Facebook Announces Skype Video Chat Feature

Facebook Announces Skype Video Chat Feature... This is the world's easiest one-click way to chat over video, Facebook engineer Philip Su said at the news conference here. The Seattle programmer was Facebook's only full-time engineer working on its development along with Skype, a Facebook spokeswoman said

Facebook is encouraging its members to talk face to face -- over the computer.

The social networking giant introduced a video-calling feature on Wednesday in partnership with Skype, the popular Internet video-chat provider.

The product comes a week after Google launched a competing social network, called Google+, which also includes a video-chatting program.

Facebook's version will show up on the site as a "call" button at the top of users' profile pages. By clicking that or finding someone in a new "buddy list" bar on the right-hand side, Facebook users can talk to each other as long as they have webcams. The company began turning that service on for millions of users on Wednesday and will add it to more accounts over time, spokespeople said.

This is "the world's easiest one-click way" to chat over video, Facebook engineer Philip Su said at the news conference here. The Seattle programmer was Facebook's only full-time engineer working on its development along with Skype, a Facebook spokeswoman said.

Facebook on Wednesday also introduced a change to its instant-messaging service, which now allows people to create on-the-fly group conversations.

"This is their response to Google+ right now," said Ray Valdes, an Internet analyst at Gartner Research. "I think it's a little bit of catchup in terms of features."

Google bills its new network as a better way to communicate certain messages to subsections of friends. Google+ also has drawn praise for its ability, with a service called Hangouts, to let users video chat with several friends at a time.

Facebook's new video feature does not allow for group chats. However, Skype CEO Tony Bates noted that the union with Facebook leaves an opening to add new features later, such as group calling or paid features like calling to landlines.

What Facebook does have, however, is 750 million people actively using its service, said Mark Zuckerberg, the company's CEO. Google+ is nary a week old and only available to people who managed to procure an invite from a member of the media or a tech-savvy friend.

Zuckerberg took subtle jabs Wednesday at the new Google network, saying Facebook provides the best way for people to organize their friends into groups -- with minimal effort.

"If you think about it, it makes it so that your networking community can do the work of organizing your communities for you," Zuckerberg said of Facebook's grouping features. "You don't have to curate."

Facebook Announces Skype Video Chat Feature

Google+ Social Network

Google+ Social Network.

Google has finally launched its long-awaited social network, the Google+ project.

The Google+ network is designed around users' social circles (called +Circles) and lets users selectively share with specific groups within their personal network, rather than sharing with all their social connections at once.

The search giant emphasizes Google+'s privacy customizations and hopes that users will choose to use the new service over more established networks like Facebook and Twitter.

"In real life, we have walls and windows and I can speak to you knowing who's in the room, but in the online world, you get to a ‘Share' box and you share with the whole world," Bradley Horowitz, a VP of product management at Google, told the New York Times. By granting the user more control over what is shared, how and with whom, Google+ attempts to make the online sharing experience more secure and more personal. 

In addition to +Circles, Google's network will also let users add interests, video chat in groups, share content via mobile and many more features that should be familiar to social network users.

The search giant will integrate its new network directly into its massive web presence to allow users to socialize as they use various Google proucts. Mashable explains how Google will accomplish this:

 

The search giant's new social project will be omnipresent on every Google product, thanks to a complete redesign of the Google navigation bar. The familiar gray bar at the top of every Google page will turn black, and come with several new options for accessing your Google+ profile, viewing notifications and instantly sharing content at any time. The notification system is similar to how Facebook handles notifications, complete with a red number that increases with each additional notice.

 

Google is completing its field trial of the network, which is currently open only to a select few. However, you can visit Google+ to sign up, and Google will send you a notification when the service is ready. You can also explore the social network's landing page and to see what new features are in store.

Google+ Social Network

PayPal and eBay Sue Google over Mobile Payments Trade Secrets

PayPal and eBay Sue Google over Mobile Payments Trade Secrets. PayPal and Google had been working together to establish a deal in which PayPal would be the payment processing system for Google's Android operating system for mobile phones

As the world moves from paper currency, credit cards and debit cards to a virtual payment system based on mobile phones and handheld devices, the major companies driving the revolution are going to clash. In the latest example of this, eBay and its wholly-owned payment processing system, PayPal, have filed suit against Google, claiming that two of its new executives brought and illegally shared trade secrets that were obtained during and after their previous employment with PayPal.

The fine details of the suit have yet to emerge, but the primary complaint is based on the fact that two of PayPal's former high-level employees are now working for Google and helped the company develop and launch its new Google Wallet service, which was unveiled today. eBay claims that there was information transferred to Google while one of the executives still worked for PayPal and that the same former employee attempted to recruit other staffers at PayPal to join Google, which is a violation of the original employment contract.

Until very recently, PayPal and Google had been working together to establish a deal in which PayPal would be the payment processing system for Google's Android operating system for mobile phones. Now that Google Wallet has been officially unveiled, its clear that Google and PayPal will probably not be working together - now or in the future. As we move more toward a world where currency is no longer something that you hold in your hands, significant changes will come to the way in which we live, work and consume. Wealth and financial worth may become even more abstract notions than they are today. 

PayPal and eBay Sue Google over Mobile Payments Trade Secrets

Is Email Killing the Post Office?

Is Email Killing the Post Office?  The rise of mobile, and smartphones in particular, must also play a role, as it caters to increased use in email and social media, not to mention text messaging, and even….the phone call!

Is email killing the post office? It’s not a new question. In fact, it’s been around nearly as long as the mainstream use of email itself, but it’s also not gone away, and the USPS has seen better days. I’m not normally one to buy too much into the typical x is killing y kind of hype, but the Postal Service is clearly severely injured.

BusinessWeek.com has put out a lengthy report looking at the decline of the USPS and its contributing factors. While the seven-page pice just briefly touches upon the subject of email, comparing the performance of the USPS to that of FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as counterparts in other countries, there’s no question that email and online communication in general have done their fair share of damage. 

People have been using email for years now, and despite some predicting the death of email (at the hands of social media), it’s clear that it’s hear to stay for quite some time. Even if email were to die, it wouldn’t do much to help the postal service. 

As we’ve seen just in the past week alone, email is an incredibly important part of business for companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Twitter. Even Facebook has its own email now, and social networks all still rely on email to keep users engaged – that goes for the professionals too (ie: the newly public LinkedIn). 

In a recent study, 45% said that their use of email at work will most likely increase in the next five years. 51% said that it would likely stay the same. Only 4% thought it would decrease. At home, 36% of those surveyed thought their email use will increase, 55% said it will stand pat and 6% said it will likely decrease.

The majority of important online communication still takes place through email, whether that be B2B or B2C. C2C online communication may be trending more toward social media, but again, email still plays a role here, in terms of notifications, and there is still plenty of C2C communication through email. Even from heavy users of social media. Not everyone is on the same social network. That even goes for Facebook. Email is universal. You pretty much need an email address to have any kind of account online. 

The rise of mobile, and smartphones in particular, must also play a role, as it caters to increased use in email and social media, not to mention text messaging, and even….the phone call! The point is, communication is always as close as your pocket. It’s a lot easier and cheaper (at least on an individual interaction basis) than writing letters. And it’s in real time. 

“With the rise of e-mail and the decline of letters, mail volume is falling at a staggering rate, and the postal service’s survival plan isn’t reassuring,” Devin Leonard says in the Bloomberg BusinessWeek report, noting that the USPS is the country’s second-largest civilian employer after Walmart (with more post offices than the retail outlets of Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined). Last year its revenues were $67 billion, with even greater expenses, he says. 

According to the report, first-class mail, which the USPS gets the majority of its money from, has been steadily declining, and in 2005 fell below junk mail for the first time. Total mail volume has decreased 20% just from 2006 to 2010. The USPS hasn’t been able to cover its annual budget in three years. 

Well, there’s still packages right? Sure, but there’s also stiff competition from companies like FedEx, UPS, and DHL, along with an increase in digital goods replacing physical goods. Think movies, music, and books. Amazon, the largest retailer on the web, announced last week that Kindle books are outselling print books. Never mind that there are a bunch of free ones too. 

Plus, everybody’s going paperless these days. The Director of Physical Infrastructure at the U.S. Government Accountability Office is quoted as saying, “What happens when Bank of America or Citigroup says you are going to have to pay to get your statement on paper? That’s going to change a lot of behavior. It’s going to affect the postal service. That’s how they make most of their money.”

The Bloomberg BusinessWeek report includes some interesting ideas on how the Postal Service could get back on track, at least to some extent, but the outlook is looking pretty bleak. You have to wonder what this will mean for the future of digital communication like email.

Is Email Killing the Post Office?

Google Releases Site Speed Report

the Site Speed Report feature will automatically use a small sample of pageviews to measure the page load time. If the site speed set up procedure is done correctly, users will be able to see report data in a few hours

Google has announced the inclusion of a new feature the Site Speed Report, in the latest Google Analytics. This feature will allow you to measure the page load time on pages of your website. According to the company, Google Analytics users can now understand how load times impact their ranking at Google, user experience and eventually the conversion rates.

Google says, “To improve the performance of your pages, you first need to measure and diagnose the speed of a page, which can be a difficult task. Furthermore, even with page speed measurements, it’s critical to look at page speed in context of other web analytics data.”

The company cites four different functions Google Analytics users can perform using the Site Speed Report. Users can apply the Site Speed Report to:

• Content: To find out which landing pages are slowest?
• Traffic sources: Measure which campaigns correspond to faster page loads overall?
• Visitor: How does page load time differ, with visitor to visitor or from place to place?
• Technology: Does the site load time differ from browser to browser or one OS to another?

Once the cause of the issue is diagnosed, users can take perform the necessary improvements or changes to speed up the loading of those pages that has been taking more time to load.

How to set up and use the Site Speed Report?

The Site Speed Report feature comes turned-off by default, denoting only 0s in the report. To start using the feature and measure your website’s load speed, you need to turn it on and make a little change to the Analytics tracking code. The required tracking code changes are explained on the Site Speed page at the Analytics Help Center. When this tracking code change is made, the Site Speed Report feature will automatically use a small sample of pageviews to measure the page load time. If the site speed set up procedure is done correctly, users will be able to see report data in a few hours.

It seems that the Google Analytics team and the Make the Web Faster team are working really hard to speed the web up and provide a better search experience.

Google Releases Site Speed Report

Android Video Chat Via Google Talk

 

Android Video Chat Via Google Talk ... Google says Google Talk with video/voice chat will roll out to Nexus S devices gradually over the coming weeks, as part of the Android 2.3.4 update. It will come to 2.3+ devices later

Google announced the launch of Google Talk with video and voice chat for Android phones. Apple’s FaceTime is becoming less of a unique draw to the iOS. 

“You can now video or voice chat with your friends, family and colleagues right from your Android phone, whether they’re on their compatible Android tablet or phone, or using Gmail with Google Talk on their computer,” Google explains. “You can make calls over a 3G or 4G data network (if your carrier supports it) or over Wi-Fi.”

“In your Google Talk friends list, a video or voice chat button will appear next to your contacts and you can simply touch the button to connect with them,” the company adds. “Any text chats from the person you’re talking with will be overlaid on your phone’s screen so you can read them without having to leave the video.”

That’s a nice feature that should leave the conversation in tact, particularly if you’re the type that often forgets what you were saying in the middle of conversations (especially if that conversation is spaced out over time).

“And, if you need to check something else, the video pauses automatically so you can go back to your phone’s home screen or another app,” Google adds. “The audio will keep going even though the video has paused.”

Google says Google Talk with video/voice chat will roll out to Nexus S devices gradually over the coming weeks, as part of the Android 2.3.4 update. It will come to 2.3+ devices later. 

Android Video Chat Via Google Talk

The Next Ranking Signal +1 Button From Google

+1 Button From Google The Next Ranking Signal

Introducing the +1 Button :

 

Google's Detour Around Facebook Data

The video above shows what Google +1 is all about. It’s about putting a little “+1″ button all over the web, in search results, and in ads. It’s not quite as catchy or as call-to-action-y as “like”, which makes me think that right out of the box, this will not get clicked nearly as much as Facebook’s iconic button. Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think?

+1 Button From Google The Next Ranking Signal

 

Microsoft files EU complaint against Google

Microsoft files EU complaint against Google. Google has consistently denied dominating the online search market and has contested individual allegations made against it. It said its behaviour was driven by the desire to give users of its search facilities the best results.

 

Microsoft has filed a formal complaint with European antitrust regulators about Google’s online search dominance in the region.

 

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said the software company had become “concerned by a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative”.

He added: “We’ve therefore decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market.”

In filing its complaint, Microsoft has joined its rivals in voicing their concerns with the European Union, which is investigating whether Google has violated the region’s antitrust laws and uses its dominance of web search to thwart competition.

“Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of European consumers,” Mr Smith wrote in the blog post.

While Microsoft and partner Yahoo have about a quarter of the US search market and Google the rest, Google has almost 95 per cent of the market in Europe, according to Mr Smith, who cited data from regulators.

Google has consistently denied dominating the online search market and has contested individual allegations made against it. It said its behaviour was driven by the desire to give users of its search facilities the best results.

Microsoft files EU complaint against Google

Source : www.ft.com

Google Changes Algorithm for Low Quality Sites

Google Changes Algorithm for Low Quality Sites . Algorithmic changes are nothing out of the ordinary for Google. The company tweaks its algorithm several times per year, and many times the changes are not officially announced. The latest change is worthy of an announcement because it affects 11.8 percent of Google's queries.

In an attempt to offer its users better search results, Google has just implemented a significant change to its algorithm. The change will help boost the rankings of what are deemed to be high quality sites, and it will push low quality sites, such as content farms, further down the rankings.

Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, and Matt Cutts, a principal engineer who helps the search engine giant fight spam, announced the algorithmic improvement in a post on Google's blog. The change's main goal is to improve relevancy among search results for users. By rewarding high quality sites for their content and punishing low quality sites for their supposed lack of content, users can get more of what they are looking for without having to weed through irrelevant sites. Google considers high quality sites to be those that offer original content, in-depth analysis, research, and more.

Although the blog post did not name any specific websites, it is likely that content farms are its main target. Content farms produce short, low value articles that are created in response to popular search queries. One such site is eHow, which pays freelance writers small fees to produce short articles on a variety of subjects.

Many content farm articles achieved high search engine rankings in the past, but offered little actual value to visitors. Google sees these sites as a form of spam that clutters its results. Other sites, which post unoriginal content and even go as far as to copy content, are also targeted in the algorithm change. It is unknown exactly how long it will take for the ranking changes to actualize, but they should gradually appear.

Prior to officially changing its algorithm, Google announced the release of the Personal Blocklist extension for users of its Chrome browser. The extension allows users to block specific domains from appearing in search results, essentially creating a blacklist of unwanted sites. Personal Blocklist also allows users to provide Google with feedback and opinions on the blocked sites.

Google stated that it did not use the extension's feedback in making the algorithmic change, but there are some consistencies between the two. Approximately 84 percent of the most unpopular or blocked domains from Personal Blocklist have been negatively impacted since the change, which shows that it has worked in accordance with user opinion.

Algorithmic changes are nothing out of the ordinary for Google. The company tweaks its algorithm several times per year, and many times the changes are not officially announced. The latest change is worthy of an announcement because it affects 11.8 percent of Google's queries.

As of now, the change has only been implemented in the United States. Google does plan to make it global in the future, however. As time passes, it should be interesting to see how the change affects the Internet landscape. With any luck, the rewards of higher rankings given to quality sites should create an improvement in terms of the overall level of quality of online content.

For more on this topic, visit http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html. 

Google Changes Algorithm for Low Quality Sites

Google Evil Algorithms Fine Evil Businesses

Google Evil..... We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience. Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue. That team developed an initial algorithmic solution, implemented it, and the solution is already live......

Google Evil with spying on drudge, dhs spying on drudge, prison planet censored, prisonplanet.com censored, prisonplanet have been hot today in everyone’s search. Google Search Engine has tweaked its search algorithms to pretty much demote businesses with extremely negative reviews. This was recently explained in Google’s blog “Being bad to your customers is bad for business.” Google wants business owners to know that it won’t reward bad behavior.

The new “algorithmic solution” has already discovered hundreds of merchants with abysmal ratings from users and will work to keep those sites from being ranked highly in search results. Being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google’s search results. 

Google said “We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience. Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue. That team developed an initial algorithmic solution, implemented it, and the solution is already live. I am here to tell you that being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google’s search results.”

Google Fellow Amit Singhal wrote” We can’t say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future. We know that people will keep trying: attempts to game Google’s ranking … go on 24 hours a day, every single day.”

 

Matt Cutts Calls For CEO Of Google Ideas

Matt Cutts Calls For CEO Of Google Ideas. Matt Cutts : I don't want stuff so blue sky (e.g. solving all energy problems) that we're not even sure whether it's possible.  But concrete stuff like Scott's 'surface analytics about my time that would help me improve my life' or Lauren's suggestion [covering customer support] are the sorts of things I'd love to hear. . . . 

If you've ever wanted to have a say in what Google does next, a visit to Matt Cutts's blog may be in order.  This afternoon, Cutts published a post asking readers what actions they'd take as Google's CEO, and although no official contest is in effect (and Eric Schmidt's definitely not stepping aside), the question may be more than random link bait.

Interested?  Cutts wrote, "I'd like to know: what products would you launch?  What ideas would you fund? . . . .  I'm specifically interested in Big Ideas.  Things like data liberation or self-driving cars.  Or what's the one huge feature missing from a Google product?  In essence, what are the big products, features, or ideas that you would like to see Google work on?"

Fair warning: don't bother trying to get Google to perfect a $500 Ferrari.  Or build a spaceship, however cool that would be (and the company could probably do it, with its NASA connections and market cap of $190 billion).

In the comments section, Cutts clarified, "I don't want stuff so blue sky (e.g. solving all energy problems) that we're not even sure whether it's possible.  But concrete stuff like Scott's 'surface analytics about my time that would help me improve my life' or Lauren's suggestion [covering customer support] are the sorts of things I'd love to hear. . . .  Maybe a good idea/proposal is something that 1 to 20 people could deliver in 2011 if they really worked hard?"

So perhaps the whole "CEO of Google" setup aimed a little too high.  Still, that "1 to 20 people" remark makes it seem much more likely that Google will actually accept someone's recommendation.

Good luck making the cut (and receiving some sort of reward) if you decide to volunteer an idea.

 

Matt Cutts Calls For CEO Of Google Ideas

Get Your Blog Listed in Google News

Your post must include author name, date of publication, and should be well-categorized (easy for a blog!) The title should not exceed the limit of 25 words. Article URL’s should be unique and look static

One solution that can pay off immensely is getting your blog listed in Google News. Google news is constantly updated with latest stories that have a news hook. If you get your blog listed, it will provide you with good exposure and coverage, and will also boost targeted traffic to your site.

Ok.. Here are the top tips for getting your blog picked up by Google News:

• Create an About Us Page:
  This is a must for Google News. Talk about the organization of your company and the goal of your site. You need to have at LEAST two bloggers on your site, who blog frequently.
• Create a Contact Us Page;
  Another must. Provide clear and concise (and legitimate) contacct information!
• Create Original/Fresh Content:
  Google News likes to new original and new content, along with news related posts.
• Define Your Industry:
  Your Homepage/Logo should clearly state what industry segment you cover (enterainment, sports, finance, etc.).
• Format Your Posts Properly:
  Your post must include author name, date of publication, and should be well-categorized (easy for a blog!) The title should not exceed the limit of 25 words. Article URL’s should be unique and look static.
• Post Frequently:
  You want to shoot for three updates a day, minimum. The whole point of being in Google News is to have timely information and this requires frequent posts!
• Don’t Write Too Short:
  Too short of posts (less than 200 characters) seem to be filtered out.

Once you’re ready, submit your blog for inclusion!

Oracle Says Google Android Violates Its Java Patents

Oracle Corp. filed a patent- and copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc., claiming its Android software for mobile devices uses technology Oracle obtained in its January acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc.

“In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property,” Karen Tillman, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California-based Oracle, said in a statement yesterday. “This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement.”

The suit, which Google called “baseless,” opens a new front in Silicon Valley’s smartphone software wars, pitting Oracle against the fastest-growing mobile operating system. Android, used on devices such as Motorola Inc.’s Droid X and HTC Corp.’s Droid Incredible, was the best-selling operating software in the U.S. in the second quarter, topping Research In Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc., research firm Gartner Inc. said yesterday.

“Google is under attack in a lot of different ways,” said Will Stofega, a program manager at Framingham, Massachusetts- based researcher IDC. “It shows the intensity of the fight between everyone trying to control the software.”

Oracle gained the Java programming language as part of its $7.3 billion purchase of Sun. Developed by Sun in the mid-1990s, Java lets developers write programs that work across different operating systems and on a variety of computers. It formed a key building block of the Web and is widely used in business applications. The software also runs on billions of mobile devices, Sun said last year.

Seven Patents

The complaint targets Google’s Dalvik virtual machine, one of the software programs used to run applications on the phones. Oracle claims the software was developed using the Java platform. Google hired former Sun engineers so it knew of the Java technology, Oracle said in the complaint.

Oracle, which claims seven patents are being violated, is seeking a court ruling that would ban further use of its intellectual property, and would force the destruction of all products that violate Java-related copyrights on the code, documentation and specifications. It also seeks an unspecified amount of cash compensation.

“We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit,” said Aaron Zamost, a Google spokesman. “The open- source Java community goes beyond any one corporation and works every day to make the Web a better place. We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform.”

Most Important Asset

Java was developed as a proprietary language that needed to be licensed from Sun. During the past decade, then Sun Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Schwartz began making open-source versions of Java products available. That means the code can be used freely by outside developers.

“Java is the single most important software asset we have ever acquired,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said when he first announced the Sun purchase. Oracle will continue to expand the Java business, he said at the time.

Oracle isn’t likely trying to take on Google, as much as wanting to squeeze higher royalties out of the company, said James Gosling, who created Java while working at Sun.

“Everything there is about money,” Gosling said about Oracle in an interview today. He resigned from the company in April, a few months after it bought Sun, according to his blog.

While Java is widely used in business applications, many new websites are favoring programming languages such as Ruby on Rails, which is also distributed under an open-source license.

“It’s part of an effort by Oracle to shore up their investment in Java,” Stofega said. “A lot of people would argue Java is losing its relevance versus other platforms.”

Spawning Patent Suits

Researcher ISuppli Corp. on Aug. 5 projected Android will be in almost a fifth of all smartphones in the world by 2012. It’s used on phones sold through Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., while the iPhone is available only on AT&T Inc.’s network.

The popularity of Android, and the increasing competition in the smartphone market, has prompted other patent-infringement suits. Apple has claimed that HTC’s Android-run phones are infringing its patents and is seeking to block imports of the phones into the U.S.

Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker and owner of the Windows Mobile operating system, said in April that Android may infringe its patents. Microsoft, which signed a licensing agreement with HTC, said at the time it was in talks with other makers of phones that run on Android.

Oracle and Google will probably settle the case by agreeing to license each other’s patents, IDC’s Stofega said.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt previously worked at Sun. He joined that company in 1983, led its Java development efforts and then was promoted to chief technology officer. Schmidt took the reins at Google in 2001.

Oracle declined 28 cents to $22.66 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It has dropped 7.6 percent this year. Google, down 22 percent this year, fell $5.66 to $486.35.

--With assistance from Susan Decker in Washington and Olga Kharif in Portland, Oregon. Editors: Lisa Wolfson, Nick Turner

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net; Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

Oracle sues Google for patent infringement in Android OS

New York:  Technology major Oracle Corp has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that its Java-related patents and copyrights were infringed in the development of the Internet search giant's Android operating system.

Oracle filed the suit against Google in the US District Court of Northern California on Thursday.

The filing alleges that Google's Android operating system for smartphones infringes upon seven patents and related copyrights of Oracle's Java software platform.

"By purposefully and voluntarily distributing one or more of its infringing products and services, Google has injured Oracle America and is thus liable to Oracle America for infringement of the patents at issue in this litigation," the Oracle petition stated.

Oracle has sought unspecific damages and an action against the "continued acts of infringement" by Google.

Oracle had become the owner of the Java platform after its US $5.6 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems, which was completed earlier this year.

The Java platform is especially useful as it insulates applications from dependencies on particular processors or operating systems.

Story first published:

August 13, 2010 18:38 IST

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/oracle-sues-google-for-patent-infringement-in-android-os-44269?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NdtvNews-TopStories+(NDTV+News+-+Top+Stories)&cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/oracle-sues-google-for-patent-infringement-in-android-os-44269?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NdtvNews-TopStories+(NDTV+News+-+Top+Stories)&cp

Yahoo & Nokia Join Forces for E-mail & Maps

Yahoo and Nokia Join Forces for E-mail and Maps

Nokia and Yahoo announced a partnership today that will meld the companies’ e-mail, chat and mapping services across their respective platforms. In addition to sharing services with one another, Nokia and Yahoo will be working on making the login process more seamless.

Nokia currently offers mapping and navigation tools for its phones under its Ovi brand; with the new partnership, Yahoo Maps will now be “powered by Ovi.” In exchange, Yahoo will become the exclusive provider for Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services, which will be branded with a “powered by Yahoo” message.

In the login space, Nokia and Yahoo are working to make Ovi user IDs usable across select Yahoo properties. We presume these will include maps, e-mail and chat, although it isn’t clear if the Ovi login will extend to other Yahoo services like Flickr.

Strategically, this makes a lot of sense. Although Nokia is the largest mobile device maker in the world, its marketshare — especially in next-generation smartphones — lags behind companies like Google, Apple and RIM. Likewise, while Yahoo still has a significant share of the online mail market, its services are in decline and its search deal with Microsoft won’t be complete on a global scale until 2012.

Since Nokia already has strong investments in mapping and navigation, and Yahoo has a handle on chat and e-mail, it makes sense for the two companies to partner together instead of trying to build out their own services.

HDDlife plugin for Google Desktop

HDDlife plugin for Google Desktop 1.0

 
This freeware package builds a searchable index of your local files and allows you to search through them as you normally search for pages in Google. Google Desktop comes with a great sidebar. This floating panel includes such magnificent utilities as a headline news viewer, RSS and Atom monitor, Gmail and Outlook new mail notifiers, and more. Millions of users fell in love with it from the very first moment. So did I. But, in fact, it was just the beginning. 

 

The real value of the Google sidebar is in its pluggable architecture. Software developers started to make even more tools that you can integrate into your Google Desktop. Let me tell you about one of these plug-ins... Most Google Desktop tools are involved with the monitoring of on-line resources. However, you shouldn t forget about your own PC s health. Without a working hard drive, all remote resources will be totally inaccessible. HDDLife is a freeware plugin for Google Desktop that constantly monitors a vast range of your hard drive s parameters. By collecting statistical data from your drive operations, HDDLife can forecast hardware problems. It will alert you when your drive is close to a crash. 

 

This allows you to prevent the loss of your precious files. You will always know your drive s condition by taking a quick look at Google Sidebar. HDDLife draws green, yellow and red icons which indicate the condition of your drives at the moment. Did you know that hard drives are quite sensitive to heat? A rise in temperature by 10 degrees may halve your drive s life expectancy. HDDLife helps you quickly diagnose heating problems and prolong the life of yourhardware. In addition to the status icons for each drive shown on Google Sidebar, you will also see your hard drive temperature. Did I mention that it is free? Yes, simply download and use it. 

 

License:Freeware
Systems: Windows Size:370.0 KB
Date Added:05 March, 2009

Publisher: BinarySense, Ltd.

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