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10 Cool Things You Didn't Know About Google

http://www.cio.com/article/500315/10_Cool_Things_You_Didn_t_Know_About_Google
You use Google's site every day, but how well do you know the company?

Regardless of how you feel about Google, you have to admire them. Two techies in a garage with no viable business model have created one of the fastest-growing, most profitable, most admired companies, ever. They affect millions of people around the world and provide the infrastructure for an online economy worth billions. They have, in short, been almost frighteningly true to their mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. For more of Google's story,

Google 600 patents

http://androidappsblog.net/amadeus-consulting-discusses-new-android-market-content-ratings-174?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/14/larry-page-android-patent-problems/

Google on Display Ads

Two days ago, there was a blog post from Neal Mohan, vicepresident od Display Advertising from Google with the title There’s a perfect ad for everyone

Who is this man and what did he say?

For the second answer, this is Google and in my opinion they are launching one of the biggest campaigns of the year with Watch This Space. Everyone of us has seen it even on print. It´s not a prize winning campaign but its omnipresent.

Some time ago Google was too centered on AdSense and others. So, what would happen if the bigger advertiser would jump on Richmedia display ads? Well they first bought Double Click Studio and then began to work. In fact that´s a good idea, to have an agency making formats for your publisher page, even more if all people are saying again and again that video is going to take the web. Yes I´m talking about YouTube...

So they became one more of the richmedia publishers you should follow, with MSN, Yahoo and AOL.

First question: What did he say?

1 -The number of display ad impressions will decrease by 25 percent per person. I don´t believe so. It´s like saying they will remove Ads from tv. no sense.

2- Engagement rates across all display ads will increase by 50 percent.

Well, I understand video comes strong although maybe not that amount. How do you measure engage? I remember, there was a mobile phone from Nokia, called Nokia NGage. It was for gaming, enjoying time. So now it will be video, hope better than pre-roll.

3- People will have a direct say in 25 percent of the ads they see. This is related to Cookies. In fact there´s a new law coming, at least in Europe, I don´t believe it will change a lot.

4- 35 percent of campaigns will primarily use metrics beyond clicks and conversions. That´s logic. Richmedia and video bring new metrics against CTR. Anytime you want your customer to be engaged you can give him a lot of metrics.

5- 25 billion ads per day will tell people why they are seeing them. You can also ask Steve Jobs what does he thinks about cookies and his iAd. Also Zuckerberg, I look forward to seeing the day when display ads go to Social Media king (FB).

6- Over 40 percent of online Americans will name display ads as their favorite ad format. The other 60% must be watching the superbowl Ads video.

Well, we don´t have the data that Google has but same intuitions had already been said

ShakeCall Allows You To Receive And End Calls With A Shake (Android)

ShakCall, an android apps allows you to make receive and end calls with shake. It is free and very handy application for you as you you don't need to touch screen to receive and end calls.

The app begins to monitor feedback from your phone’s accelerometer and proximity sensor in the event of a incoming/outgoing call and receives/ends a call whenever the monitored values match or exceed those defined by the user, subsequently causing the phone to vibrate (as per default settings). Launch the app from your app drawer to alter the required Shaking Intensity and Proximity Sensor Value, toggle vibration on call receive/end, toggle the toast suggestion that appears whenever a call is connected and test if the settings suit you via the Sensor Virtual Call Test option.

The Disconnect Call Fix option, when enabled, ensures that calls do not disconnect while you’re holding the phone to your ear.

As of this writing, receiving calls via the proximity sensor (holding the phone to your ear or placing your hand over the ear piece) only works when the Shaking to receive call option is enabled. Hopefully, future updates will allow the user to use one or both of the options at a time.

You can grab the app for free from the Android Market via the provided link or QR code.

Download ShakeCall

Google Co-Founder Larry Page Wants to Be Steve Jobs

Management shakeups are a way of life in Silicon Valley, but today’s unexpected announcement by Google is more like an earthquake than a shakeup. On April 4^th, long-time CEO Eric Schmidt will become Executive Chairman and co-founder Larry Pagewill take his place as CEO. Sergey Brin will remain co-founder.

According to a statement by Schmidt:

For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.

Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.

The big question, of course, is whether Schmidt’s high level of confidence in Page is justified or not. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I have drawn three conclusions from Google’s announcement:

1. I agree with the move to dissolve the triumvirate at the top. Clear responsibility and accountability is a good thing. Moreover,I’ve never been a fan of two, three, or any number of executives in-a-box, as we like to call them around these parts. Of course, it seems to have worked for Google up to now, but they’re changing for a reason, and I applaud that.
2. I could be wrong, but it certainly seems like Page is no longer content to share the limelight with Schmidt and Brin. In other words, he wants to be Google’s equivalent of Steve Jobs - a founding CEO. I don’t blame him. I mean, wouldn’t you want to run the company you founded? Anyway, I guess that would make Brin the equivalent of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Not a bad gig.
3. As for whether Page is “ready to lead” one of America’s great companies in today’s hyper and globally competitive, super fast-paced high-tech industry, competing with the likes of Apple andMicrosoft, I’m not entirely sure. I don’t know Larry. But another Silicon Valley founder-turned-CEO, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, didn’t turn out so well, to say the least. I guess time will tell.

Just wondering: What do you think of Schmidt’s tweet on the subject: “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!“? Does that inspire confidence in Page?

Also check out:

• Will Steve Jobs’ Leave Upset the Apple Cart?
• How to Cure Leadership Dysfunction
• Does Desperation Drive Highly Successful People?

Google co-founder Page will be CEO in shake-up

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – 

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page is taking over as CEO in an unexpected shake-up that upstaged the Internet search leader's fourth-quarter earnings.

Page, 37, is reclaiming the top job from Eric Schmidt, who had been brought in as CEO a decade ago because Google's investors believed the company needed a more mature leader.

Schmidt, 55, will remain an adviser to Page and Google's other co-founder, Sergey Brin, as Google's executive chairman.

The changes will be effective April 4.

"In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I'm excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come," Schmidt said.

Page praised Schmidt, too. "There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly," Page said.

"Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him."
The change in command overshadowed Google's fourth-quarter earnings, which soared past analysts' estimates as the company cranked up its Internet marketing machine during the holiday shopping season.
Google earned $2.5 billion, or $7.81 per share, during the final three months of 2010. That's a 29 percent increase from net income of $2 billion, or $6.13 per share, in the prior year.

Excluding stock-compensation expenses, Google says it earned $8.75 per share. That figure topped the average analyst estimate of $8.06 per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue climbed 26 percent from the prior year to $8.44 billion, from $6.67 billion.

After subtracting the commissions paid to Google's advertising partners, the company's revenue totaled $6.37 billion — about $300 million more than analysts anticipated.

Shares rose $5.64, or less than 1 percent, to $632.41 in extended trading after the announcement. In the regular session earlier, the stock fell $4.98, or 0.8 percent, to close at $626.77.

Apple, Adobe and Google, are you playing?

Lastly I´ve been collecting all twits related to iPad, iPhone, FlashPlayer, the future of Flash, HTML5 and so on, well, there are much more, it´s clear

Actually, I made a survey in TwtPoll with the question: Why iPhone and iPad don´t have Flash?

I tried not to be tendencious (there are options to criticise anyone), results are to come but you can make a prospection about them. We will comment the conclusions in March.

Anyway, my opinion has changed a bit after readding all these twits. But now I´m interested in talking about the strategy of these three companies Apple, Adobe and Google.

So I begun to draw and made three schematic graphs. Game is life!

1. The prisoner´s dilemma.

Let´s think on collaborative strategies or not. Three players: Apple, Google and Adobe. Each one with its products. I reminded when I studied statistics and Game Theory. Taken from wikipedia: "If we assume that each player cares only about minimizing his or her own time in jail, then the prisoner's dilemma forms a non-zero-sum game in which two players may each cooperate with or defect from (betray) the other player. In this game, as in most game theory, the only concern of each individual player (prisoner) is maximizing his or her own payoff, without any concern for the other player's payoff".

Indeed this is a reduccionist point of view, but very amusing cos there would be cases to collaborate or not. For example, if you see the graphic:

- Case 1: Everyone collaborates.

- Case 2: Google says no.

- Case 3: Apple says no.

- Case 4: Adobe says no.

- Case 5: Google and Apple say no.

- Case 6: Apple and Adobe say no no.

- Case 7: Google and Adobe say no.

- Case 8: All of them say no. It´s war!!!

The question here is to know where we are, who is interested in collaborate and why.

2. Colaboration strategies.

Other point of view: Every player has its strategy, and there are some areas where players can collaborate or not with the others.

For example (see graphic):

- Area 1 Google and Adobe collaborate with Nexus 1 via Open Screen Project.

- Area 2: Google and Apple. for example HTML5.

- Area 3: Apple and Adobe. The products of Creative Suite, plugins, etc.

- Area 4: Places where all of the can collaborate (or not).

3. The platform problem.

Last point of view. To resolve the future of the web, the future of flash, the future or whatsoever. Well, it´s too soon to say anything. We don´t know how players will evolve.

Anyway: Three players: Apple, Google and Adobe. To be or not to be. Some say "kill the browser!", some "kill Flash", others "let´s RIA!". Statistics say about the rising of web access from mobile devices. Not only that, but also take into account the business model of the apps, new future devices (iPad or whatsoever as a TV + internet (a successful one)).

To be frank, don´t know if it´s serious enough to compare languages with tools (my apologise for objectice instead of objective). Green colour means OK, yellow means ?

Imagine now you are a developer. Most of us used to be multidisciplinar devigners, some moved to Ajax, some to CSS, others to RIAs, Actionscript or so.

What´s the question? Which is the language with more future? Which is the most difficult? Which one will give you more money?

Are you playing?

Google Wave Coming

So, what is this? The competence to Facebook?
At least it looks good!

Check the video from Google Wave:


You can sign up for the beta here.
Also another video from Linkedin Interactive Group:


Some screen of the app:
More info on Mashable

Gtalk now answers to General Knowledge questions

Gtalk, a cool application of Google to stay connected with Gtalk friends. There are so many spicy cool ways to do more with Gtalk beyond the simple chat routine. Here is another cool stuff for getting quick answer to any General knowledge questions in Google Talk using WebtoIM bot.

To get this features all you need to add webtoim@gmail.com as your friend in your Gtalk account. Then type your question and hit the enter key to get quick answer. It uses True Knowledge service to answer your questions in Google Talk. As seen in screenshot above, it did well answering simple GK questions. You can even get IPL cricket scores, type cricket and hit the enter key -It looks so interesting?

Get Your Site on The Top of Google :- SEO Tips by Matt Cutt

Matt Cutts, a Google engineer gave some simple and common sense SEO tips in an interview with USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham. He provides some great and effective SEO tips to help us in the search engine ranking of Google.They give our new tips on episodes that air weekly at USA TODAY.

Watch out below video to learn some SEO tips from Matt Cutts.

Google Profile:- Tell the World you are on Google

We are using Google as in past like me many of us never dis-clause our identity to people except our friends. But now with Google profile we can come up to the world. Yes Google profile are listed and featured on Google Search.When you or others search for your name on Google, a link to your Google profile may appear at the bottom of the search results next to your profile picture.

If you want people to be able to contact you, but don't want to reveal your email address to the world, you can hide your username and use a 24 digit number instead. Turn on the 'Send a message' feature, and anyone with a Google Account can send you a message through your profile, without having your email address revealed to them.

Check out my Profile at Google Profiles

Official Gmail Blog: Create your Google Profile

Google Patches Chrome Security Holes

The security vulnerabilities already discovered in Chrome appear to have been patched by Google. Of course, Google (much like Apple) hasn't provided any release notes, so discovering what's been fixed isn't that easy. Google said, in a group post:

We're planning to do release notes. 149.29 is a security update and we released it as fast as we could. We would've liked more time to prepare things, but some of the vulnerabilities were made public without giving us a chance to respond, update, and protect our users first. Thanks for being patient as we work out the kinks in all of our processes,

Mark Larson
Program Manager for Google Chrome

It seems that the "carpet bombing" flaw created by using an older WebKit has been fixed, as has the buffer overflow issue discovered by Vietnamese security firm Bach Khoa Internet Security (SVRT-Bkis), a buffer overflow issue which would allow a hacker to take complete control of the affected system.

I also tested the "all tabs crash" and that seems fixed as well.

To update their browser, Chrome users need to go to the wrench icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser and pull down the menu. Then select "About Google Chrome." The browser will then check for an update. If there is one, Chrome will download it and ask to restart. The up-to-date version is 0.2.149.29.

Notably, when I tried this myself, Chrome was already updated, despite the fact I hadn't opened it all weekend.

Source: [TechnologyExpert]

Chrome Security Vulnerabilities Continue to Pile Up

Chrome's first security vulnerability was found hours after its intro; since then other vulnerabilities in a browser that's touted as being ultra-secure have shown up. Of course, as I said earlier, the software is labeled beta, so you should be expecting bugs, whether security bugs or not.

Still, its somewhat ironic the browser that Google has touted to be so secure has been hit with so many "finds" so quickly.

First up, a DoS vulnerability found by Rishi Narang at EvilFingers:

An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27. A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a 'special' character, the chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window "Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?". It crashes on "int 3" at 0x01002FF3 as an exception/trap, followed by "POP EBP" instruction when pointed out by the EIP register at 0x01002FF4.

Vietnamese security firm Bach Khoa Internet Security (SVRT-Bkis) has found a buffer-overflow vulnerability in Chrome 0.2.149.27 and posted details on its blog. The company says:

We (SVRT-Bkis) have just discovered vulnerability in Google Chrome 0.2.149.27. This is the first Critical Chrome Vulnerability permiting hacker to perform a remote code execution attack and take complete control of the affected system.


We have submitted this Vulnerability to Google. They confirmed and assign a verifier for build 0.2.149.28. At this time, we recommend Chrome users do not access any untrusted website or use “Save As” function until the vunerability is fixed.

As I said, this is a beta, and it's the first beta. But while Chrome is labeled beta, so are many other Google products, some of which have been in beta for what seems like forever. This type of usage of the term "beta" may give users a false sense of security (no pun intended). After all Gmail users have been it for years and it's still in beta.

Given that, how are users supposed to know what's safe to use and what's buggy? As hard as Google may find to admit this, when Microsoft, for example, releases a beta product, it means it, and eventually moves that product to release status.

I must admit that it's become far more common to release beta products to wide public use, to get them out into the market sooner. For me, I usually give such products a try, and then wait for the dust to settle before I really dive in.

[TechnologyExpert]

Google's Chrome Already Tops Opera

Opera is much-loved, but it's more of a cult browser. Its users swear by it, but it's never been able to make inroads into browser market share. And the star of the week, Google's Chrome, which stole the headlines away from IE8, has already topped Opera in market share.

According to NetApplications, which has been tracking Chrome usage hourly, on 9/4 at 2:00 AM EDT, Chrome reached 1.57% market share. Since then it's dropped down somewhat, but it's never dropped below Opera's 0.74%, and at the time of this writing is at 1.16%.

This is all despite the fact that Chrome is definitely a CPU and memory hog.

Personally, while Chrome is great as a basic browser, it's missing too many features, doesn't work with too many work-related intranet sites (for example, Sharepoint sites), and is too buggy for full-time use.

So I wonder, just how much of this usage is "trying" rather than "adopting." I'm not ready to switch full-time, and I have not doubt that many will try but not switch permanently. On the other hand, the usage data has been pretty stable.

As Google continues to improve Chrome, if they can manage to keep it from becoming bloated, and if they can get some adoption in the Enterprise, you might see Chrome usage approaching Firefox usage - close to 20%.

Source: [TechnologyExpert]

Chrome's First Security Hole Found

One of the Chrome features touted by Google was sandboxing and security. Poof, no problem, right? Unfortunately, because Google used an old version of Webkit to create its beta of Chrome, a bug that's already been patched by Apple in Safari 3.1.2 leaves Chrome vulnerable to "carpet bombing" attacks.

Yes, I know it's beta, but it's humorous because of Chrome's stance on security, plus it once again shows why you shouldn't use a beta product on your primary system.

Additionally, this was a well-known bug, so Google should have been aware of it; this really tarnishes Chrome's beta release (bad pun intended).

Researcher Aviv Raff discovered the flaw just hours after Chrome's release; by combining the WebKit flaw and a Java bug discussed at this year’s Black Hat conference, users can be tricked users into launching executables directly from the browser.

The proof-of-concept (harmless) demo is here. Of course, it relies on social engineering (meaning human error: a human has to click the button) for the attack to launch, but we users are so gullible sometimes.

Check the Google Chrome About info or the user-agent and you can see that Chrome is actually using WebKit 525.13 (Safari 3.1), which is, as I said, outdated.

[TechnologyExpert]

Review: NEW Google Chrome(Beta)! First Run Of Google’s Browser!

I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the first beta version of Google Chrome! However it still needs a ton of improvement.

This is what I experienced playing around with the browser…

1. Speed and Performance. I was pretty impressed when I first started the browser up. It has to be one of the fastest browsers I’ve seen since Firefox 3 was released. For being in beta it’s pretty freakin fast!
2. Usability. The panels are average — a little simple — but OK. It was a little hard finding the settings at first. Auto completee on the address bar is really sweet, that’s a one up!
3. The Look, “the Chrome” I love the overall design. The light blue “Chrome” really adds a nice new feeling while surfing. The difference in text color in the address bar is neat, distinguishing between the domain name and the rest of the URI. I think the simple design is a really nice touch, since you don’t want a big hunk of a browser anyways.
4. Customize-ability. I didn’t look too deep into it but there’s not much you can do to customize Google Chrome just yet. This is where it falls behind Firefox, which has a hell of a lot of plugins, add-ons, themes and what have you.

There are quite a few downsides for Chrome still:

1. It’s in Beta. Meaning it makes no sense to use it(or take it seriously) until it’s further developed. We don’t know a ton about it yet, it may have security errors, bugs etc.
2. It’s hasn’t been released for Mac or Linux yet. I’m still waiting to download it onto Ubuntu to see how it runs. Google says that they’re working on the Mac and Linux versions so hopefully they hurry it up and release those really soon
3. It’s just a simple browser. Like Konquer and Mozilla(back in the day). It’s going to be a year or two until we know exactly what it’s capable of.

I’m interested to see what Google’s going to add to Chrome next!

So right now it’s just an interesting browser with room to grow, nothing more. It’s going to have to do as much as Firefox 3 and a significant about more until I decide to switch. I’m actually using Chrome right now as I’m writing this post, just for the heck of it:)

Sources: Clinton Skakun

Google takes the browser war one step further with Google Chrome

In the beginning, there was Netscape Navigator and then came Internet Explorer, then Mozilla Firefox and what’s next..? This might be the question somebody had in Google and they came out with a answer called “Google Chrome“.

But I asked myself, “What’s the point of a new browser, in an already crowded place?”. And especially when firefox has begun to stretch it’s empire as a world class open source software, do I really need another browser? So, I quickly ignored any further thoughts about it until I came across this comic book released by Google itself. First I thought it might be a one page cartoon targeting non-technical users, but, I was wrong. Google has done a remarkable job in finding a new (or rather old) way to advertise their product. As we all know pictures speak louder than words, this comic book also speaks very loudly. (Ofcourse about Google Chrome). After reading the comic book yesterday, I quickly searched for the download link, only to know that it will be available for download only from September 03, 2008.

Some of the interesting things I noted from the comic book were:

- Multithreaded tab control, which means more swifter browsing and less bloating.
- Windows task manager style information to know which tab/page “eats up” more memory.
- Faster Javascript engine with advanced garbage collection to make Web 2.0 pages load much much faster.
- Address bar inside each tab.
- “Detachable” tabs. Yeh, they promise you can just detach your tab from one Google Chrome browser window to another.
- Fully open source.
- Built in google suggest in address bar.
- On startup, displays the “most visited” 9 pages as the welcome page.

So what do you think I would have done? I was itching my hand to download and try this new product. And I did so today from Google Chrome download page. I have already started using it, but haven’t explored all it’s “promised features” yet. But the browser looks promising. Let me come back after digging deep into Google Chrome. Till then, stay tuned!

Sources: James

Who Will Google Chrome Kill? Google Releases Chrome Beta On Tuesday!

The Official Google Blog announced that they’re releasing Google Chrome to over 100 countries tomorrow. However Chrome will only run on Windows for a while. Linux and Mac users will have to miss out on it for a few months. Chrome is NOT ready yet, it’s still in beta, so keep that in mind.

I’m not expecting it to take over right away but I think it will eventually change the way we choose our browsers and surf the web.

Google has a pretty good idea on what type of effect they want their new browser to have on people:

Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser.

- Official Google Blog

I’m waiting to see how this new browser matches up to Firefox 3. FF3 still beats every other browser I’ve ever used. I can’t see myself giving up FF3 unless something really good comes along. The thing that impresses me the most is that they use components from WebKit and Firefox. This means that there’s Safari and Firefox blood in it, to a certain extent.

Hopefully this browser reaches the eyes of enough IE6 and 7 users. If it kills IE it was all worth it!:D When it’s all said and done, we might just have a Internet Explorer Killer on our hands:)

What gets me most excited about this is what Google says about the project being open source:

…we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward. The web gets better with more options and innovation.

Yeah, I’m pretty exited to see where this is going!!! MORE POWER TO GOOGLE!!!!

Source: Clinton Skakun

HTC Dream Android Phone Spy Shots

Here are some spy shots of the HTC Dream Android phone from imobile.tw. As the photos shown, the Dream should be available from T-Mobile. More after the break: