Having Google sponsor your big book party might feel a bit like having MTV sponsor your underground punk show, or the coal industry sponsor your climate change campaign, or a big computer maker sponsor your feisty, ragtag technology site. Sure, everyone’s doing it these days, but Google showed up at the National Book Awards after-party the other night on Wall Street looking awfully suspect. He wore borrowed tweed and spoke in accents, like some celebrity-turned-literary star: widely adored but also despised, even feared, for what he might do to this precious, fragile world of letters.
But say what you will about our soon-to-be library, librarian, bookstore, publisher and collective consciousness (and whatever you say will be stored forever on a server). This company has a real capacity for some famous literary devices, like metaphor and foreshadowing.
Alongside hundreds of free colorful notebooks and signs near the open bar plastered in Google’s logo, the company decorated the furniture with lots of stacks of books. Fake, dead books.
When she tired of roaming between the whisky-soaked conversations of nervous black-tied editors and James Franco, a friend tried to pick up one of the books. But she got the whole stack. Not only had the books been thickly painted in the company’s rainbow of colors, they’d been screwed and glued together to prevent them from ever being read, much less opened again. Someone commented that they still smelled like spray paint.
The targets of Google’s literary vandalism have already been scanned by the Google monster. One stack — none of them available for full reading on Google yet — contained Heart of the West by Penelope Williamson, Magic City by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Iceman by Chris Lynch, and Jacob Koppel Javits’ Order of Battle — another not so subtle hint that print is sinking like the Lusitania.
Sorry, did we mention that the whole thing was held at a lavish restaurant — on Wall Street?
We get it Google. We’re not gonna fight you. You can do whatever you want, including dropping ominous hints at our book parties, your Silicon Valley versions of the dead fish wrapped in a newspaper.
(A metaphorical newspaper of course, cuz they’re dead too.)Having Google sponsor your big book party might feel a bit like having MTV sponsor... more
The most popular and widely used combination of features use the WWW as a data source for text documents in HTML format and build on the realization of an index. The interpretation of the input is mostly on the basis of a simple syntax,The most popular and widely used combination of features use the WWW as a data source... more
A search engine is a program to help find information that is stored in a computer or a computer network such as the World Wide Web. Internet search engines have their origins in information retrieval systemsA search engine is a program to help find information that is stored in a computer or... more
Nifty demonstration of the Chrome OS. Makes me want to get a netbook now. Chrome OS looks extremely simple to use and a lot faster than my year-old Vista.Nifty demonstration of the Chrome OS. Makes me want to get a netbook now. Chrome OS... more
Google had a low-key event today to preview Chrome OS, its new operating system based on Linux and the Chrome browser. Things are still pretty early -- it's not even in beta yet, let alone on shipping products -- but that's the first official screen shot right there, and the big features are all roughed out. The entire system is web-based and runs in the Chrome browser -- right down to USB drive contents, which show up in a browser tab, and the notepad, which actually creates a Google Docs document. Web apps are launched from a persistent apps panel, which includes Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Hulu, among others, and background apps like Google Talk can be minimized to "panels" that dock to the bottom of the screen. Local storage is just used to speed up the system -- everything actually lives in the cloud, so all it takes to swap or borrow machines is a login, and you're good to go. Google also said it's "very committed" to Flash, and that it's looking to hardware accelerate whatever code it can -- although Google didn't have a solid answer to give when asked about Silverlight. Overall, Google was upfront in saying that Chrome OS is focused on very clear use cases for people who primarily use the web, and that it's not trying to do everything: "If you're a lawyer, editing contracts back and forth, this will not be the right machine for you."
As far as going to market, Google's not talking details until the targeted launch at the end of next year, but Chrome OS won't run on just anything -- there'll be specific reference hardware. For example, Chrome OS won't work with standard hard drives, just SSDs, but Google is supporting both x86 and ARM CPUs. That also means you won't be able to just download Chrome OS and go, you'll have to buy a Chrome OS device approved by Google. Interesting move, for sure -- but since the entire OS is totally open-source as of today, we're sure it'll be hacked onto all kinds of hardware soon enough. (And for the record, the demo was run on an off-the-shelf Eee PC.) Check Google's intro videos after the break!
Google made an announcement! It was an OS, in case you haven't heard. But it was also something else: a long-term, high-risk bet about the future of the internet. Here's what Google needs to happen for Chrome to make it.
Just to be clear, I'm not talking about Chrome OS 1.0. You can build that now and (maybe) install it on your netbook, and should be able to buy on hardware next year. All that stuff is, to borrow a word that Google loves to misuse, is a beta. A test. A trial. A first step toward a larger vision, which Google has been hinting at since they branched out from search: In the future, we will live on the internet. We'll be able to do all the things we do on computers now, and probably more, while connected to the cloud. And it'll be great.
Chrome OS is an explicit step towards making this happen, but the version we saw today is just an early, broad step. Google even said so! Despite early talk about how Chrome OS could be a full replacement OS one day, suitable for regular ol' laptops and desktops, today's preannouncement of a version strictly for netbooks included an admission that it would only be intended as a secondary OS. So, what does Google need to see this thing through, and make Chrome as capable as the OSes we're used to using now?
Google unveiled their new operating system, Chrome, in picture and video today for the world to see.Google unveiled their new operating system, Chrome, in picture and video today for the... more
Today, we’re learning a bit more about Chrome OS, as Google is providing an update on the product and announced the open sourcing of the code, meaning developers will be able to keep up with developments and start contributing to it. Commercial availability of the OS, however, is still likely at least a year out.
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Done with paying Lexus-Nexus and Westlaw? Their new competitor now gives it to you free ...Done with paying Lexus-Nexus and Westlaw? Their new competitor now gives it to you... more
While it won’t be released entirely, Google plans on giving the public details about their upcoming Chrome OS in two days time.While it won’t be released entirely, Google plans on giving the public details about... more
In a bid to continue its battle on the iPhone, Verizon is said to be scooping up Palm and its webOS to join Google Android in the battle as early as 2010.In a bid to continue its battle on the iPhone, Verizon is said to be scooping up Palm... more
(Wired) -- Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process.
Seriously.
Google has bought Gizmo5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users. TechCrunch, which broke the news on Monday, reported that Google spent $30 million on the company.
Google announced the Gizmo acquisition on Thursday afternoon Pacific Time. Gizmo5's founder Michael Robertson, a brash serial entrepreneur, will become an Adviser to Google Voice.
It's a potent recipe -- take Gizmo5's open standards-based online calling system. Add to it the new ability to route calls on Google's massive network of cheap fiber. Toss in Google Voice's free phone number, which will ring your mobile phone, your home phone and your Gizmo5 client on your laptop. ÿþ
Meanwhile you can use Gizmo5 to make ultracheap outgoing calls to domestic and international phone numbers, and free calls to Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo and AIM users. You could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone.
Then layer on deluxe phone services like free SMS, voicemail transcription, customized call routing, free conference calls and voicemails sent as recordings to your e-mail account, and you have a phone service that competes with Skype, landlines and the Internet telephone offerings from Vonage and cable companies.
Methods that bring non-relevant websites to the front of the results pages of search engines is known as search engine spamming and there are contrary rules to set up the search engines to protect against manipulation of their search results.Methods that bring non-relevant websites to the front of the results pages of search... more
Earlier this week, Rupert Murdoch told an Australian interviewer that he might start blocking Google from the WSJ.com and his other news sites, even though Google accounts for about 25 percent of the traffic to the WSJ.com...
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