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Google enhances search service through Google Instant

Andre — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:43:33 +0000

Search engine specialists Google have announced the launch of a speedier, more effective search product called Google Instant. According to the firm, the new product displays returned results instantly, triggered by the user typing within the search bar online. Google have termed the new technology ‘search at the speed of thought.’

Before the release of Google Instant, their search engine operated by people inputting their required search topic and pressing the enter key or clicking the ‘search’ icon. The new technology will be available in the United States and a number of European countries including the UK by the end of the week. The vice president of search products for Google demonstrated the Google Instant technology at a recent event in the US, which showed it returning predicted search results.

A blogger from technology site Technologizer commented on the news: “Google is betting all they have that speed is everything. Saving one or two seconds isn’t that big of a deal. One of my instant thoughts is that I am going to see results I don’t want because until I type enough that it knows what I want, it is going to show me links I am not interested in.”

A second commentator, Robert Scoble added his view: “The new feature will present a real challenge to Microsoft and its search engine Bing, which has been slowly chipping away at Google’s lead in the search market. Playing with it, it dramatically changes the way I do searches. I think it is a pretty major leap forward but this means that Bing becomes far less interesting and they now have to step up.”

Google has calculated than an average online user of their search facility spends approximately nine seconds typing a query, and about fifteen seconds seeking answers to their query. According to the company, the new technology will save up to five seconds off an average search query.

Google to move in to music market by end of 2010

Matt Thomas — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:55:13 +0000

Search engine giants Google have announced that they are planning to launch a new service for music fans by the end of December. The new service, to be launched in time for Christmas this year, is set to become a rival to Apple’s iTunes music download product. According to a report by Reuters news agency, Google have been in discussion with key record labels about the launch of the new service, in order to offer an innovative music download product.

According to the report, the vice president of engineering for Google (Andy Rubin) has been having conversations with a number of players across the music industry. Rubin has previously been instrumental in launching Google’s Android mobile operating system. The new service for Google fans will feature a music download store to rival iTunes, and a digital music storage system (‘locker’), which stores people’s music choices online in order for it to be accessed by any internet-enabled gadget.

In May, Google commented about their impending service, at a California developers’ event. They have stated that the new service will be closely linked to their Android operating system, and is likely to be released to coincide with the launch of the next software release for Android (2.2). the new plans will add extra pressure to the ongoing rivalry between Apple and Google, who are now competing in a number of different service sectors including advertising, mobile and desktop operating systems.

A record industry executive has commented: “Finally, here’s an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform. What you’ll have is a very powerful player in the market that’s good for the music business.”

Gmail benefits from enhanced functionality

Admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:51:05 +0000

Google, the search engine giants, have announced that they will be enhancing their online email service Gmail in a bid to reduce the huge amounts of traffic which can at times slow the system down for their customers. In a move to enhance the service which they provide, Google will be enabling users to categorise content sent through to them over email, by using an automatic grading system which enables people to ascertain whether mail is important, important and unread, starred items and everything else.

The idea behind the change is to make users more productive, freeing up the time which they currently have to spend working through their mails. A spokesperson for Google commented: “The product acts like your personal assistant helping you focus on the messages that matter. There are a lot of signals in any message that indicate importance.”

“Basic indicators include if this message is from someone you write to a lot or reply to a lot. Another category is terms – if the word Viagra is in the message, it is indicative of junk mail. And a third factor is something known as static features. That is if the message has been sent to you directly or to you and other people or a list of people. The feature gets smarter the more a user uses it as it learns what is important to an individual. There is a plus or minus tool within the feature to boost or reduce the priority status of a message. This allows the product to learn which electronic communications matter more than others.”

“Our hope is that people can regain time and attention and not feel the need to constantly check e-mail in the middle of meetings. We want people to walk away from e-mail and focus on what they are doing at that moment like thinking or reading, spending time with the family or taking part in a meeting. We hope this gives people a little more sanity and physical time in their day.”

Google founders’ story to hit big screens

Jen — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:33:48 +0000

A new report has announced that the film rights to the founders of Google’s story is to be turned in to a new production. Michael London’s Groundswell Productions has teamed with producer John Morris to purchase the rights to Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s Google history, in order to turn it in to a blockbuster movie.

The film producers have got the green light to produce a film dramatising the story of Google’s birth, first published by Ken Auletta’s text ‘Googled: The End of the World As We Know it’. The producers will be taking the main elements of the book to create a feature which tells the story of how Brin and Page launched the internet search engine which made their fortunes.

Published by Penguin last year, the book chronicles the way in which the two founders devised and launched Google, a phenomenon which now draws around 20 billion dollars in advertising revenue annually. The announcement comes on the back of news that Facebook’s founding story is also to be turned in to a film.

Brin and Page founded Google while they were attending Stanford as PhD students, and launched the site with the guiding principle ‘don’t be evil’. The film will detail how the pair achieved success while hanging on to their ideals as businessmen, and managed to turn a simple idea for transforming the World Wide Web into an international phenomenon which has global reach.

London commented: “It’s about these two young guys who created a company that changed the world, and how the world in turn changed them. The heart of the movie is their wonderful edict, don’t be evil. At a certain point in the evolution of a company so big and powerful, there are a million challenges to that mandate. Can you stay true to principles like that as you become as rich and powerful as that company has become? The intention is to be sympathetic to Sergey and Larry, and hopefully the film will be as interesting as the company they created.”

Android voice action feature launched

Andy Russell — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:02:27 +0000

Google’s Android phones now have a new voice action facility, which the search engine giants anticipate will boost sales and increase the popularity of their product. The voice action feature enables people to perform a series of tasks on smartphones without having to press any keys to initiate the commands.

Over the second quarter of this year, Google’s Android operating system was the fastest selling smartphone system in the United States. Currently, Google are activating over two hundred thousand Android devices daily. The new voice action service will no doubt maintain Google’s lead in the industry.

Product Manager for Google, Hugo Barra stated: “Before it was easy to search the web using voice but people do a lot more than just search the web. Now you can voice up text messages, e-mail a reminder to yourself, set your alarm clock, get directions, find music, open a map and call places. It really is about interacting with the device in the simplest of ways using the voice.”

“This represents the most significant progress Google has made in speech recognition ever since we launched voice search about two years ago. One in four searches done on Android is done using voice search.”

A spokesperson from the news blog Search Engine Land commented: “These improvements underline how seriously Google is taking its mobile strategy’. One of the amazing stories in all of this is that Android does feel like it has come out of nowhere. Since the beginning of this year there has been an explosion of Android-operated devices. People really thought it was going to be all about the iPhone but now it really does seem to be this two-player match.”

South Korea joins Google security row

Jen — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:49:14 +0000

It has emerged this week that Police in South Korea have raided Google’s headquarters in Seoul. The raid comes on the back of claims that the internet search giants have been collecting data to store from internet users on unsecured wifi networks.

The latest activity occurred following concerns by a number of countries that Google had been collating data for its ‘Street View’ service illegally. Google claims that the data collection was simply a mistake. Now under investigation in various locations, Google is still waiting verdicts from many country officials to determine whether or not it has violated privacy laws through its actions.

According to a Korean report, nineteen agents raided the Google office in Seoul, gathering hard drives and documents relating to the alleged breach of privacy. It now seems that South Korean officials will be analysing the items taken, and then summoning Google for investigation once this analysis has taken place. A spokesperson from KNPA (the Korean national Police Agency) stated:

“[We] have been investigating Google Korea on suspicion of unauthorised collection and storage of data on unspecified Internet users from wi-fi networks.”

Google has responded with the following statement: “This raid is part of the KNPA’s investigation on data collection on Street View Cars. We will co-operate with the investigation and answer any questions the police may have.”

In order to collect information for the Google Street View service, the company gathered wifi data from over thirty countries. The issue was first brought to public attention when authorities in Germany questioned the way in which Google has collected its data, and requested that they be able to audit it to check for security infringement. Google have been cleared in the UK for any wrongdoing, but many other countries are continuing the investigation.

Google says goodbye to Wave

Admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:30:10 +0000

Twelve months ago, Google spend some considerable marketing time on promoting its new communication tool, ‘Wave’. The product was developed in order to streamline communications capabilities online, and was a combination of e-mail, real-time document collaboration tool and instant messaging.

At the time of the launch, Google stated that Wave would transform the way people communicated over the web, and suggested it was the way forward for e-mail. Enabling real-time commenting and edits, the software had potential to be used extensively for businesses working remotely from colleagues or service providers, as a collaboration service.

However, an extremely low uptake by users has meant that Google are now decommissioning the software just one year after it was launched. Developed by the same people who came up with Google Maps, (Jens and Lars Rasmussen), the idea has floundered. The software is thought to have been too complex for new users to get to grips with, and also suffered as the majority of people could not see any business benefit in adopting the tool to enhance their online communications practices. Its failure has also been attributed to the way in which Google launched and pitched the software to potential customers.

A spokesperson from Google commented: “Wave has not seen the adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects.”

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive spoke about the decommissioned product at a recent technology conference in the US: “It’s a very clever product. You never know why it didn’t work. Our policy is we try things. Remember we celebrate our failure. This is a company where it is okay to try something that is very hard and not have it be successful. We will take what we have learned from Wave and apply it to something new.”

Google tests credit-card search queries for lead generation

Jenny Sanderson — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:44:23 +0000

Last year, Google started testing AdWords comparison adverts – a function which enabled people using the search engine to find and compare offers from different suppliers, with a single click. The facility produced quick results, with search returns being offered with a second of the user typing in their request. Google are now testing credit-card comparisons online.

The point of comparison ads is to enable brands to showcase their offers, to allow the consumer to directly compare a suite of products and select the most appropriate one. The testing started off with mortgage queries in the United States, and is now being used for credit card enquiries here in the UK. A number of service providers in the financial sector have already signed up to take part in the beta activity.

Instead of traditional form filling and the swapping of user information to assist a comparison of providers, Google’s new system will enable people to state in one sentence what they are searching for, and have their results quickly in order that they can compare them. The new service will see users able to find information quickly, without having to divulge anything about themselves to receive valid comparisons.

At the moment, Google’s testing only involves twenty credit card suppliers, in comparison with the 170 offered by MoneySupermarket, but once the product is finalised it is thought that many major card issuers will sign up to be included in the service. The new service promises to revolutionise the way people currently access their comparison information, with the primary advantage being that users will be able to search for what they are looking for within seconds, and there is no lengthy application process to undertake before Google supplies product comparisons.

It remains to be seen if the king of search engines can produce a product ultimately to rival popular sites such as MoneySupermarket when it comes to providing comparison information.

Bing exceeds expectations for search market share

Admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:30:02 +0000

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine service is reported to have acquired over twelve percent of the search engine market in just one year, according to a report by independent researcher ComScore. The site’s success shows promise for future market coverage, although in relation to other search engine sites such as Yahoo and Google, there is still a long way to go before it becomes a serious competitor.

Google currently owns a 62.6% market share of search users, and Yahoo has 18.9%. Microsoft has stated that they are prepared to leverage as much financial strength as it takes to be a force in the search engine market. Industry experts doubt that Microsoft will ever have the capability to eclipse sites such as Google, which are firmly entrenched in the market. People now refer to searching online as ‘Googling’, showing just how firm a foothold the company has within internet culture.

Bing mobile has attracted 23 million users, and since its launch in June last year it has slowly crept up the popularity sweepstakes through its unique approach to searching. Rather than being billed simply as a search engine, Bing focuses upon popular subjects in an attempt to corner the market as the ‘consumer friendly’ search site. News, travel, weather and entertainment form most of Bing’s target search areas.

Microsoft has stated that it is committed to enhancing mobile use, which will stand to enhance their share of the search engine market. By focussing upon their mobile strategy and being responsive to mobile browsing needs, they hope to provide a simple and user-friendly method of searching for information online with the minimum of type strokes.

Erik Jorgensen, Microsoft’s mobile vice-president has commented: “It’s clearly an area where growth in search is occurring and in terms of strategic importance, it is near the top for Microsoft. Location is key – type less and do more. People drive themselves crazy trying to type on these mobile devices so the more we can understand what they are trying to do and provide an easier way to get to it through visual, voice and touch is a key insight into how mobile search is going to evolve.”

Google rapped over security violations

Admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 08:18:15 +0000

Google’s controversial project ‘Street View’ has been the source of a number of controversial legal battles since its launch. This week, the project has been called to question for allegations of spying, through the collection of potentially sensitive materials.

Consumer Watchdog, a US advocacy programme has made claims that Google has illegally collated sensitive data relating to Congress members working on issues of national security. Google has stepped up and confirmed that an amount of data was collected in error, as a result of filming areas for the Street View facility. The data was collated over a number of unprotected wifi networks.

The ‘Street View’ row first came to light in 2006, when Google was asked to share the material they had collected with authorities in Germany. Following this, industry experts have likened Google’s method of collecting information to spying, suggesting that their way of getting data is ‘scandalous’. The ‘Street View’ service sends cars out to take photos of areas to map, but it transpires that they also tapped in to unsecured networks along the routes. Data collated included photographs, websites being viewed by people on networks, emails and text.

A number of criminals use this same way of getting information, tapping unsecured wifi networks in order to obtain financial information from people browsing online. The president of the Computer Industry and Communications Industry Association has issued a response to the new findings about Google: “What Consumer Watchdog did was not a useful contribution to what could and should be a broader online privacy debate. They detected unsecured wifi networks that anyone, including neighbours, can pick up. It proves nothing about what, if anything, a person or company like Google might have done to intercept and record data.”

Google maintain that their activities do not constitute law breaking, and while they admit that the events took place, they state that what they did to obtain data was not illegal.

Google China row finally resolved

Andy Russell — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:00:05 +0000

The past few months have seen an ongoing battle between internet giants Google, and the Chinese authorities. The long-running controversy has seen plans for Google’s licence renewal within the country being questioned. However, this week Google has issued a statement confirming that the search engine firm’s licence has now been renewed by the Chinese government.

It was thought that China may revoke Google’s licence without renewal, following a redirection in China of users to a landing page in Hong Kong, where censorship laws were not applicable. This was done in an effort to enable Chinese internet users to surf the net without risk of the information they were accessing being limited. Last month, Google agreed to stop the automatic redirection of users.

Google’s search capacity within China is not fully functional due to the censorship, but the search engine firm is permitted to provide results for uncensored returns such as music. It appears that the licence renewal marks a reconciliation between the Chinese government and Google. China has prevented users from obtaining access to unfiltered searches, as all returns pass through a firewall which automatically removes unwanted material. Chinese users now get sent to a landing page, which redirects them automatically to the Hong Kong site.

Following the announcement, shares in Google increased by 2.8%, demonstrating the value in the firm retaining a foothold within China. A source at Google said: “We’ve had a lot of messages from China saying don’t let Google go dark -we’ve managed to do that while staying true to our principles. We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP (internet content provider) licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China.”

Founder of Google turns to medical research

Jenny Sanderson — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:10:14 +0000

Google billionaire Sergey Brin has invited 10,000 people with Parkinson’s disease to take part in a massive online research initiative, dedicated to finding a cure. The 36 year-old co-founder of Google is investing time and money in the medical research which has already seen 4,000 people sign up to participate.

Brin’s actions come as a result of him finding that he is susceptible to developing Parkinson’s in later life, as a result of his mother’s diagnosis in 1999. Parkinson’s carries genetic risk within families, which means that the Google giant has a high chance of being affected.

Volunteers are being sent medical test kits after registering to take part in the study, which will form the basis of a database project. The samples will be analysed with computers to discover any potential links. They will also be asked detailed questions about environmental factors which may play a part in development of the disease. This is not the first time Google has pioneered medical research, as the company has tracked search engine questions to generate data relating to influenza outbreaks.

Currently, 10,000 British people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s annually. Brin has invested around £30m to research in to the condition, to date. Having taken a test to determine his own susceptibility to the disease, he made the decision to dedicate time to finding a cure.

Mr. Brin commented: “It just goes to show that when you apply our new found computational power to large amounts of data, and sometimes it’s not perfect data, it can be very powerful. We could be looking lots of places and collecting lots of information and, if we see a pattern that could lead somewhere. Until the fountain of youth is discovered all of us will have some conditions in our old age, only we don’t know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what ills may be mine and I have decades to prepare for it.”

Investigations in to illegal Google data gathering continues

Matt Thomas — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:28:40 +0000

France is the latest country to be drawn in to the Google data row, as officials continue to investigate whether the search engine giant obtained information about its users by contravening privacy laws. Google is accused of gathering and retaining sensitive data including passwords, when it was developing its Street View service.

The French data protection agency CIL is the latest organisation to examine the way Google conducted its research, to identify whether any illegal or immoral actions were executed. CIL is collating evidence on Google to ascertain whether or not the firm should be prosecuted for the illegal retrieval of data.

Google collected information about its users when Google logged wi-fi hotspots to develop their suite of location-based services. Google has issued a statement that its actions caused no harm to anyone, and therefore should not give rise to censure from official bodies responsible for enforcing privacy protocol.

Following the footsteps of many other data protection agencies, CIL has requested that Google hand over copies of its data so that it can be assessed, before a decision is made as to whether Google has preached privacy laws.

CNIL chairman Alex Turk said Google handed the data to the agency on 4 June, following an official request and it was now in the process of assessing the data to see if it was obtained illegally. First impressions of the data suggest that it contains information which is normally only held by the banking industry and medical professionals. Information found is said to include email passwords and text from messages.

CNIL is looking to reach a decision by September as to whether Google was in the wrong for the way it collated information. CNIL is able to issue a warning, create a fine or pass the case onwards for prosecution should any foul play be detected.

Google is now working with the French authorities and many others globally, states that it would be happy to delete the information which has been gathered if asked. “We have reached out to the data protection authorities in the relevant countries, and are working with them to answer any questions they have,” a Google spokesperson said.

Google Chrome browser gets World Cup extension

Andre — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:08:41 +0000

Search engine giants Google and football federation Fifa have collaborated on a range of tools that will make it much easier to find the latest World Cup news and scores directly from Google’s Chrome browser.
The brand new Fifa extension provides a live feed of results, news and match statistics, and users will be able to personalise the plug-in to display goal alerts for their favourite team.

Google has also optimised its search service to deliver the specific information that people want, no matter how cryptic the search terms. For instance, Googling “World Cup”, “World Cup Spain”, or even “World Cup Group G” will pull up player profiles, live scores and player profiles for any team affiliated with your search.

There is also a Fifa gadget for Google’s personalised iGoogle home page, which streams team news, player information and matches directly to users. Meanwhile, fans that are travelling to South Africa to watch games will be able to use Google Maps to find out about host cities, and even to plan their route using Street View photography.

Google’s bitter rivals Microsoft have also created a similar service for World Cup fans on their Bing search engine. Bing’s social search page has a list of popular trending topics, as well as public messages from Facebook and Twitter.