Geek Smackdown! - Google mocks Bing and the stuff behind it

Google mocks Bing and the stuff behind it • The Register

Google gives a geeky bitch slap to Microsoft.

Google Wave - Game Changer?

Google Wave is their new product aimed squarely at the recent surge in social sites and also at communications. At its best, it could be a new paradigm of communication tools allowing real time communication, collaboration, and sharing. On the other hand, it might be an attack on social media sites and their concentration of power and reach.

While e-mail and even instant messaging are similar in basic operation to plain paper mail, Google Wave could start to branch out into capabilities and functionalities beyond that. The popularity of tools like IM, SMS, and Twitter show that people crave a quick, real-time platform to communicate. But aside from social communications, many practical uses would require documents for collaboration and group effort which are awkward with these traditional methods of communication.

Wave provides an integrated metaphor to handle these traditional methods while adding additional functionality and automation. In addition to having lightweight apps and widgets, Wave allows "robots" that can interact with the wave in predetermined ways. Robots can provide additional content by referencing existing content or pulling from other services for integration.

The other aspect of Wave is that it is going to be open sourced and distributed. This could be a way to build interoperating systems that would vie with the existing social media giants such as FaceBook and Twitter. Being based on Jabber's open XMPP protocol and with Google's promise to open source the project, Wave servers could spring up across the Internet working together and tearing down the walled gardens that tend to concentrate users in a few closed systems.

If Google Wave works as advertised, it could allow users to communicate and collaborate with their own self-determined identities without locking that content and communication on a proprietary system. A successful Wave could end the domination of closed systems that tend to hold the content and relationships hostage. This would be bad for FaceBook and Twitter, not to mention MySpace (who mentions them anymore anyway).

Official Google Blog: Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave.

About Google Wave

Google Wave: A Complete Guide

Twave: Google Wave + Twitter

Google Wave: What It Is And How It Works - PC World

Hadoop Sorts a Petabyte in 16.25 Hours and a Terabyte in 62 Seconds

Hadoop Sorts a Petabyte in 16.25 Hours and a Terabyte in 62 Seconds (Hadoop and Distributed Computing at Yahoo!)

That is some fast sorting. Damn impressive.

However, I think Google can compete and maybe beat those numbers.

Google uncloaks once-secret server

Google uncloaks once-secret server | Business Tech - CNET News

A nice article on Google's custom servers and datacanters. It is fascinating how they work with scale and innovate beyond current "best" practices. They do what makes sense and improve things where they can. Their scale makes every fraction of a percent a big deal.

I wonder if any of the traditional server vendors will begin to offer 12v battery options. I'm sure companies like APC don;t like to read hard numbers about per-server batteries being more efficient than external UPS's.

Is Google Really Using 21x The Bandwidth It Pays For? | Techdirt

Is Google Really Using 21x The Bandwidth It Pays For? | Techdirt

Good article discussing the lunacy of the telcos' anti-net neutrality arguments.  It boils down to one thing: they want to charge twice for the same thing.

And this makes a hat trick for Paul today, as I play catch up.

Official Gmail Blog: Really new in Labs this time: SMS Text Messaging for chat

Official Gmail Blog: Really new in Labs this time: SMS Text Messaging for chat

Nice feature for Gmail users (even if it does not support our carrier ... yet).

Useful Google Bookmarklets

Here are some Google bookmarklets that I have found and/or use. They are very useful at speeding up certain common operations while surfing from most any Javascript-compatible browser.

You should be able to drag the links to your browser's bookmark bar for easy access. once they're there, you can change the names of the bookmarks to whatever you prefer.

Do you have any others you like?


Subscribe in Google Reader

Google Bookmark

Cached Page Version

Blog Links

Web Links

Send URL via Gmail

Send to Googlebot for Indexing



References:

• Google System
• Blogoscoped
• Lifehacker

Google Does the Math

Google spotlights data center inner workings

It is fascinating to see how how Google can use logic instead of "industry standards" to design and maintain such a robust system. Where most companies will use conventional wisdom, Google does the math.

Their systems do not use off-the-shelf software, and they use mostly custom hardware. And they understand how it all works together, because they designed it that way.

Most outfits use the "nobody gets fired for buying IBM" mentality. They go with a conventional and safe choice rather than risk an analysis they will be responsible for.

Related material:

• Reality Check: What does Gartner really DO?
• IT Wars: When we fight over IT, nobody wins.

Google's New Gmail Code Solves Conflict with Safari 3.1

As we mentioned before, there was a painful conflict between the new Safari 3.1 and the older Gmail code (UI 1) still active for some users. Google is now pushing out the newer codebase, and it appears to solve the problem (at least for us).

As Google, says in their blog post:

How to access what's new:
Just sign in to Gmail. You'll know when you're in new version of Gmail when you see a link for "Older version" at the top right of the screen.

Links:
Gmail blog post - feature list


FYI-YMMV

Painful Conflict Between Safari 3.1 and Gmail (UI 1)

With the new release of Apple's Safari 3.1, it has become clear there is a conflict between it and Gmail for folks using version 1 of Gmail (which includes most Google Apps and some localized accounts). When trying to type in the rich text fields, the modifier keys cause the focus to change. Trying to type a capital "I" by pressing shift will cause the focus to leave the rich text field without every typing the "I".

To say this is annoying is a major understatement. It is maddening,

Workaround:
If you can, switch to the "new" version 2 Gmail. If the new version is not available, you might be able to switch from "rich text" to "plain text" to avoid the problem.

This has been a known issue through the development of Webkit, so I'm not sure how Apple and Google could have let this very annoying problem happen. Hopefully, they will get it fixed ASAP.

Google Finally Gives Us IMAP for Gmail

In addition to giving us ever-growing amounts of e-mail space, Google has finally added IMAP access to Gmail. I've been waiting for this, because POP access is really not enough, when you're accessing your e-mail from multiple locations. Now, you can make changes and see them reflected from all your different access methods.

Apple and Google Working Together

Wired

Rough Type - Bait

Cringely's Answer

Rough Type - Response


They discuss the possibilities of Apple and Google working on a front-end (Apple) and back-end (Google) solution where you have an intuitive consumer device that accesses Google's servers, storage, and services.

As a consumer, I like the idea. I loved the Newton and would love to see an elegant hand-held device that brings back those capabilities and augments them with access to Google's SaaS offerings.

But as much as I like the idea, I have trouble imagining a scenario where Apple and Google to put it all together. For it to make sense to Apple, they would need some level of exclusivity, something to draw people to the Mac, iPhone, and their other hardware products. But for Google, they would want the widest audience possible for their ads and services.

The only thing I can imagine working would be a case where Apple gets some time-limited exclusivity (maybe 6 months) and adds some Apple-exclusive features via integration with their operating system(s). Google might be willing to go this route, because it would give them a ramp-up period with a controlled number of users, and the service would get huge amounts of publicity by association with the juggernaut that is Apple.

What services would they offer? I think the obvious ones are what is already available: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, (a new version of) Picasa, and maybe things like Google Finance. The main problem with this scenario is ... .Mac . Apple already offers many of these services in one way or another. So, either Apple would need to replace .Mac with this Apple/Google service or they would need to add significant value for their customers.

Google Updates Picasa Uploader for iPhoto 08

Google has updated the Picasa Uploader plug-in for iPhoto 08. The previous work around of dragging photos was fairly easy, but it is nice to have an elegant, and integrated solution.

I saw it at Ars, here is the link to Google's Mac Blog for the announcement, and here is the link to download it.

How Google's Gphone and Apple's iPhone could change the cell industry

The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules | last100

It is interesting to consider how the creative entry by two companies from different industries might complete change the landscape in the cellular world. The cellular industry has become entrenched and lives off the (still) growing popularity of mobile phones, while they greedily try to create other outsized revenue streams.

If Apple can focus attention of the device and the elegance of the interface offered, we might see an improvement in phones that make it actually easy and intuitive to do the things they can do. Most cell phones now are painful to use for anything beyond basic functionality. But Apple has shown little interest in lower prices.

If Google can provide a phone completely or partially supported by ad revenue, we might begin to see improvement in price competition. Also, Google has a history of rolling features in for free and making their money from volume. Maybe this can help move the industry away from vendor lock-in and high prices.