The second version of the AndroidAndroid mobile operating system is coming soon, and we have a video to prove it. Android, of course, has been growing in popularity in recent months due to blowback against certain practices with the Apple iPhone, and a growing number of phones that use the operating system on a variety of carriers.
Check out GoogleGoogle’s introduction of Android 2.0:
For extended coverage, MashableMashable has an excellent round up of the forthcoming features, and you should read the full announcement from the Android Team. If you are a developer, you can check out the SDK now, right here. Via thenextweb.com
You know those boxes with funky looking letters that are becoming increasingly common on website registration forms, or on Facebook Pages when you want to post an update? They’re called captchas and they’re used primarily to deter spammers and bots.
One of the biggest providers of the technology is a company called reCAPTCHA, and now, GoogleGoogle owns them. The search giant just announced on their blog that they’re buying reCAPTCHA, which is used on more than 100,000 websites worldwide.
Why exactly does Google want to own this technology? For starters, reCAPTCHA has a unique solution. As Google describes:
“But there’s a twist — the words in many of the CAPTCHAs provided by reCAPTCHA come from scanned archival newspapers and old books. Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text…” Read on at mashable.com
A two-year old project by GoogleGoogle engineers working across departments to enable users to remove their data from Google services has been opened to the public in the form of a website with import and export instructions for Google services the team has helped “liberate”.
Called the Data Liberation Front, the project team said in a Google blog post today that it has “liberated” more than half of the major Google services. “In the upcoming months,” writes project lead Brian Fitzpatrick, “we also plan to liberate Google Sites and Google DocsGoogle Docs (batch-export).”
Google deserves big accolades for working to make data export easy and for making all the information readily accessible. Hey Facebook – are you working on something similar to this or are you hoping that the borders of your users’ data will remain unbreached by the Data Liberation Front… Read on at readwriteweb.com
The mobile augmented reality space has really been heating up lately (check out our recent feature on the top 6 AR apps). Today one of the front-runners, Austrian software company Mobilizy, launched a new version of their mobile augmented reality browser Wikitude for GoogleGoogle’s AndroidAndroid platform. For those unfamiliar with the concept, augmented reality refers to the sci-fi-like display of real time digital data superimposed on top of the world around you, typically via your mobile phone’s camera. You point the camera at an object or location and get a resulting display of information related to those things or places. The most interesting update to Mobilizy’s mobile augmented reality offering is the relaunch and full integration of the Wikitude.me platform with the browser. Wikitude.me is a socially-aware geotagging site where you can log in with an existing FacebookFacebook, TwitterTwitter, Google or YahooYahoo! account and add location-based information that other users will be able to access later at that same spot… Read on at mashable.com
Earlier this week I spoke with Erich Clementi, General Manager, Enterprise Initiatives (otherwise known as the head of IBM’s cloud computing efforts) about Big Blue’s cloud strategy. After we raked the computer and service provider over the coals earlier this year for talking about the cloud without offering substance, in June IBM finally unveiled part of its cloud plans. They revolve around providing workload-specific services via an IBM cloud, as a hosted cloud, or inside a company’s own data center. It kicked off its cloud rollout with a test and development service, and last month it announced an analytics offering. Clementi revealed that IBM won’t stop at workload-specific services, and will build a WebSphere platform-as-a-service offering for clients… Read on at gigaom.com
A week and a half ago, we highlighted numbers from StatCounter that demonstrated that GoogleGoogle was losing market share to BingBing. This made sense: Bingis a new search engine with heavy marketing and compelling features. Numbers released by Nielsen tell a similar story: while Googlegrew from June to July, it still lost market share to its competitors – from 66.1% in June to 64.8% in July, a 1.3 percentage point drop. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals that Bing wasn’t the primary culprit – it was Yahoo which stole Google’s market share… Read on at mashale.com
There’s some excitement around the web today among a certain group of high profile techies. What are they so excited about? Something called WebFinger, and the fact that GoogleGoogle is apparently getting serious about supporting it. So what is it? It’s an extension of something called the “finger protocol” that was used in the earlier days of the web to identify people by their email addresses. As the web expanded, the finger protocol faded out, but the idea of needing a unified way to identify yourself has not. That’s why you keep hearing about OpenID and the like all the time. But those standards, while open, have failed to latch on in a meaningful way with the public at large. One of the holdups is that you have to set up a website or service you use to be your OpenID. It’s relatively easy to do, and you may already have one ready to go, but just not realize it. But it’s still kind of tricky to explain to a regular web user — wait, you login with your website?
Read on at techcrunch.om
As we mentioned earlier this week, GoogleGoogle is set to launch a new, updated version of its search engine – the update is being called Google Caffeine. These changes to the service’s infrastructure will change the search results on Googlein a more noticeable way than the usual incremental changes, so website owners are paying attention.
We wrote of the announcement:
Google has been working on a new project: the next generation of Google SearchGoogle search. This isn’t just some minor upgrade, but an entire new infrastructure for the world’s largest search engine. In other words: it’s a new version of Google. The project’s still under construction, but Google’s now confident enough in the new version of its search engine that it has released the development version for public consumption. While you won’t see too many differences immediately, let us assure you: it’s a completely upgraded Google search. Google specifically states that its goal for the new version of Google Search is to improve its indexing speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness… Read on at mashable.com For the Video please klick on the Google icon beside.
When you start typing a search on GoogleGoogle, if you have auto-complete enabled, it will start to recommend different queries based on what you’re typing. So, for example, if you write “George,” it will suggest George Washington, George Bush, and George Clooney, among others well-known George’s. However, if you’re using Google to try and figure out what exactly TwitterTwitter is, the results are a bit suspect. Type “Twitter is” into the iconic search box and Google will suggest words like retarded, useless, lame, and pointless. Take a look and klick on the pic beside.
(Via mashable.com)
MicroHoo. Check! FaceFeed. Check! And Twoogle? Let’s check! Yahoo and Microsoft have finally partnered. Microsoft is already a big investor in FacebookFacebook. And today, the huge social networking site just picked up online content-sharing site FriendFeedFriendFeed, which is chock-a-block full of ex-GoogleGoogle execs. Now, one has to wonder if it wouldn’t be easier if Google (GOOG), the cash machine of a search giant, finally ponied up and bought the most recent star of Web 2.0?
mobile operating system is coming soon, and we have a video to prove it. Android, of course, has been growing in popularity in recent months due to blowback against certain practices with the Apple iPhone, and a growing number of phones that use the operating system on a variety of carriers.
You know those boxes with funky looking letters that are becoming increasingly common on website registration forms, or on Facebook Pages when you want to post an update? They’re called captchas and they’re used primarily to deter spammers and bots.
A two-year old project by 
The mobile augmented reality space has really been heating up lately (check out our recent feature on the top 6 AR apps). Today one of the front-runners, Austrian software company Mobilizy, launched a new version of their mobile augmented reality browser Wikitude for 
Earlier this week I spoke with Erich Clementi, General Manager, Enterprise Initiatives (otherwise known as the head of IBM’s cloud computing efforts) about Big Blue’s cloud strategy. After we raked the computer and service provider over the coals earlier this year for talking about the cloud without offering substance, in June IBM finally unveiled part of its cloud plans. They revolve around providing workload-specific services via an IBM cloud, as a hosted cloud, or inside a company’s own data center. It kicked off its cloud rollout with a test and development service, and last month it announced an analytics offering. Clementi revealed that IBM won’t stop at workload-specific services, and will build a WebSphere platform-as-a-service offering for clients…
A week and a half ago, we highlighted numbers from StatCounter that demonstrated that 
There’s some excitement around the web today among a certain group of high profile techies. What are they so excited about? Something called WebFinger, and the fact that 
