I see Google are now telling us when we can and when we can’t use the word Google in our everyday speech!
we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services
I actually think they are serious too - if this were April 1st, I’d understand why the post was put out there but as it is not, I am bemused by the company’s trying to stop people using its name (use of its name, even as a verb, instead of a noun, by definition increases its brand awareness).
Plonkers.
In case you haven’t heard (where have you been?) Google announced that the rumours were true after all and that they have agreed to buy YouTube for $1.65bn.
Yep. You read that correctly, $1.65bn.
Unsurprisingly, this is the top story on TechMeme.
It looks like Google believes video on the web has a real future and YouTube’s legal troubles (they are being threatened with litigation for copyright infringement) are a price they are willing to pay.
For the people thinking of suing YouTube this has got to have them down on their knees thanking their deity of choice! Instead of suing YouTube - a company with no significant assets, they now get to sue Google - one of the world’s wealthiest companies!
Thanks to Niall Kennedy for pointing out Google’s new ping service.
This is great - one of the biggest problems I had with Google’s blogsearch was how slow it was to pick up on posts. Several hours after posting an article, typically it still wasn’t up on Google whereas the post is often up on Technorati within minutes.
You can manually ping Google’s Blogsearch here or alternatively you can add the following address to your blog platform to automate the ping (in WordPress add it Options -> Writing -> Update Services)
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping
For more see the Google Blog Search ping FAQ
Google has released Google Applications for Your Domain - you can sign up and check it out over at http://www.google.com/a.
Google Applications for Your Domain currently allows you to run Gmail, Gtalk, and Gpages (a web publishing tool) through your own domain. One immediate advantage of doing this is that Gmail’s spam filters seem to be very good so running company mail through it should reduce spam problems you may be having.
It is also planned to integrate Google’s online word Processor (Writely) and Google Spreadsheets so that Microsoft Office need never be fired up (or even installed!).
When you sign up you get the following screen:
The functionality is sparse right now but the great thing about software as a service is that updates are constantly being rolled out to the benefit of the consumer. One nice feature in the setup is the bulk uploader which allows you to upload a csv file for setup of your users:
Microsoft needs to be worried. Not because this threatens them from the point of view of functionality but because this new model is quickly becoming the accepted norm. And although Microsoft are getting into this arena too, who would you trust with your company’s data, Google or Microsoft?
UPDATE: D’oh! I forgot to title this post. Title added subsequently along with bang on the head to remind me not to do that again!
Blogger is Google’s free hosted blogging platform. Blogger’s steady decline as a blogging platform has been well documented by Blogger users.
Via Marshal Kirkpatrick today comes news that Google have launched (in beta, of course!) a newer version of Blogger. This version has lots of shiny bits such as allowing change of colour of your blog using a WYSIWYG interface:
And it also allows drag and drop manipulation of various aspects of the blog:
The new version requires users to have a Google account which is a bit of a mixed blessing. It also allows for tagging of posts using the Labels field - in fact this is probably the most useful update to the entire application.
Given Google’s lacklustre commitment to Blogger over the last two years and the very little progress in this update I would say to anyone thinking of starting a blog now to stay from Blogger and use the likes of WordPress.com instead. If you are on Blogger - move to a real blog platform. You know you want to.
UPDATE: - for a more comprehensive review of the update see the Google Operating System blog. And Blogger’s official post about it is here
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