inline images). Just add the attachment and send your message.

If you have Offline Gmail enabled, you'll notice that all your mail now goes through the outbox, regardless of whether you're online or offline. This allows Gmail to capture all attachments, even if you suddenly get disconnected from network. If you're online, your mail will quickly be sent along to its destination.

If you haven't tried offline access yet, follow these instructions to get started:

1. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
2. Click Save Changes.
3. After your browser reloads, you'll see a new "Offline" link in the upper righthand corner of the Gmail page, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don't already have it.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/send-attachments-while-offline.html

Google Chrome OS First Look

oday we released Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS is an operating system that is intended for people who spend most of their time on the web. It aims to provide a computing experience that is fast, simple and secure. The Chromium OS project as you'll see it today is comprised of the code that has been developed thus far, our early experiments with the user interface, and detailed design docs for many parts that are under active development.


To get a feel for the Google Chrome OS user experience, you can watch the demo from this morning's announcement event



http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/11/announcing-chromium-os-open-source.html

12 Things to Know About Google's Go Programming Language

Google's new programming language, called Go, took the application development world by storm when the search giant released it Nov. 10. The ambitious technology's pedigree features programming experts from the Unix world, including Ken Thompson, who teamed with Dennis Ritchie to create Unix. Created as a systems programming language to help speed up development of systems inside Google, Go is now viewed as a general-purpose language for Web development, mobile development, addressing parallelism and a lot more.
Google's new programming language, called Go, took the application development world by storm when the search giant released it Nov. 10.
The ambitious technology comes with a pedigree featuring programming experts from the Unix world, including Ken Thompson, who teamed with Dennis Ritchie to create Unix. Created as a systems programming language to help speed up development of systems inside Google, Go is now viewed as a general-purpose language for Web development, mobile development, addressing parallelism and a lot more.
Ironically, Google launched Go just a week before Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, which typically dominates the software development landscape while it is running. This time there might be a little Go buzz at the event.
Go is an experimental language that is still in the process of being tweaked and maturing, but it holds huge potential. The Google Go team blogged about Go, saying, "Go combines the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. Typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C."
1. Where did the idea for Go come from?
Pike, Thompson and Robert Griesemer of Java HotSpot virtual machine and V8 JavaScript engine fame, decided to make a go of developing a new language out of frustration with the pace of building software. Said Pike:
"In Google we have very large software systems and we spent so long literally waiting for compilations, even though we have distributed compilation and parallelism in all of these tools to help, it can take a very long time to build a program. Even incremental builds can be slow. And we looked at this and realized many of the reasons for that are just fundamental in working in languages like C and C++, and we needed a different approach. We also decided the tools that everybody used were also slow. So we wanted to start from scratch to write the kind of programs we need to write here at Google in a way that the tools could be really efficient and the build cycles could be very short."
2. Go is a multipurpose language
Pike said Go is appropriate for a broad spectrum of uses, including Web programming, mobile programming and systems programming. "We based it on our ideas of what we think systems programming should be like," he said.
Then a Google engineer told the team he wanted to do a port to ARM processors for the Go language because he wanted to do some work in robotics. With the ARM support, "We can now run Go code in Android phones, which is a pretty exciting possibility," Pike said. "Of course, ARMs also run inside a lot of the other phones out there, so maybe it's a mobile language."
He added, "I think people, once they absorb it a little bit more, will see the advantage of having a modern language in some ways that actually runs really fast. And it's an interesting candidate to think of as an alternative for JavaScript in the browser.
"Although getting Go supported inside browsers is going to be a seriously challenging undertaking ... but it is an interesting thing to think about because it has a lot of the advantages of JavaScript as a lightweight, fun language to play with. But it's enormously more efficient. So some of the big, heavy, client-oriented applications out there like Google Wave would be much zippier if they were written in Go, but of course they can't be written in Go because it doesn't run in a browser yet. But I'd like to see some stuff in that direction, too, although how that's going to happen I don't know."
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/12-Things-to-Know-About-Googles-Go-Programming-Language-859839/

Google Chrome OS: A Nice Place to Visit, But?

Google's Chrome operating system could mark a turning point in computing, but many questions remain. Today's rumor is the OS will be released to developers next week, answering some questions but probably raising even more. Google had previously promised Chrome OS, in some form, before the end of this year.
Chrome OS strikes me as being just enough Linux to allow an underpowered computer to run Chrome browser and connect to cloud-based applications. How exciting can that really be?

On a netbook, Chrome OS may be enough to provide mobile functionality. On a desktop, Chrome OS may turn a PC into a glorified terminal, relying on the Internet for nearly everything the user does.

There are many questions about Chrome OS, some of which may be answered when Google releases whatever it decides to make available to make good its promise to release the OS, in some form, before the end of this year.

Among those questions:

Just how limited will Chrome OS be? What will and won't it do?
Will it natively run third-party applications on the hardware where it resides? Or just to connect to applications in the Internet cloud?
Will cloud apps need to be written specifically for Chrome?
Will Chrome create a standard for the look-and-feel for cloud application?
Might Chrome only run applications that Google hosts?
Will Chrome require--or even use--a hard drive? Might Chrome OS netbooks have a small silicon drive and nothing else?
When Google promises an end to security hassles, such a viruses, malware, or updates, what trade-offs are required?
Google has previously said Chrome is intended to be lightweight and get users connected to cloud applications quickly. The company seems to believe that cloud apps will become pervasive and will not require a very powerful machine to run them.

Thus, Google is creating a very lightweight browser (Chrome) to run atop what amounts to an embedded operating system (Chrome OS) running on netbooks (to be released next year).

I also expect the OS to include Gears, Google's technology for offline access to its cloud-based applications.

What will Chrome do beyond that? Maybe nothing. If Google really believes its cloud rhetoric and is really serious that Chrome OS will be virus-free, maybe the new OS won't run applications, just the browser and Gears?

Add a robust security mechanism, to make certain the cloud-based applications and Web sites haven't been tampered with, and Chrome could be a more secure operating system than we're used to. If only by keeping the computer from doing anything besides interacting with Web sites and web-based applications.

I find that idea strangely attractive, though it will certainly result in devices with limited functionality, just like today's netbooks. However, performance may actually be better since netbooks could be freed from laboring to run Windows and heavy Windows applications.

Google Chrome OS introduces a new computing model and may even change how we think about operating systems. Its importance hinges upon how widely and quickly cloud applications take center stage, what trade-offs customers are willing to make, and most importantly, what Chrome OS actually turns out to be.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/182152/google_chrome_os_a_nice_place_to_visit_but.html

Will Google's Wave Replace E-Mail—and Facebook?

Google has big plans for Google Wave, its new online communication service—and they won't all come from Google.

The Web search giant is hoping that software developers far and wide will create tools that work in conjunction with Wave, making an already multifaceted service even more useful. Google (GOOG) is even likely to let programmers sell their applications through an online bazaar akin to Apple's App Store, the online marketplace for games and other applications designed for the iPhone. "We'll almost certainly build a store," Lars Rasmussen, the Google software engineering manager who directs the 60-person team in Sydney, Australia, that created Wave, told BusinessWeek.com. "So many developers have asked us to build a marketplace—and we might do a revenue-sharing arrangement."

Combining instant messaging, e-mail, and real-time collaboration, Wave is an early form of so-called real-time communication designed to make it easier for people to work together or interact socially over the Internet. Google started letting
developers tinker with Wave at midyear and then introduced the tool on a trial basis to about 100,000 invited users starting on Sept. 30. Invitations were such a hot commodity that they were being sold on eBay (EBAY). For Google the hope is that Wave, once it's more widely available, will replace competing communications services such as e-mail, instant messaging, and possibly even social networks such as Facebook.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2009/tc2009104_703934.htm

Google Wave first Invitees

Google Wave is about to open to new users. Starting today, Google will send 100,000 invites to some of those who were eager to use an early version of the service. Google's blog lists three categories of users that will receive invites: Google Wave Sandbox users, those who signed up and offered to give feedback on Google Wave and some Google Apps users. When you receive an invitation to Google Wave, you'll be able to invite other people so you can use Google Wave together.

"Google received more than 1 million requests to participate in the preview, said Lars Rasmussen, engineering manager for Google Wave, and while it won't be able to accommodate all those requests on Wednesday it is at least ready to begin the next phase of the project," writes CNet.

Like Gmail's early version released in April 2004, Google Wave lacks many basic features: you can't remove someone from a wave, you can't configure permissions or write drafts. The interface is not very polished and some of the options are difficult to find, but it's important to keep in mind that Google Wave is just one of the ways to implement an open protocol. Gmail revolutionized email with an interface inspired by discussion boards: messages are grouped in conversations and it's easy to handle a large amount of messages. Google Wave wants to revolutionize real-time communication by extending a protocol mostly used for instant messaging, XMPP.

Combining email, instant messaging and wikis seems like a recipe for confusion, but Google Wave pioneers a new generation of web applications, where everything is instantaneous. As Google explains, each wave is a hosted conversation and users can edit the conversation in real-time.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-batch-of-google-wave-invites.html

Personalized YouTube Homepage

YouTube tests a new homepage that is customizable and centered on your activities. Instead of displaying the same content for all YouTube users, the new homepage looks different, depending on your preferences and your activities. Here's what's new:

* recommended videos, a feature that relies on your previous activity: favorite videos, subscribed channels
* latest from your subscriptions: 12 videos from 3 of your subscribed channels
* friend activity: a list of videos uploaded, favorited or rated by your YouTube contacts. This information is displayed only if your contacts added it to their public profiles.
* inbox: messages, friend invites, received videos.
* statistics about your videos (total views, subscribers) and your activity (subscriptions, comments).
"The goal with all of this is to gauge people's interest in having a YouTube that's tailored to the individual. Ultimately, we want to get you one step closer to the videos you'll enjoy most every time you come to the site," explains YouTube.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/personalized-youtube-homepage.html

Google switches on Apps Script

Google officially rolled out its Apps Script functionality for enterprise users on Wednesday, following a limited pilot release earlier this year.
Google Apps Script works mainly within the Spreadsheets app to automate various processes. For example, you can automate the sending of e-mails messages based on data held in a spreadsheet, or create scripts that communicate with other Web services.
"Back in May, we announced a pilot release of Google Apps Script, and after thousands of hours of use, and lots of valuable feedback, we're excited to launch Google Apps Script to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers today," Google Apps products manager Evin Levey on Wednesday.
Giving an example of how Apps Script can be used, Levey described an expense approval scenario, where the script automatically converts foreign currency to local currency, pulls historical exchange rates from external Web services, picks up on missing data and flags certain expense categories for review.
"Even more useful, the script can figure out whose approvals are needed and automatically request approval from those people," Levey wrote. "And once approved, the script sends a note to the finance department for payment--all without writing a single e-mail."
Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers can locate the scripts functionality through the Tools menu in the Spreadsheets app. Levey wrote that the Apps team is seeking feedback on what customers come up with in their use of the tool.
Also on Wednesday, Google's enterprise team announced another tool called Side-by-Side search. The tool allows users to compare the results of two separate searches based on the same body of data, which the team said would allow the evaluation of the Google Search Appliance (GSA) against a company's existing enterprise search product.
The team also announced an upgraded suite of GSA Connectors, including an Enterprise Labs release of a connector for the Salesforce CRM system.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62057072,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw

Google reveals plans for Chrome cloud synchronization

Google has revealed plans for a Chrome cloud service that will allow users to synchronize browser data with their Google accounts. The synchronization framework, which is still at an early stage of development, will arrive in Google's open source Chromium project later this week. Google says that a Chrome build with the sync feature enabled could be made available through a dev-channel update this month.

In a message posted to the Chromium developer group, Google engineer Tim Steele described the process through which the feature will be integrated into the browser. Google has also published a design document that provides a high-level overview of the synchronization architecture.

"A bunch of us have been working on a feature to sync user data in Chromium with a Google account," Steele wrote. "We have built a library that implements the client side of our sync protocol as well as the Google server-side infrastructure to serve Google Chrome users and synchronize data to their Google Account."

The Chrome synchronization framework will initially handle bookmarks, but it is designed to support other kinds of browser data in the future. It uses a push messaging model to propagate change notifications, which means that activity in one instance of the browser will be reflected immediately in other instances. This will make it more seamless than other bookmark synchronization services like Weave and XMarks that rely on polling to determine when data needs to be synchronized. Google also plans to provide a Web interface so that users can remotely access their bookmarks from any browser by logging into their Google accounts.

The synchronization framework will use a persistent XMPP connection for change notifications. The Google Talk servers will provide the backend infrastructure for that part of the synchronization process. The actual bookmark data will be transmitted in Google's Protocol Buffer format. The design document suggests that XMPP was adopted instead of a polling model for scalability reasons and to make synchronization more seamless.

Steele says that the sync code represents a major change to the browser's code base and that it will be landing in the Chromium tree incrementally so that it can be properly reviewed. The client-side sync code currently works on Windows and Linux but doesn't work yet on Mac OS X. To enable broader testing, the developers plan to make available an experimental Chrome build for Windows with the synchronization feature enabled; it will be deployed through the developer update channel later this month.

"We're planning to use the syncapi DLL to produce a sync-enabled Google Chrome build for dev-channel users in a week or so, to get the feature into experimentally inclined hands," Steele wrote. "We have a great deal of infrastructure, both in the browser and in the form of production Google services, that needs to start seeing real user traffic and usage. It takes a great deal of testing and confidence inspired by real usage statistics before any complex system like this can be deemed adequate for use by a large user base."

Browser sync will boost the value of Google's browser and advance Google's strategy of converging the desktop with the cloud. It's a particularly intriguing development in light of Google's upcoming Chrome OS. Seamless synchronization of browser data between a desktop and netbook could be a very compelling feature. It's not clear yet if Google will also bring this feature to its Android mobile browser, but it seems like an obvious move.

Google intends to document the protocols and make the client-side source code available under an open license, which means that it could be possible for third-party developers to bring Google synchronization support to other browsers. This will be a welcome development for users who still mourn the loss of Google's Firefox browser sync, which was discontinued last year.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/08/google-reveals-plans-for-chrome-cloud-synchronization.ars

What Do You Expect from Google Chrome OS?

I've asked some time ago the readers of this blog what they expect from Google Chrome OS, an open-source operating system built around Google Chrome, that will be released later this year. Here are some of their answers:

Integration with Google Accounts

"I believe Google accounts will be used to login to Chrome OS. Kinda whereever you go, you can use your Google account username/password to login. I hope it will use local disk to store frequently accessed file and sync it to Docs like Dropbox."

It should work offline

"There would have to be some kind of offline credential caching so you can log on even when you are not connected to the network."

Instant boot

"The thing I need with Google Chrome OS is instant bootup. I want something where I open up my laptop and the screen turns on and puts a web browser in my face."

It should be fast

"I just want to get rid of infinite waiting for load up. When I turn on my computer, half the times is just to open a web browser, a media player and an instant messaging program. I don't want to have to wait AGES for all sorts of background programs and services to load up."

Built-in desktop search

"I like the desktop search element of Google Desktop: it's a good way to access my files, e-mails and web history quickly. That should be included in Chrome OS. And there should be an offline cache of everything, so that I can still see read web pages I've visited even when offline."

In sync

"Syncing is important these days. Not just bookmarks, but passwords, and "user states" so you can pick up on another machine almost where you leave off on one. I would be able to start working on a document on my desktop machine and then switch to my laptop and hit the road, confident that when i open the document authoring app I'll be right where I left off."

Invisible

"Google ChromeOS should save screen real estate. On smaller devices like netbooks, you need to conserve as much screen real estate as possible."

Use applications without installing them

"Even if storage memory is cheaper now than ever, mobile phones, netbooks, etc. will benefit of avoiding to install software specific for each use on the physical memory and maintaining it "in the cloud". Sites should have the capability (and maybe a standard protocol) to communicate each other with the browser as a medium (avoiding the download and following upload of the object), user should have the capability to chose the service that he wants to subscribe to (eventually choosing it from an online appstore-like site), the OS should be able to recommend new and interesting service to subscribe to the user based on information collected (with his permission) about his behaviour."

Run Windows applications

"I want to run Windows programs, as well as games. I want Chrome OS to be able to do everything a normal computer can do! That way I can get ditch Windows and get Chrome OS for (hopefully) free!"

Don't forget the hardware!

"Driver support for a wide range of mobile hardware -> platform hardware combination. I'm particularly interested in WiMax support on an ARM processor."

So people want a fast operating system that loads instantly, doesn't use too many resources, saves your data online so you can continue your work from another computer and it keeps the data in sync, works offline, uses applications without installing them, runs Windows applications and it's compatible with many combinations of hardware.

What do you expect from Google Chrome OS?
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

What the Microsoft-Yahoo-Bing Deal Means for You

So what's it mean for computer users now that Microsoft and Yahoo today finally are announcing their long-anticipated marriage of Microsoft's Bing search engine and Yahoo's premium search advertising tools? Will this change our lives?

Actually, I think this partnership will mean far more for Microsoft and Yahoo and their corporate balance sheets than it will for those of us who are technology consumers, and here's why.

1) Will search get better due to the deal between the two companies? Now I don't have a crystal ball, but I tried Bing, I played with Bing, I experienced Bing, but Bing, you're no Google search. Yes, it has some cool features, like bringing up found items in new and useful lists that are highly targeted for users, but there's this little problem that no amount of money and advertising can change -- people's habits. And my habit, like the habit of tens of millions of computer users around me, is to call up Google whenever and wherever I have to search, every time. It's like a mother's love -- it's there forever.

2) Will Yahoo go to the dogs now that it's linked itself in a partnership deal with the slow, hard-to-steer, behemoth known as Microsoft? I do think there are more risks for Yahoo here than there are for Microsoft. Remember when the huge cable TV conglomerate Time Warner Inc. merged with the original America Online (AOL) Internet provider back in 2000, thinking it was the wave of the future and all of humanity would follow in a sea of dollar signs and goodwill? And do you know where they are now? Time Warner is spinning off AOL, which has been struggling for years, as it continues to try to figure out just what to do with it. Before teaming with Time Warner, AOL was the king of the Internet, as we all clamored to have slow, software-laden Internet access at $2.99 an hour like the good consumer lemmings we were in those days. But then cheaper, faster access arrived with DSL, cable and all-you-can-use plans, but AOL and stodgy Time Warner couldn't react quickly enough. There's a lesson here. Bigger isn't always better. I read that in a fortune cookie. I could have saved Time Warner and AOL a lot of money if I'd have told them that. Hey, Microsoft and Yahoo, are you listening?

3) Are there privacy concerns we should be worried about from this deal? That depends on the fine print, and that we'll have to have to check carefully to be sure what Microsoft and Yahoo want to do with all the consumer data they'll be able to collect from our searches. This is already an issue with Google and other search engines as we continue to make our way through this still relatively new global Internet adventure. When we use "free" services like search on the Internet, whether through Google or Yahoo or Bing or whatever, there really is no "free." Someone somewhere is using the spoils of the search - our preferences about what we are looking for - for marketing, for potential revenue enhancement and to help them in their businesses. It's an acceptable risk to us as consumers only when we know what the rules are. Somehow, though, we usually don't ask what those rules are ahead of time. Maybe we should get that information up front this time.

4) Will this Microsoft-Yahoo partnership be enough to knock Google from its perch as the king of search for savvy consumers? I doubt it, and here's why - I just don't see Microsoft and Yahoo, even with the new Bing search engine as its mascot, coming anywhere near Google with the kinds of innovations that make us all excited and Googly. There's Google Earth. Could Microsoft or Yahoo have thought of that? And there's Google Voice. OK, it's still a fledgling effort, but it is interesting and innovative, and users are lining up early to try to get a Google invite to test it out and take it for a ride. What always amazes me is how the Google tech folks are always introducing fascinating new technologies that they can bring to users in ways that no one has else has yet imagined. OK, they haven't found an answer for world peace or the vaccine for swine flu yet, but you never know. I'm just not sure that Microsoft still has any of that kind of turn-on-a-dime mentality anymore. And that's why this partnership may not help search-loving consumers or Yahoo as much as the new partners believe it will.
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/312937/what_microsoft-yahoo-bing_deal_means?fp=4

Yahoo, Microsoft unite against Google

Yahoo! and Microsoft have reached agreement on a long-awaited web search partnership that would unite the two companies against market leader Google.

Under the no-cash deal, Yahoo! will use Microsoft's new Bing search engine on its own sites, while Yahoo! will act as the exclusive global sales force for the companies' premium search advertisers.

Yahoo!, which last year turned down a $US47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft, said it stood to gain about $UD500 million in annual operating income and $US200 million in capital expenditure savings through the agreement with the software giant.

The Sunnyvale California company also estimated the deal would provide it with a $275 million benefit to annual operating cash flow.

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development," Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz said in a statement.

The partnership, Microsoft said, "will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry."

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the deal will enable Bing to better compete against Goggle, as well as attract more users and advertisers.

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," Ballmer said.

"This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

The agreement, which has a 10-year term, will be subject to review by US regulatory authorities, the companies said.

It is restricted to Internet search and related advertising revenue, while the pair would retain full autonomy on other properties and products such as email, instant messaging and display advertising.

Calling the link-up a "significant opportunity," Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock said the company's board backed it with its "full and unanimous support."

"Microsoft is an industry innovator in search, and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future," he said.

According to research firm Comscore, Google has a 65 per cent share of the lucrative search market, followed by Yahoo! with 19.6 per cent and Microsoft with 8.4 per cent
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/29/2640384.htm?section=justin

Google Docs, Slowly Morphing into Google Drive

The new interface of Google Docs, which is slowly rolled out to all users, brings the service one step closer to an online storage service. The "items by type" menu replaced "PDFs" with "Files", suggesting that Google Docs will allow users to upload any type of files.
Google Docs also added the advanced search options that are available in Gmail:

* exact phrase matching ("todo list")
* negative matching (summer -trip)
* disjunctive matching (budget OR invoice)
* built-in labels (is:starred, is:hidden)
* collaborators: to find the documents shared by Michael Robinson, you need to search for: from:michaelr@gmail.com, assuming that's his email address. The problem is that you need to know the email address, since the operator doesn't support (partial) names.

At some point in the near future, Google Docs will allow you to upload any type of files. Some of the files can be edited, other files can be previewed online, while the rest of them are only stored online. For example, PDF files can't be edited online, but you can view them and share them.
It will be interesting to see how Google Drive integrates with other Google services that store files (Gmail, Picasa Web Albums, YouTube) and to find the free quota limits.

Tony Ruscoe found in January an internal Google document about Cosmo, described as an upgrade from GDrive, a service that was only available to Google's employees. "We're in the process of migrating all Google Doc accounts to Cosmo," mentioned the document.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

Google building 3D hardware boost into Chrome - Web News

Google building 3D hardware boost into Chrome - Web News: "Departing significantly from what other browsers offer, Google has begun building its O3D plug-in for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics into its Chrome browser.
“The O3D team is working on getting O3D integrated into the Chromium build, and we’re close to being able to complete our first step towards integration,” said programmer Greg Spencer in a mailing list announcement Wednesday about Chromium, the open-source project that underlies Chrome itself. “I’ll be making the Windows build of Chromium be dependent upon building O3D as part of the build process.”
By helping to pave the way for high-powered Web-based games, the move furthers Google’s ambition to speed the transformation of the Web from a static medium into a foundation for applications. Another piece of the work is Google Native Client, which is designed to let Web applications take advantage of a computer’s native processing power.
The overall effort has taken on new importance with the announcement of Chrome OS, Google’s Chrome-based operating system set to arrive on Netbooks in the second half of 2010. Chrome OS will use Linux under the covers, but the real foundation for Chrome OS applications is the Web, Google has said.
Native Client coming, too
Google plans to build Native Client into Chrome, too.
“We recognize that there is well-justified resistance to installing browser plug-ins. For this reason, we have a strong preference for delivering Native Client pre-installed or built into the browser, and we’ll be focusing on that as our main strategy for delivering Native Client to users,” said Brad Chen, engineering manager of the Google Native Client effort, in June."
http://www.allfeedz.com/3094/google-building-3d-hardware-boost-into-chrome-2

Google wants to know a Google Docs Redesign is coming(I wonder why)

On the Google Docs blog today, the company took the time to make a non-announcement. Basically, there’s a bunch of words that bury the real story: That Google Docs will soon be launching a “brand new shiny interface.”

Hmmm. I wonder why. Obviously, earlier this week Microsoft laid out its plans for Office 2010, which includes a web-based component meant to take on Google Docs. But once again, there is nothing to actually see right now from Google, instead this is a pre-announcement to let users know that they may be seeing wonky elements over the next few weeks as they tweak things on the fly.

Not surprisingly, the sharing of documents will be a key element to this redesign. Despite it being perhaps the key element of Google Docs, sharing items with others is simply not that intuitive right now. Here’s what Google has in mind for the future:

One thing you’ll probably notice in the next few days is that the “Shared with…” list in the left hand pane will go away. But don’t worry, you can still use Search to do the same thing. Just click on “Search Options” and type the user’s name into the “Shared with:” box. If this is a search you’ll do over and over again, you can click “Save this search” so it will be easily accessible in “Saved Searches”.

Another thing you’ll see is the new Sharing Menu. We feel this is a big improvement over the old one; we’ve moved all the sharing functionality into this one dialog, so now you can completely manage sharing without having to leave the Docs list.

Other than that, Google is adding a bunch of new search operators (which only the hardcore users will care about). And it concludes the post with “They [the new features] will be followed shortly by the new interface and a number of pretty exciting features we have in the pipe.”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/google-wants-you-to-know-a-google-docs-redesign-is-coming-i-wonder-why/

Google Translates documents

Google Translate added the option to upload the documents you want to translate. Until now, you could copy the text in Google Translate or publish the document online and paste its address.

Unfortunately, Google converts your documents to HTML and then it translates the HTML file, so the translation doesn't preserve the layout or the embedded images. You can upload Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, HTML and text files.

Google Chrome suggests popular webpages

The developer version of Google Chrome has recently enabled the updated new tab page, which is more customizable as it lets you remove, reorder and pin thumbnails.

One of the sections from the new tab page is "Tips and suggestions", but it's empty. A recent Chromium build revealed the mystery of the blank container: Google shows popular web pages from the iGoogle gadget "What's popular". The gadget "uses algorithms to find interesting content from a combination of your submissions and trends in aggregated user activity across a variety of Google services, like YouTube and Google Reader".
Suggesting web pages is not a bad idea for the new tab page, but they should be related to your browsing history. Internet Explorer 8 has a feature called "suggested sites", which can be enabled when you install the software and it monitors your browsing activity to show related web pages. Google has a "web history" service which can use Google Toolbar to track the web pages you visit, while offering a searchable browsing history, stats and recommended web pages. It's hard to find the right balance between privacy and utility, but Google has always pushed the boundaries of what's acceptable, even if it was vilified by the media.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-suggests-popular-web.html

Google Calender Labs

Moving the innovation from the main product to a gallery of experimental features was a great idea for Gmail. The number of features increased rapidly without cluttering the product because you could select only the features that are useful to you. The downside was that most of the Gmail Labs were in an early phase, some were buggy and had to be temporarily disabled, while others were simply removed.

The first feature that graduated from Gmail Labs and became a standard feature is Google Tasks: you'll find it below the contacts link and this time there's no option to remove it. "The idea was always that the most popular and viable Labs features would graduate and be made more readily available to all users... and that some of the less used, less viable ones would disappear forever," explains Google.

Since Gmail Labs was a success, Google decided to create a similar gallery of experimental features for Google Calendar. "We've been looking for a way to release early features to users in a quick and experimental fashion, but in a way that would let developers and customers outside of Google extend Calendar too. We've seen how successful Gmail Labs has been and decided Calendar deserved Labs too," notes the Google Apps blog.

Google Calendar Labs has only 6 experiments: an option to customize the application using a background image, a clock that shows the current time in multiple time zones, an option that lets you jump to a certain date, a countdown to the next event, schedules for shared calendars and an option to attach Google Docs documents.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-calendar-labs.html

Why Chrome OS Now? Because Microsoft Office In The Cloud Comes Monday.

The timing of Google’s announcement of Chrome OS was curious. I don’t mean the fact that Google moved up the post on it by a day when some details leaked out, I mean the fact that they were announcing it on some seemingly random date in July, well before anything is actually ready to show off. Now, we likely know why.

On Monday, Microsoft is set to unveil its plans to counter the attack Google previously had launched on it with Google Docs. Yes, Microsoft Office is going to the cloud. This is something which we all knew was eventually coming, and there is already some limited functionality, but the full details will pour out Monday at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. You can expect the new version of Office, that syncs with the cloud, and the ability to use it in the cloud without any software as well.

Almost immediately following the Chrome OS announcement, Robert Scoble took to his favorite home on the web, FriendFeed, to have one of his, I-know-something-you-don’t-know “discussions.” During the course of those “discussions,” Scoble dropped quite a few hints about what Microsoft planned to announce on Monday, including “Diego, no, it’s one of Microsoft’s primary businesses. Did you know Microsoft has 14 billion dollar businesses?” Guess what that is? Microsoft Office.

It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. And several bloggers already have. And it was especially easy after Scoble ruled out the new browser project Microsoft has code-named “Gazelle.” Scoble also noted that what Microsoft was showing off would run in browsers beyond just IE.

So yes, it’s Office Web that was first talked about at PDC last year.

And it’s possible that Microsoft could unveil that this new web-based Office will reside on the great domain, office.com. That site is clearly going through a transition to new ownership right now, and that would make a lot of sense.

Office is obviously the 900-pound gorilla that Google is attempting to slay with Google Docs, but a 900-pound gorilla with a matching web offering will be a lot tougher. And that’s likely why Google wanted to get its own uppercut in first this week. And it’s a strong one. But now Microsoft is going to have to come up with some answers to how it can counter Chrome OS, rather than focus on talking about the new Office.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/why-chrome-os-now-because-microsoft-office-in-the-cloud-comes-monday/

Google gets set to shatter Windows’ dominance Google’s operating system escalates Microsoft duel

SUN VALLEY, Idaho —- Google Inc. is hoping to gain greater control over how personal computers work by developing a free operating system that will attack Microsoft Corp.’s golden goose —- its long-dominant Windows franchise.

The new operating system will be based on Google’s 9-month-old Web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.

The early versions of the Chrome operating system will be tailored for “netbooks,” a breed of low-cost, less powerful laptop computers that are becoming increasingly popular among budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the Web.

That is a direct challenge to Microsoft, whose next operating system, Windows 7, is being geared for netbooks as well as larger computers.

The vast majority of netbooks already run on Windows, and that is unlikely to change unless Google can demonstrate the Chrome operating system is a significant improvement, said Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson. He noted that many customers had returned the original netbooks that used open-source alternatives to Windows.

“People wanted Windows because they knew how to use it and knew how applications worked.”

Google struck a confident tone in a blog posting late Tuesday night announcing its operating system. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company believes it can streamline the operating system to improve speed and reduce security threats.

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear —- computers need to get better,” wrote Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, its engineering director.

Microsoft hadn’t responded to requests for comment through Wednesday.

The success of the Chrome operating system will likely hinge on its acceptance among computer manufacturers that have been loyal Windows customers for years, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst for the research group Directions on Microsoft. “Most people, when they get a new operating system, they get it with their PC,” he said. “I don’t think most people think much about their operating systems.”

Getting consumers and businesses to switch to computers powered by a new operating system won’t be easy, as Google has learned from the introduction of Chrome. Google says about 30 million people are using Chrome, a small fraction of the Web surfers who rely on Microsoft’s market-leading Internet Explorer.

Microsoft’s Windows operating system has been even more dominant for a longer period time despite challenges from Apple Inc. and various systems based on Linux, the same type of open-source software that Google plans to use.
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/07/09/google0709.html

Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.

Wow. So you know all those whispers about a Google desktop operating system that never seem to go away? You thought they might with the launch of Android, Google’s mobile OS. But they persisted. And for good reason, because it’s real.

In the second half of 2010, Google plans to launch the Google Chrome OS, an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google writes tonight on its blog.

But let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that?

And it’s a genius play. So many people are buying netbooks right now, but are running WIndows XP on them. Windows XP is 8 years old. It was built to run on Pentium IIIs and Pentium 4s. Google Chrome OS is built to run on both x86 architecture chips and ARM chips, like the ones increasingly found in netbooks. It is also working with multiple OEMs to get the new OS up and running next year.

Obviously, this Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast just like the browser itself. But also just like the browser, it will be open-sourced. Think Microsoft will be open-sourcing Windows anytime soon?

As Google writes, “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.” They might as well set up enlistment booths on college campuses for their war against Microsoft.

Google says the software architecture will basically be the current Chrome browser running inside “a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” So in other words, it basically is the web as an OS. And applications developers will develop for it just as they would on the web. This is similar to the approach Palm has taken with its new webOS for the Palm Pre, but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS.
What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all.

So why release this new OS instead of using Android? After all, it has already been successfully ported to netbooks. Google admits that there is some overlap there. But a key difference they don’t mention is the ability to run on the x86 architecture. Android cannot do that (though there are ports), Chrome OS can and will. But more, Google wants to emphasize that Chrome OS is all about the web, whereas Android is about a lot of different things. Including apps that are not standard browser-based web apps.

But Chrome OS will be all about the web apps. And no doubt HTML 5 is going to be a huge part of all of this. A lot of people are still wary about running web apps for when their computer isn’t connected to the web. But HTML 5 has the potential to change that, as you’ll be able to work in the browser even when not connected, and upload when you are again.

We’re starting to see more clearly why Google’s Vic Gundotra was pushing HTML 5 so hard at Google I/O this year. Sure, part of it was about things like Google Wave, but Google Wave is just one of many new-style apps in this new Chrome OS universe.

But there is a wild card in all of this still for Microsoft: Windows 7. While Windows XP is 8 years old, and Windows Vista is just generally considered to be a bad OS for netbooks, Windows 7 could offer a good netbook experience. And Microsoft had better hope so, or its claim that 96% of netbooks run Windows is going to be very different in a year.

Google plans to release the open source code for Chrome OS later this year ahead of the launch next year. Don’t be surprised if this code drops around the same time as Windows 7. Can’t wait to hear what Microsoft will have to say about all of this. Good thing they have a huge conference
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/google-drops-a-nuclear-bomb-on-microsoft-and-its-made-of-chrome/

Size limits increased for YouTube, Gmail

Google Inc. has raised the size limits on its YouTube video-sharing site and on Gmail attachments.

YouTube has increased the size limits on videos uploaded to its site in an apparent move to ease the use of high-definition content.

The popular video-sharing unit of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has doubled the size of videos allowed on the site to 2 gigabytes, but non-partner clips are still limited in length to 10 minutes.

The move (noted here on its help pages) comes less than a year after YouTube increased the size limit from 100 megabytes.

Gmail accounts, meanwhile, now have a 25-megabyte limit on attachments, up from 20 megabytes previously.

The company warns, however, that users' attachments may bounce off of other email systems which have smaller attachment limits. This is apparently seen by the company as an entry to getting more Gmail users as it includes this suggestion on its Gmail help page: "If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail."

Google enhances and open sources its Update software

Google has both refreshed and open sourced its Google Update software, which is code-named Omaha. By making the software available under the open source Apache license, developers working on an auto-updater can use Google's code, which also enables Google to publish updates and plug security holes.

"Omaha allows us to add features seamlessly and address any bugs or security problems, all without concern that these updates will disrupt our users," wrote Myles Jordan of Google's software engineering team in a blog post on Friday. "Omaha allowed us to ship 12 versions of Chrome beta in 4 months, without requiring Chrome users to work hard to keep their browsers up to date. Such behavior is very useful for new features, but essential for security vulnerabilities."

Jordan explained that Google products, including Chrome and Google Earth, all use Google update as a shared infrastructure for keeping products up to date on users' PCs.

Sharing the source code will also provide transparency and give users more control over the whole process, Jordan wrote, since Google Update runs behind the scenes on a user PC and there is no easy way to stop it.

"Obviously, we understand that not everyone is both willing and able to read through our code, but we hope that those of you who do will confirm for the rest that Google Update's functionality serves well to keep your software up to date," Jordan added.
Source: http://www.techworld.com.au/index.php?q=article/299057/google_enhances_open_sources_its_update_software&fp=4194304&fpid=1

Keeping your passwords Secure

Many people think it's hard to have a good password because it should be complicated and, as a result, hard to remember. When you create a new Google account, you can read some nice tips that prove you can create a strong yet memorable password.

* Include punctuation marks and/or numbers.
* Mix capital and lowercase letters.
* Include similar looking substitutions, such as the number zero for the letter 'O' or '$' for the letter 'S'.
* Create a unique acronym.
* Include phonetic replacements, such as 'Luv 2 Laf' for 'Love to Laugh'.

And some things to avoid (that could be summarized as: don't use passwords that are easy to guess).

* Don't use a password that is listed as an example of how to pick a good password.
* Don't use a password that contains personal information (name, birth date, etc.)
* Don't use words or acronyms that can be found in a dictionary.
* Don't use keyboard patterns (asdf) or sequential numbers (1234).
* Don't make your password all numbers, uppercase letters or lowercase letters.
* Don't use repeating characters (aa11).

And, of course, the obvious: "never tell your password to anyone (this includes significant others, roommates, parrots, etc.), never write your password down, never send your password by email."

So, the next time when you create a new passwords, think of a quote you like, an old saying (maybe not in English or your native language), use punctuation and replace some letters with similar digits or other characters. You can also use short forms for some of the words.

There are many places where you can test show strong a password is. One of them is available if you go to Google.com, sign out and then click on "sign in". Choose "create an account now" and type your password. Google will indicate you if your password is strong, fair or weak. Then you can use the password wherever you need it.

If you can't come up with a new password for each new site you sign up, at least try not to use the same password you have for your mail account (many people sign up using the email address: myemail@yahoo.com and choose the Yahoo password). If that site has security problems and your account is compromised, your Yahoo account will be compromised as well.

Also, be aware that most browsers offer to store your passwords, so they can auto-complete them. Many times they are not stored securely and anyone who has physical access to your computer can find the passwords (for example, go to Firefox > Tools > Options > Security > Show passwords > Show passwords again). That's why it's a better idea to use password managers like Password Safe, KeePass, RoboForm, that store your passwords securely and can manage any kind of password. In Firefox and Opera you could also use a master password, but there are commercially tools that can recover master passwords.

A small summary and some other tips:
* create strong passwords that mix digits, punctuation, capital and lowercase letters by thinking at a memorable quote and making some replacements or using acronyms
* don't share your passwords with anyone
* don't use the same password for all your accounts
* try not to use the built-in password managers from your browser. Use safer tools, if you really need a password manager.
* change your password from time to time
* try to stay away from sites that don't use secure authentication (look for https in the address bar)
* sign out when you finish a session

Do you have other ways to keep your passwords secure?
Source:http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/03/keeping-your-passwords-secure.html

Google Update Always Running in the Background? Not Anymore

Google open source blog informs that the google update the software used by Google Chrome and other applications for automatic updates, no longer runs in the background. "Until now, Google Update would always run in the background, functioning primarily as a reliable scheduler performing update checks at periodic time intervals. With today's release, Google Update now uses the Windows Task Scheduler to only run at periodic intervals."

I've checked the Task Scheduler and I've found that Google Update runs every hour. You can change how often it runs and even disable the task, but I'm not sure if other Google applications change your settings. "If this task is disabled or stopped, your Google software will not be kept up to date, meaning security vulnerabilities that may arise cannot be fixed and features may not work. This task uninstalls itself when there is no Google software using it," explains Google.

Since Google Chrome is regularly updated, it's not a good idea to disable the updater, thinking that you'll install the new versions manually.
The first good news is that you'll no longer see googleupdate.exe in the list of processes when you open the Task Manager. The second good news is that Google Update's team listens to users and constantly improves the software: Google Update is now open source and administrators can disable it using the Local Group Policy.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-update-always-running-in.html

Google Tool Bars Improved Web Translation

Google Translate can be used to translate many web pages, but you can't use it for pages that require login and for Ajax-powered web applications. You won't be able to translate a Gmail message, a Google Docs document or a Facebook message without copying the text to Google Translate.

I've mentioned in March that Google Toolbar tests a translation feature that extracts the text from any web page and translates in real-time. The impressive feature is now available in Google Toolbar 6 for Internet Explorer and it works extremely well.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

By default, Google detects when a page is not in English (or another preferred language) and it offers the option to translate it. Language detection doesn't send text from the current web page to Google's servers, but you'll need to send the text when you translate the page.

"When you visit a webpage in a different language than your Toolbar, Toolbar will display the translation bar near the top of your browser window and ask you if you'd like to translate the page. Click Translate to translate the page, or click Translate on your Toolbar. Click Show original or the x icon to close the translation bar and view the original webpage. If you change your preferred translation language, Toolbar will remember your language preferences and use them when translating pages in the future," explains Google.

New Google study on speed in search results

Googler Jake Brutlag recently published a short study, "Speed Matters for Google Web Search"which looked at how important it is to deliver and render search result pages quickly.

Specifically, Jake added very small delays (100-400ms) to the time to serve and render Google search results. He observed that even these tiny delays, which are low enough to be difficult for users to perceive, resulted in measurable drops in searches per user (declines of -0.2% to -0.6%).

Please see also my Nov 2006 post, "Marissa Mayer at Web 2.0", which summarizes a claim by Googler Marissa Mayer that Google saw a 20% drop in revenue from an accidentally introduced 500ms delay.

Update: To add to the Marissa Mayer report above, Drupal's Dries Buytaert summarized the results of a few A/B tests at Amazon, Google, and Yahoo on the impact of speed on user satisfaction. As Dries says, "Long story short: even the smallest delay kills user satisfaction."
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-google-study-on-speed-in-search.html

Google Account Recovery Via SMS

Google added a new password recovery option: you can now associate a mobile phone number with your Google Account and Google will send a recovery code by SMS.

"Since most people use cell phones these days, we decided text messaging would be an easy, convenient addition to our password recovery options. To set up password recovery via your mobile phone, just sign in to your account and click Change Password Recovery Options. Enter your mobile phone number and current password and then click Save. If you lose access to your account for any reason, you'll be able to regain access by entering a code we'll send in a text message."

For now, the options is only available in the US, so you need to use a us proxy to see it. Google also updated the password recovery settings page to include all the account-recovery options: secondary email addresses, text messages and the security question.

Google increases Maximum attachment size to 25 MB

Now you can send bigger attachments in Gmail, as Google increased the maximum attachment size from 20 MB to 25 MB.

"With Gmail, you can send and receive messages up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. Please note that you may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits. If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail, suggests Google.

For some reason, Gmail's Flash uploader doesn't allow me to upload files that are larger than 10 MB. The error message is "attachment failed" and Google's suggestions aren't very helpful. Switching to the basic uploader in the settings solves the problem, but it's more tedious to upload multiple files.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

Michael Jacksons Death slows down Google

The all powerful Google and their impenetrable server farms took a major hit last night, when the news about Michael Jackson suffering a cardiac arrest and ultimately passing away broke. As CNN and News.com shows, Google was displaying one of those Google "We're Sorry" pages to searches trying desperately to find out the fate of Michael Jackson. Even Search Engine Land was suffering from the news, as the tweet confirms.

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020291.html

Tips for Making Website run faster

Installing a fast browser is not always enough to have a good experience when you browse the web: many web pages aren't optimized for performance. To help webmasters improve their sites, Google launched a new section as part of Google Code:

Let's make the web faster" which includes useful articles, videos and downloadable tools.You'll learn how to optimize CSS declarations, how to optimize JavaScript code and avoid memory leaks, how to use the best image format and prefetch resources.

Google also released a Firebug plug-in for Firefox that evaluates web pages and provides suggestions to improve them.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

Google Unveils AdSense For iPhone, Android Apps

Google (GOOG) today announced AdSense for Mobile Applications, a service that allows developers to display text and image ads in applications for the Apple iPhone and Google Android operating systems.

Google says it has been testing the system with a small number of partners for the base few months, and is not ready to open up the beta to a larger number of developers.

“In order to continue growing the mobile application market, developers need to make money to fund their projects,” Google said in a statement. “We hope AdSense for Mobile Applications will encourage iPhone and Android developers to keep making new, innovative mobile applications.”

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/06/24/google-unveils-adsense-for-iphone-android-apps/

New options for translating webpages

Google Translation service has more options when you translate web pages. You can now set a different destination language and translate a new web page by entering its address in the persistent input box. There's also a new interface that displays the translation in tooltips, so you can still read the original text.

Bing Translator Microsoft's translation service, has an interesting option that shows the original page and the translation side by side, much like in Google Translator Toolkit. This interface is very useful for those who are familiar with multiple languages and Google should add it as an option.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/

Google sensors china porn searches

Google engineers have put in place several measures to remove pornography from search results in China, after the government warned the company its filter was too weak.

Google has temporarily disabled the Google Suggest feature on Google.cn and developed an automated system to remove pornographic links from search results, said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search and the user experience, at a meeting in Taipei.

The company has also redesigned the Google.cn home page to remove the radio buttons that offer language and locale options, Google said in a statement. The rest of the home page remains the same.

"Google has been working to remove pornography from our search results in China, in accordance with our operating license there," the statement says. "This has been a major engineering effort, and we believe we have addressed many of the problems identified by the government."

China last week ordered Google to suspend its foreign Web site search service over the issue.

One search user in Beijing said the measures had made finding porn much more difficult via Google.cn, mainly from obvious search words such as "porn." However, he could still find some obscene material when searching in English and using slang or other less common words. Pornographic Bittorrent download links were also still available through the results.

Google's main English search page at Google.com continued to offer pornographic search results in China.

China's warning to Google last week comes amid a broad crackdown against online smut in the nation that has seen the shutting of thousands of Web sites and the creation of controversial censoring software, Green Dam Youth Escort, that blocks pornographic and politically sensitive content, and is to be installed on all computers sold in China as of the beginning of July.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/167164/google_censors_china_porn_searches.html

Google updates maps for Android

Google has launched an updated version of its Maps application for Android smartphones, bringing a number of interesting new features, most importantly voice search.

So, if you’re an English-language speaker with an American, Australian, or British accent, you can now search Google Maps using your voice; how useful that really is, we’ll leave to individual users to decide, but talking into your phone on a crowded street will probably get you nowhere.

There’s a host of other improvements, though. First, Google has added transit and walking directions for over 250 cities, including New York City and San Francisco. A bug that caused background location updates to periodically stop in Google Latitude has been fixed, as long as you have the “Detect your location” option selected in the Latitude privacy menu.

Finally, there’s an interesting experimental feature called Updates which lets you communicate with friends. Start Latitude, click the “Updates” tab, and post messages to your friends. This feature will only work for users who have the latest version of Google Maps for Android.

Bear in mind that this update won’t be automatically downloaded to your phone; you have to download the new version in the Android market.

http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/google-updates-maps-for-android/

Citizentube: Watching video change our world

As you might have noticed, there's a lot of fascinating stuff that happens on YouTube every day. For example, did you know that a nine-year-old recently used YouTube to successfully campaign to save his local kickball lot? Have you seen the video of a Guatemalan lawyer who predicted his own assassination on YouTube moments before it happened? Or did you know that YouTube and Google have launched a new technology platform for political debates, which allows you to submit and vote on the most important issues you want to discuss with political candidates?

These are the sorts of things you can stay on top of with Citizentube, a special YouTube blog devoted to chronicling the way that people are using video to change the world. If you've followed news and politics on YouTube, you might have noticed that we started Citizentube as a video channel on the site a few years back, but we soon realized that keeping track of all the phenomenal uses of YouTube by posting our own videos just wasn't fast enough — so now we're blogging, too. We generally focus on two types of posts: the compelling political and social uses of YouTube that we see the community bubble up every day, and our own programming initiatives and partnerships in the political, news, and nonprofit arenas.

Our team creates opportunities for you to engage with content that goes beyond the humorous or even the educational — content that changes the way you interact with your communities, institutions, and leaders. The first initiative we launched in this space was the You Choose '08 platform and the CNN/YouTube Debates in 2007. Since then we've expanded our programming to the fields of government, activism, and news & information. On the blog, we'll post an occasional series that gives a bigger picture perspective of what's happening in the worlds of news reporting, government, and social change on YouTube.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/citizentube-watching-video-change-our.html

Google improves Flash search and indexing

Google has enhanced its search engine's capacity to index Adobe's Flash files, which are very popular on the Web but tricky for search engine spiders.

Google's search engine can now index external content that a Flash file loads, such as text, HTML, XML or Flash content itself, the company said Friday.

The Google search engine will also tie the indexed Flash file to this externally loaded content and the documents from where it comes, Google said.

"This new capability improves search quality by allowing relevant content contained in external resources to appear in response to users' queries," wrote Google software engineer Janis Stipins in an official blog.

Friday's announcement is the latest in Google's multiyear effort to improve its indexing of Flash files and specifically builds on the announcement in June of last year that Google had developed a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files.

At the time, Adobe also announced it was providing optimized Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo to help with their ongoing efforts to better index Flash files.

Improvements to index Flash by Google, Yahoo and others benefit not only the search engines and their end users but also webmasters and designers, who have struggled to have the Flash portions of their sites indexed and made searchable.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/308268/google_improves_flash_search_indexing

References:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Flash indexing with external resource loading

Official Google Blog: Google learns to crawl Flash

Adobe - Adobe Press Room

Google Street View Bike Does Santa Monica, Universities & More

View Larger Map

Remember that Google Street View bike that was unveiled in May for use to map footpaths in Britain? Turns out, Google has a number of them, and they’re also operating in Japan, Italy and the US. In fact, imagery from them from three spots in California has recently gone online and more will be coming in the next few months.

In the US, these areas have gotten Street View photography via bike power:

Santa Monica Pier

Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Path

3rd Street Promenade

http://searchengineland.com/google-street-view-bike-21320

Movie Trailers on Youtube

YouTube has launched a new directory for movie trailers. While YouTube has had movie trailers on its site from distributors in the past, Google’s video-sharing site has launched a new channel where official trailers are organized by “Latest,” “Popular,” “In Theatres,” and “Opening Soon.”

Apple’s movie trailer platform has long been the most comprehensive and popular site in distributing online trailers. Hulu also provides a good amount of trailers on its site. Recently, YouTube launched a premium section with movies and TV shows from Crackle/Sony Pictures, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz, the BBC, Anime Network, Cinetic Rights Management, Current TV, Discovery, Documentary Channel, First Look Studios, IndieFlix, and National Geographic.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/19/youtube-plays-nice-with-the-movie-industry-puts-trailers-in-their-own-channel/

Import Word 2007 files to Google Docs

Click the Upload button at the top of the sidebar in your Docs list page.

Click Browse.

To upload a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, follow these steps:

Select the document, spreadsheet, or presentation you'd like to open.

Click Open.

Click Upload File. The uploaded file appears in your Docs list.

When uploading, please keep the following in mind:

You can only upload certain file types:

For spreadsheets: .xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, .tsv, .txt, .tsb

For documents: .doc, .docx, .html, plain text (.txt), .rtf

For presentations: .ppt, .pps

You can also upload .pdf files to your Docs list.

Emailing documents in to Google Docs

If you'd prefer, you can email your documents in to Google Docs. This is a quick way to import many documents at once, and you can use this feature as an add-on to how you currently collaborate with others. For example, you can add your unique Email-In address when you pass around documents.

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=50092&hl=en

There are some file-size limits. See the size requirements for uploading.

Some of your original formatting may not be preserved.

Here Comes Google Voice

We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007.

The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance.

As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail. You'll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview. Check out the features page for videos and more information on how these features work.

If you're already using GrandCentral, over the next couple days, you will receive instructions in your GrandCentral inbox on how to start using Google Voice. We'll be opening it up to others soon, so if you'd like to be notified when that happens, please send us your email address.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html

Google Apps sync for Microsoft outlook

Microsoft Office Comes to the Browser (Finally)

Microsoft announced this morning at its PDC conference that the next release of Microsoft Office will include browser-based versions of some of its main office software products - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These will be "lightweight versions", but Microsoft told us yesterday that they'll still have rich functionality and will be comparable to Google's suite of online office applications. The apps will enable users to create, edit and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents through the browser. The apps will work in IE, Firefox and Safari browsers (no word on whether Google Chrome will be supported). Update: Microsoft clarified in an email that these apps will use HTML and AJAX, but also Silverlight components.The online versions will share the same names as their desktop counterparts (Word, Excel, etc), although unfortunately they don't fully escape the awkward and confusing branding that Microsoft gives to most of its Internet apps. The collective name for these apps is "Office Web Applications". To remind you, there is also an Office Online (a separate Microsoft site where users can download templates) and an Office Live Workspace (for sharing office files between desktop and Web - our coverage).

The "Office Web applications" will be available to consumers through Office Live, a service which has both ad-funded and subscription options. Business users will be offered Office Web applications as a hosted subscription service and through existing "volume licensing agreements". There will be a private technology preview of the Office Web applications later this year.

Last month we ran a poll asking which word processing tool you primarily use. We got over 2,600 separate votes and a resounding 49% of people still use Microsoft Word as their main word processing tool. Its open source desktop equivalent OpenOffice got 16%. Google Docs was the best placed Web Office app, with 15%.

The results showed that there is still a big place for desktop Office apps. Nevertheless, with the announcement yesterday of Microsoft Azure - a so-called cloud computing OS - Microsoft is clearly serving a growing demand for browser-based office software. We expect these apps to become more full featured over time.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_office_comes_to_browser.php