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Posts with tag google

Google to Map Oceans In 3-D

by Peter Mychalcewycz, posted May 2nd 2008 at 10:27AM


Google likes to map things. Big things. Like the earth. And the sky.

It's completely logical then that it would want to map the ocean, which is also quite large. Which brings us to Google Ocean, the probable name for Google's hypothetical nautical juggernaut.

Google is collaborating with a myriad of oceanography experts to plan the eventual creation of a 3-D oceanographic map that would provide a view of the deep blue sea unlike any other. Though similar in many ways to typical topographical maps, Google's would incorporate much more data, from specific shipwreck sites to zooming and panning tools that would allow people to navigate formerly unexplored areas of the ocean. Grids and information from various oceanographic institutes would also be included, lending even more scientific and academic clout.

As with any technology as expansive as this, there are issues that affect both security and privacy. However, the potential benefits that may come from such an ambitious project leave us, quite honestly, drooling. [Source: Cnet]




Facebook Trumps Media and Emergency Services During Disasters

by Tim Stevens, posted May 1st 2008 at 12:19PMBreaking News

Facebook Trumps Media, Emergency Services During DisastersThere's a disaster somewhere; homes are burning, tornadoes are spinning, a shooter is on the loose, flooding is rampant -- something like that. Where do you turn? Most would click on the local news and sit through the commercials hoping for an update. Others would turn on the radio and wait for an emergency broadcast to tell them what they need to know. More and more people, however, are turning to online services like Facebook, and according to researchers they are the ones who are keeping most informed.

The report found that, in the wake of disasters like last October's fires in Southern California and the Virginia Tech Shootings, which happened a year ago last month, bloggers, Twitterers, and Facebookers are reporting information about the emergencies more quickly and more efficiently than the local media. And, it's without the "lowest common denominator" spin that most media can fall into, zooming in on celebrity homes ablaze during the fires rather than discussing evacuation information, or endlessly repeating information about the shooter in the VT massacre instead of helping victims recover.

But, it seems, emergency services are starting to get the hang of things. The Red Cross took a hint from some amateur wildfire reporters and is now using Twitter to post information about emergencies. We're hoping FEMA maybe thinks about using Google Maps during the next emergency, which might just enable faster routing of emergency supplies to where they're needed.

Of course, none of these claims take into account power failures and Internet outages that occur as a result of these disasters. [Source: Daily Telegraph]

Google StreetView Captures Kid Wiping Out On Bike

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 24th 2008 at 1:51PMBreaking News

Google StreetView Invades Privacy, Also Spreads HumiliationThere are many defining moments in our lives; getting a driver's license, going to college, having your first (legal) drink, etc. etc. One of those moments is riding a bicycle without training wheels -- a shaky period that quite often results in some skinned knees and shame. Learning to ride with just your parents watching is tough, but imagine if your youthful bicycle failings were posted permanently for the entire world to see. That's just what Google's StreetView has done, capturing a poor kid having a massive crash on his bike in frame-by-frame agony.

Okay, so maybe it's not as bad as getting caught walking out of a strip club or breaking into a building, and you can't see the kid's face so there's a bit of anonymity here, but just the same, we're glad our childhood bicycle failures were completed in the pre-StreetView era. [Source: GoogleMaps, via Kensington, Victoria]

Couple Sues Google Over Street View of Its House

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Apr 8th 2008 at 9:12AMBreaking News

Couple Sues Google Over Street View of Their House

We are all in agreement, Google Street View is freaking creepy, but is it lawsuit worthy? Aaron C. and Christine A. Boring (yes, their real names) are suing Google because images of their home appear on Google Maps' Street View. According to the Boring suit filed in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Oakridge Lane is a private road and the "reckless conduct" of Google has "exposed plaintiff's private information to the public."

Never mind that there is clearly no Private Road sign at the beginning of Oakridge Lane when viewing it in Google Maps Street View, or that photos of the Boring home, its approximate value, taxes paid, and details of the internal structure are all available on the Allegheny County Web site.

All of that is even completely irrelevant, since taking photographs of homes from public streets is clearly protected by the First Amendment. Just ask Barbara Streisand who sued an aerial mapping company for including photographs of her home in its products. Streisand lost that suit and was forced to pay the companies legal fees.

From Newsvine

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How to Work On Google Docs While Offline

by Thomas Houston, posted Apr 2nd 2008 at 4:03PMFeatured Story

Google has started giving users the ability to edit their Google Documents in an offline mode. Google Documents, part of Google's free online suite of office software, is a word processing application that allows you to create, view and edit documents as well as import Microsoft Word files, .txt and other popular document formats. The rest of the suite, accessible from within your browser, includes presentation (similar to PowerPoint and Apple's Keynote) and spreadsheet software.

What does the new offline mode mean? After you enable the feature, your documents will automatically be downloaded to your desktop. Now, you'll still be able to make edits and changes to your documents within your browser even if you disconnect from the Web.

It sounds complex, but the basic idea is pretty simple. As soon as you reconnect to the Web, the two versions of the Google Document -- the one on Google's server and the one on your computer -- will automatically sync. Previously, you were only able to access your Google Documents when connected to the Internet. For more information and an additional explanation, check out Google's video.

Google began rolling out access to a small group of users yesterday, but everyone with a Google account should have access within the next few weeks. Initially, users will only be able to use offline features with Google Documents, Google's free word-processor, but we expect Spreadsheet and Presentation to have it soon enough. To see if you have access to the offline mode, go to docs.google.com and search for an "offline" link in the top-right of the screen. We think it's a pretty cool feature that will come in handy, particularly for anyone who frequently finds themselves outside of Wi-Fi hotspots (like on a plane).

From Wired and Ars Technica

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ChaCha Does Web Search By Voice, Answers By Text

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 1st 2008 at 5:15PM

ChaCha Does Web Search By Voice, Answers By TextOf all the numerous choices you have available to you for your Internet searching, names like Google and Yahoo! stand out. There are some worthy alternatives out there, though, most notably one called ChaCha, which has an interesting alternative angle: All its searches are human-powered. Yes, Google has made jokes about having monkeys power their searches, but ChaCha has real people producing and verifying every search result. Until now, the site has received searches via text message and sent the responses in kind, but now a new feature lets you phone it in, literally.

You can now call 800-224-2242 and speak your question into a recording. Within a few minutes, you'll get a text message containing the answer. Well, you'll actually get three text messages in response: one thanking you for using the service, one saying your answer is coming, and then, finally, the answer itself. That's perhaps not exactly appreciated for someone paying $.10 or more per text message, but at least there are no additional charges.

Anything is game as far as questions go. We asked for the phone number for our favorite local pizza joint and got that, plus the street address, in a text message in about three minutes. Not all search results were so good, though. We also asked what a good DVD burning choice would be for archiving some of our DivX/XviD vids, and unfortunately the response sounded like a marketing pitch for the software, saying: "DivX for Windows gives you everything you need to create and play high-quality DivX videos on your PC." We don't disagree, but that didn't really answer the question.

Overall, though, it works quite well, and if you're in a situation where you can't text your question in this is worth checking out.

From textually.org

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Google Job Applicants Post Tales of Rejection

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 25th 2008 at 12:04PM

Scorned Google Applicants Post Tales of RejectionGoogle is hot right now. Its stock price may have taken a bit of a hit lately, but new offerings like GrandCentral continue to revolutionize the Internet, and with its Android phone operating system poised to conquer the mobile world, things are looking good for the company.

Naturally, then, the brightest tech employees want to get in the door, and Google's interview process is notorious for being lengthy and arduous. It's no surprise, of course, that not all applicants are welcomed with open arms. Some of those who got the cold shoulder treatment are posting their experiences online for the benefit of those who might interview with the Big G in the future.

The stories range from the mundane, like an interviewer with a thick, "Chewbacca-like" accent that was hard for the job candidate to understand ("I'm obviously partially retarded," says "Rod"), to tales of wonderment, such as one applicant who was too dazed by the lunch offerings to put together a comprehensive interview. Then there are the truly disturbing stories, such as that of one applicant whose military background wasn't taken too kindly:
"The interview was going swimmingly until I met up with one interviewer who was apparently anti-military. Using the Google "Do No Evil" mantra as a pretense, he asked me how many people I'd killed when I served. When I explained to him that I was MI, he then asked if I could estimate how many people were killed because of the intelligence I'd gathered. The implication was I was either an evil, efficient killer or an incompetent one - a real no-win situation."

Good luck, job seekers of the future!


From Silicon Alley Insider

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Verizon Reveals More Open Access Details

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 21st 2008 at 7:51AM

Verizon Reveals More Open Access Details
As promised Verizon offered up some more details about its open access plans, though some questions were still left unanswered, such as the specific requirements for certification and the price of getting devices certified.

By the second half of the year, the program should be in full swing. All retailers and handset makers will have to do is get their devices certified by Verizon, which claims the requirements are only slightly stronger than industry standards. There will be no limitations on the phones or software that can be run, which means by the end of the year we're sure to see Android and other platforms working on Verizon's high-speed EV-DO cellular data system.

There were two very exciting revelations about Verizon's plans. One, that the open access system will be extended to the company's 4G LTE ultra-high-speed data network, which should enter testing phases by the end of the decade. And two, that Verizon is considering a multi-device flat-rate subscription, which would allow you to use multiple devices on the network for the price of one.

From Engadget and Reuters

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Google Layoffs May Come Following Ad Firm Aquisition

by Will Safer, posted Mar 12th 2008 at 4:16PM

Google to absorb Doubleclick

Google, the Internet company that seemingly can do no wrong nor make any missteps, is preparing to engage in one of the most time-honored and well-practiced activities of the Web era: the layoff.

With its acquisition of Internet ad firm DoubleClick now approved by European regulators, Google is set to commence the full integration of this early Web success into its strategic and administrative system, which will likely include reducing the company's size, at least where positions are redundant or deemed outside the Web giant's new goals for serving up ads online. According to a memo by Google CEO Eric Schmidt posted yesterday on the Google blog, "there will be reductions in headcount." Most of the layoffs will take place in the U.S., according to the memo.

While the culture of Google is one of continual, almost unabated growth, the culture of DoubleClick is storied with the looming threat of layoffs, at least from its expand-and-contract days through the early Internet boom, bubble and burst phenomenon. This is not to say that all of the possible layoffs will come from the DoubleClick side, as Google will have to determine who among its combined workforce is most valuable to the venture.

The integration of DoubleClick's ad serving technology and reach will have a significant impact on Google's repertoire of online advertising tools, which let people submit ad campaigns online without the help of a salesperson.

Google's goal with this acquisition is to better compete with companies like Yahoo! which have much stronger capabilities with banner and multimedia ads. Google's strength has been with highly personalized and targeted text ads, which Web users seem to appreciate because they are unobtrusive and contextual.

From Official Google Blog (via Infectious Greed by Paul Kedrosky)

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10 More Scary Google StreetView Finds

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 11th 2008 at 12:52PM

10 More of the Strangest Google Street View Finds

It's no secret that Google Maps is cool, but it's also a bit creepy. If super close zooms of camels and a well in Chad weren't disturbing enough, the people spending hours on Google StreetView tracking down disturbing images and deeply personal glances into people's lives and living rooms.

We put together our own round up of scary street views last June, but new ones pop up every day. Times Online has collected 10 more confounding images and we feel obligated to share this new collection of frightening Street Views.

Gallery: 10 More Google Street Views

  • The Hot Girls Truck
  • Googlemobile Stops for Lunch
  • The Alien Invasion has Begun
  • Giant Robot Attack?
  • Headless Figure Next to a Freshly Dug Grave?


From Valleywag

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U.S. Military Bans Google Street View From Bases

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 7th 2008 at 9:48AM

Military Bans Google Street View from Bases

The launch last year of Google's Street View -- which gives you a driver's seat view of actual streets -- made all of us a little freaked out about the prospects of our dwindling privacy. Now, the U.S. military is similarly concerned, and has banned Google from mapping out the streets of its military bases.

The move will mean that Google's so-called Googlemobile, a roving van that takes 360-degree images of the streets for use on the site, will be stopped at the gates of any base. That is, of course, assuming the driver of the van would actually try to get into the base in the first place.

We're sure that someone out there will cry foul about the U.S. government limiting our freedoms, but this is one restriction on the availability of information on the Internet that we can get behind. Granted, these days most military bases look little different inside than your average housing development, but that doesn't mean we need to let everyone around the world see that for themselves.

From Fark and Breitbart.com

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Google Gives Free Phone Numbers and Voicemail to Homeless

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 29th 2008 at 9:03AM

Google Gives Free Phone Number and Voicemail to San Francisco HomelessGoogle's one phone number for everything service, GrandCentral, is getting a new trial of sorts. Google is taking its 'Do no evil' mantra to the streets of San Francisco -- literally. A partnership between Google, the San Francisco city government, and Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody) is offering a free phone number and voicemail box to every homeless person in the city for life.

The philanthropic program is aimed at helping the homeless not just communicate with friends and family, but also land jobs. One of the big stumbling blocks for the downtrodden is their inaccessibility. When emerging from job training programs, folks need a method of contact, preferably a phone number. By calling from any phone, including pay phones, the homeless will also be able to get a phone number and set up the voicemail box.

Project CARE also sees the voicemail box as a doorway to proper medical testing and care. If the project is successful, Google will expand it through the rest of the state, and hopefully the country.

From MSNBC

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Space Balloons Deliver Cell Phone Service to Rural America

by Will Safer, posted Feb 27th 2008 at 9:09AM

The same thing that sent the Hindenburg zeppelin skyward (and dramatically brought it down) could be the solution to providing cell phone coverage to rural areas across America, according to a Phoenix, Ariz.-based company that launches six-pound transmitters into the stratosphere with the help of hydrogen-filled balloons.

According to Space Data Corporation's Jerry Knoblach, the best way to provide cell phone service to America's often underserved rural areas is not by stringing along more cable wire or building expensive cell phone towers – which wouldn't be cost effective since so few customers equals very low revenues. Instead, the solution, as Knoblach sees it, is to send up these balloons, which, amazingly, are not expected to be anything close to permanent. In fact, the average lifecycle of one of these hydrogen balloons is about one day.

The interesting thing that could be inflating Jerry Knoblach's fortunes is interest from Google, which as a part of its push into wireless services may cooperate with Space Data Corporation or even buy it out.

Space Data Corporation is constantly making new balloons -- about 10 balloons per day -- and, believe it or not, relies on a network of strategically placed regular folks such as dairy farmers who launch the devices at specific locations and times.

When the transmitters come down, it's up to a network of volunteers to seek them out and pick them up, returning them to the company for a $100 reward. They use GPS to find the transmitters, which descend gently on parachutes after being separated from the balloon, which rises higher into the atmosphere until it bursts into tiny pieces, which Knoblach says are harmless.

Space Data Corporation is able to adjust the direction of the balloons and their overall trajectory is pretty well easy to predict and monitor, so this isn't just like letting a regular balloon go and hoping it ends up somewhere interesting.

Each balloon travels 20 miles into the stratosphere and can bring service to an area that would otherwise need 40 cell towers.



From The Wall Street Journal via Dvorak Uncensored and Gizmo Watch.

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Google Launches GrandCentral, Free Phone Routing Service

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 26th 2008 at 4:12PM

Google Launches Free Phone Number Routing ServiceLast summer, Google's stock was soaring. It had plenty of cash and went on a bit of a buying spree, gobbling up a number of startups with interesting ideas. One was GrandCentral, a site that let you create a single, local phone number for all of your calls. Google has just re-launched the new "GrandCentral from Google" site, and if you're quick you might just be able to sign up for an account.

The service, which is available now in limited beta form (meaning not everyone can sign up just yet), enables you to pick a new phone number. You can then add all of your existing phone numbers (home, cell, work, etc.) and select where your calls get routed. When you hit the road, for instance, you can send everything to your mobile number and never miss a beat. When you get to a hotel, you can add that number and direct everything there. If someone leaves you a voicemail on the service it'll be happy to e-mail or text you a heads up, and you can even create lists of people who you never want to hear from again -- calls from them won't even ring your phone when they call.

The potential here for making life easier is endless, but so too is the potential for creative misuse. When you create a GrandCentral account you can pick any area code you like. So, if you have a friend across the country that you're constantly calling and are sick of paying long-distance to chat with, have them make a GrandCentral account in your local area code and -- viola -- no more long-distance calls. Or, if you have a cell phone plan that lets you receive unlimited calls from a certain number, just add your GrandCentral number to that list, have your friends call you there, and then it's unlimited calling plan time without paying $99 a month and up.

From Compiler

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Pakistan Bans, Then Breaks YouTube

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 25th 2008 at 5:15PM

Pakistan Bans and Breaks YouTubePakistan has become the latest in a long list of countries that have banned the video sharing site YouTube. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the country's Internet Service Provicers (ISPs) that the site will be blocked until further notice due to content deemed offensive to Islam, though they would not name the specific content that was deemed offensive.

Countries such as Turkey, Thailand, and Morocco have all blocked the site at one point or another for hosting videos deemed offensive to the nations' leaders and government.

This would be worth noting even if the story ended here, but there's more....The government blocks the site by redirecting all traffic from within Pakistan intended for YouTube to a different Web site. However, likely due to a careless error by a Pakistani engineer, YouTube was blocked around the globe for two hours yesterday.

Google immediately contacted the Pakistani government, and access to the site was quickly restored. The government is investigating the cause behind the outage.

From BBC and Wired

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