Application developers tired of paying Apple a 30% fee to host their apps on the iTunes App store will soon have a more open alternative. Google released early details on what it calls the Android Market, "an open content distribution system that will help users find, purchase, download and install" content for their Android phones--for free. In other words, the Anti-Apple store. Whereas Apple vets every application prior to posting it in its Apps Store, Google says the Android Market will use YouTube as its blueprint. It will let content owners add their apps simply by registering, uploading the content and publishing it. The difference will be akin to shopping at Macy's vs. a flea market. READ MORE
Optimism is the watchword at Google when it comes to its upcoming ad-sharing deal with Yahoo. In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Google plans to go ahead with the deal in October. By then, the 3.5 months Google agreed to wait for the Justice Department to scrutinize the pact will have passed.
Google offers enterprise-savvy response to Gmail outage08/29/08Customers of Apps Premier, Google's hosted Apps suite that costs $50 per subscriber per year, will now get a free 15 days tacked on the end of their agreement. The move is an effort to pacify customers after the suite experienced three separate outages this month. But more important, Google also vowed to be better at keeping customers in the loop as outages are reported and remediated via a new dashboard.
More specs revealed for first Android phone08/28/08Drawings and specs for the first Android phone, expected to be available for presale this fall, were published by the Android Guys, kicking up even more enthusiasm for the first-of-its-kind phone. Besides the slide out QWERTY keyboard, the new phone also seems to have a trackball and a couple of other features not previously revealed.
IE 8 feature thwarts targeted ads, Google 08/28/08Leave it to Microsoft. In one fell swoop, the Redmond giant has found a way to undermine Google's bread-and-butter ad business, call attention to Google's tepid privacy stances and provide users with exactly what they want: A way to preserve their privacy as they search the Web. By adding the new InPrivate feature within its IE 8 browser, Microsoft is hitting Google where it lives.
Google named in visual voicemail suit08/27/08As if the hullabaloo surrounding Android's dropping of the Bluetooth API from its SDK wasn't enough turmoil for one week. Now Google has been named in a lawsuit by an inventor of visual voicemail, according to this Reuters report. Turns out the inventor, Judah Klausner, recently settled suits with AT&T and Apple, so he's decided Google, Verizon and a host of others are now fair game.
Gears now available for Safari08/26/08Running online data offline just got a little bit easier for users of Apple's Macintosh and iPhone. Google unveiled a beta of its Gears browser plug-in for Safari, the default Web browser on those Apple platforms. Until now, Gears was only able to run in Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers, but with the advent of the beta, Google now opens up Gears' functionality to a nice new chunk of users.
Bluetooth API important to Android08/26/08While it's understandable that Google felt pressure to ship the next version of the Android SDK quickly (developers were none too happy about the delays already), it doesn't bode well that the Bluetooth API was left out.
Report: Google readies more stable Jaiku08/25/08Jaiku may be about to emerge from its Google-imposed black hole. The site is closed for server maintenance, leading some, including Venture Beat to speculate that it's about ready to re-emerge in a newly rejuvenated, more stable form.
Google news from Network World
The Androids are on the moveExciting news for Google watchers: the Android developers announced their content distribution system. This means that with the release of the Android we are going to have the opportunity to ...Read more
Garett Kopczynski is an IT professional for the City of Keene, N.H. His hands-on involvement with Google Apps gives him unique insight into other applications of Google within (and beyond) a corporate office environment.
YouTube in 1985 (Video)[Via Thai Tran/ Best of YouTube.] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: YouTube in 1985 (Video) | Comments] [Advertisement] Want to advertise here? Your ad will show in the blog and feed. ...Read more
Philipp Lenssen from Germany, author of Google Apps Hacks, shares his views and news on the search industry in the daily Google Blogoscoped. Items here are reprinted with his permission.
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Google launched two new series aimed at helping enterprises better understand its Web platform. The first, the Open Web Podcast, focuses on "news, events, and opinion on the state of the Open Web," and examines new APIs and specifications, the new charge behind Firebug, the Open Web Foundation, among other topics. The second series, This Week in HTML 5, aims to help enterprises keep track of the changes to the HTML 5 specification, as well as the features and decisions made by the group.
PRODUCTIt looks like Google is nearing the end of its Google Web Toolkit (GWT) development cycle. The second release candidate of the AJAX-based toolkit (GWT 1.5) is available now for download.
PRODUCTGoogle announced that Google Gadgets have been enabled for all Blog layouts. The new interface lets bloggers integrate iGoogle Gadgets directly into their sidebars, and offers several customization options.
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