Google's Project Glass

I can talk to my Samsung Nexus (Google) phone and have it convert my speech to text. I have Google Goggles app which allows me to point my phone's camera at objects and returns relevant information about those objects. It has Google Maps and turn by turn navigation... however, I have to carry it in my pocket or walk around with my head down risking life and limb. 

Today some Googlers posted Project Glass to Google+ "So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do." 

I'm loving it! While it's not yet real, that I know of, it's everything that I carry around today in a stylish heads up display. My only concern is that I wear prescription glasses that don't look quite as cool as the Project Glass concept, I hope they come out with a version that is equally as cool for those of us who are optically challenged.

Galaxy Nexus With Ice Cream Sandwich

Is it a pure coincidence that my first gen Android phone (htc dream / g1) is experiencing battery issues right now? I mean, I love this phone and while I know it's a bit old school right now, it has been 'old faithful'. Even given the opportunity to upgrade I choose to pass the Samsung Galaxy on to my wife while I hung on to my dream. Of late however, I've been experiencing some battery issues that have caused me to think that in the world of mobile 2+ years is a long time. And now this:





Coming to Rogers I hope!

Google Serves Notice... Upgrade Your Browser

In order to push the agenda on HTML5 and cloud computing, Google has decided that it will no longer support older versions of your favourite browser, what ever that may be. In a statement on The Official gmail blog Venkat Panchapakesan, Vice President of Engineering at Google, said yesterday that "...Google Apps will only support modern browsers. Beginning August 1st, we’ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis."

This, in my opinion, is a good thing. Hopefully it will encourage internet users to stay up to date with their software updates and provide developers with a stable road map upon which to plan the development and support of their applications. Of course it also pushes the Google agenda but I've seen far to many users out there still running IE 6!

Google Helps Plan Your Flights

Google's Inside Search blog has revealed a new search feature that can help make your travel plans a whole lot easier. With Google's new flight schedule feature you need only enter your query into Google search and, if your airport is covered, will be rewarded with the available flights covering your departure and arrival locations. For example, enter "flights from Halifax to Boston" in the Google search field and you'll be presented with the following:

Expand the results and you'll see:

It works very well for major regional airports but less so for smaller local centers where there are fewer direct flights. I think the key here is that it is selecting nonstop flights and not considering connecting flights, at least at the moment. Even so, a quick search can provide you with a lot of visibility into what is available and a few queries strung together will likely give you what you need for planning purposes. Of course seat availability and pricing information is not provided but I'd suggest googling before you hit your favorite travel site so you'll at least know your options of times and carriers.

Google Brings Voice Recognition To Your Browser

If you are willing to give Google Chrome 11 beta release or the current version of Google Chrome Canary build a try you'll find an interesting little piece of functionality supported. Using either of these browsers, a microphone, and some html 5 code embedded in Google's translations page you can dictate the word(s) or phrase that you wish to be translated. No joke... it works well too!

Simply look for the microphone icon in the lower right side of the input text box and click on it, you must have your mic on of course and you are only afforded a few seconds to input your command. If you want to play around a bit you can also go to the sandbox app created by Google. A headset mic might work best but my testing with a desktop mic has produced good results.

Open Comes At A Price For Google And Android In China

Here is an interesting little article that I came across this morning. It seems that 80% of all Android based smart phones in China will be shipped with Baidu, and not Google, as their default search engine. Fact is that being an open platform allows manufacturers to make changes and in China that means no Google for you!

China is a huge market as we all know but it is also one that Google has had it's challenges with as government censorship and heavy handed policies have not been kind to the search giant. In fact, in March of 2010 Google.cn (China) started to redirect all of it's search queries to Google.com.hk (Hong Kong) after much debate over the blockage of YouTube and allegations of Chinese hacking. See Wikipedia's Google China page.

I wonder just how much business Apple does in China and what that represents when comparing authentic Apple product to counterfeits or knock-offs? 

Google Launches Messages For Japan Site To Convey Solidarity

Over the course of the past month since the massive earthquake and tsunami caused unthinkable damage, loss of life, and continued concern by the global community for the people of Japan, Google has bore witness to countless messages of hope and prayer for the residents of the battered island nation. In order to aid people of other nations in sending their condolences and support, Google has unveiled messagesforjapan.com which will translate any language into Japanese, provides a single communication point, and an opportunity to aid in the rebuilding efforts through financial contributions.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Google Patent Bid Chosen By Nortel As Starting Point

Former Canadian Tech Giant Nortel, now in bankruptcy, has selected Google's $900 million bid for it's patent portfolio as the “stalking-horse bid," or the starting point at which other bids will be measured during the auction of the portfolio.

Kent Walker, Senior Vice President & General Counsel for Google posted on the Official Google Blog that the bid is an attempt by Google, "... a relatively young company..." to build it's patent portfolio because "... a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services."

Mr. Walker points to Google's stand on patent reform "...which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole."

Gmail Motion! Stay In Shape While Sending Email

It's time for Google to unveil another great new program, and what an awesome one it is! Check it out, now you can control gmail with your body:

Beyond the incredible technological advancements there are only a few easy moves required to learn and you'll have the side benefit of getting in shape while you send and read your mail. 

By the way Google, I'm still not happy about be overlooked for the Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.)  program in 2007!

Google, Facebook, and Others Rumored To Be Shopping For Twitter

According to the Globe and Mail, Google Inc., Facebook Inc., and other interested parties are conducting low level talks with Twitter regarding an acquisition. These talks are said to give Twitter a street value of about $10-billion, nearly 3 times the valuation placed on the company when it raised $200-million in investor capital in December.

Citing a Wall Street Journal report the Globe and Mail say: 

Despite the valuation, the report said Twitter’s executives and board were working on building a large, independent company.

“People familiar with the situation said the company believes it can grow into a $100-billion company,” the WSJ said.

Regardless of the valuation I'd rather see Twitter go solo, or at least not sell out to Facebook! Unfortunately I don't have any say in the matter, and the guys with the money will usually come out on top in these things.

Google Hotpot Unleashed World Wide

Google is bringing Hotpot, it's new recommendation service, to the world after a limited release back in November. Hotpot basically allows you to rate restaurants, cafes, hotels and the like so that when you or your friends are searching for such venues Google can provide "trusted" results. The Google special sauce is based on your likes, your friends likes or properties that are similar to those that you or your trusty friends like. Access to the service is made available via the web (google.com/hotpot), google maps (maps.google.com), or your android phone.

Keep an eye out for those Unicorns!

Google And Twitter Team Up For Egypt

According to The Official Google Blog Google, Twitter, and SayNow (a Google acquired company) have worked together to get a new voice to Twitter service up and running for the folks in Egypt. With the Mubarak regime taking down internet access and cellular service in an attempt to quell protester organization through social sites, the companies felt compelled to do something to help the people of Egypt.

We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

Kudos to these tech giants for putting their collective heads together for such an important global cause, in such a timely fashion!

Kudos to these tech giants for putting their heads together and doing something quickly to aid in tis cause!

Wanting To Get Back To It's Roots Google Turns To Page

Google has announced that chief executive Eric Schmidt will be returning the position to co-founder Larry Page whom he had taken the reigns from a decade ago. Schmidt will remain executive chairman of Google that has grown from a pre IPO valuation of $27 billion to $200 billion at markets close yesterday. The handover will happen in April.

“One of the primary goals I have is to get Google to be a big company that has the nimbleness and soul and passion and speed of a start-up,” said Mr. Page in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Eric Schmidt wrote in a twitter post: “Day-to-day adult supervision is no longer needed.”

Google, it seems has become less agile and less attractive to first string engineers and executives while Facebook and Twitter have become the places to work and have threatened growth at Google. I have to say, speaking from experience, that work at a startup is far superior to getting bogged down in stagnant products and the bureaucratic thinking that seems to take over as companies grow and age. No doubt, Mr. Page has gained a great deal of education observing Mr. Schmidt over the years and I'm betting that we see some new and exciting things from Google.  

More Goodies From Google!

Google to the rescue once again. This Google fan boy applauds the fact that Google is serving up some more great stuff with word from the Official Google Blog that a new notification is being delivered with your search results. 

"We've added new notifications to the results page to warn you when sites may have been compromised, spammed or defaced. We use a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of hacking as quickly as possible, and if we detect any of these we add a new notice right beneath the result title line, “This site may be compromised.” In addition to protecting users, these notices will also help webmasters more quickly discover when someone is abusing their sites. You can learn more in our Help Center article and our webmaster blog post."

The results will look something like this:

Thanks Google!

Facebook To Announce Gmail Rival?

Facebook is hosting a "special event" today in San Francisco, and much of the speculation is pointing to an e-mail service to compete with Google's Gmail. The two companies have been at odds lately with Google banning Facebook from importing G-mail users contact lists after Facebook refused to allow the export of it's user's friends and contacts.

According to TechCrunch Facebook's new project codenamed "Project Titan" is being called the "Gmail killer".

With so little regard for personal data Facebook will not be my choice of web based mail providers, Gmail is quite simply the best. That said, with half a billion users Facebook is bound to get the less technical amongst them to drink the kool-ade and jump on board. 

Source: BBC

Urban Transportation Without The Congestion - Sweeb

In 2008 Google announced  it's Project 10^100 to fund innovative research aimed at world changing ideas and promptly received more than 150,000 categories from the public for which to consider funding. In September of this year Google Inc. announced an investment of $1,000,000 USD in a project/product named Shweeb, to assist with transit research and development.

Shweeb is a derivation of a German word "schweben", meaning to "float" or "suspend". As the tale goes, Shweeb's inventor Geoffrey Banett was living in Tokyo in the late 90's and found it extremely frustrating and unsafe to ride his bicycle to work each day. The English teacher's students also expressed their concerns and planted the seed for the development of Shweeb. Currently deployed at an adventure park in New Zealand Barnett plans to announce shortly where the first practical implementation as a public transportation system will take place. 

"Although it is pedal-powered like a bicycle, it's got none of the resistances that are inherent in a bicycle, being that you're riding feet-first into the wind with a very small frontal area," he said. "The wind resistance is really low compared to a bicycle. ... I can see people of any age and any fitness level being able to cover a kilometer [0.62 miles] without any effort at all, let alone sweat."

Source: CNN & shweeb.com

Google Makes Investment In Off Shore Wind Farm

The Official Google Blog has announced an investment by the company in a backbone transmission project off of the mid-Atlantic. 

When built out, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone will stretch 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines. That’s equivalent to 60% of the wind energy that was installed in the entire country last year and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households.

Besides the environmental advantages of off shore wind energy, Google says the project makes good business sense as well and is "... investing 37.5% of the equity in this initial development stage, with the goal of obtaining all the necessary approvals to finance and begin constructing the line. Although the development stage requires only a small part of the total estimated project budget, it represents a critical stage for the project."

There certainly is ample wind off the east coast, and by locating the turbines offshore, in relatively shallow waters, the producers should not meet the same objections that land based wind farms do regarding noise and health affects to local residents. The turbines will supply power to the strongest land based grids along the coast via under water cables. At 1.9 million households it's still but a drop in the bucket, but it's a great start.

Google's Johny Cab

Drawing on the immense computing power of Google's server farms, the search giant has been quietly testing  self driving cars with the aim of aiding mankind according to the Official Google Blog. 

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half. We’re also confident that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow."

In order to accomplish it's goal Google has enlisted help from several leading participants in the field including "...some of the very best engineers from the DARPA Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. Government. Chris Urmson was the technical team leader of the CMU team that won the 2007 Urban Challenge. Mike Montemerlo was the software lead for the Stanford team that won the 2005 Grand Challenge. Also on the team is Anthony Levandowski, who built the world’s first autonomous motorcycle that participated in a DARPA Grand Challenge, and who also built a modified Prius that delivered pizza without a person inside." 

Here is a small video clip from the NYTimes article:  

Note that there is an occupant in the driver's seat who is a specially trained driver to man the controls in the event of a system failure, and a software engineer in the passenger seat who monitors the software. Google says that their major concern in the experiment was safety and that they had worked with local law enforcement on all test drives. The test drives where apparently scouted first by manned vehicles that mapped the route and noted road conditions. 

Google Open-sources Liquid Galaxies

The engineers at Google put together a great traveling road show that they dubbed Liquid Galaxies. It's a series of 8 55" LCDs that are synchronized to display a field of vision type immersible experience with Google Earth. The panels are arranged around the user to encircle them and cover their entire field of vision. A 3D joystick allows the user to navigate from outer space to under the oceans and through cities and countryside alike. Knowing that only a select few would be able to visit Liquid Galaxies at trade shows or in the Google complex, the company has "decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames."

It will still require some technical know how, but if you are so inclined (and have 8 55" lcd's kicking around) you too can bring Liquid Galaxies to life! I'm salivating just thinking of it... but then again that's just me. If only I had 7 more tv's...

Welcome Back Banner Ads

Google wants the world to know that it's not only about search ads anymore. The company is in the midst of a campaign called "Watch This Space" to let advertisers and investors know that it is also in the display ad business, erecting an interactive digital billboard in the center of Manhattan to get the message out. Display ads take many forms online including ads of different sizes that combine images, text, audio, video and animation. (Google also includes text ads that appear on Web sites other than search results pages as display ads.)

With it's share value down a reported 17% this year, the company is trying to convince investors that the ever more competitive search ad market is not it's only revenue generator. “One of the ways we could express our confidence in the space is to run what is primarily a display advertising campaign around our investment in the business and what our potential is,” said Neal Mohan, the vice president of product management responsible for Google’s display advertising products.

Source: NY Times