Last week, Google Operating System reported about traces of a currently internally tested Google clipboard of sorts called Cloudboard (I’m lagging on this but Google OS and the rest of blogspot.com is blocked in China, at least at my location; Google Reader isn’t, though).
Of related cross-integration interest over at Ionut’s blog is Google OnePick, a document picker across different Google apps as part of Google Sites.
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google Cloudboard, a Tested Server-side Clipb ... | Comments]
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Google boss Eric Schmidt answered a couple of questions at Times Online from October 2nd. He talks about what might be in store for the future, about Google Books, about which companies he admires (Apple tops his list – “they have a single-minded focus on building great products and they’re doing a terrific job”), about censorship in China, what newspapers could do to adapt, and more. On the security of cloud computing (see recent reports of the T-Mobile Sidekick probably-no-backup crash, for instance), he argues:
Let me say first that cloud computing is the future. But the concerns that people have about security in cloud computing are understandable: some people like to be able to see their computer server to know that’s exactly where their data is. It’s somewhat parallel to the banking system: early on, people believed that their money was safer under their mattress than in a bank, but all the systems and rules that have evolved over time do not support that belief.
You can look at cloud computing in a similar way. We have built and continue to build a lot of security protection into our applications to protect your privacy and your information. Consider also that if you put your data on one drive in your home and it gets stolen or damaged, then you have lost it permanently - I remember reading various articles in the British press about government officials losing sensitive data on laptops, CDs, memory sticks and the like.
[Thanks Jérôme!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Times Online Presents Q&A With Google's Eric ... | Comments]
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There’s now a website mocking Google Wave’s issues, called Easier To Understand Than Wave [background sound alert] (a site made by a Facebook employee, as Techcrunch reports). Ex Microsoft guy Robert Scoble also criticized Wave recently, calling it a “productivity sink” if you’re trying to communicate.
Last time I checked Wave it was this room packed of people who were all told they had to be in that room, but nobody told them why, and so everyone tried to make up something on the spot, but the one who started singing heard a hush from the one who started reading a book, and the one reading a book was complaining about the missing chair, and the guy next to him said that luckily there are no chairs here because his friends and he wanted to do a bit of recreational running around and ... well, the type of room where for some reason you just might breathe a sigh of relieve when you close the door to it and leave, figuring you might come back in a bit just to see if people already figured out what to properly do in it (maybe there will be group singing in previously unimagined beauty). Let’s see if this technologically very interesting app was socially misdesigned or is just a bit ahead of us... in either case, I’m happy for all the thoughts on these issues that I find it inspires.
[Thanks WebSonic.nl!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Understanding Google Wave... | Comments]
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The quality of facts table generator Google Squared seems to have improved, so you might want to give it another try. Entering the same search as I did when the tool was released in July this year, comic book character, I’m now getting better columns and more correct values. Perhaps there is also a higher confidence threshold required for values to show up, i.e. some values which were previously right are now missing, but some others which were previously wrong are also gone. Google also say they built Squared to “learn from edits and corrections, so as people have been improving their squares, Google Squared has gotten better for everyone”. As my single search comparison is very non-represenative I’m curious what you think of the update, and how your queries are performing.
One feature I wished for when I first looked at the app was export of the data to CSV or Google Spreadsheets, which is now both possible via a top-right hand button, as Google’s announces. Plus, tables generated can now hold more data, increased from 30 fact cells to 120. Last not least, you can sort columns. Google squared was probably one of Google’s more premature releases (the crown still belongs to Google Open Social I guess!), but in just a few months it already made quite a jump. Wonder at what speed it will continue from here?
[Thanks Mbegin!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google Squared Gets Quality & Features Update | Comments]
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Google co-founder Sergey Brin in an interesting article in the New York Times writes about Google Books, orphaned book works, the Google Books Settlement, and the desire to create an accessible library. He makes the point that one of his main interests is progress in general, not necessarily to Google’s benefit, saing “if we don’t get our product right, then others will. But one thing that is sure to halt any such progress is to have no settlement at all.” He argues that “If Google Books is successful, others will follow. And they will have an easier path: this agreement creates a books rights registry that will encourage rights holders to come forward and will provide a convenient way for other projects to obtain permissions.” [Thanks JEShack!]
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Sergey Brin About Google Books | Comments]
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