The place João Bordalo calls home: Tag google

Gmail voice and video chat

bordalix — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:49:00 -0500

Google announced today the voice and video chat for Gmail. To make this work, users have to install a small browser plugin. Google will start enabling these new features for all Gmail and Google Apps today, and as is typical for new releases in Gmail, Google will roll this feature out to all users over the "next day or so". Is this the final nail on Skype's coffin?

RSS readers should click here to watch the video.

Chrome, some bad news

bordalix — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:30:00 -0400

Update: Google's has changed the Terms of Service for Chrome.

Everyone is talking about the new Google's browser, coined Chrome. and the idea of launching a comic book to explain the advantages of Chrome a day before the launch is absolutely brilliant, and surely must be responsible for some of the hype generated along.

Since there is no Mac version available yet, I still haven't try it, but after reading some posts today, I'm glad I haven't:

Ryan Narraine, a security evangelist at Kaspersky Lab, found out that Chrome has inherited a serious security flaw from the old version of WebKit is based on: by combining a flaw in WebKit with a known Java bug, is possible to an attacker to trick Windows users into launching a Java file in one's computer. Try this demo to see the bug working (don't worry, it's only a proof of concept, the Java application that will be installed in your Windows computer will do no harm);
The other issue has to do with Chrome Terms of Service, which I believe will be changed in a near future, since point 11.1 states, and I quote, "By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services". In my opinion, this make sense when we are talking of services like YouTube and such, but in this case we are talking about a browser, so, by accepting this term, I would be allowing Google to own any content that I would access through the Chrome browser, which is pretty abusive, don't you think?

In summary, I will wait for the version 1.1 of the browser, and for a change in the Terms of Service before trying it.

Is this the future of search?

bordalix — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:24:00 -0400

It seems Google is doing some experiments with theirs main product, the web search. Imagine adding Digg's functionalities to Google's web search results and voila, you get what can be seen as the future of web search:

RSS readers should click here to watch the video.

Google App Engine

bordalix — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:53:00 -0400

It's out, it's free (at least for now), and it's a serious competitor to Amazon Web Services, with a more turn-key solution:

Google is offering to host your entire web app, not just the storage. It lets you use Google Checkout for commerce and Google Accounts for user accounts.

Via John Gruber.

GOOG 411

bordalix — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:14:00 -0500

A new service from Google, this time used from your phone. Watch the video below to see the simplicity and power of 1-800-GOOG-411:

It looks like 2008 will be the year of the phone.

Google del.icio.us

bordalix — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:37:00 -0400

Finally, Google responded to Yahoo's acquisition of del.icio.us by developing his own service, named Google Shared Stuff. The service looks crappy, but I think that's because the lack of users in the system. Being a kind of service heavily dependent on the network effect, it will take a while for the service to bloom and flourish. I'm willing to try it, since del.icio.us is getting slower and slower search results.

Is Google becoming evil?

bordalix — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:43:00 -0400

Google's motto is and always has been "Don't be evil". Are they planning to change it?

Google advertising in video

bordalix — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:05:00 -0400

A great snoop from 45n5, a video with Google advertising in YouTube movies. The system is pretty smooth, the ads are not that intrusive, and the interactivity allowed amazing (be able to link an ad to a movie, and make that movie run over the YouTube movie is great):

Meanwhile, eMarketer expects online video advertising to nearly double in 2008 to $1.3 billion USD, and TechCrunch posted an excelent article, with a round up of the possible players in this market, worth reading.

Great times are expected in a near future.

Google low-cost transportation

bordalix — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:17:00 -0400

Do you need to travel from Oporto, Portugal, to New York? Don't want to spend a lot of money on this trip? Well, try this: point your browser to maps.google.com, click on "Get directions" and write "Oporto" to "New York". On the left side of the search results, notice step 51.

Please don't try this trip if you didn't eat your cereals in the morning.

Google master plan

bordalix — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0400

When everyone is talking about the new Google AdWords TV ads trial, Ozan Halici and Jurgen Mayer from the University of Applied Sciences Ulm, Germany, released the movie "Master Plan, about the power of Google".

Even though I don't agree with everything stated in the movie, it is a very well done movie, so I decided to post it in my blog. The graphics are astonishing, take a look:

RSS readers should click here to watch the movie.