tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:11:55 +0000http://googlefan.com/news/noreply@blogger.com (Rob)Blogger603125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-8501864092442046437Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:51:00 +00002009-07-22T23:37:33.940+10:00Google AnswersgoatsAnything to get in the news, this time Google have hired goats to mow their lawn. What next, bikini babes washing cars?http://googlefan.com/news/2009/05/goats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-3735933187955027846Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:37:00 +00002009-07-09T04:43:21.541+10:00gmailCiting it as a hindrance to corporate uptake, while not citing anything that has changed that makes any difference... Google has dropped the beta tag from Gmail, Calendar, Talk & Docs.Showing they can still laugh at themselves, there is now a setting in Gmail that lets geeks restore the beta tag.http://googlefan.com/news/2009/07/beta-label-lifted-finally.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-5174355627400710679Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:17:00 +00002009-04-20T15:52:12.558+10:00google groupsspamI use Google Groups to follow discussions on the AdWords API, as do many other users of the API. For the last few days, every day, there have been 25 or so porn spam posts appearing. If it were a less serious group, maybe I'd have less reason to complain, but this is a discussion group hosted by a Google product, discussing a Google product, linked to from the official AdWords API blog, and all http://googlefan.com/news/2009/04/embarrassing-spam-in-groups.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-3212707299727004943Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:38:00 +00002009-03-23T12:41:50.024+11:00privacyOf course this only applies to those few who actually use Google's products, but I found it interesting that the blog post at e-Justice is titled 25 Surprising Things That Google Knows About You. It would be a much quicker read if they just called it Things That Google Doesn't Know About You (yet).http://googlefan.com/news/2009/03/what-doesnt-google-know-about-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-2510418005195927180Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:10:00 +00002009-03-05T23:24:40.921+11:00mapsdeerIt is one thing to hit a wild animal in your car, but something else to leave an reminder of the accident in Google Maps for the world to see:More at The Guardianhttp://googlefan.com/news/2009/03/google-car-hits-deer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-1998048110445038937Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:16:00 +00002009-02-25T07:50:53.508+11:00Valentine's Day: AdWords reporting was down for 10 or 11 hours.Feb 18: Google News had a variety of problems resulting in messages of "Please try again shortly. We apologize that this section is currently unavailable."Has Google run out of space or bandwidth? Do they have a virus? Have they fired too many key staff? Are interns in charge?Hopefully these two outages in the space of a few days are http://googlefan.com/news/2009/02/google-falling-apart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-975146641302833088Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:02:00 +00002009-02-13T20:07:21.710+11:00hotmailyahoo mailgmailHere are the latest figures:Gmail 29.6 million (unique visitors per month)Hotmail 43.5 millionYahoo 91 million However, Gmail has grown by 43% in the last year, whereas Hotmail have lost 5% of theirs. If that trend continues, Gmail will be the #2 provider in just over a year.Makes sense, it is by far the superior product.http://googlefan.com/news/2009/02/gmail-to-overtake-hotmail-real-soon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-8982463686199021204Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:20:00 +00002009-02-04T20:26:45.066+11:00Google NewsShowJust released by Google, a simple way to present ad-free news headlines to your website.Get the code here:http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/newsshow/wizard.htmlhttp://googlefan.com/news/2009/02/add-google-news-to-your-site.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-6317046695795940512Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:28:00 +00002009-01-28T20:41:49.424+11:00mapsimagessatelliteThis is the first image from Google's brand new satellite, which promises to provide Google Maps with the highest resolution they can legally show us (higher resolutions will be sold to government agencies).http://googlefan.com/news/2009/01/googles-new-image-satellite.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-3782955603795149350Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:50:00 +00002009-01-24T11:34:31.649+11:00Search for a single letter in Google, and these sites come up first. The interesting results are in bold:a = Links in HTML documents from www.w3.org.b = Physical Review B from aps.org.c = C (programming language from wikipedia.org.d = Physical Review D from aps.org.e = E! Entertainment Onlinef = Ford Motor Company Stock from Yahoo! Finance.g = Gmail from Google.h = Hydrogen from wikipedia.org.i =http://googlefan.com/news/2009/01/a-to-z-of-google-results.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-1864910983269083928Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:07:00 +00002009-01-19T10:11:06.449+11:00discontinuedGoogle has been doing this since the end of Google Answers - removing products that either lack popularity, didn't get to be fully developed, or lose money. Obviously this is a trade-off between pissing off the people that use it, and keeping their credibility intact, and pleasing shareholders.This week it was announced that these products are being discontinued, or no longer supported: * http://googlefan.com/news/2009/01/farewell-to-six-google-products.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-1041449101623541286Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:14:00 +00002009-01-13T15:22:07.473+11:00spamgmailhostingWatch out for this one, it ended up in my Gmail account, and I almost fell for it. As usual poor grammer is the giveaway. These phishers will have all you Google accounts if you sign in after following the link:Hello,Dear Gmail customerAfter our free email services we offer you to sing up for our free hosting services.This service currently is in beta test.And we choose you to test this services http://googlefan.com/news/2009/01/google-free-hosting-spam-in-gmail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-2198206807973961355Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:08:00 +00002009-01-11T16:19:25.122+11:00faviconYou've undoubtedly already noticed it, but do you like it? I don't and I didn't like the last one either... but maybe it will grow on me.The original, and the last one:The new one:Read the full story straight from Marissa Mayerhttp://googlefan.com/news/2009/01/new-favicon-for-google.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-4380120767920902109Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:18:00 +00002008-12-12T21:23:32.021+11:00popularAccording to Compete, Google.com gets 126 million unique visitors each month.Of Google's subdomains, images.google.com has 43 million, maps has 36 million, and mail has 24 million. The next most popular are video (surprisingly), books, picasa & groups. To see the full list, pop over to Slackerology.http://googlefan.com/news/2008/12/top-40-google-subdomains.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-6100117079568788806Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:47:00 +00002008-11-21T07:50:42.448+11:00newsfinanceThis week ads appeared at Google Finance. They've been running video ads at YouTube for a short while. And now Google say that ads will soon appear on Google News. This has been put off for a long time, because of fear of being sued - basically the content is not theirs, so they shouldn't profit from it.Although these things were always going to come to pass, perhaps the slump in the GOOG price http://googlefan.com/news/2008/11/more-google-ads.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-696194207656718352Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:06:00 +00002008-10-30T16:35:04.544+11:002001 actually. Google is letting us go back in time and do a search exactly how it would have been in 2001. If you had a #1 ranking back then, here's your chance to prove it. For everyone else, look up something modern (like the iPhone) and see how it magically didn't exist back then, or perhaps meant something different that today.http://www.google.com/search2001.htmlhttp://googlefan.com/news/2008/10/google-like-its-1999.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-3678234354160733100Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:25:00 +00002008-10-08T14:29:51.570+11:00gmaildrunkThe geniuses at Google have come up with an optional feature for Gmail - tell it when you are most likely to be drunk (ie Saturday night), and you will need to pass a sobriety test of sorts before you can send an email.I can imagine some folk getting very upset if they write a long email only to find they can't send it - perhaps have an option of quizzing you before you write it all... But then http://googlefan.com/news/2008/10/no-more-drunken-emails.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-6639390525724035023Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:54:00 +00002008-10-03T19:25:40.975+10:00micronationThe news said:"The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its Internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles offshore."An alert person has picked up on the possibility of Google forming their own off-shore micronation:It's true! This is smart, using the ocean to cool their "supercomputers" and stuff. But! Hmm! Just seven miles offshore, you say? Nowhttp://googlefan.com/news/2008/10/googles-sea-nation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-2030999126075387300Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:59:00 +00002008-09-22T10:04:06.043+10:00bloggersergey brinGoogle co-founder Sergey Brin has started writing a blog, and one presumes he will keep it up, so it might become an interesting read.His first post proper tells of how he is at risk of getting Parkinson's Disease, which nicely provides a plug for 23andMe, a genetic testing start-up firm co-founded by his wife and funded by Google.(The blog is called "Too" - and Sergey says that "this blog http://googlefan.com/news/2008/09/sergey-blogs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-4221518432196236679Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:40:00 +00002008-09-11T19:46:04.572+10:00seaCan't see it happening myself, can't see it being economically viable, but Google has filed a patent for placing server farms on barges in the ocean:The Google design incorporates the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter units, which use the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity and can be combined to form "wave farms." The largest existing project uses seven Pelamis units to generate http://googlefan.com/news/2008/09/aqua-google.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-3226055228136065218Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:18:00 +00002008-08-13T10:24:02.328+10:00gmailIt was only a 2 hour outage, but that's expensive for any business that depends on this service for their email. So Google have taken a rare (according to them) step of publicly apologizing.http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/we-feel-your-pain-and-were-sorry.htmlWell, a public apology would be a press release, something Google are quite adept at utilising. But this apology merely appeared in http://googlefan.com/news/2008/08/google-apologizes-for-gmail-downtime.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-6805840147153610638Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:52:00 +00002008-08-05T10:10:18.395+10:00street viewYou can see it here:http://maps.google.com.au/help/maps/streetview/All capital cities, most coastal cities and many regional & outback towns are covered but there are a few notable omissions, like Uluru. My home is there, and it works well.There are still privacy concerns, but these have been lessened following the introduction of technology that can blur faces and number plates.http://googlefan.com/news/2008/08/street-view-australia-launched.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-8308380224531926266Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:14:00 +00002008-07-18T08:17:00.716+10:00hubrisMore of these can be found at a post on 2012 Forum.http://googlefan.com/news/2008/07/if-google-ruled-world.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-2394343872218132553Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:40:00 +00002008-07-14T09:53:48.644+10:00swastikaA new method for gaming Google results has emerged. At some point on Thursday, a member of 4chan's "b" channel posted a simple two-part instruction. First, Google "卐". Second, enjoy.This had the double effect of getting the search query into Hot Trends, and also showing a symbol instead of words. Very clever indeed.While not having the same long-term implications of Google bombing - which http://googlefan.com/news/2008/07/swastika-tops-google-hot-trends.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15812141.post-6625630047077878750Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:05:00 +00002008-07-07T13:53:44.435+10:00ebayNot too long after attacking eBay in public, Google have done it again, hoping to be anonymous, but actually not:...one 38 page document that is squarely opposed to the actions of eBay was filed anonymously. Unfortunately for Google, David Bromage was smart enough to look through the document’s meta data. He found that the title of the original document[pdf] was “Microsoft Word - 204481916_1_ACCChttp://googlefan.com/news/2008/07/anti-ebay-anonymous-submission-not-anon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rob)0