Phone New Update: Google

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#Google Plus, #Facebook, #Twitter or #LinkedIn ? #googleplus #android

One of the most impressive parts of Google's beta rollout of Plus is the fact that Google had a fully functional Android application available in the Android Market the minute Plus went live.
As such, I have a unique introduction to Google Plus - mobile first. It is an interesting way to test an experimental new social network. The Plus Android app is polished and impressive. But, just as Plus is entering into the crowded social network space, so does the Android application against the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. How do the Android applications compare?

Google Plus

The main interface for Plus has five icons to navigate to - stream, photos, circles, profile and huddle. Three of those five are straightforward. Stream is the news and update of all your Plus contacts. Circles allows you to see your individual groups and has three tabs on the bottom for people, posts and photos. Profile is your Google Profile and is standard information with all of your posts and pictures.
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Using data to protect people from #malware #google #infected

The Internet brings remarkable benefits to society. Unfortunately, some people use it for harm and their own gain at the expense of others. We believe in the power of the web and information, and we work every day to detect potential abuse of our services and ward off attacks.

As we work to protect our users and their information, we sometimes discover unusual patterns of activity. Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers
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Kumpulan penggodam perkenal rangkaian sosial

SAN FRANCISCO: Kumpulan penggodam yang kian mendapat nama, Anonymous hari ini melancarkan rangkaian sosialnya selepas Google menolak permintaan kumpulan itu untuk menempatkan komuniti online dalam sisten rangkaiannya.

“Hari ini kami mengalu-alukan anda bagi memulakan era baru," kata kumpulan penggodam itu dalam laman web mereka: anonplus.com, yang dijadikan platfom untuk menyebarkan maklumat mengenai kumpulan itu.
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Google Videos (read: Movies) Android App Now Compatible With 2.2+ Devices, But You Still Can't Use It If You're Rooted

Coupled with the Market update that was announced and subsequently leaked earlier today, Google released a new version of the Videos app, previously available only on certain tablets. Because the new Android Market adds support for movies, among other things, the much needed update to Videos opens up access to devices running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread).
Now to some bad news: as suspected, if you are using a rooted device, you will be able to run the Videos app but won't be able to play any content through it. Paranoid Google is paranoid, some meme lovers would say.
It's interesting to point out that if you don't install the Videos app, the new Market will simply redirect you to YouTube in your browser when you press My Movies. Once you install the Videos app, My Movies jumps directly into the app. Nifty.
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Google's Android Market gets new look, movies and books [Video]

Google began rolling out an update to the Android Market on Android phones that gives the app storefront a new look and adds movies and books.
The new user interface should make it easier for users to find relevant content with more lists of available apps, games, movies and books that are country-specific -- such as new releases, top paid, top free, top grossing and other options in sorting what's for sale.
To view different lists, all a user has to do in any section of the Android Market is flick a finger left or right, making navigation easy and fairly intuitive.
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Global SPAM filtering

If, like me, you have more interesting ways to spend your time than talking to telemarketers, the “Report Spam” button in Google Voice is probably your best friend.

But wouldn't it be great if the filtering could happen automatically, before unwanted calls even reach your phone, the same way Gmail filters spam before it gets to your inbox?

Thanks to the help of the thousands of Google Voice users who mark calls as spam everyday—and our own spam identification tools—it is now possible to automatically redirect calls, texts, and voicemails from any of the numbers in our database directly into your spam folder.
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Firefox 6 arrives in Beta Channel

Version 6.0 of Firefox has been released into the Beta Channel after being developed in the "alpha" Aurora channel. If beta testing doesn't bring up any major problems then, according to the Mozilla Releases Wiki, the first production version of Firefox 6.0 will be available on 16 August.
A major privacy enhancement to Firefox 6.0 is the new Data Management Window which gives users more control over the access that individual web sites have to their browsing data, including cookies, passwords and location information – it can be accessed by typing "about:permissions" in the URL bar. The URL bar has been enhanced and now highlights the domain of the site you are currently visiting.
The new Plugin Check functionality in the Add-ons manager automatically verifies the compatibility of installed plugins (including the Flash Player plugin). Other changes include improved startup time and the ability to move the Web Console to other parts of the window or even into its own separate window.

Google+ runs out of disk space, spams users with notifications

http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/google-disk-space.jpg?w=640

Some early adopters of Google+ have found themselves bombarded with multiple notification messages in their email, due to a bug in the social networking's code after the site - astonishingly - ran out of disk space.

Install Google Plus for Android Outside US

Google Plus or Google + is becoming hotter day after day. As an early Google Plus user, I feel Google Plus is really interesting and perhaps it will be the Facebook killer, or at least the arch rival of the current # 1 social network. Though Google + is operating in the close beta phrase, the newest promising social network seems to be extraordinary. Tons of Google ‘s fans, who can not get a Google Plus invite, are eagerly waiting for the first time they can “circle” others, update status and more within the social network.
Google is testing their product, you can use a number of supporting platforms and extra services however in which, as far as I know, the nicest Google + feature is that it supports Android very well.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread finally gaining on 2.2 Froyo while Honeycomb stagnates

Google has released new information on the breakdown of Android devices on its developer Website. Things are bad and good. Almost eight months after its release, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) still only accounts for only 17.7 percent of active Android devices, with 2.2 (Froyo) still dominating the charts with a 59.4 percent share of the market. Of course, looking back at the March numbers, the platform shows considerable improvement. At that time, Gingerbread made up less than 1 percent of the market and Froyo had a 61.3 percent share.

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Google Implements 5 New ways to View Blogger Blogs on April 1st; No Joke

Google's blogging service, Blogger, allows users to easily create professional looking blogs easily and for free. At the recent tech conference called South by Southwest, Google announced an entire new interface for it's Blogger platform. This new interface with be cleaner and more simple.
Although the new Blogger interface is not yet in effect, some small new features have been introduced slowly by Google. The newest, and probably one of the biggest, new feature in Blogger is the new ways to view a Blogger blog. This new update brings five new layouts to any Blogger bog, and can be seen by adding a "/view to the end of any Blogger blogs's URL. For example, to view this blog in any of the five new formats, go to gadgetatorblog.blogspot.com/view.
The new formats are called Flipcard, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot, and Timeslide. All of these show the blog posts in different ways. For example, Flipcard is just all of the posts arranged a little squares in a grid that flip around when you mouse over them, while Timeslide is all of the posts in three side by side lists, each smaller than the one before it, going by date.

Flipcard

Mosaic

Sidebar

Snapshot

Timeslide

A lot of these views are almost completely based on pictures, for example, in Snapshot mode, any posts without pictures won't even show up. One of the problems with this is that although Blogger allows you to add pictures to your posts just by entering the photo's URL, any photos that were inserted like this will not show up in any of these viewing modes. I personally have used mostly only photos directly from the web, and plan on downloading them all and reposting them in my blog.
This is definitely a step towards what Blogger showed off at South By Southwest, it gives any blog a cleaner a simpler interface, and it is something that you probably will see on a lot of blogs very soon.

Google Allows Users to Block Sites from Search Results

   There has been recent controversy over whether or not Google's search results have been becoming less reliable, making sites that one would not find valuable coming up at the top. I talked a lot about this in a recent blog post. Google changed it's algorithm to try to bring higher quality sites up in the search results, and whether or not that worked has also been debated. Now Google, although they are keeping the algorithm change, is giving the user control.
   The new feature allows users to block all results from a specific website from their search results by clicking a link under the site in the results. The actual link is located directly under the website in the search result, next to the Cached and Similar buttons, and reads, "Block all [example.com] results".
   Google announced this feature yesterday on their official blog, and is rolling it out over the next few days. If you don't see it now, expect to see it soon.
   This is yet another attempt by Google to try to improve their results. It seems like a good idea, and it is definitely the first that actually allows human input. It seems like there should be an easier way to block a website, because I don't want to have to go back to Google search results to do it, but for now it should be an effective way to keep unwanted sites out of the search results.

CrunchBase Information

Google

Information provided by CrunchBase

Google Updates Algorithm, Ranks Content Farms Lower

When you search for something in Google, it's not so simple as to how the order of the results is determined. Google has an algorithm which decides the order of the results. Google gives some tips to site owners, stating what will make your site rank higher in the order. Although this does not tell exactly how the algorithm works, it allows owners of sites which a user might not want to appear in the search results to game the algorithm, and make their sites rank higher than some higher quality sites.

Recently, people have been claiming that the Google search results have been getting worse, and putting low quality sights above high quality ones. Google responded to that by changing their algorithm to rank low quality, unwanted sites, lower than high quality sites. Since Google is supplying many of the ads on the sites that are now ranked lower with this new algorithm, and is therefore making a lot money of off them, i.t may seem like a bad business move to change the algorithm

Some sites obviously should be ranked lower than others. For example, there are websites than completely copy popular blogs like Engadget, but put ads on the side which they get the money for. I personally had this experience with one of my blog posts being copied onto another blog. Websites like this are called content farms.

With other sites, it's not so clear where they should go in the search results. Some websites are completely legit, but many users would not deem them useful, and therefore do not want them in their search results. Such sites include eHow.

eHow is a website with many how-to questions and answers. People in the technology business do not seem to like eHow, and think that the content there is not useful. I personally have used eHow and like it. Some of the content may seem simple, but a lot of it is useful information.

Before this algorithm change, a search for any how-to question would usually bring an eHow article at the top. Now a search brings in eHow and sites like it after more legit looking sites. Interestingly, the eHow website has a link to a survey.

The eHow survey asked quite a few questions, all of them having to do with whether or not eHow is useful. This seems interesting, and with the recent algorithm change, I wouldn't be surprised if eHow takes the survey results to Google, saying that the results show that internet users believe that eHow is useful, and that it should rank higher in the search results.

The obvious response of Google should be that the users surveyed were eHow users, meaning that the general internet does not necessarily think of eHow as useful, and still doesn't wan't it clogging up the search results.

CrunchBase Information

Google

eHow

Information provided by CrunchBase

Android announces Online App Store and More at Today's Event

Android - A mobile operating system run by Google

Honeycomb - The codename for the latest version of Android

Tablet - A touchscreen mobile computer that is usually one piece of hardware

Widget - A small application that runs open in a small area of the screen

Earlier today, Google hosted an Android event officially showing off Honeycomb, and their online android market. They started off with Honeycomb news, and then went on to announce an online Android Market. Google Android's chief Andy Rubin introduced Hugo Barra, Android head of mobile products, to explain android 3.0, also known as Honeycomb.

Tablet With Honeycomb

Honeycomb was shown only on a tablet device, so we are yet to know much about how it would work on a phone. Honeycomb completely redesigns the Android interface.

The status bar, which tells the time, battery life, connection info, and notifications, has been completely removed from the top of the screen, and replaced by a small black bar at the bottom of the screen. This bar slightly resembles the Windows taskbar. The bar tells a user the time, battery information, notifications, and connectivity info. It also includes a back button, a home button, and a multitasking button.

When the multitasking button is tapped, a sidebar appears on the left side of the screen, showing you a visual list with all of the currently running apps. When one of the apps is tapped, it seamlessly opens up into full screen.

Tablet with Andoid 2.2

Honeycomb also focuses a lot more on not having all your apps in a grid, as seen on the Apple iPhone, previous builds of Android, and many other mobile operating systems. In Honeycomb, a user will put a few important widgets on the homescreen, as well as icons for the few most used apps. The rest of the apps will be accessible through a small button near the upper right corner of the screen. Users also have multiple home screens which they can swipe through, each showing different widgets and app icons.

Honeycomb also comes with a redesigned notification system. When a notification pops up, it won't be intrusive, it will lay at the bottom right corner of the screen, but will still show some information about the notification.

Google also included the application bar in Honeycomb. The application bar is a small bar at the top of an application that includes commands for that program. Windows has know this for a long time, as many applications have small bars with commands such as file menu, edit, and more. Android's application bar's commands can also change based on what is happening right now in the app. For example, in an email app, you might get compose message, and some other commands. When you have a message selected, on the other hand, you might see, delete, mark as spam, and more.

Google also focused on it's powerful graphics and animation capabilities. The demos Google showed were impressive, but something apple devices could do for a long time.

Google spent half the time talking about Honeycomb, and the other half talking about it's new online app store, known as Android Marketplace.

For a long time, one must be connected on his Android Device to download apps from the Marketplace. At today's event, Google announced it's Online App Store. Like Apple's online store, the online app store will allow you to download apps away from your computer, rather than have to buy them through the phone. The app store looks nice, and kind of resembles the app store for Google Chrome.

Android Market Online

Unfortunately, you cannot download the app on your PC, rather you can only discover them.

The app store integrates sharing, and allows you to share an app on Twitter, but is lacking any Facebook integration.

Overall, Honeycomb looks great, and the online Android store has been widely waited for, and is much more convenient. I'd like to see the ability to download to the PC and then syncing, and some more social integration, including Facebook.

Watch the announcement here.

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