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Google sought consumer feedback on its highly anticipated Google Glasses product today while set up in a street fair booth in the San Francisco area.

According to GottaBeMobile’s Xavier Lanier, who also posted the picture above, the Google Research booth on Union Street screened “qualified” passerbys with an insights survey:

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OnLive showcased its cloud-based gaming platform on LG’s G2 Google TV sets today during the E3 conference in Los Angeles.

The company highlighted its Universal OnLive Wireless Controller with the LG G2 TV, and then detailed its “growing library of hundreds of top-tier, console-class video games on-demand” with demos available for every title. The sneak peaks allow up to 30 minutes of free gameplay, so players can give any title a complete test-drive. From there, gamers can buy “a la carte” or subscribe to OnLive’s PlayPack subscription service for unlimited on-demand play. Of course, OnLive games are also accessible on almost any Android, iOS, etc., tablet or smartphone with a broadband or Wi-Fi connection thanks to its cloud service.

“It’s always been our mission to make top-quality gaming accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said OnLive’s founder and CEO Steve Perlman in a press release. “OnLive adds no cost to LG Smart TVs, but delivers a full console-class experience. We’re excited to make on-demand top-tier gaming an integral part of the living room entertainment system on LG’s state-of-the-art TVs.”

Perlman previously announced on the official Google TV Blog in January that his cloud-gaming platform would launch on Google TV as an application.

OnLive revealed its social features for Google TV called “OnLive Viewer” at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, but it elaborated today and said account holders can watch millions of gamers play live, capture videos of their gameplay, and share exploits with Facebook friends. Additional social functions enable OnLive users to exclusively watch, interact, and chat with friends in the new MultiView mode.

The LG G2 Series comes equipped with the Google TV platform, the L9 dual-core chipset, and full HD 3D. LG’s Google TV model is the first smart TV set to integrate OnLive on-demand gameplay.

The full press release is below.

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And war has begun: Facebook slammed Google’s Chrome browser today with the above unsupported web browser message [cache], which recommended Opera, among others, as a better alternative for viewing the social network.

FavBrowser first discovered the change and noted Facebook’s rumored plans to acquire Opera. This is noteworthy, because Google+ is Facebook’s direct competitor. The infant Google service is tackling Facebook head-on with its executives consistently criticizing Facebook, like when CEO Larry Page accused Facebook of holding users hostage last week. Only now it appears the back-talking has turned into actions, because Facebook no longer recommends Chrome to its nearly 1 billion active users.

According to StatCounter, Chrome passed Internet Explorer during the week of May 14 to May 20 to become the most popular browser in the world. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead in the United States, but growth for Chrome is steadily increasing in regions like South America, India, and Europe. The browser also surpassed Internet Explorer, although for just a day, in March. These statistics indicate that Chrome is too large for Facebook to ignore.

Meanwhile, Google’s CEO Larry Page said in a statement to investors in April that the company’s own social network Google+ now has more than 100 million active users, which is up from 90 million total users in January. To him, the network is an integral product that will help Google bring the next generation of search to life. Despite these bold goals, Facebook still reins king in the social network market with its nearly 10 times larger userbase.

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According to a report from The New York Post, Google’s CEO Larry Page is considering extending the company’s relationship with label-backed music-video service Vevo by possibly buying an equity stake in the venture. The report claimed that Facebook is also considering making an investment in Vevo, which is reportedly currently valued at $1 billion and run by major labels including Universal Music Group and Sony Music.

Both Google CEO Larry Page and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are exploring an investment in Vevo as part of a broader partnership with the music-video service, The Post has learned.

Vevo already has a deal with Google to host its content on YouTube, but the report noted that agreement lasts only through the remainder of 2012. Vevo is reportedly negotiating with YouTube to accept lower than the two-thirds of ad-revenue it currently receives from the Vevo content that it hosts. As The Post pointed out, recent stats from comScore listed Vevo as YouTube’s top partner channel in April with 48 million unique viewers during the month.

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Google TV just launched iHeartRadio on its Smart TV platform in an effort to bring live radio to the big screen.

iHeartRadio is a four-year-old website and mobile radio network that aggregates local radio brands, personalities, and on-demand content. The new Google TV app offers 800 live stations and the ability to create a custom station based on an artist or track. It also sports high-resolution imagery, quick jump options, and seamless navigation for finding local broadcasts by genre or location. Moreover, the app “dims the lights,” so users can listen to music without a blaring screen in the room.

A screenshot of the app is above, while a reel of the service is below. 

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtPb1GEzF0]

Google’s CEO Larry Page went on the “Charlie Rose” show via PBS last night to discuss an array of topics, but he also made sure to scold newly-public Facebook in regards to users’ data.

According to Venture Beat, Page well-wished Facebook on its IPO, and then he jumped to, “I think it’s been unfortunate that Facebook has been pretty closed with their data.” He also mentioned Google’s openness, and he subsequently criticized Facebook for lacking the ability to import Google contacts when joining the world-popular social network:

“From a user’s perspective, you say, ‘I’m joining Facebook. I want my contacts.’ In Google, we said, ‘Fine. You can get them from Google.’ And the issue we had is that then Facebook said, ‘No, Google, you can’t do the reverse.’ And so we just said, ‘Well, users don’t understand what they’re doing. They’re putting data in, and they don’t understand they can’t take it out.’ So we said, ‘Well, we’ll only participate with people who have reciprocity. And we’re still waiting.'”

Long story short: Google wants to share its users’ contacts with Facebook—if Facebook does the same with Google.

“You don’t want to be holding your users hostage […] We think it’s important that you as users of Google can take your data, and take it out if you need to, or take it somewhere else,” Page added.

The chief executive also touched upon his excitement with Chrome becoming the No. 1 most popular Web browser, the search engine’s confidence in legal issues concerning Oracle and its Java patents in Android, the persistent European Union antitrust investigation, and his hopes for Google Glasses.

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Google’s product leader for display ads business, Jason Bigler, took to Twitter yesterday to announce his not-so shocked reaction over General Motors, ya know—the nation’s third-biggest advertiser, slashing its $10 million Facebook campaign budget to zilch.

The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis K. Berman told the world via the micro-blogging service that GM pulled its $10 million advertising campaign from Facebook because “the ads didn’t work.” Bigler obviously agreed with the reporter’s sentiments.

Google’s ad boss has a reason to jump on the Facebook-bashing bandwagon, though. After all, his company operates its own social network that directly competes with Mark Zuckerberg’s widely-popular website. However, amid the Twitter trash-talk, there just might be some actual truths to Facebook’s potentially flawed campaign techniques when compared to Google’s advertising methods.

According to Business Insider:

Google’s perfect online ad product is the search ad. Search ads are perfect because the people paying for the ads know that the people looking at the ads want to see them. Consumers go on to Google and search for products or information about products, and Google shows them ads from the company that makes that product (and ads from its competitors).  There is no guesswork in the targeting of Google ads. The same cannot be said for Facebook ads. Facebook ads are targeted the old-fashioned way.

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Facebook just announced that it is launching a new App Center—but it is not just for Facebook apps.

9to5Mac reported for months that Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company were planning a web-based alternative store to Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play dubbed “Project Spartan.” Speculation said the project is a framework for apps that would use social hooks, while working inside of Facebook’s ecosystem.

It seems those reports are ringing true, because the highly-anticipated HTML 5-based App Center will give Facebook users access to iOS, Android, web, mobile web, and desktop apps. Interestingly, Facebook reiterated that it is not competing directly with Apple or Google, because the App Center will send users to both the iOS and Android platforms. For example: If you are visiting Facebook’s App Center on an Android Device, and then enter Words with Friends, or one of the many Facebook-compatible games, you will soon beam to that app’s Google Play page for installation. The same holds true for iOS users.

“In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included for the launch,” explained Software Engineer Aaron Brady in a Facebook Developer’s blog post.

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(early beta of the functionality, above)

Update: The app is now live on the App Store. A full list of new features is below.

Alongside the Facebook Messenger for iPad app and updated iPhone app with video chat that we revealed earlier this week, we have also been beta testing a new “read receipts” feature. Today, Facebook is apparently rolling out the new feature to its existing iOS Messenger app, which gives you the ability to see when someone received and read your message.

While the update is not live, TechCrunch confirmed with FaceBook’s Peter Deng that the update is coming to the current iOS Facebook Messenger client and Android’s counterpart. According to the report, the feature will appear as “Seen by username” under the message itself, but our build of the app used checkmarks—as seen in the image above.

As noted by TechCrunch, the update will include the name of the location when the message was sent, if the user has enabled location services. It also replaces the three-dot typing indicator with the name of the person typing.

The updated Facebook Messenger iOS app is available here.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/2lpLGb1WW8E]

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S III in London and has already posted its first television advertisement for the smartphone on YouTube. A few official images for the device were also included on Facebook—check them out:

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Microsoft just revealed it signed a patent agreement with Pegatron that covers the Windows maker’s patent portfolio for a variety of Android and Chrome-based consumer electronics.

The Redmond, Wash.-headquartered Corporation now has coverage for eReaders, smartphones, and tablets running Google’s operating system. Both parties admitted Microsoft would receive royalties from Pegatron; however, the agreement’s particulars were not disclosed.

Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Intellectual Property Horacio Gutierrez said the agreement with Pegatron reflects continued success of its Android licensing program by settling IP issues regarding Android OS and Chrome-powered devices in the marketplace.

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Earlier this week, the folks over at Facebook rolled out version 1.9 of its Android app. Unbeknownst to us, the app actually included a new feature that is outlined by Facebook on its blog today. With this latest update, Facebook is bringing social app discovery channels to native Android apps. The update also makes Android now on par with iOS, which has had this feature for a few months. Over on the iOS side, users have enjoyed apps like Pinterest and Words with Friends.

Facebook announced: “Users can now discover native apps directly from Facebook for Android using the same social channels, such as Requests, Bookmarks, and News Feed, that are available on other platforms.”

I know the way Facebook explained it is a little confusing, but essentially you will now be able to launch an Android app that has Facebook integration from right inside of the social network’s app. Let’s say you have Word with Friends linked to your Facebook account, you will now be able to launch the Android app directly from the Facebook app. Facebook’s Alex Wu showed off the feature on video.

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A recent interview with Google’s cofounder Sergey Brin received a lot of attention due to his view that Apple and Facebook are the biggest threats to the open Internet. While Brin still recommends reading the full article here, he posted a note on his Google+ account today to clarify some thoughts that he felt were “particularly distorted in the secondary coverage” of the interview.

In the post, Brin clarifies that on the issue of app ecosystems, which are not as open as the rest of the Web, he does not think the “issue is on a par with government based censorship.” He also took time to clarify his view of Apple and Facebook, noting he has “always admired Apple’s products,” especially while using an iMac to type his post. He also called Facebook “a key tool for political expression.” Brin’s full post is below:

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The trendy photo-sharing app “Instagram” for Android debuted in the Google Play Store nearly two weeks ago and has since increased the service’s user base by 25 percent.

It took Instagram 19 months to reach 30 million iOS users, but it quickly garnered 10 million Android users in less than 10 days.

Gramfeed, a third-party user tracking website, dug into Instagram’s API to determine Mr. Valentino Elbuti (valentinoelbuti) as the 40 millionth user. He recently signed-up and already has four filtered-images posted to his account.

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg just announced that the social network has acquired photo-sharing app “Instagram” for $1 billion. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom also made a statement through the company’s blog and confirmed it will “be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network.” Instagram’s Android app just launched last week to nearly 2,000 signups a minute and a million downloads in 24 hours.

Zuckerberg’s full announcement is below, and Facebook’s official press release is here:

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The widely popular “Instagram” iOS app is now available for Android devices at Google Play.

The iTunes-friendly version showcases 30 million users and holds Apple’s 2011 iPhone App of the Year crown. The Android community patiently waited for a Google variant, and now it can finally propel mobile snapshots to the retro days with snazzy filters and effects.

“Today, we’re excited to bring you Instagram for Android,” announced Instagram on its official blog. “We’ve been meticulous about translating the Instagram experience to the Android platform. The Android app offers an extremely familiar Instagram experience when compared to the iOS app.”

A screenshot gallery is available below. 

Amazon is rolling out a big 6.3 update for the Kindle Fire right about now with the following updates:
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A new report from The Next Web claimed a “source close to the product’s development” confirmed Google has a new commenting system in the works. With continued integration of Google+ into the rest of the company’s web services, the report claimed Google will likely aim to take on Facebook and its third-party commenting platform. The report explained:

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Google released an update for the “Google Voice” Android app today that allows Android 4.0 visual voicemail integration.

Software Engineer Yong-Hoon Choi explained on the official Google Voice blog that the app supported visual voicemail since 2009, but jumping between the call log and Google Voice app proved cumbersome.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4DbgiOCTQts]

This is what desperation looks like. Also this:

[tweet https://twitter.com/jr_raphael/status/181907358618882049]
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