Google Continues To Center On Location. Adds It To Its Toolbar.

Location-based services haven’t yet caught fire, but location itself is increasingly finding its way to web services as a complimentary feature. The latest to use it is the Google Toolbar. If you have it installed, and open Google Maps, it will now auto-center on your location.

That’s a small, but useful feature, but the ramifications of this move are potentially much large. This adds location capabilities to the millions of people who have Google Toolbar installed. You may be thinking that a lot of those users with the latest version of Firefox already had it — but this feature is for Internet Explorer only right now. That, combined with Mozilla’s use of its Geode location plug-in (which again, is built into the latest version of Firefox), puts location on a good percentage of browsers in the world.

And while it doesn’t mention it, that’s important for Google’s own larger purposes. Its recently launched Latitude location-based network is only useful if it can automatically update your location, or make it really easy to do. Up until now, it has been a pain on a computer.

But there are other big things Google could do with location information — such as serve you location-based ads. There are other companies working in that field, but you can bet Google wants to get out in front of them and lead the charge. And with its own toolbar to get your location, it could potentially do that. It also promises the ability to serve up location-based search results with feature.

Google has been been working on location for a little while in the mobile space, but most users are still experiencing the web first and foremost through regular computer browsers. Google’s toolbar pulls location data from both IP addresses and nearby Wi-Fi access points — since most computers don’t have GPS built-in.

Google CEO Could Be Obama's Tech Advisor

Rumor has it that Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be occupying the newly-formed tech advisor position to the president of the United States. Barack Obama created this position just shortly before visiting the Google headquarters during his campaign, and some believe that the reason this happened was because the job was promised to Schmidt.


The president-elect announced his support for maintaining the Internet neutral, meaning that he (and Google) opposed the addition of more fees for data transfer to end-users. Under Obama's tech policy, ISPs will be strictly prohibited from hampering data flow around the web. He says that the network is an indispensable tool in today's economy, and that it motivates growth by making trade simpler and easier, so any obstacle will mean a loss of capital.


The head of Google endorsed the Democratic candidate throughout the elections, though the ads the company posted on various sites were mostly Republican. However, Google employees donated far more to Obama's campaign than they did for John McCain – about $487,355, and $20,600 respectively, as estimated by the Wall Street Journal.


The naming of the Democratic candidate as the new president comes at the same time as the decision of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to open up unused TV broadband frequencies to wireless Internet traffic. They will enter use when the entire television grid moves to the digital format.


No one can be sure that Eric Schmidt will be named as Obama's tech advisor until the event actually happens. But, in light of the relation they had during the campaign, and the earnings that Schmidt's endorsement brought the new president, it stand to reason that he will be, at the very least, considered for the job. In addition, Google's efforts to go "green" are in line with Obama's policy towards climate change and global warming, so this is another common ground for the company and the White House.

Earn Money with AdSense for Search Create your custom search engine and earn money with AdSense

AdSense is one of the most popular services from Google, because it helps people earn money just with a simple ad placed on their websites. Related to AdSense, Custom Search Engine is another innovative product provided by Google that also brings
money after users have placed a search engine on their webpages.

So, what's the relation between these two products? Well, Google said that if you link your Custom Search Engine to your AdSense for Search account, you can boost your earnings with ease.

"We've heard it time and time again: as publishers, you want to give your users a relevant search experience on your websites. You want the power of Google search, and you want to make it your own. And then, of course, you want to make money from this search engine, not spend time and money building it. Well, here's news you can use -- now you can do all this with Google's Custom Search Engine (CSE).

With CSE, you can create a highly customized and (free) tailored search experience for your users that reflects your knowledge and expertise. You place this search engine on your site and, if you've got an AdSense for search account, you can link your CSE to it and make money from the resulting traffic.

In a few simple steps you can create a CSE that looks and feels like your own, prioritizes or restricts content based on what you specify, as well as open your search engine index to trusted members of your community so they can contribute to its comprehensiveness and relevance," Jennifer Hyman - CSE Product Marketing Manager said on the official blog.

Plan Public Transit Trips in and Around New York City with Google Maps

Users will now be able to access station and schedule data for every service provider overseen by the MTA: New York City Transit (which includes subway and bus service), Long Island Rail Road, Long Island Bus, Metro-North Railroad, and the MTA Bus Company. Other connecting services also provide data via Google Maps, including NJ Transit (commuter rail, light rail and bus), Staten Island Ferry, and The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PATH Rail, AirTrain JFK, and AirTrain Newark). The trip planner can create trips across multiple agencies.

Being able to plan public transit trips in Google Maps makes it easier than ever to take advantage of all that New York has to offer. With this new partnership, users can get detailed itineraries that utilize any MTA services across its 5,000-square mile service area. Itineraries will include three routing options, complete with station locations, schedule times, transfer information, total trip time, and step-by-step walking directions. Icons for MTA train and bus stops will now be visible on Google Maps which heightens awareness of the availability of public transit options for users who are exploring an area; when clicked, the icons will display the routes serving the stop and upcoming departures. Additionally, when a user searches for driving directions within the MTA service area, a public transit itinerary will appear as an alternative. Need directions while on-the-go? Transit routing is also available on many mobile phones via Google Maps for mobile.

The MTA joins more than 75 other transit agencies spanning 12 countries that have joined the Google Transit program. To learn more about this announcement, head to maps.google.com/nyc.

Original article from Google Press Center

Chromium Memory Usage

Memory Usage Backgrounder
Chromium Memory Usage

Here is some background information if you are measuring memory in Chromium.

Multi-Process Model Background
To understand Chromium's memory usage, let's understand the multi-process model. Unlike other browsers, Chromium is divided into multiple processes. When Chromium starts up, it will initially have two processes. One process is the browser process which controls the main browser functionality, and the other is the initial renderer process, which runs the WebKit rendering engine and JavaScript (V8). Each time you open a new tab in Chromium, you'll likely get a new renderer process. With typical browsing, it is common to see 5-7 chrome.exe processes active. Further, if the pages you have open contain plugins, those plugins will also execute within independent processes. All of Chromium's processes, whether it is a browser process, a renderer process, or a plugin process, will show under the Task Manager as "chrome.exe".

Here is a screenshot of what you might see from Windows Vista running Chromium:


Read more

The Basic Rules of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a process that generates traffic for your website. The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) includes principles and algorithms, mainly related to the website design, capable of generating actions to improve the search engine ranking for your webpages. Increasing the value of your page's rank, the quality and quantity of visitors will be increased too. For example, the main search engines, Google and Yahoo will index your website and will rank pages according to some complex algorithms.

In order to obtain higher page ranks, you should have in mind some basic rules that will assure your SEO success. There are two types of SEO: on page SEO and off page optimization. In both cases, you should check if your site design matches the SEO main conditions:

1. Optimization of URLs - It is recommended to use short URLs titles having static character (for example .html pages), clearly named and if is possible to contain relevant keywords for your page's content. The ideal case is when the relevant keywords are even in the domain name. When choosing the keywords for meta tags you should think what keywords or key phrases you would type to search for a certain page or content on a given search engine.

2. Optimization of the page title tag - The search engine spider will look also in your page title tag for relevant keywords that describe the content of your webpages. As a consequence, the title tag should contain from one two three keywords or key phrases related or present in the page's content. You should also limit the length of your page title to 50 characters or less. And of course, every page should have a distinctive page title, easy to understand for crawlers. The abusive use of keywords will induce a decrease of page rank.

3. Optimization of the website content - The website content is among other factors that will decide the page rank. You should know that crawlers or spiders (the search engines indexing tools) do not index the content of pictures or a javascript action for example. In case you use extensively images for your page content, you should provide a detailed description for every picture. The main idea you should follow when you add content to your website is to maintain simplicity. In conclusion, the text should be present on your webpages in a higher percent as compared to images, javascripts or others. You must also provide fresh content to your visitors periodically.

4. Optimization of the site navigation system - You should build a site map having links that point to the main parts of your site. For example, Google uses your sitemap to analyze the structure of your website. All links must point to valid webpages. It is recommended to check the validity of your site navigation structure using a link checker. You should pay attention to the internal links that should contain keywords, and the number of internal links must be increased in order to provide a clear site hierarchy and an effective navigation system.

As a suggestion, the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will determine a simple and yet rapid site structure, easy to understand for search engine spiders. The external links must point only to quality sites (for example, your page rank will be increased when you link to sites having higher search engine ranks themselves). You should not use links to "link farms". There must be also other links from weblogs, forums or other sites that point to your site. You can achieve this goal by performing a link inter-change process.

5. Optimization of the general site structure - In case your site design does not allow the SEO modifications mentioned, you should change the overall site structure. You can simply do this by using a ready-made CMS (a content management system). It is easy to use and in most cases it's created having the SEO principles in mind, so you will have to manage only the content, without being concerned owith the design.

These rules are not enough to obtain the maximal search engine rank, but they should be taken as a good start for a complete strategy of search engine optimization.

Advertisers Protest Against the Google-Yahoo! Partnership

The Association of National Advertisers has voiced its concerns related to the implications that a Google-Yahoo! agreement would have on fair competition. The letter sent to the Department of Justice, which is currently reviewing the partnership between the two companies, comprises “a comprehensive, independent analysis, which included input from the Board’s members and face-to-face discussions with Google and Yahoo!” the association claims.




ANA's concerns are related to the fact that, should the partnership be given the green light, the two companies would be responsible for over 90% of the search advertising business. This can lead to the development of an unhealthy market, as both users and advertisers are not provided with the same possibility of choice. According to the association, the Google-Yahoo! alliance “will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search advertising.”



As it already common knowledge, the two companies have reached an agreement that will allow Google to display ads along with the search results provided by Yahoo! Although regulation was not compulsory, the partners have decided to delay the closure of their business agreement for 100 days, so that governmental institutions have their say on whether the affiliation is legitimate or not.



ANA was not the only organization to protest against the deal. From the very beginning, Microsoft too has expressed disapproval with the association. “If search is the gateway to the Internet, and most believe that it is, this deal will put Google in a position to own that gateway and the information that flows through it,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Corp. senior vice president and general counsel, on July 15. “Never before in the history of advertising has one company been in the position to control prices on up to 90 percent of advertising in a single medium. Not in television, not in radio, not in publishing. It should not happen on the Internet.” he concluded by saying.

Google Docs Launches New Features

The Google Docs crew made their first stop on its "Apps to School" tour, on which they stop at colleges across the U.S. and hang out with students, show off how they can use Google Docs for their class assignments, and see how studnets are already using it. They hung with some students at the University of Southern California. They also announced some new features that should help students do just that.

First off , you highlight a word and look up the definition/synonyms with Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. This feature is located under the Tools menu in Google Docs in the same area as word count and spell check.

Also in the "Look up Word" section, you can find a similar feature that will let you look something up in Encyclopedia Britannica. I wouldn't mind seeing a Wikipedia option here as well, despite the question of accuracy on topics at any given time. It is understandable that they would leave such a feature off, when they're gearing these features toward students, but I would find it a useful feature.

Another convenient feature they added was the ability to do a Google Image Search from within Google Docs. Just go to Tools>Search the web for word...

Yahoo! Stock Value Reaches Lowest Point in 5 Years

A share is worth only $17.75

The Yahoo! stock value registered, a couple of days ago, the lowest point in five years. The shares dropped to $17.75, while in November 2007, the share price reached the highest point, namely of $34.08. In May 2008, the stock value per unit continuously went up and down, with a minimum rate of $22 and a maximum of $30. Then came the much talked about tender from Microsoft, which expressed its interest to acquire Yahoo!.



At that moment, Yahoo!'s officials, with CEO Jerry Yang at the helm, decided that the $33 per share offer didn't correspond with the actual value of the Sunnyvale based company. The board turned Microsoft down and asked for a bigger bid but the Redmond company considered it to be unreasonable and, after several months of negotiations, decided to drop the offer. "Yahoo!'s existing business plus its recently signed commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal," said Yahoo!'s representatives on July 12, referring to the fact that one of the company’s investors was holding separate talks with Microsoft.



Activist investor Carl Icahn started a fervent protest against Yang's decision, claiming that a collaboration with Microsoft (or, better said, an acquisition) would have reinforced the status of Yahoo!'s products on several markets. As his actions had no visible repercussions on the decisions taken by the topside of the company, the investor started a proxy fight and he was determined to replace the largest part of the current board of directors with his right-hand men.



Just before the annual elections, Yahoo!'s executives and Icahn had reached a settlement, according to which, in return for three seats in the executive board, the investor "would forget" about the Microsoft acquisition friction. Now that the shares dropped to such an unprecedented low, the company seems the perfect target for other acquisition proposals, and perhaps Microsoft itself will come back with a bid, but we have to wait a while longer to see the outcome.

Google Blogging Platform Gets More Social Friendly

Google has announced that all the users of the Blogger platform will soon have greater opportunities to tighten the bonds with the other users of Google's blogging system. “Following,” a new feature that will be implemented in the next couple of weeks in all blogs, allows bloggers to interact more with the other members of the online community.



The feature makes it possible for users to get updates on who follows their blog - which means, for those who are not accustomed to the whole blogging community terminology - who added them to the “favorite blogs” sidebar. Bloggers who have already reached a steady audience can now show their appreciation for the support received so far by also adding some of its members to the public list of “supporters.” This means that, if someone likes your blog and is not shy about making it public, you can return the favor by displaying their pictures, names and weblog addresses on the side of your blog, using the “Followers” feature.



The more solid interconnection between bloggers can create an augmented sense of membership to a dynamic community. Also, it can help people who only read certain blogs easier develop a database of favorite personal webpages to follow in the future. This is because the followers are usually interested in the same subjects as those who are tracked using the new feature.



The same also goes the other way round. Bloggers who decide to follow a colleague's personal page will get automatic updates whenever they publish a new post. The subscription to “Following” can be made both publicly and anonymously, because some may not want, for various reasons, to appear in their favorite bloggers' followers side list.



The team at Google is also preparing a new application for blogs – Google Friend Connect, which promises even more engaging social experiences. Although a good idea, the “Following” feature can cause something that may be easily labeled as discrimination because, although bloggers who use the Google platform can add other bloggers who use different platforms on their friends list, the opposite is impossible. And, if someone doesn't add you to the list, you may want to give them the same treatment, which comes against Google's call for socializing and friendly behavior.

Research on Browser Weaknesses Triggers Attacks

IBM’s X-Force says cyber-criminals are using public research on Web browser weaknesses to launch attacks before most users are even aware of their vulnerability.

The mid-year report from the security group indicates that organized criminals are adopting new automated techniques and strategies that allow them to exploit vulnerabilities much faster than ever before.

According to the X-Force report, 94 percent of all browser-related online exploits occurred within 24 hours of a vulnerability being officially disclosed. These attacks, known-as “zero-day” exploits, are on the Internet before people even know they have a vulnerability that needs to be patched in their systems.

Many security researchers have routinely posted the code needed to exploit a weakness as part of a security advisory. According to the X-Force report, these disclosed vulnerabilities are twice as likely to trigger zero-day exploits.

“The two major themes in the first half of 2008 were acceleration and proliferation,” said X-Force Operations Manager Kris Lamb. “We see a considerable acceleration in the time a vulnerability is disclosed to when it is exploited, with an accompanying proliferation of vulnerabilities overall. Without a unified process for disclosing vulnerabilities, the research industry runs the risk of actually fueling online criminal activity. There’s a reason why X-Force doesn’t publish exploit code for the vulnerabilities we have found, and perhaps it is time for others in our field to reconsider this practice.”

The latest X-Force report also found that browser plug-ins are the newest target-of-choice. In the first six months of 2008, roughly 78 percent of web browser exploits targeted browser plug-ins.

comScore -July 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

In July 2008, Americans conducted 11.8 billion core searches (up 2 percent versus June) as Google Sites slightly extended its lead in core search market share by 0.4 percentage points.

Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in July with 61.9 percent of the searches conducted, up from 61.5 percent in June, followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.5 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.9 percent), Ask Network (4.5 percent), and AOL LLC (4.2 percent).

Americans conducted 11.8 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 2-percent gain versus June. Google Sites handled nearly 7.3 billion core searches (up 2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion and Microsoft Sites with 1 billion.

In the comScore July 2008 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led with 9.9 billion searches, a 4-percent increase versus June. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 2.5 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites with 1.1 billion and AOL LLC with 814 million.