Tag: Google

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Google Launched a New web service Website Optimizer

google

Google launched a new web service Website Optimizer which promises to allow users to evaluate how well specific designs of a website work.

The new service, originally seen as a supplemental to Google AdWords will be called the Google Website Optimizer, and is available from today.

According to Google, the new Website Optimizer helps improve user experience on the Web by showing its users what their visitors want to see.
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Rather than debating or guessing how a webpage might look best, users can continually test different combinations of website content, such as images and text, to see which one yields the most sales, sign-ups, leads or other goals.

In addition to the new website, Google has launched a blog to go with the service to inform and update users of the software.

source:read
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Google Picasa 2.7 Comes with Web Album Upload and Download Support

picasa

The new Picasa 2.7 is packed up with features like web album upload and download, localization in many languages, folder hierarchy views, better RAW support and more. Picasa for Linux is actually the Windows version, running through a modified version of Wine. Google contributed to Wine’s development, by contracting with CodeWeavers to improve Wine to run Picasa 2.2 in a proper way. Google also asked some interns to work on some areas of Wine, such as widl, msi, riched20, etc.

You can download and upload images from and respectively to Picasa Web Albums, in a simple and easy manner. When you want to share some photos, let’s say you took on a trip, you can post them online by using the new “Web Album” button. The albums can be downloaded directly into Picasa by using Firefox. The photo edits you do can be saved to disk, and you can revert to the original file, in case you do something wrong.

You can work with RAW files from cameras like Canon 30D, Nikon D200, with Adobe DNG files and much more. The photo import from a camera to Picasa is much faster now. Larger thumbnails, better caption editing, ability to configure the row of buttons, a special “Starred Photos” album are only a few of the new features and improvements of Picasa 2.7.

The Picasa package is made up of the Picasa application, Wine and the web page rendering engine Gecko. If you want to use Picasa, you must have the following Requirements
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• To download from Picasa Web Albums, you will need a Mozilla-based browser.
• Intel 386-compatible CPU
• glibc 2.3 or greater
• a Linux kernel >= 2.6.13 (this is necessary only if you want to be notified of file changes; if you have a newer kernel and HAL – Hardware Abstraction Layer – the new media you insert is automatically detected).
• Linux kernel >= 2.6.13, HAL >= 0.56, libgphoto2 and gnome-volume-manager or equivalent are required for camera detection and integration.
• Recent version of GNOME or KDE.
Download Picasa 2.7 right now from Softpedia.

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Yahoo Replacing Its Search Add System With Google Add?

Y-G-Add

Yahoo will be displaying Google search ads in a small number in its search engine queries, a move likely to be interpreted as the latest in a series of Yahoo maneuvers to resist Microsoft’s acquisition attempt.

The test, expected for two weeks and be limited to up to 3 percent of Yahoo search queries in the U.S., is specifically for Google’s AdSense for Search service. In other words, Yahoo would be acting as one of the Web publishers that carry pay-per-click text ads from Google. The ads will appear only in Yahoo.com.

The announcement was first reported Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal, quoting anonymous sources. A broader agreement to outsource its search ads to Google could let Yahoo increase its cash flow, because Google ads generate more revenue per search, the Journal reported, referring to a consensus belief among financial analysts and Yahoo investors.
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Yahoo noted that “the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result.” Yahoo will not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship with Google.

Microsoft, whose acquisition offer was rejected by Yahoo’s board in February, on Saturday said it will launch a proxy fight to attempt a hostile takeover if Yahoo doesn’t agree to the acquisition in the next three weeks.

On Wednesday, Microsoft blasted the Google-Yahoo announcement, saying that a broad outsourcing deal would inevitably run into regulatory trouble because it would give Google more than 90 percent of the search advertising market.

“This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo. We will assess closely all of our options,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, in a statement.

“Is this real? Is Yahoo seriously considering replacing its search ad system with Google’s?” Weide said. “Or is Yahoo doing this merely to annoy Microsoft and drive Microsoft away from its acquisition attempt? It’s not clear.”

Should Yahoo enter into this deal with Google, it would be an acknowledgement that it has failed to attain its goals in search advertising, despite numerous efforts, including a significant upgrade of its system called Panama.

source:read
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App Engine Google’s New Host Enterprise Web

google_apps

Google offering New host enterprise Web applications on its own infrastructure with a new tool for developers, App Engine.

App Engine will compete with similar services such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud and Salesforce’s Appexchange but it may be the cheapest, as Google’s basic services will be free.

Google’s goal is to make it easy to get started with a new web application, and then make it easy to scale when that application reaches the point where it’s receiving significant traffic and has millions of users, Google said in its new App Engine blog.

App Engine is based on technologies Google already uses. It is powered by Bigtable, a distributed storage system currently used by its Google Earth service, and by Google’s own file system GFS.

Only 10,000 developers will be able to sign up initially, but that number will increase.
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During the preview period, capacity will also be limited. Applications will for example be able to use 500M bytes of storage, and transmit up to 10G bytes of data per day. Google expects most applications will be able to serve around 5 million page views per month within those limits.

Google is keeping mum on how it will price the service, but applications operating within the limitations of the preview release will remain free, even when App Engine goes live.

App Engine will initially only support applications written in Python, but Google is looking to add support for other languages as well.

source:read
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HTC to Unveil Google Android Platform Handset In May?

andriod

Taiwanese company is planning two or three handsets based on Google’s Android platform for 2008, and this May HTC launch could well fit the timing.

Although other manufacturers have not promised Android devices until later in the year, as a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, HTC, who provided Google with the prototype Android handset, are well positioned to get something to market sooner rather than later.

The “Dream” phone from HTC was apparently was the device that Google used to demonstrate the Open Handset Alliance software to potential members.
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The handset is said to measure around 3 x 5 inches, offers a touchscreen that can be viewed horizontally or vertically, as well as navigational controls and a swivel out keyboard.

Obviously there’s no way of knowing at this early stage what this event may bring, or even if the Dream will make it to market, but Pocket-lint will be attending the event and bring you all the news as it happens.

source:pocket-lint
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Google rolling out “Google App Offline Access”

Google App

Google is rolling out a much-awaited feature for its hosted applications: the ability for people to use them even when they aren’t connected to the Internet.

Google isn’t the only provider of productivity and collaboration software to provide offline access for its applications. Players in this market like Zoho and Yahoo’s Zimbra also have offline capabilities in their suites.

The first application to get this offline access will be the word processor, said Ken Norton, Google Docs product manager. “The design goal is to create a seamless experience, with or without an Internet connection,” he said.

Over the next three weeks or so, Google will turn on the feature for all word processor users, giving them the ability to view and edit documents while offline. During the same time period, Google Docs’ spreadsheet will gain offline ability for viewing, but not editing, documents.

Google Docs’ third component, an application to make slide presentations, will remain for now without offline access. However, Google has plans to extend the offline access to it and to other hosted services in the Google Apps suite, of which Docs is part. Apps also includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk and others.

“Offline access of [hosted] apps is the next step in making the Web as a whole a lot more reliable,” Norton said.

source:read

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Usage Statistics In YouTube

YouTube

YouTube account holders will now be able to access usage statistics for the videos they upload, such as where viewers are geographically located and how they found the clips.

The announcement, made early Thursday, wasn’t a complete surprise. Earlier this month, YouTube sales team manager Brian Cusack said that the Google unit was planning to provide its members with more data about video viewership.

The metrics will also give a better understanding of clips’ popularity and viewership to people who upload videos for fun without commercial or marketing purposes.

YouTube Insight doesn’t collect or display personally identifiable information on viewers, but rather provides uploaders with aggregated data on viewers’ geographic location and on the time and day when clips were viewed, a Google spokesman said via e-mail. Google will “soon” turn a feature to let uploaders discover how viewers found a clip, such as via a Google search, browsing YouTube’s “related videos” suggestions or clicking on an e-mail or Web site link, he said.

source:pcworld

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Yahoo, MySpace & Google Have Agreed to Form The OpenSocial

OpenSocial

Yahoo, MySpace, and Google have announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation in order to “ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.”

OpenSocial, launched by Google last year, is a common set of APIs for applications across multiple websites that will allow for cross-platform widgets.

The companies say that Yahoo’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are “landmarks” for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.

This move could be seen to put pressure on non-members, such as Microsoft and Facebook, to sign up.

The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity that will be in place by July 1, 2008.

 source:pocket-lint

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Google Sky “Explore The Universe” Now Available Online

Goole Sky

Google Sky is now available on the web at sky.google.com.

To help you explore the far reaches of our universe, Google have teamed up with astronomers at some of the largest observatories in the world to bring you a new view of the sky. Using Google Maps this tool provides an exciting way to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watching the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Sky in Google Earth, launched last August and was originally available to Google Earth users.

This release brings the universe to every browser and makes Sky accessible to anyone with an Internet connection – in 26 different languages.

 

source:google
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YouTube Offering HD-Videos Too

Youtube-HD

Video sharing kings YouTube are in the process of whipping up the quality of their video stream, with users increasingly being given the option to view some YouTube videos as high quality streams.

On the YouTube Account page, users can now select three options;

* Choosing video quality dynamically based on the current Internet connection.
* Never play higher-quality video if you have a slow connection.
* Always play higher-quality video when it’s available – if you have a fast connection.

The streams are available on certain videos, based upon the source file uploaded, and more are promised over time.

This better quality streaming applies to all eligible videos uploaded from the YouTube community, and is not restricted to partner content.

But YouTube suggests that only folk with a fast internet connection opt for the higher rates.

The YouTube blog states: “Our philosophy is to make sure that as many people as possible can access YouTube and that videos start quickly and play smoothly.”

“That’s one reason why you don’t see us racing to call this ‘Super Duper YouTube HD’ because most people don’t want to wait a long time for videos to play.”

source:digital-lifestyles