Google Dashboard Launches

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If you're anything like me, you use a lot of Google products on a daily basis. I frequently make use of Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, and Picassa, and I've also got a YouTube account that I use every once in a while. Switching between different pages to access all of those different things can be a pain in the ass at times. That's why Google's launched their new Dashboard service.

Google Dashboard allows you to connect to and display information for all of the Google products you use on a single page. From one central area you'll be able to check your messages and chats received and sent, change your account settings for every product you use, and view any updates and changes that have occured. Mind-blowing and paradigm-shifting? No, not really. But that doesn't stop it from being useful.

Posted on Thu, 5 Nov 2009 07:49:28 CST | by Robert Evans

Google Commerce Search: To Ease Your Holiday Shopping

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Once again, Google's come up with something to make a traditional pain in the behind less of an agony. Their latest new service isn't nearly as awesome or convenient as Google Voice, but it still helps to simplify what was once an annoyance. Google Commerce Search launched today, with the stated goal of simplifying holiday shopping for consumers and online retailers alike.

A good search service that returns pertinent hits is a crucial part of any e-retailer. Plenty of websites have awful search engines that keep customers from stumbling upon great deals and finding the products they really want. Google Commerce Search is a program that applies Google's search engine to whatever online store you happen to be browsing. It allows shoppers to search by category, price, brand, or any other attribute you can think of.

Posted on Thu, 5 Nov 2009 04:59:06 CST | by Robert Evans

Google Celebrates Sesame Street's 40th Birthday

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The Google homepage is getting taken over by Sesame Street characters over the next seven days leading up to the 40th anniversary of The Sesame Street.
Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary on November 10th.
Sesame Street Googled 16 years before Google was even founded. See the video below from 1982 as proof. Read more

Posted on Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:39:29 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

There Will Be No Google Phone

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There have been rumors of a Google-manufactured phone since before the launch of the Android operating system. Just last week, TheStreet.com released an 'exclusive' article claiming that Google would be coming out with a smartphone before the end of the year. Today we have bad news for those of you who thought this round of Google-phone rumors would end differently than the last. In a talk with CNET, Google VP Andy Rubin stated clearly that his company has no plans for any Android hardware.

While Google designed the increasingly popular Android operating system, they've been content to let manufacturers worry about the hardware. Rubin said that it would make no sense for his company to “compete with its customers”. Although Google has, in the past, stepped in to lend a hand on designing some features of the handsets that carry their OS (like the G1), they simply see no profit in building their own.

Posted on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:49:16 CDT | by Robert Evans

New Google Maps Navigation For iPhone Is Possible

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Google unveiled a great new navigation service called Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 devices like the upcoming Droid.

Google Maps Navigation, which is currently in beta, will feature turn-by-turn voice directions.
And, like all Google products, it's going to be 100% free. This means that, in the very near future, you'll be able to get turn-by-turn navigation on your smartphone at no extra cost. The software will also feature 3D views, automatic routing, and voice direction input.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google Music Search Goes Live

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The rumored Google Music search is going live. With the Google Music search features you can search and more easily discover millions of songs, all via a simple Google web search.
When you enter a music-related query — like the name of a song, artist or album — your search results will include links to an audio preview of those songs provided by their music search partners MySpace (which just acquired iLike) or Lala. When you click the result you'll be able to listen to an audio preview of the song directly from one of those partners. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google Maps Navigation: Doom For GPS Manufacturers?

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Can you think of any product you'd be happy to pay hundreds of dollars AND a monthly fee for if an equally good version was available for free? No? Then you can understand why the announcement of Google Maps Navigation is a bad thing for GPS makers like TomTom and Garmin. GMN, which is currently in beta, will feature turn-by-turn voice directions.

And, like all Google products, it's going to be 100% free. This means that, in the very near future, you'll be able to get turn-by-turn navigation on your smartphone at no extra cost. The software will also feature 3D views, automatic routing, and voice direction input. This means that, on the fly, you'll be able to ask your phone to, say, direct you to a gas station that's along the route you're already taking.

Posted on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:50:58 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Voice: Now With Your Existing Cell Number

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Say you love the idea of Google Voice and all of the cool features it represents, but you just can't stand the thought of memorizing ANOTHER phone number. Or your cell phone is a work issued phone and you have to stick with that number for business purposes. In the past, if that was your situation you were just SOL. But today, thanks to the wonderful folks at Google, that's no longer an issue.

Users can now get Google Voice with a Google issued number, or with an old, pre-existing number. If you choose to use your old number some features will be missing from voice, like call screening and recording, but most of Voice's features will remain intact. That includes Google voicemail, quite possibly the best thing about voice as a whole.

Posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:09:41 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Also Searches Twitter Tweets

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As reported Microsoft announced a search deal with Twitter making real-time Tweets available on the Bing search engine.
Google also announced now the same deal and will bring real-time Twitter search to the Google search engine. Google has not launched their Twitter search yet, but Microsoft has. You can test their Twitter search here. Read more

Posted on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:21:59 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google Music Service Rumored [Update]

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Google is rumored to soon launch a music service according to a report on TechCrunch.
It could be named Google Audio, but this name is not very sexy in my mind. It is not known yet if the Google music service would be streaming like Spotify or a download service like iTunes. Read more

Posted on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:01:29 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google To Pay For WiFi On All Virgin Airlines Holiday Flights

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Holy hell, how's this for a Christmas present? If you ride on a Virgin America flight at any point in time between November 10th and January 15th, your trip will come with free WiFi. Well, free for you anyway. Google is footing the bill as a way of saying 'happy holidays!' and making everyone's winter trips a little more pleasant.

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:02:56 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Voice Messages Searchable...By Anyone?

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We have some potentially terrible news for Google Voice users. A reader of Boy Genius has stumbled onto what could be a major security hole in the popular service. If you enter "site:https://www.google.com/voice/fm/*" and do a Google search, a list of voice mail messages pops up.

These messages appear to be real messages, from random people. They include audio files and transcripts. The caller's name and phone number is also listed. Some of the messages sound almost like they could be promotional recordings (the first two are people talking about ways to use Google Voice) but many of them seem to just be random messages from people.

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:55:37 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Announces Strong Q3 Results

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The economy's had a hard year, but you'd never know it from looking at Google. They just released their Q3 numbers today, and posted total year-over-year revenue growth of 7%. Their revenue totalled $5.94 billion for this quarter. 53% of total Google revenues came from outside of the United States, as opposed 51% in the same quarter in 2008.

Google's AdSense did very well this quarter. Aggregate paid clicks were up by 4% over Q2 of this year, and up 14% over Q3 2008. Cost-per-click was up 5% in Q3 over Q2, but down 6% compared to where it was in Q3 2008. That's only to be expected; advertising revenue has taken a hit everywhere as a result of the ailing economy. On the plus side, this quarter's recovery lends some credence to Google's claim that the worst is over.

Posted on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:47:33 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google's Online Book Store

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I hate to say it but, as much of a gadget-lover as I am, I've never been a fan of reading books on my computer or E-Reader. There's something about the feel and full, earthy smell of a real, honest-to-goodness paper book that no gadget has yet been able to match. That's why I still do all of my book shopping at real book stores.

Fortunately for Google, most of the world doesn't share my bizarre love of antiquated reading technology. When their new book store launches in the first half of next year (Yahoo! Tech) there will be close to half a million Google Editions for sale. In true Google form, once purchased users will be able to access their books on any electronic device with access to the Internet. Your book purchases will be stored with your Gmail account.

Posted on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:04:05 CDT | by Robert Evans

WhereMark Augmented Reality App For iPhone 3GS Offers Google Local Search

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More and more augmented reality apps are becoming available for the iPhone 3GS. Wheremark is about to release an AR app under the same name that offers Google Local search augmented onto your surrounding.
In the Wheremark app search results appear on the screen, floating over the actual location. WhereMark provides also for users to create content tied to a location. Users can build their own wheremarks in the app and use them as they would other wheremarks. Saving a favorite restaurant, interesting landmark or leaving a location based reminder is now a reality. Read more

Posted on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:43:19 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google Android To Overtake iPhone OS By 2012

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Today, Android is the underdog. It's new, it's not in widespread use, and it's being beaten by just about every other OS out there in terms of market share. The huge number of upcoming Android smartphone releases are evidence that this trend is changing, but it could still be a long time before Google's OS overtakes any of their big competitors. Or, if analysts from Gartner Inc. (via Computerworld)are correct, it could just take three years.

Gartner's just released a forecast that predicts the Android OS will be the #2 smartphone OS in the world by 2012. By that time, they estimate it will hold 14% of the market, as opposed to the 2% it holds right now. These gains by Android will come at the expense of Symbian, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Mobile. In fact, the report states that they expect Symbian (which currently accounts for about half of all smartphones) to drop to 39% by 2012.

Posted on Wed, 7 Oct 2009 11:34:34 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Bar Code Doodle Celebrates Bar Code Invention

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Google celebrates today the Bar code with a Barcode doodle instead of the Google logo on their homepage. 57 years ago the patent for the omni-present barcode got issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in the United States.

You can read all about the Barcode or Bar Code on Wikipedia. Recently we reported about the MIT Bokode technology which is aimed at replacing Barcodes - it will not be an easy task. Read more

Posted on Wed, 7 Oct 2009 00:56:21 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google's New Home Page Has Just One Word?

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When you visit Google.com today, you might notice something a little bit different then normal. As TechCrunch and others have noted, Google is trying out new homepage layouts today. They have several different types that they doing a bucket test with; that means they give access to the page to only a few users.

The new design features nothing but the Google logo, and an empty, wordless search box. In some versions the "I'm Feeling Lucky" and "Search" buttons only show up when you mouse over them. In other versions those two buttons are the only ones in attendance. We don't know yet which version, if any, Google will pick for widespread adoption.

Posted on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 10:18:32 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google And Verizon Announce Strategic Partnership Around Android

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Verizon Wireless and Google today announced a strategic partnership that will leverage the Verizon Wireless network and the Android open platform to deliver leading-edge mobile applications, services and devices.
Both companies view this agreement as an opportunity to offer consumers an array of products that combine the speed of the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network with the flexibility of the Android mobile platform. Read more

Posted on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 07:41:34 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

New Thinner iMac Leak Via Google Ads

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Google text ads in the Netherlands point towards new thinner Apple iMac computers, lighter and thinner plastic MacBooks, and more affordable Mac minis.
Apple Insider got screenshots of the top Google ads appearing on the Google search engine in the Netherlands. If authentic, than Apple is ramping up for a big push of new Apple computer hardware soon. This is also supported by Friday's appearance of a new Mac Keyboard and Mighty Mouse at the FCC. Read more

Posted on Sun, 4 Oct 2009 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Google Chrome OS Devices To Launch Next Month?

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Unsubstantiated rumors should always be treated with scepticism, and that's doubly true for any rumors that involve Google's upcoming Chrome OS. That said, I've stumbled upon some rather interesting news from over in China. According to Shanzai.com (via PC World) Chinese manufacturer Lemote is loading Chrome onto its new line of netbooks to replace their terrible proprietary OS.

These new Lemote netbooks might hit the market as soon as October, which would put them well ahead of Google's stated 2010 release for Chrome. If these netbooks do hit in October or November, they still won't do us in the U.S. much good. Lemote won't be shipping their netbooks overseas, so the most we'll benefit from this is some screenshots of the Chrome OS in action.

Posted on Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:56:44 CDT | by Robert Evans