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Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Does Apple want to buy Facebook?

19 Oct


Peter Kafka at All Things Digital thinks that Steve Jobs might want to buy Facebook. His reasoning is that Jobs, when asked what Apple plans to do with its now $51 billion in cash, said, "We firmly believe that one or more unique strategic opportunities will present itself to us, and we'll be in a position to take advantage of it." Kafka believes that one such "unique strategic" opportunity is called Facebook.

Jobs and Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg met for dinner the other day. Many presumed that they were discussing Facebook Connect and Ping integration, but what if it were something more, like Apple buying Facebook? Kafka thinks that Apple acquiring Facebook makes sense because Facebook doesn't compete with Apple in any significant way, and Facebook is something that Apple couldn't compete against even if it wanted to. Plus, Facebook is already competing with Google, "which has to make Jobs like it even more," Kafka argues.

What would Apple buying Facebook lead to? Every Facebook user would probably automatically have an iTunes Store account. FaceTime chat could be integrated into Facebook chat, potentially leading to increased sales of iOS devices. If Apple continues down the road of using not only phone numbers, but email addresses and eventually Facebook IDs as designated FaceTime "phone numbers," then 500 million users would already have a FaceTime ID to use when all telephony goes VoIP.

Apple has the cash to buy Facebook outright (Facebook is valued at around US $25-35 billion), but will they? Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg seem to share a lot of traits (not to mention both having had movies made about them), but could two of the most powerful people in tech -- with equally powerful egos -- work together?

Does Apple want to buy Facebook? originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Just Lost a Potential Ally in its Legal Tussle with Oracle

12 Oct


The battle between Oracle and Google over Android’s use of Java just got a lot more interesting. That’s because IBM has announced that it will be collaborating with Oracle to work on the OpenJDK project.

This means that IBM will no longer be part of the Apache Software Foundation’s Project Harmony, the project that provides Android with the components it needs to run Java code. With IBM leaving the project, Harmony is basically dead in the water.

Although Android wasn’t mentioned in the announcement, this is all interrelated to the Oracle lawsuit. Google responded to the lawsuit last week, claiming that Oracle, which got Java out of its purchase of Sun Microsystems, was acting in bad faith.

For the non-Java savvy out there, here’s an abbreviated rundown of how and why all of this stuff matters:

Apache Harmony is an open source implementation of Java. The goal in creating the project was to unite all of the various free software Java implementations together under one banner.

The project had a lot of early support, the only problem was that Sun (and then Oracle) never offered the project with a Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK). The TCK is needed to prove that Harmony is compatible with the Java specification and can be seen as a certified Java independent version of Java. When Sun first open sourced aspects of Java in 2007, it said it would provide the Apache Foundation with the necessary TCK for certification.

Sun never made good on those assurances and when Oracle took over Sun, the new company wasn’t interested in sharing the TCKs, instead wanting to focus all of its efforts on the officially sanctioned open source Java implementation, OpenJDK.

IBM’s Bob Sutor discussed the decision on his blog, writing:

“We think this is the pragmatic choice. It became clear to us that first Sun and then Oracle were never planning to make the important test and certification tests for Java, the Java SE TCK, available to Apache. We disagreed with this choice, but it was not ours to make. So rather than continue to drive Harmony as an unofficial and uncertified Java effort, we decided to shift direction and put our efforts into OpenJDK. Our involvement will not be casual as we plan to hold leadership positions and, with the other members of the community, fully expect to have a strong say in how the project is managed and in which technical direction it goes.”

This is a big blow to the Harmony project and by extension, to the libraries and classes that Android implements from Harmony in Android. Without big backing like IBM behind the project, it’s not likely to survive.

For now, the Harmony implementation of Java is fine. The problem will be when future versions of Java are released and Harmony can’t keep up in terms of features.

In Java, staying compatible is key. Interestingly, InfoWorld notes that Google has more developers working on OpenJDK than Oracle. So why choose Harmony for Android?

We think it’s because Google wanted to do an end-run around Sun’s licensing requirements. In essence, getting to take advantage of Java SE on mobile devices (something that Sun explicitly forbade without a license), but not having to pay for it.

Long before Sun’s sale to Oracle, others pointed out the potential licensing and IP quagmire that Google was entering with Android. The reality was, Sun didn’t have the power, the funds or the industry clout to really do anything about it.

Oracle does. In fact, Oracle’s clout and power is underscored by IBM’s decision to join up. IBM may be making its decisions for pragmatic reasons, but in the decision shows that IBM is not willing to side with Google in this elongated fight.

At this point, Google’s only real recourse is to sensibly settle and pay Oracle, or countersue and drag the fight out even longer. By fighting back, Google risks alienating its Java-base of developers.

While we question how important having a strong base of Java developers really is to Android’s success in the long term, it doesn’t mean it’s worth risking the future developments of the platform on a legal gamble.

Oracle is out for blood and IBM just provided the syringe.

Reviews: Android, Google

More About: android, apache foundation, Google, harmony, IBM, java, lawsuits, legal, oracle

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Change Any Web Page’s Design Instantly with Chrome Extension Stylebot

21 Sep


One of our favorite web browsers just got a cool new tool in the form of Stylebot, a new Chrome extension that allows you to access and modify the CSS for any web page from within the browser.

That’s right — users get a completely customized design experience for any page they choose. The changes they make can be saved for later use and synced across multiple devices.

This is great news for you design enthusiasts as well as for end users with specific needs and wants for their browsing experience. For example, the extension makes web pages with small fonts more accessible by allowing users to increase the font size, and it can make browsing the web less commercial by removing ads.

Stylebot generates a sidebar full of basic and advanced CSS options that allow the end user to manipulate how content is displayed. This tool is simple enough to be used by a moderately competent consumer, but it also has options better suited for those with web design skills. Stylebot can be used to change font attributes, remove advertising, move page elements, change colors, write one’s own CSS selectors and quite a bit more.

Googler Rachel Shearer wrote the following today on the company’s blog:

“For example, a Stylebot user with special reading needs might change a webpage by removing images, picking new text and background colors, and even moving blocks of text around. And Stylebot saves the custom style they create, so the next time they access that page the changes will still be there. Even better, they can sync their saved styles across computers so that webpage will always appear with their preferred style.”

Check out this brief demo video to see Stylebot in action:

Stylebot was created as a Google Summer of Code project by Ankit Ahuja, a computer science student in New Delhi, India. Stylebot is open source and forkable; interested parties can check out Ahuja’s source on GitHub. He said he used elements of other open-source projects, such as Aristo and Firebug, in his work.

What do you think of Stylebot so far? Would you use it to prettify the ugliness that is Craigslist, for example, or to simplify content viewing on a news site?

Reviews: Craigslist

More About: accessibility, chrome, chrome extension, Chromium, CSS, design, designers, Google, google chrome, stylebot, web design

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If Google Maps Were Real: An Artist’s Vision [PICS]

12 Sep


The above image is one of several from Alejo Malia that depict a world in which all the elements of Google Maps — place markers, public transit symbols and even the yellow street view guy — are completely real and physical objects looming over our buildings, streets and heads.

Malia is a Spanish illustrator and designer who, while relatively unknown, has a very strong social media presence. He’s on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogspot and Flickr.

He uploaded this set of images (titled Google’s World) yesterday, but it’s not his first literal imagination of the technological world of the web; he also produced an image that incorporated Facebook’s “Like” button into a real photograph.

Here’s the rest of the Google’s World set. Enjoy, and be sure and tweet your appreciation at Malia if you like his work.

[Via Gizmodo]

Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Google Maps, Twitter, YouTube

More About: alejo-malia, art, artist, flickr, Google, Google Maps, google's world, illustrations, Illustrator, pics

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YouTube CEO Offers “YouTube Instant” Creator a Job via Twitter

10 Sep


If you build an awesome web app, the job offers will come. At least that’s the story for one computer science student at Stanford University.

Earlier today, Feross Aboukhadijeh launched a fun little app called YouTube Instant. It’s his take on Google Instant, the search engine’s real-time suggestion and prediction search upgrade.

YouTube Instant is a relatively simple app that brings up different YouTube videos while you type. It “predicts” what you’re going to search for and brings up the latest or most popular video related to that subject.

YouTube Instant quickly went viral on Hacker News, Twitter and the blogosphere. It also happened to catch the attention of Chad Hurley, the co-founder and CEO of YouTube. In fact, he was so impressed that he offered Aboukhadijeh a job.

It started with a tweet from Hurley to Aboukhadijeh:

Aboukhadijeh was quick to respond, asking whether it was a legitimate job offer:

Hurley then made it clear that he’s serious:

We can only imagine the back-and-forth DM conversations the two have had since. The moral of the story is this, though: if you build something cool, people will take notice. You could even get a job out or some funding out of it — who knows?

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, sandoclr

Reviews: Hacker News, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto

More About: Chad Hurley, Google, trending, twitter, youtube, YouTube Instant

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There Are 129,864,880 Different Books in the World

05 Aug

Google, which is engaging in extensive book digitization projects, recently set out to determine the number of distinct print books currently in existence:

After some intensive analysis, we’ve come up with a number. Standing on the shoulders of giants—libraries and cataloging organizations—and based on our computational resources and experience of organizing millions of books through our Books Library Project and Books Partner Program since 2004, we’ve determined that number.

As of today, we estimate that there are 129,864,880 different books in the world. That’s a lot of knowledge captured in the written word! This calculation used an algorithm that combines books information from multiple sources including libraries, WorldCat, national union catalogs and commercial providers. And the actual number of books is always increasing.

Link via Cool-O-Rama | Photo by Flickr user Nrbelex used under Creative Commons license

 
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What Identities Are We Using to Sign in Around the Web? [INFOGRAPHIC]

07 Jul

The days of having a separate login and password for each online service we use are behind us. Now, you can log into most sites and services using your social network’s ID.

The most popular social identities are Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, but are they always being used in the same way? The infographic below, courtesy of social optimization platform Gigya, shows that users trust different identities on different services. For example, users are most likely to log on to entertainment sites via Facebook, but when it comes to news sites, the login of choice is Twitter. Furthermore, the infographic shows what profile data is available to services after users log in using various online identities.

Check out a bigger version of the infographic here.


Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter

More About: facebook, gigya, Google, online identity, social networking, twitter, Yahoo

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Google Editions Is Your Local Book Store’s Best Friend [Ebooks]

30 Jun
Lost in the midst of the Ebook wars between Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Sony are the independent bookstores who don't have the clout to bang with the big boys. Not for long, they're looking for help—from Google. More »



Google - Google Editions - Barnes & Noble - Searching - Search Engines
 
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Google Removes The 404 Blinders

14 Oct

Google added a simple, yet extremely useful feature to its suite of Webmaster Tools. Now you can see who is linking to pages that don’t exist. And maybe, you can do something about it.

Example 404 pages in Webmaster tools

Previously, users could view which pages were not found, but had no information about where those links came from. With the addition of the sources, webmasters can change the link (if they own the site), or e-mail and ask nicely.

As Google’s Matt Cutts says, these are some of the easiest links you’ll ever get. No PageRank passes when someone links to a page that doesn’t exist, even when there’s an errant HTML tag in the URL. While asking someone to change the link may sound like a lot of work, it’s not, in comparison to scoping out new links. In the case of broken links, you know they want to link to you, so you’re just alerting them to a mistake.

If you haven’t checked out Webmaster Tools yet, this is a good excuse to look it over. If much of your traffic comes from Google (and for many of us, that’s greater than 50 percent), it’s important to know how it sees your site. Plus, fixing mistakes should make you look better to all search engines and, more importantly, your users.

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Google: ‘Beta’ Means What We Say It Means

25 Sep

gmail logoGoogle is probably the most prolific distributor of “beta” software in the world. Pingdom recently went through the entire stack of Google apps and found that nearly half of them (45 percent) are still officially at beta status.

Traditionally “beta” has been used to designate software that isn’t ready for prime time and may have bugs, yet millions of people use the four-year-old Gmail on a daily basis and, for most, Gmail is bug free. So why call it a beta?

The shorthand way of looking at software development is something like this: alpha = not ready, beta = still not ready, release candidate = still not quite ready and x.0 = finally ready.

So why would a company like Google want equate its products with what most people consider “not ready?” The answer is that Google doesn’t use the term beta according to the usual definition, it apparently has its own, private definition of beta.

In response to those questioning Google’s heavy, and possibly inappropriate, use of the word beta, a Google spokesperson tells NetworkWorld, “we believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the web….”

The spokesperson never exactly gets around to what Google’s precise definition of the word beta is, but reading between the lines it would seem the company means something like “we’re still adding features.”

In which case, don’t expect most Google apps to ever come out of beta. Which isn’t really a problem, it is after all just a word — just be aware that Google has its own definition.

[Note that Webmonkey on the other hand is very much a beta in the traditional sense of the word. Try our RSS feed… see, beta.]

[via Slashdot]

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