Not Finding the Meaning of Life (Video)

A clumsy video that tries to find answers to philosophical questions by using diagrams, connections, magic words and a great dose of sarcasm. "Le Grand Content examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand 'association-chain-massacre' which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more."

The graphs were inspired by Indexed, a funny-but-meaningful chart blog.


{ via information aesthetics }

Sponsored Links Added to Google Search History

Now you can search and manage all the sponsored links you've clicked on Google's search results pages. Google Search History added a new section for Google ads, in the growing list of services available in this interface. This might be useful if you want to buy something, but you want to check other sites before actually ordering the product: you come back to the search history and have the links there.

Google also has a search engine that only shows sponsored links. Just in case you get bored with the actual search results.


Related:
Making use of Google Search History

Google Music Player

Google Music Player is a Google Desktop gadget that lets you search and play the music from your computer. Google Desktop indexes your music, but the browser is not the best place to play your music. This gadget is an easy way to build a playlist by repeatedly searching for your favorite songs, to listen an album or all the songs that match your query.

Although the player is a pretty nice exercise, Google didn't read my post from May.

Picasa Web Tag Cloud

Picasa Web Albums, the online extension of Picasa, has recently added tags and search. Now you can see a tag cloud in the right sidebar of a public gallery (instead of increasing the font size for frequent tags like in Flickr, Google chose to show the number of photos that have a certain tag). This way, it's easier to explore someone's photos without going to each album.


The number of photos you can upload to an album has been increased from 300 to 500.

Google Pack Could Have Been More

Google Pack* seemed to be a decent solution for installing basic apps on a newly bought computer, but Google could have done a lot more.

As Windows doesn't have a way to constantly monitor installed apps for updates or to categorize them, Google could define a small API for software developers that would allow any application to be a part of Google Pack. Google could create a repository that includes only free software that respects Google's software principles, and also information about the programs. Users could install the software using Google Pack, and Google could recommend other applications based on the previously installed software.

For open source projects, Google can host the code and make it easy to track bugs. Google Pack could intercept crashes as they happen and send anonymous information to the developers.

Right now, Google Pack is limited to Google's software and a small list of other free applications like Firefox, Ad-Aware or Adobe Reader. But it could become something like CNET CatchUp, now a discontinued software.

From software upgrades and driver updates to security and Y2K patches, CNET CatchUp is designed to help you quickly and easily find what you need to keep your PC healthy. Once you have downloaded the CatchUp software, install the application, and with the click of a button, the CatchUp service will generate a custom list of recommended updates.

* For some reason, Google Pack's homepage continuously reloads in Firefox.

Explore the World's Most Interesting Places

TagMaps is an interesting Yahoo project that tries to visualize tags on a map. World Explorer uses TagMaps to show Flickr photos on a map. "The World Explorer engine analyzes the information tied to the photos (such as location and tags) to find the main "attractions" in each location and in every zoom level and compute their "importance". (...) Think of World Explorer as the automatically-generated, visually-rich guide to the planet."

The search feature doesn't work very well, so you'd better use the initial tags or the suggested tags to explore the map. Not all the photos will be interesting, but you can click on the red "x" sign to remove them and improve the system.

There's also a view for photos taken at night and a way to embed the custom map into your site.

{ Thank you, A. Klauser. }

The Conflict Between Google Search and Google OS

Google Search does its job if it sends you to the most relevant sites as fast as possible. Google OS tries to keep you using it to save and edit documents, photos, blog posts, events and more.

The services from Google OS might be search results, but not necessarily the best. While most people identify Google with Google Search, the company has to use its most valuable assets: the homepage and the search results pages to promote the rest of the products. That's why you'll see ads for Google Toolbar at the bottom of SERPs or promos for Google Talk, Google Checkout on the homepage. Google also uses AdWords to promote its services, but the ads can't stand out enough to be really effective.

The problem with Google's promos is that they're not context-sensitive, so users will find them out-of-place. The famous self-promoting tips tried to react to user's query, but they were poorly targeted and stirred a lot of controversy. The sacrosanct search results had an undisclosed ad on top.

So how should Google promote its services without affecting the credibility of search results? Gmail should integrate with more Google services and become a way to discover the usefulness of the rest of Google: read feeds, view your agenda, save notes, manage your attachments and the files saved in other Google services. Google Toolbar and Google Desktop should become more useful and bring the power of Google services anywhere you are. Google should secure other channels for promoting its products instead of relying on tips and promos.

Firefox's Blake Ross Talks About Opera

Opera Watch has an interview with Blake Ross, Mozilla Firefox's co-founder, who talks about Firefox, Opera and the in-between space. Unlike many other people, he thinks that Opera and Firefox are complementary and a "war" between its users is pointless.

>> Which Opera feature (if any) would you like to see in Firefox?

<< I'd love to be able to tear off a tab into its own window.

>> In your mind would the Opera browser benefit from being Open Source? And if so, how would you convince Opera Software to make their browser Open Source?

<< Yes, I do think Opera would enjoy the benefits of an open-source community, such as fresh developer blood, greater testing assistance and voluntary localization. As for convincing the company to make the move... now that Opera is free, I would hope the internal debate is over why not to open source the browser. I recognize that Opera has already earned a vibrant community, but I think it could expand it even further. I don't see what the company has to lose.

<< Blake, how would you describe the differences between Opera and Firefox? When would someone prefer Firefox? When would someone prefer Opera?

>> I think Opera is better geared toward advanced users out of the box, whereas Firefox is tailored to mainstream users by default and relies on its extension model to cater to an advanced audience. However, I see both browsers naturally drifting toward the middle. Firefox is growing more advanced as the mainstream becomes Web-savvier, and I see Opera scaling back its interface, since it started from the other end of the spectrum.

While Firefox's user base continues to grow (Internet Explorer 7 may be one reason for that), Opera is strong only in the mobile market. The lack of an add-on platform (you can't develop toolbars), the unfamiliar interface and the all-in-one philosophy might be responsible for Opera's small market share.

Google's Map OneBox Links Only to Google Maps

Google used to display links to Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Mapquest when you entered an address or a city name.


Now there's only a link to Google Maps next to a static map and a new option to get directions:

... and a simplified version if you don't type an address.

Google provides links to third parties in OneBox results if they don't have a service for that or if their service is not good enough. When their service becomes mature, there's no need for the other links. So I don't think it's fair to say this is an evil move from Google.

{ Via Blogoscoped. }

Google Search Feeds and SOAP API (Not from Google)

Unlike Yahoo or MSN Windows Live, Google doesn't offer feeds for search results and, from December last year, you can't get new keys to use their API. If you want to monitor a search query, you can use Google Alerts or Google Alert (this is a different service, not from Google). But feeds are easier to manage and consume.

Until Google decides it's a good idea to provide search feeds or a new API, some "evil" people came up with Evil API, a replacement for Google SOAP API, and Evil RSS, a way to get feeds for search results. Both solutions are open source and use screen scraping (what else?) to get the results from Google. That means the solution is not quite OK if you look at Google TOS:

"You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system without express permission in advance from Google."

If you don't send too many queries and/or host the code on your server, I'm sure Google doesn't mind. Many Google Gadgets use screen scraping to get search results (and information from sites that don't provide feeds), and Google makes it easy to do that.

Homework:
1. Why do you think Google discontinued support for their SOAP API?
2. How would you convince Google to give us search feeds?

Fake Google Belarus Homepage

The top result for [Google Belarus] is a site that mimics Google's homepage, but also adds some personal touch. The site can be found at google.by, while Google's localized version for Belarus is available at google.com/intl/be/.

All the localized versions of Google are listed here.


{ Thank you, Eli Lansey. }

Homework:
Do you know other sites that have similar addresses (www.google.???), but don't belong to Google?

Guess the Search Query

SearchFrays is a small game where, for a given site, you have to type a query that will show the site in the top 10 Google results. The query should be as short as possible and can't include the URL or the name of the site (it would be too obvious).

Google Auto-correcting Queries

I tend to make spelling mistakes when I type a search query, so Google's "did you mean...?" feature is really useful. But lately I've noticed that Google auto-corrects keywords from a query, without even asking. For example, if you search for [oper labs], all the top results include "opera labs", which is also highlighted in the title and the snippets.


From what I tried, Google is the only search engine that does that and, at least for this query, it does a pretty good job.

Contemplate Your Internet Traffic

Packet Garden is an application that builds a world from your Internet traffic.

"Packet Garden takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. Uploads make hills and downloads valleys, their location determined by numbers taken from internet address itself. The size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are also grown for each protocol detected by the software; if you visit a website, an 'HTTP plant' is grown. If you share some files via eMule, a 'Peer to Peer plant' is grown, and so on."

The software, available for Linux, Mac and Windows, demos an interesting way to visualize your traffic stats. The evolving planet can be contemplated for hours as it looks unexpectedly beautiful.

{ via information aestethics }

Google Maps Flight Simulator

Goggles is a site that uses Google Maps to simulate flying over a certain area. You can choose the starting point from a list of cities (but also define a custom starting point) and control the direction and the altitude using the arrow keys. You can also fly over the moon and Mars.

If you want to end "the game", right-click and select "Play".

Interview with Brett Crosby, from Google Analytics

Stone Temple has an interview with Brett Crosby, co-founder of Urchin, the company behind Google Analytics. Brett explains that he and his team decided to focus on improving the product and to offer professional services through third parties.

What we have done is focused a lot of effort on making our products extremely easy to use, easy to set up, and we've tried to get rid of integration hassles wherever we can. For example, by pre-integrating with products like AdWords; and we've also done some stuff with Google Checkout. We hope to make these things a kind of one button "click and it works." That's the model we tend to go toward when we can.

I don't think Google Analytics is that easy to use, like Brett says. For example, it's not possible to get a complete list of your top referrals. If you go to "Referring source" you get a list of sites, and for each site you can see all the pages that sent you traffic. But there are no links and you have to manually build the URLs to be able to check that pages.

Instead of having an expensive product, like most of the rest of the market, we have a free product. Many analytics products come with a pre-determined set of professional services, and then if you want additional things the analytics vendor will up-sell you. For a lot of analytics vendors, professional services is a big piece of their revenue stream. Google has used a really different approach. It's a free product that anyone with a website can use.

It's a nice feeling to use the same product like a big corporation, even if you only have a small site. You'll also be happy using Google Groups or the online help.

Brett explains the reasons why web analytics tools report different numbers:
"(1) the first one is how you define unique visitors and
(2) how the analytics package handles the length of time between visits, and
(3) whether anti-spyware is blocking cookies for one vendor and not another."
One of the priorities for Google Analytics is to count traffic from users that disable cookies or JavaScript. They also want to handle AJAX applications better, as the page views are irrelevant.

Homework:
1) Is Google Analytics easy to use?
2) How would you improve it?

{ Via Search Engine Watch. }

Terrorists Use Google Earth

The Telegraph reports that terrorists from Iraq use Google Earth "to pinpoint their attacks".

The satellite photographs show in detail the buildings inside the bases and vulnerable areas such as tented accommodation, lavatory blocks and where lightly armoured Land Rovers are parked.

Written on the back of one set of photographs taken of the Shatt al Arab Hotel, headquarters for the 1,000 men of the Staffordshire Regiment battle group, officers found the camp's precise longitude and latitude.

"This is evidence as far as we are concerned for planning terrorist attacks," said an intelligence officer with the Royal Green Jackets battle group. "Who would otherwise have Google Earth imagery of one of our bases?"

Google Earth's imagery is not very recent, as sometimes images are two or three years old, but even those images can be useful. Google already blurs the US Congress, vulnerable places from Israel, and other sensitive sites.

As Google Earth starts to include more high-resolution images, these requests will be frequent. Some will say Google Earth's censorship is necessary, but it's difficult to draw the line between the accessibility of public information and security risks. Google search can also reveal vulnerabilities and confidential documents.

Military troops should be prepared to face more knowledgeable enemies, because those who want to get satellite imagery or other kinds of information will get them, even if they have to pay for that.

Homework:
1) Do you think it's OK to censor Google Earth's imagery?
2) Do you know other famous places that appear blurred in Google Earth?

Google Fixes a Flaw in Blogger Custom Domains

Blogger Custom Domains, the new feature that allows you to have a blog on your own domain, but hosted by Google for free, had a small bug discovered by Tony Ruscoe and Art-One. When you enter a domain, Google doesn't check if it's your domain (there's no reliable way to do that). To setup your blog, you need to create a CNAME record that points your domain to ghs.google.com. But it's not necessary to do that for ghs.google.com itself.

As Art-One discovered, a blog owner entered ghs.google.com by mistake and his blog was hosted on google.com. The problem is that a page hosted on google.com can read your Google cookie and send it to a server. Someone who has your Google cookie can access your account, if you're already logged in. Fortunately, that blog didn't use any malicious scripts, Google was notified and the problem was fixed quickly.

Tony writes more about the issue and reveals some interesting things:

* You can use Blogger Custom Domains to redirect your blog to another domain or subdomain (you can claim it only once). Even though this feature is useful if you move from Blogger and decide to use another blog software (for example, Wordpress installed on your domain), spammers will have an easier way to redirect BlogSpot blogs to their ugly domains.

* Google should make sure "nobody can host or inject content (and particularly scripts)" on google.com.

* It's a good idea to log out of Google when you're not using Google services and to delete your cookies from time to time (for example, at the end of each bowser session).

Incidents like this are rare and there's no reason to panic.