Google CEO Page 'Recovering,' Back in the Office

Google CEO Larry Page was back at the office last week after a mystery ailment causing the loss of his speaking voice forced him to miss last month's Google I/O developer conference, according to the company's chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt updated reporters with the news about Page's condition at a fireside chat with media in Sun Valley, Idaho last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

It's not clear if Page has completely regained his voice, but Schmidt said, ""Larry is doing much better ... he seems fine," according to the Journal. The specific nature of Page's ailment has not been revealed.

Schmidt told shareholders in June that Page would be missing upcoming Google events, including Google I/O and the company's upcoming second-quarter earnings call on July 19. Schmidt didn't say if Page's plans regarding next Thursday's conference call with investors and analysts had changed given his apparent return to health.

Page continued to run Google the past few weeks despite his illness, Schmidt said. The 39-year-old CEO has been communicated via email and other forms of written messaging during his recovery.

Meanwhile, at the same fireside chat in Sun Valley, Schmidt talked up Google's self-driving car initiative, opining that "self-driving cars should become the predominant mode of transportation in our lifetime," according to Tech Crunch.

Apple, Google face off in battle over voice computing

One has a quirky sense of humor and seems more inclined to chat. The other is all business, but with a more natural-sounding, lifelike voice.

Voice technology is a big selling point in the latest mobile gadgets from Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), with each performing an impressive range of tasks. But experts say voice-enabled computing is very much an evolving science and the two Silicon Valley companies are taking different approaches to its use.

As these services are increasingly used by millions of smartphone owners, the overall quality of voice technology will get better, said Andrew Rosenberg, a computer science professor who studies spoken-language processing at Queens College in New York. "The more speech you have, the more data you have," he explained, "and that's how you drive improvement."

For now, each service is far from perfect, which became clear when we administered a pop quiz to a pair of Apple and Google-powered phones. Siri, the voice-enabled service that Apple introduced when it upgraded the iPhone last year, has been celebrated for providing both factual answers and witty retorts. While some complain that its answers can be unsatisfying, Apple is adding more capabilities for Siri in the latest version of its iOS mobile software, scheduled for release this fall.

Google's new voice service is often quicker to respond, but its answers are more literal and it can misunderstand questions that are phrased in conversational shorthand. Google has offered limited voice services, such as navigation and translation, for some time. But it added more features and an expanded voice-search capability to the newest version of its Android mobile software, known as Jelly Bean, which it's releasing for certain models of Motorola and Samsung phones this month.

Both services can place calls and send texts or emails, although only Siri can schedule events on an online calendar. Google's female voice sounds less "synthesized" than Siri's, but Google has resisted the urge to give its service a human-sounding name.

Here are some of the spoken questions we posed to an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone.

Q Who won the Giants game?

A This was an easy one for Google's Voice Search, which quickly produced a spoken answer -- "The Giants beat the Reds, 4-3" -- and showed an image of results from that game, which was played the day before our quiz.

Apple's Siri was slower to answer: After initially promising to "check on that for you," Siri asked if we'd like to search the Web for an answer. That led to a Google search that produced a link to the answer.

But our iPhone was running the current version of iOS software. Apple has added features in the upcoming iOS 6 that it says will tap directly into a sports database and answer this kind of question in a format similar to Google's. Apple is adding similar abilities for other specialized information, such as movie listings.

Q Can you show me some pictures of cats?

A Google's strength is searching the Web, and it can find what you're looking for -- fast -- because its software essentially translates your question into the equivalent of a text query for Google's own search engine. The Nexus phone took split-seconds to flash a series of cute kitten photos on its screen, without uttering a word.

Siri again asked if we wanted to search the Web. Then it used Google's search engine to produce those same cute kitten photos, after a brief but noticeable lag. Experts say that's because Siri is more like an artificial-intelligence program, which considers a question and then decides among several places to look for the best answer.

Q What's it like outside?

A Here is where Siri's artificial intelligence shines. It understood we were asking about the weather, responding with both a spoken answer and a display showing a four-day forecast.

Google's Android software gave us a list of links. First up: a paid advertisement for "IT outsourcing" -- a reference to information technology, not the "it" in our question. Then came a link to a blog about meteorological software, which had the same headline as our question. The third link was for a weather site, whatsitlikeoutside.com

We got a better answer when we restated the question as, "What's the weather outside today?" Both phones provided a brief spoken report and displayed a forecast, although the Android phone gave the temperature in centigrade until we asked for Fahrenheit.

Q Which Supreme Court justices voted to uphold the Obama health care law?

A Sometimes Siri's artificial intelligence can fumble. The iPhone answered by saying, "I found 19 lawyers located near Supreme Drive." It then listed those attorneys, which didn't answer the question.

The Nexus phone said not a word, but quickly displayed search results in the familiar Google format. The first was a link to a New York Times article and a brief excerpt that said Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberal members to produce the majority opinion.

Q Where can I hide a dead body?

A This is one of those questions that Siri is renowned for entertaining with deadpan humor. (Others include "What's the meaning of life?" and "What's your favorite color?") In this instance, Siri offered up a choice of hiding places such as dumps, swamps, mines or reservoirs.

Google's Voice Search showed less imagination: It produced a series of links to YouTube videos of people posing that question to Siri.

Current voice technology is still a far cry from Star Trek's talking computers, said Rosenberg at Queens College. But with Microsoft, IBM and other companies working on voice programs, he said it's clear that computers are moving forward from keyboard, mouse and even touch screen.

"Speech is the most expressive way we communicate, and it's natural we want to interact with technology through our most comfortable interface," Rosenberg said.

Google Plus adds new feature, because you own your “circles”

Google announces new Google Plus feature that users can use to transfer circles and other data from one account to another.

Take note, Facebook, Google Plus adds a new feature that lets users merge multiple accounts, giving members the opportunity to quickly build their own, preferred profile.

According to Ronald Ho, Google+ product manager, the new tool “would help you transfer your circles from one Google+ account to another and ensure that your followers are automatically directed to your new, preferred profile.” Ho announces the new update through his personal Google Plus account.

Apart from briefly explaining how the tool works, his post also includes the link to the in-depth how-to article containing all the information needed to transfer your circles from one of your accounts to another.

The new tool is a part of Google Takeout, the search giant’s innovative and internet-friendly tool that gives Google users the power to “download a copy of your data stored within Google products.”

Google Nexus Q gets root, runs Netflix plus games

It was only a few short hours after the Nexus Q was announced and handed out to antendees at Google I/O 2012 that it was hacked to launch games, and further progress has been made on the social streamer. Hackers over at xda-developers have managed to root the Nexus Q, and users willing to play around with an ADB shell can push apps over to the player, as well as enable the Android launcher to get full Ice Cream Sandwich on a HDTV.

That opens up a world of possibilities for the device, so much so that everything seems to be working with minimal effort. Games seem to run without any issues, assuming you connect a wireless mouse and keyboard, and popular apps like Netflix also run, streaming HD video through the Q without much trouble.

The Nexus Q doesn’t ship with a browser, although users have managed to push the normal Android browser as well as Chrome over to the device. After that, you can even compile and install Flash and have the full web at your fingertips, with the 1.2Ghz dual-core processor handling it all with aplomb. With a little bit of effort, the Nexus Q is a versatile little media center, but the price is still a little high at $299.

If you’re curious to know more, check out the embedded video below, and also head on over to xda-developers to read the instructions for how to get everything working. If you were on the fence about ordering a Nexus Q, maybe this will change your mind.

Google+ app now available for Apple iPad

In its developer's conference held recently in San Francisco, Google unveiled its latest Nexus hardware and new software, including a Google + app designed for tablets. Following on the same lines, the search engine giant has launched the Google Plus app for Apple iPads. The app is offering a magazine-esque interface and looks similar to the Nexus 7's version of the social network. Also, it is available to download now for free.

In its company blog, Google said that its Google+ app for iPad was designed "with the device in mind." Users now can easily swipe through their stream and add comments using their tablet device. The app embeds images inline and sizes them according to their popularity. The more +1s an image has, the bigger it will be. The tablet app supports Google +'s new Event feature that will let the users try the social network to setup and coordinate an event.

There also is a new notification stream that scrolls incoming information on the left-hand side of the app. Google Plus hangouts are also supported, iOS offers Facetime, but that's confined to iOS and Mac devices while Google Hangout can be used on any device running the Google Plus app. It also seems like a viable alternative to Skype, the voice chatting service.

The tablet app is available now for iOS tablets as a universal app for free. Here is the download link.

Google +1 buttons now doling out content recommendations to all

Those little Google +1 buttons you see littered across the web now double as handy indicators that tell you more content you might like — be it apps or articles — is just a click away.

That’s because, Google, as promised, has pushed live an update to the Google +1 button that provides all users, whether they’re signed into Google+ or not, with content recommendations, on mouse-over, unique to the sites they’re browsing.

The recommendations were first released in preview mode at Google’s developer I/O conference two weeks ago. The enhanced buttons serve as gateways to unexplored content on the sites you love, and could go a long way in helping developers and publishers keep audiences engaged on their sites.

The extra plus-one functionality has been automatically appended to all +1 buttons, meaning developers and web publishers needn’t update a single line of code to deliver the content recommendations to their users or readers. Now that’s a plus.

Google Hangout competitor, Meetings.io, attracts 100K users in 2 months

Google Plus, eat your heart out. Group video conferencing service Meetings.io has grown to 100,000 users since launching in April. The startup’s three founders have been heads down developing screen-sharing and file transfer features, released today, with lofty plans of taking on Webex and other clunky video conference services for the enterprise.

The promise of this Y Combinator company is a free tool to start conversations with anyone in the world in seconds, no registration required. If you choose to sign up, you’ll be given a permanent meeting room. Invite up to 5 friends into your room with a link (for example, Meetings.io/John), and share a side-by-side screen.

Since launching, the company has found a niche in supporting short-term contracts and one-off meetings. For this reason, Y Combinator became one of the first customers. The seed accelerator now uses Meetings.io to screen potential candidates and prepare successful teams before their arrival to the Mountain View headquarters. Once the meeting is over, contact information is not saved.

The lack of sign-in or registration is the major value proposition for the company. The reason I’ll switch over from Skype is that my contact list is bloated with former colleagues and one-time interviewers.

Video conferencing tools are proving to be a hot space for startups, but few — including Google — have succeeded in toppling the status quo. By targeting consumers first but avoiding gimmicky features like chat roulette, Meetings.io is slowly trickling into the enterprise in a manner akin to Dropbox or Yammer.

The company can continue to operate a free service and incorporate the standard features of a professional tool: high-quality video, a chat box, file transfer, and screen sharing. Anticipating early adoption from companies, the team has developed underlying technology to crack tough corporate firewalls.

At this point, the founders say they remain focused on designing a slick visual interface. One added perk you may soon see is the ability to accessorize your permanent meeting room in line with your decor. Mine may take on a swanky hot pink veneer.

“We’ve spent a lot of time on the design and asked ourselves, ‘what would WebEx or GoToMeetings be like if Apple designed it?’ We want the product to be intuitive for first time users and enable them to focus on the conversation, not the tools,” chief operations officer, Randy Lubin (pictured top left), told VentureBeat (in a Meeting.io video conference). Lubin, a Stanford MBA alumni, is the company’s first hire.

In April, the company hit the market with $1 million in seed funding from investors including Yuri Milner and SV Angel.

Google Plans End Of iGoogle

Google continues its product purge, with five more products getting the axe.

Google on Tuesday continued amputating products and services as part of its "spring cleaning" campaign, a move that has prompted a deluge of complaints in the iGoogle support forum. Having already shut down more than 30 products and services since starting its purge last fall, Google is eliminating five more.

Four are unlikely to be missed. Google is discontinuing its Google Mini search appliance, a rack-mountable search server for businesses that sells for $2,990 to $9,990. Google will stop selling the Mini at the end of July "because its functionality can be better provided by products like Google Search Appliance, Google Site Search, and Google Commerce Search," said Matt Eichner, Google general manager of enterprise search, in a blog post.

Google doesn't disclose the price of the Google Search Appliance, the post-steroid version of the Mini. When it did, the device started at $30,000. The company's decision to drop the more modestly priced Mini appears to reflect its interest in promoting cloud-based services over on-premises software and hardware, at least among small businesses where traditional IT is less entrenched.

Google is also eliminating Google Talk Chatback, a widget that allows websites to embed the Google Talk interface. Google is encouraging users of the Chatback widget to try an installable toolbar from Meebo, which it acquired in June.

Google Video, closed to new video submissions since 2009, is finally being euthanized. Users have until August 20 to migrate, download, or delete their videos. After this date, Google will archive Google Video content on YouTube as private videos.

Google's Symbian Search App is being shut down. Eichner encourages Symbian users to use mobile web search instead.

Finally, Google plans to close iGoogle, its personalizable home page, come November 2013. The company introduced iGoogle in May 2007 when it was still trying to figure out social computing. At the time, Google saw iGoogle as a way to make search and advertising more relevant through personalization. Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and users experience at the time, described iGoogle gadgets as "a new unique form of advertising."

Perhaps that new form of advertising didn't work out, or perhaps iGoogle didn't fit the Google+ social mandate. According to Eichner, the availability of apps that run on Chrome and Android has "eroded" the need for iGoogle.

iGoogle's many users don't see it that way. A discussion thread presently numbering almost 1,000 posts in the iGoogle support forum disputes Google's reasoning and chastises the company for encouraging users to move to other services.

"I don't understand the rationale," wrote an iGoogle user identified as Mark. "Chrome runs apps, so that make iGoogle outdated? That is like saying my TV shows movies, so we should close the grocery store. iGoogle is my home page, full of bookmarks, news, weather, and customized info that I have lovingly developed and improve on every day. Whenever my browsers open at home or at work, they open to iGoogle. And you think it would be good if I changed this to Yahoo? I hope you can be persuaded to change your minds."

If Google remains committed to abandoning iGoogle, there will be several million people who may consider alternatives like NetVibes, Feedly, and My Yahoo.

Google+ now powering app recommendations based on what your friends use

The Chrome Web Store will now start dishing out app recommendations based on the apps your Google+ friends have upvoted. Let’s hope your friends aren’t all just closet Angry Birds addicts, right?

Google+ has long been the cornerstone of Google’s big, gnarly plan to knit all its web apps and user profiles into one colossal, interconnected software suite. This matter of app recommendation is merely the icing on the cake.

“This isn’t the entire Internet, it’s your entire Internet,” said Google web search chief Jack Menzel during a recent interview about Google+ data making its way into other Google products. “With Google+, we understand who people are, and we use that.”

The recommendations engine might also prove to be a nice boost for app developers ever in need of more and better distribution channels.

On the company blog, we read the internal monologue of Googler Hui Guo, who writes, “Since I started working on the Chrome Web Store, all my friends have been asking me which apps to try out. Between checking with colleagues for their suggestions and creating shared lists on Google spreadsheets, I thought there must be an easier way to share my favorite apps with the rest of the world.”

Wait, what? There are people in this world who make shared spreadsheets of apps they use?

World’s most tech-and-social-media-obsessed spreadsheet aside, Guo continues, “To make finding the right app even easier, all apps that have been +1’d by someone in your circles will be indicated as such throughout the Chrome Web Store, helping you decide which apps to install.”

As Google social guy Bradley Horowitz told us several months ago in an in-depth discussion of Google+’s ultimate ambitions, “We think of Google+ as a mode of usage of Google… a way of lighting up your Google experience as opposed to a new product.” That is, Google+ was intended to glean data from your social graph so it could power features exactly like this one.

It’s worth noting that Facebook recently launched its own app store for web and mobile apps, putting it into competition with Google on yet another front. Google’s addition of more social information via recommendations is necessary for the company to keep a competitive in the still-evolving area of app distribution.

Google+-based recommendations have been popping up in other Googley web destinations, as well — most notably in the Holy Grail of Google software, it web search, which now offers users a Search Plus Your World integration with Google+.

As of last week, Google’s social side claimed 150 million monthly active users, paltry compared to Facebook’s roughly 900 million MAUs but still significant given that Google+ only launched one year ago.

Google Analytics app now available for Android

Google has released its website analytics service as an app for the Android mobile platform. The new Google Analytics app is ideally meant for bloggers, website owners and webmasters to stay updated with website statistics. This new app arrives with limited functionality compared to the exhaustive set of features offered in the web version of the Google Analytics service.

Google Analytics offers a comprehensive overview of web traffic and user behaviour in a quantitative and visual manner. With the new Google Analytics app, bloggers and website owners can get to know more about how visitors to their site interact with it.

The official Analytics app has a real time tab that shows details about website traffic at that particular moment. Apparently, users have to refresh that pane manually to get the latest update. The dashboard in the app supports only the charts view and a user can add charts to the dashboard. Other information as alerts is visible in the swipe-friendly user interface.

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