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Tags > google
Four short links: 23 November 2009 - Scams, Swirl, Crisis, and Coasters
November 23, 2009
Top E-Tailers Profiting From Scams -- Vertrue, Webloyalty, and Affinion generated more than $1.4 billion by "misleading" Web shoppers, said members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. [...] The government says the investigation shows that [the companies] "trick" consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Google Closure: A New Way of Developing in JavaScript - A Guide and Links to Google Closure's Mature and Complex JavaScript Framework
November 19, 2009
Every day million people make use of Google products and these products are written mainly using one well known language: JavaScript! What makes this online software stable, fast and responsive is a good use of the language and an excellent system of data compression and asynchronous loading. Today this power is available to everyone, since Google has released its magic tool under Apache 2 license.
Four short links: 19 November 2009 - Chumby One, Gorgeous IE Debugger, Freer Than Free, and Phone-a-Friend for Government IT
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 19, 2009
Less Than Free -- Begins by talking about Google giving away turn-by-turn directions on Android, and then analyses Google's "less than free" business model: Additionally, because Google has created an open source version of Android, carriers believe they have an “out” if they part ways with Google in the future. I then asked my friend, “so why would they ever use the Google (non open source) license version.” Here was the big punch line - because Google will give you ad splits on search if you use that version! That’s right; Google will pay you to use their mobile OS. I like to call this the “less than free” business model. This is a remarkable card to play. Because of its dominance in search, Google has ad rates that blow away the competition. To compete at an equally “less than free” price point, Symbian or windows mobile would need to subsidize. Double ouch!! This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 18 November 2009 - Web Time Travel, UK Map Data Liberation, Streetview Mashups, 3D Retail
November 18, 2009
Mapsicle -- Is an open source Javascript library to create mashups and application on Google Streetview, from NZ developers Project X. It has been released by Google as part of the Maps Utility library. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 17 November 2009 - Digital Natives, Supersexy C64 Debugger, a Google Tripwire, and a Patient Botnet
November 17, 2009
ICU64 -- an open source Commodore 64 emulator (Frodo) hacked to visually and textually display memory. Watch the video embedded below, it's hypnotic and seductive. It immediately made me want one for my programs (without having to port my code back to 6502 assembler). (via waxy whose return from pneumonia is greatly welcomed)
The War For the Web
November 16, 2009
It is becoming clear to me that we are heading into a bloody period of competition that could be extremely unfriendly to the interoperable web as we know it today. If you've followed my thinking about Web 2.0 from the beginning, you know that I believe we are engaged in a long term project to build an internet operating system. I've outlined a few of the ways that big players like Facebook, Apple, and News Corp are potentially breaking the "small pieces loosely joined" model of the Internet. But perhaps most threatening of all are the natural monopolies created by Web 2.0 network effects. We're facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill. And it's time for developers to take a stand. If you don't want a repeat of the PC era, place your bets now on open systems. Don't wait till it's too late.
Four short links: 9 November 2009 - Moth Mind Readers, Shiny UI Futures, Usable Newspapers, Hardware Testing
By Nat TorkingtonNovember 9, 2009
New Microsoft Interface Technology -- videos from Craig Mundie (Chief Research and Strategy Officer) on the MS Campus Tour talking about the future of UI using a sexy glass prototype that features tablet PC, gesture, speech recognition, and even eye tracking. Lustable. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Three Paradoxes of the Internet Age - Part Two
By Joshua-Michéle RossNovember 5, 2009
This gem from Whimsley makes the point - with extensive statistical modeling supporting the argument - that our algorithm-obsessed, long tail merchants are actually depleting the overall choice pool despite the fact that as individuals we may be experiencing a sense of more choice through recommendations engines. "Online merchants such as Amazon, iTunes and Netflix may stock more items than your local book, CD, or video store, but they are no friend to "niche culture". Internet sharing mechanisms such as YouTube and Google PageRank, which distil the clicks of millions of people into recommendations, may also be promoting an online monoculture."
Four short links: 2 November 2009 - Inside Botnets, Creating Choropleths, Privacy Simplified, Massively Machiavellian Online Social Gaming
November 2, 2009
Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell (TechCrunch) -- Many of those games on Facebook that your friends play are evil. To get in-game money or objects, they'll let you take a survey but at the end you're signed up for crap you never wanted. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 30 October 2009 - Three Minute Theses, Google Wave RPGs, Public Metadata, and The Finitely-Zoomable Natural World
October 30, 2009
The3is In Three -- PhD students must explain their thesis topic in three minutes and one Powerpoint slide. Winner had written on the last words of Shakespearean characters as they met unlikely ends. No video alas, but what a great idea for an Ignite! (via sciblogs) Google Wave: We Came, We Saw, We Played D&D (ArsTechnica) -- gamers using Wave to play RPGs. This can't be the killer app, however, because it is not pornographic. (via BoingBoing)
Navigating the Future: Take Me to Bob
October 30, 2009
Google has just announced a free turn-by-turn navigation app for Android 2.0 in the US (Radar post). Google Maps Navigation relies on Google's own mapping for routing you. As with many navigation devices you can search Business Listings. However, they are also including data not traditionally available to navigators. In the promo video Google demonstrates that you can ask to be taken to "The King Tut exhibit". GMN will determine that it's in Golden Gate Park and route you. This is "because it is connected to the internet it is using all of the latest information on the internet."
Four short links: 28 October 2009 - Great Mail Feature, Speed Talks, Virtualisation History, Science Literacy
October 28, 2009
GMail Labs: Got The Wrong Bob? -- When's the last time you got an email from a stranger asking, "Are you sure you meant to send this to me?" and promptly realized that you didn't? GMail looks at the clusters of CCs you send and, if you normally send to Bob X but are trying to send it to Bob Y, asks you "did you mean Bob X?". This might be the best thing to happen to email since webmail and full-text search--it's ridiculous how little innovation is happening in email given how widely and heavily it is used. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Featured Web 2.0 Summit Video: Marissa Mayer of Google - Announces Twitter Agreement, Demonstrates of Google's New Social Search
By O'Reilly MediaOctober 23, 2009
See all the videos from Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
Why Google and Bing's Twitter Announcement is Big News - Tweets will finally become first class web citizens
October 21, 2009
Lurking innocently on Google's blog this afternoon, like many of their big announcements, was the bombshell that they have reached an agreement with Twitter to make all tweets searchable. This followed an earlier announcement at the Web 2.0 conference by Microsoft that Bing has also arranged to make tweets searchable.
Four short links: 21 October 2009 - Battlefield Android, DIY Leukemia Hacking, Localisation, Bus Pirates
October 21, 2009
Raytheon Sends Android to Battlefield -- Combining maps and a buddy list, Raytheon is employing Google's Android on the battlefield with the Raytheon Android Tactical System, or RATS. "A soldier could make an unmanned plane a 'buddy,' for instance, and track its progress on a map using his phone. He could then access streaming video from the plane, giving him a bird's eye view of the area. Soldiers could also use the buddy list to trace the locations of other members of their squad." This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Life With TED - Micromanaging Your Carbon Footprint - I've spent three days watching my power consumption like a hawk, here's how it's going
October 20, 2009
I've been interested in having a better handle on my electrical consumption for a long time. Our family regularly goes through 1100-1200 kWh a month, and it's been frustrating that I couldn't really get a grip on where or when the power was really being used. I want to get my power usage under control. Fortunately Google announced on their blog that normal mortals could now order a device called The Energy Detective (or TED, as he's known by his friends...) Using TED, I've been able to quickly find the critical items that I need to make sure get shut off when not used.
Four short links: 19 October 2009 - YouTube Bandwidth, RFID Visualization, Social Software Arms Race, Google Voice to the Laptop
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 19, 2009
Immaterials: The Ghost in the Text (Vimeo) -- Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG explore the spatial qualities of RFID. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 16 October 2009 - Audio Geotagging, SF Open Data Stories, Wave Use Cases, Hadooped Genomes
By Nat TorkingtonOctober 16, 2009
Wiimote Audio Geotagging -- match audio with the map movement and annotations made with an IR pen and a Wiimote. Very cool! (and from New Zealand) San Francisco: Open For Data -- Two months after it launched, the project is already reaping rewards from San Francisco's huge community of programmers. Applications using the data include Routesy, which offers directions...
Random Hacks of Kindness: Disaster Relief Codejam
October 16, 2009
Random Hacks of Kindness is an initiative that brings together disaster relief experts and software engineers to work on identifying key challenges to disaster relief, and developing solutions to these critical issues. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the World Bank are getting together to support disaster relief projects. The first Codejam will be Nov 12-14 i the Bay Area.
Four short links: 13 October 2009 - Open Source, Gov 2.0, Gaming, Education
October 13, 2009
Google Replaces TeleAtlas -- Google has decided to go with a new source of data for its U.S. maps: Google's StreetView cars. Tele Atlas will no longer provide U.S. map coverage, but will continue being Google's source of data for non-U.S. based maps. A report about the change speculates that with Google's own data source, map error fixes may happen in as little as 24 hours. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 7 October 2009 - Ongoing Palm Fail, YouTube Numbers, Plugin Patent Pain, Bivalve-Oriented Architecture
October 7, 2009
Followup to jwz's Palm App Store Fiasco -- Redux: still nothing concrete from Palm, but they're saying they'll create a second-rate app store into which open source apps will go (along with apps that Palm hasn't reviewed). This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Four short links: 30 September 2009 - Smart Materials, Google OCR API, Teaching Webinar, HistEx
September 30, 2009
Smart Materials in Architecture -- Using thermal bimetals can allow architects to experiment with shape-changing buildings, Ritter said. Thermal bimetals include a combination of materials with different expansion coefficients that can cause a change in. Under changing temperatures this can lead one side of a compound to bend more than the other side, potentially creating an entirely different shape, he said. A little impractical at the moment, but think of it as hackers experimenting with what's possible, iterating to find the fit between materials possibility and customer need. (via Liminal Existence)
Four short links: 22 September 2009 - Cities, How Things Work, Stylish Google, EC2 Numbers
September 22, 2009
The City is a Battlesuit for Surviving the Future (IO9) -- a great essay by Matt Jones, based on his talk at Webstock this year. Urban design is how we created alternate realities before we had iPhones, and the new technology lets us choose which science fiction future we want to inhabit. We are now a predominantly urban species, with over 50% of humanity living in a city. The overwhelming majority of these are not old post-industrial world cities such as London or New York, but large chaotic sprawls of the industrialising world such as the "maximum cities" of Mumbai or Guangzhou. Here the infrastructures are layered, ad-hoc, adaptive and personal - people there really are walking architecture, as Archigram said. Hacking post-industrial cities is becoming a necessity also.
Four short links: 21 September 2009 - Bad Writing, Tech Immigration, Long Tail Fail?, and The Real McKoi
By Nat TorkingtonSeptember 21, 2009
Dan Brown's 20 Worst Sentences -- awful awful writing, and glorious glorious mockery of it. Deception Point, chapter 8: Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes. It’s not clear what Brown thinks ‘precarious’ means here. From Australia to the World: The Story of Google Maps...
iPhone, the 'Personal' Computer - Future of the Mobile Web
September 17, 2009
The iPhone is the first truly 'personal' computer; more personal to its owners than the PC ever was. Talk to iPhone owners (not to mention, the 20M iPod Touch owners), and this truth bubbles to the top again and again.
Four short links: 8 September 2009 - Mobile jQuery, API to Google Book Search, Open Learning, Popularity Algorithms
September 8, 2009
jQTouch -- Want some help developing your mobile app for the iPhone, Android, PalmPre or other device? Check out jQTouch, a plugin for mobile web development that offers a library of pre-built functions. Visit the jQTouch site to get the plugin and explore a demo. This and more in today's Four Short Links.
Seeing the Future of Mapping in Crimespotting
August 21, 2009
This week Stamen Design released San Francisco Crimespotting. It's a crime map and notification system that allows for time and crime trend analysis. SF Crimespotting has launched just over two years after the release Oakland Crimespotting (Radar post). Stamen had been waiting for crime data all this time and with the launch of DataSF they are able to use an official API for crime data. SF Crimespotting is very similar to the initial release for Oakland.
APPLE is EVIL, You're All Fanboys and other half-truths
August 20, 2009
There is a meme afoot. Apple is evil. Its arrogant ways and dependence on the cult of personality are to be its demise. Developers are said to be unhappy. And, Apple Secrecy Doesn't Scale. Google-ification is the way, the RIGHT way. The Apple Way can't possibly persist ad infinitum. But, you know what? It’s a crock. In the here and now, Apple's success is unparalleled, and the engine is humming better than ever on multiple vectors - products, margins, developers, profits and consumer engagement.
Google Voice + RIA has Potential
August 17, 2009
These are exciting times to be developing RIAs. All the barriers of the old mediums like print, tv, and now phones have transitioned over to the internet and been improved along the way to the point where the old mediums are almost irrelevant. It's only natural that traditional landlines will be put on the extinction chopping block. I never thought I would see the day where Flash would have the potential to replace my home phone. Looks like Google is building quite a communication empire for us to all play with.
Playnice: The Unofficial Latitude for the iPhone
August 5, 2009
Last week Google launched Latitude for the iPhone as a web app. They were held back from releasing a native app by Apple's overbearing application approval process. However, this doesn't matter that much as all location apps are currently hamstrung by Apple's lack of background location updates. Luckily for iPhone customers there are developers out there trying to solve this problem.
Google Maps - Now With Perspective!
July 31, 2009
No, this isn't my new perspective on using the Google Maps API. In fact, it's much more exciting. Google recently released a new addition to the Maps API for Flash, including 3D perspective, and a new control set that is reminiscent of the controls in Google Earth! Straight from Google: "With a perspective map, the map is projected on a viewport (the screen) using a virtual point of reference in front of the screen (the camera). These three components (the map, the viewport and the camera) form a perspective on the viewport which gives the illusion of depth perception to the map."
The Mobile Broadband Era: It's About Messages, Mobility and The Cloud
By Mark SigalJuly 20, 2009
“Listen to the technology; find out what it is telling you.” – Carver Mead The DOS-era was marked by a certain style of computing. It was primitive, largely devoid of graphics, and for developers, an exercise in scarcity management. In fact, the scarcity mindset was so endemic to the time that it prompted Microsoft’s Bill Gates to sagely note that...
When Google Owns Everything
June 19, 2009
Here in Japan, the one available Wi-Fi signal comes with some intriguing restrictions. It's part of FON, a worldwide system of hotspots comprised of people who share their bandwith -- in this case for $5 a day. But Google services are free, so I'm seeing the Web as Google does. And I want more.
Want a Map of Tehran? Use Open Street Map or Google
June 17, 2009
All eyes are on Tehran right now. As the center of the Iranian election protests the city has become increasingly important to websites this week. To keep their site up-to-date with this latest crisis area Flickr switched out the Yahoo road Map with Open Street Map. When I heard about this I wondered how other major mapping sites faired.
Walking the Censorship Tightrope with Google's Marissa Mayer
June 16, 2009
Google sometimes finds itself at an difficult crossroad of wanting to make as much information available to as many people as possible, while still trying to obey the laws of the countries they operate in. I recently had a chance to talk to Marissa Mayer, who started at Google as their first female engineer, and has now risen to the ranks of vice president in charge of some of Google's most critical product areas, such as search, maps and Chrome. We talked about some of Google's future product directions, and also about how Google makes the decision as to when information has to be withheld from the users. Marissa will be delivering a keynote address at the O'Reilly Velocity Conference next week.
Google Squared is an Exponential Improvement in Search
June 4, 2009
One of the things I've learned about Google is that the most amazing things will come out of them with barely a whisper of fanfare. Such is the case with Google Squared, a new Google Labs tool that was released today. What does Google Squared do? It organizes and tables information from searches for you in a way that makes it much more useful.
Google I/O in Pictures: Google Culture at Work
By Tim O'ReillyMay 29, 2009
I had a few miscellaneous notes on Google I/O that I wanted to share, including a few anthropological observations best made with pictures. I thought it was really interesting that there were more registration lines for Academia than there were for general admission. Google knows the same truth as Apple, that students are the future. They are making it really...
Google Wave: What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today?
May 28, 2009
Yesterday's Google I/O keynote highlighted the power of HTML 5 to match functionality long experienced in desktop applications. This morning, Google plans to announce an HTML 5-based application - still very much in the early stages of development - that represents a profound advance in the state of the art. Lars and Jens Rasmussen, the original creators of Google Maps,...
New Geo For Devs From Google I/O
May 28, 2009
Today at Google I/O, Google has made several announcements for geo developers. To sum: Google is updating (not abandoning!) its Flash API, but it still prefers the Javascript one Google is pushing the Maps API into mobile (and performance is a big part of the push) Geolocation is going to be a part of every Google product eventually Android is being backed by deep pockets Google is preparing an army of Qualified Developers to bring more them more API customer
Google Web Elements and Google's Iceberg Strategy (Google I/O)
May 28, 2009
At Google I/O this morning, DeWitt Clinton announed Google Web Elements, a new simple interface layer to Google Ajax APIs. The goal is to make bringing Google features to other sites as easy as cut and paste. And indeed, the cut and paste functionality is impressive: Add news, custom search, conversations, maps and more to your site with only a few clicks. If the earlier HTML 5 announcements were for developers, these announcements are for everyone else. Any blogger can easily incorporate Google services.
Google's Unique Position and Imperative Need for Browser Interactivity
May 28, 2009
Google's clarion call for HTML 5 and rich interactive browser applications marks an interesting fork in the road for technologists. Will we invest our time in learning more proprietary, native APIs to create better iPhone and Adobe AIR applications, or will everything start to move toward a standards-based browser as the underlying platform for interactivity. Despite Google's influence in the market, this isn't a foregone conclusion. Just how long will it take for the content generators to adopt HTML 5? And, what's in it for Google?
Google Bets Big on HTML 5: News from Google I/O
May 27, 2009
"Never underestimate the web," says Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra in his keynote at Google I/O this morning. He goes on to tell the story of a meeting he remembers when he was VP of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft five years ago. "We believed that web apps would never rival desktop apps. There was this small company called Keyhole,...
Having Fun With Google Maps Flash API
May 27, 2009
Here's a trick combining graphics filters with Google maps for some interesting effects. They don't necessarily make it easier to read the maps, nor do they have a lot of value, but they look interesting, and are fun to play with. I can't claim this idea as my own. I just randomly stumbled across this post on axismaps.com, and figured I'd throw together a Flex example showing how to do it.
Built-to-Thrive - The Standard Bearers: Apple, Google, Amazon
By Mark SigalMay 19, 2009
When you think of companies that are not only built to last, but rather, built to thrive - in good times and bad - what companies logically sit at the top of the pyramid? Equally important, what should be the criteria for assessing them? Let me propose a straw man for assessing the "Built-to-Thrive" bunch...
Google's Rich Snippets and the Semantic Web
May 14, 2009
There's a long-time debate between those who advocate for semantic markup, and those who believe that machine learning will eventually get us to the holy grail of a Semantic Web, one in which computer programs actually understand the meaning of what they see and read. Google has of course been the great proof point of the power of machine learning algorithms. Earlier this week, Google made a nod to the other side of the debate, introducing a feature that they call "Rich Snippets." Basically, if you mark up pages with certain microformats ( and soon, with RDFa), Google will take this data into account, and will provide enhanced snippets in the search results.
Google Engineering Explains Microformat Support in Searches
May 12, 2009
Today, Google is releasing support for parsing and display of microformat data in their search results. While the initial launch will be limited to a specific set of partners (including LinkedIn, Yelp and CNet reviews), the intent is that very quickly, anyone who marks their pages up with the appropriate microformat data will be able to make their information understandable...
Google's Sneaky Launch of Latitude's Location-Sharing API
May 6, 2009
Google has extended their location sharing service Latitude (Radar post) with the first set of Latitude Apps. One of them is a blog badge for sharing your location publicly on a website. The other updates your GTalk status for sharing your location to your IM network. Both have to be turned on explicitly and allow you to share your...
Android Cupcake 1.5 available for dev phones
April 27, 2009
Via the Android Blogging Network, I learned that HTC released new firmware for the Android Dev Phone 1 with the long-awaited "Cupcake" (1.5) version of the Android operating system. The installation isn't too tricky, but you should read it...
O'Reilly Week in Review for April 20th, 2009
April 22, 2009
This week, we have an extended conversation with Googler Andy Hertzfeld about his latest Google Labs creation, the News Timeline. And, as usual, the O'Reilly Podquiz, that can win you a free O'Reilly Book....
Fixing the "Google redirect" Trojan horse
By Rick JelliffeApril 20, 2009
My computer started acting strange this week: a recent Trojan horse called the Google Redirect. Here is what I did to fix it.
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