Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Will Google Plus Bleed Facebook?
Friday, July 1st, 2011
Right from the time Facebook took over the as the king of social market, drowning Myspace, there has been no real fight for the throne. It’s time we saw a good competitor for Facebook.
Google has attempted to break the Facebook wall many times before, only to bruise itself. Google Waves had to be shut down and Google Buzz doesn’t seem to be picking up. After these failed attempts Google has now come up with another weapon to breach the great wall of Facebook. This is Google Plus (+1). Let’s see what this product has in store.
1. Circles: Circles are groups that can be created for restricted communication and sharing. This is like having separate communities for your friends, family, colleagues, etc. You can create any number of circles. (more…)
Web Apps For mCommerce
Thursday, November 11th, 2010mCommerce
Mobile commerce or m-Commerce is creating a lot of buzz in the web space and is poised for further growth. It has never been easy to shop online any time, anywhere from the comfort of our palm. According to a study by ABI Research, it is estimated that people around the world will spend around $119 billion shopping online. There’s a massive opportunity for not only improving the way mobile purchasing works but also for inventing new ways to sharing and promoting services and merchandises. (more…)
What is new with Android 2.2 Froyo?
Monday, June 7th, 2010As per Google Android’s developer forum, Android 2.2 is indeed a minor platform release including user and developer features, API changes, and bug fixes. A reading on developer features and API changes can be had on Framework API section. Android 2.2 platform is available to developers as a downloadable component for the Android SDK and it includes a fully compliant Android library and system image, as well as a set of emulator skins and sample applications.
Minimize Security Flaws Using Google's Skipfish
Thursday, April 8th, 2010Open Source Application
Skipfish is an open source scanner written in C language used to detect vulnerabilities in web applications. Users can compile the code and execute it for installation. Skipfish crawls through the web application, detects the security probes and generates a report for security assessments.
Google Buzz – It's Loud and Clear
Thursday, February 18th, 2010Finally Google has arrived at the ‘Micro-blogging’ platform with a real ‘buzz’. On 9th February 2010, Google introduced ‘Buzz’, the new social networking application to embark on its battle to limit the popularity of Twitter. So, now there are lot of competitions going on in the Internet space. Google Vs Microsoft (Operating System & Enterprise Application Suits), Orkut (Owned by Google) Vs Facebook (Social Networking) Google vs Apple (Smart phone market). Before acquiring YouTube, they fought against them with Google Videos. So what we understand from all these competitions is that Google is not just targeting a niche or industry, rather it want to rule the entire IT Business.
At the first look, we may feel that Google Buzz is an integration of Facebook and Twitter, but it is beyond that. First and foremost advantage is that you don’t have to go to another web page to see the ‘buzz’, it’s there right below the inbox in the Gmail. The conversation will go like an email thread which is the fascinating aspect of Buzz. You can post in the Buzz, which can be held as private or public. Also, you can connect your profiles in Flickr, Piccasa, Google Reader and Twitter to Buzz. That means you aren’t missing any of your friends and by start ‘Buzzing’, you are increasing your friend and professional network. See this wondeful Video of Buzz, to get more insights.
Now we can perhaps clearly say that it is now ‘Google Vs. Rest of the World’. Apple and Microsoft are companies that are worth more than $ 100 billion each, Facebook and Twitter are the champs of their respective niche, though they are not monetizing it well. There is no doubt that the internet and enterprise software market will come under the reign of Google, which is not far away.
The Much Awaited Apple's iPad Tablet Unveiled.
Thursday, January 28th, 2010After months of anxiety and speculation Apple has finally launched their latest creation, the iPad Tablet. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled the breakthrough product in a grand meet held at San Francisco on 27th Jan 2010. Apple’s iPad is developed for people on the go to ease their online usage and other PC related tasks.The iPad is neither an iPhone nor a PC but a gadget that bridges the gap between the two. With its small size and touch screen technology, Apple’s iPad is all set to create a new era of Tablet Computing. Although the device lacks complex functionalities when compared to a PC, it is equipped with much desired functions like web browsing, delivering media, capsuling literature, video gaming etc.
The 9.7 inch device with half an inch thickness weighs just 1.5 pounds. It features a touch screen and is available in 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage. (more…)
Video Advertising
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010When Google announced its intentions to become a universal search engine in 2007, the very first step it took was to index all videos in the web. It seems, the web giant had predicted that video would be the pick of the world in search among all sources. Suranga Chandratillake took the same initiative when he started his video search website, Blinkx, which has today become the world’s largest single index of rich media content on the web and probably the best video search engine. Senior Analysts in eMarketer say that online video content is on a clear upward trajectory. The demographic range of the viewing population is expanding and the content mix is evolving from short, snack-type clips to long-form content such as TV shows and feature films.
The dominance of video has also made the web a great place for video advertisements. There are different advertising methods that are in existence. Let us explore them briefly.
Video Ad Methods
1. In Stream Video Ads – The advertisement appears in the bottom or top of the video player when the video is streaming. Here is a sample.
In this sample, the advertisement is displayed on the top as the video streams.
2. With Video Ads – Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads constitute this method. The advertisements appear before, in the middle and after the streaming of the video respectively.
The sample below shows the advertisement being played in the entire section of the video player.
3. Around Video Ads – This advertisement comes in video oriented sites in a variety of ad formats including standard text ads and image ads.
In the above sample, the publisher website Hulu has customized the surrounding areas of the video player for the advertisement that plays within the player.
Video Ad Production
Gone are the days when companies had to invest huge amount of money and time for video advertisements. Similar to the DIY (Do It Yourself) website creation tools, today we have DIY video ad creation tools. And these packages start from as low as $500. Few web companies provide huge database of already prepared advertising videos from which the customer can choose and customize.
There are also on-location ad production companies who come to the spot, shoot the video and do the customization. These methods are however complicated when compared with the DIY methods which specialize mostly in creating montages.
Video ads are short. The very lengthy ones could span to 60 seconds and they are very rarely made. Most of the ads are 15 to 30 seconds long.
Video Ad Distribution
When we think about video, the first picture that comes to our mind is television. So can we bring our web made advertisement into TV? If you have that question, the answer is yes. There are companies that function exclusively for this. The platform which they provide enables a customer to create a video ad, bid for TV spots and schedule airing time. Spotrunner was the company to pioneer this service. Soon to compete with them was Google. Now we have many companies which offer a similar platform and they distribute the video ad not only in TV but also in online TVs like Hulu, Veoh and various ad networks like YuMe, ScanScout and Right Media.
Video ads are also distributed in online advertising campaigns, business directory listings, Internet yellow pages, local search directories, online newspapers, video sharing sites, social networks, eCommerce sites, etc.
Are you a business owner finding difficulty in locating customers for your service? Maybe it’s time to invest in video ads.
Google Apps-Get More, Pay Less
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009Google comes up with so many innovative as well as user friendly ideas at reasonable price. When compared to Lotus notes or Microsoft Exchange, Google Apps provides tools at a very low price. Services provided by Google App engine makes it easier for an employee to work smoothly and efficiently. What makes Google Apps special ?? 
. Answer to that question will be ” Google gives good quality services to any person or organization at affordable cost “.
Google Apps provides many services. Among them the most widely used and appreciated tools include
- GMail: Run your business, not your server
- Google Docs: Manage meetings online with Google calendar
- Google Calendar: Online docs with real time collaboration
- Google Sites: Create dynamic web pages in an easy way as creating a document
- Google Talk: Make calls and get your chat on
- Google Videos: Google hosted video. Saves you time and money
These itself could support the various levels of communication in an organization in a more simpler and more effective way. Adding cherry to the cake is the price. These Google App engine tools come at affordable prices and that too in different editions.
- Premium edition ($50 per user per year)
- Education/Non-profit edition (comes free to a limited number of users)
- Standard edition (comes free to individual users)
You can compare the different editions:
You can visit these links to get more information about Google Apps
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=et&utm_source=catch_all
What iDont, DROID does?
Monday, November 16th, 2009Internals
The DROID runs on Arm Cortex A8 CPU 550 MHZ processor, 256MB of RAM, and 512MB of ROM. The CPU is actually 600 MHZ but it has been under-clocked at 550 MHZ. Reason for this could be battery life and over heating. There are system level applications available to clock it out at 800 MHZ but it will compromise the battery life heavily. From the initial responses it seems the Android 2.0 OS will help DROID utilize the full potential of this processor. One of the features of the DROID being hyped by Verizon is in fact its ability to switch between multiple applications at run-time – true multitasking. With this processor, there are reports that the DROID will be the fastest Android device on the market.
One important difference between the iPhone and DROID is that the iPhone comes with internal memory of 8GB, 16GB and 32GB variants with no provision of adding a SD card. The DROID has a standard internal memory but supports SD cards up to 32GB. One drawback compared to iPhone is that DROID provides only a meager 256 MB for application storage. Google does not support directly installing apps into the SD card, which largely limits the developers while deploying their products. This is a problem when it comes to graphics / game development which typically takes up a lot of space. It is also like a paradox because Google has introduced APIs for 3-D graphics and OpenGL libraries with the release of Android 2.0. Developers can however store app resources in the SD card similar to Windows Mobile development.
Touch and Feel
The screen on the DROID is a 3.7-inch capacitive touch screen (unlike the resistive iPhone / Blackberry screens) that showcases a full glass display with WVGA resolution at a handsome 480 x 854 pixels. The responsiveness on the DROID due to the capacitive touch is better than most of the other smart phone counterparts. For example gestures and flicks are registered with little to no lag. Whether that can be attributed to Moto’s screen technology, Android 2.0 improvements, or just the speedy CPU inside the DROID is anyone’s guess, but that certainly won’t let the phone down. Another advantage to having that big screen is seeing webpages how they’re meant to be viewed, and browsing on the DROID is certainly a solid experience.
The phone comes with a huge touchscreen with multi-touch but still has space for an actual hardware keyboard. It is just slightly thicker than the iPhone at 0.5 inches but manages to pack a full QWERTY keyboard, which makes it the thinnest QWERTY keyboard mobile available in the market. The only comparison that can come in its way is the Nokia N97 but it too can’t match up with its huge screen and its interface offered by Motorola and Google.
Camera
Google has made some pretty major improvements to the camera application in Android 2.0. This includes more control over white balance, focal length, flash settings, and effects. To complement this Motorola has smartly outfitted the DROID with a 5 megapixel camera coupled with an LED flash. However many initial users claim that the camera is painfully slow to focus and take a snap.
Video
The performance of video capture and playback, on the other hand, is astounding. The DROID is capable of shooting at a 720 x 480 resolution, producing viewable if not totally shake-free video. The phone definitely proves to be better in this department than with stills. The phone also comes with a HDMI port for High Definition Video. However with a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels, the full exploitation of the HDMI support is worth questionable.
Software
Android 2.0 addresses some important changes to the smart phone scene including Google Navigator, voice improvements and more. Google is in fact taking a pro-active approach at improving the platform, along with the opportunity to sync multiple Exchange and/or Google Accounts. The DROID is the first phone to come with Google Maps Navigation, which provides free, turn-by-turn, spoken driving directions.Verizon will sell a car mount for the DROID, as well completely eliminating the need of third party navigation devices like Garmin. The combination may make the DROID the best GPS phone on the market. But what really makes the software a complete win is something completely invisible – APIs. Google has added account/contact/sync APIs that will greatly improve the platform, and inherently the phone’s capabilities over time.
Browser
Mobile internet browsing is another interesting feature of this handset. The browser is of top quality supporting Flash and HTML 5. Google has promised to support Flash 10 from 2010.
Connectivity
DROID comes with a EVDO rev A on-board card for super fast 3G connectivity on Verizon Wireless. There is support for GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a USB 2.0 port. The speed of connectivity is observed to be a notch higher than the iPhone 3GS.
Battery
The system comes with a 1400 mAh removable battery which is not bad at all but we expect that it won’t deliver the rated 270 hours standby time or 6 hrs 25 min talktime, especially comparing it to the previous CLIQ. However Motorola has managed to provide a decent talktime of around 5 hrs 30 min, thanks to the somewhat ironic under-clocked CPU!
Overall, the DROID is a nice phone and joins the ranks of one of the best smartphones that are available in the market today. However, it’s a mixed bag on whether this handset could really usurp the iPhone as the best performing smartphone on the market. Nonetheless, DROID is a formidable competitor of the current top performing smartphones on the market, and there is a serious competition just getting under way between the different supported mobile OS’s.
Chrome’s Subtle Attack On Internet Explorer
Friday, September 25th, 2009Since its launch about a year ago, Google Chrome has been in the limelight every now and then; and for good reasons too. The latest news has Chrome further zeroing in on its arch rival in a more creative fashion. On September 22, 2009, Google launched Google Chrome Frame “an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.”
According to Google, with GCF, you can: (more…)
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