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Google Urges Governments To Challenge Web Censorship
Google has slammed web censorship policies used by countries like China and Turkey, describing them as the “trade barriers of the 21st century”.In a blog post, the company said that blocking the free flow of information on the internet not only violates human rights, but also harms trade practices.
Google explained that the internet had been a huge influence on the development of countries and trade over the last two decades but practices adopted by some countries were threatening to harm the “engine of economic growth”.
“Governments are blocking online services, imposing non-transparent regulation, and seeking to incorporate surveillance tools into their Internet infrastructure. These are the trade barriers of the 21st century economy,” Google said.
The company has urged US, European and other western policy makers in a white paper to join together and break down the trade barriers of web censorship imposed by some countries.
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Google Voice For iPhone Hits The App Store
The official Google Voice app for the iPhone is now available to download from the App Store having got approval from Apple.In a blog post, the company said that the native Google Voice app for the iPhone will bring all the traditional Google Voice features to the iPhone, like free text messages in the US, cheap international phone calls, voicemail transcriptions and the ability to display the Google Voice number as caller ID while making calls.
Previously, Google had launched a Google Voice app for the iPhone only for it to be blocked by Apple from the iTunes App Store. Unfettered, Google had released a web-based version of Google Voice that could be accessed from the iPhone’s web browser.
According to Google, the new app supports push notifications that instantly alerts users that they have received a new voicemail or text message. The company also said that a majority of the calls will be placed using Direct Access Numbers, allowing them to connect as quickly as regular phone calls.
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Samsung Google TV Announcement
Samsung may release a range of High Definition Television (HDTV) sets integrated with Google TV, a report has suggested.Yoon Boo Keun, head of Samsung’s TV unit, told Bloomberg that the consumer electronics giant is open to the idea of integrating Intel’s chips in Samsung TV’s.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung is planning to launch a line up of Google TV sets and unveil it during the CES event in January next year.
Last October Sony launched a range of Google TV-equipped sets in the US, ranging in size from 24 to 46 inches and priced between $600 to $1,400.
Google TV is currently available on selected Sony TVs and the Logitech Revue set-top box. The Logitech revue set-top box is priced at $299.99 and can connect with any HDTV and provides 720p video conferencing capability.
The decision for one of the world’s top TV manufacturers to integrate Google TV into a range of its HDTV sets is set to benefit the search giant, allowing it to push Google TV to a much wider audience than otherwise possible.
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Why Boutiques.com Marks Start Of New Era For Google
Google launched its new venture called Boutiques.com without much fanfare but the project could herald a new era where the search engine becomes a more active (and aggressive) partner and co-opetitor.Boutiques.com is an evolution of the existing Product Search (formerly known as Froggle) which is a giant database of products pulled together by vendors themselves and by the army of Google spiders and bots.
Product Search acts as the equivalent of a price comparison website and has been keen over the past few years to emphasise the fact that it won’t charge vendors to get their products listed in the giant catalogue.
However, Google’s latest project may herald an abrupt change in strategy from the search giant and Boutiques.com contains many clues as to where it might go next.
Firstly, the layout and general look of the site looks like no other Google-branded websites; indeed, it is difficult to believe that this is indeed a Google website.
It is sleek, beautifully crafted and most important of all, doesn’t contain Google’s Logo. The team of crack engineers brought together by Google aimed at making of Boutiques.com the equivalent of your own personal shopper.
One that they say, will create your own “curated” boutique; this is done either though machine learning and computer vision or through the input of taste-makers (or shall we say trend setters).
It’s interesting to note that Google uses the terms “curated” and “hand-curated” to define the process of “filtering out” content either through AI or through human experience.
They’ve already said that they plan to expand the offering in the future, moving to other non-US market, catering for a much bigger audience and critically, getting involved in many other segments as well (grocery, home decoration etc).
By doing so, Google will be coming into direct competition with the likes of Amazon, Ebay, Pricegrabber, Shopping.com and a wealth of many other price aggregators and comparison websites.
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Android Is For Touch, Chrome OS Is For Type Says Google CEO
Google has officially laid down the ground rules to differentiate between Android and Chrome OS, its two mobile operating systems.Eric Schmidt, its CEO, told an audience at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that the soon-to-be-launched Chrome OS would be for keyboards while Android will be limited to touch.
Schmidt didn’t confirm whether both operating systems would eventually merge, a possibility that Sergei Brin last year.
This does mean however that Chrome OS won’t be used on tablets or on any touch devices from Google and Partners.
But then, Google did use Android OS on Google TV (e.g. the Logitech Revue), whose primary input device is a keyboard.
Schmidt also confirmed that Chrome OS will be officially available in the next few months for Intel and ARM-based devices.
Our own Andy Evans (who sent us some great photos of the Nexus S) was in the audience at the Web 2.0 summit which was organised in association with Federated Media and O’reilly.
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Google Brings Hotpot Local Recommendations To Android
Google has launched a new local recommendation tool for the latest Maps for Android application.Named Hotpot, the tool combines information from Google Places’ collection of over 50 million locations around the world, local reviews and user recommendations to better tailor a person’s search results.
“With Hotpot, we’re making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy,” Google project manager Lior Ron said in a blog post.
He said that Hotpot will offer users recommendations based on a their own preferences, as well as on those of their friends. It will also allow users to directly update ratings on the go fromMobile Maps for Android.
“Your recommendations are with you whenever you need them. In search results, you can see recommended places by using the new Place Search and clicking on the “Places” filter. You can also see recommendations when searching on Google Maps, Google Maps for Android or when checking the Place pages for a specific business,” Ron added.
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Why Is The Nexus 2 Called Nexus S : Google CEO Gives Hint
During yesterday’s Web 2.0 summit 2010, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google was asked a question over the successor of the Nexus One by John Battelle of Federated Media.Battelle reminded Schmidt about the fact that he said, earlier this year, that there wouldn’t be any Nexus Two following the closure of the Nexus store and the EOL-ing of the Nexus One.
Schmidt replied that he just said that there WOULD’NT be any Nexus Two but did not say anything about no Nexus S at which point he turned slightly sarcastic pointing the interviewers to similarities between the S and a 2.
This prompted co-interviewer Tim O’reilly to make a quick comment about the fact that the S and the 2 are mirrors of each other (he used the term “dyslexic”).
The whole discussion lasted only 25 seconds but proved that Schmidt can be a redoubtable interlocutor, an ace at the rules of semantics. You can follow the whole conversation on Youtube below; the interesting bit occurs at 11:20.
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Google Introduces New AdSense Interface
Google is rolling-out of a new AdSense online advertisement interface for its 2 million users around the world.According to the company, the update will offer the product in 30 languages across 200 countries.
The company said that the new interface, which underwent one full year of intense testing before being launched, will let ad publishers access existing and new features to make them more money.
Google said that the new AdSense will offer users more detailed reports on the performance of their ads by: ad type, ad size, ad unit, targeting type, bid type for total earnings, along with graphs in relevant places.
“All ad controls are now in one place, on the Allow and block ads tab. Here, you’ll be able to filter ads from specific advertisers, categories, and ad networks,” Google explained in an Inside AdSense blog post.
“You can now search for ads in the ad review centre by ad type, keyword, URL, or ad network, and choose to allow or block them,” the company added.
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Google VP Urges Switch To IPv6
Google’s vice president has warned that Europe will run out of IP addresses by early next year, isolating the UK from rest of the online world.Vint Cerf, considered by many as the “godfather of the internet”, implored the UK government and businesses to switch to the IPv6 standard as the world is running out of IPv4 space, with only four per cent of it left free.
He urged UK ISPs to implement the technology as soon as possible. Cerf is the latest in a line of experts who have warned governments and businesses of the fast decreasing supply of IP address in the current IPv4 format.
Most of the European web addresses are based on the IPv4 standard. Considering the growth of the internet, the remaining space will be exhausted by spring next year.
The Google executive said that limited IP address were a “serious boundary” to the growth of internet and a problem that should addressed as soon as possible.
“You need to be able to talk to everyone in the world [who] is on the internet. If Europe doesn’t implement IPv6, it wont be able to talk to the rest of the world that does implement IPv6 – that’s stupid, and we don’t want people here to be stupid,” he said.
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Google Street View Helps Police Catch Drug Dealers
New York police have arrested a gang of drug dealers after they were photographed by Google’s Street View mapping service.The drug dealers were caught selling heroin and marijuana outside a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York when they were photographed by Street View.
The police had began their operation after local residents complained that the gang had turned the neighbourhood into a drug market.
The police mounted a surveillance operation on the street and made 20 drug-related purchases from the gang before making a move. When they arrested a drug dealer, the police found 20 vials of heroin in his basement and a large amount of marijuana. They also discovered a packaging lab.
Google’s Street View, which has been criticised by many as a useful tool for burglars, is quickly gaining a reputation for helping police with their enquiries. In the UK, the police are already using an image taken by a Street View car of a man considered to be the prime suspect of a caravan theft.
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