Gmail Launches Video Chat
Google launched Gmail voice and video chat, making it easier for people around the world to chat in high-quality video for free right within Gmail. To get started, open a Gmail chat window, click on the “Options” menu at the bottom, and choose “Add voice/video chat,” which will walk you through a one-time installation of a free plugin (a quick 2 MB download). When you re-open Gmail you’ll notice your “Options” link in your chat window has changed to “Video & more”. Open this menu and click “Start video chat” to see and hear your partner in high-quality video. You can pop out the video and change its size and position, or switch to full screen.
Google Moves toward OpenID
OpenID is a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single user name and password, single sign-on, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site. Google announced that it will become a single sign-on provider using OpenID solutions. This will allow Google users to log in with their Google account information when signing up for new accounts on other sites. Microsoft and Yahoo have already taken step to offer this service, using OpenID.
Google Earth for iPhone
Google brings it Google Earth application to iPhone and iTouch. Google Earth can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store (accessible through iTunes). The application is available for download in 18 languages and 22 countries. The application, by taking advantage of iPhone’s mobile technology, is capable of offering location based results for search of services and products. Google Earth is a virtual globe program that shows the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery and aerial photography over a 3D globe.
Google Teams with Celebrities to Register Voters
Celebrities Forest Whitaker, Leonardo DiCaprio and Dustin Hoffman have joined hands with Google in a campaign to get US citizens to vote in the coming presidential election. Google says despite all the buzz about turnout this year, 1 in 4 Americans still aren’t registered to vote. Google put a Voter info map which contains registration, absentee, and early voting information in one place. The celebrities in the “5 Friends” video urge people to send “5 Friends” so the message spreads.
Orkut Blocked Communities Which Support Terrorists.
Social networking site Orkut has blocked access to a community on the site that supports terrorists in India. The blocked community is known to be “Indian Mujahideen Fan Club” and which appears on a search of Orkut’s communities. The community says “Support them. They are fighting for our rights and justice”. Orkut is owned by Google. India has the third-largest number of users of Orkut.
Google Calls for Ideas to Change the World
Project 10^100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th) is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Google is announcing this project as part of its tenth birthday celebration. To participate users can send exciting ideas for ways to improve people’s lives and Google will give $10 million to turn up to five of the best ideas into reality. Submission dead line is on October 20th, 2008. Watch the video Google created and let the neurons fire up for the humanity.
Google Hosts Africa Conference
“Building the conversation between Silicon Valley and Africa.”, is the mission statement of BarCamp Africa. The organizers expects grass roots changes can be made by building awareness using this event. Google has offered to host this gathering on their beautiful Mountain View campus. What is a BarCamp? It is a gathering to share and learn in an open environment with discussions, demos and interaction among participants. BarCampAfrica 2008 will be held on Oct 11th.
Internet to Africa, Google Takes Initiative
O3b Project, named after the “other 3bn” people, is an ambitious project which provide internet access to 3 billion people in Africa and other emerging market. The project will be backed by some global giants. John Malone, the cable television magnate, HSBC and Google join hands to to set up O3b Networks. The estimated cost of the project is $750 million and when its completed cost of bandwidth will be reduced by 95% in those areas. As the first stage of the project, 16 low-earth orbit satellites will be ordered from Thales Alenia Space, the French aerospace group.
Google Plans to Launch Web Browser.
Google is set to launch a new Web browser called Chrome on Tuesday. The beta version of Google Chrome will be launched tomorrow in more than 100 countries. Google said they have used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox to build the new browser. Google promises simplicity, speed and security in its new browser. Here is the link for the cartoon created for Chrome by Google. The release of the new browser by Google is a long-anticipated move aimed at countering the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Update : Chrome can be download here.
Cattle Have Sense Of Direction
Google Earth satellite images helped researchers, and revealed that cattle tend to face north-south direction while grazing or resting. Other field observations of red and roe deer also revealed this. Both cattle and deer faced a more magnetic north-south direction rather than geographic north-south.
Other animals such as birds, turtles and salmon migrate using a sense of magnetic direction. Small mammals such as rodents and bats also have inner magnetic compass.
Google invests in Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is the heat of the Earth, which can be tapped into to produce electricity. Even though it has great potential as a renewable energy source it doesn’t get much attention it deserves. 2% of the heat below the United States at depths of 3-10 kilometers would be supply 2500 times the nation’s current energy needs. Through its philanthropic division Google.org, Google will be investing nearly $10.5 million into three projects researching advanced geothermal power. The technology Google focuses on is called EGS. EGS produces heat and electricity by harnessing the energy from hot rock deep below the earth’s surface, expanding the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude.
Free the Air Waves
White space in telecommunications refers to unused frequencies in the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Google and some other telecommunication companies have called on the FCC to open up the white spaces as a way to create wireless broadband networks nationwide. But these efforts may impact wireless microphones and other technologies that have historically relied on these frequencies. As part of the campaign to gain public support for new wireless devices to use the so-called white spaces Google launched a web site Free the Air waves. So if anyone agree that freeing the white spaces represents a vote for the future of the Internet, they can sign a petition in the web site.
