Google CEO

Google today announced Google Apps for Government, a new offering that has the look and feel of the Google Apps enterprise offering but now with some enhancements intended to address security concerns specific to government agencies.

At a press event at Google’s headquarters today, the company said that it has received FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) certification, which allows Google to store sensitive, yet unclassified, information, which makes up about 80 percent of all government data, the company said.

In addition, the company said it has built a segregated physical set of servers for Gmail and calendaring for government customers and that other apps will soon be housed on those servers, as well. It also said that all government data will be stored within the borders of the continental United States.

As part of the company’s pitch for the announcement, it played up the cost savings that comes with the switch and noted that, in these tough economic times, government agencies need these sort of cost savings alternatives. The news builds on an event last year that was co-hosted by Google and the U.S. government to announce Apps.gov. At that event, the company said it was seeking the FISMA certification.

The company said it is obviously looking to offer government agencies the same cost savings that comes with offloading some of these IT systems to the cloud. And, for the most part, that’s something that government agencies already know about.

But the trust factor has been a big issue for government agencies – both big and small. After all, dealing with sensitive data and offloading it to a third party vendor can be a scary thing. Google recognizes that and said that the new certification – notably because it comes from the federal government – serves as a “banner of trust” of sorts that gives smaller state and local government agencies the thumbs-up for a push into the cloud.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who made a cameo at the press event, said that for years, enterprises have all faced the same issues with data management, systems updates, aging infrastructures and security. The demand, he said, for a new way is enormous and that the certification from the government is yet another barrier that’s been broken down. That, he said, allows agencies to not only save money but also update its infrastructure to a system that’s more efficient and friendlier to taxpayers and citizens.

“Cloud computing is sort of a jump ball,” Schmidt said. “You get a chance to rethink it.”

Source: ZDNet

Google's new search results page redesign highlights search options on the left side, in living color.

Starting Wednesday, Google users will see something very different on search results pages as the world’s leading Internet search company trots out one of its most significant redesigns in years.

Google search result pages will get a lot more colorful as Google formally introduces a redesign it has been testing for several years. It’s not a huge surprise since Google has been actively testing the design with users for several months, and testing for this particular revision dates back even further, said John Wiley, senior user experience designer for Google.

With the new look, Google is emphasizing the menu of search options that had previously been hidden on the left-side rail of the search results pages. First unveiled in May 2009, search options required a searcher to click on a “show options” link at the top of the page. Now they will be permanently affixed to the left rail, and Google will surface different search options based on whether they are relevant to the query, Wiley said.

For example, a search for “red shoes” would produce the usual set of results, but on the left rail, Google will surface a link to Google’s shopping search pages. In the same vein, a search for “NFL draft” would surface news and real-time updates on that rail. Users can access the full list of search options by clicking on “more” but will see a changing list of highlighted options on the left rail for different queries.

And those options themselves will be quite visible: Google is using strong colors to highlight those options, in what Wiley called “a modern crisp clean look.” Even Google’s logo is getting in on the act, with a subtle overhaul that brightens the colors and drops the shadowing cast by the letters.

Google's new logo, which eliminates the shadows behind the letters and uses brighter colors.

“This was one of our larger visual experiments we’ve ever run at Google,” Wiley said. The company tested different designs in the wild, with members of the public in Google’s testing labs, and its usual “dog-fooding” process among employees, and assembled enough data on preferences to put together the final product.

Google has been criticized for this data-driven approach to design in the past, perhaps most prominently by former employee Douglas Bowman, who in departing the company last year wrote “I won’t miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data.”

While not responding directly to Bowman’s concerns in light of the new design, Wiley pointed out that individual designers at Google have to use their intuition to figure out which kinds of visual experiments to test before subjecting those tests to data analysis. “I think that we are very lucky at Google to have the resources to be able to run the kinds of experiments that give us great data,” he said.

Google is also changing the way search tools and search refinements appear on the left hand side of its search results page. A search for “rolling stones” will trigger a list of results under the header “something different,” which in this case would bring up other classic rock bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin.

The changes will appear on a rolling basis to most users over the course of Wednesday, Wiley said, but could take longer for some users of Google search in languages other than English.

Source: CNET News

Google Chrome logo

Have you ever wondered why people put http:// in front of website addresses? Well, without getting into the details, it actually an important part of how the web works.

In the latest Google Chrome dev build, when you go to a website, it simply removes the http:// from the front of website addresses — presumably because it cleans things up a bit.

I don’t think it makes much of a difference actually — considering I never even noticed what was happening until I read Zack Whittaker about the new “feature”. Simplicity is a good thing — but sometimes it’s easy to over-think things.

Personally, I believe Google should put the http:// back in — after learning what is happening, it gone makes the browser feel a bit inconsistent. For example, when you visit a website that is “secure” (https://), or view a directory on your computer (file:///C:/), the front part isn’t automatically removed — and probably shouldn’t be.

Source: ZDNet

Google CEO Eric Schmid

Google is being targeted by lawsuits and governments around the world with potential privacy invasions, so perhaps it wasn’t the best choice of words when Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Mobile World Congress in a keynote address a few days ago: “We can literally know everything if we want to.”

Schmidt was there to talk about the future of mobile, and he said everything you would expect him to — nothing particularly revealing. But several minutes into his address, he talked about the pervasiveness of social networking information, microblogging, and self-publishing on the Internet. And he had this to say:

This notion of publishing and microblogging and so forth, information that you think is generally interesting is an explosion that will drive networks futher into everything we do in every way. Think of it as an opportunity to instrument the world. These networks are now so pervasive that we can literally know everything if we want to. What people are doing, what people care about, information that’s monitored, we can literally know it if we want to, and if people want us to know it.

Schmidt was absolutely right in what he had to say. The amount of information available about people is mind-boggling, particularly when people use social networking sites to post information about themselves. Just consider the site Please Rob Me. It scans Twitter streams for people who say they are not at home, and then publishes that information on the site. Why does the site do it? To let people know just how dangerous it is to publicly post information about themselves that is best left private.

Google has the capability to scan not just Twitter streams, but information from all social networks, and combine that with your search history, and information about you on the Internet. So Schmidt was not guilty of overkill when he spoke to the Mobile World Conference.

He’s clearly aware about the privacy issues this raises — note how he said “we can literally know it if we want to, and if people want us to know it. (Emphasis is mine.) It’s good to see that he added that final caveat. I don’t think Google quite yet understands just how dangerous many people think its power to invade people’s privacy is. But eventually, prodded by governments, I think they’ll get it.

Source: ComputerWorld Blog

Goojje

It all sounds a little too weird and disturbing at the same time but it looks like a certain Chinese site is ready to replace Google Search altogether. Goojje is the name of the new search engine
and it might become the alternative China needs should Google withdraw from the market.

A certain stereotype says about the Chinese that they can copy pretty much any product. That’s certainly based on the large number of replicas and knock offs coming from China, a country that happens to be producing lots of the original products which it copies later on.

But Google’s search engine should be a lot more difficult to replicate, wouldn’t you agree? Or at least that would be the case if Goojje would be going for world domination in the search market. But Goojje seems to be a quick solution to the search needs of a country like China.

Google threatened to pull out of the market after having discovered that it was the target of cyber attacks originating from China. The Chinese government denied such allegations but Google stood its ground refusing to censor search results anymore. Furthermore the company postponed Android plans for China although Android smartphone manufacturers targeting the Chinese market are still proceeding according to plans.

And that’s how Goojje appeared. The explanation for the chosen word is that the final syllable of the word, “jje” sounds very familiar to the Mandarin pronunciation for Google which ends in “jiejie.” And Goojje search is delivering search results according to Chinese regulations which is why one would think that the service has been conceived in order to replace Google’s presence in China.

Google hasn’t commented on the situation yet but it will be interesting to see what happens next in the Chinese online search business. In the mean time Goojje has a message for Google on its home page:

Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister.

In Chinese Goojje sounds like “sister” while the pronunciation of Google sounds like “big brother.”

Read: Goojje Search Engine Launches in China [Goojje to Replace Google Search in China?] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Source: nexus404

IE logo

Google has clearly had enough with Internet Explorer 6.

As of March 1, Google will no longer support IE6 on its Google Docs and Google Sites services, it announced Friday. IE users will have to upgrade to at least version 7 if they want to use those products, as “many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers,” the company said in a blog post.

A flaw in IE6 was exploited in the recent cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies, and Microsoft scrambled to patch the flaw in a rare out-of-cycle patch release earlier this month. Use of the browser–considered much weaker than more recent versions of IE within the security community–has been dropping with the release of Internet Explorer 8 but it is still being used by 13.5 percent of Web surfers, according to statistics from StatCounter.

Google set the baseline for other browsers at Firefox 3.0 or higher, Chrome 4.0 or higher, and Safari 3.0 or higher. “…you may find that from March 1, key functionality within these products–as well as new Docs and Sites features–won’t work properly in older browsers,” Google said.

Microsoft Learned of IE Zero-Day Flaw Last September

Microsoft was aware months ago of a critical security vulnerability well before hackers exploited it to breach Google, Adobe and other large U.S. companies but did not patch the hole until Thursday.

The software giant had intended to release a patch for the flaw in February — more than four months after learning about it — but had to speed up that plan and roll it out this week in the wake of news that Google and others had been hacked through the flaw, the world’s largest software maker acknowledged Thursday.

Meron Sellen, a security researcher at BugSec, an Israeli firm, quietly reported the vulnerability to Microsoft in September, according tosecurity firm Kaspersky.

Microsoft confirmed it learned of the so-called “zero-day” flaw months ago.

According to Microsoft, “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. If a user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.”

The flaw, which primarily affected IE6, allowed hackers to download malware to employee computers to gain access to intellectual property at Google, as well as information connected to Gmail users. It’s unknown what the hackers obtained from some 33 other companies — hi-tech, financial and defense — that were also targeted in the attack.

Although Microsoft recognized the severity of the flaw at the time Sellen reported it, the company held off releasing a patch so it could be included in a cumulative update for IE planned next month, the company said.

A zero-day flaw is a vulnerability for which there is currently no patch. It’s also a flaw that is generally unknown to the software vendor, which gives hackers who may be aware of the flaw a jump on developing malware to exploit it.

It’s unknown if other companies were breached through the flaw prior to the high-profile hacks disclosed last week. Most companies are unwilling to acknowledge a breach, let alone provide public details about how they were hacked.

Google disclosed last week it discovered in mid-December that it had been hacked in an attack originating from China, about three months after Microsoft learned of the vulnerability. Adobe followed Google, announcing it, too, was hacked. Security firm iDefense said it had information that at least 34 companies were breached in the coordinated attack.

On Thursday, meanwhile, Microsoft released a cumulative security update for Internet Explorer that fixes the flaw, as well as seven other security vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a victim’s computer.

“Our investigation into this responsibly reported vulnerability began early September,” Jerry Bryant, senior security program manager for Microsoft, said in a statement. “As part of this investigation we began working on an update to help protect customers. We became aware of the recent attacks in mid-January and as part of our investigation determined the vulnerability being used in these attacks was similar to the one investigated in September.

Source: wired

Google

Google’s logged 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide. Google hopes to grow its search and ad dominance by focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking. Smartphones as Google’s Nexus One, paired with mobile search, applications and advertising seem like a fine way for Google to extend its search dominance from the desktop to the PC. Google will pit its mobile technologies those of Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple in 2010.

Google’s strategy to “double down” on its core search business helped the company clean up as the top search property with 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, or 66.8 percent of the more than 131 billion searches conducted worldwide.

That’s good for a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year, according to figures released Jan. 22 by researcher comScore. These world-leading totals helped Google rake in a fourth-quarter 2009 profit of $1.97 billion and sales of $4.95 billion.

Google hopes to improve on these numbers through focusing on a convergence of mobile search, advertising and applications, including location-based technologies with a heavy dose of social networking.

Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management at Google, attributed Google’s successful Q4 to the company’s doubling down on its efforts in search, AdWords search advertising and display advertising.

“Search did particularly well in 2009 and I think that may be the best example of what we feel we can do when we double down and focus,” Rosenberg said on the company’s Q4 earnings call Jan. 21. He cited Google’s 550 search quality enhancements; a bigger and faster index; universal search expansion; and Google’s new music search service.

However, Google’s crowning search achievement arrived Dec. 7 in the form of real-time. Google indexes tweets from Twitter and public status updates from Facebook, as well as info from MySpace, news publications and blogs only seconds after the content is published online.

Rosenberg noted that two minutes after a force 4.1 earthquake struck California two weeks ago, Google’s real-time search algorithms surfaced local Twitter tweets and news reports. The idea is that retrieving this type of content will keep users coming to Google.

It’s difficult to gauge the financial impact of these real-time results, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on the call real-time search was “very successful.”

Source: eWeek

Bill Gates

With little fanfare, Bill Gates joined the ranks of celebrities on Twitter this week. But if 140-character tweets aren’t enough for you, the software-mogul-turned-philanthropist Wednesday started sharing his more complete thoughts on a Web site dubbed “The Gates Notes.”

Mr. Gates’s site, www.thegatesnotes.com, will be a repository for his thoughts on a range of topics from education to energy. He will list books he’s reading and post emails and excerpts from presentations. Areas of the site are broken into categories including “My Travels” and “What I’m Learning.”

The site follows the Microsoft Corp. chairman’s first use of Twitter’s messaging service on Tuesday. His Twitter page bore the blue check-mark icon used to verify the identifies of famous people who use the service.

The Twitter updates and new Web site are part of an effort to increase communication about a broader range of topics that Mr. Gates has focused on since leaving full-time work at Microsoft in 2008.

His first tweet, “Hello World. Hard at work on my foundation letter – publishing on 1/25,” was enough to start pulling in followers, who by Wednesday afternoon numbered more than 230,000. The message referred to an annual letter coming Monday detailing his thoughts on his philanthropy, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr. Gates wasn’t just sharing his thoughts, he was also using the service to follow about 40 Twitter users ranging from Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan to actor Ashton Kutcher. “I’d like to welcome @billgates to the twitterverse,” wrote Mr. Kutcher, who has more than four million Twitter followers.

Since leaving the software company he co-founded Mr. Gates has experimented with other non-Microsoft Web tools, including Facebook, which he stopped using after too many people wanted to connect to him on the social-networking site.

Wednesday Mr. Gates used Twitter to announce the Gates Notes site, tweeting that he’s “excited to share more about what I’m learning.”

The first installments include his thoughts on education reform, Haiti and geo-engineering, among other topics. He also gave a thumbs up to the book “Sustainable Energy” by David MacKay and highlighted the work of Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba and author of books on energy, food and population.

Throughout the site, Mr. Gates’s opinions show his overarching belief that more technological innovation, some of it government-led, can cure many of the world’s ills.

Among them is that he believes in “strong government encouragement” to spur innovation in carbon dioxide reduction. He said the world should push for reducing carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2050.



Google purchase of AdMob gets closer antitrust review

Google’s purchase of mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million has drawn closer regulatory scrutiny as U.S. antitrust officials have asked Google for more information on the deal, Google said in a blog post Wednesday.

Google has been talking to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the deal and the agency gave Google a “second request” for information this week, Paul Feng, a Google product manager, said in the post. Google announced the acquisition plans last month, saying AdMob’s focus on in-application and mobile display ads would dovetail with Google’s strength in mobile search ads.

Google purchase of AdMob gets closer antitrust review

The FTC has asked Google for more information about its proposed buyout of mobile advertising provider AdMob

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Google’s purchase of mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million has drawn closer regulatory scrutiny as U.S. antitrust officials have asked Google for more information on the deal, Google said in a blog post Wednesday.

Google has been talking to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the deal and the agency gave Google a “second request” for information this week, Paul Feng, a Google product manager, said in the post. Google announced the acquisition plans last month, saying AdMob’s focus on in-application and mobile display ads would dovetail with Google’s strength in mobile search ads.

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Google, like search rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, has worked to gain footholds in the mobile market as a large potential source of future revenue.

But the FTC review shows that Google’s dominant search market position has brought it more attention from regulators. “We know that closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google’s success,” Feng said in the blog post.

Google does not see any regulatory issues with the AdMob deal “because the rapidly growing mobile advertising space is highly competitive with more than a dozen mobile ad networks,” he said. Still, the review means that the AdMob deal will not close right away, he said.

Source: infoworld