Google

Google has just released a HTML 5 optimized Music Beta player for the mobile web, announced via Twitter. Upon first launching the webpage, Google asks for the allowance of 25mb to be stored on your device. After, you are presented with a full run down of all of the artists you uploaded to the service. Once you have selected a preferred song, you are taken to a “Now Playing” page. Yes, if you haven’t realized already it works a lot like the music.app. This feels so sleek! 

Check it out in the video below:

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An example Chrome advert before and after the conversion. Go here for live demo.

Swiffy, Google’s experimental tool that converts Flash files to HTML5 code, will not be killed off due to their Fall spring-cleaning which will retire other Google Labs projects, namely Fast Flip, Desktop and Notebook, among others. Engineer Pieter Senster wrote in a post over at the official Google Code blog that Swiffy has a new home at g.co/swiffy. Although it’s in beta and won’t convert overly complex Flash files, Swiffy has gotten off to a great start and already users have converted “hundreds of thousands of files”, the company noted.

Google also highlighted several new features, such as support for shape tweening and drop shadow, blur and glow filters, all using SVG, CSS and JavaScript. A great example of Swiffy is this Chrome banner, which converted into HTML5 runs and looks just as smooth and pixel-perfect as its Flash counterpart. Google specifically mentions iOS devices in the Swiffy description which details how the web-based tool lets people“reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (such as iPhones and iPads)”.

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Marisa Mayer just made the announcement:

So, today, I’m thrilled that Google has acquired Zagat. Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.

That is an interesting play which I’m pretty sure no one was expecting.  It gives Google a huge foothold in local and will certainly put Yelp, Open Table and company on the defensive and will also fit in nicely with its Offers service.  Zagat’s statement below the fold:

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Google’s been rolling out a series of product updates lately in an effort to unify its many services in terms of both looks and features departments. For example, the company is working towards bringing the encrypted and regular search pages on par. Today, the Google Operating System blog spotted that the advanced image search interface has been re-worked to function more like the corresponding web search page. In addition, the new interface provides access to the features that were previously only available in the sidebar. You’d want to tap the advanced search page (by clicking the “Advanced Image Search” link on images.google.com) in order to narrow down your search results to a domain or a country, a certain filetype or list only Creative Commons images.

Google’s art department’s not been standing still either. Ever since Larry Page took over Google’s reins and pledged his company would put great design front and center, we’ve seen the search behemoth revamp its many properties. It started with the appealing Circles interface in Google+ and continued with the little tweaks that have freshened up the overly simplistic and geeky appearance of Google’s many web properties, bringing them on par with the Google+ theme. Latest examples include the Google Account sign-in page and the Blogger interface, both updated with the new look. Google hired renowned designer who worked on the original Macintosh, Andy Hertzfeld, to create the Circles user interface.

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Have you been redirected to the encrypted Google search page this morning? Worry not, you should be honored for having participated in “an experiment”, the Google Operating System blog reports. The search monster is sending “some percentage of Chrome 14 users” to the more secure, SSL-enabled search page, which is still in beta. The reason?

They are testing out the new functionality of the SSL page, which now sports nearly all of the features of its non-SSL counterpart. Previously, encrypted search lacked many features of the regular search page, such as Image Search, Google Instant and Instant Preview. The encrypted search page still lacks navigation links and Google Maps doesn’t support SSL yet.

As Google works to bring feature parity between SSL and non-SSL search pages, eventually users might just tick a check box in their search settings to opt-in to SSL search. SSL, a secure communications protocol, ensures that anything that gets sent between your browser and Google’s servers (such as your query and search results) is encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.

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A new report by Foss Patents’ Florian Mueller this afternoon implies that Motorola will be given the lead to innovate with new versions of Android and be able to issue the lead device, before any Android OEMs get the chance. The report comes after an internal document (seen above) was published to the public by the judge of the current Oracle vs Google proceedings.  This Verizon/Motorola lead device is the XOOM tablet.  The next one will be Samsung.  Anything beyond that is speculation.

Hasn’t Google been developing a lead Android device for the last two years — aka Nexus and Nexus S?

With Gingerbread, Google released the updated OS on the Nexus S before it was given to any other OEM. They picked a specific OEM, in this case Samsung, to begin working on a device they pictured to be ideal for this version of Android to run on. Same with the original Nexus, which Google picked HTC.

All of this worry comes after Motorola was acquired by Google. Many analysts, speculators, and journalists assume that Google will turn to Motorola as being the one stop for releasing their new versions of Android. Compare this to what Apple does: one device that rules them all.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDl5hb0XbfY&feature=player_embedded]

We already expected Ice Cream Sandwhich, Google’s forthcoming overhaul of Android, to land sometime in the fall thanks to rumors of the Droid Prime landing on Verizon in October. However, a October/November release has now been officially confirmed by Eric Schmidt himself during the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco (video above).

“We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone’s really excited about.”

It’s also possible that the rumored Nexus Prime could be landing sometime in or shortly after that timeframe as well. As Android and Me points out, it might even land on Google TV in lieu of a public Honeycomb refresh.

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[vodpod id=Video.15375563&w=425&h=350&fv=]

You know that scene in GoodFellas where the FBI comes to search the house for the 15th time in as many weeks and Karen Hill explains how they are on a first name basis and she’s cordial and serves them coffee while they turn over her house?  That’s how Google’s South Korean office must feel.

Google’s Seoul office has been searched by the police at least twice since August last year amid investigations into whether the company illegally collected wireless Internet data and location information from Android smartphone users.

They got raided yet again by the South Korean government this week over whether the search giant was making it too difficult for local competitors NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp., who together control 90% of the Korean Search market, to get their search onto Android handsets.

The charge is that Google delays certification to handset makers who include other companies’ search products, Seongnam-based NHN said in April.  Google will probably say that it takes longer to certify third party software.

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AllThingsD is reporting that along with Amazon, Yahoo, and Dish Network, Google has made a bid for the free video streaming service Hulu. AllThingsD doesn’t provide any details quite yet, but we can imagine Google’s bid is in the range of $1.5 – $2 billion — just like the other three companies are offering. AllThingsD can’t confirm if Google has made a definitive bid, or is just offering a sum of money.

Google chariman Eric Schmidt said at a conference in Europe last month that Google isn’t ready to give up on Google TV. He cites possible Google TV downfall is due to the scarce amount of set-top boxes rather than full television sets.

The acquisition of Hulu would sure be a break through for Google TV. Currently, almost every large television network is blocking streaming to Google TV, making the content lineup almost non-existent. With Hulu and its partners, Google could open up a whole new realm of content to the service.

AllThingsD has indictated that Google has made clear to Hulu that they are ready to offer a large sum of cash for the product, and we know they’re not scared to do it. Hulu isn’t exactly sure what their stance is on selling quite yet, but we’re sure to hear more in the coming weeks.

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Just like Twitter, Google has unveiled the suggested user list for Google+. The list is broken up into several categories, some examples being: Entertainment, News, and Sports. If you find someone on the list you’d like to stay up to date with, you can add them into one of your circles — just like throughout the rest of the service. People are added to the list based on their +1s, reshares, and Hangouts. More categories are even on the way!

Aardvark has announced in a blog post this afternoon that Google has shut them down. For those of you who don’t quite remember Aardvark, a question and answer site, was acquired by Google for $50 million in 2010. Today, Aardvark is being closed, and the team will be moved to Google+ and other products.

We’ve been excited to share these lessons within Google over the past year, especially as part of the effort behindGoogle+.  It has been gratifying to see how well this project is doing — even in these early stages, Google+ has already become a great place to share knowledge online, eclipsing the original vark.com! — and there is much more to come very soon.  In this and other projects at Google, the Aardvark team remains committed to developing powerful tools for connecting people and improving access to information.

The closure of Aardvark comes along with Google’s closure of Labs we reported on last month. Google’s CEO Larry Page has gone on record saying Google is killing off smaller products, in order to put “more wood behind fewer arrows”. This is evident when Google killed Labs, Slide, and now Aardvark.

Update: Google has also announced the closing of Google Desktop.

Update x2: Google has posted the full run-down of what is being closed.

Continue after the break..

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As reported by Google Operating System, Google will release a “smarter” spell checker in a future update of Chrome. Currently, Chrome only uses the dictionary to spell check, not taking context into consideration. The future update, however, will work like Google Search’s “did you mean” feature.

Google has been hesitant to add the updated spell checker citing privacy concerns. As Google Operating System explains, a JSON-RPC request is sent to the “did you mean” service in the background, where the context-menu will then be updated. It will be interesting to see how fast Google can get results to come back.

Announced by the company in a blog post, Google is now partnering with FedEx to offer Google Docs uploading inside of Print Online. Print Online is FedEx’s service that allows users to upload documents to be printed at a local FedEx stores for pickup. But what happens when you write your documents inside of Google Docs, and not Pages or Word? With the companies new partnership, you will now be able to upload files directly into Print Online from the cloud.

Tuesday, Google also announced in a blog post that support for one click Cloud Print has been added — along with the ability to add page numbers. As you can see in the screenshot after the break, Cloud Print is easy — with just one click you can print to any printer (as long as its setup) from any device or OS. The Cloud Print feature is currently available only in documents and spreadsheets. Furthermore, the new page numbers feature is a must for those of us who use the MLA format on a daily basis. The ability to add page numbers is definitely a feature Docs has been lacking..

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

With the last manned mission to the Space Shuttle, Google announced in a blog post that the company accompanied two Nexus S smartphones to venture into space — for the second time. As seen in the video above, the two devices will remain on the Space Station to help robots perform tasks for astronauts.

A couple of our engineers built an open source sensor logging app that NASA decided was perfect for running diagnostics with the SPHERES. You can download the same app yourself from Android Market. NASA was interested in Android because it’s an open source platform, which makes it easy to customize the software on the phone to meet the specifications required to fly in space and work with the SPHERES. Nexus S was also a good fit because of its various sensors and low-powered, but high-performing, processor. 

NASA chose Android because of its open source platform, which is pretty understandable because for the most part NASA is pretty open. Check out the app if you’re interested.

Like politics, smartphone wars come down to two major parties – Google and Apple – embroiled in a never-ending fight for consumers, especially those who have not made up their mind as to which operating system they’d like in their next smartphone. According to July 2011 data from Nielsen survey, “these ‘undecideds’ will be the ones device makers will be hoping to win over”. Interestingly, the Late Adopters among likely smartphone upgraders are the ones most likely to be undecided about their next phone platform.

The research firm discovered that forty percent Americans aged 18+ now have smartphones. Android leads the pack with a forty percent OS platform share  and iOS came in second with 28 percent. Compared to Nielsen’s June 2011 study, Android grew its share by one percentage point while iOS growth fell flat. The BlackBerry platform lost one percentage share and now stands at nineteen percent.

Of those buying a new smartphone next year, one third would opt for an iPhone and another third would go Android. This leaves other manufacturers outside the Android-iOS duopoly to fight for the remaining 33 percent of buyers.

Android, however, is the preferred platform of choice for the earliest of early adopters:

Among those who say they are usually the first to embrace new technologies, “Innovators” or the earliest of early adopters, Android leads as the “Next Desired Operating System” – 40 percent for Android compared to 32 percent for iOS. (Survey respondents were asked several questions to determine their attitudes toward new technologies.)

Moreover, the smartphone is clearly on the rise…

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Google embarked on a Blogger redesign back in July, part of a broader push to update the look and feel of their many services that now resemble the clean, elegant appearance of the Google+ service. The revamped UI today went live for everyone, the first in a “series of major updates” due over the course of the coming months, Blogger product manager Chang Kim wrote in a blog post.

Thorough changes are evident in all parts of the Blogger interface, from the post editor to Dashboard. Code has also been optimized and parts of it rewritten from scratch, mainly the editing and management experience.

We here at 9to5Google are all for Google’s new design language stemming from the work of the original Macintosh designer, Andy Hertzfeld. Design-wise, Blogger never felt like a Google service. Updating the Blogger interface to conform to the broader design changes in other Google’ products makes sense from the usability point of view, and especially if you live in a Google world. The new design has to be enabled manually in your dashboard, mind you.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5sMxYMkGs]

Google’s environmental strides have inspired a flurry of Silicon Valley copycats to go green. The vast majority, unfortunately, just for the sake of it, mostly to look cool and hip in the public eye. Even though many tech giants are missing out on the big picture, there are a few notable exceptions, such as Apple. The iPhone maker is famously building a stunning spaceship-like campus that will have an underground parking lot with solar roof and they reportedly gave employees “iBikes” to ride between campuses.

But commuting to work without driving, meeting with someone on another continent without flying and riding cars without gasoline has long been “a way of life at Google”, their transportation manager Kevin Mathy wrote in a blog post. In case you didn’t know, Google runs the largest corporate shuttle services in the country.

The system spawns a thousand GBikes Googlers use to travel between campuses, an electric vehicle car share program dubbed GFleet, an on-campus taxi service called GRide and much more. Heck, Googlers even earn credits each time they get to work via non-engine means, which they can later convert into dollars to donate to their charity of choice. All this, plus other amazing facts, in a cool corporate YouTube video.

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Strangely enough, offline mode in Gmail is a standalone web app (pictured above) rather than being baked into Gmail directly. Click for larger.

Google announced in a post over at the official Gmail blog that it is bringing offline functionality back to Gmail, Calendar and Docs. The feature had initially been enabled in select Google services via Gears, the company’s proprietary browser extension that was later retired in favor of HTML5. It took longer than expected to re-write the offline functionality in HTML5, though. This was in part because Google had to wait until the World Wide Web Consortium ratified new HTML5 features that allow for local browser storage and other technologies that make it possible for developers to write web apps which sync seamlessly between offline and always-on modes of operation.

Gmail offline will be available today, Google said, and offline for Google Calendar and Google Docs will be rolling out over the next week, starting today. In the case of Gmail, offline functionality is enabled via a Chrome Web Store app dubbed Offline Google Mail. As for Calendar and Docs, clicking the gear icon at the top right corner and choosing the Offline mode lets you view events from your calendars and RSVP to appointments while offline, as well as view your Google documents and spreadsheets. Offline Docs editing isn’t supported yet, but Google is “working hard to make it a reality”.

The question is, will you care about working offline now that mobile/broadband Internet and wireless hotspots have become ubiquitous?  (YES!)

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When Google+ was launched, users were pretty receptive, to say the least. After Experian Hitwise reported a 3% decrease in traffic, the site went on to become the fastest growing in history. Today, a new report from Hitwise (via Bloomberg) shows the social network may struggle to catch up to 750 million+ strong Facebook.

While users spent an average of 5 minutes and 47 seconds on the service the week ending on August 27 (a 4% increase from the week before), U.S. visits to the site fell 5.5 percent to 1.6 million. The real story here is the fact that use of Google+ seems to have peaked backed in July.

July 16th seen the average time spent on the service peak at 5 minutes and 50 seconds, while U.S. visits to the site were up 283 percent that week. It’s necessary to note that these numbers can’t be taken as a truly accurate reflection of the service’s growth.

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

Motorola has announced a successor to its earlier Droid Pro, the Pro+. The Pro+ features a full QWERTY keyboard on the front of the device, Android 2.3, 1 GHz processor, 3.1-inch screen, and hotspot capabilities. Sadly, the device will not be making its way to the U.S. — rather, hitting Europe and Asia in October.

Motorola is filling a gap that Apple hasn’t yet attacked. Users who are tired of BlackBerry, but still need the business feel, now have a more viable option. We look forward to this hitting the states hopefully by the end of the year.

Full press release and gallery after the break:

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comScore has just released their ‘U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share’ report for the three month period ending in July. The report once again sees Apple’s market share increasing, this time up 1 percentage point to capture 27% of the market. This is in comparison to Google, who came in at an impressive 15% increase to top the chart at 41.8% market share. They are of course followed by the usual suspects, RIM in third at 21.7% (down 5%), and Microsoft at 5.7% (down 1%).

Apple’s market share among mobile OEMs is also on the increase, growing 1.2% to capture 9.5% of the market. Of course, Samsung (who also increased 1%), still dominates among OEMs with 25.5% of the market. LG comes in at second with 20.9%, followed by Motorola, and Apple.

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