The New Goo.gl vs. Bit.ly

Google just made Bit.ly 's life a little harder with the inclusion of stats to their URL shortener.

There are many shorteners out there with great features, so some people may wonder whether the world really needs yet another. As we said late last year, we built goo.gl with a focus on quality. With goo.gl, every time you shorten a URL, you know it will work, it will work fast, and it will keep working. You also know that when you click a goo.gl shortened URL, you’re protected against malware, phishing and spam using the same industry-leading technology we use in search and other products. Since our initial release, we’ve continued to invest in the core quality of the service:

• Stability: We’ve had near 100% uptime since our initial launch, and we’ve worked behind the scenes to make goo.gl even stabler and more robust.
• Security: We’ve added automatic spam detection based on the same type of filtering technology we use in Gmail.
• Speed: We’ve more than doubled our speed in just over nine months.

It's all good and all but it still lacks some things that Bit.ly and J.mp (yes, it's also Bit.ly powered) has:

• Usability in any Browser: For example: in order to use J.mp you only need to type "j.mp/" in front of the "http://" of the url and you're all set to go! No need for extensions nor bookmarks, therefore you can use it in ANY browser (you need to type "j.mp/http://" in Google Chrome and Chromium though).
• Ease in Sharing: You can share straight to any of the major social networking sites from Bit.ly.
• Shorter Characters: J.mp beats the two as it only has 4 characters and therefore is better with the 140 character limit in Twitter.

Although I've been a bit.ly/j.mp fan for the last few months, i'll give goog.gl a try.

Conan O'Brien visits Google and explodes!

...with laughter!

Google Chrome Beta 5.0.375.29 unleashed!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Google has just released Google Chrome Beta 5.0.375.29, possibly making it one of the fastest browsers out there.

Today’s new beta release incorporates one of Chrome’s most significant speed and performance increases to date, with 30% and 35% improvement on the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over the previous beta channel release. In fact, looking back in time, Chrome’s performance has improved by as much as 213% and 305% on these two benchmarks since our very first beta.

There's a lot of new features included in the new update, but the one I really like is the Bookmarks/preferences/theme sync. It's like I can pull my home browser anywhere! However there's one thing you need to be careful of, once you install the sync, it'll stay there unless you delete or uninstall it. One more thing to improve upon I guess.

Google is celebrating my birthday today!

From Personal Public

Thanks!

Google to China: No more censorship!

Google is moving on the offensive against China by uncensoring their search engine and being redirecting it all to Google Hong Kong.

So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk.

Most of you may remember the reason why Google is so pissed off at China and they have a reason to. Although it was mentioned that the hacker was not getting support from the Chinese Government, the company is still hellbent on ensuring that the Google Hong Kong site is uncensored.

The company is also saying that the decision came from the executives in the United States and not from its China counterparts. Hopefully they won't be arrested for decisions that were out of their hands.

China responds to Google's Search Uncensorship

On the otherhand, the Chinese government is saying that Google needs to abide by their rules:

"Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks," said the official.

"This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts," the official said.

Is Google fighting for free information or just being a brat?

Is Google saying that they're "not evil" by imposing their ideas of free information in the web? Are they doing this for the good of the web or are they just pissed off because of the hacking incident? Why just now?

So many questions and there's quite a lot of analysis going on, but i think it's best to wait it out and see what happens in the end of this fight.

Will both sides will lose in the end?

This will be a landmark in web history whatever happens:

If Google gets its way with China, it's going to show how weak the country is against a Demcoracy-backed company, but may get the ire of some countries/societies that don't like foreign companies mucking around with their laws.

If China successfully kicks out Google or the company submits to Chinese rules (as it did before all this happened), it's going to leave a bad reputation for both parties. China will look like an even bigger bully and the company will lose face in front of the web community.

Will there be a middle ground? That's up to both China and Google to figure out.

A New Approach to China: an Update
China responds to Google

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Google Buzz and Allods Online: Fail?

The recent events in both the Allods Online Cash Shop controversy and Google Buzz chaos reminded me of two things:

• Just because something seems good now doesn't mean it'll be good in a few weeks.
• Always keep a positive outlook that things will change for the better, with or without that service/product.

Allods Online: Massive Multiplayer Online Fail?

Allods Online was to be one of  THE BEST MMORPG OF 2010, until they unveiled the Cash Shop. Saying that the items for sale there is overpriced can be considered as a massive understatement. For example, a bag costs $20--$5 more than a monthly MMO subscription that offers everything.

The forum has been covered in flameposts and threats of boycotting that any questions about builds and questing questions are almost non-existent. Some of it's premier players have voiced out their disgust at the current events and are now contemplating of leaving the game (with their entire guild) entirely.

Buzz: Google's Waterloo?

Google Buzz was supposed to be one of the best social network services that will make Twitter/Facebook/etc. make a run for their money. But instead their lack of filtering features, user control, and security flaws have deemed it to be a failure. It's coincidental that Buzz was created in Waterloo, closely named in the phrase, "meet one's Waterloo": a word signifying a great test with a final and decisive outcome- usually a negative one.

Most of the reaction has been negative: confusion, frustration, and even borderlining on hate. There are still bloggers supporting the service, but most have left it completely or just using it sparingly.

Both situations are at their worst tight now, but we've all been through this before: a service starts good, but ends up worse. Yet there are some services/products that have gone through these things and ended up better than originally thought.

Let's give them both a chance to do a strategic retreat and recover their losses.

UPDATE: gPotato has given their comment on the dev concerns and Cash Shop prices.

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Google Buzz and Dunbar's Number

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

With both Robert Scoble and Jason Calcanis (and Steve Rubel thinking of) stopping their Tweets from entering Google Buzz, they have joined the movement of lessening the noise on the said social network.

A much more drastic (and I think even better) Google Buzz noise effect was on Damond Nollan when he decided to unfollow a ton of people on both his Twitter and Google Reader.

...I made the decision to unfollow around 3,400 accounts on Twitter and another couple hundred in Google Reader. 

He did this on order to have deeper engagement, more value, and less noise when it comes to social media. I'm liking his idea a LOT.

All these actions remind me of the theory of Dunbar's Number which states that the number of social interaction is limited to 150 only because:

"this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained."

Whatever the "right" number would be, I have no clue, but reducing the massive number of people you follow to what you can handle is essential in making your social network really work for you.

I'll be posting soon on how I will do this on ALL of my social networks. There might even be some social sites that I will totally leave in order to put some sort of order in all of this noise and chaos.

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Google Buzz: What happened?

Image by COG LOG LAB. via Flickr

I am a big fan of Google. I love Chrome, Reader, Wave and almost anything else Google ( I even have an Orkut account for pete's sakes), however their newest foray into the socialsphere, Google Buzz, needs to be overhauled immediately.

On the first two days (gosh, even on the Q & A portion of the Google Buzz launch), all I read was how it was almost like Friendfeed. However, I consider Google Buzz as Friendfeed vanilla ultra lite. It doesn't even come close to what Friendfeed is today even after its creators left for Facebook.

A large concern for its early users was the security flaw that opened up their Google Profiles to outside people to look at who their contacts are and who they chat most with. With so much noise on this issue, Google has decided to do something about it by emphasizing the option to have the people you follow and contact with remain private. 

My personal concern here is how to reign in all the noise. For example: I'm a Robert Scoble follower because I like reading his status updates but his Buzzes (jeesh even his Friendfeed posts before) gets quite a lot of responses  that it keeps popping on top of the Buzz list that I fail to see other Buzzes below. I know it's a testament to the man's power to connect with a lot of people, but I'm now muting his lengthy buzzes just to read the other people I'm following. I'm not sure if he likes being muted by hundreds of people, but I definitely won't like it.

There's no way to categorize people I follow. Reading my Buzz list is like reading a newspaper that updates itself every few minutes and not knowing whether I'm at the Sports or Business page. Again, comparing to my Friendfeed experience, I was able to sort out the noise by putting people I follow in different categories thus allowing me to view them whenever I feel like it. Unlike in Google Buzz now where different topics pop up, making me feel disoriented.

Since Google Buzz is still a few days old, I expect it to make strides in its development, but until they've been able to put in user controls that makes the noise easier to organize, I'll be hanging out somewhere else.

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Google Ad in Superbowl: Old media is not dead

It's interesting that Google, one of the foremost Internet companies on the face of the planet, to try on "old media". During today's Superbowl XLIV, the company just unveiled an advertisement for everyone to see. The ad is seen below:



What's surprising is that "old media" still has that magic to attract both Internet users and those who don't. Let's face it, Google is one of the well-known brands on the face of the Earth right now, yet they still put out an ad. Why did Google resort to such a thing? The same reason why McDonald's and Coke still put out ads: to further push themselves out there and ensure that potential customers be convinced to use their paid services and more!

Does this mean that other Internet companies will be joining the fray soon? Why not? Instead of the old vs. the new media, maybe they can help benefit each other.

Go Google!

Google Tablet

via feeds.gawker.com

With the iPad making the tech-heads roll, Google ain't that much far behind. Reports are saying that the much maligned Chrome OS will be the one to run this Google Pad. That means Apple's closed system will battling it out with Google's opens source powered pad.

Go Google!

Posted via web from Geekpapa Blogger Lifestream

Gmail Buffs Security After Cyber Attacks

Image via Wikipedia

Following the announcement that Google maybe pulling out of China, Gmail has defaulted to https access. For those who are not familiar with it, the address of Gmail will be changed from http://mail.google.com to https://mail.google.com. With the added letter "s" after the "p" in http, your email will be automatically encrypted as it goes from your browser to their servers.

Previously, you have the option to use either http or https, as of today they will be implementing the use of https as the default. However, you can still turn it off if you want to. The effects of using https will mean slower processing of emails but I think security should be a priority.

The reason why Google implemented this was when they detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" that resulted in intellectual property theft and the attempted hacking & accessing of Chinese/US/EU human rights activists Gmail addresses.

I'm thinking that since not everyone uses Gmail, the other web email providers like Yahoo! and MSN will most likely have had the same experience. Hopefully the other web email providers will also default to https (if they haven't done so) after this event for the sake of their users.

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Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS The Video Showdown!

via newteevee.com

Above is just the video taken with the Nexus One, the others as well as the authors final verdict (hint: it's the one that I like better!) in this great piece!

Posted via web from Whathappenstance

Google Chrome Beats Apple’s Safari

via mashable.com

Our first set of stats covered the week of Dec. 6-12, during which Googlelaunched Chrome for Mac — a rush of downloads was to be expected. Now web metrics provider Net Applications has released its full month of December stats, confirming that Chrome had 4.63% of the browser market that month, versus 4.46% for Apple’s Safari.

Google Chrome will be the standard browser in the VERY near future. Suggest you use it today.

Posted via web from Whathappenstance

Google Wave Needs More Guides and Mentors

Image via Wikipedia

I've been dipping my toes into Google Wave (GW) the last couple of weeks and found it to have massive potential yet very few people using it. I think the reason is that it's confusing them and they currently see no reason to use it.

Most of what I read is that it's a good collaborating tool ...but what else and how to do it? As of the moment, the best source for GW knowledge is Gina Trapani and Adam Pash's The Complete Guide to Google Wave. Other guides seem to be just taking from this resource--so better get it direct from them.

Regarding usages, besides being a collaborative tool it's a great way to communicate (not just chat) with online buddies--I think of it as an Instant Messenger on steroids. Just check out the vid below (Not safe for kids):



Yes, it is that and more! Instead of posting a link to a picture or a vid, people you chat with can actually see it there! You can do video chat as well!

Now the next problem is connected with the way people are confused with GW: the lack of the majority of people interested in using it. I think GW deserves to have some push coming from Google--unless they themselves don't know how to market it. It becomes a hard sell when it comes to replacing email because not everyone has one yet (it's still an invite-only site since it's still on Preview Phase) and there's still some bugs in the system (can't delete some blips, can't add some vids, etc.) that's stopping people from using it most of the time. Another problem is that some public waves are just out of control and the originators seem to have forgotten to do some forum-management.

Hopefully the Google Wave Team will be able to improve on GW and open it to everyone so other people can try it out. What this needs are more big name tech persons to use it extensively, like Jason Kolb, who recently went into GW and left his blog permanently.

If Google Wave fails then it fails, but if it succeeds--you never know how it will affect our online lives.

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Google Voice Eventually Appears in iPhone

Apple is a company that has superior quality gadgets, but I felt it necessary to focus on the way they deal with possible competitors. One of their biggest news this year was the way did away with Google Voice applications--and one of these was VoiceCentral. Now a few months later, it seems that Google Voice will be making a comeback to the iPhone through Black Swan anyway.

How will it be able to bypass being banned in the App Store? Easy: it'll run in the browser.

Continue reading here

Waving Goodbye to 2009

via youtube.com

This shows just how good Google Wave is. I just hope this increases users to re-check it out. For more info on how to use Google Wave go to http://completewaveguide.com .

Posted via web from Geekpapa Blogger Lifestream

New Google Chrome Beta (Again!)

Image via Wikipedia

There's a brand new beta for you to try out today. As always, we continue to focus on speed, and this beta release shows over 30% improvement on both the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over our current stable channel release. We've also improved two of the most loved and most used features of Google Chrome: the New Tab page and the Omnibox. Plus, we decided to add a little bit of style by allowing you to deck out your browser with colors, patterns, and images.

via chrome.blogspot.com

What can I say? I'm loving Google Chrome everyday!

Posted via web from Robert Sanchez's Lifestream

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Google Chrome gets themes galore!

Google now offers a gallery of themes for its Chrome browser.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Google on Tuesday launched a gallery of 29 themes for Google Chrome. But Mozilla, while refraining from sniggering, boasted it's now up to 20,000.

Cosmetic changes are, well, cosmetic, but a lot of people like them as a way to add some flair to their machines. Many had been pestering Google to add themes support even though Chrome employs a Spartan user interface without much acreage for artistry. Last week's developer version of Chrome added a "Get themes" button in the Options dialog box, and now Google has flipped the switch to activate the Web page that button points to.

via news.cnet.com

Just love it! I just hope that extensions will be coming next. There are ways to do add extensions, but it requires a lot of registry changes that I'm not willing to deal with for now.

Note: This only works for the Google Chrome Developer version.

Posted via web from Robert Sanchez's Lifestream

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Google Tasks has finally graduated

Image via CrunchBase

I don't use much of Tasks but I place it in my Gmail anyway--thinking that I may have some use for it someday.

Looks like that day has come.

With most of the Google Applications leaving Beta, Tasks have joined the ranks of...non-Beta-ness.

We launched Gmail Labs as a forum for delivering useful (and maybe not so useful) features that might not be quite ready for prime time. The idea was always that the most popular and viable Labs features would graduate and be made more readily available to all users...and that some of the less used, less viable ones would disappear forever.

I'm proud to announce that Tasks is in that first bucket — it's been one of the most popular experimental Gmail features and it's now the first graduate from Labs.

What does this mean to us mere mortals who have been chasing after the GTD Nirvana? I honestly don't know, but with this announcement, I may start playing with this app again.

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I heart Google Chrome

I've been a fan of Google Chrome since it went into Beta a few months ago and I haven't looked back since. It's a treat then to know that it has gone past its Beta stage and into the 1.0 realm. Although I do have precautions with trying out "1.0s", I think this one's a winner.

It's nice, but it still has a long way to go. Unlike Firefox, Chrome's spartan...too spartan--even bordering on the ridiculously minimalist. It also lacks the extensions that FF has and this is where it pales in comparison. However, since this is an open source program, I'm expecting more extensions to come in middle of next year.

Another problem is that it's available for Windows users only. Although they are working on the Linux and Mac version, I can't help but feel animosity from the non-Windows users. Patience is a virtue, besides, you guys have Ubuntu and Quicksilver to be proud of.

I'm staying with Chrome, but just in-case something should happen to it, I still have IE and FF browsers as back-ups. LOLZ.