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

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

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.

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?

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.

Three years ago, Google was launching GMail, an innovating mailing service that was perceived as a practical joke at the beginning due its chosen launching day. Today, three years later, GMail is one of the most popular webmail options, directly competing with Yahoo’s Mail.

Even if recently, Yahoo offered unlimited space compared to GMail’s 2,9GB, I still believe that users are not looking just for storage space, and they want more flexibility and user-oriented features. That’s why GMail was and will still be my favorite.

Happy birthday ;)

For the moment Google is the biggest player when thinking of search engines. But although Google has a good head-start there are lots of search engines out there trying to make it. And I think that these new search engines, that are forced to innovate in order to stand any chance, are the future.

So what can be added to a search engine that Google hasn’t added already? Well some tried more relevant ads, or advanced search features, category searching and even tabbed searching but let’s be honest, how many of them are really successful? There is even a top 100 alternative search engine chart.

But when it comes to it, all that matters is how effective is your engine and how useful are the functions you provide to your users. Practically Twerq.com is not even a search engine by itself, it’s more of an easy way to search the web using existing services like Google and Yahoo! search. And this is where TWERQ shows its best, it has some functions I’ve found quite interesting and useful at the same time, as you can see in this video:

The simple syntax it uses enables you to create relevant searches in no time at all. But the true power of TWERQ comes out when you register and create custom search lists. In this way you can search images, blogs, news, etc in the same time with only one search. It’s really helpful to configure this kind of search domains for information you need daily, it saves lots of time.

So is this the search engine of the future ? Certainly not, but I’m sure that functions like the search syntax and tabbed searching will be part of future search engines.