After what seems like an eternity of waiting, the Google phone is at last here, well at least the website is. The T-Mobile G1 aka Google phone is officially launched later today, but the website popped up on the radar yesterday. Rumour has it, as the website doesn’t yet actually give out any specs, that the G1 will have the following bells and whistles

* 3G network
* 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 inches
* 5.6 oz
* 480 x 320 res HVGA display
* 3.1 Mp camera
* up to 8 GB of memory
* 5 hours of talktime
* 130 hours of standby

Perhaps what more surprising are the specs that are missing, such as video capture, no stereo bluetooth and the pre-requisites such as a GMail account and your local store being within a two to five mail radius of T-Mobile’s 3G coverage! Not really sure what the last item is about, but the overall package is pretty slack really. I’m pretty sure a souped up model will be out soon, so it may be worth hanging on to your cash for a while to see what the next model is like.

Source: TMO News

Featured tags: android cellphone g1 google t mobile

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The guys at the ‘plex must be rubbing their hands with glee over the figures from ComScore’s ‘first comprehensive study of worldwide search activity’. ComScore have calculated that 61% of searches performed worldwide are executed through Google’s servers - wow! And perhaps what is more worrying there’s no major contender out there either, with Yahoo hiding back in second place with a measily 14%. Poor old Microsoft have dropped to fourth place on the list with 3.5% behind Chinese search engine Baidu in third (5.3%) with Ask almost off the scale at 1.2%.

Google have certainly entrenched themselves in the search engine niche with their name now being synonymous with internet search and is used in movies, tv programs and general day to day life - ‘Just Google it’ has become a favourite phrase of many people was when referring to looking for something on the internet. Will there ever be another search provider out there that can compete with Google and more importantly do we, as searchers, want one?

Anyway for some more details on the figures check out ComScore.

Featured tags: google microsoft search search engines yahoo

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Looks like Bill Gates has jumped aboard the Google-bashing train once more. In an interview with the NY Times Gates stated that Microsoft were not concerned by any attempt by Google to penetrate the mobile phone software market. Microsoft currently has 10% of the market and Google have announced to be preparing to enter this arena. However rather than just say that he wasn’t worried, Gates launched a wee pre-emptive strike about the guys at the plex

They’ve introduced about 30 different products; they have one profit-making product. So you’re now making a prediction without ever seeing the software that they’re going to have the world’s best phone and it’s going to be free?”

I’m not sure to which products Bill is referring but even if they have 30 products which suck (financially speaking of course) obviously the big one is providing them with a healthy enough income to report a billion dollar profit in the first quarter this year. I just think this is Bill trying to be bullish about Google so that the MS faithful doesn’t lose, err, faith.

If Google do indeed enter into the mobile software market then I’m sure, even if their products are unprofitable, those products will be of Google’s usual quality and hopefully pricing structure! ;)

Source: Reuters

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Google has re-indexed a group of Belgian newspapers owned by the publisher Copiepresse. The re-indexing occurred after Copiepresse decided that Google could include their newspapers in the SERPS as long as cached copies were not linked to. It was the caching of their pages that the newspapers were objecting it made it hard for them to charge users for their archived content.

Google had counter-argued that its use of the content was OK as it benefited both the newspapers and readers alike and that the newspapers could have requested their content be removed from the index.

Despite the apparent compromise Google still plans to appeal the Belgian court ruling last September that forced them to remove the newspaper’s pages from the index.

We’re not sure quite who is at fault here, the newspapers are vehemently defending their property yet surely being removed from the Google index would have impacted greatly on their traffic.

It does seem however as just for once common sense has prevailed and both sides have reached a compromise. But you would think Google would drop the appeal as it all seems a bit nonsensical now, perhaps the legal team at the plex fancy some more waffles and chocolate.

Source: PC World

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Ah, the all seeing eye, the font of all knowledge that we know as Google. Well, they’ve fluffed up this time. Despite having their village named after a Chilean independence hero Bernardo O’Higgins, the inhabitants of Villa O’Higgins are Argentinean according to the great Google. Needless to say Chile are hoping the guys at the plex will re-draw their maps and put the villagers back where they belong.

So the next time you use Google to find the nearest liquor store that sells the finest Chilean Merlot, don’t be surprised if you get the details of the closest Argentinean beef importer. Cheers Google.

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After similar events in Turkey. This seems to keep happening to YouTube due to copyright scandals and calumniator content. Until Google bought it, this was not that much of a big deal but since then all who have something to gain from it can hit Google long and hard on the Youtube subject.

The ban was now established in Thailand, it seems YouTube editors refused to remove some offensive content, even though authorities from Thailand requested it in numerous occasions. As you well know this is not a first, YouTube got banned in the past in countries like Brasil and in state schools in Australia, for similar causes.

And legal matters are not the least of YouTube’s concerns now. Derived from all this copyright problems the video service from Google is facing a great deal of other sites of the kind offer video material that YouTube can’t show anymore. Here are a few examples AllSP or TV links or many more of the same sort that steal a increasing share of YouTube’s visitors.

YouTube is certainly traveling in some black waters, will be Google able to pull it off?

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I was somehow expecting that. Google launched today two new services, out of which I’m expecting at least one to be true, and the other to be fake. Since GMail is three years old today, I assume that the GMail Print feature will be for real.

Starting today, Google introduces GMail Paper. Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and they’ll send it to you in the mail. Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. You should be receiving them in 2 to 4 days. Basically, a stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

So far so good, but since Google made a habit out of tricking us today, they also launched TISP, a service that is supposed to offer you Wi-Fi internet access from everywhere. Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines. Well, it could have been believable until the part where they’re tweaking up their toilets.

1st of April is not over yet. Enjoy.

Featured tags: april fools gmail google

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