The equation is simple: Google plus the right search terms equals an unexpected result that usually celebrates a specific season/holiday.
Valentine’s Day is no exception. Paste “sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5″ into Google’s search field and you’ll see a heart outlined in graph form.
These tricks from Google are called Easter eggs, which refers to when a developer adds something surprising or unique when someone uses their service in a creative way. The term came into wide use with the advent of things hidden within DVD menus, though these little touches have been for almost as long as there have been computer programmers.
These two tricks are just a few in a long line of Google Easter eggs that have spread through social media, in addition to the before-mentioned “Do a Barrel Roll” and “Let it Snow.”
Three-and-a-half years after Google introduced the desktop version of its Chrome Web browser, the company has finally launched a mobile version of Chrome
Chrome for Android Beta is now available for free through Google's Android Market. It requires phones and tablets to be running Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.
"After a lot of hard work, I'm really excited to see us launch Chrome for Android Beta today," said Sundar Pichai, Google SVP of Chrome and Apps, in a Google+ post. "We set out to bring the full capability of desktop Chrome to Android and rethink the browser from the ground up for phones and tablets with a touch interface."
Google says Chrome for Android Beta is fast, though it provides no figures by which Chrome's performance can be compared to other mobile browsers, like iOS Safari or Firefox for Android.
Mobile browser speed metrics are less meaningful than desktop browser speed metrics because mobile browser performance also depends on carrier network throughput. But Chrome for Android Beta does include GPU acceleration for the HTML5 canvas element and for requestAnimationFrame, an animation API designed to work with both canvas and WebGL (presently unsupported in mobile Chrome).
Chrome for Android features Google's omnibox, a text entry field for both URLs and search queries, and supports tabs accessed through swipe navigation. Apple's mobile Safari maintains separate boxes for URLs and queries. It does not support tabs but does maintain previously loaded Web pages and allows them to be accessed again with two taps and a swipe.
Incognito mode is supported, though mobile devices provide so much data to cellular service providers and app makers that the private browsing mode in Chrome for Android should only be trusted so far.
Chrome for Android allows you to sign in to your Google Account. Beyond helping Google collect more information and serve more relevant ads, signing in gives users access to any browser tabs left open on a desktop version of Chrome, provided the user was signed in there too and had set up Chrome Sync (which can sync bookmarks, too). The data can flow both ways: You can bookmark pages on your phone for later reading via Chrome on your desktop computer.
Chrome for Android also can take advantage of autocomplete suggestions generated as a result of desktop Chrome usage. Google's recently announced plan to consolidate its privacy policies and make user data available across devices was designed to support this sort of desktop-to-mobile data sharing.
Though derived from Chromium, the open source project behind Chrome, Chrome for Android Beta isn't immediately available as open source code. Google says Chrome for Android will be open-sourced in phases, through Chromium, WebKit, and other relevant open source projects.
Web apps and extensions, including Adobe Flash Player, are not supported in the initial release of Chrome for Android Beta. Given the amount of effort Google has put into creating installable Web apps and nurturing its Chrome ecosystem, it's likely that Web apps and extensions will be supported in a later release. Of course, websites--Web apps minus the manifest file that enables local installation--should work just fine, app code permitting.
When extension support does arrive, don't expect to see Flash, however: Adobe announced last November that it has stopped investing in Flash for mobile and has made HTML5 the focus of its mobile development efforts. Flash on mobile devices is on its way out.
Asked whether we might see a version of Chrome for iOS, Google was non-committal but didn't rule out the possibility. "We would like to bring the same speedy, simple and seamless Chrome Web browsing experience to other mobile platforms, but have nothing to announce at this time," a company spokesperson said in an email.
Google is actually working on twitch-responsive sci-fi-style head-up display glasses, according to a report by 9TO5Google. And the new tech apparently includes a cursor that responds to head movements.
The article includes great eye-candy, including a clip from CES 2012 on Motorola's headset computer and a Terminator clip. According to the source, the Google HUD specs look similar to a pair of Oakley Thump shades.
Oakley Thump specs
The Google specs have a HUD on one side only, the other side has an arm packed with a 1GHz ARM CPU, 256MB of RAM and 8GB of, presumably, flash memory, for operating system software load. But these are speculative hardware specs. What operating system will be used? Android of course.
Street view plus: Terminator eat your heart out
The cursor on the HUD screen is moved and "clicked" by the geeky wearer tilting his head – this should look like a nervous head tick to onlookers.
We're told these HUD shades will have voice input and output, so there must be a mike and headphones, but you will have to speak ... very... clearly. There will also be a low-res camera plus Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth comms plus GPS.
Look forward to an Iron Man-style display that isn't cooked up in AfterEffects
There needs to be a constant communication facility though, so a mobile phone link is likely to be necessary too.
As the wearer walks around, the clever shades know where he/she is and can pop up locationally relevant information: "Special offer on Burger King flame-grilled Whoppers today!" There's talk of a beta program. Bet the entrance to that will be hotly contested.
If Google can get these glorious little suckers working they will become absolutely, must-have, gee-whiz tech – that is, we think, a monumentally big "IF". ®
We can never accuse Google of thinking small. The search giant today unveiled a website for “Solve for X,” a conference for big thinkers to discuss “radical technology ideas for solving global problems.”
Yes, it sounds ridiculously geeky, but it’s the sort of project from Google that could end up creating some truly next-generation technology and solutions. (Let’s not forget this is the company that is already pioneering self-driving car technology.) Google seems to be aiming directly at the people who get hot and bothered over the much-hyped TED conference (this reporter included).
This conference may have something to do with Google’s poaching of senior Apple director Simon Prakash for a “secret project,” though right now it’s unclear if he’s working on Solve for X.
The Solve for X conference seems to go hand-in-hand with Google X, the company’s secret lab for fantastical endeavors. The Solve for X site isn’t yet open to the public, but you can sign up to be alerted when it does. Google has released a short promo video (above), and other clues have popped up over the weekend as well, like instructions for presenters hidden within the CSS code of the site.
Richard DeVaul, a “Rapid Evaluator” at Google, also divulged some details about the conference on his Google+ page. It seems Google already held an inaugural conference over the weekend, with talks on “transforming education, 5x improvements in agriculture through better decision support, synthetic biology and carbon-negative biofuels.” DeVaul says that Google will have videos of the presentations on a YouTube channel up later today.
We like to follow the Google Doodles to see what are the latest things happening in the world. Maybe to put it better we like to keep our eyes on the Google Homepage to see the latest important historic events, important people’s birthdays, announcements, holidays and other interesting things share with us via the Google Homepage.
“Get ready for the big game. Google has everything you need from chilly recipes and player stats to the TV ads. Scroll through our playbook to learn more.”
Recently Google have become more active in their frontage promotions by placing links to important and news worthy events in the world. Check out their Google Super Bowl 2012 page. First they used the links below the search box to inform people about Tsunami’s and Earth Quakes but recently have also started promoting things like their “Privacy Policy” changes and President Obama’s state of the nation speech.
This year they have also become pro-actively involved in the Super Bowl 2012 by providing a link to some of the best information on the internet about the Super Bowl.
Instead of giving their search engine the benefit of the doubt of presenting the best content about the Super Bowl 2012. They have used human editors to set up a special page just about the super bowl and the important news and events surrounding the Super Bowl 2012.
Super Bowl 2012: Game Day on Google
Many webmasters and companies whom have relied on their search engine positioning for keywords surrounding the keywords “Super Bowl 2012 and Super Bowl 2012 Commercials” etc, may actually be upset with Google using the search engine to direct people directly to their handpicked selection of Super Bowl events. It is likely that these publishers and webmasters will miss out on millions of dollars because people will find this information directly via the link from the Google front page instead of actually using the search engine to find these results themselves.
Google have been in the spotlight recently for using their Search Engine to promote their own products, giving the Google Search Engine an unfair advantage by just plastering a link on their front page and instantly receive millions of views.
Publishers may say that it is unfair that Google use its search engine to promote their own products. Advertisers needed to pay, between 3 – 4 million for a Super Bowl advertisement and here Google comes and steal the show by just placing a Super Bowl link on their front page.
However we believe that Google users appreciate the move by Google to create a summary of all the most important News, Entertainment and information surrounding the Super Bowl 2012 event!
Google+ Super Bowl 2012 and Personal Search
It is also interesting to see how Google is using their Social Media network platform Google+ to make quality information more accessible to its Google+ users via the Google+ Super Bowl pages. If you are using Google “Search Plus Your World” and the Google Personal Search option, you will also find it easy to sniff out the best content about the Super Bowl 2012 from the things that your circle members in Google+ have liked with the Google +1 option!
Google makes it easy for people to find Quality Handpicked information about the Super Bowl 2012
Generally users of the Google Search engine will not complain about the page that Google have created for the Super Bowl 2012. The Google Super Bowl 2012 specific page makes it easy to stumble onto great content that users may have missed if they were not using the Google Search engine and News Services to find this information.
Here are some links and highlights to the best information found from the Google Super Bowl 2012 page. Get ready for game day with the latest player stats, real-time score updates, and 3D stadium views.
Google Super Bowl 2012 Recipes
The Google Game Day Super Bowl 2012 page provides you some easy answers to the things that you want to know about the Super Bowl 2012. They have divided their page into a time schedule providing you with assistance to plan your Super Sunday Game Day. The first suggestion that they have involves Breakfast and things to eat on Super Sunday. In the Super Bowl recipes section you can find out about the best recipes and snacks to have for Super Bowl 2012.
Super Bowl 2012 Pre Game
Google provides you with interesting Pre-Game information and statistics about the Super Bowl. You can even use the Google Game Day pages to find statistics about your favorite Super Bowl heroes, find information and previous records and even watch the stadium in 3D making use of Google Earth.
On the Google Super Bowl 2012 Game Day pages you will also find a video of the Indianapolis, Indiana stadium where the 2012 Super Bowl is taking place
Football Score
The Google Football Score feature also makes it possible for visitors to the Google Game Day pages to instantly find out what is the realtime score for the Super Bowl 2012 event. Look out for the Football Score search button on the Google Game Day pages. Click on the search button and you will instantly get the latest Super Bowl 2012 score. You can use this feature on your Ipod, Ipad, computer, Android and smart phone making it easy to access the latest Football Score!
Super Bowl 2012 Youtube:
Halftime is your chance to see what the big game is really about for some of us… Catch up on the commercials you missed with YouTube AdBlitz. Google have created a special YouTube feature to allow you to stay up to date with the latest Super Bowl 2012 Commercials and events. Simply go to the Google Game Day pages and visit the YouTube Super Bowl Adblitz pages to view some of the most popular clips and videos from Super Bowl Sunday!
Madonna Super Bowl 2012 Preview on YouTube and Google+
Get an early taste of the halftime show with Madonna’s music video premiere for “Give Me All Your Luvin” featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. on her official youtube.com/Madonna channel this Friday and on the YouTube Ad Blitz channel on Sunday.
Super Bowl 2012 on Google+ Post Game
This is more or less the information that you will find on the Google Super Bowl 2012 Game Day pages. Google have created a very valuable resource for Super Bowl fans making it easy to access quality information about the Super Bowl Globally! We here believe that the move by Google to create the Super Bowl 2012 page will create the most ever exposure that the Super Bowl have ever received.
Google has updated the mobile application for its web-based Google Docs office suite, enabling users with Android smartphones and tablets to access their files offline.
Google is adding the feature to help users access documents in their online Google Docs account at times when they may not have an internet connection, according to a Google Enterprise Blog post.
For mobile workers, this feature enables them to choose key documents they wish to have available offline, such as when on an aircraft in mid-flight, for example. To ensure a specific file is available offline, users need to select this option while viewing their documents list online.
However, users can request a file be made available while offline, and the document will update when the device next connects to the internet. Files that can be made available offline include Google presentations, Google spreadsheets, uploaded images, plus PDF files and Microsoft Office documents.
While users can view these documents offline, editing isn't supported in disconnected mode, according to Google. And also said it has improved the reading experience for those accessing Google Docs on an Android tablet.
Users now see a high-resolution version of the document, and can swipe left and right to flip between pages, while a slider at the bottom of the page provides for speedier navigation.
The updated Google Docs is a free download from the Android Market app store.
If you are a woman venturing out to prove your business skills and tap the potential of the internet, then just relax. It’s time to ‘Google’ your way, as Google Inc has just launched Women Entrepreneurs on the Web (WEOW) programme in India, as a targeted business diversity programme for women entrepreneurs.
The WEOW programme aims to help women-owned businesses grow their online presence. The pilot programme, which is launched in India, will provide women entrepreneurs support on using various web-based technologies in their day-to-day business, while increasing their outreach to their customer base.
The programme is a five-circle approach designed specially to cater to women entrepreneurs with varied degrees of online presence and expertise. The programme starts with building an online presence and moves towards collaborating effectively, connecting with customers, promoting their organisations to then tracking and optimising their online presence. Women entrepreneurs at varied stages and can enter this programme through any of these circles.
Yolanda Mangolini, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Google, said that the large number of women entrepreneurs in India made it a natural decision for the company to pilot this initiative in the country. “When we came up with this idea, we started by speaking to a large number of women entrepreneurs across various demographics and with organisations that work with women entrepreneurs.
We soon realised that they were true entrepreneurs and clearly not afraid to try new things, yet many were unaware of various products that can be used to leverage the full potential of the internet, including some Google products and services, such as Google+, AdWords and Apps for Enterprise,” said Mangolini.
“In fact, many of them didn’t even have an online presence. This led us to crystallising the idea into a programme to increase the reach of technology with this community,” Mangolini added.
Perhaps they should have expected this. Years ago, the founders of Google adopted as their semi-official motto the phrase "Don’t Be Evil." And that, for Google’s critics, has been the gift that keeps on giving.
Every time Google announces something different – unveiling Google+, tweaking its search algorithms, quietly adding location tracking on Android phones – writers sharpen their knives and roll out the "evil" motto.
"Maybe it’s time for Google to rethink its ‘Don’t Be Evil’ motto," wrote the Washington Post‘s Joshua Topolsky this week. "Google Inc. is evil," began Matt Hartley in Thursday’s Financial Post; "or maybe it isn’t." We could go on, but you get the idea.
What spurred this most recent flurry of "evil" headlines? A sweeping series of privacy changes that Google is soon putting into place, changes that will potentially affect millions of users.
"Our new policy covers multiple products and features," begins Google’s announcement on its "Policies" page, "reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google."
In simplest terms, starting March 1, Google will begin combining all the personal and private information it collects on individual users across its many products into one data set. And that data set will personally tailor search responses and customise any Google product into an individual "experience."
Let’s take that apart a bit.
Staying inside the Googleverse
Google has dozens of products that each collect personal data on users. Its famous search engine, for example, puts tracking cookies on your computer (or phone or tablet) that allows it to remember all the searches you’ve conducted in the past, and shape new queries based on that history. That means if you’ve searched for restaurants in London recently, new search terms are more likely to be steered first toward London even before you hit enter, through Google’s "Instant" predictive search function.
Its YouTube service similarly tracks videos watched, while Gmail stores hundreds (if not more) of names and addresses of people you’ve written to. Google Docs holds documents, some of them possibly very private, in one lockbox, while Google Calendar keeps your scheduled appointments in another, recording where and with whom. And Google+, its social network challenge to Facebook, holds information not just on you and your likes, but for all your friends as well.
Separately, all these applications potentially hold gigabytes of data on any one user.Together, Google will have intimate profiles of users that it says will give users a seamless experience across all of Google. Search for "Tom’s Restaurant" and it may remind you of your last appointment with Dr. Tom Scrapebone, offer a review of a local eatery your friend Tom Eatslots liked, recommend a music video by the group "Tom Tom Club" based on your stored music files, and suggest purchasing a book by your favorite author Thomas Inkstain by using your Google Wallet.
It may sound creepy, but frankly Google’s aim is no different than those of rivals Facebook, Apple, or even Amazon: to retain users within the universe of Google products and applications for as long as possible. In short, keeping everyone inside the "Googleverse." However, combine this with the growing reach of Google’s Chrome browser, and the popularity of its Android mobile platform, and you’re suddenly talking really creepy.
Resistance may be futile
Google’s announcement of these changes gives users few options. "If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service," it reads flatly. Which means if you want to use Google or any of its products, you have to agree to the changes.
There are options, of a sort. Users with various Google accounts can simply not log in; Google won’t be able to combine the private data pools, but of course users won’t have access to any of the services or documents they’ve used in the past. People can also leave Google, opting for other computing services, leaving them only with the struggle of moving all their data from Google to someplace else. Or internet users can simply not use Google, choosing Yahoo! for searches, Hotmail for messages and Facebook for networking. Each of these options, however, present their own unique privacy challenges.
Bouncer scanning software, developed by Google, is designed to search the Android market for software that could be malicious, the company announced Thursday on its blog.
With the success of Android this year, the company says it wants to protect its many users and their devices from harm.
“Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion,” Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of engineering, wrote on the Google Mobile Blog. “As the platform continues to grow, we’re focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations — including in security.”
Bouncer will scan current and new applications, plus developer accounts. The blog post explained how the service will function.
“Here’s how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags. We actually run every application on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android device to look for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.”
Bouncer was tested in 2011 and comparing the first half of the year to the second, Google Mobile reported a 40% decrease in malicious downloads.
Google says from the beginning, Android was designed with security in mind. And, although a company can’t prevent malware, it can control the amount of damage those threats can cause with a dynamic security plan.
Some of Android’s core security features are:
Sandboxing: The Android platform uses a technique called “sandboxing” to put virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. So, if you download a malicious application, it can’t access data on other parts of your phone and its potential harm is drastically limited.
Permissions: Android provides a permission system to help you understand the capabilities of the apps you install, and manage your own preferences. That way, if you see a game unnecessarily requests permission to send SMS, for example, you don’t need to install it.
Malware removal: Android is designed to prevent malware from modifying the platform or hiding from you, so it can be easily removed if your device is affected. Android Market also has the capability of remotely removing malware from your phone or tablet, if required.
Google’s long been fine-tuning its security features for its various products. Although in the past Google’s products have clashed with that of other mobile service providers due to security concerns.
Are you an Android user? What do you think about Bouncer? Tell us in the comments.
Google+ is expected to have amassed around 100,000,000 users
On January 19th Google’s CEO, Larry Page was patting the Google+ team on the back for the 200-something new features they’d been adding to the social network since its launch back in June last year and the impressive 90 million users they’d been able to attract in such a short amount of time.
Mr Allen noted that in just two weeks following this milestone, the network had grown by a further 10%. So how did he fall upon such a grand total? Using rather unorthodox methods, he and his team ran hundreds of queries on surnames they’d tracked since July and using this, they could create estimates for the network’s size at various times. This idea legitimately appears to hold water, as Allen and his team often produce numbers very close to those of Google, who usually release their figures just days later.
Based on Paul’s predictions, Google+ should be a 400 million user strong network by the end of 2012, which would also give it half the user base of Facebook’s current estimated total.
So how did Google manage such a sharp increase in uptake in those two weeks? The answer lies in a number of factors, one of which is aforementioned social top-dog, Facebook. Users at the best of times don’t appreciate change and the compulsory switch to Facebook’s new ‘Timeline’ layout has left some feeling a little lost, which could account for an increased interest in the leading alternatives.
Other key factors include Google’s own actions as Google+ now allows teens to join in on the social fun as well as the launch of their new ‘Your World‘ functionality, directing more and more users to the network and thus giving it more visibility.
So what are your impressions of Google+? Have you found yourself checking your ‘Circles’ more often than your ‘Friends Tab’ in the past weeks or do you avoid this particular social network with a barge pole? Let us know what you think down below.
