Back in May of 2007, I reviewed GrandCentral–a service that provides a virtual phone number with a seemingly limitless bag of tricks–for Slate. My verdict was mixed. But GrandCentral passed one important test: Sixteen months later, I’m still using it. In fact, I’m using it as Technologizer’s business line at the moment: It’ll ring my call phone or any other phone I want, lets me screen calls, and includes slick Web-based voicemail. Did I mention it’s free?
Tag Archives | Google
Gotta Love Google
It’s put Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear on its logo:
Why? Because October 13th is Paddington’s fiftieth birthday. Millions of people will see him when they Google on Monday–and as a Paddington fan for around 36 of his fifty years, I’m tickled by that fact…
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If Yahoo and AOL Merge, Will Microsoft Reconsider?
The latest reports across the blogosphere seem to indicate that acquisition talks between Yahoo and AOL are intensifying, and a deal could possibly come as soon as this month. Under the current proposals, it appears that Yahoo would purchase just about all of AOL save for its ISP business.
That portion of the company would likely be sold off to a company such as EarthLink, which back in July expressed interest in such a deal. Yahoo would have no use for the Internet access portion of AOL: it currently has no ISP business and prefers to align itself with other companies to promote its core search and Web services.
A combined company may look very attractive once again to Microsoft, even though it has repeatedly said publicly that it has no longer any interest in Yahoo. In addition to its attempts to merge with Yahoo, the Redmond company as recently as late 2005 attempted to cozy up to AOL and get its then-MSN Search as the default search for its customers. Those plans backfired, and Google took a five percent stake in AOL.
With Yahoo and AOL together, it could make good strategic sense for Microsoft to come to the bargaining table once more. As VentureBeat pointed out last month, all three companies are desperate to do some type of deal, all for different reasons.
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The Trouble(s) With Google Chrome’s Security
It’s been more than a month since Google Chrome first hit our desktops. The blogosphere is still pondering its features and performance, and making predictions about Google’s future in the browser business. But amidst all of the commentary about Google’s latest venture, very few have taken the time to examine the new browser’s security. Browser-based attacks in the form of phishing expeditions, cross-site scripting, plug-in exploits, and other techniques should give even the most tech savvy among us pause when considering which browser to make the workhorse of our daily online activities. A significant number of users have chosen Chrome–but the security measures Google has implemented in Chrome are subpar for a modern browser.
There are many simple steps that Chrome could take to further protect its users. To be fair, many of the complaints I have could also be directed at Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari, so I’ve decided to break things down into a feature-by-feature comparison.
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The New Ask.com: A Little Less Distinctive
I really liked the new version of Ask.com that arrived back in June of 2007–in part because it was so clearly not Google or a shameless Google wannabee. That version sported a three-pane interface that divvied results up into discrete sections for Web pages, news, images, video, and more. It was a strikingly different approach than Google’s Universal Search, which weaves results of all sorts into one list.
It would seem that consumers didn’t greet a radically different Ask.com as warmly as I did–Comscore data for August 2008 shows Ask with 4.5 percent of the search market, down from 5 percent in May 2007, right before that redesign. Fifteen months later, Ask has released another new version, and it’s dumped the divvied-results feature in favor of something that looks a lot more like Google, previous versions of Ask, and most every other search engine on the planet.
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Time Travel via Google
Here’s the most entertaining thing Google has ever done to celebrate its birthday: In honor of its tenth anniverary, it’s created a special search engine that uses a old version of the Google index to take you back in time.
The time in question is January 2001, not 1998–that’s the earliest version of the index that’s still usable, Google says, and it’s not exactly the index as it stood then. And it’s a bit anachronistic: It uses the original Google logo that the company had already given up by then, and has type-ahead Google Suggest search results, a feature that Google only rolled out recently. In some cases, the links lead to 2001-era content (Google worked with the Internet Archive) but in most cases they don’t. And for some reason, there’s no “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, without which Google doesn’t feel completely like itself.
But it’s still hugely entertaining, and it makes you realize that early 2001 was actually…kind of a long time ago.
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Technologizer is on Google News
Here’s some news I’m pretty tickled about: Stories from Technologizer now appear in Google News. (Unlike other Google search services, Google News isn’t trying to index everything, just sources it believes to be professional and credible–only 4500 or so sites make the cut, which is a tiny fraction of the world’s news sites when you think about it.)
Technologizer stories will appear on the Google News home page and in searches. And here’s a link that takes you to a list of all of our items on Google News, sorted by date,
We’re Google News fans here, so it’s a kick to see Technologizer there. More important, there are millions of other Google News fans in the world, and we’re delighted that at least some of them will discover Technologizer as they browse around the site.
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Motorola Expanding Android Team Sevenfold
Erick Schonfeld over at TechCrunch is reporting that Motorola is set to expand its team working on Android from 50 to 350, indicating the company may be about get really serious about devices operating on the platform. Word of the expansion comes from a Android developer who apparently has been targeted by the company.
And it doesn’t end with Motorola. Erick’s source also says that Nokia and Verizon made an appearance last week at a conference that was intended for developers who had not seen the G1. While Motorola isn’t a big surprise — it already is a part of the Open Handset Alliance — neither Nokia nor Verizon are officially affiliated with the organization.
It’s not clear when Motorola plans to release its own Android powered devices, although such a ramp-up seems to indicate any announcement may not be too far off. But the fact that Nokia is also showing possible interest may mean the iPhone could face some serious competition very soon.
Then again, Nokia controls Symbian, which has a commanding lead of the market already. Some 65 percent of all smart phones run the OS, nearly six times that of the second place Windows Mobile (11.5 percent). All of this just could be some good old oppo research.
Having Nokia developers familiar with Android does not hurt, however. If the OS suddenly takes off, the company would not be caught off-guard and could release its own phone.
Add this to the news that pre-sale allotments of the G1 are apparently close to being sold out, and the folks at the Googleplex in Mountain View must be smiling ear-to-ear right now.
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A Week Dominated by a Phone That’s Not an iPhone
I still run hot and cold on the prospects for Google’s Android OS. With this week’s launch of the T-Mobile G1, though, I’m feeling fairly upbeat about it. For now, at least… Continue Reading →
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Google Celebrates Its Birthday! Finally!
I’m not sure why I’m taking this so seriously, but I’m relieved to see that Google has finally dressed up its home page with a special logo to mark its tenth anniversary. This one’s kinda clever, since it’s based on the original, fatter, cruder version of the Googe logo:
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..as used on the site back in 1998:
The return of the old logo, with exclamation point, reminds me of a fact that’s so obvious it’s easy to forget: Google gave its company a name that was almost explicitly inspired by Yahoo, which had an exclamation point first and retains it to this day. I’m not sure when Google lost its one, but it was presumably whacked in part to make sure that Google and its branding didn’t come off as an imitation of Yahoo.
Here’s a brief post at the Google blog on the celebratory logo. And here’s a gallery of special Google logos from over the years.
Still mysterious: Whether there’s any particular reason why the logo popped up now. (Most of the rest of the Google-watching Web celebrated the company’s birthday early in September.)
[UPDATE: Search Engine Roundtable explains everything–historically, Google has marked its birthday on either September 7th or September 27th; it all depends on when people feel like having cake…)