Computers

The Dropload service we profiled several years ago that allowed users to send large files, has gone offline. We thought we would find a replacement service since more people are finding it difficult to send large files via email. This gave us an opportunity to review some other services. The first one we looked at is called YouSendIt.com. It offers four plans including a free one that allows you to send a 100 MB file.

The previous rumors are coming true: announced at today’s Where 2.0 conference, Google has added a feature called “Street View” in certain locations on Google Maps. Also, Google is adding developer-created gadgets callled “Mapplets” to Google Maps starting today.

Street View

“Street View” displays an interactive panorama photo for certain locations on Google Maps. Note to get this to work outside the US, you need to add “&gl=us” at the end of the search URL. Below are screenshots for a search for 94111 (that’s San Francisco). Camera icons and blue lines indicate the availability of Street View data.

This new view is available for some regions (Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver and New York, according to Colin Colehour from the US, who says the Street View button disappears when you move the map away from North America), and is an alternative to the existing Traffic, Map, Satellite and Hybrid views. Clicking it you will see a photograph of the location as if you were standing on the streeet looking around. The O’Reilly Radar blog, who says the data for these pictures is coming from Immersive Media (except for San Francisco, which also has a better zoom level, as it turns out), comments, “This is not just a static, A9-style image. It will also let you move along the street in a smooth manner and even more amazing it will let you change your angle and continue moving that way.”

Here’s a video grab showing Street View in action – this looks & feels amazing, albeit there’s potential privacy issues due to the level of detail (you can make out individual faces, license plates and so on):

The Google help blurb on the Street View feature, displayed at Search Engine Land, explains how the navigation works:

• “Blue outlines show roads where street view is available.”
• “[A person icon on a green arrow] shows where you are on the map. The green arrow points in the direction you’re looking. You can drag the icon to navigate to a different location. You can also just click on a blue outlined road to go there.”
• “Drag the street view to look around 360°. Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboad.”

Google in a press release adds that Street View data “will soon expand to other metropolitan areas.” The world is shrinking.

Mapplets

Also today at the Where 2.0 conference, Google announced Mapplets (as in “map applets”). A Mapplet is a special flavor of a Google Gadget, the XML/JavaScript-based widgets you can add to iGoogle – only that this time, you’ll be adding it to Google Maps. From a press release by Google:

<<Mapplets enables third party developers to create mini applications that can be displayed on Google Maps, much like Google Gadgets are displayed on iGoogle. These Mapplets contain a variety of information, from housing listings to crime data, and tools like distance measurement. Users can select from a wide range of Google and third party Mapplets to display on the Map, essentially creating their own “mashup of mashups” directly on the Google Maps site, while still enjoying the built-in functionality of Google Maps, such as local search and driving directions. A number of our partners, including WeatherBug, Booking.com and Platial have already created Mapplets.>>

You can take a first look at this feature at a special preview page. Mapplets can be found in the Mapplets directory, and a developer documentation is available as well, clarifying that “Mapplets are mini-webpages that are served inside an IFrame within the Google Maps site. You can put anything inside this mini-webpage that you can put into a normal webpage, including HTML, Javascript, and Flash. Google provides a Javascript API that gives the Mapplet access to services such as manipulating the map, fetching remote content, and storing user preferences.” Google goes on to say that when a Mapplet is enabled by the user, Google will grab a copy of the source from your server to then serve it from gmodules.com (the domain currently caching iGoogle Gadgets as well).

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Anders C.R., Colin Colehour, TomHTML, Megan Q. and Daniel Garcia!]

[Note that I’ve constantly updated and edited this post as more information came in.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

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Google acquired security company GreenBorder Technologies earlier this month. GreenBorder say they “will continue to support ... existing customers through the end of their current subscriptions.” Google blog Googlified.com quotes from an old About page of GreenBorder for context:

<<Headquartered in Mountain View, California, GreenBorder Technologies was founded in 2001 to bring a new approach to enterprise security. GreenBorder, the industry’s first Desktop DMZ software for Windows, keeps Internet invaders out and enterprise data in. It allows users to safely connect anywhere, go to any website, open any Internet email or attachment, and use any downloaded files without worry. GreenBorder’s unique, signature-less approach never needs updating and provides continuous protection against corruption, theft and invasion of business data systems.>>

Google in an email statement confirms the deal, adding “We were impressed by their small team of talented engineers and believe they can help to build products and features that will benefit our users, advertisers and publishers.”

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Haochi!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

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The first day Andy came to work, he saw a 17-inch screen sitting on his desk, and there were no speakers, and his mouse had no scrollwheel. But Andy made it through the day anyway, checking up on his email and performing other mundane office tasks.

When Andy returned home, he told his wife of his work day. “What,” his wife uttered, “You don’t have a scrollwheel, and a big screen? You must tell your boss, and request better equipment!”

The next day at work, Andy knocked on the boss’s office door. When the boss invited him in, Andy in quiet voice told the boss that he would need better equipment to become more effective at work. “I need a mouse with a scrollwheel, and speakers, and a 19-inch screen,” he said. His boss nodded, said “Makes sense!” and made sure that Andy would receive all that. When Andy returned to his desk after lunch, he found his desktop equipped with a larger screen, a better mouse, and hi-quality stereo speakers.

When Andy returned home, his wife was already waiting to hear Andy’s story. After Andy finished, his wife frowned, and said, “But you still don’t have an ergonomic keyboard and comfy chair... this is impossible!”

The next morning, Andy knocked on his boss’s office door again, and made another request for better equipment. “I need a comfortable chair so I can sit and work in a relaxed manner... and I need a keyboard that will cater to my hand’s comfort.” The boss looked at Andy and said, “Makes sense.” And thus, an hour later when Andy returned to his desk, he found a new chair and keyboard in place.

Returning home that day, Andy found his wife away, but she left a note: “If you got all the new stuff we talked about, also ask for a raise and your own office.”

Hence the next day, Andy knocked at his boss’s door once more, and requested a raise and his own office room. “Because my work is excellent, and I need to fully concentrate while typing.” His boss looked at him for some seconds, and nodded, once more, and said, “Makes sense Andy!” And a little while later, Andy moved his computer, chair, keyboard and mouse and everything else to his new room, free from much of the surrounding noises of his former cubicle.

And Andy was quite happy about the state of things as they were. And after a hard day’s work, he returned home, and his wife was already awaiting him. After Andy told her the day’s events, she gave him a long, hard stare; “Why,” she said, “you have a high income, your own office, an excellent chair and everything... you should be boss!”

Andy was briefly worried but found the logic to be irrefutable, and the next morning at work, he knocked on his boss’s door. “Boss,” he said, “to be an even more effective worker, I think I should be boss.” And Andy’s boss looked at Andy with a puzzled face for a moment, and then replied, “You’re fired.” And when Andy returned to his old office room a while later, he found his computer, chair, mouse and everything else gone, and to this day, Andy is really happy all that happened because in the end he didn’t like this office work all that much anyway because of the constant deadlines and headaches and shouting and everything and he’s now running a successful but undemanding business selling flowers at a little shop.

[The end, with thanks to the Grimm Brothers.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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Google China’s boss, Lee Kai-Fu – who travels to the US every month to bring back a status report to Google boss Eric Schmidt & Co. – has a vision of how to successfully grow Google.cn... according to two articles by Caijing.com from a month ago:

• Year 1: Care about how much good people are brought to the Chinese team. (For instance, Kai-Fu personally invited an applicant to dinner because the applicant was unsure about taking up a job at the still young Google China. This year, according to Google the goal is to boost the workforce to 250 employees.)
• Year 2: Care about achievements in the research & development area. (Google China already released a number of tools unique to the country, like Google Life Search, Google ReBang, or the Google Input Method Editor.)
• Year 3: Care about how much traffic Google China is getting by then.
• Year 4: Start caring about earnings.

Kai-Fu is (officially) getting full support from Eric Schmidt, who at a press conference when confronted with Google China problems said, “Let me be very crisp ... We are very happy with our Chinese operations.” As far as strategy is concerned, a slightly annoyed Eric added, “We’re not focused on our competitors ... We have our competitors. We’re not focused on them. We’re focused on our users. We’re not focused on revenue. We’re focused on users. Does that make sense?”

Going by reports, Eric seems to be giving the Chinese operations enough freedom to not become a Mountain View clone. According to Caijin, Google China under Kai-Fu – who admits to have never read a financial report mailed from HQ so far – currently focuses on meeting “local needs rather than rush to introduce new products to compete with [Chinese search engine] Baidu.com.” To help Google understand Chinese needs, as Google’s Wang Jin says, they “set up a user database, even including a psychologist, to collect regular feedback.” Google China is also given enough time to develop, according to Caijin; Kai-Fu convinced Eric that patience is the key to open China’s door, concluding that a lack of patience is why other internet players failed in this market. Eric agrees: “China is a nation with 5,000-year history ... That could indicate the duration for our patience.”

One of the aspects that might take the most patience is the Google China censorship issue. Currently, Google search self-censors a variety of sites, from human rights watch organizations to certain government-critical news sources. However, if nothing else it makes business sense for Google to censor as little as possible – and route around the Great Firewall as much as possible – in order to provide more features and a better user experience.

[Photo by Keso with some rights reserved.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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