Tech and Amusing Stuff

“Google on Wednesday said it has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset — a revelation so astonishing that the company originally suspected it had made an error culling its own data.

“We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,” Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations told the Financial Times during this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona…..”

Via AppleInsider <— story continues

More logos

Looks like the Microsoft purchase of Yahoo! is going to shake the industry no matter what happens. Now Yahoo! “is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft’s bid.” Apparently Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt called Jerry Yang to “to offer his company’s help in any effort to thwart” Microsoft’s effort.

Via Reuters

Microsoft proposed to Yahoo’s board of directors a $31 per share (a 62% premium over yesterday’s closing price) or about $44.6 Billion for a merger. Steve Ballmer, CEO sent out a letter to Yahoo with the proposal yesterday, he says: “We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.” The two companies have been dicsussing this matter since late 2006.

It also seems to be a response to Google’s threatening growth according to this part of the press release:

“Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers.”

Official press release

I took these on my way home from work on thursday the 10th.

Technology and entertainment topped Google Inc’s searches in 2007, with the iPhone grabbing the No. 1 slot on a list of the fastest-rising search terms in the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

“iPhone, of course, is a word very few people typed in a search box in 2006,” said Marissa Mayer of Google, an Internet search engine. “It didn’t exist.”

Apple rolled out the iPhone, which is a mobile phone, music and video player and Internet browser device, in the United States last summer.

Four social networking sites made the top 10, including Webkinz, which grabbed the No. 2 slot. Webkinz is a stuffed animal that customers can register and play with online.

Celebrity news Web site TMZ ranked third, while transformer toys took the No. 4 slot.

Transformers are the wildly popular toys that shift their shapes, for example from cars to alien robots, and they got a big boost from the 2007 hit movie “Transformers.”

“There’s a lot of interest in the celebrity culture, television and movies,” said Mayer.

YouTube, the video-sharing Web site, grabbed the No. 5 spot while Club Penguin, a networking site for children, came in No. 6. Social networking site MySpace took the No. 7 slot. Heroes, Facebook and Anna Nicole Smith rounded out the top 10.

Original story (Reuters)

Picture (Gizmodo)

“The Google Phone has been announced, and instead of a phone that’s manufactured by just one company, it’s an open software platform that’s going to be loaded on phones made by HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. Those phones are going to be available in the US on Sprint and T-Mobile by the second half of 2008—plus, it’s going to be available in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain on their respective carriers. The 34 members of the Open Handset Alliance developing this gPhone will throw in their expertise (example, Nvidia with their graphical abilities, Skype with their VoIPing) and offer the collective goods under an open source licensing agreement. Hell, Google might not even put their logo on the phone itself—they just want to sell advertisements to users through it.”

Original story

“It appears that Google is working on integrating IMAP into Gmail. However, it is only appearing in select few Gmail and Google Apps for domains accounts at the moment. When we checked Gmail Help database this evening, Gmail had said that they support POP, but not IMAP. Then a few minutes later, that doc was gone, and a stack of IMAP related help docs were up. The new pages explain how to integrate the new mail feature. It’s as easy as setting up POP, but with huge benefits……”Original story

“Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it’s more difficult to keep track of everyone when they’re running around at warp speed. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Jaiku, a company that’s been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most — regardless of whether you’re at a computer or on a mobile phone.Current Jaiku users can still use the service normally, and new folks can sign up for an invitation to the service when we’re ready to expand. We plan to use the ideas and technology behind Jaiku to make compelling and useful products. Although we don’t have definite plans to announce at this time, we’re excited about helping drive the next round of developments in web and mobile technology.

Original story

The price of one share of Google is currently at $596.40 (as of 1:45 pm), already at an all time high.

More information once the stock market closes at 4:00 pm

UPDATE: The stock price fell down to $584.39 by day’s end

Current Google stock price

“In the interest of full disclosure, we’d like to note that our source for this post is none other than Yahoo News, who carried a story crowning Google as “the Official Heart of the Internet”. Figure that one out…Google.com was registered by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on September 15th, 1997. At the time, both men were 24 year old Stanford University students. They are now two of the richest, most influential men in the technology sector. They’re each worth more than $16 billion. In just 10 short years, the company has gone from dorm room “chic” to worldwide status, quickly becoming the Gold standard for internet search, advertising, maps, email, and video content. It’s services, including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Adsense, Google Search, and much more have become household names. What does the next 10 years have in store? Who knows, but we’re pretty excited to strap in and go along for the ride.”
Original story

NASA officials confirmed this week that H211, a limited liability company that counts Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, as one of its principals, had secured rights to operate a refurbished wide-body Boeing 767-200 out of Moffett Field, an airport that is run by NASA and is generally closed to private jets.

read more | digg story