After Twitter, Google to now censor content

Google will now block posts or blogs from being available to users based on a country's local laws, in a move similar to Twitter's country-specific censorship that sparked off an outrage among critics across the globe.

Web critics have slammed the move saying, 'the change marks a new trend in the Internet companies bowing to the demands of authoritarian regimes'.

Google, however, claimed that the move would actually allow more freedom of speech, The Daily Mail reports.

The search giant said the blogs would be visible from everywhere else in the world, but invisible in one country.

"This will allow us to continue promoting free expression while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests in local law," the company said.

According to the paper, both Google and Twitter claimed that their move would simply allow their services to co-exist with regimes, rather than being banned outright.

"We believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society. Where content is illegal or breaks our terms of service we will continue to remove it," the paper quoted a Google spokesperson, as saying.

Google's blogging service named Blogger was launched in 1999, and has previously been banned outright in repressive regimes such as Syria, Iran and China.

Blog services and social sites such as Twitter and Facebook were crucial to the recent 'Arab Spring' revolts in countries such as Egypt, acting as a conduit for news and carrying messages of freedom and democracy.

Google ties up with O-Zone to provide free Wi Fi

Google has announced a a unique marketing initiative with public Wi-Fi provider O-Zone Networks.

The initiative has been taken to encourage mobile internet usage and enabling users to access Google+ and YouTube on their portable devices away from work and home.

Users will now have unlimited access to Google+ on the Wi-Fi network at all O-Zone hotspots across the country. Users will also be enabled to surf and watch videos on for 10 minutes each week free of charge.

The offer will be launched this weekend and will be available for three months across India at all O-Zone Wi-Fi hotspots. O-Zone is also in talks with Google to make the initiative a long term one rather than only for the stipulated three months.

The offer is available for users at outlets like Café Coffee Day, McDonalds, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Costa Coffee, Subway and OM Bookshop among others.

Happy New Year says Google Doodle

Google's last Doodle of the year 2011 carries Happy New Year wishes for search giant's millions of users across the globe. The colourful Doodle has the letters in the word "Google" seemingly attending a New Year party, wearing decorative caps and blowing trumpets. The second 'G' of the letter 'Google' wears the year 2012's goggles. A click on the logo takes users to a page which has all the Happy New Year-related links.

Google's Doodle last week featured a colourful neon design with images of a snowflake, Santa Claus, bell, snowman, candle and a gift box on a black background, wishing its users "Happy Holidays". A click on the Doodle took users to holiday-related links like tips for holiday, holiday greetings and budget tours.

Google recently revamped its Doodle site allowing users to purchase items featuring Google Doodles. The update brings the page into line with Google's other socially-enhanced sites and enables users to share their favorite logos on social networking websites.

The new site features over 1,000 doodles, some of which include a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process and links to the interactive versions.

Google Doodles are the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. The first Google Doodle was created by Larry Page and Sergy Brin Google in the year 1998 to mark the celebrations of the Burning Man Festival. Google currently has over 1000 Doodles.

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.

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."

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.

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

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.

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.

Google quits plans to make cheap renewable energy

Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page's moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.

The plans, which Google announced on its corporate blog, represent the third so-called "spring cleaning" announcement that Google has made since Google co-founder Page took the reins in April.

The changes come as Google is facing stiff competition in mobile computing and social networking from Apple Inc and Facebook, and as some investors have groused about rising spending at the world's No.1 Internet search company.

"To recap, we're in the process of shutting down a number of products which haven't had the impact we'd hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward," wrote Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Holzle in the blog post.

Google said that it believed other institutions were better positioned to take its renewable energy efforts "to the next level."

Google began making investments and doing research into technology to drive down the price of renewable energy in 2007, with a particular focus on solar power technology.

In 2009, the company's so-called Green Energy Czar, Bill Weihl, told Reuters that he expected to demonstrate within a few years working technology that could produce renewable energy at a cheaper price than coal.

"It is even odds, more or less," Weihl said at the time. "In three years, we could have multiple megawatts of plants out there."

A Google spokesman said that Weihl had left Google earlier this month.

Google noted in its blog post that it would continue efforts to generate "cleaner, more efficient energy," including procuring renewable energy for its data centers.

Among the other projects included in Tuesday's "spring cleaning" were Google Knol, Google Search Timeline, Google Gear, Google Friend Connect, Google Bookmarks Lists and Google Wave, an ill-fated social networking and communication service that Google had previously said it would cease developing.

Google said that in December its email and calendar applications will no longer work with Gears technology, which allows Google's software to work when not connected to the Internet. Google said it is working to create offline capabilities into HTML5 technology instead.

Google Friend Connect, which allows website publishers to add social features to their sites, will be retired in March for all non-Blogger websites, Google said. It suggested that websites use its Google+ social network instead.

Earlier this year, Google said it would "wind down" Google Labs, a website that offered public access to experimental Google products, as well as terminating products that let consumers monitor their home energy consumption and keep track of their personal health records.

Shares of Google, which finished Tuesday's regular trading session down 94 cents, were up 86 cents at $580.86 in after hours trading.

Google continues its Autumn clearance

INTERNET SEARCH OUTFIT Google is continuing its Autumn cleaning and has announced that it will close out more products, including Gears and Friend Connect.

The firm is shutting down products that have not had the impact it had hoped for, said Urs Hölzle, SVP of Operations and Google Fellow in a blog post that sees off the products.

"Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience," he said.

Seven projects have been shuttered and they range from the simple to the far more elaborate.
Google Bookmarks Lists, for example, was a way of sharing bookmarks and collaborating with friends, which is something well catered for anyway. Google will close this down on 19 December.

More elaborate is the 'Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE < C)' initiative that aimed to cut the cost of renewable energy. The work done here so far has been published, so all is not wasted.

"At this point, other institutions are better positioned than Google to take this research to the next level," said Hölzle.
"We will continue our work to generate cleaner, more efficient energy-including our on-campus efforts, procuring renewable energy for our data centers, making our data centers even more efficient and investing more than $850 million in renewable energy technologies."

Also nixed are Google Friend Connect, a webmaster tool for adding social features to web sites, and the social networking stumble, Google Wave.
This makes sense, perhaps, since Google has more recently launched Google+, its social networking service. The firm recommends that any affected web sites add a Google+ badge to their web pages instead.

You can also wave goodbye to Google Gears, whose demise has been on the cards since March when Google stopped supporting new web browsers for it and discontinued its offline development extensions.

Google Search Timeline, a visual way of showing historical search queries, has also had its time, as has Knol, a collaboration tool. Users have about a year to wean themselves off the latter.

Google Details 10 Search Tweaks

Google has opened up about ten of the hundreds of changes it makes to its search algorithm each year

Google on 14 November peeled away another layer of the multifaceted onion that comprises its search engine by revealing 10 specific algorithm changes the company has made.

The company has traditionally closely guarded its search technology signals, or the 1,000-plus factors that help Google.com serve results at such a prodigious clip.
Transparency

Yet Google is endeavoring to appear more transparent about its search technology in the face of the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust investigation into its core business. Senator Mike Lee accused Google in a Congressional hearing in September of “cooking” its search results to favour its own products.

Google detailed 10 of the roughly 500 changes it makes each year.
Specifically, Google added increased page content and decreased header and menu content for its search snippets, which are strings of text from search results to give users an idea of whether those results might be useful enough to warrant a click.

Google Search Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts, who detailed the changes in a corporate blog post, said Google is more likely to pick text from the actual page content in the future.

Google also extended rich snippets for application, which help users searching for applications see details such as cost and reviews.

Google also improved the way it hunts for and finds “official” web pages and changed how it handles result freshness for queries where a user has chosen a specific date range.
Moreover, Cutts and his crew worked to provide better page titles in search results by de-duplicating boilerplate anchors.
Boilerplate links

“We found that boilerplate links with duplicated anchor text are not as relevant, so we are putting less emphasis on these,” he said. “The result is more relevant titles that are specific to the page’s content.”

The company also killed a signal, retiring a factor in its Image Search related to images that contained references from multiple web documents.

Some of the changes involved language. For queries in languages where limited web content is available, Google is now translating English web pages and displaying translated titles below English titles in search results.
Clicking on the translated titles will take searchers to pages translated from English into the query language.

Google is doing this for Afrikaans, Malay, Slovak, Swahili, Hindi, Norwegian, Serbian, Catalan, Maltese, Macedonian, Albanian, Slovenian, Welsh and Icelandic.

Google is also providing autocomplete predictions in Russian based on length to reduce the number of “long, sometimes arbitrary query predictions in Russian”, something it already does for English language results.

The search engine also made changes in how its autocomplete feature handles queries that contain non-Latin characters, such as Hebrew, Russian and Arabic.
Fresh content

Google also improved its ranking of fresh content, such as hot trends, current events or recurring events, a move that affects 35 percent of search results.
The boost came months after Google’s real-time search deal with Twitter lapsed, leaving the company deprived of tweets to surface for users.

Google, which has a 65 percent US search market share, normally keeps such specific tweaks under wraps because it views its search technology as a competitive advantage over Microsoft Bing, Yahoo and other challengers.

But Google also keeps its search updates quiet to keep SEO specialists and enterprising businesses from “gaming” Google to improve their search ranking for their own marketing designs. Cutts alluded to this in a cautionary note in his blog post:

“If you’re a site owner, before you go wild tuning your anchor text or thinking about your web presence for Icelandic users, please remember that this is only a sampling of the hundreds of changes we make to our search algorithms in a given year, and even these changes may not work precisely as you’d imagine,” Cutts wrote.

“We’ve decided to publish these descriptions in part because these specific changes are less susceptible to gaming.”

In other words, if you are a website publisher looking to play an angle, use the information Cutts provided at your own risk and don’t expect to benefit from a better search ranking on Google.

Facebook, Google back new web tracking privacy standard

Popular websites such as Facebook and Google will now give their users more control over how they are tracked online under a draft developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

W3C, headed by inventor of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, published technical proposals to enable websites to respond to forthcoming privacy regulations in the US.

The proposals, designed to give users more control over what advertisers and marketing firms know about them, has been backed by Facebook and Google, as well as browser makers Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla.

US regulators and civil liberties groups have also collaborated on the new standards, The Telegraph reports.

The stronger privacy protections are expected to challenge the online advertising and marketing industries, who depend on tracking data to measure the success of their campaigns.

"Advertisers, even if they don't show targeted ads, it's important for them to know how many people viewed and clicked, what your conversion rate is. Currently, many mechanisms used for these statistics are not so privacy-friendly," said Dr Matthias Schunter of IBM Research, who co-chaired the W3C Tracking Protection, Information Week reports.

According to Information Week, the new standards would be enforced via self-regulatory industry bodies from mid-2012.

Gmail gets a makeover

Google has unveiled a new look for its free e-mail service that has more white space, less clutter, threaded conversations, new themes, and better search.

Over the next several days, users will be prompted to switch to the new Gmail design with a link in the lower-right corner of their inbox. Eventually, it’s going to become the default.

“We’re excited to finally share Gmail’s new look with you,” Google user experience designer Jason Cornwell said in a blog post. “We’ll be bringing these changes to everyone soon,” he said.

“But if you’d like to make the switch right away, we’re rolling out a ‘Switch to the new look’ link in the bottom-right of Gmail over the next few days.”

The new layout has a revamped “conversation view” to help users read through e-mail threads. It has improved tools for searching mailboxes, which typically serve as storage bins for users.

Google also began providing more insight and control regarding how ad pitches are personalised to users.

Information such as location and search history is used to decide what ads people might find more useful, according to Google.

People can use Ads Preference Manager tools to tune systems to their tastes or block messages from advertisers that are of no interest to them.

A new, streamlined conversation view that displays Google profile pictures for your contacts — making an e-mail thread look a little more like an instant messaging conversation.

Elastic density, which means that the spacing between items on the screen will automatically adjust based on the screen size and device you’re viewing it on.

Instant messages (Google calls them conversations) now come with photos and the messages have a better streamline like a real conversation.

Adding a social element, Google is adding profile pictures beside each message.

The density of the text also adjusts depending on your screen size and resolution, making it easier on the eyes.

The new design is in line with some of the changes Google just made to Google Reader in terms of spacing and overall feel.

Gmail is also prettying itself up with a host of new themes with background images from iStockPhoto.

Magical Things About Google Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google that powers many map based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot, car or public transport and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world.Here are five services provided by Google Maps for the users.


Street View Partner ProgramStreet View in Google Maps helps one to explore places around the world with a 360 degree street level imagery. Street View imagery is viewed millions of times each day, and enables users to explore places near and far in Google Maps.

If one manages a unique property such as a park, pedestrian mall, a university or a campus, they can request for the Street View team to visit the location. Once the Street View team visits your location, they will collect imagery using a Google car, Google trike, or even a Google snowmobile. Once the images are added to Street View, people all over the world will be able to explore your property virtually.Google Street View CarsThe cars with mounted 360 degree cameras have been scouring the streets of Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi capturing photographs for Google's Street View project. Anyone can get an aerial view of your home on Google Maps but only when street view imagery goes live. The experience with Google Street view would be like just taking a walk outside your home or any location that you chose to see.


It also has GPS to track geographic positions as well as lasers that helps capture 3D data to determine distances. 3D Mirror of the WorldWebGL is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser. To see these applications you need a modern graphical card and a browser with WebGL support .These pages are tested in Google Chrome and FireFox under Windows XP, 7. Street View in AntarcticaGoogle's "Street View" imagery has sparked privacy concerns in some countries but that's unlikely to be the case with its latest destination Antarctica, populated mostly by penguins.


Apparently, the internet giant has not spared any continents form its massive binoculars. It has also made its entry into the frosty South Pole. Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering at Google Earth and Maps, snapped the footage while on a recent Antarctic trek to Half Moon Island with his wife

Google's Face Unlock to take on Apple

Google Inc and Samsung Electronics Co unveiled their new mobile phone software, pitching facial recognition programs that enhance security and photo sorting to challenge Apple Inc's record-breaking iPhone.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus runs Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google's Android software, said Matias Duarte, Google's senior director. Samsung will start sales next month. No price was disclosed. The Samsung handset is Google's latest salvo in the battle to control the $207 billion mobile-phone market.

Apple's iPhone 4S sold a record more than 4 million units in three days last week, helped by the addition of voice-recognition features in the company's iOS software. "In terms of technology and functionality, it's hard to find a big difference between Android and iOS anymore," said Kang Yoon Hum, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul. "They are neckand-neck." Google and Apple are racing to upgrade their technology to lure users of smartphones.

Mountain View, California-based Google controlled 43.4% of that market in the second quarter, while Apple's iPhone had an 18.2% share. In Ice Cream Sandwich, the face detection technology is being introduced as a safety feature. Still, that "opens up a lot of possibilities," said Wouter De Meulemeester, a director at IRIS, a Belgian company that provides such technology. Applications such as photo-sorting can be developed, he said after attending the event.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S earlier this month featuring a new camera and a faster processor. The device is capable of detecting up to 10 faces while taking a photograph, according to Cupertino, California--based Apple's website. The phone features the Siri voice assistant that marks calendars.

Top Websites That Changed Our Lives

With the development of technology, internet was accessible to worldwide users and many websites emerged in for various purposes. Today technology plays a vital role and is a part and parcel of everyone's life who indulges themselves in its creation of enormous websites.

There are millions of websites that are used by people, but only few are familiar in the minds of commoners which have made a large impact through their new features when compared to others.


Here are few websites that changed everyday life of people.

Google-Google is the website that is present over many years on the screen by allowing users to search for information, watch videos, blogging and other services efficiently provided by it. So, when it comes to Internet the first word that strikes our mind is Google. It has such a huge impact on every Internet user.Google has invaded virtually every aspect of the Internet. Most people use at least one Google product or service on a regular basis personally. Whether it's Google maps, Blogger blog, a Picasa photo album, a Google search, or even a YouTube video.

Facebook-Facebook is a social network; which has revolutionized the way of interaction with one another. People use Facebook to talk online, build networks. They are using it to follow and interact with their favorite personalities also. People use it to keep in touch with business contacts, friends, family. Facebook has made social networking mainstream worldwide.Attracting more than 500 million users, ranging from all age groups includes celebrities, and even political world leaders. It also offers additional feature in addition to blogs, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. 

YouTube-There weren't many options if one wanted to watch a video online. Hardly videos were found. After the arrival of YouTube, it is successfully running by solving all problems when it came to entertainment on the Internet. One can watch videos and can also listen to music and even blog through videos. The website allows watching things ever thought of.Web users now had a centralized place to watch video online. And because of YouTube's pioneering effort, online video is now enjoyed by millions every day.

Wikipedia-Earlier most online encyclopedias were sorely lacking in information, Wikipedia changed all that by not only allowing to view the content for free, but also by allowing individual users to review and update content, making it more complete and accurate overall.Wikipedia also brought user generated content to the mainstream online, making both much more viable and valuable. In Wikipedia one can literally find anything and everything. The website appeals to Internet users from all over the world, offering information in various languages.The website became a free e-encyclopedia that has grown and will probably continue as long as the Internet is available. It is also a most visited website for information's. 

eBay-eBay is well known for its ability for users to sell various items. eBay is one of the very few websites that offers live real time auctions for products. With online shopping and a few simple clicks from your finger tip the shopping is done. eBay allows users from all over the world to buy items.The website allows one to get items that are not available in the market. eBay has made it easy to find some of the most popular items that are not sold in stores anymore. It is the website that gives consumer satisfaction by providing every information about a product that saves customers who are in a confused state of mind.

Google Earth reaches 1 billion downloads

 The planet’s computer users have downloaded Google Earth more than 1 billion times, the company said on Wednesday in an official blog.

The programme, which offers users a customisable and navigable rendering of the world from Mars to the ocean floor, was bought by Google in 2004 when it acquired the company Keyhole, which invented the first version of the software in 2001.

To celebrate the one-billionth download, Google launched a new website at www.OneWorldManyStories.com, which features “people all over the world who use Google Earth to follow their dreams, discover new and distant places, or make the world a better place.”

“While it’s inspiring to see how Google Earth has touched the lives of so many, we know the best is yet to come,” said Brian McClendon, vice-president of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps.

Google ranked world’s most attractive employer, again

 Internet search giant Google has been ranked as the best company to work for by management and engineering graduates in two separate surveys, which term the company the world’s “most attractive employer” of 2011.

According to the survey conducted by global employer branding firm Universum, Google has been ranked at the top of its 2011 list of the top 50 global businesses and engineering companies to work for - the third year in a row.

The search giant has been dubbed the most attractive employer by more than 160,000 people from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK and US looking for the right place to work.

“For the last three years, we have been seeing Google leading the pack and it will take a strong player with a clear talent strategy to steal this number one spot,” Universum Head (Research and Consulting) Lovisa Ohnell said.

The search giant is followed by auditor KPMG, where most B-Schools students want to work, while engineering graduates picked tech giant IBM as their second choice.

For engineering students, software giant Microsoft is the third choice, followed by car-maker BMW (fourth), chip-maker Intel (fifth), electronics company Sony (sixth), tech firm Apple (seventh), GE (eighth), Siemens (ninth) and consumer goods group Procter & Gamble (10th).

The other technology firms that were favoured by engineers are HP, Cisco, Oracle, Nokia, Dell, and Lenovo.

“The software industry is highly dependent on its human capital, hence the efforts to attract and retain the brightest minds in the world,” Universum Global Account Director Carlo Duraturo said.

“There’s a new working culture paradigm today - the relaxed and creative office - and part of it we owe to this industry. Generation Y feels very comfortable working in this new environment and it’s clearly reflected in the attractiveness of the software industry,” Duraturo added.

Meanwhile, in the list of top 50 employers for business students, KPMG is followed by rivals PwC, Ernst & Young and Deloitte at third, fourth and fifth spot, respectively.

In addition, B-Schools students seeking the best employer ranked Microsoft sixth in the list, followed by Procter & Gamble (seventh), financial services entity JP Morgan (eighth), Apple (ninth) and financial services major Goldman Sachs (10th).

Among the other notable names in the list, soft drink major Coca-Cola figured at 12th position in the list, while Citi occupied 29th place and beverages firm PepsiCo bagged 30th place in the list for business students.

“The talent market for business career-seekers is being dominated by the professional services firms, known for being great places to launch a career, and by companies that offer a new working culture in a dynamic environment,” Ohnell added.

Google TV to launch in Europe in 2012

Google Inc will launch its TV service in Europe early next year, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said, despite teething problems that had led some observers to question how committed the company would remain to the project.

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on a TV screen via a browser, was launched in the United States in October but received mixed reviews and was swiftly blocked by three of the top US broadcast networks.

Large parts of the television industry, like the news and telecoms industries, view Google with suspicion and accuse it of stealing their advertising revenues without contributing to the costs of making programs.

Schmidt sought to allay the fears of Britain's broadcasting elite in a speech to the Edinburgh television festival, the first time a non-TV executive had been invited to give the keynote MacTaggart lecture at Britain's premier industry event.

"Some in the US feared we aimed to compete with broadcasters or content creators. Actually our intent is the opposite," he told an audience who quickly warmed to his friendly style and liberal compliments to the quality of British television.

"We seek to support the content industry by providing an open platform for the next generation of TV to evolve, the same way Android is an open platform for the next generation of mobile," he said.

"We expect Google TV to launch in Europe early next year, and of course the UK will be among the top priorities."

Google TV has gained little traction so far in the United States, and its set top box provider Logitech International SA slashed prices to $99 in July from an initial price of $299.

Schmidt also included a warning to British television regulators, who he said were far more stringent than their US counterparts and threatened to throttle the development of British television companies in an increasingly global market.

"Stifling the Internet -- whether by filtering or blocking or just plain turning the 'off' switch -- appeals to policy makers the world over," he said. "Instead, policy makers should work with the grain of the Internet rather than against it."
Opportunistic
Google has long held ambitions in the television arena, hoping to extend its online advertising business, which made $28 billion for the company last year, to the big screens that still command the lion's share of global advertising budgets.

"If his ambition was to go there and convince the TV people he wasn't a big threat, I don't think he achieved it," said Keith McMahon, an analyst at research firm Telco 2.0/STL Partners.

"The message I got was that TV is such a big market that Google can't ignore it. They're never going to give it up."

So far, Google has had little success breaking into the TV market, despite its ownership of the world's most popular online video site, YouTube.

Last week, however, Google agreed a deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for $12.5 billion, handing it the world's leading set top box business which delivers content for many of the top cable TV companies in the United States.

The headline attraction of the deal was Motorola's huge portfolio of wireless patents but the set top box business could help Google transform its TV project by giving it insights into pay-TV.

Google has not spelled out its plans for the set top box business, and many analysts expect it to divest the unit at the first opportunity, having no experience or previous interest in running a hardware business.

Others believe Google could change tack under CEO Larry Page, Google's co-founder who took back the reins from Schmidt in April and has already started a social network to compete with Facebook while ditching other projects.

"Google describes itself as an opportunistic company. So while it may not have wanted to buy Motorola's operations, it may now assess whether retaining these assets can compensate for the risk of owning them," New York-based Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey wrote in a note this week.

Schmidt made no mention of the Motorola acquisition or its implications on Friday, but will hold a question and answer session in Edinburgh on Saturday.