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Google Docs does not make Office better

Hi, I’m Alex Payne and I’m a Director in our Online Product Management team.  A couple of news articles and blogs landed today where Google is trying to make the case that existing Office customers (and there are over 500 Million of them worldwide) should hold off on upgrading to Office 2010 and instead utilize Google Docs as a complement to older versions of Office.  Their argument goes like this: Keep Office (an older version) and use Google Docs *with* it and this combination will be more valuable than Office 2010 alone.  Here is an actual quote from Dave Girouard (President of the Enterprise division at Google – the group that makes Google Apps):

“Most people find, and they maybe perhaps don’t expect it at first, that Google Docs works quite well with Office and in fact it makes Office better,”

I’m also including a few links (link1, link2, link3) to some of these articles so you can get the gist.

Google is of course doing this now as the business launch of Office 2010 happens tomorrow (Wednesday May 12, 2010).  I’m not going to focus on the launch in this blog as there already has been a ton of great news about Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, etc.  What I want to do is spend a little time focusing on Google’s argument.  I used to think it was something that Google implied.  Given the quotes and articles today, I now see that Google is being explicit in their claim.  They are claiming that an organization can use both seamlessly.

This just isn’t the case.  Let me explain:  As I mentioned………………Continue At Source

(Also check the video at source to explain this visually)

Source: http://blogs.technet.com

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Google and Partners Seek a Television Foothold

Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes.

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The move is an effort by Google and Intel to extend their dominance of computing to an arena where they have little sway, the TV. For Sony, which has struggled to retain a pricing and technological advantage in the competitive TV hardware market, the partnership is an effort to get a leg up on competitors.

The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel. Google intends to open the Google TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for cellphones, to software developers in the hopes of spurring the same creativity that the consumers have seen in phone apps.

The three heavyweights have also tapped Logitech, which specializes in remote controls and computer speakers, for peripheral devices, including a remote with a tiny keyboard, that will work with the systems.

The project, which has been under way for several months, was described by people with knowledge of its work. They requested anonymity because the partners are not allowed to speak publicly at this point and details remain under negotiation.

Spokesmen for Google, Intel and Logitech declined to comment. A Sony spokesman said he was not familiar with the project.

The companies appear to be hiring for Android-related jobs. Intel, for example, has listed jobs for senior application engineers with Android programming experience who can help extend Intel’s technology “from PC screen to mobile screen and TV screen.” Logitech also has several job listings for Android developers, including a position for an “embedded software engineer” with experience building “audio and video products based on the Android platform.”

Google, the leading player in Web search and advertising, has been seeking to extend its influence into new realms, like mobile phones.

Now it has set its sights on the television. “Google wants to be everywhere the Internet is so they can put ads there,” said one of the people with knowledge of the project.

Based on Google’s Android operating system, the TV technology runs on Intel’s Atom chips.

Google has built a prototype set-top box, but the technology may be incorporated directly into TVs or other devices, like Blu-ray players.

The Google TV software will present users with a new interface for TVs that lets them perform Internet functions like search while also pulling down Web programming like YouTube videos or TV shows from Hulu.com. The technology will also allow downloadable Web applications, from games to social networks, to run on the devices.

A person with knowledge of the project said that Google TV would use a version of Google’s Chrome Web browser, which currently does not work on Android mobile phones. For Google, the project is a pre-emptive move to get a foothold in the living room as more consumers start exploring ways to bring Web content to their television sets. Google wants to aggressively ensure that its services, in particular its search and advertising systems, play a central role.

Google’s efforts to break into television advertising date back three years. Through a program called Google TV Ads, the company sells advertising on a small number of satellite and small cable television systems, as well as some cable networks. But interest in the program has been limited and the amount of revenue that Google has been able to generate from it has been small.

The partners will face a crowded field. In addition to the makers of traditional cable and satellite set-top boxes, Cisco Systems and Motorola, a host of new entrants have entered the game, including Microsoft, Apple, TiVo and start-ups like Roku and Boxee, which already stream video from Netflix, MLB.com and other Web sites directly to television sets.

For Intel, the effort represents a way to get its line of energy-efficient Atom chips, currently found in laptops, into TVs.

The software will be open source at its core, meaning that device and TV makers should have broad access to it.

Sony, however, hopes to gain an edge over competitors by bringing out the first appliances and possibly TVs running the software, possibly under a new brand. The Japanese consumer electronics giant, which owns Sony Pictures, is not expected to put its movie content directly on the devices but will probably have a link to a digital store.

A person with knowledge of the Google TV project said that the set-top box technology was sufficiently advanced that Google had begun testing it with Dish Network, one of Google’s longstanding partners in the TV Ads program. A spokeswoman for Dish Network declined to comment. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was testing a television programming search service with Dish Network

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Google to Shutdown Search Engine in China

In view of the hardening of positions on both sides, Google reportedly has chalked out a detailed strategy for closure of its search engine in China, and it is almost final now as the talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent deadlock since January of this year. The Chinese government on Friday warned the US based search company, that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship with Google in China.

To recap on what happened, it was December last year when the Google – China relations took a bad turn. Someone from China targeted human right activists Gmail accounts. These Google human rights activists accounts in China were hacked by hackers who originated from mainland China. As a reaction, the dismayed authorities at Google threatened to withdraw its services from China, saying that it can no longer censor its search results on the Chinese version of Google homepage i.e. Google.cn. Google, in a detailed blog post said that if it is unable to find a way to operate an unfiltered search engine within the Chinese law, which currently requires it to block access to millions of websites, it will have no option but to close its operations in China. Few days later, Google-China debacle took a new turn when Google in a secret counter-offensive encounter managed to hack these Chinese hackers back. It was successful in breaking into the source computer in Taiwan which was involved in these attacks. Google engineers, thus found out some evidence which were pointing fingers towards mainland China. It appeared as if the whole script was orchestrated by the Chinese government. Later in a new development, U.S. authorities were able to track down the man who wrote the code to attack Google in China. The guy in question was a freelance security consultant in China, and his discovery made it even more difficult for the Chinese government to deny their involvement.

In mid last month, some more scary details came to light where linkage of two Chinese Institutions were discovered in hacking Google sites. These schools were also reported having tacit connections with PLA.

Google also delayed the launch of two Android based smartphones from Motorola and Samsung, and didn’t plan to unveil Nexus One in China.

On Friday, Li Yizhong, minister for industry and information technology, said:

If [Google] takes steps that violate Chinese laws, that would be unfriendly, that would be irresponsible, and they would have to bear the consequences.

Chinese officials like Mr Li are trying their best to encourage Google to continue its operations in the country. Li said that “[Google] has taken 30 per cent of the Chinese search market”. He further asked Google to continue in China by saying:

If you don’t leave, China will welcome that, if you don’t leave, it will be beneficial for the development of the internet in China.

It appears rather clear now that a compromise between Google and China is far from arriving. Google will rather like to close down search engine than compromising on Chinese-made principles.

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5 Must-See Google Easter Eggs

There’s no doubt Google has a sense of humor — its excellent April Fools jokes are a testament to that. But there’s a wealth of funnies that can found any time of the year too. Here we pull together a handy list of Google “Easter eggs” that you can uncover right now.

Bearing in mind we’re working up another list covering surprises that can be found in Google Maps(), Earth and Street View, have we missed any other tricks from those crazy Google() funsters? Do share in the comments below.

1. Try a Different Version of the Google Homepage

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Sure, Google’s doodles make the famously sparse homepage a little more funky on certain days, but there are ways to jazz it up any day with some homepage tricks that will turn your search base into a pirate-, Klingon- or even Swedish Chef- themed online property. 

Most of these work by entering an exact search term and then hitting the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. There’s a ton of these, some of which have been active for a while. 

Google nods to open source software with Linux()- and BSD devil-themed options that can be activated by typing “google linux” and “google bsd” then hitting the IFL button. 

Those partial to a bit of grog meanwhile can get their Google homepage pirated by doing the same with “xx-pirate.” Google will display in “hacker-speak” if you type in “google l33t.” The Klingon version can be found with “xx-klingon,” and if you want some bork with your Google, enter “xx-bork” to go all Muppet Show. 

Even more options include pig latin (“xx-piglatin”), an Easter egg-themed page complete with bunny mini-game (“google easter egg”), and a dark gothic way to search (“google gothic”). Typing “elgoog” offers Google backwards, and there’s an Elmer Fudd tribute at “ewmew fudd.” Finally, it’s not quite a whole homepage change, but entering “ascii art” will make the Google logo display in that style. 

2. See Quirky Calculator Results

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While the few funny answers Google offers via its Calculator app don’t quite top the amusement to be had by typing 5318008 into your upside-down elementary school calculator, they are nonetheless another sign that the search giant doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

Case in point — searching for the number of horns on a unicorn makes the Calculator app spring into life with the answer “1,” which is the same number it returns if you ask Google what the loneliest number is. Searching for “once in a blue moon” brings up “1.16699016 × 10^-8 hertz.” 

And, always a classic, searching for “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” will trigger the Calculator display “42,” which we all know is a reference to Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

3. View Search Results Funnies

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A classic, third-party search gag is revealed by asking Google to “find chuck norris” and hitting the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. The result, in bold red, reads “Google won’t search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don’t find Chuck Norris, he finds you.” Suggestions for the next course of action include, “Run, before he finds you.” 

Although not falling into the Easter egg basket, some of the auto-suggestions that can be found via Google’s search service are pretty funny, too. 

4. Get Teddy Bears and Ninjas

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Google programmers have messed around with code for both Picasa() and Google Reader() to yield some surprising results. 

Taking Picasa first, when in the desktop software, hitting control-shift-y will make a teddy bear appear. Hitting the same combo again will give the first teddy a new buddy, and so on. It’s since been revealed this was the childhood bear of photographer and photoblogger Noah Grey who worked with Google on the project. 

Reader, meanwhile, gets an even more comprehensive Easter egg. With a reference to the old Konami video game cheat code — that, depending on the game, would give you 30 lives or other bonuses — hitting up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, will make your RSS feed reader go into “ninja” mode. 

As well as making some of the screen blue, all your feeds will read “30,” and some of the icons will change (e.g. the like/unlike buttons, which turn into animated hearts). A little cartoon ninja will actually appear on the right hand side of your screen. 

5. iGoogle Theme Surprises in the Wee Hours

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iGoogle skins are practically chocolate-coated with so many Easter Eggs to be found within. A wide selection of the themes — which tart up your browser bar with pictures that change throughout the day — have a secret that’s revealed at 3:14 AM PST every single day. 

Selecting the “beach” theme will mean the Loch Ness Monster makes a mysterious appearance for one minute every day at that time. UFOs will hover over the skyline in “City Scape” and the Yokai, from Japanese folklore, show up in “Tea House”. 

Meanwhile, a cartoon monster makes a brief appearance in “Spring Scape,” pi appears in the sky in “Sweet Dreams,” and the Northern Lights put on a show in both “Winter Scape” and “Holiday Village.” Still more include a snow tiger in “Aja Tiger,” pumpkins in “Autumn,” a galleon sailing along in “Hong Kong,” and a spider in “JR.” 

It’s almost certainly no coincidence that “3.14″ are the first three digits of pi. It’s the kind of witty play on numbers the Google staffers seem to love and, let’s face it — so do we!

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Why Google Should Terrify You [Video}

Meet Google. The noun that became a verb. The world’s favourite search engine, and the company whose motto is “Don’t be evil…”

A recent segment about the search giant on Australian news program The Hungry Beast reveals why people are becoming increasing concerned with the integration of Google into our daily lives.

While this video does paint an overly dark picture; some of Google CEO Eric Schmidts comments should concern you.

Take a look at the video below

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Google, Microsoft Spar on Antitrust

But what really caught Google’s attention was the Internet site’s legal counsel: It was Charles “Rick” Rule, long the chief outside counsel on competition issues for Google archrival Microsoft.

“My reaction was, ‘What the heck is this?’ ” says Mark Sheriff, an Ohio attorney who represents Google, speaking of the involvement of Mr. Rule and his powerhouse law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, whose antitrust practice is based in Washington, D.C. “It’s not every day that a big D.C. law firm like Cadwalader gets involved in a collections lawsuit in Ohio.”

Mr. Rule also represents another small Internet firm that has brought an antitrust suit against Google. Meanwhile, in Europe, following complaints about Google that came from, among others, a Microsoft subsidiary in Germany, the European Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust inquiry into the search giant.

To Google, the pattern is clear: It contends Microsoft is embarking on a proxy war against it through various apparently unrelated cases, preparing the ground for a broader antitrust assault of some sort on Google’s dominance in the online world. “It’s become clear that our competitors are scouring court dockets around the world looking for complaints against Google into which they can inject themselves, learn more about our business practices, and use that information to develop a broader antitrust complaint against us,” said a Google spokesman, Adam Kovacevich.

Microsoft calls that nonsense. It says it neither initiated nor is funding the small Internet firms’ antitrust lawsuits. The plaintiffs and their legal counsel also deny that Microsoft orchestrated the actions. The Internet firms say they chose Cadwalader and Mr. Rule on their own.

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Google under investigation for alleged breach of EU competition rules

Under scrutiny: Google under investigation for alleged breach of EU competition rules Photo: GETTY

The investigation comes under the Lisbon Treaty’s “abuse of dominant position” powers and is the first time that Google has been targeted by the European Union.

Telegraph.co.uk can reveal that the Commission has written to Google with a series of questions over how its search functions operate and also questioned the way it sells advertising. It acted after complaints from the UK search site Foundem, a price comparison site, Ciao, an online shopping site owned by Microsoft, and ejustice.fr, a French site which details legal cases and solicitor services.

Foundem claims that Google, which has a 90pc share of the search market in the UK, has penalised the site with a “search penalty” on its business.

In a post last August on its site, Foundem said: “Google has always used various penalty filters to remove certain sites entirely from its search results or place them so far down the rankings that they will never be found.

“Whereas these penalties used to be reserved for spam, or sites caught attempting to cheat Google’s algorithms, they are now increasingly targeted at perfectly legitimate vertical search and directory services.

“It may not be coincidence that, collectively, these services present a nascent competitive threat to Google’s share of online advertising revenues.”

Foundem claims that Google lifted the “penalty” in December, resulting in an increase in traffic from Google searches of “10,000pc overnight”.

Google has dismissed the claims, saying that its search algorithms are aimed at pointing people to the best sites and that it does not pick and choose favourites. Company sources argued that Foundem struggled on Google search because it had little original content.

In a post published on Wednesday morning, Google said: “We’ve always worked hard to ensure that our success is earned the right way, through technological innovation and great products, rather than by locking in our users or advertisers or creating artificial barriers to entry.”

The Commission’s action marks the latest round in the increasingly acrimonious battle between Google and Microsoft which senior Google sources accuse of waging a “lobbying campaign” against the Californian firm.

Ciao was bought by Microsoft in 2008 for nearly $500m (£324m) and is now called Ciao Bing, after Microsoft’s search engine. Foundem is a member of ICOMP, an internet pressure group which receives funding from Microsoft.

A spokesman for ICOMP said that it was backed by a number of companies and was only interested in promoting transparency and fair competition on the web.

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A Brief Review of Google Voice for iPhone

As Google Voice is rejected by Apple as a native application

on iPhone last August, Google finally repackaged the Google Voice mobile for iPhone as web application that was built on HTML 5 and launched publicly in late January.

If you are not familiar with Google Voice, it is a free phone service by Google that allows you to associate multiple phone numbers (up to six) to one Google Voice number. The app improves the way you use your phone. It offers a centralized interface to get transcribed voicemail and archive or search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also screen and block unwanted callers via the centralized interface.

As of today, Google Voice is not yet available to everybody but for U.S. customers only. You also need to have an invitation. You can request an invitation before using the service.

Well, with the release of Google Voice as a web application, you can simply point your mobile Safari to m.google.com/voice. Similar to the way the mobile Gmail site works, the Voice site caches your contacts list in a browser page. All of the regular Google Voice functionality is available. You can write SMS messages, listen to any voicemails and check your Inbox.

Similar to the built-in phone application, when you make a phone call using Google Voice, you can choose the recipient or dial the number to make a call. After tapping the dial button, the app then prompts you to dial one of Google’s ‘local numbers’ via the native dialer. That’s it. And, the web app lets you display your Google Voice number (instead of the number of your SIM card) as the outbound caller ID.

So, how about internation call? You can also make international call via Google Voice. But don’t expect it’s completely free. Unlike Fring or Skype, Google Voice is not a VOIP app. So, you will get charged for calls using Google Voice, just not as much as if you dialed a long distance or international call directly, but with a lower rate.

Google Voice also lets you to view all your transcribed voice mails in the Inbox. You no longer need to listen the voice mails one by one. Simply click on the one that interests you and listen to it.

Text messages sent via Google Voice is completely free. You can simply tap “Compose”, type a number (or select a contact), write your message and send your message. By now, Google Voice does not support international SMS. You can only send text messages in the U.S. But please take note here. When you send a text message via Google Voice, the text message is appeared to be sent from your Google Voice number. In case your recipient replies back (to your Google Voice number), it won’t appear as from the sender’s actual number but something like 1-406-xxx-xxxx.

You can always sync your contacts on iPhone with your Google contacts using Google Sync so that you have all the same info in your iPhone contacts available with our Google Voice contacts.

Despite Google Voice is not released as a native iPhone application, it is still a pretty cool web application and works smoothly. In future, I really wish Apple to allow Google Voice appear in App Store. Anyhow, if you love the features offered by Google Voice, go ahead and request an invite to try out the service.

To learn more about Google Voice, check out these official videos from Google:

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Buy Motorola Droid at Discounted Price of $109.99

Amazon, the famous American based online retailer has always offered great deals on all kinds of consumer electronic items. This time, they have got a great deal going on the popular Android based Motorola DROID phone. The said phone is now offered for just $109.99 if bought with a two year service plan with Verizon.

This deal from Amazon is going to save you about $90 that you would have to otherwise shell out if bought directly from the carrier itself. More info on this deal can be found at Amazon page here. [via Android Central]

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