Facebook aims to replace texting

Facebook has launched an instant messaging service for mobile phones, similar to BlackBerry Messenger.

The dedicated app, for iPhones and Android devices, allows users to contact individual friends or groups of people.

Its release comes a month before Apple is due to unveil a similar product.

Attention has been focused on mobile messaging recently because some of the London rioters were known to have used it to co-ordinate their movements.

So far Facebook's mobile messenger is only available in the United States, but it is expected to eventually roll out in other countries.

The social network's 750 million users already have the ability to send messages through the website, and on Facebook's original smartphone app.

Its new application adds the option to send directly to a mobile phone via SMS, and also to include location information.
Bad timing?

Facebook's timing has raised a few eyebrows within the industry, given the debate around BlackBerry Messenger's role in the recent UK rioting.

However, it is likely that its decision to launch in the US now was influenced by the impending Arrival of Apple's iOS 5 and its integrated messenger.

Stuart Miles, the founder of Pocket-lint.com, told BBC News that Facebook might be able to make mileage out of its compatibility with more than one phone system.

"Apple will be iPhone to iPhone, like Facetime. The same as BBM which is Blackberry to Blackberry. [Facebook] will be Android to iPhone, so theoretically it can only benefit from the platform," said Mr Miles.

"The big question you have to ask is how long will it be before Google+ has a messaging service built-in."

Google social network: The 5 key features of Google+

Google+ is the tech giant's latest attempt to crack the social network market.

Google+ is the tech giant's latest attempt to break the social network hoodoo that surrounds the company. After the failure of Google Buzz and Wave to garner public support there is a belief that the company may finally have figured out how to do social.

The service allows users to share photos, links and videos with friends, family and acquaintances. The key difference between Google's offering and similar social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, is the user's ability to target their sharing with specific people instead of the default "share with everyone" approach.

"Online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it," the company said.

Google+ also allows video chat and instant messaging features that allow conversations to be shared with up to ten people at once.

The service is only available to a limited number of people at present but Google intends to open out a public version in the coming months.

IB Times takes a look at the five key features of Google+ as drawn from various news outlets:

1. Circles

Google+ bears more than a passing resemblance to Facebook, users can personalise lists of friends and stream news feeds, according to the Washington Post. The key difference, and one that Google have been quick to identify, is the feature encourages users to group their friends together by category -- eg. school friends, relatives, work colleagues etc. Circles aims to streamline one of Facebook and Twitter's key disadvantages: what we share with close friends doesn't necessarily need to be shared with our boss.

"We found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So [...] we brought Circles to software," Google said.

The feature allows the user to assign people to different groups (which only the individual can see) by dragging and dropping their contact card into specific lists.

2. Using the '+'

One of the key features of Google+ is its streamlined approach to online sharing. Google has described the process as "awkward, even broken" and their new network aims to fix that.

Google+ is integrated into the navigation bar at the top of almost all Google products, which allows users to keep track of their Google+ notifications without doubling back to the main Google+ homepage.

A drop-down window on each page allows users to keep track of on-going conversations, post their own comments or do nothing at all.

3. Vertical integration

The company have created a group called the Data Liberation Front that is supposed to make accessing data from Google products even easier.

Previously, moving large amounts of data around a user's apps was painfully slow but with Google+ the entire process has been streamlined.

PC World reports, "clicking on the cog in the upper right hand corner and selecting "Google+ settings" from the social network's home page brings you to a revamped Google Accounts page. From there, you can select the Data Liberation tab. And with just a few clicks you can download data from your Picasa Web Albums, Google profile, Google+ stream, Buzz and contacts."

4. Sparks

Sparks seems to be Google's answer to Twitter -- a means of posting and keeping track of news and content of interest to the user from around the web.

The feature seems to be the least successful aspect of Google+, at least amongst those who are operating the beta version. Users input a list of interests, topics and news stories and 'Sparks' identifies links from individuals and organisations which might be of interest. Currently, the feature doesn't incorporate suggestions from people the user follows, which makes it a less engaging aspect than Google perhaps intended.

5. Hangouts

Although Google+ has been billed as a "Facebook killer", 'Hangouts' seems to be targeting the market currently occupied by Microsoft's latest purchase, Skype.

The feature allows users to pull groups together for a simultaneous video chat.

"Whether it's inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out [...] By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles," Google said.

How Facebook can topple Google

Mark Zuckerberg is a man in a hurry. Not even ten days have lapsed since Google announced its social networking product Google Plus, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg played the master strategy of killing two birds with one stone by announcing the Facebook Skype tieup.

The first one is pretty obvious, of getting close to Google's worst enemy, Microsoft which bought Skype last month, and second, not to be underestimated, to play the role of the kingmaker in the clash of the titans.

The Kingmakers

Let's face it. Facebook can never really be what Microsoft or Google really is. Social networking has its limitations and a peak beyond which it just cannot go. Google and Microsoft have utilitarian enterprise values. Till man exists so will software. Till software exists so will the demand for services provided by companies like Google, Microsoft and others. But in this battle, the Yahoos, Twitters and Facebooks of the world play a very crucial role, that of deciding who wins and who loses or who gets on top and who remains the underdog.

In my last column on Google Plus I had mentioned on how Facebook is the real thorn for Google. Let's understand this better. In the war between Google and Microsoft, guess who supplies the monetary assistance to Google for its ammunition to fight the mightiest software company on this planet Microsoft? It is the advertiser. Google monetizes content through Adsense. The guerrilla attacks on Microsoft by launching free versions of what's cash cow for Microsoft i.e. Operating systems, Word processors and Office tools are all financed by the advertiser. Everything good here. No one even came close to Google in terms of advertising. Google has literally become an advertising Mogul. Problem now is that Facebook is a far far superior platform for advertising. Reason for this is the profiling of users. Based on Geography, Interests, Demographics and the minutest detail no one comes even close to Facebook. They have the masses.

Solving the Revenue Puzzle

Facebook has the masses and the absolutely stunning profiling of its users. In other words, it has the stickiness to attract the advertisers. Google's war ammunition is supplied by the advertisers to fight Microsoft as is its growth. In other words, Google needs Facebook or an equally powerful social networking platform, something it has been trying for years now. Facebook lacks the enterprise appeal for obvious reasons, it has no software or utility value as such. Another crucial element in this battle is the Open Source. If Open Source seems small think of Wordpress, the world's most popular publishing platform or Linux just to get an idea of the power Open Source holds.

Microsoft has been trying to get them in its fold (read my story Microsoft strips to Seduce Linux when it did something unheard of, it opened its source code). For now Open Source is friendly with Google. Apparently, Open Source is one of the foundations for Google's success. Ironically, Google is one of the biggest privacy violators. Coming from the school they do, the least they could have was transparency. Facebook lacks the enterprise appeal and it also doesn't have the support of Open Source. Microsoft, even though shaken by free versions of its cash cows by Google has a solid revenue model which in spite of all pressures and turmoil are here to stay and Microsoft has proved that time and again. Microsoft Office is still the dominant market leader and so is their OS.

Google versus Microsoft is a saga that can be compared to none in the history of enterprise. The turnaround times of new products to outdo each other, new strategies can possibly be termed as some of the best case studies and precedent for future corporate battles. While in the earlier times corporate battles were fought over years or even decades, this is probably the first time a startup, Google, challenged the then mightiest company on earth, Microsoft and in less than 5 years of its launch Google became enemy no. 1 for Microsoft. Not many companies have enjoyed the success Google got so easily. It wasn't competing just on products, Google shook the very foundation on which the software enterprise model was based on. It changed the rules of the game. Facebook did the same for social networking, something Google and Microsoft tried many times but couldn't succeed. Facebook holds power for its mass appeal.

The Bottomline

In simple words, Facebook has the masses. What can hurt Google the most is the advertisers leaving Google for Facebook. The Facebook and Skype association is probably the best missile Microsoft has so far. It's time for some overhauling and clearing of rusted neuro pathways of Google, which did work at one time, if its wants to survive. For now its advantage Microsoft and a huge one at that.

Yahoo India to Launch Search Direct

Yahoo India to Launch Search Direct within 2011

Will give predictive search results as you type keywords in the search bar. Like they say, better late than never.

A good half a year after Google launched interactive prediction based search feedback service Instant, Yahoo India just announced that it will launch its own version of Instant dubbed Search Direct.

Don't hold your breath yet, because the service will not be available till the second half of 2011. Just like Google's Instant, Yahoo's Search Direct predicts search results as you type in the keywords into the search bar. The announcement comes a week after Yahoo launched Search Direct in U.S. in the beta stage.

"The new search engine predicts search results as fast as a person types - character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond mere blue links," said Prabhakar Raghavan, chief scientist, senior vice-president and head of Yahoo Labs.

Despite competition from Google, Yahoo reaches out to 30 million unique users per month in India, which is about 74 percent of the Indian Internet audience. Loyal Yahoo users therefore finally get one of Google's most innovative features on the search engine of their choice.

Google Blames China for Blocking Gmail

Access to Gmail homepage services has been intermittent.

Google News Updates! Google has accused the Chinese government of disrupting its email service Gmail and clarified that there were no technical issues with the service or the website from its end.

Gmail has been made inaccessible in China as a part of intensified Internet crackdown, reported The Associated Press. Google, in an official statement, noted, "There is no technical issue on our side; we have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

As per a Google spokesperson, China is the world's most populous Internet Market and users have been reporting about the intermittent access to Gmail since January. Users face major problems in accessing the Gmail homepage, sending emails and also the instant messaging.

The blockage is allegedly a the part of the existing web censorship in China and is more sophisticated since it doesn't block the service entirely but just makes it annoyingly intermittent.

In the past, Google's Gmail snooping issue and the cyber-attacks within China has soured the relations between the company and China. Now, this controlled disruption will certainly make Google think over its presence in China. The company has already moved its search engine domains for Chinese language from mainland China to Hong Kong.

As of now, the Chinese government hasn't responded to Google's allegation but we expect a denial as response soon.

Google steps up after Android security incident

Google takes additional steps after Android security incident.

Google has taken additional measures to protect consumers in the wake of the security incident last week involving more then 50 malicious Android applications. While Google’s response is an expected and positive move, it comes with some criticisms and suggestions.

Last week, The Tech Herald reported on news that Google had removed more than 50 applications, as well as their corresponding developer accounts, from the Android Market after the pirated apps were discovered to be completely malicious.

Mobile security vendor Lookout dubbed the discovered Malware DroidDream. According to Lookout’s research, the Malware itself could compromise a significant amount of personal data. Early on in the story’s development, the Android news portal, Android Police, reported that the Malware would swipe the product ID, model, language, country, and userID. Moreover, they added that it had the ability to download further code, thanks to a backdoor that is created.

As word of Lookout’s public research and alerts spread, several security vendors released protection updates to their mobile security offerings. At this point, if a malicious application containing DroidDream was downloaded, either Google or the other security vendors have taken steps to remove the threat.

On Saturday, Google said that once they were made aware of the situation, in addition to their previous actions regarding the apps and the developer accounts, they also contacted law enforcement and initiated the remote removal protections within the Android platform.

Google has long had the ability to remove applications from an Android device by remote command. In the past, when Google has used this ability, it has been for cases such as these, where malicious applications are disabled and uninstalled without user interaction. The problem is, no matter their mobile carrier, some Android users are a bit jumpy about this ability.

In addition to the remote wipe, Google also deployed an Android Market security patch to affected devices that removes the vulnerabilities targeted by DroidDream.

“If your device has been affected, you will receive an email from android-market-support@google.com over the next 72 hours. You will also receive a notification on your device that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” has been installed. You may also receive notification(s) on your device that an application has been removed. You are not required to take any action from there; the update will automatically undo the exploit. Within 24 hours of the exploit being undone, you will receive a second email,” Google explained.

This is where the questions and criticisms come in. In their blog post, Google noted that as soon as they were made aware of the situation, they acted. Critics claim that Google should have been more proactive in their security, instead of waiting for someone to report a problem.

This has long been a challenge for Google, who has tried to weigh openness with security. One of the things that separates Google’s market platform from Apple’s, is Apple’s strict development and submission guidelines Google doesn’t have them. This openness allows anyone to create and contribute to the Android community, but it also allows malicious applications to appear more frequently.

One commenter on the Google post proposed an interesting suggestion, but it would take a massive amount of community effort and support.

“Is there anywhere Google can show a list of all applications that are free submitted to the platform? We developers can download them and check each one. I really do not want to see the Android Market becoming the App Store,” asked a commenter by the name of Mr. Le President.

Another issue raised centers on fragmentation. Google fixed the issues exploited by DroidDream in an update, which placed the Android operating system at version 2.2.2. Yet, plenty of other devices are running on previous versions. While Google has deployed the update for those phones affected by DroidDream, devices vulnerable, but not impacted by the Malware, will remain untouched.

Addressing the issue, another comment suggested that Google, “…take complete control over updates being pushed to phones, or force manufacturers and carriers to get them out within am[sic] reasonable time frame. You cannot let the fragmentation [occurring] continue.”

The “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” is available to anyone who wants to download and install it. However, as the app’s description says, there isn’t a need to install it on your own.

Our advice is to skip the security package download and go to your Android device’s settings menu. Under the About section, check the software update link for new OS versions.

We say this because manually installing the security application deployed by Google could have unintended consequences to older OS versions, so install it with some caution.

Also, if you install the security update and it is not needed, you will likely get a message similar to the one below from Google. We were emailed this about 10 minutes after we downloaded and installed the security update on one of our Droid devices.

“This is confirmation that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” has been successfully run on your device. This means that the malware recently suspended from Android Market is not on your device and the unauthorized access created by this malware is not present.”

So it would appear that aside from potential issues for manually installing a patch that is leveled at automatic deployment, it may be a wasted effort.

Google CEO: Tried hard to woo Nokia.

Google tried hard to win Nokia over to its Android mobile platform before Nokia decided to throw its lot in with Microsoft, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said.

"We would have loved if they had chosen Android. They chose the other guys," Schmidt said during a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

He later told journalists: "We had confidential negotiations with Nokia that were very extensive."

Google, the world leader in Web searching, has taken an intense interest in mobile in the last few years. Schmidt told the same Barcelona event last year the company was putting mobile at the centre of its strategy.

Google is wooing the mobile industry in part because it needs operators to invest in fast and powerful networks to enable Google services such as maps, voice-activated search or the sharing of video on YouTube.

Schmidt said 35 hours of video were now being uploaded to YouTube every minute, with more than 2 billion views per day -- increasingly from mobile devices.

He said sales at YouTube, whose financial results Google does not break out, had doubled last year and that professional content providers with which Google shares YouTube revenue would soon be able to build significant businesses on the partnership.

Google has faced investor criticism for the scale of its investments in YouTube. It has yet to reveal if YouTube has been profitable.

A person familiar with the discussions told Reuters last week that Google was in talks to buy privately held Web video producer Next New Networks.

Schmidt declined to comment on the matter but reiterated that Google had no plans to become a content provider.

"It's important not to own businesses that you don't understand. There's a line, and because content is very hard -- it's a very specialised business -- we want to stay on the engineering side, which we do understand," he said.

He also declined to comment on Google's reported interest in buying Twitter. "We love Twitter and I like to tweet," he said when asked.

Google could profit enormously from the wealth of information on its users that is owned by social networks, and a rivalry has sprung up between it and Facebook. Twitter could help it in that regard, as well as in real-time search.

At the same time, Google is under investigation by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the Web search market by giving its own services preference in search results.

A source familiar with the case said that Google and EU regulators are in tentative talks to resolve the antitrust probe. Schmidt said he did now know whether the matter could be settled.

"We've promised to talk to them, we've had some meetings and I'm sure we'll have many more," he said. "We obviously would like to work with them and if there's anything that they're unhappy with, I'm sure we'll address it one way or the other."

Dave Lindahl Scam

Bharti and Google Joins Together

Bharti, Google joins together to encourage education in rural India.

Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, on Monday said it has received $5 million funding by search engine giant Google to support its Satya Bharti schools.

“Google will provide financial support of $5 million to upgrade and support 50 Satya Bharti elementary schools, run by the Bharti Foundation,” Bharti Enterprises Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Bharti Mittal told reporters here.

These schools, present in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, will now be named Satya Elementary schools, he added.

“Globally, Google donates about $150 million every year to support various initiatives on education, healthcare, etc. This is our first such initiative in India and we hope to continue the good work,” Google Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said.

Bharti Foundation provides education to underprivileged children in rural areas. It runs 236 primary schools and one senior secondary school. Going forward, an additional 15 primary and four senior secondary schools are scheduled to be opened in the next academic year.

Dave Lindahl Scam

Google Translate app in Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch

Google Translate, software that translates words and phrases into over 50 languages, is now available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.

Users of handsets based on Google’s Android operating system have long been using Google Translate. But, iPhone and iPod touch received it only yesterday.

The new text & voice translation app is capable of accepting voice input in 15 languages, and translating a word or phrase into more than fifty languages.

Explaining the app, Google engineer Wenzhang Zhu wrote in a blog post, "For voice input, just press the microphone icon next to the text box and say what you want to translate."

Earlier in January, the California-based web search giant added new features to language translation app for Android-powered handsets to allow them to translate conversations instantly.

Figures released by market research firm comScore claim that Google's Android operating system outshined Apple’s iPhone in the final three months of last year.

Dave Lindahl Scam

Happy 12th Birthday Google

Google News Updates! Google is now celebrating its 12th birthday. Though the exact date is somewhat shrouded in mystery, Google usually chooses September 27 to celebrate its birthday and it's doing it this year as well.

Seeing that it is its birthday, Google decided to spring a little, buy itself a little present and then show it to the world. It should be no surprise either, Google is sporting an anniversary logo, or doodle as Google calls them, on most of its localized versions, probably all.

And it's no ordinary doodle either, the birthday cake was drawn by American artist Wayne Thiebaud, now 89, who is best known for his drawings of, well, cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks, according to the always reliable Wikipedia.

While most his works date from the fifties and sixties, he is still active today. He is associated with the pop art movement because of his drawing style and interest in mass culture.

Google regularly marks notable occasions by showing a custom logo on the homepage. Very recently, it predated the launch of Google Instant with a couple of doodles which related to the new search paradigm, first a dynamic and interactive particle movement simulation and then with a "type-in" logo.

The Google birthday cake is the second doodle to be showcased internationally since Google Instant was launched, after the Agatha Christie doodle a couple of weeks ago.

The actual Google birthday is up for debate. Google itself has celebrated it on September 7 and September 27 as well, depending on how it felt like it.

Google was incorporated on September 4, 1998, though the 'official' date may be September 7. Google.com was registered on September 15. In recent years, September 27 has become the established birthday and this seems to be the date going forward.

Google's Gmail Updates

Google finally pulls Gmail contacts tool into line.

Search giant Google has revamped its email service Gmail. The company has overhauled the contact management tool found inside Gmail.

In a blog post Benjamin Grol, Gmail product manager said "An improved Contacts interface has been the number one requested feature from user feedback."

While the core Gmail experience has been changed significantly since its 2004 launch, the Contacts interface has not seen too many changes. The new version of Gmail's contact manager, which Google says is already in the process of going out to users, brings with it a number of changes and addons.

* Mail, Contacts, and Tasks links have moved to the top left of Gmail.

* Compose mail is now a button rather than a link.

* A smaller header area puts the first message in users' inbox.

* The Select All, None, Read, Unread, and Starred links that used to be above your messages are now options in a drop-down menu, next to the Archive button.

* Keyboard shortcuts now work in Contacts too, and Google has made selecting and grouping contacts more like selecting and labeling email.

* Users can now sort contacts by last name. Look under More actions for this option.

* Use custom labels for phone numbers and other fields.

* Now, when users have the option to undo their recent changes.

* Automatic saving: This means users no longer need to worry about 'edit' mode or `view' mode — just edit away and Gmail will save your changes.

* Structured name fields: Users can now set name components (i.e. Title, First, Middle, Last and Suffix) explicitly or continue to use the name field as a free form area if they prefer a less structured approach.

* Manual and bulk contact merge: Users can now merge contacts from the More actions menu. All they need to do is select the contacts they would like to merge and select Merge contacts from under the More actions menu.