Google

Earlier this week, Google rolled out Panda 4.0 and Pay Day 2.0. These updates to the search algorithm were touted as being designed to further reduce the ranking of low-quality and spammy content. According to analysis by Searchmetrics, Panda and Pay Day did just this, with websites that offer undifferentiated content suffering in terms of overall ranking.

However, Panda did not just punish websites: various major websites actually increased their rank in Google Search as a result of the change in algorithm. From the study:
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Google may acquire Skybox Imaging, a company with experience in taking incredibly detailed, high-resolution aerial satellite photos, according to TechCrunch. The purchase may cost Google in excess of $1 billion, though that number is fairly common anymore.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE1YHlI1XHo#t=56]

Google’s Project Tango 3D interior mapping technology, which will shortly be appearing in a tablet, is also taking to the air. A team from University of Pennsylvania led by Professor Vijay Kumar are using a Tango-equipped smartphone to enable a quadrocopter to navigate the interior of a building … 
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Following yesterday’s report that Google intends to launch a WiFi network aimed at small businesses, new information (via Gigaom) has surfaced suggesting that wireless equipment maker Ruckus Wireless will be partnering with the Mountain View corporation to make it happen.

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According to a new report out of the Wall Street Journal, Google is currently developing a new tablet that features “advanced vision capabilities.” The report claims that the company plans to produce 4,000 prototypes of the device as early as next month and release it shortly thereafter, before Google I/O at the end of June. Although, we’ll most likely hear a lot about it at I/O, with it perhaps even being the free giveaway to developers.

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TechRadar reports that Samsung is closing its Samsung Music Hub service on 1st July, with the company advising users to download all purchased content and use any vouchers before that date. Music Hub was based on a cloud-based system the company acquired when it purchased the Californian company mSpot.

The service was part of Samsung’s attempt to get into content sales, with the company having similar hubs for books, videos and apps. It’s not known whether those will also close. Samsung issued a somewhat confusing statement reading … 
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Nest is recalling 440,000 smoke detectors due to a glitch that causes the internet-connected alarm to fail when users wave their hands at system. The Nest Protect Smoke + CO system is equipped with a silencing feature that mutes its alarm when users wave their hands near its vent, however a bug could possibly prevent the system from sounding off in a timely manner. To remedy this issue, the company is sending out a firmware update to disable the gesture control feature and notes that the smoke alarm needs to be connected to the internet in order to receive the software fix.

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Google has made two notable changes to its search algorithm in the past 24 hours, both of which continue Google’s crusade to keep its search results relevant. The 4.0 release of the Google Panda algorithm is intended to make it more difficult for websites with poor quality to rank highly in search results (via SearchEngineLand).

Payday Loan Algorithm 2.0 was also released yesterday, and it targets “very spammy queries,” and is unrelated to Panda’s rollout:
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Those who expressed concern about Google’s acquisition of Nest may have have been right: the company has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may choose to serve ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

The WSJ reports that Google made the statement in support of its contention that it shouldn’t have to break out ad revenue from mobile devices … 
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Millward Brown’s annual BrandZ study, which was released today, points to Apple as the second most valuable brand just below Google. This is a reversal from the previous study, which found Apple ranked just above Google.

In the study, Google’s brand value was calculated at $158,843,000, while Apple came in at only $147,880,000.

Of course, this study doesn’t actually point to which company is the most valuable. Instead, Millward Brown uses a combination of financial information—including projected future sales—and customer surveys to determine how much a brand is worth—or how much of the company’s value comes from customers’ views of that company. The entire process of determing a brand’s value is explained in detail on the Millward Brown website.

Essentially, information from customer surveys is used to determine a “brand contribution” number for each company. This number refers to how likely customers are to remain loyal to a company and other similar factors. This “brand contribution” is then multiplied by certain financial figures and the resulting figure is “brand value.”

This “brand value” represents how much of the company’s overall value comes from its brand. If it sounds a non-scientific, that’s probably because it is. Still, it’s interesting to see how consumers and firms like Millward Brown rank these companies.

Just a short while after releasing an update to Chrome OS, Google is now pushing out an update to the Chrome browser on Android. Although minor, the update does include a few improvements. The update bumps the app to version 35.0.1916.122, as well.

With this update, the app now has an undo tab close button, which allows you to undo closing a tab, should you have done it by accident. The app also now supports fullscreen video with subtitles and HTML5-based controls. Google also notes that Chrome now has support for some multi-window devices, as well as support for casting “some” videos with Chromecast. It’s unclear, however, what devices and videos this update adds support for. Nevertheless, casting videos with Chromecast is a great addition. Most of these features have been in beta for about a month now.

• Undo Tab Close
• Fullscreen video with Subtitles and HTML5 controls
• Support for some multi-window devices
• Support for casting some videos with Chromecast
• Other bug fixes

The update to Chrome for Android is available on the Play Store now, although it appears to be a staged rollout and may take a little while to hit your device. 

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26A6-RO5MoI]

If you’ve ever been on a trip, taken tons of photos and then done nothing with them afterwards, or shot a bunch of video that is still just sitting on your phone, Google has launched a couple of new services aimed at you: Google+ Stories and Google+ Movies.

No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.

Stories will be available this week on Android and the web, with iOS coming soon …

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Ahead of its tradition “update Wednesday” regiment, Google has pushed out a minor update to the Gmail app on Android today. The update bumps the app to version 4.8 and includes some various interface tweaks, most notably in the slide-out navigation menu (via +Gmail)

One of the changes includes profile images next to individual profiles on the slide-out navigation menu, and should you have more than one account, there’s also now a checkmark to better indicate which account you’re currently using. The Settings and “Send Feedback” options have also been crammed into the slide-out panel, whereas they previously were located in the action overflow button in the upper right corner.

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Tom Wheeler — the Chairman of the FCC, the federal commission currently in the middle of a firestorm surrounding net neutrality — today praised Google for its checklist of requirements for cities to meet that are interested in working with Google to roll out fiber networking.

Google’s checklist includes various measures and decisions that help enable the company to quickly add their fiber services to a city or municipality. Wheeler specifically cites this as something that the FCC should look into, as it effectively cuts through red tape and speeds up deployment of faster service:
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There is a United States federal agency that specializes in collecting and cataloguing scientific research papers of all kinds. The NTIS — National Technical Information Service — will serve up files or paper copies of these records for $25 or $73, respectively. The issue, as pointed out by NPR, is that most of these records are available for free elsewhere, and are easier to find with Google than with the NTIS’ outdated website. And so, ever the enemy of a wasteful budget, Tom Coburn has introduced the Let Me Google That For You Act of 2014 to abolish the NTIS.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is purchasing Divide, a company that builds mobile device management software for enterprise customers. Divide confirmed the deal in an announcement on its website saying it will be joining the Android team and that existing customers will continue to be able to access the service (above).

Divide provides a cloud-based service that lets companies and large organizations oversee and manage mobile devices used by employees on their networks. The software can create separate work environments on personal devices used by employees, offers a number of security features, and also supports both Android and iOS:
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Update: In keeping with the square theme, Google has taken this anniversary as an opportunity to join Instagram, hooray! First post is the Rubik’s Cube in video.

This may just be the best Google Doodle yet: a fully-functional Rubik’s Cube! Click on the small cube to open up the interactive version. Click and drag any row or column to rotate it, and do the same underneath or alongside the cube to turn the entire cube … 
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We first heard about Google’s new “Android Silver” program back in April. The service will reportedly be centered around the idea of providing support to customers after they purchase their Android device, including things like 24/7 live support and a new “Never Lost” feature, reminiscent of the iOS Find my iPhone feature. A later report also detailed that Google would partner with Android device manufacturers for the service, perhaps as early as early 2015.

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