New: Google Transit (Beta)

Plan trips using public transportation (currently in Portland only), via Google Transit

Google ToolBar Updated: Version 4

You can now store bookmarks in your Google account, and customize the toolbar much more than before. You can even see RSS feeds! Full details

Google Admits Flaws in Video Store

"We made a big mistake," said Mayer, who oversees all of Google's search products. "You can't come out and launch a product like Google Video and say 'CSI' and 'Survivor' are there if they're not on the home page."

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Google Maps: LA estimated drive time wildly inaccurate

Last night, I pulled up directions from my offices at Bundy and Wilshire to my destination near Robertson and Pico. The estimated drive time was supposedly a leisurely 10 minutes. The actual drive time? It was just over an hour.

Someone else says that the directions are not much good either. I suggest they move to city where computers can provide more accurate info... And free themselves from the LA tangle. More here

AdSense Editor for your PC

At the moment it is only available to some beta trialists. Appears to be just a quicker way of doing things (saves waiting for pages to load on the AdWords site).
More here.

Google.cn will be censored

Google will adhere to China's free-speech restrictions, in the same way as it hides Nazi propoganda from French and German users. More...

Google News: Out of Beta

A couple of new features mark Google News leaving beta. First, Google has introduced what it calls 'personalized news headlines' - by integrating Personalized Search into Google News, users can receive recommended news stories based on their past news searches and articles.

Also, there's a new section in the left-hand column, 'Most Popular', which shows the most popular recent stories in the Google News edition you are viewing.

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Google to offer paid analytics

Google is beefing up its analytics service with a paid offering from analytics and design firm Zaaz...

...Zaaz will provide a range of additional features--including accuracy audits, metrics scorecard creation, ROI monetization and forecasting, behavioral and competitive analysis, and site optimization.

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Google Video Store criticised

Inconsistency of product offerings, refunded purchases, complaints and poor reviews.

One day people will stop visiting or using anything labeled "beta".

Feds want to look at Google data

Federal prosecutors are trying to force Google Inc. to turn over user requests and website addresses stored in its massive Internet search engine to help the government defend a law protecting minors from online porn and other harmful material.

....Google has refused to cooperate in part because compliance would prove to be an "undue burden" and may reveal trade secrets, the government said in its filing.

I guess that is one of the downsides of being the keeper of all knowledge... More here

UPDATE: GOOG shares drop 9%

GOOG now a SELL

Only 2 analysts out of many, but previously everyone rated Google a buy... More.

Gmail gets a delete button (finally)

I find it extraordinary that Google took so long to provide this.

Although Google seems to think that keeping every single email is in everyone's best interest, using a dropdown box each time I wanted to delete an email was painful, and inflicting pain on your customers is a bad move.

Google Talk now interoperable with other Jabber-based VOIP clients

There's nothing nicer to see than a corporation participating in the open-source movement. As Linux as shown, there is room for profit-making and branding in the open-souce world, and it makes life much easier for consumers if everything inter-connects easily. More on this news here...

Solar Trees

It doesn't cost much to give a multi-billion-dollar company's customers and staff a warm fuzzy feeling. Google has installed solar panels in their car park, to "feed about 30 percent of the complex's power demand."

Solar panels are only verging on cost effectiveness at present, so I rate this purely as a public-relations exercise. Good on them!

More at Wired

Google buys radio ad company

Google has purchased dMarc Broadcasting Inc, a radio ad company for a total of $1.14 billion payable over the next three years.

Radio (and TV) ads can definitely run on the same model as Adwords:

1) Advertiser submits ad
2) Ad checked for quality & relevance
3) Advertiser bids for its ad to run, on a station, in a timeframe
4) The ads of the highest bidders run

This might lead to a boom in DIY ad-making software and budget services. And if ads are more random, or relevant, the viewers might have a better experience...

Kinda funny that, as NewsCorp goes internet, Google goes traditional :)

Motorola will Add Google Button

Motorola will integrate a Google button onto certain net-optimized handsets that will be distributed starting in the first quarter of 2006. More...

Google's experimental layout

Google has been testing having links to its different search types down the left side, rather than along the top. See here for a screenshot.

More Mobile Google Services

Google Talk on Blackberry

Google offers personal home page for mobile phones

Google Analytics Welcoming New Users (Slowly)

To get on the list, go here, and Google will let you know when you become a (free) customer

Yet another Google wannabe

"...a consortium of French and German techies are putting together Quaero, Europe's answer to Google".

In my experience it's the quiet achievers that make it, not those who make boasts of granduer before they actually have a product. More...

More on Google Video

- It marks the launch of Google's payment system
- It marks the launch of Google's DRM system
- Anyone can sell their video content, if they pay Google a few cents per upload

Anyone getting dizzy from Google's rate of acceleration and expansion?

Google Pack underwhelms

Several web commentators have no been impressed with the Google Pack, calling it a "ratbag package of software" and saying that it is "an embarrassment to the company".

I agree. Unless it is all Google-branded product, or all best-of-breed (RealPlayer is not), or all free (the anti-virus is not), then it is nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to see if their packing/updating system works, and, to see if people really do upload this package, just because it has the Google name.

Google's Software Pack Announced and Available

You can download it here: http://pack.google.com

Contents:

* Adobe Reader 7
* Ad-Aware SE Personal
* GalleryPlayer HD Images
* Google Desktop
* Google Earth
* Google Pack Screensaver
* Google Talk
* Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
* Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
* Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
* Picasa
* RealPlayer
* Trillian

My thoughts:

> Everyone who is net-savvy enough to hear of this pack and download it will already have Acrobat Reader

> I gave up on RealPlayer a long time ago. I choose alternatives to Microsoft whenever possible, but RealPlayer has always seemed to be bloated and ugly to me

> Norton Antivirus comes with a 6-month subscription for free - that's excellent, but then you have to pay, so having it as a part of a "free" package is a bit misleading. They could have chosen anti-virus software that was genuinely free...

> I think a package of purely Google products (or at least third-party products branded as Google) would have been a better move

Official: Google Video Store

From the official press release, and it is coming "soon":

...the Google Video Store, the first open video marketplace enabling consumers to buy and rent a wide range of video content from a major television network, a professional sports league, cable programmers, independent producers and film makers. This fast growing collection of videos will include prime-time and classic hits from CBS, a full slate of NBA games from this season and outstanding performances from the past, music videos from SONY BMG, Charlie Rose interviews as well as news and historical content from ITN and new titles being added everyday. More...

If people start paying $1.99 to watch this weeks episode of CSI at their leisure, on their laptop or iPod, then GOOG shares could keep going up & up!

Google software package & Pay-For-Video

To be announced by Google on Friday:

They plan to let consumers buy TV shows and other videos from its video-search service, using software called Google Pack.

The Google Pack is expected to include Firefox, Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe's Reader, RealPlayer, Trillian instant-messaging software and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware anti-spyware software, Google Earth, Picasa (Google's picture-managing program), Google Talk and Google Toolbar.

Sounds like the making of a great little package to include with a budget PC!

Lexar USB distributes Google applications

Lexar Media, Inc. is bringing Google applications directly to customers by including Picasa, Google Toolbar and Google Desktop Search applications on its line of USB flash drives.

More...

To PC or not to PC?

After many stories regarding Google being in negotiations with retailers to sell a Google PC, Google is denying it.

It is rare for a Google rumour to be totally without merit, so my guess is that the "GoogleBox" is real, but not a consumer PC. Perhaps something for businesses, similar to the Google Appliance, but with an advertising focus? Or maybe a media storage device?

But then again, this is unlikely to be made up:

Wyse President and CEO John Kish mentioned during a presentation at the Red Herring Fall 2005 conference last month that his company was in discussions with Google focusing on a $200 PC that would be targeted at developing markets such as China and India, part of Wyse's greater push to bring technology to such countries.

Trojan Attacks AdSense

A new Trojan horse is designed to produce forge Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan attempts to incorporate its ads in Google AdSense publishers program. Once installed, the Trojan horse downloads itself onto the computer and replaces the original ads with its own ads.

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Google sued over Internet phone calls

A small New York technology firm is suing search titan Google for up to $5 billion dollars for patent violation in the Internet telephony software used in Google Talk.

Jerry Weinberger, chief executive of Rates Technology Inc (RTI), said he was the inventor of software programming that allows telephone calls to be placed over the Internet.

He said 120 companies, including Lucent, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo and Microsoft, have paid RTI to use the technology for "Voice over Internet Protocol" (VoIP) calls.

"[Google] told us to go to hell," the RTI boss said. "They are the most arrogant company in the world."...

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