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Google updates its search technology

Alex John — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:01:07 +0000

Google has updated its image search technology so that the users can have 1000 images per page. This is being done to beat the competition arising out of Microsoft’s Bing that is full of pictures.

Google also not aims to increase the density of images when its search results pages are revealed to the users. The search engine is also planning to add the capability to hover the mouse icon over an image automatically. This will help the viewers to have a bigger preview of the image before actually clicking on it. Under the new plans, now every Google search will result in up to 1000 images on a single scrolling page. With the help of Page Up and Page Down, the users can scroll between the images.

When a mouse icon is moved over an image, it automatically displays a larger preview and clicking on the image will result in a new landing page that will display the image in context and by clicking outside of the image, the user will be taken back to the originating website. Google is also rolling out new features for its advertisers and the adds will appear on the images.

Picknik now part of Google’s Picasa photo editing

Benjamin Graham — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:19:53 +0000

Google has added Picknik Photo Editing to its Picasa Web Album. Picknik is an online photo editing software marker which Google had acquired in March. This way, Google has thrown a huge challenge to Flickr, which is a huge and established site for photo editing.

Prior to the adding of Picknik, Google’s Picasa was an ordinary PC application that enabled the user in resizing and adding some simple effects to the photos. Now Picknik is going to radically change the things for the company and the users too.

Picknik has all the required features for the users who wish to edit photos. But the critics say that Picknik is more like it is crammed into Picasa rather than being the part of it. The users have been given an option, implying that the software has not been introduced as a new feature. While regular tools are free, you have to pay a fee of $5 per month or $25 per year for use of some advance tools and options.

Google plans huge investment in social gaming

Benjamin Graham — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:58:16 +0000

According to the new reports making rounds, Google is planning to make huge investment in social gaming. It is learnt the search engine giant is set for investing $100 to $200 million in social gaming honcho Zynga, which has created the games like Farmville, Mafia Wars and others.

Zynga is a big gaming site that has created casual games that involves social network Facebook. There is a huge market for easier games that everyone can play and does not require any installations. There were reports that Google was ready to launch its own social network called Google Me and it is for this site that the gaming deal was signed. Reports say that soon Google will be out with its own social game services.

The games on Google’s social networking sites may not have ads inside of them. It is also a possibility that its Android App stores may have some gaming spice. These stores already have game publishers who offer games for Apple iOS platform. Zynga is developing its Farmville game for Android which will enhance apps sales and will eventually have an impact on Android based handsets.

China renews license for Google

Alex John — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:02:07 +0000

After months of tensions over censorship, Google Inc. said China’s government had renewed a license for the company to continue using its Chinese Web address. The decision will enable the search giant to keep its foot on soil of the country where it has the most Internet users.

However, the experts say that despite the license, Google’s uncertainty may not end as Beijing may end the license and block the access to Google’s services any time whenever the government feels to do so. At a news conference Thursday Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, said: “Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government. I don’t want anyone to be confused about that.” Earlier he had announced expectation of the license renewal from the country.

But there have been no comments released from the government and a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Industry declined to comment either. Under immense pressure from the Chinese government, Google had to stop its redirecting services from Hong Kong. But it is still not certain if the license will continue for longer duration as it can be cancelled anytime.

However, a Chinese professor of journalism Xiao Qiang has made an interesting comment saying, “What’s interesting is that the Chinese government would make this decision after a private company challenged its censorship policy before the eyes of the Chinese people,”

Google to introduce Android system in India

Alex John — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:10:19 +0000

Google’s Android mobile phone operating system has gained immense popularity in short time and it is giving tough competition to Blackberry and iOS. The operating system has become almost unavoidable to the users.

In European countries Google Android is famous and in Asia, except Japan and Korea the demand for Google Android is miniscule. Now Google has decided to explore Indian market and will launch Android to India and China as these are a huge market for Google.

LG, Sony Ericsson, Samsung etc are popular in the India and Asia but not so popular to beat the mobile giant Nokia. Nokia uses Symbian OS in their smartphones, and it is highly unlikely that Nokia will put up Android in their mobiles. Indian mobile users are unaware about the Android and concentrate mostly on brand and the features. Very few people choose mobiles according to their OS. The only way Google capture huge Indian market is through mid segment mobiles with Android OS. Companies such as LG and Samsung are introducing affordable smartphones in India and helping Google’s cause. This will be a base for the Adroid based phones in India.

Google News revamped to allow individual interests

Alex John — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:29:16 +0000

Google has been facing challenges from other search engines especially from Microsoft’s Bing to revamp itself for making the pages more user-friendly. On Wednesday, it finally launched its news website with new changes.

In a blog post, software engineer Kevin Stolt says, ‘’We’re revamping the Google News homepage with several changes designed to make the news that you see more relevant to you. We’re also trying to better highlight interesting stories you didn’t know existed and to make it easier for you to share stories through social networks.”

The main attraction and feature after the revamp is the ‘News for you’ page which has a stream of headlines that are categorized as per the interests of the users so that they can personalize the service. The blog says, You can help us get it right by using the ‘Edit personalization’ box to specify how much you’re interested in Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports or any subject you want to add.”

The users can also prefer some news sources more often if they like it. Google News also showcases major breaking stories that are of lasting interest to the users. The new design is such that it allows the users to share stories through social networking services like Facebook and Twitter.

Google Me seen as rival site to Facebook

Alex John — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:31:14 +0000

There are widespread rumors that Google is about to launch some kind of service that will be aimed to kill similar service presently offered by Facebook. This rumor floated rapidly after Digg founder Kevin Rose wrote on Twitter.

Rose wrote that the new service will be called “Google Me,” and it will provide services that could be rival to Facebook’s similar services. If the rumors are true then it wouldn’t be the first time that Google will compete with an equally high-profile Web 2.0 entity. But it sill is not clear as to how much of f dedicated users can be cornered, however, one number in particular is rather telling: According to to Rose, ” 90 percent of all content published on Google Buzz is nothing more than automated rehash from an existing Twitter account or RSS feed.”

There is no clear picture that has emerged for ‘”Google Me”. The only information so far gathered is speculation, but it looks like there is going to be an update on the preexisting Google Profiles service which is a mini-biographical profile page.

An expert Brad says,” Knowing that a Google account is required to use Orkut, and a Gmail account is required for Buzz, we can safely assume that we’re looking at roughly 200 million users to any service that would combine the two,”

Google killed apps remotely for security

Ella Johnson — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 08:00:26 +0000

Google has said that it had recently killed some apps remotely and such an action was taken for the first time. Like Apple, Google too has brought a system in place on its Android smartphone operating system in order to delete apps when it is necessary to do so.

Explaining the remote killing of apps in its blog post, Google says, ‘Every now and then, we remove applications from Android Market due to violations of our Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement or Content Policy. In cases where users may have installed a malicious application that poses a threat, we’ve also developed technologies and processes to remotely remove an installed application from devices. If an application is removed in this way, users will receive a notification on their phone.’’

Clearly it is the security workers of Google who killed the apps and these were distributed on the Android market and misrepresented themselves. So, the researchers eventually removed them from the market. Google remotely killed the two apps that remained the users’ phones.

Experts say that it is highly delightful that Google cares to explain about what it does so that the transparence of the business can be maintained and this is what the customers appreciate much.

Google Maps now much improved for users

Deniel Crag — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:21:52 +0000

Google has said that it has done an update to its Maps service for Android. These new features include train information, ratings of the places and Latitude friend suggestions.
The Transit feature for commuters implies that they can find the schedules applicable and have a look at the schedules of trains from the Maps app. To have these services is to add the Transit layer and click to find out whatever station. The Latitude feature also has gone through improvements and it is now lot easier to track friends and family through these Google Maps on Android.
The two contacts can share information and you are also allowed to go through another Latitude users contacts this way you can avoid privacy fears also. One of the updates on Google Maps is that its Place Page is now much improved. The new feature includes color-coded places so that it may become easier for you visit that place whenever you want.
When you make more inroads into this section, you will come to know that there are reviews also about a certain place of your choice. You can get If you drill into this section you will also get reviews about a place. You can evaluate a place for its food, service, selection and atmosphere.

Google to Fix Calendar Bugs

Deniel Crag — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:18:20 +0000

Google fixed a problem, due to which a big part of users were unable to log into their Calendar accounts.
Although the problem was acknowledged by the search giant around 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, the users of the service started to complain in the official Calendar discussion forum on Tuesday.
As a result, Google recommended users to clear all their browser cookies. Also it was advised to sign out and then back in their accounts. In fact, the problem was fixed by 12:15 p.m.

Fortunately, the issue did not influence on organizations that take advantage of Calendar as part of the Google Apps Premier equipped with communication as well as collaboration suite. It is available for US$50 per user per year. It comes with IT controls and also is enabled with a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee.
Among other services of Google that were hit with bugs are the following: the Blogger blog hosting, App Engine application development, publishing service, hosting platform as well as archiving suite along with Postini e-mail security.