Google Rolls Out a New Cloud Storage For Your Entertainment Needs

Google unveils Google Play - a cloud based service that unifies all its entertainment offering into a single entity. Earlier you had Google Music to store your music files, Google eBook store to buy books, Android Market to buy/download apps for your device running Android and so on.

DuckDuckGo - A Search Engine That Can Be An Alternative To Google Search

A few days back while using Google search, I was a bit overwhelmed by the deluge of useless links I was getting in my search results. This set me thinking - Is there an alternative to Google search ? Can I get what I wanted easily without plowing through hundreds of useless links ?

Would You Use A Chromebook If You Got One For Free ?

Google has unveiled the Chromebook - a laptop that runs on Chrome OS. The Chrome OS is a cloud based operating system which means that all your data (or most of it) will be stored on a remote server rather than on the local hard drive. Another way of saying it is you can literally rip apart and destroy your Chromebook (assuming you have deep pockets) and still get a good night's sleep because your data is safely backed up somewhere on the net.

Google Launches Open Source YouTube Channel

Google has launched an open source channel on YouTube. The aim is to collect and organize all the videos related to Google and open source projects in one location.

Google Unveils Chrome OS - A Browser Based Operating System

Google unwraps its much awaited Chrome OS - a browser based operating system, which the Google CEO Eric Schmidt has termed "a viable third choice" over the popular traditional OSes Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X.

Chrome OS which runs on a customized Linux kernel banks heavily on the concept of Cloud computing. All your data and the applications reside on a remote server and not on your machine.

Google Releases A Free, Interactive Book On Browsers and The Web

Google, in its pursuit of bringing awareness about Internet among the masses has executed a unique project in the form of an interactive book on web browsers and the Internet.

What Can I Do To Get An Interview At Google ?

Ever wanted to work at Google ? You bet. So what do you do to get yourself hired by Google ? The following tips provided by Google engineers shows you the way.

Run Google Android on an Apple iPhone

Do you own an Apple iPhone? If yes, have you wished you could run a Linux flavour on your iPhone perhaps via dual booting ? Then your wish is answered. "Linux on the iPhone" blog team has successfully installed Google Android (which runs a Linux kernel) on Apple iPhone.

Watch the following video and gauge for yourselves how well Google Android performs on an Apple iPhone.

All you want to know about Google Chrome OS in a Nutshell

Google recently lifted the curtains on its soon to be flagship product Google Chrome OS - a heavily customized Operating system which runs on top of the Linux kernel. Google did this with great panache by releasing the source code of the operating system under an open source license. The open source part of the operating system is known as Google Chromium OS.

Since a lot has already been written about the Google Chrome OS, I thought of doing something different. I collected the details of the project and created a mind map providing a birds eye view of Google Chrome OS.

Google Search will now include Twitter Tweets

Google has reached an agreement with Twitter to include real time tweets from Twitter in Google search results. All the more reason to take tweeting and tweets seriously.

Install Google Chrome web browser in Linux

Google has provided a pre-release version of its famed browser Google Chrome for Linux and Mac. However it is still very much in the development stage. You can download the latest builds of Google Chrome for Linux and Mac here.

All the same, if you want a stable Chrome web browser to work in Linux, then there is a work around. Codeweavers has released Crossover Chromium for Linux and Mac.

Google Chrome OS to officially make it's debut in 2010

Google has eventually come out with the announcement that it is developing a unique Operating System - called the Google Chrome OS.

It will be Open Source, light weight, speedy, simple and secure. Google says the new OS will be targeted at Netbooks and will make it's debut sometime next year (2010). As the name suggests, Google Chrome OS will in all probability be a browser centric OS; in that, most applications will be residing in the cloud. The OS will run on x86 and ARM architecture.

Really exciting news for sure.

[Source : Official Google Blog]

Musings from Search Masters 2009 Conference at Google

The Google SearchMasters' 09 conference was held in Bangalore on 28th February 2009. I was one of its attendees, rubbing shoulders with an eclectic group comprising of webmasters, SEO experts, online marketers, entrepreneurs and bloggers from across India. The conference was worth the time and effort I spent to reach the venue - The Google Office at Benniganahalli - around 11 odd kilometers from the Bangalore Kempegowda Bus Station.

The Google India team rolled out the SearchMasters 2009 conference to introduce the web masters to the various tools developed by Google which can help enhance their respective web sites and make them more friendly to search engines. The conference also included talks on best SEO practices, building mobile friendly websites and a hands on session on two select websites providing tips on how to make them more search friendly. Earlier I had written about the Google Bus aimed at bringing Internet to the masses. This was a similar event albeit targeted at webmasters, SEO experts and bloggers.

Here is a run down on the speakers and the talks they gave at the conference.

Vivaik Bharadwaaj who is manager of the Search Quality Evaluation team in India and Korea kick started the event by giving the welcome address.

Then the stage was taken over by Adam Lasnik. Adam is considered Google's first Search Evangelist. He talked on the various search engine optimization techniques that webmasters can use to make their sites more search friendly. Specifically, he mentioned ways in which you can use the freely available Google Webmaster central tools to boost your website traffic.

Then after a brief respite, Koti Ivaturi who is a Strategist at the Search Quality team at Google introduced the audience to the Google Webmaster Help Forum where, you can post queries regarding the problems you face with your website, and participate in the discussion.

Adam Lasnik later selected two websites at random from the audience and went on to give his views on what could be wrong with these websites and how to rectify their anomalies. By the time he finished the hands-on session, it was time for Lunch (Buffet). And as with all things Google, Lunch was exceptionally good with a plethora of side dishes, salads, fresh fruits, sweets and what not.

Post lunch, Dr Rajat Mukherjee introduced the audience to Google custom search. Dr Rajat is a group product manager at Google working on the Google custom search platform. An alumni of IIT madras, he has worked with Yahoo, IBM and Verity before joining Google. He talked on how Google custom search can be effectively leveraged in various ways by bloggers, web masters, non-profit websites, syndication partners, governments, application developers and search enabled applications.

Ankit Gupta - a graduate from IIT Delhi, now working at Google, conducted a really informative session on building mobile friendly websites.

The last talk was by Deepak Kumar who introduced the Google Analytics and website optimizer to the audience. He explained in some depth the different features of Google Analytics and how it can be used to track goals.

The closing note by Adam Lasnik involved a question and answer session which gave the participants a chance to win some prizes - Courtesy Google.

All in all, the day long Google SearchMasters 2009 conference was very informative and every bit enjoyable.

Google's Bus to Internet Nirvana launched in Tamil Nadu

Google India has launched what is being dubbed the Google Bus. It is a specially furnished bus with Internet connectivity, which will be touring different towns in Tamil Nadu - a state of India. The aim of the bus is to introduce, inspire and educate the general populace on the power of the Internet and how it can benefit common people.

Seeking to attract more people on the information superhighway, the bus will be touring 15 towns in Tamil Nadu over a span of 45 days. India is projected to have Internet connectivity of around 20 million by the year 2010. And perhaps, the Google bus is Google's way of ensuring it gets to garner maximum portion of this pie. Google is providing updates of the bus trip at the specially set up The Internet Bus Project web page.

Google portable device runs Debian Linux

The portable device I am talking about is the T-Mobile G1 Android cellphone. Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an Operating System, Middleware and key applications. Presumably, the T-Mobile G1 contains an ARM EABI architecture which is supported by Debian.

So a group of people (hackers) set out to install Debian on their T-Mobile G1 Android phone. The end result, at the least, is quite interesting. They have succeeded in running a full fledged Debian OS on their G1 Android cellphone at the same time, retain all the features which allow it to function as a cellphone such as receiving and making calls.

Read a detailed writeup on the steps needed to install Debian on a TMobile G1 Phone at the following website. AndroidFanatic.com has released a Debian installer script for your Android cellphone which you can download here.

Also watch the following video which shows Debian running on the Android G1 cellphone.

Business lost due to Gmail security failure

What would you do when on a fine day you wake up and find that your domain name has been grabbed by a cracker ? And you further learn that perhaps the cracker has used your Gmail account to roll out his misdeeds?

David Airey a graphics designer who had to face this very scenario explains in detail the tribulations he had to go thorough because of loss of traffic to his website.

He also lists a site which explains the Gmail hacking technique in three simple steps.

While Google has plugged this security hole in Gmail, it is always prudent to keep an eye on the filters you have set up in Gmail once in a while. Also my suggestion is never click on a link if you are suspicious about its context.

Better safe than sorry right ?

Update [29 Dec 2007] : David Airey gets back his domain name after a slew of publicity from numerous online media, which is a good thing for David. But it still doesn't clear the air of Gmail's security holes. I hope Google does something about this thing as I still believe that Google's Gmail is the best free email offering one can get in the present scenario. Nothing beats Gmail in the number of features, price and design of the interface.

Google incorporates user voting in its search results

The last time I searched for a topic in Google, the first ten results for the topic were pointing to sites with useless information and numerous ads, whose sole purpose of existence was to make money for its owners. I am not claiming that all search in Google provide the same results but spam sites which fight to the top of the heap of search results are a big nuisance for the search engines as well as users alike.

So what are the alternatives at hand ? There are directory services like dmoz.org and Yahoo directories which provide results that are constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Then there are social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us which allow you to bookmark all the useful content you come across while browsing as well as share it with others.

Google has now embraced and extended the features of directory services and social bookmarking sites into its search results by allowing users to vote for a result and even bookmark them. Here is what Google has to say about this new experiment (And I quote) ...

This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes.

If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made.

To use this new feature, you have to be logged in to your Google account while searching for a topic in Google Search. You can vote up a search result by clicking on a "up-arrow" sign and remove it from your search by clicking on a "X" (X sign). When you vote up a result, Google will insert an orange asterix (*) besides it and for the search terms related to the sites these will filter to the top.

So start voting for your favorite articles in Google from within your personalized Google search. Now you have got the best of both social bookmarking and directory services incorporated into your Google search results.

Migrate your custom domain email to Gmail

Google is slowly but surely laying out a plethora services with the customers or end users in mind. Seriously, I will really be at a loss to list all the services that Google provides - there are that many. What really sets Google apart from the pack crowd is its obsession with simplicity and customer comfort in mind. Any day, I would rather use a clean, spartan Google interface to the ad infested slow loading mishmash of a webpage put together by its competition.

Here is yet another interesting service from Google you might be interested in. The service is called Google Apps and it allows those with their own domain to move their entire mail infrastructure to Google.

Daniel Miessler has an interesting take on how he accomplished moving all his mail from his web host to Google all the while keeping his mail id the same ie in the format mail [at] dmiessler.com.

Google provides its Google Apps in three editions depending on the number of features you need. The standard and education edition are provided for free and has pretty much all the features that a small business or an individual needs. But if you want more then they also provide a premium edition for which they charge a nominal $50 per year.

Is it possible to hack into a gmail address ? - Really scary

Who doesn't have a gmail id now a days ? In my honest opinion, I am yet to discover a more user friendly web mail host. Gmail is non-intrusive, provides all the advanced and usable features such as POP3, mail search and much more.

But recently at a Black Hat security convention, Robert Graham, the CEO of errata security, surprised attendees by hijacking a Gmail session on camera and reading the victim’s email. He went even further by demonstrating the attack by taking over another journalist’s Gmail account and then sending emails from that account. Really scary.

So how do you protect yourself from somebody sniffing your email while it is in transit and then hacking into your gmail account ? There is one way to make it much harder for sniffing your mails. That is by sending and receiving mails using Gmail's SSL feature. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is used to provide secure data transfer across the web, for instance ecommerce sites use SSL to transmit your credit card details. Google provides the SSL feature for gmail and all it takes to enable SSL in Gmail is by typing the address https://mail.google.com instead of http://mail.google.com. Make note of the 's' in 'https'. What this does is instead of encrypting only the username and password, Gmail encrypts the whole mail session and this makes it possible to transfer your mails in a secure manner.

So the next time you decide to log on to your gmail account, use https instead of http and you will be fairly safe from getting your mail sniffed in transit.

Google phone based on Linux in the making ?

After getting tired of all the iPhone hype one saw in diverse media, now the rumor is that Google is planning to roll out its own branded Phone. And one can find sneak peaks at a prototype (See photo below). No details of the specification of the phone are yet available.

The phone is supposed to be an ad-supported phone which means the consumers ie the end users can look for a free lunch by way of heavily subsidised call rates which cost next to nothing (again a rumor). And Wallstreet Journal is reporting that Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators.

And most obviously the Google phone (for now nicknamed GPhone) will be powered by Linux. Check out this prototype of a GPhone which is floating on the net.

Fig: A prototype of GPhone [Courtesy: VOIP blog]