Archive for the 'Google' Category

Flickr to do video too

Published March 20, 2008 Google , Internet , news , photography , videos , web 2.0 , youtube Leave a Comment

I use Flickr quite a bit to post what I perceive as some of my best photographs to the site, so it is with bewilderment that I hear that Flickr is to launch a beta version of a video sharing service next month.

Yahoo! owns Flickr and I can understand that they would like to take away some of the market share Google currently experiences with its video-sharing service, YouTube.

Frankly I would like Flickr to remain a pure photography site, adding video just ruins that experience, doesn’t it?  I have various websites I use before going elsewhere: YouTube for videos, Flickr for photographs, Smaps for mapping in New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald for news, etc, etc.

Change comes when a service you use can no longer fulfill a need and the other website can and then some. I’m not about to change anytime soon.

Let me go offline

Published February 26, 2008 Google , Internet 1 Comment
Tags: ,

While the EEE PC is geared and optimised towards the Internet, I can’t exactly use it’s primary purpose when I am out and about. There’s the problem.

I use Google Docs quite a bit, so it would be quite handy for me if I was working on a laptop (like the EEE PC, which I want to get) and that I could edit a document offline, then the next time I connected to the Internet, it would automatically synchronise everything.

Would be very handy for those who travel and doesn’t always have access to an Internet connection.

Or how about letting me download all my emails (Gmail) and RSS feeds and then if I go offline all of sudden, letting me still read and reply to those emails. Once the Internet has been restored all messages are sent.

I realise that Google Reader (which I use) has an option to download RSS feeds for offline use, but how about doing it in the background automatically (turned off by default though, of course).

If and when I get a laptop all I want from it is virtually the same functionality as I get from my desktop, but with the ability to move it around and still work on it when I am offline. Is that too much to ask?

Wikipedia to fail in 2008?

Published January 3, 2008 Google , news , wiki , wikipedia 2 Comments
Tags:

New Scientist has come out and listed the five technology companies that are going to fail this year (’08). Number two has been listed as Wikipedia.

Wikipedia was listed as number two because of a ‘fight between Google and Wikimedia’.

Quote:

Wikipedia. The gloves are off in a pointless battle between two of the most successful internet organisations of the last decade: Wikimedia, the parent organisation behind Wikipedia and Google. Last year, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that the organisation was starting work on an open source search engine to which anyone could contribute. The goals, he said, were to make the search algorithm transparent (a clear dig at Google’s notorious secrecy) and to make the results more relevant.

Google responded in December by announcing of Google Knol, [see my Google Knol post here] a barely disguised rip-off of Wikipedia, in which knowledgeable people are encouraged to write articles about their areas of expertise.

Neither organisation really needs to take on the other, so it’s hard to fathom what this is all about. The outcome is easier to call, however.

When it comes to launching online endeavours, we all know that Google gives good web and has numerous successful progeny to prove it. Wikimedia, on other hand, is a one-hit wonder. Its other websites such as Wikinews and Wikibooks are poor cousins to Wikipedia.

So there’s only going to be one winner in this contest, and it ain’t Wikipedia.

See the blog post at New Scientist for the other companies that are supposedly set to fail, which ironically includes Google despite the above reasoning for Wikipedia.

Groan: here comes another competitor to Wikipedia

Published December 16, 2007 creative commons , Google , Internet , news , wiki , wikipedia 1 Comment
Tags:

Google has started their own product to rival the hugely popular free encyclopaedia, Wikipedia.

What they have dubbed “knol” will be written by “experts”; now where have I heard that before… (cough* Citizendium *cough)? Their little units of knowledge will take precedent when searching for particular items of topic over, say, Wikipedia.

They are going to lock the editing of the entries to their approved authors and will only allow the public to suggest changes, etc. But with this you would have thought you could trust what is being written. However, on the Google Blog they wrote this: “Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content.” [Their emphasis.]

Ahh but it gets worse, they are going to completely contrast with Wikipedia by allowing the authors to put in their own opinions and point of views. Wow, “smart” people thought that one up! Jeez!

Oh, and the content will also be influenced by advertisers! “At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. […] Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.” I don’t expect anything bad to come from that advertorial decision!

And expect to wade through a few entries on the same topic, “Competition of ideas is a good thing.”

And their sample doesn’t overly help the idea as well. Did anyone else spot the spelling mistake on the second line? I’m not saying that Wikipedia doesn’t have spelling mistakes, but for a sample, Google should have been more careful.

At least their site will be under a Creative Commons licence.

Hat tip: Brian Anderton.

I love to Google myself, but this is going too far

Published November 9, 2007 Google , humour , Internet Leave a Comment

For those who love to Google their name, like myself, there is now a Google Ring to show off how many other people do; or the count of how many times you have done it, if you are unpopular.

The VanityRing shows how many searches people have conducted for the particular search term, your name.

Now I love to Google my name, and looking at all those beautiful results that come up! But I would never get this, because I don’t wear rings and furthermore do I need another excuse to be labelled a geek?

Woah Gmail, slow down!

Published October 18, 2007 Google , Internet 3 Comments
Tags: ,

I’ve recently experienced a spike in the amount of Gmail space. Just a few short days ago I was riding at around 19% space used, but now it is about 15%.

Quite a sharp drop for only a few days while the amount of emails I recieve each day has remained around the same average.

The amount of storage space Gmail now offers all up is (at time of publishing): 3599 MB.

Has anyone else experienced this sudden increase of storage?

Google joins in the election

Published October 17, 2007 Google , Internet , youtube Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

Well the electioneering for the 2007 Austrailan Elections is starting and in the excitement, Google has joined in the fight. Google has set up it’s own site with the latest election news, YouTube videos from the politicians and their party’s and a Google election channel as well.

http://www.google.com.au/election2007/.

Google gets a flight simulator

Published September 4, 2007 Google , humour Leave a Comment

Google Earth apparently has a flight simulator [hattip link] built into it. This is the craziest thing I have heard in a while!

If you push the key combination CTRL + ALT + A (PC) or COMMAND + OPTION + A (Mac), you go into the flight mode and are able to choose from two different planes to fly. For us New Zealanders out there you can takeoff from the Wellington and Christchurch airports.

One of my friends has confirmed to me that it indeed works; despite him being bad at it as the controls can be tricky.

Google has ‘hidden’ documentation on this on their website.

Power to the people

Published September 1, 2007 Google , news , youtube Leave a Comment

Another criminal has been caught with the power of social media. A teenager in London was filmed driving around 220 k/ph with the footage being uploaded onto YouTube – by himself.

The 19-year-old teenager, driving a Ford Escort, was driving on the A76 single-carriageway road in southwest Scotland with his behaviour being described by Sergeant Scott McLachlan, from the Roads Policing Unit at Dumfries and Galloway police, as “completely foolish behaviour.”

This is similar in some ways to the New Zealander who was identified on Google-owned YouTube stealing a laptop from a computer store.

Thais are able to mock King once again

Published August 31, 2007 Google , news 5 Comments

Source: Wikinews.

YouTube videos could once again be viewed today in Thailand, nearly six months after the [Google-owned] video-sharing website was blocked for hosting a video that showed images deemed offensive to Thailand’s monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said the ministry unblocked YouTube after the website said it had developed ways to block Thailand viewers from seeing contents that violate Thai laws.

In April, YouTube was blocked in Thailand after a video was uploaded that showed graffiti scrawled over the king’s face, and feet being placed over the king’s face; both highly offensive acts in Thai culture. Against the king, the offense is known as lèse majesté, a crime that can carry severe penalties.

Sitthichai told The Nation newspaper that the unblocking of YouTube is not in responce to an apology by the video’s uploader issued in May.

So when will the entire Internet be free to everyone anywhere, and not censored in any way or form?

About me

I write at Wikinews, and Practical eCommerce. I thoroughly enjoy writing about news and current affairs. I also have a TV related blog at Throng.

Support free media, donate to Wikinews!

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License.

The Ubuntu Counter Project - user number # 14890

Archives

My Flickr photographs

Avondale Red ZoneWide-eyed seal pupSeal pupSeal pup playing in water
More Photos
Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started