Friday, October 20, 2006
Google Poland Blog
There’s a new official foreign Google Blog around: the Google Polska Blog for Poland. [Thanks Piotr, who covers the release in Polish.]
Problems Switching to MSN in IE7
How ironic... for testing purposes, I wanted to switch from Google to MSN as my default Internet Explorer 7 search engine, but a bug in IE7 prevented me from doing so. Here’s what happened:
- I click on the expander icon to the right of the search box.
- I click “Change Search Defaults.”
- I only saw Google in the list, so I clicked “Remove” – this doesn’t work as I need to find another search provider first, Microsoft tells me.
- I click on “Find more providers...” at the bottom of the dialog.
- The dialog closes... and nothing happens.
Fiddling around a bit more, I realized that instead of taking this buggy route, I can click on “find more providers” in the search box expander... which, however, is a page which does not include MSN search anywhere (there’s “Live Search” with a tiny Windows icon, but that’s it... will everyone instantly recognize this as Microsoft search?). Did the Redmond guys adopt Google’s “don’t be evil” policy just when Google themselves are loosening up a little?
No More Casual Conversations?
Security expert Bruce Schneier in Forbes says:
We are rapidly turning into a society where our intimate conversations can be saved and made public later. This represents an enormous loss of freedom and liberty, and the only way to solve the problem is through legislation. (...)
Even worse, normal constitutional protections dont apply to much of this. The police need a court-issued warrant to search our papers or eavesdrop on our communications, but can simply issue a subpoena – or ask nicely or threateningly – for data of ours that is held by a third party, including stored copies of our communications.
Think about it: even when you save a Gmail draft and then delete that draft, and then empty your trash... what you typed may still reside on different machines within Google’s server farms. (Even if you don’t save the draft, thanks to the power of AJAX whatever you type may be transmitted to the server!) But what’s the equivalent in the digital age of, say, burning a paper you’ve written on?
[Via Digg.]
YouTube Deletes ~30,000 Videos
According to PC World, YouTube just got rid of 29,549 videos stored on their site due to copyright complaints by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC). I’m only just starting to follow YouTube more closely – is that a remarkable quantity, possibly related to the new owner Google having a different approach, or have such massive removals been common on YouTube before?
Google Finance Changes Ahead?
Some of you spotted new Google Finance features being temporarily tested, like stock comparison and settings for charts. DPneal in the forum has an interesting bit (my emphasis):
i wonder why there was some mix up with my account? that must be why ’google confidential’ appeared next to my username.
[Thanks DPneal!]
Update: The comparison and settings feature is live now. Nice!
Comparing GOOG with YHOO
Google’s Adam Sah Interviewed
Garett Rogers interviewed Adam Sah of the Google Gadgets/ personalized homepage team. [Original image by Adam Sah.]
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