Google Hangouts

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I am a huge fan of National Geographic’s documentaries on the narcotics industry, especially shows like “Drugs, Inc.” and “Banged Up Abroad.” To be perfectly clear, I am enjoying them for educational purposes only. Now, touching on this age-defining question, Versus from Intelligence² teamed with Google to bring a debate on the drugs industry to its users.

It is chaired by BBC newsreader and presenter Emily Maitlis and will also feature WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, British tycoon Richard Branson, English entertainer Russell Brand, the former presidents from Mexico and Brazil, and others.

It is the first in a series of global debates in co-operation with Versus that will occur through Google+ Hangouts and stream on YouTube. A post over at the official Google blog said the first motion up for debate is: “It’s time to end the War on Drugs.” You can join the hangout on Google+ here.

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Google Insights for Search is a handy tool that helped the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine predict last year’s Oscar winners by tracking search pattern behaviors, and the Internet giant has decided to test its service again with this year’s red carpet lineup.

The Academy Awards is the most popular entertainment award show in terms of search volume. The convolute of searches subsequently create a prime foundation for Googlers to analyze patterns. Google’s Rebecca Mall, an entertainment account executive, took to the Official Google Blog today to “open the (search) envelopes and see who the Oscar (may) go to this year,” according to Google Insight’s reaped Web information.

More information is available below.

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The search giant today introduced a couple enhancements to Hangouts, the group video chat feature of the Google+ social service. The new look of the Hangouts interface follows the design language used across Google’s many properties on the web. Thanks to the optimized layout, there is now more real estate for the actual live video feed, leading to a better and more immersive user experience.

Besides the revamped look, Hangouts now support screen sharing, which Google said, “Has graduated from Hangouts with Extras.” Hangouts screen sharing is designed to enable anyone to easily share what is on his or her computer screen with everyone in the hangout. Google noted that many other extras would soon graduate to Hangouts.

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Google accelerated advertising for its social network by showcasing Jim Henson’s The Muppets in a new commercial about the Google Plus Hangouts feature.

The Muppets performed an impromptu band session as they rocked out to a cover of  “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie through a Google Plus Hangout. Google explained that Hangouts are the “best way” for users to say: “I’m online and want to hangout!”

A Hangout lets users “chill with friends that are scrolling the web,” “use live video chat,” or “coordinate plans.” In other words, the feature is essentially a hyped-up video conferencing capability through Google Plus. The multi-person video chat tool allows up to 10 participants to hang out for free.

Google recently released a trio of new television commercials that promote its social network by featuring Hangouts with the Muppets, NBA announcers, Steve Kerr, Spero Dedes, Bill Walton, Kenny Smith, and Jon Barry. This is not the first time Google collaborated with the The Muppets to advertise one of its products. There was another Muppets Hangout Nov. 7, and the search engine giant celebrated the 75th birthday of Muppet creator Jim Henson by forming an interactive Muppets’ logo for Google.

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Google’s Vic Gundotra just announced on his Google+ page a host of new Hangouts features meant to “go beyond the status update”. In short, you can now hangout on any post (an invitation will be added to the comments), call any phone number in the world and conference in anyone (free outbound calls to US and Canada, international calling rates are “super, super low”) and initiate a hangout session from the official Google+ app for Android or iPhone by tapping the new hangout icon.

The executive also shared an interesting milestone for Hangouts on Air, saying “hundreds of people” whitelisted as part of their trial now have the ability to broadcast their hangouts to the world. “Our goal is to enable this for everyone on the planet”, Gundotra noted. Initiating a Hangout session from your phone requires a new Google+ app, which will be available in Android Market within a few days, Google said (“coming soon” to the App Store).

The official Google blog has more information.

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A nice addition to Hangouts with extras has been made available today over at plus.google.com/hangouts/extras, bringing with it the ability to place phone calls directly from within a hangout. Much like phone calls in Gmail, which recently got an international rollout, the feature will be available for free, initially to users in the US and Canada. Also, outgoing calls will come from your Google Voice number, if applicable. If you’re interested in trying it out, here’s how to do it:

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Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am has announced on Google+ that his music group will be hosting a backstage hangout, well, via Google+ Hangouts. The Hangout will take place tomorrow at 6 PM EST, before the BEP’s concert in Central Park. Will.i.am posted:

lets have fun at the backstage hangout…we even have a hangout onstage as well…
i want to re-define backstage interaction with fans who can not make the show…i think this will be the very first online backstage onstage web cam session…
“i like doing things 1st”

Yeah guys, Fergie will probably be there too.

As noted by The Next Web, Google’s VP of Product Bradley Horowitz, told Wired in an interview that Google+ will soon be Google. “Be Google?”, you’re probably thinking. What he means is that Google+ will soon not be its own product, but rather tied into almost every service offered by Google. You may remember when Google+ was sort-of tied into YouTube, but Horowitz says it will go deeper than that.

“Until now, every single Google property acted like a separate company. Due to the way we grew, through various acquisitions and the fierce independence of each division within Google, each product sort of veered off in its own direction.

… But Google+ is Google itself. We’re extending it across all that we do—search, ads, Chrome, Android, Maps, YouTube—so that each of those services contributes to our understanding of who you are.”

Google+ will soon be tied into ads (which has already happened), Chrome, Android, Maps, and more. This will begin to make a definitive Google product, leaving Google+ no longer acting as a separate company. This should make it easier on the non-technical folk, unlike you or me.

YouTube’s Brian Glick gave Google+ a short feature update this evening. We’ve enjoyed watching YouTube video in Google+Hangouts ever since the product launched earlier this year, but today you can now start watching a YouTube video with just one click. After clicking the “Start a Google+ Hangout” when watching a video on YouTube, you’re brought into the Hangout you know and love, where you can invite your friends to take part. We’re looking forward to seeing how much traffic this drives to Google+. (via The Next Web)

We’ve showed how Google+ Hangouts has been used for politicians to connect with citizens and to host live concerts, but Lee Allison has another cool take. Lee Allison, a technology consultant in New York, hosts a hour long cooking show on Google+, called Google+ Cooking School, three times a week. He uses multiple camera angles to show his viewers exactly what he is cooking up. Allison posts the ingredients for the food he is making on the show, and invites his viewers to cook with him — or he says you can just sit back and relax with a glass of wine.

Since Google+ Hangouts does have limits to only 10 people and people constantly popping in and out, Allison is moving part of his show to WebEx. Though he will continue his show on Hangouts, he will charge $20 for his show on WebEx dubbed The Social Skillet.

It’s cool to see all of these different takes on what’s arguably Google+’s best feature. (via The New York Times)
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To add a new social experience, Youtube Live has been integrated into Google+ Hangouts reports GigaOm. In the past, Hangouts users could watch Youtube videos together, but today, they can now watch Live events Youtube hosts on occasion. Past events include concrets and speeches from the Whitehouse. Want to give it a try? Follow the directions below.

• Start a Hangouts session in Google+ and invite your contacts to join you.
• In a separate browser tab, head over toYouTube.com/Live and select a live stream of your choice
• Copy the YouTube video I.D. of the selected live stream. Not sure how to find it? Just click on theshare link below the video. You’ll get to see a link like http://youtu.be/XXXXXXXX – the cryptic code after the slash is the video I.D.
• Switch back to hangouts, open the video tab and search for the I.D.
• Click play, and you’re all set.