Google hoping other sites like recommendation tool (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is hoping other websites will like its recently introduced system for recommending online content and ads.

The Internet search leader has been using "+1" recommendation button on its own site for two months. It became available to other publishers Wednesday.

The +1 feature is similar to the Facebook "Like" button that has become a staple at thousands of websites.

Pressing the +1 or Like button enables people to recommend an article, photo, video, song or some other kind of material to their online connections.

The personal endorsement also says something about an individual's interests and preferences. That's something both Google Inc. and Facebook want to know more about so they can do a better job placing the online ads that generate most of their revenue.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Samsung to stick with Google for its tablets (AFP)

SEOUL (AFP) – Samsung Electronics will depend on Google's Android mobile-device software to run future versions of its tablet computers, a senior Samsung official said in an interview published Tuesday.

"We'll continue to work with Android on future tablets," J.K. Shin, head of the South Korean giant's mobile division, told The Wall Street Journal.

Samsung Electronics is the world's second-largest cellphone maker after Finland's Nokia but trails Apple's iPhone and iPad in smartphones and tablets.

However, the Android system has boosted its smartphone business and Samsung hopes to do the same with tablets.

The iPad surprised competitors with the success of its launch early last year. Samsung responded by choosing Android for its tablets and introduced the seven-inch (17.8 centimetre) Galaxy Tab in October 2010 to take on Apple.

Samsung will launch new versions of the Galaxy Tab this summer in an 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch model. Both will run the latest version of Android, known as Honeycomb.

Despite Apple's status as a major customer for Samsung components, the two companies are embroiled in lawsuits.

The US firm sued its South Korean rival, claiming it copied the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad. Samsung launched its own suits, alleging that Apple violated patents covering Samsung's cellphone transmission technologies.

"We didn't copy Apple's design," Shin told The Wall Street Journal. "We have used many similar designs over the past years and it (Apple's allegation) will not be legally problematic."

Samsung expects its tablet shipments to rise about fivefold this year to 7.5 million. Market data provider IHS iSuppli forecast in April that Apple's iPad shipments would reach 39.7 million this year.

"Android is the fastest-growing platform and the market direction is headed toward Android so we're riding the wave," said Younghee Lee, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google, Facebook lose social network patent ruling (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Google Inc and Facebook Inc failed to win dismissal of a lawsuit by a New York company related to software designed to let people take part on social networks through their mobile phones.

Wireless Ink Corp, which runs the Winksite service, may pursue claims that Google Buzz and Facebook Mobile infringed its October 2009 patent, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan wrote in a ruling made public on Friday.

The patent related to a method to help novice mobile phone users create mobile websites that other phone users can see. Wireless Ink is seeking a halt to the alleged infringement, and compensatory and triple damages.

Jeremy Pitcock, a lawyer for Wireless Ink, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Facebook and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

According to an amended complaint filed in December, Wireless Ink's application for its so-called '983 patent became public in January 2004.

It said this was three years before Facebook, the world's most popular social networking website, launched its first mobile website, and six years before Google launched Buzz to compete with Facebook.

"If two of the most resource-rich, patent-savvy and technologically advanced companies leading the Internet were not aware of the '983 patent, despite its potential ramifications upon a major segment of the defendants' business," Wireless Ink wrote, "this was solely due to a deliberate indifference on the part of defendants."

Wireless Ink said Winksite had more than 75,000 registered users, while Facebook Mobile has tens of millions of users, and Google said tens of millions of people had "checked Buzz out" in the service's first two days.

In his ruling, Castel said Wireless Ink "does not allege any facts that are inconsistent with the existence of a viable claim." He also dismissed counterclaims seeking to invalidate the Wireless Ink patent.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, California, and Google in Mountain View, California.

Analysts now generally consider Google Buzz a failure. Google raised privacy concerns when it at first used email lists from users' Gmail accounts to build social networks of Buzz contacts. It later changed the settings so that Gmail contacts are kept private by default.

The case is Wireless Ink Corp v. Facebook Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-01841.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

EBay and PayPal sue Google over trade secrets (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – EBay and its online payment unit, PayPal Inc, on Thursday sued Google Inc and two executives for stealing trade secrets related to mobile payment systems.

The two executives, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, were formerly with PayPal and led the launch on Thursday of Google's own mobile payment system in partnership with MasterCard, Citigroup and phone company Sprint.

The suit highlights the growing battle by a wide range of companies from traditional finance to Silicon Valley trying to take a major stake in what has been described as a $1 trillion opportunity in mobile payments. The mobile phone is seen as the digital personal wallet of the future.

The eBay suit said Bedier worked for nine years at PayPal, most recently serving as vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures. He joined Google on January 24 this year.

Tilenius was at eBay from 2001 to October 2009 and served as a consultant to the company until March 2010. The suit says Tilenius joined Google in February 2010 as vice president of e-commerce.

Bedier is accused in the suit of having "misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers."

The suit accused Tilenius of recruiting Bedier, thereby breaking a contractual agreement with eBay. It also claims Bedier attempted to recruit former colleagues still at PayPal.

Ebay said PayPal and Google worked closely together for three years until this year on developing a commercial deal where PayPal would serve as a payment option for mobile application purchases on Google's Android phones.

It said Bedier was the senior PayPal executive leading and finalizing negotiations with Google on Android during this period.

It also claimed Bedier transferred up-to-date versions of documents outlining PayPal's mobile payment strategies to his non-PayPal computer just days before leaving PayPal for Google.

"By hiring Bedier, with his trade secret knowledge of PayPal's plans and understanding of Google's weaknesses as viewed by the industry leader (PayPal), Google bought the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of its own problems available," the suit said.

Google spokesman Aaron Zamost said the company had not yet received a copy of the complaint would not be able to comment until it has had a chance to review it.

Google and PayPal have done battle in the recent past in online payments via computers with the launch of Google Checkout in 2006, but Checkout has had a minimal impact on PayPal's market dominance.

The suit was filed at Superior Court of the State of California, county of Santa Clara, Case No: CV20l863.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke, additional reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr and Matt Driskill)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

PayPal sues Google over smartphone payment service (AP)

NEW YORK – PayPal says Google stole its ideas for a new service that is trying to turn smartphones into digital wallets.

The allegations emerged in a lawsuit filed Thursday in a California court after Google unveiled its mobile payment service in New York.

The complaint alleges Google lured away PayPal executive Osama Bedier earlier this year to obtain trade secrets that are now being used in Google's phone-as-a-wallet service.

Bedier, now Google's vice president of payments, was among those showing off the technology in New York.

The suit also alleges Bedier was interviewing for a job at Google while he was also handling negotiations for PayPal to handle sales in Google's application market for phones running on its Android software

PayPal is owned by eBay Inc.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

6 alternatives to Google Music Beta (Yahoo! News)

Google announced the Google Music Beta service during its recent I/O conference. Essentially, Google Music Beta will allow you to upload 20,000 of your songs to a virtual "locker," which you can access anywhere via the web or your Android device. Google Music Beta is already available to early testers who managed to score a beta invite (you can request a beta invite from Google if you want to check it out).

In addition to accessing your music, the service will carry your playlists and preferences everywhere you use it. The app caches your recently played music, so you can still access it without an internet connection, providing you at least some music if you happen to be offline.

While Google Music Beta is pretty exciting news, the cloud-based storage method won't necessarily appeal to everyone. Other options and competing services already exist across the internet, and you can use them now even without an invitation.

1. Amazon Cloud Player
The Amazon Cloud Player is the most direct competitor to Google Music Beta. The Amazon offering allows you to upload any kind of document to its Cloud Drive, providing a specific Cloud Player to let you listen to your music. Using the same storage space for both music and other types of files is obviously a pretty big benefit. On the drawbacks side, though, Amazon charges if your storage locker goes over 5GB, at a rate of about $1 per GB. The Amazon Cloud Drive has received pretty good reviews so far, although there's a bit of legal uproar because Amazon didn't secure licensing ahead of time.

2. Slacker Premium Radio
Slacker Premium Radio is a different approach to letting you stream music. With Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Drive, you're streaming your own music to your device; you've already purchased this music by other means. With Slacker Premium Radio, you're listening to Slacker's music collection, which might not have every song or artist you're after. The paid premium service is on-demand radio, letting you pick and choose your music.

The drawback to Slacker is that while you're only paying about $10 a month to listen to music, you still don't actually own it at all. Since you don't have a local copy of the tunes anywhere, you can't enjoy it without access to the internet.

3. Pandora
Pandora has been around for quite a few years, and it's still the standard for internet streaming music. Pandora is an internet radio site that builds its music "channels" from your musical preferences. You can skip music you don't want to listen to, although you can only skip so many songs at a time. You can create your own music channels, of course, usually based off favorite artists. You can even mix up your music channels and let Pandora surprise you with its own music selections. As you come across songs that you particularly like or dislike, rate them to help Pandora further refine your preferences.

4. Last.fm
Last.fm is fundamentally the same idea as Pandora; it's an internet radio station that bases its music selection on your preferences. It uses an app called the Scrobbler, which you download to your computer. The Scrobbler looks at the music you already own to figure out your music preferences and also tracks what you like and listen to for your own reference. Then, as you listen to music on Last.fm, the station pays attention to your music choices to further refine the songs you hear. You're not required to use the Scrobbler to get started, but it certainly makes setting up your account faster.

What separates Last.fm from Google Music Beta and even Pandora is that you can use the service to find local events. This is nice feature that lets you find nearby concerts that might be of interest.

5. Grooveshark
Grooveshark lets you upload music to the service and then share it with other people. At the same time, you can search other folks' uploads and check out their music. It is, simply put, a huge on-demand music sharing service. It's almost a little surprising that it's lasted this long, since this seems like the kind of model the music industry would attack with guns blazing.  All you need to set up your Grooveshark service is an email address. It offers a premium service, which allows you to access music without any pesky advertisements.

Grooveshark shares the same drawback as Last.fm and Pandora; since it's solely a streaming music service, you can't listen to anything if you don't have an internet connection.

6. YouTube
Folks usually don't think of YouTube as a streaming music service, but the reality is that many artists keep official music videos online with the service. Much to many music labels' chagrin, fans keep even more unofficial songs on YouTube.

If you take some time plugging through searches to finding music and videos that appeal to you, it's easy to build playlists of your favorite videos that serve as a "music video station." Your listening experience will occasionally be interrupted by advertisements, but that's common on streaming services nowadays.

Google Music Beta is pretty exciting; folks are lined up to get an invitation and try out the service. But there are already many streaming music options out there, including some ways to build your own, very specialized playlists. While there's a lot of buzz about the new entry into the streaming music arena, don't forget that there are already some great services operating right now.

Post by Michael Gray

More from Tecca:

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google, Facebook warn on Internet rules at e-G8 (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) – Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warned governments to tread lightly on Internet regulation because moves to tame its rough edges risked hurting its virtues.

At the conclusion of a two-day forum in Paris, their comments exposed deep rifts between tech titans, academics and policy makers even as they tried to agree on a message to take to world leaders at the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting on Thursday in Deauville, France.

With the forum, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was seeking to put his stamp on the debate over regulating the Internet and encouraging the digital economy during his one-year term as president for the G8.

Despite a glittering guest list, the event dubbed the eG8 ended up with few concrete policy recommendations and mostly vague conclusions that the delegation of six technology chief executives, including Schmidt and Zuckerberg, will present to leaders in Deauville on Thursday.

The outcome highlights the difficulty of finding a way to regulate the Internet that is acceptable to both governments and industry.

Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old entrepreneur who created the social network with 500 million users around the world, was greeted like a rock star during a question-and-answer session on Wednesday and praised for creating a tool that helped touch off democracy movements in the Arab world.

"People tell me on the one hand 'it's great you played such a big role in the Arab spring, but it's also kind of scary because you enable all this sharing and collect information on people'," said Zuckerberg, who was clad in a T-shirt and jeans.

"But it's hard to have one without the other .... You can't isolate some things you like about the Internet and control other things that you don't."

Schmidt sounded a similar note earlier when he told the assembly: "Technology will move faster than governments, so don't legislate before you understand the consequences."

The divisions on copyright proved too large to be bridged, as well as the question of how the burden of investing in telecommunications networks should be shared among telecom operators and the Web giants that rely on them.

At the final panel intended to finalize the message to the G8 leaders, Schmidt squared off with Vivendi CEO Jean Bernard Levy over copyright issues.

Levy, whose company puts out music and video games that are often pirated, said: "I don't think you can compromise on copyright. It's the right of the artist to decide how his work is used."

Schmidt shot back: "I would be opposed to any absolute statements. Copyright is not an absolute right; it is a shared right. Copyright in one form or another is a balance of interests."

Maurice Levy, chief executive of advertising firm Publicis, which is hosting the conference, said they didn't have to resolve the many debates over the Internet's future.

"We are not going to Deauville with a list of grievances or requirements," said Levy at the close of the forum. "We are going with the idea of sharing our points of view and to have an exchange with leaders."

(Additional reporting by Marie Mawad and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Richard Chang)

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Report: Google to unveil NFC push this week (Appolicious)

We’ve been aware of Google’s (GOOG) work to bring a new mobile technology into its Android operating system for a few months now, but reports are circulating that say the company is about to announce its whole near-field communication platform this week.

If you’re not up on your tech lingo, near-field communication is a type of technology that allows smartphones to send out limited signals and interact with other technology around them. The classic example is advertising: say you walk past a poster or a storefront, and on your smartphone, you receive a special offer. A small device in the area caught wind of your phone and the two things exchanged information.

Ads are one area that NFC technology has been mentioned, but the real push is in turning your smartphone into a credit card, or more aptly, into a digital wallet. Google is expected to announce a whole NFC arrangement that will allow Android device owners to store all kinds of information in their mobile devices and use them to pay for transactions in brick-and-mortar stores when they go out. All a smartphone owner would need to do is tap a phone against or wave it near a payment terminal, just like the ones that are used to scan credit and debit cards now, and the phone and terminal would work together to complete the transaction instantly.

According to a story from the Wall Street Journal, Google will be unveiling the details of its NFC program Thursday (May 26) at an even in New York City. Here’s a quote from that story:

“The program will launch first in New York, San Francisco, and potentially other locations, followed by a broader rollout, said a person familiar with the matter. Participating retailers include Macy's Inc., American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and the Subway fast-food chain, said a person familiar with the matter. Retailers that participate in the program will have upgraded terminals at the point of sale that can read the mobile devices and provide special offers.”

Google already has a lot of companies interested in NFC, so when it eventually does announce its platform, it should be pretty complete. MasterCard (MA) is on board and even conducted an NFC survey recently that found that 60 percent of smartphone owners would be comfortable using their phone to pay during transactions. VeriFone (PAY), the maker of those blue credit and debit card scanning terminals most of us interact with every day, also is working with Google and adding NFC technology to its new terminals.

The plan, according to the WSJ story, isn’t for Google to get a cut of these transactions for the use of the technology. Instead, Google wants the information NFC can provide for advertising. Using NFC for payments allows Google to compile a lot of data about shopping habits; who’s buying what, how much and how often, as well as finding which deals appeal to which customers and are most effective. The idea is that people using NFC to purchase things can then be catered to by businesses, providing them coupons they’ll use and tailoring sales to be highly effective.

The NFC digital wallet will also include things like loyalty cards, rewarding customers for patronizing businesses while giving them a leg up on their competition with the info they can get from Google. That’s actually fairly similar to a new service being rolled out by Square, another mobile payments company that allows businesses to turn tablets and smartphones into credit card readers for transactions. Square hopes to replace cash registers with iPads, making paying easier on buyers while gathering all kinds of useful information for sellers.

NFC won’t be just limited to transactions and advertising, but those areas are probably where it will be biggest. Going by the Wall Street Journal’s report, if Google really does announce its NFC platform Thursday, it sounds like the company is ready to roll it out to the public pretty much immediately.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google to debut new mobile payment service on Thursday (Yahoo! News)

After months of speculation, rumors, and teases, Bloomberg is reporting that Google will beat Apple to the punch and introduce a new mobile payment system on Thursday. The service will use near-field communication (NFC) technology, which uses special hardware inside of a mobile phone to make wireless transactions at stores equipped with NFC readers.

Google's new mobile payment option will reportedly be available exclusively to Sprint customers, at least at the start. The only smartphone on the U.S. market equipped with NFC technology is Google's Nexus S, which is available on both Sprint and T-Mobile. More phones with NFC capabilities are confirmed to be in the works, and there's even been talk of an upcoming iPhone model supporting the technology as well.

The service will reportedly launch in 5 cities at the start, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Chicago. No timetable was given on a further rollout, but that information may well be detailed when the service is officially announced on Thursday, so be sure to check back!

(Source)

More from Tecca:

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google Pet Peeves: From Gmail to YouTube (PC World)

Google is undoubtedly the Web's best resource for getting stuff done, but let's face it, it's not perfect.

A few weeks ago, my Gmail account was going crazy. My inbox appeared to be locked in a frozen state of "Still Working..." Then a Google search went haywire, thanks to a combination of a typo (my bad) and Google's auto-complete feature, coupled with Google Instant Search.

Sometimes I just want to kill Google dead. Here are my top pet peeves about Google, starting with Gmail.

Gmail Is Buggy

Almost everyone I know who has Gmail has complained about its unexplainable slowness. Gmail has been out of beta for two years now--following five years of beta status. Shouldn't Google have all the Gmail kinks ironed out by now?

I wonder, is there a Gmail Bermuda Triangle where e-mail gets lost? I frequently hear people complain of delays between the time e-mail is sent and when it arrives. Delays can be hours and sometimes up to a day. Occasionally, messages fail to show up at all.

Google does offer troubleshooting on delayed e-mails. But even after carefully reviewing Google's Q&As on the topic, it's still a mystery why Gmail sent to another Gmail user is delayed.

Other Gmail curiosities are the times the Gmail interface is grayed out for some unknown reason and file attachments are mysteriously renamed. According to Google, Gmail will rename your attachments to things as obtuse as "noname" if the file is spelled with nonstandard ASCII characters. Mystery solved!

Gmail Conversation View

Gmail's conversation view is nice...until you have 50-plus messages from different people in a single thread. When this happens, finding the one message you need is nearly impossible. PCWorld's Liane Cassavoy points out that Gmail's conversation view is akin to sweeping everything off of your desk and into a drawer--it makes your desktop (Inbox) look pretty, but your drawer (conversation) is still a huge mess.

Note: Yes, you can turn Conversation View off. See Liane's "Why I Hate Gmail's Conversation View ."

Gmail Viewing Limits

How come, when you search Gmail for something, you can view only 20 messages at a time? My inbox is set to let me view 100 messages at a time, but internal search results only appear in groups of 20 per page. Needless to say, this can be annoying if I'm trying to find that e-mail about the Las Vegas hotel I stayed in 10 months ago.

While I'm on the topic of message viewing limits, why does Gmail limit the inbox view to 100 messages at a time (you can choose 25, 50, or 100 at a time, but nothing higher)? Why not 150, or 200, or even 250?

Are You Sure You Want to Send That Without a Subject?

YES, GOOGLE, I'M SURE. I never use subject lines, much to the chagrin of my friends and family. Google appears to be on the side of my friends and family, because every time I try to send a subject-less e-mail it pops up an annoying notification: "Send message without a subject?" As far as I'm aware, there is no way to disable this.

Relevant Ads...in My Mail

Look, I'm all for relevant advertising. If I'm going to see ads anyway, why wouldn't I want to see ads that are relevant to me? But targeted advertising...in my Inbox? I know, I know; Google isn't reading my e-mail, and what is really happening is that some mindless Google machine is pairing keywords with ads. But ads based on private missives magnifies that icky lack-of-online-privacy feeling. Please, Google, keep out.

Instant Search Is On by Default

You can turn Google Instant Search off, but the default setting is that it's on. Does anyone really want to be interrupted with suggestions every time they type a letter into the search box? If people didn't have a pretty good idea of what they were looking for, they probably wouldn't be articulating it into a search box in the first place. Sure, some people like Instant Search...but my guess is that most people do not.

Can't Backspace Backward

Another Instant Search annoyance: If it's turned on, you can no longer go back one page by hitting the backspace key. Instead, when you hit the backspace key, you delete a letter--and you get a whole new Instant Search result.

Is it History or Is It Auto-Complete?

Google seems to use your personal search history and its general auto-complete function interchangeably. For example, how do I know if everyone is searching for my name, or if I'm just searching for my name every single day?

No Punctuation or Caps in Search

Google search is limited--it can't search for punctuation, nor can it search for terms using capital letters. Most searches don't require these parameters, so I don't think Google should default to searching by punctuation or capitalization. But it would be nice if there was an option for such searching. After all, how else are you going to find out about the band called !!!, or how to polish Polish floors?

Android 3.0's Gtalk

For some reason, my Android phone loves to sign me into Gtalk at random times. I end up getting signed in at 6 a.m., and then my editors wonder why I'm not answering their Gtalk messages at 10 a.m. (the answer--I'm asleep). I've taken to setting my Gtalk status to "Busy" before I go to bed, so if I get randomly signed in, people know I am busy...sleeping.

Google Buzz and Privacy

Let Google Buzz represent all Google privacy snafus--from data collection to Street View issues. I understand that Google is primarily a search engine, and search engines mainly collect data. However, Google's cavalier attitude toward user privacy--which was demonstrated by the whole Google Buzz fiasco--is just a little bothersome.

Japanese Is Not Chinese!

Tokyo, a lot of them ask where that is in China. This is annoying, but not nearly as annoying as Google Chrome displaying Japanese characters as Chinese characters. Sure, the characters are almost the same...but they're not the same. Because Tokyo is not a city in China.

Thanks to Sara Doi for the screenshots at left.

Forced Linking YouTube Account with Gmail

I am not a fan of the idea of a "single sign-in" to anything. After all, I want to maintain a few separate identities. To people who think this is fraud, just think of it this way: You (probably) don't take your grandmother to nightclubs, and you may even tell her you're a sweet little angel who doesn't frequent such bastions of sin. But because Google owns YouTube, it requires you link a Gmail account to your existing YouTube account.

Either Google needs to let me maintain separate accounts or Google Labs needs to come up with a "Damn it, my mom is on Facebook" filter for Google accounts.

SRSLY, We're Not Evil

Oh, really, Google? Here I was, just minding my own business, not even thinking about the state of your morality, and you run up and shove this whole "Don't Be Evil" motto in my face. That definitely reassures me that you are, in fact, not evil. It's kind of like how I used to tell my mom, "I didn't eat the last cookie!"

Face it Google, you may not be evil, but you can be very creepy--which by the laws of association is close to evil. I don't suggest that Google change its corporate motto. But I do suggest that Google rate its services on a sliding scale. How about from Benign to Getting Pretty Darn Close to Being Evil as a compromise?

I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

I Don't Hate Google

Don't get me wrong, Google has some great services with some great features, and I would probably be lost without it. But it's far from perfect.

What annoys you about Google? Add your comments below.

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Local Discovery: Google Hotpot merges with Google Places (Yahoo! News)

We told you about Google Hotpot back in November of last year, and the service has waffled somewhere between obscurity and popularity ever since. It was part of Google Places yet was also its own entity, and no one was quite sure what to make of it.

In the intervening months, however, the service has expanded to include a user base of millions using 47 different languages to rate, share, and discover local businesses. Then about a month ago, rumors started to percolate. Was the search engine giant abandoning its local discovery service? Say it ain't so! Was Hotpot lost in the maelstrom of the oversaturated market, as we hypothesized it might be?

Turns out, that's not the case. What happened to Hotpot? Apparently, it's not gone; on April 8, Google announced that Hotpot was "graduating" to become part of its core local product offering, Google Places.

What is Places?
Places is Google's entry into the local discovery engine market. The big difference between Places and, say, Geodelic or Where is pretty simple: While the others mostly use Google Maps to power their services, Places is Google. It has the full strength of Google's ubiquitous search engine, combined with its mapping and location capabilities and boundless user base. It also aggregates data from other services such as Yelp to broaden its information base.

With Places, users can search for, rate, and review local businesses and attractions in a simple, easy-to-use interface. Simply log in (there's no lengthy account creation process, just choose a username), enter a search term such as "restaurants," and Google will automatically show you a page full of options near you. You can see the average ratings from other users and choose your own on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. (There's also a Best Ever option, but we'll get to that in a bit.)

Give opinions, get recommendations
As you use Places, Google takes note of your opinions. What sorts of things do you tend to like? Are you a lively nightlife person or a quiet museum person? Do you prefer steak or sushi? Classic or modern? Cheap hair salons or high-fashion boutiques?

As it learns your tastes, Places will start making recommendations based on what it thinks you'll probably like. Since people's tastes tend to be similar to those of their friends, Places takes that into account and suggests things based on your friends' opinions as well.

Place cards give you details
Places' tiled interface is arranged in a series of Place cards, one for each business in the area you're searching. Each Place card contains a picture, the name of the business, information such as address and type of cuisine or other identifying factors, and an average rating. There are also options to save it for later or tell Places you're not interested. If you click on a business name, you'll be taken to its Place page, where you can read much more information and reviews.

If you've already been to a particular business and have an opinion, click on the stars to rate it. Once you've rated the business, the Place card will flip over, and you'll be able to share a review or tip.

Pick your Best Evers
As you're exploring and rating businesses, you'll notice a medal to the right of the rating stars. This is the Best Ever medal. Use it to note places you consider the absolute best in various categories. You may have been to a lot of excellent Tex-Mex restaurants, but this award should be used for the one you love above all others. You start with only 10 Best Ever medals to give out, so choose wisely!

Use Places across multiple platforms
Like Google itself, Places can be found just about everywhere. Not only can you access it via the Places website on your computer, but you can also visit the optimized-for-mobile website on your smartphone. And of course, there are also Places apps available for Android and iPhone.

There are a lot of mobile apps and websites out there to help you find, rate, and share information about the establishments you like, love, and loathe. Each has a somewhat different experience to offer, and Google Places definitely seems to be one of the stronger options. As with most services of this nature, it gets better the more people use it, so get out there and add your opinions!

[Image credits: Skistar Trysil, Insertinanename]

More from Tecca:

Yahoo! News

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google users become editors of the map of the United States

Google is allowing it's users to edit and add to the map of the United States. STORY HIGHLIGHTSGoogle Map Maker accepts user contributions and map editsThe Map Maker tool has been used in 183 countries and regions around the worldAnyone Google user can sign in and zoom in to a region to add a map point or draw an entityRELATED TOPICSGoogle MapsGoogle Inc.Science and Technology (Mashable) -- Nearly three years after first releasing Map Maker, Google is finally ready to let its users edit and add to the map of the United States.

Google Map Maker is a parallel version of Google Maps that accepts user contributions and map edits. When approved by moderators, edits are published to Google Maps and are pushed live to all users.

The Map Maker tool has been used in 183 countries and regions around the world, and users have been actively adding the next level of detail -- roads, universities, bike paths, pools and the like -- to their towns.

In 2008, roughly 15% of the world's population had online maps of their neighborhoods via Google Maps. Today, that percentage has jumped to 30% thanks to user contributions via Google Map Maker.

Tuesday, Google is making the entire United States map available for editing. The three-year wait, explains technology lead Lalitesh Katragadda, was due to two primary factors. Google chose to first make map editing available in parts of the world that needed detailed maps.

The company also wanted to ensure its moderation and editing processes could scale to meet higher demand. After all, he explains, the live version of Google Maps in the U.S. sees millions of visitors daily.

The processing of editing the U.S. map is not without its checks and balances. Anyone Google user can sign in and zoom in to a region to add a map point or draw an entity -- a newly constructed swimming pool, for instance.

Once an edit is saved, it is reviewed by a moderator and posted to the live version of Google Maps within seconds upon approval.

Google employs a hybrid moderation system to ensure the accuracy and quality of Maps edits. There's a small in-house moderation team, but most of the moderation is managed by power Map Maker users who have graduated to become a part of the moderating community.

"Users are best served by having complete details," says Katragadda. "The only way to get there is to have users doing it."

Google is also adding a few new features to Map Maker. Beginning Tuesday, Map Maker will integrate with Street View so users can use imagery to help guide their edits. Plus, there's now additional advanced search options.

Now that Google is giving us all the ability to become editors of the map of the United States, one can only hope that we wield our new digital cartography powers wisely.

© 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.

View the Original article

Charlie Chaplin gets birthday 'doodle' from Google

Google Doodle team member Mike Dutton portrays Charlie Chaplin in a tribute video posted on the site's search page. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Charlie Chaplin is commemorated with a Google "doodle" for his 122nd birthday
Honor for the iconic silent film star is the first time Google has done a video doodle
The short black-and-white film stars members of the Google Doodle team
(CNN) -- He's a comedy and cinema legend, a man still cited as an inspiration decades after his death.

And now, in honor of what would have been his 122nd birthday, Charlie Chaplin has inspired one of the most ambitious Google "doodles" ever.

On Friday, the space on Google's homepage that usually contains its multicolored logo instead featured a black-and-white YouTube tribute to Chaplin, whose birthday is Saturday.

The short "silent" film is Google's first-ever video doodle and was created with the help of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

"True pieces of art, Chaplin's films still feel fresh today even though some of them are nearly a century old," Ryan Germick, a member of Google's Doodle team, wrote on the company's official blog. "We hope that our homepage gets people talking about his work and the many virtues of silent film."

The project is the work of the Google Doodle team, which is devoted to sprucing up Google's plain search page with colorful images to commemorate holidays or other noteworthy dates or events.

For Google, doodles are oodles of fun

View the Original article

Ice Cream Sundae Google Doodle

Comments 0

Ice Cream Sundae Google Doodle prompts Android rumours
The Ice Cream Sundae was honoured with a Google Doodle today for its 119th anniversary, prompting speculation that the search giant’s code-named “Ice Cream” operating system may be released shortly.

The dessert, characterised by a syrup-drizzled scoop of vanilla ice cream with a wafer and cherry on top, is thought to have been created in 1892 when New York soda fountain proprietor Chester Platt served the dish to church minister John Scott.

Others believe the Sundae was invented after an ice cream truck collided with a syrup tanker.

View the Original article