‘Information’ To ‘Knowledge Agent’: Google Changes The Way It Does Search  (via courtenaybird)

Further reading: Google Gets Back to Its Roots With New Search Update

(via courtenaybird)

theatlantic:

Google Gets Back to Its Roots With New Search Update

How good is Google at both guessing what you want to know and having that information in its databases? In some cases, the company is really good. “Based on the other things that people are looking for when they are looking for Tom Cruise, our knowledge graph is going to show you 39 percent of the answers to the next thing you might be looking for,” said Joanna Wright, director of product management for The Google Knowledge Graph, which is what the company is calling this new feature.

To me, this update is the epitome of what Google does best. The graph makes the process of Googling something faster, easier, and better. The corporate imperative to keep people searching on Google in the face of renewed competition matches up very nicely with consumers’ desires for the best, fastest search experience. That hasn’t always been the case with the company’s social search integration, so this update feels so refreshing. It’s like a friend in the midst of a midlife crisis returning the Porsche and embracing a trusty new four-door.

You may not have Google Knowledge Graph yet, but you will soon. The company is rolling it out this week, so get ready to see your right column transformed. 

Read more. [Image: Google]

Getting back to (one’s) roots is always the safest option in case you’re already misdirected. Google is often prone to go beyond its root to do something differently and that often cause irritation to its users. Have you ever felt that punch-to-the-stomach feeling of clicking “Google Search” and/or “I’m Feeling Lucky”?? As one James Blair points out:

It [Google] interferes with search results half the time giving me what I *DONT* want to see. It pushes more and more advertising (explicit or implicit) at me. Now it wants to throw more garbage in the way of my searches. […] I use google to seach the internet for information. Thats what its purpose was. The more google tries to second-guess what I’m trying to do, the more frustrating and useless the entire search process becomes.

parislemon:

As much as I hate email, this is a fun way to explain what happens when you hit send on that Gmail message.

srdash:

Here’s What Steve Jobs Meant When He Said That Android Is Fragmented »

Those are all of the Android devices app development firm Animoca uses to test its apps. You see, when you have dozens of manufacturers cranking out phones, tablets and phablets running different versions of Android, you run into a development issue. How do you make sure your app will work on the majority of Android devices? For Animoca, you test your apps on 400 different Android devices. […] That’s what Steve Jobs meant when he said that Android was “fragmented.”

Though choice is good, too much meaningless choice is bad. So, the symbolic statement got a proof. But, “Android is fragmented as hell” will be too underrated.

world-shaker:

Google today announced that it is bringing web fonts to Google Docs. Thanks to this update, you can now use 450 new fonts in your Google documents. These are the same 450 fonts Google already features on its Web Fonts site for web designers. In addition, Google also announced that it added over 60 new templates to its template gallery over the last month, improved support for screenreaders in Docs and added more options for inserting images into documents, including support for Google Drive and webcams. Docs users can now also search for images in the LIFE photo archive and insert them into their documents.

(via Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More | TechCrunch)

theatlantic:

You Don’t Own Anything Anymore

Google’s terms of service sound grabby because they are: the terms of service for Google Drive (and pretty much every Google service) give Google the right to do almost anything with your uploaded content. This isn’t because Google has a bunch of really cool ideas for “publicly performing” your photos. It’s because copyright law was written before there was a such thing as computers.

“Copyright law itself is really strange,” says Greg Lastowka, co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy & Law. These companies, he says, are only doing “what copyright law forces them to do.”

Say you draw a picture. You literally own the paper and the ink that you used to draw it, but the thing you have a copyright for is intangible: it’s the pattern, the shapes, the design. If someone comes along a steals your drawing, they’re stealing your property. If someone takes a photo of your drawing, they’re violating your copyright. “When you say you own a photo,” says Lastowka, “you really mean ‘I have the exclusive right to reproduce my photo.’”

In a world where sharing a photo is strictly a matter of getting another copy made and mailing it, or getting it published, copyrights are pretty easy to keep track of and these laws hold up pretty well. Sending a physical photo to your grandmother goes like this: you either put the picture in an envelope and send it, or you get a copy made yourself and send that.

Sending your grandmother an email photo, though, might involve copying your photo five or six times; first to Google’s servers, then to another server, then to an ISP’s CDN, then to AOL’s servers, then to your grandmother’s computer. As far as you’re concerned, this feels exactly like dropping an envelope in the mail. As far as copyright is concerned, it’s a choreographed legal dance.

Read more.

This is smart. (via Buzzfeed)

thisistheverge:

Google now selling unlocked HSPA Galaxy Nexus for $399

Google has just gotten back into the business of selling smartphones directly. The HSPA Galaxy Nexus is going to be for sale, unlocked, for $399.99 in a new “Devices” section of Google Play.

adverdict:

‘The Best Ads are Answers’ Campaign for Google by @GSP … Simple and true message to convey to amateur and professional marketers.

Google is celebrating the birthday of Gideon Sundback, “the Swedish-American electrical engineer most commonly associated with the development of the fastening device that revolutionised the clothing industry”, with an interactive zipper Google doodle on the search engine’s homepage.

courtenaybird:

The Fight For The Fifth Screen (Fifth Screen!?) In Your Life 

Essentially, the fifth screen represents a paradigm shift in advertising as much as it represents a change in the way we use computers on the move. It means ads everywhere, and different kinds of ads too—something TV advertisers are beginning to wake up to, now viewers use their iPads and phones while watching TV… “Every single piece of advertising now has as its goal behavior change. Understanding how to change behavior, and what people will choose to interact with is key for advertisers. Expect to see more science, more psychologists, and more behavioral data informing advertising in the future.” 

chartier:

Dan Frommer:

And then you’ll get to the magic [of Facebook’s ad-creation tool]: Facebook’s targeting page. Here, you can narrow your ad’s target by an incredible basket of options. Location, age, gender, precise interests (as volunteered!), Facebook connections, sexual orientation, relationship status, languages, education and specific workplaces.

So if you want to reach the 100 people on Facebook who live in California, are between 18 and 36 years old, like “space” and work at Apple or Google, you can.

Honestly, I love that Facebook is able to do this, and the tool is harnessing (anonymously) the data users willingly share. Maybe it’s just the 21st century talking, but I don’t see a problem with this; I actually admire it. I’ve run a couple of Facebook advertising campaigns, and this tool is a pleasure to use. No wonder Google is spooked.

(Source: chartier)

nevver:

Ablogalypse

Google+ got a complete redesign and the most remarkable change is the addition of a fixed and customizable ”ribbon of applications” on the left-hand side of the social network that lets users to access (read, navigate) the various realms Google+ such as photo albums, friends’ pages and personal profiles. But does this redesign really attract visitors, again? Doubtful.

Yes. Google CEO Larry Page’s assertion that there were 100 million “active” users (refers to people who have used the service in the past 30 days) is really confusing. In fact…

Google defines “active” as anyone who has used a Google+ social feature in any of its other services, such as Gmail or YouTube; the users don’t necessarily need to have actually visited the Google+ website. It’s unclear how many people in the Google+ forest will hear the sound of the trees falling as the site unveils its new-look.

Then again, it’s not about the features. It’s about the number of “active” users. On that side, Google+ is still a ghost town. Even if you won’t check your Google+ for two weeks, you won’t feel like you missed a thing.

searchengineland:

Google Grows Revenues 24% From Last Year, Plans New Class Of Stock

Google’s revenues rose to $10.65 billion in the first quarter of 2012, resulting in net income of $2.89 billion, or $8.75 per share, the company announced after market close today. The revenue number represents a 24% increase over the year-ago period. Additionally, the board of directors proposed the creation of a new class of non-voting shares — to be distributed as a dividend to all current shareholders — effectively resulting in an two for one stock split.

“We had a very strong quarter,” said CEO Larry Page on a conference call with press and analysts, “Since becoming CEO again, I have pushed hard to focus on the big bets.”

Page described the creation of a new class of stock as enabling the founders to keep corporate decision-making amongst a small group, allowing the company to continue to take a longer-term view on the business. Though Page and Sergey Brin, in a 2012 founders’ letter, say they know some won’t be happy about the decision, “…after careful consideration with our board of directors, we have decided that maintaining this founder-led approach is in the best interests of Google, our shareholders and our users. Having the flexibility to use stock without diluting our structure will help ensure we are set up for success for decades to come.”

The decision begs speculation about what Google may be planning to do with its stock — acquisitions, perhaps? — that it wants to do without granting voting rights. But, in the letter, the founders address this, saying: “we don’t have an unusually big acquisition planned, in case you were wondering.”

(Source: sippingonjenandjuice, via marshmallowsonmyfridge)