Google Chrome Tops ‘Dirty Dozen’ Apps List

Date: 2010.11.19 | Category: google chrome | Response: Comments

Google’s Chrome web browser has topped the ‘Dirty Dozen’ list of most vulnerable apps released by security firm Bit9.

The list is based on the data available with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s public National Vulnerability Database. According to the stats, Google’s Chrome web browser reported a total of 76 vulnerabilities this year between January and October. Bit9 found that Apple’s Safari web browser is the second most vulnerable product.

However, tech news site Network World reports that Marc Maiffret, a security expert with eEye Digital Security, has refuted the claims made by Bit9, saying that the measures used by the software vendor to determine the results are flawed.

In a blog post, Maiffret wrote: “To say that Google’s Chrome is the most vulnerable application is to lead IT folks to a conclusion that they should be using a browser other than Chrome and therefore leading them to the wrong conclusion.”

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Street View Wi-Fi Data To Be Deleted By Google

Date: 2010.11.19 | Category: google streetview | Response: Comments

Google is to delete the Wi-Fi data, including e-mails and passwords, that it illegally collected when its Street View cars mapped the UK.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will not be investigating the matter further after Google agreed to improve its staff’s privacy training and to delete the data it had accidentally collated. The Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said that he was, “very pleased to have a firm commitment from Google,” on the matter.

Google has also managed to escape punishment over the incident, despite calls from critics for the company to be fined.

Deputy Commissioner David Smith told the BBC that: “We’d have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords. We’d have to meet that criteria for a penalty to be imposed.”

The incident was first brought to the attention of ICO by the Hamburg data authority last year. Google later admitted to accidentally collecting the data.

ICO will audit Google’s compliance with the ruling next year.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google Brings Full Spectrum Of Services To Enterprise Apps

Date: 2010.11.19 | Category: Google Apps | Response: Comments

The Google Apps enterprise productivity suite has been updated to include access to more than 60 consumer apps like Blogger, YouTube and Google Maps.

In a blog post, Google said that it will be offering a full spectrum of consumer apps from its web services to empower enterprise users with more productivity options.

The company said that administrators will have the ability to provide different sets of applications to different groups of users.

“For example, you could equip your marketing team with Picasa Web Albums so they can collect and share photos from customer appreciation events, and let that team publish your company’s blog with Blogger,” Google explained.

Google said that users will be able to shift to the new infrastructure supporting the consumer apps at their own pace within the next couple of months.

In addition to adding consumers apps to Google Apps, the company said that daily updates will be made to the Google Enterprise blog, providing suggestions on how to use particular Google consumer app within the enterprise.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google Publishes Online Book To Teach You About The Web

Date: 2010.11.19 | Category: Google | Response: Comments

Google has released an HTML 5-based online guidebook for the internet.

The book, titled “20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web”, has been created in collaboration with illustrator Christoph Niemann and aims to instruct people on the every day technologies they use to access the web.

According to Google, the book has been released to mark the 20th anniversary of the proposal for World Wide Web released by Sir Tim-Berners Lee, the founder of the web.

Google said that the book has been written by the Chrome team and strives to explain “complex but fascinating ideas about technology.” Some of the examples used to explain the internet make reference to the Chrome web browser, Google said.

Min Li Chan, Product Marketing Manager, Google Chrome, wrote: “We built ’20 Things’ in HTML5 so that we could incorporate features that hearken back to what we love about books—feeling the heft of a book’s cover, flipping a page or even reading under the covers with a flashlight.”

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google Docs Editing Comes To Android And iOS Devices

Date: 2010.11.18 | Category: Google Android OS | Response: Comments

Google has released a new version of Docs for iOS and Android-based devices.

The new Docs brings the ability to edit documents from within the browser on mobile devices. Previously, Google Docs only allowed iOS and Android devices to open and view documents.

According to Google, the improved Google Docs mobile website can be accessed from in-device web browsers running on Android 2.2 or higher and iOS 3.0 and higher.

The new Google Docs mobile site can be visited by going to doc.google.com, and the editing features can be activated by clicking on the ‘Edit’ tab on the navigation panel after opening a particular document.

Some of the editing features introduced by Google include in-line text editing and the ability to make changes to tables. Android users will also be capable of entering text on a document by spoken dictation.

Google has not been clear about if users will be able to add special characters, change the formatting, insert comments and tables, among other key features, within Docs.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Yahoo Testing Google Instant Rival

Date: 2010.11.18 | Category: Google Yahoo | Response: Comments

Yahoo is currently testing a new Google Instant-like feature designed to allow users to view live previews of search results as they type queries into the search engine.
Named “Rich Search Assist”, the internet giant has said that it will not be a fully fledged clone of Google Instant, but will be a unique platform in its own right, sitting between Instant and any traditional auto-complete suggestions feature on search engines.

Even though the Instant feature was launched first by Google, Yahoo claims that it had already developed a prototype for Instant search way back in 2005, and filed patents for the technology.

The ailing internet giant said, however, that it hadn’t found a consumer ready use for the technology until now.

According to Yahoo, the “Rich Search Assist” will update suggested search queries as soon a user types into the search box. The feature will then show the top search results for the suggested query.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google Tests Ad Recognition For Goggles

Date: 2010.11.18 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: Comments

Google has announced that it is working with 5 major US brands to bring offline marketing to Google Goggles.

The Google Goggles app allows users to search for objects on Google by taking its picture from the mobile’s camera.

In a blog post, Google said that it has partnered with Buick, Disney, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines to make some of their offline advertisements compatible with Google Goggles.

Now, whenever users take pictures of certain print advertisements by these brands, Google Goggles will recognise the company in the advert and redirect the users to its mobile website.

“We developed Google Goggles so that people could more easily explore the world around them with a mobile device. In this experiment, we’re applying the same principles, and the same technology, by ‘Goggles-enabling’ advertisements and other media, and offering to link people to the mobile sites from these brands,” Shailesh Nalawadi, Product Manager, Google Goggles, wrote on the blog.

Google’s Goggle app is available to download for both iOS and Android-based devices from their respective app stores.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google And Bing Register Negligible Growth In US Search Market

Date: 2010.11.18 | Category: Google in US | Response: Comments

Google’s US search market share has increased by less than half a per cent over last month, the latest data from comScore has revealed.
comScore found that Microsoft’s Bing search engine has also failed to match its previous growth, registering a negligible rise in its market share and ailing internet giant Yahoo has slipped further in the US search market.

Google’s US market share was 66.3 per cent in October, up from 66.1 per cent in September. Microsoft’s Bing search engine saw its market share increase from 11.2 per cent to 11.5 per cent in September.

Microsoft and Yahoo have signed a 10 year search deal to help compete against Google. As part of the deal, Bing will power searches on Yahoo.

Together, Bing and Yahoo’s market share grew from 27.9 per cent last month, to 28 per cent.

The two companies are also planning to beat Google in terms of search advertisement, which accounts for a huge chunk of the online advertising budget for US companies.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google And Hachette Ink Digital Book Deal

Date: 2010.11.18 | Category: Google Hachette | Response: Comments

Google has signed a deal with Hachette Livre of France to scan around a million out-of-print French books.

The books will then be made available for purchase as ebooks from the Google Books platform.

The deal is being hailed by Google as a template for future deals with publishers from around the world.

“Both parties see this as an opportunity to breathe new life into Hachette Livre’s dormant out-of-print works for the benefit of authors,” Google and Hachette Livre said in a joint statement.

The company is currently battling a number of lawsuits filed by authors and book publishers in the US and Europe for scanning their copyrighted material without prior permission.

The US Department of Justice is also scrutinising Google’s efforts to create a massive digital books store.

According to Google Books Director Dan Clancy, Hachette, the second largest book publisher in the world, will set the prices for alll the books and decide which books can be scanned by Google.

Originally published on ITProPortal.com

Google Unveils New In-Store Product Search

Date: 2010.11.17 | Category: Google Search | Response: Comments

Google has revamped its Product Search feature in the US to allow users to search for consumer items at local stores.