Google India unveils search format for ads

Google India unveiled a format for media advertisements (ads) to target, pay for and experience video ads on its Web search engine.

"The new ads format is designed to ensure users find the information they are looking for and enable advertisers to reach potential customers with the right information," Google India sales head Praveen Sharma said in a statement here.

As a standalone format designed to put video ads front and centre, the search target is automated.

"The format is launched with STAR TV campaign built around its new channel Life Ok. The media and entertainment category search volumes have shown phenomenal growth. In the last two years, the query volumes have grown at 125 per cent year-on-year," Sharma said.

The format will also enable media firms to capture the traffic on search and leverage it to create familiarity of the content.

"Our research has shown that a substantial number of users are looking to watch the movie trailer or TV show clips on the search results page, which translates into a high response rate for this ad format," Sharma noted.

The format also changes the way users experience video on Google search. It introduces a new Lightbox media player. When the video is played either by clicking the thumbnail or the 'watch' link, the Lightbox player expands to the centre of the screen and dims the rest of the page around it.

"The experience is meant to put the viewer's attention on the video and to create a theatre-like experience," Sharma added.

Media Ads are charged at a flat rate on clicks. The pricing model makes it easier to budget for media ads campaign and to know how much an interaction is going to cost.

Google's search technologies connect millions of people the world over with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is a top Web property in all major global markets.

Google's targeted advertising programme provides businesses with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users.

Intel-powered smartphone, tablet to enter market in 2012

Smartphones and tablets running Intel's chips will enter the mobile market early next year, posing a challenge to the dominance of Apple's iPhone and iPad, US media reported Wednesday.

Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it had tested prototype smartphones and tablets equipped with Intel's latest mobile chip, dubbed Medfield. The products run Google's Android mobile operating system, reported Xinhua.

"We expect products based on these to be announced in the first half of 2012," Stephen Smith, vice president of Intel's architecture group, told the magazine.

The prototype products are known as "reference designs" which are sent out to make a pitch for persuading manufacturers to build their devices around Intel's technology.

According to Technology Review, the phone prototype was similar in dimensions to the iPhone 4 but noticeably lighter.

The phone was powerful and pleasing to use, at par with the latest iPhone and Android handsets. It could play Blu-Ray-quality video and stream it to a TV if desired; Web browsing was smooth and fast, said the review.

An outstanding feature of the phone is its camera's "burst mode" which can capture 10 full-size eight-megapixel images at a rate of 15 per second, it noted.

Intel's tablet, running the latest version of Android system, has a slightly larger screen than the iPad 2 but is about the same thickness and weight. The review said a limited trial suggested it was nicer to use than older tablets based on older versions of Android.

Intel has tested its reference handset against a handful of the leading phones on sale today and the tests show that Medfield offers faster browsing and graphics performance and lower power consumption than the top three, Smith told Technology Review.

In September, Intel announced a partnership with Google to enable the Android system to support the world's largest chip maker's architectures.

Intel has been struggling to get a bite of the booming market of smartphones and tablets. Most of the current mobile devices use chips based on architecture from ARM Holdings, which are considered more power efficient than Intel's products. Nokia had planned to ship smartphones with Intel chips this year, but it shifted to ARM-based phones with Windows Phone 7 system.

Sify Technologies introduce cloud-based online storage - Sify mystorage

Losing one's critical information, be it in the form of documents, mail, photos, et al can prove frustrating to anyone.

With an aim to bring a solution to this, Sify Technologies have launched their online-based cloud storage service, called Sift mystorage. Confirming in an official statement, Sifty states that their cloud-based online storage service is also a backup solution targeted for consumers, in general and to small businesses.

With Sify mystorage, confirms the official statement, users will be able to safeguard their important files - be it in the form of documents, mail, photos, videos, music from threats like virus attacks, file corruption, accidental deletion or a PC crash.

Explaining the merits of the service, Sify claims that, "With a single mystorage account, a user can backup and store documents from any number of devices.

A file saved in Sify mystorage can be accessed online from anywhere or can be shared with friends and family easily. Sify mystorage is intuitive to the extent that the user’s files are organized and stored in the cloud in exactly the same folder structure as in his/her device."



To cater to the varied requirements of its different section of users, Sify mystorage can be availed by users, according to the plan of their choice. Plans start at Rs.175 per month for 10GB storage. Users can also make changes to their plans online.

 The service, claims Sify comes with a MS-Office plug-in, using which users can upload and backup documents directly from MS Office applications: MS-Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.



At the launch, Mr. Natesh Mani, President – Commercial & Consumer Business, Sify Technologies Ltd, said, “Sify is deeply committed to enabling a digital lifestyle for its consumers. As one of India’s largest and most advanced data centre companies, we are confident of revolutionizing daily life with valuable and novel cloud services."

Actually, Searches For “Google+” Are Petering Out

 Just last week, Google was promoting the fact that “Google+” was the No. 2 fastest-growing search term of the year in its annual Zeitgest list. And it did have an amazing pop when it hit “10 million members” a couple weeks after launch last summer. People wanted to know what this new Google+ thing was all about. And since it didn’t exist the year before, on a percentage basis the growth in the number of searches for the term was astronomical.

If you are not paying close attention and hear that “Google+” was the No. 2 search term of the year, you might assume that a lot of people are still searching for it. But you would be wrong. The Zeitgeist site shows all sorts of stats about that pop in searches for “Google+” back in July.

What you won’t find there is the overall trend of searches for the term, and the fact that searches have been declining. In order to find that you have to go to Google Insights for Search, a terrific tool that lets you plot search volume for any term. You can see the chart for “Google+” above. The trend is not good. There was an initial spike at launch, then a lot of hype around the 10-million-user announcement, and then a smaller spike in September when it opened up to everyone. Then the search volume just kind of peters out.

Why is this important? Searches are an indication of pure intent. People search for what they intend to do. Venture capitalists look at search volume data all the time as a gut check to see whether there is any interest in a startup’s product. The same logic applies to products at big companies like Google. If fewer and fewer people are searching for “Google+”, it makes you wonder if anyone is actually using it. Remember, just because Google+ has tens of millions of registered users, that doesn’t mean those people ever came back after Google made them click to register.

All you have to do for a reality check on this approach is compare searches for “Twitter” to “Google+” (see chart below). Interest in Twitter dwarfs Google+. (Don’t even try to compare it to searches for “Facebook”—that spike turns into a flat line). People search for what they intend to do or want to learn more about. They even search for “google” or “gmail,” but not so much for “google+.”

The fact that the “Google+” line isn’t as big as the one for “Twitter” or “Facebook” would be fine if it was growing. But it’s not. It’s going in the opposite direction.

China to allow commercial use of its next-generation internet

China will allow commercial use of its next-generation internet system by 2015 after putting it on trial in 2013, a media report said Saturday.

The new system expands the capability of the Internet Protocol address and improves the speed of the internet. It is also expected to create employment, the Chinese cabinet said in a statement Friday.

The new technology, called IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6), is an upgrade of the current IPv4 whose IP addresses are about to be all used up, People's Daily reported.

The new IPv6 technology opens up a pool of internet addresses that are a billion to trillion times larger than the total pool of IPv4 addresses and are virtually inexhaustible for the foreseeable future, experts said.

The IPv4 was developed in the early 1980s and has a capacity of just over 4 billion IP addresses.

The new IPv6 network bandwidth can reach 2.5-10 gigabytes per second, 100 times faster than the current speed.

The government will try out the system on a small scale by the end of 2013 before expanding it in 2014 and 2015.

China is the world's biggest internet market with about 500 million online users.

Chinese companies are also encouraged to develop new technologies on the new IPv6 network, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things -- uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure -- and Three Network Convergence -- an initiative that hopes to integrate telecommunications, TV and radio, and the Internet in the world's most populous country.

Since 2004, the IPv6 networks have been built in some research organizations in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou for testing.

Coming soon: More powerful supercomputers?

Scientists claim to have created a new optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip which could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers.

A team at Purdue University says the "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring some 10 microns in diameter, or about one-tenth the width of a human hair, the 'Science' journal reported.

Unlike other optical diodes, it doesn't require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.

The diode is capable of "nonreciprocal transmission", meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Prof Minghao Qi, who led the team. "This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," added Qi.

Although fibre-optic cables are instrumental in transmitting large quantities of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyber attack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa, say the scientists.

"This translation requires expensive equipment. What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fiber directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security," they said.

Electronic diodes constitute critical junctions in transistors and help enable integrated circuits to switch on and off and to process information.

"The new optical diodes are compatible with industry manufacturing processes for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors used to produce computer chips. These diodes are very compact, and they have other attributes that make them attractive as a potential component for future photonic information processing chips," the scientists said.

The new optical diodes could make for faster and more secure information processing by eliminating the need for this translation, the scientists added.

Court sets deadline for 21 websites to remove objectionable content

Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, Google, among 21 others will have to strip their websites off any objectionable content, latest by February 6, 2012, according to a Delhi court's directive.

A Times of India report confirms now that 21 social networking sites, including the ones mentioned above have been "issued summons" by the court, on grounds of carrying objectionable content.

They have now been charged with section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

Acting on a private complaint, Metropolitan Magistrate, Sudesh Kumar has asked the Centre to file a report in the court, latest by January 13. Social networking sites in India have been going through a rough phase, after the government began showing dislike for the content portrayed.
Now, as per the court's directive, if these sites fail to clear derogatory content off their websites by February 6, 2012 they would be charged for contempt of court.


In its statement the court said, "It appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused in connivance with each other and other unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same.

It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents."

FIR against Facebook, user for anti-Gita comments

A social activist from Lucknow has lodged an FIR against social networking site Facebook and one of its users for allegedly posting comments and spreading hatred against Hindu's holy scripture Bhagavad Gita.

Nutan Thakur has filed an FIR against Jalandhar resident CI Chumbar and the networking site under section 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of communities and other grounds), 153 A (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 153 B (public nuisance), 290 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 504 (criminal intimidation) 506 and 66 A IT Act (using Information Technology for these purposes).

Confirming the news, Circle officer Alok Singh said, "The FIR has been registered at Gomti Nagar Police Station on a complaint lodged by Nutan Thakur under various sections of the IPC on Saturday."

In her FIR, Nutan alleged that the user calls himself the Editor-in-Chief of a Punjabi daily newspaper and he had asked people to burn the Bhagwad Gita on Facebook.

The journalist claimed the scripture made derogatory references to women, she said in the FIR.

In her complaint, Nutan alleged that the comments on Facebook were enough to provoke anger and trigger communal riots.

"Through the Facebook comments, the person has been asking the people to burn the holiest scripture of Hindus in public across nation. The comments have come at the backdrop of the protest following the proposed ban of Gita in Russia. The holy book facing the ban in Russia has already become a sensitive issue and such comments would just trigger more anger," Nutan said.

She said that the Facebook user has not only criticized the holy book but has also openly used obscene words and language for Lord Krishna and Lord Bramha. She claimed the words and abuses were of such nature that they are wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

"Through abusive language, the person has been denting the image of the Hindu Gods. More so, the networking site also turned a blind eye and did not initiate any kind of action. The Facebook is equally responsible in the crime by encouraging such acts by not taking any action against the people involved in such mischieves," Nutan said.

Nutan recalled that her husband Amitabh Thakur had lodged the FIR against Facebook and others at Gomti Nagar police station for allegedly portraying Gandhi in a wrong manner through an online group 'I hate Gandhi'.

Thousands warned of charity hacking threat

Tens of thousands of people and thousands of companies have been told their bank accounts could be at risk after hackers stole credit card details and personal data held by a US security company.

Anonymous, the loose-knit hacking network known for its repeated, politically motivated attacks on corporations, claimed on Christmas day it would use the stolen details to make $1m worth of donations to charities. Several clients of Stratfor, the Texas-based private security company, confirmed that their accounts had been used for unauthorised transactions to charities such as the Red Cross and Save the Children.

Hackers also published Stratfor’s highly confidential client list, which included banks, such as Barclays and HSBC, defence contractor BAE Systems and large corporations such as Apple ad BT.

Stratfor was on Tuesday trying to play down the incident, saying on its Facebook site that this was not a list of companies it had relationships with, but merely a record of those that had bought the company’s publications.

However, Stratfor said it had hired external security consultants to investigate the incident, as well as an identity theft monitoring company to help the potential victims. It advised customers to monitor their accounts carefully and to contact their banks and the US Federal Trade Commission if they saw any unauthorised activity.

Stratfor’s servers and email have been suspended.

It issued a warning on Monday that individuals who had spoken out publicly against the hacking attack might be targeted and have their personal details published on websites. The company urged people to either refrain from commenting on Facebook, or to take extra precautions if they did.

Facebook for Android gets new Timeline feature

This week, Facebook started rolling out a new feature for profiles on its website. It’s called Timeline, and it presents your Facebook activity over time in a new way.

The feature is now available for all Facebook users, just visit Facebook's Introducing Timeline page to find out more, but Facebook is already deploying it among its mobile apps. Well, not all its mobile apps. Specifically, right now, Timeline is only available on Facebook for Android.

As Fierce Mobile Content reports, the mobile Timeline view starts with a “cover photo” that you choose, and then moves down the page in reverse-chronological order, showing photos and status updates you’ve posted ranging from the newest to the oldest. Facebook explains it a little better on its blog:

As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born. Photo albums and other posts are horizontally swipeable, so you can quickly view multiple photos or posts inline without leaving timeline. You can also swipe through the views at the top of your timeline to navigate to your map, photos, subscribers and more.

The Timeline update to Facebook also affects other parts of the interface for viewing Facebook in general. Photos uploaded and shared with friends are larger, for example, and you can see maps showing different social interactions thanks to the Facebook Places location-based features.

Right now, interestingly, Timeline is only available to Android mobile users and on the mobile web, not on Apple’s iOS platform’s version of Facebook. That’s a reversal of history for Facebook, as it usually rolls out new features on its iPhone and iPad apps first. It’s not clear what the delay is for Apple users, but for the time being, you can only enjoy the new features at Facebook.com or on an Android device.

A Nielsen survey on smartphone users from earlier this week confirmed that among everyone with a smartphone who uses apps regularly, Facebook is the most popular. Nielsen says about 80 percent of Android users who have used any app in the last 30 days have accessed Facebook in that time – and with 800 million users worldwide, that make sense.

It’s not clear if this might signal a change in how Facebook treats its mobile apps, given that while iOS is extremely popular, Android is still more so. But at least for the time being, it means cool new features that might make you happy you opted for Android over Apple. Given how many people are Android users and how many use Facebook, it’s likely at least a few will appreciate it.

Who is in Google CEO's inner circle?

The most powerful group at Google Inc (GOOG.O) used to be known simply as 'The OC,' short for operating committee. Now, it goes by a more telling name: L Team, short for Larry's Team. The new members of this team are... The change is more than a mere rebranding after Google co-founder
Larry Page became chief executive nine months ago, reclaiming a title he last held in 2001. Page has moved quickly to remake the company in his image, and this influential group is responsible for plotting strategic priorities, such as social networking and mobile computing.

In the revamping of the group earlier this year, Page swapped out several of the executives who previously had seats at the table and brought in managers spearheading key initiatives.

Among the new members of Page's cabinet are social networking head Vic Gundotra, Android mobile chief Andy Rubin and YouTube head Salar Kamangar, according to people familiar with the matter.

Page meets regularly with the team, which also includes Google's top finance and legal executives and is now internally called the L Team, to discuss, evaluate and approve their plans, from acquisitions to new products.

"All major decisions flow through that group," said one of the people, speaking anonymously because of the confidential nature of the topic.

The new team was appointed around the time that Page took over as CEO and reorganized the company's management structure. In addition to placing directors of key product groups under his direct supervision, and giving those groups more leeway to operate autonomously, Page transformed the operating committee into the L Team, a move not reported until now.

A Google representative declined to comment on the changes Page made to the team. The company also declined to make executives available for interviews.

The revamp is part of Page's efforts to make the world's No. 1 Web search engine more nimble and competitive amid a shifting technology landscape in which Google is increasingly battling heavyweights like Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Facebook.

To make room for his new advisers, Page chose to remove some well-known and powerful executives from the inner circle instead of expanding it, according to the sources.

They said the executives who have left the group include Marissa Mayer, the head of Google's local, maps and location services business; Rachel Whetstone, its London-based global communications and public affairs chief; and Shona Brown, who previously oversaw business operations and now heads the company's philanthropic arm.

Mayer's membership within the group was particularly short-lived. The former head of Google's flagship search product and user experience was appointed to the operating committee in October 2010, roughly around the time she was assigned a new job overseeing Google's local business.

But she and other executives Page moved out of his inner circle were not completely sidelined, the sources said. Mayer still has a "huge job," said another person familiar with the matter. Whetsone was promoted to senior vice president in April.

The changes to the group reflect the shifting influence within Google's top ranks, said first source, who added that changes were natural with a new CEO in place.

2011: the year of Google Android

2011 was the year when Android tablets broke loose and ran rampant over the annual Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. It was here that Motorola showed off the world's first Android 3.0 tablet and lookalike Android 2.x devices seemed to pop out of every booth.

The year that followed has been a tumultuous one for tablets. Big players like Hewlett-Packard and RIM released major products that quickly found their way to the bargain bin. Apple sent everyone back to the drawing board after the release of the ultrathin iPad 2. And Amazon reset everyone's expectations of what a tablet should cost, and what features consumers could live without.

What will 2012 have in store for tablets? There's no way of knowing for sure, but here are some trends I expect to see at CES 2012.

Thinner designs
With the iPad 3 release still months away, the competition still has some time to show off designs that are thinner and lighter than the current iPad. It's a particularly tough engineering challenge for Android tablet manufacturers, as Android fans have come to expect features such as microSD expansion and HDMI output, which bulk up the design. You also have to account for the thickness of LCD panel technology and the rechargeable battery pack.

Android 4.0
What Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) was to CES 2011, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will be to CES 2012. The first question that will be asked of any tablet unveiled at CES will be whether or not the device is capable of running Google's latest operating system.

But unlike last year, no one company will be able to claim Android 4.0 exclusively. Google has already released the code into the wild and manufacturers should be able to demonstrate some basic functionality on the tablets.

Windows 8 tablets
Considering that Microsoft introduced Windows 8 at CES 2011, we're bound to hear about its progress at CES 2012. Much has been made of the software's suitability for use on tablets, but we haven't been able to get hands-on with yet. Perhaps we'll hear some official product announcements about Windows 8 compatible tablets.

Higher resolutions
One of the most expected features of the iPad 3 is a higher-resolution display that can rival the Retina Display used on Apple's iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.

Rumor has it that manufacturers are now capable of making tablet-size QXGA resolution (2,048x1,536 pixels) touch-screen panels with a pixel density of 264ppi, which is twice that of the iPad 2.

Flexible displays

We've seen companies like Sony and Samsung show off flexible OLED screen technologies in years past, but never yet on a product they had any intention of making available. Perhaps 2012 will be the year we see this technology become viable.

Recently, Nokia has been showing off its Kinetic concept device, which allows users to navigate through menus and zoom in and out of images by twisting and bending the screen. If a manufacturer at CES could demonstrate a similar concept on a larger, tablet-worthy screen, it would make quite a story.

Different sizes
The success of the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have show that the 7-inch tablet isn't the dud form-factor we thought it was. Samsung has clearly shown a willingness to try different screen sizes, such as its Galaxy Player 5 and Galaxy Tab 8.9. Maybe we'll finally see a tablet that dares to venture into larger 12-inch or even 15-inch sizes.

As noted in CNET's laptop predictions for CES, the worlds of tablets and laptops are showing signs of collision.

One of the hottest tablets on CNET currently, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime employs a detachable keyboard dock that makes it practically indistinguishable from a modern laptop. The release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, and its suitability for both laptops and tablets, will surely blur the line further.

Google working on Apple Siri rival 'Majel'

Google is reportedly planning to expand its existing voice-recognition assistant for Android that will allow users to perform actions in their natural language similar to how Apple iPhone's Siri functions.

According to AndroidandMe.com, the company is planning to add a natural language processing feature to Google Voice Actions, already available on most Android phones.

Voice Actions allows users to give commands by saying keywords such as "send text to". But the updated software could allow it to respond to commands by using more natural verbiage, similar to Apple's Siri.

The feature has been codenamed "Majel," after the woman who does the voice of the computer in Start Trek: The Next Generation, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

It's expected Google will use Majel for search queries at first, and will incorporate other commands such as controlling phone and app actions down the line.

Majel could be released before the end of the year, but more likely in the next few months, the report said.

Apple Inc had unveiled a new version of its smartphone, the iPhone 4S, in October. The new phone is equipped with The "Siri" voice-command software which had pundits gushing over its ease of use versus rivals' offerings. Siri allows for using voice to send messages, make calls, set reminders and many other things.

The handset is also equipped with the new operating system iOS 5 and has over 200 new features, including notification centre and Twitter integration. The phone hit the US market Oct 14.

The software upgrades - including voice commands for everything from sending messages to searching for stock prices -- may be enough to keep people hooked on iPhones.

iPhone 4S sold more than four million units in three days since its launch Oct 14, making it the fastest-selling iPhone ever. More than one million units were pre-ordered in the first 24 hours

Aakash tablet: World's cheapest tablet for India goes on sale for Rs 2500 online

Datawind, the maker of the world's cheapest tablet has put up for sale about 30,000 tablets online at a price of Rs 2500 each, with a delivery period of seven days.

The seven inch tablet with Android 2.2 is now available through its portal aakashtablet.com. "We have put up on sale about 30,000 tablets online, which will have a cash on delivery of 7 days. We have achieved pre-sale orders of about 400,000 tablets from individuals and corporates. But current supplies will only be limited for individual buyers," Datawind CEO and founder Suneet Singh Tuli told ET.

Aakash's next commercial version called the Ubislate 7, which has a faster processor, is slated to be launched late January. Ubislate 7 is set to have a 700 Mhz processor compared to the 366 MHz processor in Aakash. Ubislate 7 will be priced at Rs 3000 for sale online.

Datawind though seems to be struggling with customer service issues for online retail, even though the sale is only for a limited number of tablets.

According to sources, the Indian government is also planning to provide a new specification for Aakash, which may come with a faster processor and better battery life. The current version of Aakash has a battery life of about 1.5 hours. An email to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, which is supplying the tablets to schools and colleges remained unanswered.

The government till now procured only 10,000 tablets. It has still not procured the remaining 90,000 tablets for distribution in schools and colleges, even as other nations have expressed interest to the government for similar low cost computing initiatives.

Google buys mobile app developer Clever Sense

Internet search giant Google has acquired mobile application developer Clever Sense for an undisclosed amount.

Clever Sense is known for its 'Alfred' application, a location-based, personalised restaurant and bar recommendation application. The application is available on iPhones and smartphones using Google's Android mobile operating system.

"We are excited to join Google and start a new chapter in curating the world around us. Together with the Google team, we will accelerate our efforts toward this shared vision," Clever Sense Co-Founder and CEO Babak Pahlavan said in a posting on the company website.

"Google helps local businesses connect with potential customers and its worldwide presence can bring the value of Clever Sense to a much larger audience," he added.

Google has been strengthening its local offerings for quite sometime. It acquired restaurant ratings publisher Zagat -- which provides people with a comprehensive view of where to eat, drink, stay, shop and play worldwide, based on millions of reviews and ratings -- in September.

Discovering local information is extremely important to both users and businesses and the acquisition of Clever Sense will benefit both, Pahlavan said.

"With Google and Clever Sense working together, our entire team looks forward to building more intelligent, serendipitous and magical services," he added.

In the first nine months of this year, Google completed the acquisition of 57 companies for a total of USD 502 million. This exceeds Google's previous annual record of 44 purchases, which was achieved last year. The company spent cash worth USD 669 million on acquisitions in 2010.

Google is estimated to have acquired over 100 firms in the past decade, translating into the purchase of 10 companies a year on average.

Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy, BBC Two

 Getting to the truth about Steve Jobs – co-founder and force of nature behind the hi-tech giant Apple – is not straightforward. After his death from cancer in October we started making a BBC Two documentary examining how Jobs had propelled the company from his parents’ garage to global supremacy.

It soon became clear that Apple – a company that rarely gives interviews – was not going to take part in the film. Neither would Jobs’s sister, novelist Mona Simpson, or even his official biographer Walter Isaacson.

But other key figures were happy to throw light on Jobs’s life, from his days as a hippy taking LSD in 1970s California to his final years at the helm of a corporation that was briefly the most valuable in the world. Many of the insights that follow did not make the final film.

One of those who were happy to talk was Steve Wozniak, the computer wizard who founded Apple with Jobs in 1976, and left fulltime employment there in the mid 1980s. Perhaps rightly he was not overly modest, telling us, “Steve and I, we were like a Lennon-McCartney partnership.” But interestingly he didn’t leave it at that.

As if to balance some of the recent reporting which implied Jobs was Apple, Wozniak made it clear which Beatle he preferred to be seen as: “People always attributed me with Lennon because I had this technical brilliance and really built and designed the machines. And then Steve knew how to take it to the public. But he had his own type of brilliance too.” The last time they spoke, Jobs had just wanted to check Wozniak wasn’t coming back to Apple, as a newspaper report had suggested.

John Sculley was another important player who took the chance to lay some history to rest. Yes, he told us the now legendary story of how Jobs persuaded him to leave Pepsi and become Apple’s CEO in 1983, challenging him, “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

But more extraordinary was his mea culpa over his role in Jobs’s departure from Apple in 1985, when Sculley had him sacked from the struggling Macintosh division. “In hindsight that was a terrible decision ... I didn't appreciate what it meant to be the visionary of the business, that he saw a world that was far bigger than I could understand in those days.”

Jobs never forgave Sculley. “We never really made it up. The separation was such a bitter impact with Steve. There were people who tried to get us back together and Steve basically had no interest in that.”

Jobs had few close friends, and fewer still who will talk. But we did speak to Avie Tevanian, who worked with him for two decades, most recently as head of software at Apple until 2006. Tevanian organised Jobs’s stag party in 1991, but struggled to persuade other friends to join them.

“They kept saying, 'nah, I don't think it's appropriate that I go', or 'no I'm too busy, I can't make it'. Everybody had a reason not to come.”

Jobs, Tevanian and one other friend went to a bar, where they had a tequila shot each. “Steve looks at it and kind of sniffs it, and [is] like, 'what am I supposed to do with it?' So we demonstrated the proper technique, and we said, 'now you try Steve', and he wouldn't do it. He just sat there the whole night, sipping his shot of tequila.” Jobs later sent Tevanian an email saying he'd had a great time with his true friends.

Jobs spent his life going against conventional thinking. When he discovered he had cancer of the pancreas in 2004, Jobs turned to alternative remedies and a vegan diet. “Many of us around him, myself included, his wife included, were saying 'Steve, maybe you should just have some surgery and get it over with',” recalls Tevanian. Jobs refused.

“He was the kind of person that could convince himself of things that weren't necessarily true,” says Tevanian. “That always worked with him for designing products, where he could go to people and ask them to do something that they thought was impossible. And I think he truly thought that through some unconventional means he could cure himself.” Nine months after his diagnosis, Jobs embraced conventional medicine wholeheartedly. By then the cancer had spread.

'Mayor of Silicon Valley' Robert Noyce gets Google doodle

Robert Norton Noyce, or Bob as he was known, has been honoured with a Google doodle on what would've been his 84th birthday. And it seems very fitting, considering his tech achievements. Noyce co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, and then Intel in 1968.

His partner in founding Intel was Gordon Moore, and Noyce initially wanted to call the company Moore Noyce, but decided otherwise because he thought it'd sound like "more noise".

Noyce was the engineer credited (along with Jack Kilby) as inventing the integrated chip, which paved the way for the microchips that power today's computers and devices.

He's responsible for kickstarting the computer revolution, giving Silicon Valley its name, as well as being the original tech entrepreneur. He and Moore cultivated a relaxed working culture at Intel, shunning luxuries -- an example followed by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Born in 1927 in Burlington, Iowa, he was inventing from a young age, making a radio from what he found lying around at home, as well as adding motors to his sledge.
Noyce attended the Mecca of technology, MIT, and a few years after graduating founded Fairchild Semiconductor. He filed a patent for a 'Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure' in 1959.

He was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1987 by Ronald Reagan, and two years later George Bush inducted him to the Business Hall of Fame.
In 1990, shortly before his death, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award during the bicentennial celebration of the Patent Act.

Other accolades include the IEEE Medal of Honor, the National Medal of Science, and being elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And now this Google doodle, of course.

This year's tech-related doodles have included Robert Bunsen, steam pioneer Richard Trevithick and sci-fi genius Stanislaw Lem. Bing recently got in on the act with its own animated home page.

Won't remove material just because it's controversial: Google

Amid the raging controversy over content regulation online, internet search giant Google India on Tuesday said it complies with the law of the land but will not remove any material just because it is controversial.

"We work really hard to make sure that people have as much access to
information as possible, while also following the law. This means that when content is illegal, we abide by local law and take it down.

"And even where content is legal but breaks or violates our own terms and conditions we take that down too, once we have been notified about it," a Google spokesperson said.

"But when content is legal and does not violate our policies, we will not remove it just because it is controversial, as we believe that people's differing views, so long as they are legal, should be respected and protected," the spokesperson added.

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday asked social websites like Google and Facebook to ensure that uploading of derogatory material online is stopped.

He said the government does not want to interfere but if social networking sites are not willing to cooperate, "then it is the duty of the government to think of steps that we need".

The government has met the officials from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo over last few weeks after offensive materials, particularly against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were put on the internet.

Search engine giant Yahoo! refused to comment on the views of the minister, while Microsoft officials were not available for comments.

Social networking site Facebook, which has more than 25 million users in the country, has said it will remove any content that is hateful, threatening and incites "violence" or contains nudity off the service.

"We will remove any content that violates our terms, which are designed to keep material that is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity off the service.

"We recognise the government's interest in minimising the amount of abusive content that is available online and will continue to engage with the Indian authorities as they debate this important issue," Facebook said in a statement.

The statement added: "We want Facebook to be a place where people can discuss things freely, while respecting the rights and feelings of others, which is why we have already have policies and on-site features in place that enable people to report abusive content."

Sibal has said that the content posted on some of the sites was so offensive that it would hurt the religious sentiments of a large section of communities in the country.

iTwin lets you access hard disk of your computer from anywhere

Four years ago, when Chennai-born Lux Ananthraman, then a researcher specializing in cryptography and security at a government-run lab in Singapore, lost his USB drive with all his data, he decided to do something about it.

"In spite of all the security work I was doing, I suddenly felt helpless," says Anantharaman . This experience led to the creation of iTwin, a pair of identical USB drives that share data exclusively between them over any connection without being accessible to any other system.

It's a device that lets you access the hard disk of your computer from anywhere in the world by just inserting one USB drive in the home PC and carrying the other with you.

It's cable-less cable, says proud iTwin creator

Chennai-born Lux Ananthraman has created iTwin , a pair of identical USB drives that share data exclusively between them over any connection. The procedure is insert the USB drive you are carrying in any computer and you can accessall your files securely and without the need for any third-party software. For iTwin, all you need is internet access. And it costs just about Rs 5,000 ($99).

"It is a cable-less cable," says Ananthraman, who's a 1994 IIT-Madras grad and an Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore postgraduate. "It's easy and secure like a cable for transferring files between two devices, but without the hassle and clutter." No tricky software installations, no lengthy configuration procedures and no complicated logins or passwords. Plug it in and you are ready to go.

He teamed up with Kal Takru, his colleague at Singapore's A*STAR and the cofounder , to develop iTwin in Singapore. "We form a great team.While I handle technology , he handles operational aspects ." Kal was born in Dehradun and completed his studies in Singapore where they met.

The device was named among the Techcrunch 50, a global list of promising startups , and the duo got their second round of funding last week. The unique minimalistic structure also won the 2011 Red Dot Design Award for outstanding product design. And it has been named an international CES (the biggest consumer electronics exhibition in the world) Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree.

But if the name and design makes you think of an Apple connection, think again. "I have an identical twin brother who is a doctor in England. I feel like I have a direct link to him. When he falls sick, I fall sick," he says, smiling. This 'connection' between 'identical twins' led to the name iTwin . And it's not just the design . Everything related to this product seems to have a pattern. It was launched on 10/10/10. Ask him what's the reason and he states his "fondness for number theory" .

There are cloud services like Dropbox and Sugarsync which achieve the same function and for free, but iTwin has clear advantages, the creators claim. "The data always remains on your computer and the transfer is fully encrypted , meaning you are in complete control with your very own setup. And it is extremely user-friendly with no setting up pains," says Ananthraman . If you lose one USB, just unplug the other one from PC to securely our data.And you can also disable the other USB remotely by using a passcode generated at the time of pairing the devices for the first time.

Facebook CEO: We made mistakes

Facebook will be required to get user consent for certain changes to privacy settings as part of a settlement of federal charges that it deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended.

The settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission will also subject the company, which is reported to preparing a $10 billion initial public offering, to 20 years of independent audits.

"I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes," co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post on the company's official blog Tuesday.

He said a few "high-profile" mistakes, such as changes to the service's privacy policy two years ago, "have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done."

To ensure that Facebook did a better job, Zuckerberg said the company had created two new corporate privacy officer positions to oversee Facebook products and policy.

In its complaint, the FTC said that Facebook had repeatedly violated laws against deceptive and unfair practices. For example, it said Facebook promised users that it would not share personal information with advertisers, but it did.

Also, the company had failed to warn users that it was changing its website in December 2009 so that certain information that users had designated as private, such as their "Friends List," would be made public, the FTC said.

Chris Conley, policy attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said the settlement "makes it clear that companies can't simply change the rules without asking users' permission."

But he said that to keep pace with new technology, there was a need for new laws and tools.

"We shouldn't have to struggle with complicated and constantly shifting privacy settings just to keep control of our own personal information," Conley said.

Facebook, which has more than 800 million users, has often been criticized for its privacy practices since its founding in a Harvard dorm room in 2004.

Earlier this year, the company came under fire for practices related to its use of facial recognition technology to automatically identify people appearing in the photos that are shared on the service.

Ability to innovate

On a conference call with reporters Tuesday, FTC officials said the settlement did not expressly cover the use of facial recognition technology.

They noted, however, that it was broadly crafted so that it would prevent Facebook from deceiving consumers going forward.

If Facebook is found to have violated any of the provisions of the settlement, the company is subject to fines of $16,000 per day for each violation, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said.

"Nothing in this order will restrict Facebook's ability to innovate," said Leibowitz. But, he added, "Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy."

Under the settlement, which must be approved by an FTC administrative law judge, Facebook is barred from being deceptive about how it uses personal information, and is required to get permission before changing the visibility of the personal information users have posted.

The settlement follows a similar agreement in March between the FTC and Google Inc over the Web search leader's rollout of its own social network called Buzz.

In 2010, the FTC settled charges with Twitter, after the agency alleged that the social networking service had failed to safeguard users' personal information.

Ray Valdes, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner, said he did not think the timing of the settlement was directly related to Facebook's IPO plans.

"I don't think it's directly tied to the IPO. The IPO is still off in the distance," he said, but added: "There's some connection. I'd make more of a direct link if this was happening in January."

Android apps have security holes: Study

Some smartphones models that have been specifically designed to support Google's Android mobile platform have incorporated additional features that can be used by hackers to bypass the operating system's security features, making them more vulnerable to attack, a study has revealed.

According to a new research from North Carolina State University, some of these pre-loaded applications, or features, are designed to make the smartphones more user friendly, such as features that notify you of missed calls or text messages.

Dr Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research, said the problem is that these pre-loaded apps are built on top of the existing Android architecture in such a way as to create potential 'backdoors' that can be used to give third-parties direct access to personal information or other phone features.

Hackers can easily trick these pre-loaded apps. For example, these "backdoors" can be used to record users' phone calls, send text messages to premium numbers that will charge a users' account or even completely wipe out all settings.

The researchers have tested eight different smartphone models, including two "reference implementations" that were loaded only with Android software.

"Google's reference implementations and the Motorola Droid were basically clean.No real problems there," Jiang said.

But five other models did not fare as well. HTC's Legend, EVO 4G and Wildfire S, Motorola's Droid X and Samsung's Epic 4G all had significant vulnerabilities, with the EVO 4G displaying the most vulnerabilities, the researchers concluded.

Meanwhile, Jiang said that the best bet to protect yourself moving forward, if you have one of these phones, is to make sure you accept security updates from your vendor, and avoid installing any apps that you don't trust completely.

Carrier IQ defends itself as Apple confirms it’s no longer in iOS

 Apple has confirmed that it stopped using Carrier IQ tracking software in iOS5, while the company itself has denied logging keystrokes.


In a statement Apple said: “We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update.”

The company added that “With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.”

Carrier IQ itself has meanwhile tried to defuse the spiralling row about its use to track consumers' every keystroke on Android handsets in America. Although the company has a UK office, no British networks appear to use the software.

In a statement the company said “We measure and summarize performance of the device to assist Operators in delivering better service.”

“For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen.”


The company told AllThingsD that the software is listening for commands rather than logging actual keystrokes.

“So, for example, if during a support call a technician asks a customer to enter a short code, CIQ will be listening for it; when it’s entered, CIQ will relay the appropriate diagnostic information to the carrier. Any keystrokes beyond that are ignored,” the website claimed.

“The software receives a huge amount of information from the operating system,” Andrew Coward, Carrier IQ’s VP of marketing, told AllThingsD. “But just because it receives it doesn’t mean that it’s being used to gather intelligence about the user or passed along to the carrier.”

Coward claimed it’s only “data related to call quality, battery life, device crashes” that is recorded.

“If there’s a dropped call, the carriers want to know about it,” said Coward. “So we record where you were when the call dropped, and the location of the tower being used. … Similarly, if you send an SMS to me and it doesn’t go through, the carriers want to know that, too. And they want to know why — if it’s a problem with your handset or the network.”

Coward added that text messages, web addresses and other content was not recorded. He said networks determined what data that wanted recorded and that

Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart added “The data is the consumer’s data. We would never take that data and distribute it to a third party. We are prohibited from doing that by our agreements.”

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, however, also moved to distance itself from Carrier IQ. In a statement the manufacturer said "RIM is aware of a recent claim by a security researcher that an application called “CarrierIQ” is installed on mobile devices from multiple vendors without the knowledge or consent of the device users. RIM does not pre-install the CarrierIQ app on BlackBerry smartphones or authorize its carrier partners to install the CarrierIQ app before sales or distribution. RIM also did not develop or commission the development of the CarrierIQ application, and has no involvement in the testing, promotion, or distribution of the app. RIM will continue to investigate reports and speculation related to CarrierIQ."