Google's Street View cars collect locations of Wi-Fi devices

Google is back in the hot seat today following a CNET report that suggests the search giant's Street View cars collected the locations of countless Wi-Fi devices. Along with mapping Wi-Fi access points (the intended purpose), the vehicles also charted the street addresses and unique identifiers of wireless Internet devices such as laptops and smartphones -- a practice that has been confirmed by the CNIL (France's data privacy commission).

What's worse, the search giant reportedly releases that information online, and you can't opt out of it. Harvested MAC addresses and their last known coordinates are published on the company's public geolocation database for all to access. Although this isn't inherently dangerous (it's effectively just a snapshot of where your device last was, so it's not like someone can stalk you with the information), it still raises valid privacy concerns.

For instance, someone could use the data to show you were at a specific place during a specific time, and that's something you might not want to share with the world. The Internet exploded earlier this year when it was discovered that Apple's iOS devices recorded a year's worth of location data that could be mapped to show your previous whereabouts. The company later released a software update that minimized users' biggest complaints.

And of course, isn't the first time Google's Street View cars have been caught gathering more information than intended. The company faced worldwide investigations, raids and even a $143,000 fine from France after it was discovered that the company "accidentally" collected private information from Wi-Fi networks, including emails, fragments of visited websites and passwords. The US FTC dropped its Wi-Fi sniffing investigation last October.

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Google Doodle and Google Plus invite

Web search engine behemoth Google on Tuesday honored Russia’s historic St. Basil’s Cathedral’s 450th birthday showing an image of the church as a doodle on its home page. It was the coolest way the world can remember the great cathedral of the world.

A multi-colored tiny image of the iconic structure was placed in the background of the last two letters of the Google logo on its home page. Google used to remind the world of the most important events, dates, objects, inventions, and personalities through its home page doodles.
Google recently managed to obtain patent for its doodles to cover, “systems and methods for enticing users to access a Web site.” Of course, it is a fantastic way to keep the Internet users across the world aware of some unforgettable things.

Recently Google remembered all of us of the great American guitarist Les Paul through a doodle, which became famous under the name Les Paul Doodle.

It was a JavaScript and HTML5-powered playable guitar, which a user can play using either the keyboard or mouse to generate some stunning music. As well, Google celebrated the recent lunar eclipse with another animated doodle.

Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral was completed in 1561 after ten years work. The ancient church is now used as a museum to let people watch the architectural wonder of the history.

“The cathedral has been rebuilt more than once over the centuries, and its present appearance is quite different from what it was then,” says, Tatyana Saracheva, director of the cathedral-turned museum.

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Mastering The Language Of Google Plus

As people stream onto Google Plus (aka Google+), the question crops up: how should users describe their actions on the search giant’s new social networking service? After all, Google Plus introduced a few new paradigms to social networking when it launched in late June.

Two Google Plus standouts are the idea of grouping connections into “circles” delineated by relationships (friends, family, work, etc.) and the practice of making video-call “hangouts” with those connections. The new features mean the terms “circle” and “hangout” – one word, not two – are now verbs of a different, somewhat awkward nature.

Nine years after the debut of Friendster – and seven years after Facebook first went live – most of us are familiar with the basics of social networking. But do Google Plus’ unique features require their own lingo? (The Washington Post brought up the same question earlier this week and solicited some interesting suggestions from readers.)

Here are some suggestions I came across online. Ironically, I found them on LinkedIn, a different social networking site that may compete with Google Plus should the latter expand to include more professional networking features.

Some of these terms are tongue-in-cheek, some perhaps unnecessary but at least a few seem useful. What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below.


Google+ Lingo

* Circle: to add someone to ones circle

* Circlespect: not trusting someone in ones circle

* Circle-vent: to avoid placing someone in your circle (primary meaning) or to express frustration to ones circle (secondary meaning)

* Circlesized: to oust someone from your circle

* Circle-du-soleil: a masterful arrangement of ones circle/s

* Circle hopping: moving a person from one circle to the next

* Circonference: a hangout with ones circle

* Cirplexed: to be unsure which circle to add someone to

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Google updates Google Docs for mobile screens

I wouldn't call myself a spreadsheet ninja, but I do use spreadsheets on a daily basis--and Google Docs, specifically--to track roommate bills, plan vacations and conferences, and keep tabs on work projects.

Today Google updated Google Docs for the mobile phone and tablet browser to make it easier for the tool's users to share multiple documents and sort spreadsheets, text docs, presentations, PDFs, and drawings you create online.

Log in from any mobile browser and you'll immediately see two drop-down categories on the navigation bar. One sorts documents by name, modification date, and the date you last opened it. The other filters gargantuan lists by documents you own, have starred as important, or are part of a collection. You can also filter by document type.

Any time you select (or more) one of those docs, you'll see the Share button appear on the bottom of the screen. You'll be able to then e-mail the file as an attachment or as a link, or copy the link.

All these are small but useful additions to the online version that make for a smoother viewing and using experience from a condensed mobile screen.

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Google's Chrome Tops 20% Of Browser Market Share In June

Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Chrome Internet browser snatched more than 20% of worldwide browser market share in June, according to website analytics company StatCounter, a sharp rise from 2.8% recorded in June 2009.

At the same time, rival Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Interet Explorer browser has edged down to 44% of the market from 59% and Firefox dropped to 28% from 30%.

"It is a superb achievement by Google to go from under 3% two years ago to over 20% today," said StatCounter Chief Executive Aodhan Cullen. "While Google has been highly effective in getting Chrome downloaded, the real test is actual browser usage which our stats measure."

In the U.S., Chrome has risen to 16% of the browser market, while Internet Explorer dominated at 47% and Firefox has 25%.

Google, long dominant in the Internet-search engine market, originally built Chrome in part because of concerns that existing browsers would fail to support its Web services or steer users away from its search engine.

Shares of Google, which closed Thursday at $506.38, were recently up 0.2% in premarket trade. The stock is down 15% since the start of the year.

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Google updates Calendar, gives it the Google+ look and feel

After the (somewhat) wide release of Google+ this week and a sneak peak at the new Gmail you’d think Google was ready to sit back and enjoy the long weekend. But people who have logged into Google Calendar recently have found out that that’s not the case–GCal has been updated as well. As seen in the gallery below, Google Calendar has been updated to match the design of Google+ and the Gmail “Preview” theme.

Aside from the new look, which has a lot of white space and feels much more “floaty” than we’re used to GCal being, the redesign brings a few new features. These include a Quick Add tool within the Create button that lasts users add-in events with Gcal’s standard commands (Example: Lunch with Tom 2pm 7/11). The My Calendars and Other Calendars areas were cleaned up a lot as well–their backgrounds were removed and color-coding is restricted to their pulldown menus (under the arrows). My/Other Calendars are collapsed by default, and the mini calendar (in the left column) is collapsible as well.

In other, smaller changes the Print and Refresh buttons are icons, as opposed to text links, indicator icons (like an alarm clock) are only displayed when an event is moused over, and some excess Save/Back buttons were removed.

Overall the intention here seems clear: Google Calendar’s designers want to move to something that was cleaner, less cluttered, and–most of all–unified with the Google’s other tools. As GCal has gotten more powerful and more widely used there has been some feature creep and now elements that people don’t need (like that mini calendar) can be hidden from view. The month view is still cluttered if you have more than 3 events in any given day, but the “+X more” popup is cleaner and then Day/Week views are still very usable if you have a busy schedule.

For their part Google notes that changes were made in order to make Gcal more focused, more useable on different devices, and easier to use.

Everyone out there have the new Calendar? If so, how do you like it?

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Google, target of worldwide surveillance and takedown requests

Google continued to demonstrate its commitment to transparency on Monday by releasing fresh statistics on the number of times it has disclosed private user data to a government, or removed content at government request. The country-by-country report covers the second half of 2010.

During that period, the United States was the top requester of user information (4,601 requests), while Brazil was the leader in takedowns, with 263 requests leading to the removal of 12,363 items.

Google has committed to releasing such data at six-month intervals, and the data now goes back 18 months. US data requests were up about 30 percent in the second half of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009. Brazil, which requested the most data in the second half of 2009, actually saw its data requests fall since then.

For the first time, Google is also disclosing the fraction of user data requests it has complied with in addition to the total number of requests (it has always provided compliance statistics on takedowns). It complied with the highest fraction—94 percent—of American requests. It also complied with more than 80 percent of requests in Japan, Singapore, and Australia. At the opposite extreme, Google refused to comply with any of Turkey and Hungary's information requests, and it complied with fewer than half of the requests in South Korea, Portugal, Argentina, and Poland.

The section on takedown requests provides an interesting window into the different types of censorship that occur around the world. For example, Google complied with a request from the Thai government to remove 43 items "mocking or criticizing the king," which is illegal in that country. It removed an Italian video that depicted the assassination of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, but refused to remove videos criticizing politicians in India.

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Google head urges more broadband investment

IRELAND NEEDS to do better at broadband, and getting businesses online, Google’s Eric Schmidt said yesterday.

Speaking yesterday in Dublin, the company's executive chairman said Ireland was behind some of our competitors – France, Germany and the UK getting a specific mention – in providing high-speed internet access to homes and businesses, through both traditional access and wireless networks such as 4G.

“Which is not to say that you can’t catch up quickly, but you need to do it,” he said. “It’s not a tragedy but it’s an issue.

“The thing the Government can actually do that’s hard is [to] work with the telecommunications providers to get more broadband. It’s very difficult for small businesses to do,” he added.

“There are very few things that are better use of your money than long-term infrastructure in information technology that serves the interests of the citizens of the country.”

It’s a situation that has been negatively affected by the financial crisis, he noted.

“It may be that the Government has had a tough time, choosing between 10 different legitimate groups. I’m lobbying for mine,” he said. “The benefit of lobbying for mine is I think that the economic benefit of getting Irish businesses to be global, the flow through is so phenomenal. It creates new jobs, they pay taxes; it’s a market. But it is aided by such investment.”

This will help Irish businesses to become more global, get online and utilise the internet, he said, describing it as a global opportunity for Irish businesses.

“If I can sound critical, my observation is that Irish businesses are somewhat behind, especially the small and medium business, getting online compared to where they should be,” he said. “And Google and other companies working with people here should work very hard to get those companies on the internet.”

About 40 per cent of Irish companies do not have a website or other form of online presence, a situation that has led Google to get involved in an initiative with Blacknight Internet Solutions, An Post and the county and city enterprise boards aimed at helping to get smaller enterprises online.

He quoted a recent McKinsey study which claimed that, for every job lost through internet competition, 2.6 are created.

The good news is that Google, for the moment at least, has no plans to go anywhere. In fact, the company is expanding here all the time. It currently employs about 2,200 people in Ireland and is one of the fastest growing employers in the State.
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If not Android, then Windows 8?

As Google's Android continues to experience birthing pains in tablets, Windows 8 has emerged as an attractive, albeit still distant, alternative.

By the time Windows 8 tablets hit the market in 2012, Microsoft will have had ample time to analyze the initial missteps of the Android platform, not to mention its own unimpressive attempts at "slate" operating systems over the years. Generally speaking, Microsoft may miss with the first few whacks at something new but they're usually good at eventually nailing an operating environment. If only because of their tenacity. They will persevere for years, even decades, until they get it right.

And, in fact, it's been about a decade since Microsoft announced the tablet concept. At that time, Bill Gates infamously predicated at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas that "the tablet would become the most popular form of PC within five years...The size of a legal notepad and half the weight of most of today's laptop PCs."

Tack on a few years and that prediction may be getting close to the truth. Not at Microsoft or Motorola or Dell, but Apple.

Windows 8 may be a watershed, however. Thanks to Apple, Microsoft now has a much better idea of what a tablet should be. And tablets are large-screen (relative to smartphones) devices, an operating environment Microsoft is comfortable with. Better still, Windows 8 can tap into plenty of horsepower--another thing Microsoft is good at. By next year, chip suppliers like Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments will have improved dual-core--and, in some cases, quad-core--chips replete with improved graphics. Not to mention Intel's plans to beef up its next-generation Atom processor by next year.

And since Windows 8 will run on both Intel and the ARM design-based chips cited above, Win 8 tablets will appear quickly, possibly in the form of a Microsoft-branded slate.

Did I mention apps? Microsoft has a few universally used applications--some might say pre-baked killer apps--that may work well in a Windows 8 tablet format. In short, never underestimate the demand for Microsoft Office. Microsoft could also move the tablet interface forward in a big way with a technology like Kinect.

All of this, I think, lays the groundwork for a successful platform. My only fear is that Microsoft and its partners fall prey to PC-itis and design clunky, thick, heavy tablets laden with ports in an effort to shoehorn a laptop into a tablet format. That would be a big mistake. (And, yes, Android 4.0 will have arrived by then, so the competition in non-Apple devices will not go away.)


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Google’s “Me On The Web” A Vital Addition To Personal Online Reputation Management Efforts

Building up a good, solid reputation takes years, if not a lifetime, of hard work and dedication, yet one wrong move on today’s social media channels can spell disaster for aspiring individuals. Google, in response to the growing need for online reputation management, has set up a tool that will help individuals monitor their own identity on the web – an excellent starting point on the way to carefully managing one’s online presence, believes CEO of http://www.ReputationManagementAuthority.com, James Schramko.

“As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure” Schramko eagerly explains “people taking the initiative to control what is being published about them are the most likely beneficiaries of this tool.”

Individuals conscious about what they post online realize that sometimes being careful just doesn’t cut it. The tagging of photos, videos and blog posts by other people, for example, are some of the factors one has little control over.

Me On The Web, which is based on the existing “Google Alerts” technology, allows individuals to receive alerts about themselves on a daily or weekly basis. It shows where the user has been tagged, whether in blog posts, photos, or on videos.

“Aside from carefully choosing what you post online, you can always talk to your friends if you believe you have been tagged in an inappropriate photo, video or blog post. If the person that has tagged you is not your friend, you may advise them to take down the material. The tool is very handy when comes to informing you of the source, that way you can take legal action when necessary.” – James Schramko.

James further explains that proper reputation management always starts with the individual because cleaning up the aftermath of a media disaster is always more complicated than preventing it from happening. Me On The Web can greatly help in monitoring a person’s online identity, and when things go wrong, firms like James Schramko’s Repuation Management Authority can help.

For additional information visit http://www.ReputationManagementAuthority.com.

About Reputation Management Authority
Reputation Management Services that specializes in putting forward the other side of the story which takes advantage of a highly advanced system developed and tested by online business expert, James Schramko. RMA was not available to the public until recently.

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Google Quietly Launches Panda Update Version 2.2

Webmasters and SEOs suspected the next wave of Google's Panda update began hitting last week, with reports coming in of traffic drops, as well as some recoveries starting around June 16. And it seems that is the case, as Google has today confirmed the arrival of what is being dubbed Google Panda Version 2.2.

As is typical of Google, they're revealing nearly nothing about what this tweak is targeting. As yet, Google hasn't made an official announcement of the rollout of the algorithmic change on a company blog, though Google has recently tried to downplay Panda, noting that Panda is just one of about 500 algorithmic search tweaks Google makes each year.

Supposedly, one thing Google was going to address with Panda 2.2 is the issue of scraper sites – websites that republish other people's content on their own site, usually making money from Google AdSense in the process – outranking content originators. As Frank Watson noted, "Google created the mechanism that clogs its own data centers and overwhelms its own spam battlers."

History of Panda

Google announced the arrival of a new algorithm aimed at reducing rankings for "low-quality sites." Though Google said only 11.8 percent of U.S. queries were impacted by the update, it was enough to do some big damage (organic traffic losses of up to 80 percent were reported) to many unsuspecting online business owners, webmasters, and SEOs, which we chronicled here, here, here, and here.

A second version of Panda followed in April for all English sites, incorporating user feedback (blocked sites) as a search signal, followed by what is now being called Panda 2.1 in May.

Panda Tips

Early on, Google offered little advice to those caught in Google's algorithmic net, aside from removing low quality content and releasing a list of 23 questions to help you think like Google about which types of sites Google tries to reward with higher rankings.

In the months since the initial launch, some more clues have emerged and our team of experts have been busy unraveling the SEO factors involved with the Panda enigma.

Most recently, Garry Przyklenk yesterday offered five SEO Panda survival tips, including diversifying your traffic, addressing usability issues, and creating high-quality content – which is what Google says the Panda update aims to reward, despite the collateral damage that has been reported since February.

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Breaking down Google's Street View

The police recently stopped Google from filming streets in Bangalore, citing security concerns. While Google says it would resolve the matter with the government, here’s the low-down on what its ‘Street View’ technology is, how it works and why it’s perceived as controversial.

To start, one can log on to Google Maps, which lets one explore places through 360-degree street-level imagery. Once in Google Maps, one can click and drag the ‘Pegman’ symbol to the place he wants to see. Roads with Street View imagery would appear with a blue border. For areas where Street View imagery is available, one can also zoom in to the spot. There are symbols that indicate options like rotate, walk, jump or exit.

When Google started Street View in 2007 as an experimental project, the company packed several computers into a sports utility vehicle, stuck cameras, lasers, and a GPS device on top, and drove around, collecting the first imagery. Since Street View was launched across five US cities in May 2007, the company expanded its 360-degree panoramic views to include locations on all the seven continents. The company later switched to a fleet of cars that allowed it to scale the project throughout the US and across the world. A rack of computers paved the way for one small computer per car. The system of cameras was later improved to capture higher-resolution panoramic views.

The latest car has 15 lenses to capture 360-degree photos. It also has motion sensors to track its position, a hard drive to store data, a small computer running the system and lasers to capture 3D data to determine distances within Street View. Areas not accessible by cars are filmed on bikes (mountain cycles) and even snowmobiles (for snowy terrains) and trolleys that fit through museum doorways and navigate around sculptures.

The Google team, on its website, says it pays close attention to the movement of the sun when planning the drive to ensure that shadows don’t obscure buildings. It also takes into account the weather and the temperature. The team needs to figure exactly where each image was taken in order to provide images of the right places when one uses Street View. For this, Google combines signals from several sensors on the car, including a global positioning system (GPS) device. The device usually shows the car’s exact location. However, sometimes factors like tall buildings block the signal. Data from the other sensors help the company fill in the gaps in such cases. The company can figure out the car’s route accurately by combining these signals.

Since Google knows exactly when and in which direction each picture was taken, it can then match each image to a specific location and even tilt and align the images with hilly terrain. To account for overlapping and help create a continuous 360-degree image, it ‘stitches’ the images together to create a continuous panorama.

When one navigates through a street, Google needs to determine which image to show. For this, it relies on signals the car collects, such as data from three lasers. How quickly the lasers reflect off surfaces tells it how far each building or object is and also enables it to construct 3D models. When one drags the mouse to an area in the distance, this 3D model determines the best panorama for that location.

On November 21 2008, Street View was added to the Maps application installed on the Apple iPhone, while on December 10 2008, it was added to the Maps application for S60 3rd Edition. Street View has also been added to the Windows Mobile and BlackBerry versions of Google Maps.

PRIVACY CONCERNS While technology is generally perceived as neutral, there are fears of Google knowing too much about us. On the internet, for instance, Google knows what sites one visits and what information one looks for. Now, it also has pictures of your street, your house, your cars and you. Google, on its part, says Street View images are not real time, and claims to apply cutting-edge face and licence plate blurring technology to help ensure that passers-by and cars in photographs cannot be identified.

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Google Gets 1 Billion Monthly Unique Visitors

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) revealed more than a year ago that it has more than 1 billion searches a day and averages 1 billion searchers a week.

Now it can add 1 billion unique visitors per month to that storied stat club. comScore revealed that Google's Websites, including its search engine, YouTube video-sharing site and Gmail, lured more than a billion unique visitors in May. That's up 8.4 percent from a year ago.

It was the first time an Internet company has hit that benchmark, according to the researcher. See the report here or this snapshot on Search Engine Land.

That would be nice if it weren't for the fact that Google's rivals are growing their online traffic, too. Microsoft, whose Bing search engine came on strong last year, followed with 905 million unique visitors in May, good for growth of 15 percent.

Facebook, meanwhile, saw its visitor count balloon to 714 million visitors, perhaps an accurate reflection of its current user base. Facebook's year-to-year growth was a remarkable 30 percent.

More impressive (and scary, for Google) is Facebook's user engagement stat: comScore said the social network's users logged 250 billion minutes worldwide in May, up from 66 percent from May 2010.

In a June 15 blog post, comScore said Facebook's average U.S. visitor engagement has grown from 4.6 hours to 6.3 hours per month over the past year. Nielsen confirmed the six-hour stat in its own research.

Microsoft is next at 204 billion minutes, down 13.6 percent, while Google is third with 200 billion minutes, good for growth of 13 percent.

Facebook's ability to keep users logged in the walled garden is the reason why Google is logically infusing its Web services with social software.

This Web phenomenon is also the reason Google has been revving up its mobile and display advertising efforts. The company acquired mobile ad maker AdMob for $750 million last year and agreed to buy display ad player Admeld last week.

Google has also accelerated its YouTube efforts, adding thousands of streaming movie titles and using Google TV as a new access point for YouTube and its display ads.

Near-term, Google has little to worry about. EMarketer said Google will take 41 percent of all ad dollars, with Facebook netting 7 percent of US online ad spending this year.

What Google is nervous about is that Facebook is getting more users to stay online with its site longer, which means more users are seeing more display ads on the network.

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Google Updates Search Tools to Match Mobile Trends

Google on Tuesday introduced three new search features that make it clear mobile technologies are leading the way in new developments from the search giant.

The new Voice Search feature in its Chrome browser, for instance, originated in the mobile arena and was designed to allow users to speak, rather than type, their queries.

"With Voice Search, you don't have to type on a tiny touchscreen," wrote Google Fellow Amit Singhal on a company blog. "You can just speak your query and the answer is on the way."

Search by Image

Search by Image, similarly, brings to the desktop another technology originated in mobile: searching via computer vision.

"Google Goggles has enabled you to search by snapping a photo on your mobile phone since 2009, and today we're introducing Search by Image on desktop," Singhal wrote.

With the new feature, users can upload any picture or plug in an image URL from the Web and ask Google to figure out what it is. New extensions to the Chrome and Firefox browsers will also enable users to search any image on the Web simply by right-clicking.

The video below offers a sneak peek at the new Search by Image feature, which could be a boon for business research as well.

Instant Pages

Finally, the third search feature Google introduced on Tuesday was Instant Pages, which aims to shave seconds off the search process by loading top-ranked websites even before the user selects them.

"Instant Pages will prerender results when we're confident you're going to click them," Singhal explained. "The good news is that we've been working for years to develop our relevance technology, and we can fairly accurately predict when to prerender."

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The Google Android party has begun

SAN DIEGO--After two years of waiting, Google Android phones are finally hitting the market en masse.

In the past couple of months, nine devices using Google's mobile operating system have been announced, including the Motorola Cliq, which goes on sale in November, and the new Samsung Moment, which was announced Wednesday at the CTIA Fall 2009 trade show here. The pipeline is full of more Android devices, some of which have been confirmed and some that are still rumored to be in development.

"We are seeing a lot of interest in Android here," Kim Titus, a spokesman for Samsung, said Wednesday at the CTIA trade show, where the company is showing off its two Google Android handsets- the Samsung Moment and the Samsung Behold II. "I think these devices have an opportunity to become strong cross-over devices appealing both to business customers as well as to consumers and prosumers."

U.S. wireless operators are also jumping on the Google Android bandwagon. So far, T-Mobile USA, the smallest of the four nationwide carriers, has been the only U.S. wireless operator to offer Android devices. Once the Motorola Cliq and the Samsung Bold II launch, T-Mobile will be offering four different Google Android devices on its network.

But T-Mobile won't be the only Android carrier in the U.S. for much longer. Starting next week, Sprint Nextel will introduce its first Android phone, the HTC Hero. And a couple of weeks later on November 1, it will begin selling the newly announced Samsung Moment.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless operator, will also be getting two new Google Android phones in the coming weeks. Verizon executives wouldn't provide specifics about the devices, but one of the devices is expected to be from Motorola. Verizon and Google said Tuesday that they will be working closely to introduce new Google Android phones.

Even AT&T, the second largest wireless provider in the U.S. and the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, is expected to have a Google Android phone soon. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published a report stating that AT&T will be offer Dell's soon to be announced Google Android phone.

Device makers see Android as their biggest hope to compete against Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices in the smartphone market. Both Apple and RIM develop their own software that is proprietary to their homegrown hardware.

Like the Google Android operating system, Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform can also be used on different hardware. But as Microsoft struggles to keep pace with the rapidly changing mobile market, some device makers, such as Motorola, are gravitating toward Android. This is not to say that Microsoft is out of the game. In fact, the company just announced Windows Mobile 6.5 this week at CTIA, but experts, such as CNET's own Bonnie Cha, believe the upgrade is incremental with a bigger overhaul of the software not expected until next year.

Meanwhile, momentum is growing for Google Android phones.

Google unveiled its Android open development operating system in the fall of 2007. It took a year before the first Android phone, the HTC G1 sold by T-Mobile, was introduced. Many industry watchers had expected other handset makers to start announcing their own Android devices in February 2009 at the GSMA World Congress trade show in Barcelona. But the show came and went with few mentions of Android.

Later that spring, people were expecting Android announcements at the CTIA's spring trade show in Las Vegas. But device makers kept mum. In June, T-Mobile USA and HTC introduced the second Android handset into the U.S. market, the MyTouch. This phone was supposed to be a more refined version of the G1 and was designed to appeal to the mainstream wireless consumer.

Now as Android is about to hit its second birthday, the much anticipated flood of Android device announcements is beginning. Manufacturers, such as Samsung, Motorola, LG and HTC are announcing multiple Google Android devices. Motorola's co-CEO Sanjay Jha said this week that he expects his company to introduce "multiple tens of products" using the Android operating system.

Even phone makers Sony Ericsson and Nokia, which historically have built phones using the Symbian operating system, are rumored to be working on Android handsets. The operating system has even appealed to companies not traditionally in the cell phone business, such as laptop makers Lenovo and Dell and Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei.

While Google Android may give device makers, such as Samsung and Motorola, a way to compete with the iPhone, it could be difficult for them to differentiate their products. So far, the Android devices that have been announced look very similar. All of them sport a touch screen that takes much of the face of the phone. Some, like the Motorola Cliq and the Samsung Moment, also have QWERTY keypads that slides out for consumers who like the feel of real keys.

Samsung's Titus said there are subtle differences in the hardware. For example, the Samsung Moment uses a bright OLED screen that makes images sharper and colors more vibrant. The screen is also designed to be more energy efficient. And the Moment uses much faster processors that most other cell phones. But he conceded that because all the devices use a touch screen that they look very much alike.

"When you have a screen that takes up so much of the landscape, it's not surprising that they look somewhat similar," he said.

Since the Android platform is completely open, the real customization will likely be software based. For example, the Samsung Moment, which will be sold on Sprint's network, comes preloaded with applications and features specific to Sprint's network. These applications include Sprint's navigation service and applications for NFL and Nascar, two organizations which have special relationships with Sprint.

Motorola has also customized the user interface for its Cliq phone and it has introduced Motoblur, a social-networking-optimized version of the user interface. Motorola executives told developers at its conference this week that it expects some but not all of its new Android phones to come with Motoblur installed.

While handset makers and wireless operators may be tempted to further customize the Android software, doing so is risky since the promise of an operating system such as Android is to provide developers with an easy and open way to develop applications that can be downloaded across multiple devices.

So far developers have already created more than 10,000 applications for Google Android devices. These apps can be accessed through the Google Android Market. Big developers, such as Facebook, have already begun developing Android specific applications. And at its developer conference, Motorola announced a series of new apps available for the new Cliq, including Accuweather, the Barnes & Noble eReader, MySpace, and QuickOffice, the company said.

But as new devices are introduced on different carrier networks, it will be interesting to see if these applications in the Android Market will work across all the different hardware. If they do, they could drive more Android device development, which could lead to the Android mobile platform actually living up to the hype that was promised nearly two years ago. And if they don't, then Android will likely become just another mobile operating system that further fragments the market.

Source:http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-10370495-10356022.html

Google unveils new search tools

Google said in its quest to create the perfect search engine, it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

The company's comments came at an event billed as a "state of the union" on search as it unveiled new products that aim to push search in a new direction.

Google has over 63% of the US market compared to rival Yahoo with 20%.

"The race in search is far from over and innovation and continued improvement is absolutely pivotal," said Google's Marissa Mayer.

"I've said this many times but search is still in its infancy. Our engineers are worried about what is the next big thing in search and how are they going to find it," said Ms Mayer who is the vice president of search products and user experience.

She said last year Google released over 365 products and in the first quarter of this year it was 120. Ms Mayer added that this was proof that "Google gets better all the time."

Google has in the past said that despite its lead in the marketplace, users were "one click away" from switching to other alternatives.

Vanessa Fox of SearchEngineLand told the BBC that Google's ability to constantly innovate gives them a leading edge.

"Google is saying we have to provide for all searchers and do things at scale. It means they have to launch all sorts of features while some companies can concentrate on just one thing. The key thing behind why they are still ahead is because they are able to innovate at such a pace," said Ms Fox.

Google Squared

During the "Searchology" event at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Ms Mayer and her team showcased four new products that she said would give users a "different way to look at the web."

One of the more experimental was called Google Squared which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in "split seconds," something Ms Mayer said would normally take someone a half a day to do.

During the demonstration, a query for "small dog" was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.

While Ms Mayer described this product as "transformative" she would only hint at the specific techniques that Google uses to drive this feature.

"I think we can open the kimono a little bit without talking about the computer science behind it.

"What they are basically doing is looking for structures on the web that seem to imply facts. Like something 'is' something.

"Different tables, different structures, and then corroborating the evidence around whether or not something is a fact by looking at whether that fact occurs across pages.

"This is all in the secret sauce of what we are doing and it takes an incredible amount of compute power to create those squares," said Ms Mayer.

"Refine, filter and view"

Google Search Options is a tool that is aimed at letting users "slice and dice" results so they can manipulate the information and get what they want faster.

They come into play after a normal web search and allow users to drill down into the results by offering an option for different genres like product reviews, forum posts or videos. Other choices include recently added blogs, images, timelines and so on.

Ms Mayer said this new feature should help people who struggle with the "vexing" problem of exactly what query they should type into the search box.

It is meant to give users the opportunity to "refine, filter and view results in a different way."

Another feature is called "Rich Snippets" which are search results that return more information in every listing.

For example, users looking for reviews of a new restaurant might get a "rich snippet" of average review scores, number of reviews and the restaurant's price range.

"This is a step toward making the whole internet smarter," said Google product manager Kavi Goel.

'Skymap'

A final feature had Ms Mayer "reaching for the stars" with an app for mobile phones using the Android operating system.

"For a long time here at Google we joked could we actually find physical things like keys and now with the power and technology of Android, coupled with search, you can see we are starting to find some physical things like stars," said Ms Mayer.

Skymap displays the constellations. By using the smart phone's GPS capability, it offers the user a dynamic star map that knows where they are standing and which way they are pointing

The feature came about as a result of Google's 20% time that allows engineers to spend one fifth of their time working on pet projects.

The app is now available on the Android app market.

"Clearly Google is still pushing the envelope with all these new additions," said Rob Hof, Silicon Valley editor of Business Week.

"They are certainly continuing to improve daily. Whether it makes a difference and will stave off the competition, I don't know. But they are not standing still."

Ms Mayer said keeping the user happy is at the heart of everything they do.

"There is a shoe company called Stuart Weitzman and their slogan is "a little obsessed with shoes."

"Google is a little more than obsessed with search," confessed Ms Mayer.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8047076.stm