I noticed yesterday a new feature on Google’s search – near-real time results. There is a box on the search results that was changing – it was showing some real-time search results:
Tag Archive: Google
It’s all in the news now – that Google is likely pulling out of China – or in essence if they won’t censor content anymore they will be blocked by China. This is in the wake of what everyone believes if China hacking into Google searching for Chinese human right’s leaders information. I wonder if this just ticked Google off and they had enough. It’s a potential revenue loss for Google – but then again they’re whole model is free information which censorship really puts a kink into.
I wonder if this really will impact China – they seem to be an economic Juggernaut that can almost set it’s own terms. That the rest of the world is willing to toe the line because of the money (drooling over a growing market). Will China really be impacted without Google’s products? It seems like the citizens of the country will toe the line – they don’t seem to be frustrated with the censorship. Maybe they’re just happy with a new standard of living – which they may believe the government is helping them obtain. It’s unlikely there will be a popular revolt over losing Google (but I could be wrong). View full article »
Google today announced their new “Nexus One” phone and one of the key points was the concept of buying the phone as unlocked. Buying it full price and choosing whatever carrier you want (in reality it’s only T-mobile and AT&T right now). This is not the normal model in the US – instead we pay a small fee (large to some of us) and sign a contract with a carrier. Then they basically pick up the rest of the cost of the phone over the course of the contract. View full article »
I was thinking today about the new decade (still hard to believe) but especially about digital pictures and video. I’ve loved going digital with pictures – as opposed to film (am I the only one who never got around to developing film?). I love the ability to take multiple pictures, to review them, to see them on the computer, make slideshows, and videos. I think it’s important to take these snapshots of our lives -as they’ll never occur again. View full article »
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about tablets – from Apple or Crunchpad (which is turning into a soap opera). In some ways they sound pretty cool – the form factor and a long battery life for a very portable device sound pretty neat (almost like a Star Trek Next Generation thing). However, netbooks are challenging the value proposition of a tablet – due to the price point. View full article »
I was thinking about possibly switching to Gmail as it might be nice to have access to my complete e-mail from anywhere. I was therefore looking at how to possibly to migrate my existing Outlook e-mail to Gmail. Then I got to thinking – I probably would want to backup my Gmail down to my PC – in case anything happened. But then I use a backup service (Carbonite) to backup my computer to the cloud (Internet).
So I would be going from the cloud to my PC and then back to the cloud… View full article »
I just read Planet Google by Randall Stross – a book about Google (can you Google about Google or would that cause some kind of time space distortion). The book starts with the beginning of Google – in the academic world – an takes us through a brief history of Google – in it’s different aspects – search, book search, Gmail, etc. Google started out small – but ambitious – to organize all information in the world.
I agree with the author – that Google’s timing was great – with the growth of cheap, but plentiful hardware, the explosive growth of web and the failure of it’s competitors. The book points out what I’ve heard before – that Google has and still values it’s engineers. Google seems to be a different company – less focused on money and shareholder value than other companies. It helps that their core search business is a major revenue source – simple but very profitable. This gives them a ton of cash to pursue other ventures – a luxury most companies don’t have.
Right now I have 11 tabs open in one Firefox window and 7 open in another. So how many is too many? I’m not sure that I’m actively looking at all of them but it somehow feels better to have them open – for easy access – allowing you to switch back and forth.
Of course now the browser is becoming more and more dominant is terms of how we live – so maybe having multiple firefox tabs open is like having multiple applications open (not that I don’t do that too). That was one of the points of Google Chrome OS – as it’s just a browser….
Is it just me or is Verizon really going after AT&T – I’m seeing quite a few ads now that malign the 3G coverage of AT&T – and the iPhone as part of that. Verizon now has their Droid – a Android (Google) based phone – that from what I hear is quite a nice handset. Now those are some ads – they’re quite strange – kinda edgy. But what I see more of is that coverage map of Verizon vs. AT&T.
I’m actually on Sprint – maybe because I live in their home area – but mainly because it’s affordable. I’ve got my trusty Palm Centro that I only pay between $15-40 a month ($40 is if I’m tethering). They’re costs are pretty reasonable overall – Verizon or AT&T would cost me more. I think even if I upgraded my handset it would cost me more. Ironically I think when I travel I may roam onto Verizon’s network anyway….
