Google Blogoscoped

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Google Googles: Take Photos of Things Around You to Search for Them

Google launched Googles, an Android phones application which lets you snap a photo somewhere, to then get more information about the contents of the photo. (“Reverse image search” engines like TinEye.com turn out to be very useful at certain times.) Some supported use cases for this, according to Google, are:

I haven’t got an Android phone (yet*), but Mathias Schindler wrote in to tell me this app is “the best thing since sliced bread”. Pd comments that “not only is one feeding of the database, one is also adding to it.. Big advantage to Google!” Mathias adds:

I “goggled” a couple of Van Gogh paintings, all were recognized. In one case, instead of the painting a book with that cover was recognized, with the original painting as alternative. The ISBN bar code of a German book didn’t work, several Wikipedia pictures worked. It’s also very interesting that the quality of a snapshot of the computer screen was sufficient to return reasonable results. The business card scan worked very well.

Hebrew text recognition at the moment didn’t work at all, other non-Latin character sets I didn’t yet try. No doubt about it, the currently missing next step for Google would be to translate recognized texts, too. The technology is already available at Google after all.

If we continue that thought, then we end up with a user interface that could run even smoother than now. No more changing between camera and result, but, for instance, the embedding of the translation of a sign right into the camera picture, at the appropriate place. If Google’s product videos showing the augmented reality examples are to be believed – I didn’t try that part out yet – then this is already partially possible.

Is this a killer app, e.g. a piece of software that on its own can convince people to buy a specific phone/ OS/ hardware? Have you tried it, and if so, what are your thoughts?

[Thanks Pd, BizAbh, Mathias, Luka and Mbegin! Left-hand image CC-licensed by Brewbooks, other images taken from Google’s product video.]

*It might be nice for those of us without an Android phone to have this as normal web app too. Is Google trying to get more Android phones sold, or are they afraid to scale this app for all web users, or don’t they think it’s useful in a desktop browser... or what could be the reason for a mobile app only release for now?

Google Googles: Take Phot ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (8+2)

Google Maps on Android Shows What’s Nearby

Google has released an update to the Android Google Maps app. Now, you can “long-press on the map, tap on the bubble, and look for ’What’s nearby?’ in the menu.” According to Google, you will then find 10 closest places such as “restaurants, shops and other points of interest”. Google announced that in the future, you will also be able to click “New me now” on iPhones or Android phones when accessing google.com.

[Thanks Mbegin! Image based on Google’s screens.]

Google Maps on Android Sh ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1)

Google Real-Time Search Results

Google has released real-time results integrated into their main web search results. Now, when you enter a query like obama, google and many others, somewhere in the page you might be seeing a dynamically self-updating, scrollable section of bits currently posted over the web. Sources include partners on this like Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, as well as general news sites. You might already know this type of smoothly updating news approach from Friendfeed itself, which featured it for a while. At any time you can hit the post button to stop the updates from scrolling in.

When your particular query doesn’t result in a real-time box on its own, you can click on “Show options” at the top and then hit the “Latest” link to make it appear. To see some of the breaking news topics real-time search might cover, you can also look at and search within the new Hot Topics section on Google Trends. Right now, bowl games, tiger and lahore lead these US charts.

This real-timeness (or what’s close to real-time) looks like it works pretty well, and is yet another rather crucial change to old but not rusty Google happening in the last few days – after just recently, we saw Google overhaul its homepage base design.

It may be noteworthy here that Google specifically partners with several of the real-time sources presented, like Friendfeed or Twitter, as they also emphasize in their blog post on this. Partnerships aren’t quite neutral things – they require human interaction, sometimes contracts, and they may be based on strategical alliances and counter-favors. They may make it harder in the future for third-parties to enter Google’s results in all the meaningful onebox places. Don’t see your business pop up on a map? Well, you didn’t apply for Google’s Local Business Center program! Don’t see your face on a search for your name? Well, you didn’t create a Google Profile yet! Your corrected charts on unemployment rates in your home town aren’t part of Google’s Public Data? Well, only the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics looked factual enough to Google’s engineers! You don’t get a neat shopping cart icon? Looks like you use PayPal instead of Google Checkout! No thumbnail for the video you’re daring to host yourself? Why, you didn’t upload it to Google’s YouTube or another supported video site yet! Your publication is not appearing in the Google News onebox? Maybe Google’s human evaluators didn’t find your news site application too convincing!

The list goes on, but you can see the issue: every cool onebox gadget Google releases is also offering leverage for Google to implicitly pressure third-parties to “play by our rules or disappear from our results”. They may also simply not give smaller players the same onebox attention because Google doesn’t deem it worth the time to build special engineering cases for them. A side issue is that Google’s partners may start to offer data to Google alone, mostly through a natural laziness which creates incentive to only feed the biggest player, leaving competition outside outside the data walls. All this is different from saying Google is currently actively using or abusing this specific power (at this moment in time some of us may actually feel lucky that Google, and not a company like Microsoft, is holding this type of power... I’m not sure how many competitors would print links towards Yahoo Finance and MSN Money on their finance gadget like Google still does for stock searches). But it’s something worth keeping in mind for now and the future – especially if you’re competing with Google or Google’s partners in any space.

[Thanks Mbegin and BizAbh!]

Google Real-Time Search R ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (20+1)

Tony Ruscoe: Going Google

Tony Ruscoe is a web developer living in Sheffield, UK. He’s been a regular in the Google Blogoscoped Forum since 2004 and has been co-editor of Google Blogoscoped since September 2006.

I’ve been using Google for about nine years. I made the switch from AltaVista because it was faster to load and had better results. Ever since then, I’ve been constantly amazed at the number of new services being released and acquisitions being made by Google.

When I stumbled across Google Blogoscoped in 2004, I immediately got hooked on the idea of trying to second-guess Google’s next move. Searching for secret services and subdomains, digging through source code, monitoring experimental sites for subtle changes, and looking out for security exploits are all things I’ve done and written articles about. It’s always fascinated me to see how quickly news about Google spreads across the Internet, newspapers, radio and television. And it shows that I’m not the only one interested in Google!

People have often suggested that I should work for Google, given my obvious enthusiasm and keen interest in everything they do. I’ve always dismissed that suggestion, partially because I’ve never seen a position advertised which I felt would suit my skills and experience, but also because of all the stories I’ve read about how difficult their interview process can be!

So when I heard Google was looking to hire Webmasters in the UK, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the job specification described my ideal job and I decided to apply. What happened next came as quite a shock...

I’m extremely excited to confirm that I will be taking on a role within Google’s Webmaster Team from January 2010, working from the London office. Although I don’t know exactly what I’ll be working on yet, I’ll be part of the team that looks after Google’s many websites, which doesn’t include products such as Gmail, Google Calendar or Google Reader, but might mean I get to work on Google’s home page from time to time!

Unfortunately, this obviously means I am no longer able to be co-editor of Google Blogoscoped. But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving for good and closing the door behind me. After five years of contributing to the forum, I don’t intend on stopping now. I’ve always been impressed by the discussions and observations made by the Blogoscoped community, so I hope it will continue to be a part of my daily routine for many years to come. I’ll probably avoid commenting on any speculation about what Google might be planning next though... ;-)

I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Philipp for giving me the chance to write for Google Blogoscoped, which has clearly played a large part in developing my interest in everything Google-related and has given me some great exposure and opportunities. Being able to attend Google Press Day 2007 in Paris was a particular highlight for me!

I’d also like the thank everyone else who reads the blog or contributes to the forum. It’s people like you who help to keep Google honest. It’s really important that you continue to question what Google is doing and raise any concerns that you may have about how Google operates as a company. After all, I want to work for an awesome company rather than an evil one!

[Enormous thanks also to Google Blogoscoped members, and Googlers, John Mueller and Reto Meier!]

Tony Ruscoe: Going Google by Tony Ruscoe | Comments (33)

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Call for Action on Climate Change Published By 56 Newspapers Around the World

The Guardian writes:

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency.

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Expand all...

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C – the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction – would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.

Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.

But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June’s UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: “We can go into extra time but we can’t afford a replay.”

At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided – and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.

Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.

Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than “old Europe”, must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance – and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.

Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.

But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.

Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.

Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”.

It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.

The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.

[Article CC-licensed by The Guardian. Image from the Guardian. Via Reddit.]

A Call for Action on Clim ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (7)

Auto-Translated Search by Google and Others

Google has recently rolled out their auto-translated search feature into their Search Options sidebar. For instance, search for restaurant reviews antwerp, then click Show Options → Translated search. Google will automatically try to determine which languages are most relevant for your query to be translated into, and present results for those queries translated back. Clicking through to the target site, if it’s from the foreign languages set, will launch the page within Google Translate, i.e. immediately translated.

Another auto-translated search you might want to give a look is 2lingual.com, displaying the (Google-powered) results of two languages side by side.

[Thanks WebSonic.nl and HK! Also see Google’s post on their translation feature.]

Auto-Translated Search by ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1+0)

Watch "Google Me"

The 2007 documentary Google Me – “about a man’s adventure after Googling his own name” (see previous post) -- has now been made freely available on SnagFilms.com.

[Thanks Mike!]

Watch "Google Me" by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (2)

Google Earth Illustrating Global Warming

Google.org has teamed up with the California Energy Commission to bring layers illustrating global warming to Google Earth. SFist writes, “Word of the new features first broke when Former Vice President Al Gore introduced them on YouTube in September” and now, some days ago “during a press conference at Treasure Island, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced the new application. Three years ago at the very same spot, Schwarzenegger signed California’s landmark global warming law requiring the state to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Treasure Island, along with SFO and Google’s Mountain View headquarters, could all be fully underwater by 2100.”

[Thanks Singularity!]

Google Earth Illustrating ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1+2)

Google’s Eric Schmidt On Privacy

Gawker points out that Google CEO Eric Schmidt (who once blacklisted CNet for publishing info about him that was found through Google) in a CNBC interview recently said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Eric goes on to say, “But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines – including Google – do retain this information for some time. And it’s important, for example, that we’re all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act... it is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities.”

Earlier this year, Google’s Marissa Mayer told Digg, “I really feel that the virtual world follows the physical world ... There’s very few things you can do anonymously in the physical world. I think that over time, on the internet, there will be less anonymity. And I actually think that’s good; I think it creates, you know, more accountability, people acting more responsibly.”

Is Google (the one company many of us possibly trust with most of our private digital data, including emails, chat logs, and search history) with their recent statements partly undermining the idea of privacy and anonymity being worthwhile – or are they just honest about the pros and cons at hand?

[Thanks DPic!]

Google’s Eric Schmidt On ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1+11)

Google Visual Search: Future Mobile App to Let You Snap Photo, Get Info About It?

Eweek writes:

Google is working on Google Visual Search, a mobile application that lets users take a picture of a location from their Android-powered smartphone and trigger a Google search that pulls up information associated with the image. The search engine revealed its plans on CNBC’s “Inside the Mind of Google,” segment Dec. 3.

According to Eweek, a sample case Google’s Hartmut Neven (of acquired Neven Vision) presented at CNBC was someone, like a tourist, taking a pic of Santa Monica pier, with Google then identifiying that in search results to let the tourist know more about the location. However, as Eweek continues, this project internally named “Google Goggles” didn’t “pass muster when Google tested it with a focus group in August,” with Google employees still busy fixing bugs and “building out the immense database required to propel the technology.”

In the future, who knows, we might have some of those goggles (or direct implants) augmenting our reality with meta info. Looking at a building we’d then immediately know when it was built, what’s to be found inside, and so on. Or imagine looking at a street of shops with those shops currently in their opening hours tinted green. Or a Shanghai shop sign with Chinese letters being automatically translated to the foreigner looking at it. The possibilities seem nearly endless (and might one day make those of us asking a human for directions seem completely outdated).

[Thanks DPic!]

Google Visual Search: Fut ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (1+4)

Google Buys AppJet, Makers of EtherPad

AppJet Inc, the creators of cool, web-based multiuser real-time text editor EtherPad (as previously reported), have been snapped up by Google, with their team joining the Google Wave team (some of the AppJet team actually already worked for Google before). “EtherPad is no longer accepting new customers” and “No new free public pads may be created”, the EtherPad blog states – and they’ve also added another post apparently after some people weren’t happy about the transition. They now say “We have begun planning how to open source the code to EtherPad and the underlying AppJet Web Framework” and that they “have re-enabled pad creation from the EtherPad home page.”

EtherPad was actually very well done, with much less usability issues overhead than Google Wave, so I’m not sure how well it is for end users that Google just acquires its competition in this field. Haruspex at the EtherPad blog comments, “This is the worst news ever. Google Wave is NOT an alternative to EtherPad. The clean design and, above all, the task specificity of EtherPad makes it vastly superior. I’ve been using Google Wave for over a month now and it just doesn’t compare to the months of wonderful service and growth from EtherPad. Boo.”

[Thanks Luka!]

Google Buys AppJet, Maker ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (6+3)

Google’s Site Performance Tool

The Google Webmaster Tools now include a site speed testing tool. You can find it at Labs → Site performance. Ironically enough, two of the speed problems Google determined with one of my sites were 1) Google Analytics and 2) Google AdSense! The Site performance analyzer said “The domains of the following URLs only serve one resource each. If possible, avoid the extra DNS lookups by serving these resources from existing domains”, listing Google Analytics and AdSense – plus, “Compressing the following resources with gzip” is printed for Google Analytics. Well, at least they’re honest. And Google’s JohnMu in the forum adds, “Give the new async Analytics script a try :-)” (see explanation).

Now I want an even smarter tool that tells me something about the quality of my site. “Dear user: Your site downloads in a blasting zero point one seconds. Additionally, we’ve determined it’s utterly useless to anyone living on this planet.” Hmm, on second thoughts...

[Thanks WebSonic.nl!]

Google’s Site Performance ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (10+4)

Google’s DNS Resolution Service

Google Public DNS “is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider,” Google announced, and says that in order to give it a try you need to configure your settings to use the IPs “8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers”. Supposed improvements are speedier browsing and better security.

Zim in the forum comments, “And now the big brother knows not only what you search for, but where you are surfing too. I’m not absolutely comfortable with this. Tough it IS a good alternative to OpenDNS... And the IPs are very easy to remember.” James Xuan argues, “I’m using it now, I don’t see any reason to be uncomfortable with it. I trust Google over my ISP.”

[Thanks Inferno, Zim and James! Image by Google.]

Google’s DNS Resolution S ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (16+2)

Google Tracks & Personalizes Even When You’re Signed-Out

Google say they now start to track your search, using a cookie, even when you’re signed out. This allows them to deliver personalized results based on your other searches of the past 180 days. Previously this was only provided to those logged in to their Google Account. In any case, a “View customizations” link is provided at the top right of such customized results, according to Google, who say you can then turn off that feature. The feature will also not be linked to your main Google account, Google says.

Tom Krazit at CNet comments that this “is not just about search results.” By building a profile of past searches, Tom says, “Google can also gain insights into what kinds of advertising you’re most likely to favor, therefore placing more targeted (and expensive) ads alongside those search results”. Tom adds that “Privacy advocates will likely be put off by the fact that this is an opt-out rather than opt-in service.”

Also see some of the problems with personalization.

[Thanks Juha-Matti Laurio!]

Google Tracks & Personali ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (4+2)

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