About.com Google

Google Shopping Gets Feature Enhancements

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:53:13 +0000

Just in time for the holidays, Google Product Search got some upgrades. The feature updates include bigger pictures for better window shopping, maps to find local stores, and better display of customer reviews.� You can even see video reviews from YouTube.

The new reviews on the detail page are actually pretty slick. Not only do you get a graphical bar to show you how the rating were distributed, you can hover over one-line review summaries to dig deeper and reach the full review.

They've also created a mobile version of Product Search that uses your phone's camera for barcode scanning, so you can look up reviews in the store while you're shopping. ShopSavvy already does basically the same thing on Android or iPhones, but Google is throwing in the extra bonus that you can find coupons while you shop with Google Product search.

Google Shopping Gets Feature Enhancements originally appeared on About.com Google on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 22:53:13.

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YouTube Will Auto Caption

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:04:13 +0000

If you can't hear, digital streaming video can be pretty unfriendly. Some technologies don't support closed captions. YouTube does, but having videos professionally captioned is also expensive and time consuming.

Google is rolling out a new feature that will use the voice to text technology of Google Voice to auto caption videos on YouTube. The technology is less than perfect. Sometimes you get garbled results. That's still much better than nothing, and if you've ever watched the close captioning on your TV, you'll notice� humans don't always do a better job.

Google is only rolling auto captions out to a few partner sites initially, but they're rolling another feature out to everyone else: auto timing. Previously you had to upload captions to YouTube as SRT files that included text and timing information. Now you just need a text file, and Google will figure out the timing for you. That's a huge time saver.

YouTube Will Auto Caption originally appeared on About.com Google on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 16:04:13.

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Hands on With Sony Ericsson X10

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:17:57 +0000

The Xperia X10 is due out in the US sometime next year, but I had a chance to play with one today. The phone boasts a nice 8 megapixel camera, which is larger than the Verizon Droid's 5 megapixel offering. It has a large touch screen but no keyboard. It also has several software interface additions to the Android OS base.

The far more exciting announcement around this phone came this morning. Sony Ericsson is working with PhoneGap and releasing the Sony Ericsson WebSDK. What's the big deal? It's a wrapper for developing Android or Symbian apps, so developing a phone app is literally as easy as designing a website. You can even charge for them and use them on non Sony Ericsson phones. Will they be as robust as natively written apps? That remains to be seen. It's a problem for iPhone apps that run on Safari, but that's another phone.

Speaking of the iPhone, I was told by a PhoneGap developer that there are likely big changes underway. There were hints in their developer specifications that the screen was going to get larger and cameras might be mounted on the front as well as the back for video chat. This likely points to the long anticipated, frequently rumored Apple tablet. He was quick to point out that this was information already out in the public sphere, but he seemed to be hinting that he had some inside info on the rumor he couldn't yet divulge.

Hands on With Sony Ericsson X10 originally appeared on About.com Google on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 15:17:57.

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Jeff Jarvis at Web 2.0

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:07:21 +0000

Jeff Jarvis gave a presentation yesterday on an idea he's mulling over for a followup to his book, What Would Google Do? (Compare Prices) His current idea is to explore life as a form of beta with the idea of beta in the traditional Google sense. Beta means that the product is still evolving and will have interface and other changes.

It's a bit ironic considering Google's recent trend away from labeling all their products as beta. In order to sell business enterprise products like Google Apps, they've removed the beta label from Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk.

Jeff Jarvis at Web 2.0 originally appeared on About.com Google on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 11:07:21.

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Web 2.0 Expo Day Two

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:34:04 +0000

It's day two of the Web 2.0 Expo. Many of us battled with power supply issues and slow Internet connections. This was particularly unfortunate when Tom Hughs-Croucher of Yahoo! tried to demonstrate fabulous HTML 5 sites and encouraged the audience to participate.

In many ways it highlighted the trend toward smartphones. As we experienced WiFi access issues, audience members whipped out their iPhones, Android phones, and Blackberrys and started taking photographs of slides, texting notes,� and tweeting comments.

Perhaps the greatest pitfall of using Twitter as a conference backchannel occurred during Danah Boyd' s keynote address. She began the address on the wrong foot by reading a prepared speech, quickly. The conference displayed live Twitter posts tagged with the conference hashtag, so tweets like "Look up, Danah!" and "She's talking too fast" filled the screen.� This was a huge contrast to Chris Brogan's keynote where compliments and quotes from his speech scrolled behind him as he spoke.

Web 2.0 Expo Day Two originally appeared on About.com Google on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 22:34:04.

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Greetings From the Web 2.0 Expo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:10:02 +0000

This week I'm in New York City attending the O'Reilly/Techweb Web 2.0 Expo. Today I'm learning about building social media websites from Erin Malone and Christina Wodtke. Social media is huge, and every company is trying to develop ways for visitors to socially interact with their content, from leaving comments to personalizing their experience with profiles, chat,� and social contacts.

One of the things Web designers need to think about is whether they develop social features from scratch or use form companies like Google, Twitter, or Facebook.

I also got the chance to talk with Alhan Keser at Blue Fountain Media on his views of SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) He's a fan of a Long Tail strategy.� That means it was better to be found easily in Google for very specific but relevant keywords than it is for very general terms.

What Is Web 2.0?

Greetings From the Web 2.0 Expo originally appeared on About.com Google on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 09:10:02.

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Chrome OS Next Week?

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:02:22 +0000

Google made the surprise announcement last summer that they were developing an open source operating system based on their Chrome Web browser. Rumor is that we'll get to see the OS in action next week. TechCrunch claims a "reliable source" tipped them off with the news.

Don't get your shopping lists ready yet. If it happens, it will be a preview download intended for developers, not� a full release. Barring a miracle, computers with Chrome pre-installed won't happen until next year at the earliest.

TechCrunch speculates that drivers could be an issue at this stage, so only a few models would be supported. I've got a Linux netbook ready, and if Google does release the OS, I'll do my best to install it.

What Is Chrome OS?

Chrome OS Next Week? originally appeared on About.com Google on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 00:02:22.

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Google Gizmo: Google Buys Gizmo5

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:58:31 +0000

Google announced they'd purchased Gizmo5, a Voice over IP company. Gizmo5 is a competitor to Skype. It lets you make free Internet based phone calls and cheap calls from your computer to someone's phone. They've closed Gizmo5 for new users, but old users can continue to use the service.

The technology meshes well with Google Voice and could add some much needed features, including the highly requested ability to dial numbers with extensions.� Future Google Voice users might also have the option of making phone calls without having to use their phone. Given Google's preference for ad sponsored technology, it could also mean they'll figure out a way to keep it "free" for consumers by utilizing that pause between dialing a number and hearing a voice on the other end.

Google Gizmo: Google Buys Gizmo5 originally appeared on About.com Google on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 22:58:31.

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Free WiFi When You Fly

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:38:01 +0000

Google announced that they were sponsoring free WiFi access at 47 participating airports. In addition, they're providing it for Virgin flights. The free Internet access will last from now until January 15, so if your flight is delayed due to weather, at least you won't have to pay to email your family and let them know.

When you log on, you'll be asked for an optional charitable donation to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

Free WiFi is a popular gift this year. Yahoo! is giving away free access at New York's Times Square for an entire year. eBay is sponsoring WiFi on Delta flights.

Microsoft started offering airport Wifi in September in a promotion that will also last through the holiday season. I ran into Microsoft WiFi as I was leaving NYC out of LaGuardia. I was offered twenty minutes of free Internet access in exchange for performing a single Bing search.

Free WiFi When You Fly originally appeared on About.com Google on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 00:38:01.

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Murdoch Wants to Block Google

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:31:29 +0000

It makes me wonder of Rupert Murdoch really understands how the Internet works, but he's threatened to block Google from searching his Web properties in favor of a pay model for� content. Murdoch is the founder and CEO of News Corp,� which owns� multiple media companies, including The Wall Street Journal, Hulu, MySpace, and Fox.

Google has always had the position that any webmaster could block Google. All they have to do is use the industry standard robots.txt protocol, and Google will pretend that the site doesn't exist. However, charging for content and being found in search are not mutually exclusive ideas. Google is even working on a micropayment system to make it easier for newspaper and other publishers to charge small fees for accessing content.

Even so, convincing visitors to pay for your content is the second hurdle. They have to find your site first. Murdoch said in a recent Australian interview that he'd rather have fewer paying customers than more non-paying visitors, but he may be disappointed in exactly how well his wish is granted. Such a move would likely cut off� 25% of their traffic. The long-term loss would likely be greater as fewer new users discover the sites.

Then there's the second hurdle. The value of the content. The Wall Street Journal has been experimenting with a pay model, but it seems silly to think this will translate well to other sites like the New York Post or Fox.com.

How to Add a Custom News Feed to Google Reader

Murdoch Wants to Block Google originally appeared on About.com Google on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 01:31:29.

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