Battlefield 3 is 2011's big winner in video games search terms

Google has released its annual “Zeitgeist” list of the most popular search terms of the year, and the video game results may surprise you. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s fascinating stuff.

The biggest news: Battlefield 3 was the #5 fastest-rising search term of the year globally, peaking during the week it arrived in stores (duh). In the U.S., the top video game search terms (Google doesn’t list other nations’ video games search terms) were:

1. Black Ops
2. Call of Duty
3. Halo: Reach
4. Super Mario
5. Mortal Kombat
6. Skyrim
7. Battlefield 3
8. Dragon Age 2
9. Diablo 3
10. Mass Effect 3

While the top “Online Games” searches were:

1. WOW
2. addicting games
3. free online games
4. Miniclip
5. Webkinz
6. tower defense
7. kids games
8. armor games
9. Tetris
10. Juegos

One of the more unusual lists is “Fastest Rising Costumes” search terms, and of those, “Angry Birds costume” was #1. (“Minecraft costume” came in at #9.)

Strangely, the #2 “Movie” search term of 2011 was Batman: Arkham City. Muh-heh?

Over in the U.K., the fastest rising overall search terms included FIFA 12 at #2 and Minecraft at #8.

Google really wants to be Facebook. Like, really, really. A lot.

Facebook has personalized the Internet in ways that Google — with all its Internet lordship — completely overlooked. And one area Facebook has excelled at, surprisingly, has been gaming. There are few games on Facebook that hardcore gamers flock to, but casual gamers who love puzzles (and tending gardens and farms and stuff) are playing Facebook games in droves — and they’re playing with their friends thanks to that added “social” aspect. With Facebook Credits, add-ons are easily acquired, making Facebook Games a lucrative business.

Is it any wonder that Google wants a slice of that action? With the advent of Google+, Google’s new social network that’s being rolled out slowly through invites (which serve mainly to make those on the outside feel left out — but I’m not bitter!), it looks like the Internet giant is already got plans in the works to jump into social gaming.

Zynga's 'FarmVille' on Facebook

Engadget uncovered some lines referring to Google + Games buried right inside the service’s source code. What does this mean for you? That soon you’ll have more than one option for where to play Mafia Wars and the like. And that Google will no doubt want to take advantage of some of Google+’s clever features with its games. Features like Circles, which lets you create distinct groupings of friends; it’s easy to see how players could create gaming Circles, for staying connected to the people that you play with and against. Or Hangouts, a feature that lets you create on-the-fly group video chats; games could use this for direct interaction during play.

Google recently made a huge investment in Zynga, the game developer behind FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and many other popular Facebook games. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Google was so interested in social gaming.

But this isn’t Google’s first foray into gaming. Their mobile operating system, Android, is loaded with available games, and even the Chrome web browser has a web app store, which already has plenty of games inside (including — what are the odds? — Mafia Wars, CityVille, and lots more; they even have Angry Birds, but then who doesn’t?).

No idea when Google+ Games launches, but the smart money says “soon.”

Stuff like the “Google Doodle,” aka the stylized home page logo that Google occasionally produces to commemorate a historic day or event. There have been hundreds of Doodles since the company launched in 1998, and Noemi’s post this week about the interactive Les Paul Doodle inspired me to search through the Doodle archives for the 25 geekiest Google Doodles ever.

October 29, 2009: French publisher Asterix Comics got the Doodle treatment for its 50th anniversary.

April 7, 2008. Astro Boy.

October 7, 2009: Made to celebrate the invention of the bar code.

July 23, 2009: DC Comics’ Jim Lee created this Doodle to commemorate Comic-Con International. (Click on the image to make it bigger.)

September 15, 2009: Crop circles.

March 6, 2011: Will Eisner’s 94th birthday.

April 12, 2011: First man in space.

September 10, 2008: Large Hadron Collider.

September 21, 2009: H.G. Wells’ birthday.

June 5, 2010: 110th birthday of Dennis Gabor, the father of holography.

September 6, 2010: This interactive particle logo was used to celebrate the launch of Google Instant.

February 8, 2011: Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday. Interactive.

May 16, 2008: commemorating the invention of the first laser.

January 28, 2008: 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick. Google’s founders are big LEGO fans (as we are).

August 30, 2010: 213th birthday of Mary Shelley, writer of Frankenstein.

July 20, 2009: 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

May 21, 2010: A fully interactive and playable Doodle in honor of Pac-Man‘s 30th anniversary.

March 14, 2010: Pi Day.

July 4, 2010: Rube Goldberg’s birthday.

April 23, 2004: For a European Catholic holiday (St. George’s Day), that is one geeky logo. Come on, there’s a knight and a dragon!

July 10, 2009: Nikola Tesla’s birthday.

June 6, 2009: 25th anniversary of Tetris.

September 5, 2009: Mulder and Scully would be proud. This one celebrates “unexplained phenomenon.”

May 22, 2006: Let’s hear it for the great detective! Celebrating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday.

October 4, 2004: SpaceShipOne wins the X-Prize.

WIN: +1
Google receives 1 skill point for reinventing the wheel as they roll out their Facebook “like”-esque feature called “+1”, which allows users to share content they enjoy with others. To use +1 you need a public Google profile; your name will be displayed along with your vote. The feature isn’t fully implemented yet but Google users are invited to participate in an experimental phase via Google Labs. Because of Google’s tremendous popularity this may well be a sure-fire win amidst Google’s long string of social media fails.

FAIL: Just Plain Panic
This week’s hysteria over the story that Samsung shipped machines with a keylogger installed was, it turns out, completely unnecessary. After further investigation it was revealed the keylogger was a false alarm created by an antimalware program. The false positive was triggered by multi-language support in Windows. Now, why did a simple story about an alleged keylogger under investigation by Samsung and security companies cause such wholesale panic? Somewhere along the line a supervisor at Samsung who spoke to Mohammed Hassan of Network World on the phone confirmed that a keylogger was indeed installed by Samsung in order to monitor the way their machines were being used. Samsung has yet to comment on what exactly the supervisor was smoking at the time.

FAIL: Copyright Infringement
Or at least Boston College’s definition thereof. A “helpful” university document intended to instruct students what activities constitute copyright infringement contained all the usual suspects, but one addition that you’d not expect to find. Boston College considered the use of WiFi to be an intellectual property no-no. That’s right – using a wireless router leads to copyright infringement, according to a leading university. Puzzled? Me too. It’s worth noting that the college has removed the reference to WiFi violating copyright since the story broke yesterday – hence my usage of the past tense throughout this paragraph.

WIN: Privacy
It’s not often these days that privacy enjoys a good old fashioned win, but following the Google Buzz privacy fiasco last year, the FTC and Google have reached an agreement that gives security a shot in the arm. Google must now submit, and by all accounts will do so willingly, to independent privacy audits on a regular basis for the next 20 years. Also included in the settlement between the FTC and Google are stipulations that Google must develop and uphold a stringent privacy program, and must get users’ consent before sharing their information with third parties.

WIN: Robots
Yet again, robots are winning. This time the US is sending special robots to Fukushima to help gather data about radiation levels in areas of the plants too unsafe for humans to enter. The robots will need handlers, who are accompanying them to Japan, and it’s unsaid how near to the robots they will have to be. Presumably a safe enough distance, however, or these would be very pointless robots indeed.

WIN: Pioneering TV
The significantly popular show Pioneer One‘s third episode debuted online on Monday – and in fact, online is the only place you’ll find it. You can stream episodes on blip.tv or download the .torrent files from VODO’s web site. Pioneer One is an entirely web-based “television” program. Regular readers might recall an in-depth review I wrote about Pioneer One‘s first two episodes some time ago. Expect a review of episode three next week. Meanwhile, tune in and enjoy!

For ages, it’s been rumored that Google was planning a social network to rival Facebook, since Facebook has radically changed the way so many of us use the web. Google has finally unveiled its next big thing, but it’s not a social network at all. It’s more of a “social search” function built into its popular search engine results.

“Google +1” is a direct competitor to Facebook’s ever-present “Like” button, and you can try it out right now. It hasn’t been implemented for all users yet, but if you opt in to Google +1, you can mark the websites you like best. When one of your Google friends or contacts (via Google Profiles) runs a similar search, they’ll see your +1 likes as a sort of personal advice/recommendation. (You have to have a public Profile to activate the +1 feature.) It adds a more social aspect to web search, and it makes a whole lot of sense once you see it in practice.

It remains to be seen if Google +1 will be able to successfully compete with Facebook’s Like button, since Facebook has such a huge head start. But like Facebook, Google is expected to have its +1 button showing up on other webpages (like the one you’re reading now), paid ads, and lots more.

Sometimes geeks, dweebs, nerds, whatever you want to call those into technology, are pegged as less than athletic.  Typing on a computer, playing Wii or Kinect, or reenacting lightsaber duels from Star Wars, while requiring movement, aren’t exactly  athletic endeavors.

One man, Joseph Tame , aims to forever change the way athletic geeks are viewed when he runs the 2011 Tokyo Marathon while wearing “iRun.”

The gear pictured above allows Tame to publish constant updates on his race progress to the internet.  Sounds awesome?

According to Tame, iRun features:

“Four iPhones on rotatable mounts, an iPad, an Android handset, three mobile wifi routers, a wind turbine (ok, so it’s a kid’s fan that turns around…), a 4-in-one atmospheric monitor, a heart monitor, a plastic doughnut and of course the very important satellite dish for high-speed data connectivity (cunningly crafted from a bird-feeding dish).”

Cunning indeed, and his cockiness continues:

“The iRun – something I have no doubt Apple will be interested in buying the blueprints for – is a hugely complex device constructed from two IKAN Recoils. The modification process, carried out in my dad’s greenhouse when visiting the UK at Christmas, saw these joined together with composite rods to form a rig that can be worn without danger of it flying off when travelling at high speeds (or low speeds, as is more likely to be the case).”

No doubt Apple will want their hands on the device crafted in a parent’s greenhouse.

So what will the iRun do exactly?  When running, the device will broadcast live video on two cameras, send live location/pace/heart rate data, transmit temperature, all while allowing Tame to look “incredibly cool.” Right.

Check out the video below to see just how super? Tame’s contraption appears when worn and let us know if you’d like one for yourself, and if you plan on tuning in to Tame’s updates as he traverses the streets of Tokyo.

Neatorama

Are you one who frequently checks the weather on your Android or iOS device?  Thanks to a Google Mobile Web update, checking the weather has become interactive, useful and enjoyable.

What is it and why should you care?  According to a post on Google’s Mobile Blog, the new feature is nothing groundbreaking, but it certainly will make you want to check weather using Google’s Mobile Web:

“We’d been wanting to build a fun, useful, app-like way to display weather information on our search results pages in the mobile browser. So we pulled together a user experience designer and team of engineers and built a new weather search results snippet that lets you actually play with the results. To try it out, just go to google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for ‘weather’.  It’s nothing fancy or sophisticated, but it will quickly tell you what the weather is supposed to be like, wherever you are, at incremental times throughout the day.”

Intrigued, I pulled out my iPhone 4 and checked the weather in my area.  A search of “weather” yielded the following:

By using the slider one can view what the weather will be like at the increments populated on your device.

Moving the slider through a 12-hour  the weather will change depending on if rain or sun will occur, even the background will dim and brighten as night turns into day and visa versa.

Google states,

“This new weather search experience is available only in English, but we have more updates on the way.”

Try the new feature and let us know what you think.  Is the feature something you’ll likely use or do you use another app for your weather needs?

Say what you will about Google‘s empire growing too big and dominant over the web, but every now and then they do something… awesome. (Yes I know, “awesome” is the world’s most over-used word, but in this case it’s perfectly applicable.)

Google has cooked up an amazing idea: they’re holding the world’s first-ever global Science Fair. Scientists, Google believes, should be rock stars, every bit as celebrated and championed as athletes and musicians. And I couldn’t agree more. Young people between the ages of 13 and 18 are now invited to come up with ideas for a submission, and then create a free Google website where they show their work.

Think science fairs ain’t all that? Just wait until you see who’s sponsoring and judging the Science Fair. It’s a group comprised of some of the most brilliant and some of the coolest cats in the world. The Science Fair’s four official sponsors, aside from Google itself, are — get this:

• CERN: the uber-genius think tank in Europe responsible for the Large Hadron Collider which (so far) has not destroyed the universe.
• The LEGO Group: aka, creativity incarnate.
• National Geographic: world-famous magazine known as NatGeo to its friends.
• Scientific American: the 160-year-old, longest-running magazine in the U.S.

The judges are an eleven member who’s-who panel of all-star scientists, including:

• Vint Cerf: aka, He Who Fathered the Internet. (Insert your own Al Gore joke here, I’m fresh out.)
• Rolf-Dieter Heuer: whom I know nothing about, except that he’s the head honcho at CERN, so he’s got to be like, the genius that geniuses fear.
• Dean Kamen: inventor of the goofy-but-neato Segway Human Transporter, as well as hundreds of other devices that “help people live better lives” (according to his bio).
• Kary Mullis: the man who invented the DNA technology back in the early 90s that now allows for DNA manipulation in everything from forensic science to genetic cloning. Did I say “man”? I think I meant “evil genius.”
• Peter Norvig: Google’s Director of Research — an artificial intelligence enthusiast who’s also worked for NASA and Berkeley’s famed Science Department.

If you’re under 18 and ready to change the world, note that all registrants must enter by April 4th of this year, and entrants who submit videos may be highlighted on Google’s Science Fair YouTube Channel. The prizes up for grabs include scholarships, LEGO and Google goodies like Mindstorms robotic sets and Chrome notebooks, internships with CERN, LEGO, and Scientific American, and a grand prize that will send the winner and one guardian to the Galapagos Islands to explore wildlife with National Geographic Expeditions.

For the latest info, I recommend following the Google Science Fair at @googlescifair and facebook.com/googlesciencefair.

WIN: Safe Shopping
Following a New York Times article about an unsavory businessman who’s in essence gaming Google’s search rankings by garnering negative reviews about his retail operation through all manner of creative and repulsive means, Google have altered their ultra-secret algorithm to not reward back-linking points for bad reviews. So, this is really a big win for people who don’t want to have their eyeglasses frames urinated on and mailed back to them stinking of human waste. Which is, by the way, one of the threats the aforementioned businessman levied against a customer. By not rewarding merchants for bad reviews, Google’s attempting to take a step towards consumer protection – or at the very least, making it easier for us to shop smarter.

WIN: South Korean Policy
Let me preface this by saying there is nothing win, and nothing remotely funny, about increased tensions and military action between North and South Korea. But when it comes to defending their response to North Korea’s shelling, South Korean defense minister Kim Tae-young’s response was the very definition of win. When pressed about why their retaliation to the shelling was delayed and, some say, soft-peddled, Kim said simply, “This isn’t StarCraft.” Thus, an army of terran cosplayers shuffled home with heads hung low in disappointment.

FAIL: Job Security
You are a writer on one of the most successful shows on television. Ratings are through the roof and climbing. A second series has been swiftly and decisively awarded. You’ve pretty much had champagne on tap for weekly celebrations of blockbuster viewership. You’re set. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the director could fire you and all your colleagues wholesale. That’s precisely what’s happened behind the scenes at AMC’s smash comic-to-TV hit The Walking Dead. Frank Darabont’s massacre of the show’s creative team has plenty of people scratching their heads, but sources say that the majority of the writing that’s done so well for the show thus far was penned by Darabont, Robert Kirkman, and freelancers. Perhaps the news won’t bode poorly for the future of the show, but it sure sucks to be a Walking Dead writer this week.

FAIL: Beorn No More
Beorn the bear-man in The Hobbit movie was reportedly written for Ron Perlman. Guillermo del Toro, whom Perlman called “the coolest guy I know” in an interview with Spinoff Online, had apparently penned Beorn’s part in the film with the understanding that Perlman would participate. But that participation was conditional. Now that del Toro’s off the job, Perlman’s no longer in the running for Hobbit fame. Batman…Fanfastic Four…Iron Man…Highlander…Mortal Kombat…The Outer Limits…The Tick…Star Trek…Hellboy…his filmography reads like a geek’s check list of things to bring with you to a deserted island. His involvement in The Lord of the Rings franchise could have quite possibly elevated him to geek godhood. Oh well.

WIN: Eel-ectricity
An aquarium in Japan is lighting a Christmas tree with electricity generated from an eel in an aquarium, which is making a strong statement about environmentally-aware power sources and eco-friendly…hang on, let’s be real. The only statement this display is making is WTF, this Christmas tree is lit by an eel! How freaking cool is that?? Can I please get an eel to power my Xbox 360???

FAIL: Time Management
Ray Muzyka, founder of BioWare, had a nice whinge this week about his biggest pet peeve with the video game industry: too many games. According to his interview with Develop, he finds there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to play the plethora of worthwhile and enjoyable games that hit the market all the time. And he would have to – not only for his own entertainment, but to stay current with what competitors are producing. “I try and play two-or three hours a night, but that’s hard and it’s not enough,” he complained. I, for one, am guessing his solution to this particular problem will be to release even more games that suck every spare moment out of our lives. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Dragon Age II.

WIN: Close Encounters of the Microbial Kind
It was one of the most highly-anticipated and highly-speculated press conferences in recent memory. When NASA dropped the bomb that it had something big to tell the world about the search for extraterrestrial life, the Internet promptly exploded with everything from “Wow! signal” SETI to life on Jupiter theories. It turns out the big scoop, leaked prior to the conference, was that a new microbial life form has been discovered in California. This life form lives on arsenic, making it quite a unique little critter, indeed. NASA says it will expand how we think about life outside of Earth, opening up new possibilities for life forms in environments we previously thought uninhabitable. Score one for the believers. Biology has just been revolutionized.

A good book with simple wording and excellent illustrations – how much better can it get? Add the magic touch of Google and the creativity of Christoph Niemann, and you will have something brilliant in your hands. That’s exactly what the book 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web is.

For many of you, the contents of the book will probably not be new. It answers “life’s simplest questions” such as:

• What is a cookie? (You know full well that it’s not what you steal from the jar when mum is not looking.)
• What is this thing called cloud computing? (Yes, we hear and read about it left and right, but not everyone knows exactly what it is about.)
• Web apps are…?
• What’s the difference between HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and so on?  (Is there a difference?)

Believe it or not, the average person (even one who may claim to be a chic geek) may not know the exact answers; furthermore, many might be too embarrassed to actually come out and ask the questions!  If you are one of those, there is no need to be embarrassed – just visit the book’s site and read the whole thing yourself!

You know what is really cool about the book, though?  The illustrations that accompany the text.  They were done by artist Christoph Niemann, whose illustrations have impressed countless readers of The New Yorker, Newsweek, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and American Illustration.  To be honest, I didn’t know about him before I stumbled upon the book, but from what I have seen and read now, this guy is one heck of an illustrator!  Here’s a little taste of his work. This one’s from the book. (Disclaimer: Any screenshot I show you will not do the work any justice.)

Here’s another one, which I absolutely love.

If you find some free time in your hands, you really ought to check out this book.

WIN: Zombies
Again. After the bazillionth week trending on Surchur and Google Trends, zombies are still going strong. Of course, this is largely due to the overwhelming success of The Walking Dead, which premiered on Halloween night. The comic-to-TV adaptation drew in the most viewers ever for a premier on its channel, AMC, with over a cool 5 million tuning in on the night and more than 3 million following up the day it was rerun.

WIN: Sobriety
Or more specifically, social media sobriety. And just what is that? It’s a plug-in for Firefox that forces users to pass a field test of questions when posting after 1 am, to weed out drunken tweets and other social networking faux pas. No longer do you have to worry about embarrassing yourself in front of your friends, followers, and fans after a night on the town. The rest of the time? You’re on your own.

FAIL: Parakeets (And, by extension, Google)
Really, it’s the Google search query suggestions that are failing in this one, and the popularity of one of the most bizarre searches in the history of the Internet is actually giving parakeets their best week ever. Trending lately has been the query “Why Wont My Parakeet Eat My Diarrhea?”, which was suggested automatically by Google as a query following the phrase “why will not”. Thanks, Google, for giving us one of the most amusing fails in search engine tech so far.

WIN: Hackers
Ever wanted to get paid for breaking things? Google’s shelled out $7500 to industrious hackers who are causing errors in their browser Chrome, as part of new version development. The list of recipients so far reveals a spate of $1,000 payments per high-risk vulnerability bug. Whether you’re digging your hands into the guts of the browser or banging your head on the keyboard until something interesting happens, the pay-to-break initiative is a dream come true.

I’ve never been that big a John Lennon fan, but I have to say that I have spent many a working day tripping to The Beatles. Indeed, upon seeing the Google Doodle today, I have been listening non-stop to The Beatles (as opposed to my daily music list).

John Lennon’s 70^th birthday Doodle is easily one of my favorites.

That may seem simple and nothing out of the ordinary, but click on the play button, and I bet you’ll be yearning to hear more of The Beatles today.  (Yup, this is another one of Google’s interactive Doodles!)

On another note, what do you say to listing down the best Beatles songs to listen to while working? For me, the most inspiring songs (read: they get the writing juices flowing) are:

1. Here Comes the Sun
2. Let it Be
3. Hey Jude
4. Helter Skelter
5. Strawberry Fields
6. Yesterday

What’s on your list?

You may have heard of Google TV, but if you’re like me, you probably have no idea what it is. So I did some digging, and here’s what I’ve learned.

Google TV is a new platform (aka, operating system) that seamlessly combines television with the Internet. The idea is to streamline content distribution, so that things like web video can sit side-by-side with your favorite television programs or that Facebook game you love to waste hours upon hours on. Google is even implementing apps as part of the platform — which is probably the main aspect that’s got everyone so excited — so that just like on your smartphone, you can download and run apps right on your television. Pundits see this as having the potential to transform your television into an entirely new device.

Frankly, it sounds like the kind of revolutionary product that I’m stunned Apple didn’t think of it first.

But, you protest, we already have Xboxes and Apple TVs and other devices that marry television content with online content. Yes, we do, but Google TV is an all-inclusive platform for doing it all, in one slick interface that plays nice with every other media device in your household. Movies, TV, music, photos, and everything else, all centralized from every source imaginable — Amazon, Netflix, etc. — and all accessible via a single, slick interface. Example: with Google TV, you could watch the big game live and Tweet about it with your friends, all from the same device. Already planning Google TV apps: heavy hitters like Twitter, Netflix, Amazon, the NBA, HBO, TBS, Cartoon Network, CNBC, Pandora, Napster, Blip.tv, Vevo, YouTube, and of course Chrome, Google’s own web browser. Tons more are expected, not unlike the App Store on iTunes, once Google opens its doors for app submissions.

One inspired feature is the app that will be available for all major smartphones (iPhone, Android devices, Blackberry, etc.) that you can use to turn your phone into a Google TV remote control. A feature called “Fling” lets you send that viral video you’re watching on your smartphone directly to your television set with the press of a button. (Though with a name like that, I’m kind of disappointed it’s not accomplished with a flick of the wrist.) And unlike Apple, which is notoriously Flash-phobic, Google TV can run Flash games and videos at up to 1080p resolution.

Naturally, Google TV requires some extra hardware, but just as they’ve done with Android, Google’s mobile operating system, they’re only handling the software end of things. Major hardware developers will be able to create their own Google TV devices. The first two out of the gate are Sony, which is launching a flatscreen television with Google TV built in, and Logitech, which is creating a set-top box that plugs into your existing television. No prices have been announced yet, but Logitech’s box (pictured below) is rumored to be in the $300 neighborhood. These first devices are expected to hit stores by the end of this month.

By all indications, use of Google’s software looks to be free. Which makes sense, since Google is positioning it more as an operating system (aka, Windows) than an ongoing service (such as Xbox Live).

So… what do you think? Is the future here? Or is it the next Google Wave?

As of today, Google geeks can rejoice over having more (and easier) control over their Google Apps. Google has released what is called GoogleCL (not very creative, I know). This program can be used to manipulate Google applications such as Blogger, Docs, Calendar, Picasa, and even YouTube. The program is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Let it not be said that Google discriminates based on operating system!

With GoogleCL, we can all just key in commands to automate certain tasks – the delay of having to point and click is done away with. Here are some examples.

Blogger
google blogger post –tags “GoogleCL” –title “Test” “Guess what? I’m posting using the command line!”

Calendar
google calendar add “Coffee with Lenna today at 7pm” # add event to calendar

Contacts
google contacts add “John Doe, jdoe@gmail.com”

Understandably, not everyone will be clapping their hands with joy because of this piece of news. I was just telling a colleague about it when she looked at me with a blank expression on her face…as if thinking “What’s wrong with her?”

I am pretty sure, though, that GoogleCL will have a pretty strong following in certain circles. I can already name a few who will, for sure, use it – they’re probably trying it out already. What about you, does GoogleCL mean anything to you?

If you want instructions for installing GoogleCL, check out PCWorld (for Windows Vista) and Lifehacker (for Unix).

Gary Booth, who I suppose is one of them, just came out with an Exploded Andy shirt, which I think will enthrall a lot of geeks out there. True, the idea of Andy exploding may not seem nice at first, but once you take a look at the shirt, I am pretty sure that you will want to get your hands on one.

Isn’t that a pretty sight? To be honest, I have never been that much of an Android fan. I even thought Andy to be quite a bit on the chunky side (although there’s nothing wrong with being chunky per se). It just never appealed to me that much. Or maybe I was just not paying attention.

Anyhow, that image is pretty interesting – if only to find out what makes Andy tick. You can buy your shirt at Exploded Andy for $19. Shipping costs $6 for both the U.S. and international destinations. They have sizes for both guys and girls, small to 3x for the former and small to large for the latter.

If you want this image on your wall, then you can also buy a poster from the same web site for the same price, although shipping costs $8 for this product. Don’t ask me why.

Google started small and grew fast, always keeping to their mantra “Don’t Be Evil” which helped a great deal with their image. When they started with Gmail beta and invites I was in it early and never looked back to Hotmail. I loved and still love Gmail. Then came Google Calendar and Documents with the later one taking me quite some time to get into it.

But in my opinion Google’s “greed” or “need” to be on top on all fields is starting to cost them on the quality of their products and their reputation. When they took the same Gmail invites strategy with Wave they got everyone’s expectation high but till today Wave never really took off and people still ask themselves what is Wave exactly?

In their drive to overtake Twitter and Facebook they launched Google Buzz in what seemed a very short period from idea to production. On launch everyone’s most emailed contact was exposed, people on your contact list where added to auto-follow. In other words a huge privacy blunder that was only corrected after great protest from users. This blunder hit close to everyone really showing that they don’t keep up to their “Don’t be evil” mantra anymore.

Google wants to be a big player in all fields:

• Web browser
• OS
• Mobile phone
• Mobile OS
• Internet provider

Nothing wrong with wanting to expand but the more fields they start playing on the more it costs their other products quality wise it seems. The 2005 Google wouldn’t have made such a big privacy mistake with Buzz.

I wonder if Google will be able to keep up with launching new products one after another or will they collapse under their own success. One thing they have proven is that in business where money is all that matters you can hardly keep a mantra such as “Don’t be evil”.

What do you think? Should Google stick with what they do best, search engine and web apps? Split up the company into divisions or keep going the way they are?

Google infographic by Royal Pingdom

For the uninitiated, finger was a command that, given an email address based on a Unix system, allowed various real-world information to be gleaned, depending on what the user wanted to share: usually a real name, a real location, maybe other methods of contact, plus some witticism, quote, ASCII art or other.

I had one when at Uni, though I don’t know if anyone actually used it.

Sadly, due partly to security concerns, the finger command all but fell into disuse. However, Google is now looking to bring back “web finger” using HTTP.

It’s now increasingly accepted that email addresses would be good identifiers for people (since that’s what people are used to already, and have on business cards and in their addressbooks, etc.), but we’re back to the original problem that email addresses are write-only.

If I give you my email address today, you can’t do anything with it except email me. I can’t attach public metadata to my email address to give you more information.

WebFinger is about making email addresses more valuable, by letting people attach public metadata to them.

You can read more about the proposal at code.google.com/p/webfinger.

Would you like to see finger make a comeback?

It’s not surprising, following Google’s use of the goo.gl domain name, that Microsoft might use something based on its Bing search engine, but while Google keeps it nice, short and from Greenland, Microsoft has gone for the more popular Italian .it TLD and then stuck a longer name on the front.

Binged.it

Presumably as in “I just Binged it”.

The thing is, although Microsoft has partnered with bit.ly (six characters), it has chosen to use a nine character name.

Bitly and Google both use six, Facebook’s version fb.me is even shorter at just five, while YouTube has gone Belgian with eight at YouTu.be.

Binged.it uses nine characters.

I suppose it’s worth noting that one of the original shorteners, tinyurl.com, used eleven characters, but people have demanded much shorter names since.

Microsoft currently isn’t offering the service to anyone outside the company, so presumably this is all an ego trip.

I can imagine the memos.

“Please ensure all links that you send to one another use our binged.it URL shortener. Other services, particularly goo.gl, will not NOT be tolerated.”

Via

First up, they’re using the TLD (top level domain) for Greenland, in order to give them the .gl extension for the goo.gl domain name.

My guess is that, if Lebanon had a .le and not a .lb extension, Google would’ve registered goog.le as well.

It took a while for me to get a whois listing for it. It seems it’s not as simple as visiting a standard whois server online or using ‘whois’ on the command line. Instead, I had to visit whois.nic.gl

Finally, I got the result:

Domain Information
Query: goo.gl
Created: 22 Jun 2005
Expires: 01 Jan 2010
Modified: 07 Dec 2009
Status: Active
Registrar: markmonitor
Name Servers:
ns1.google.com
ns2.google.com

Registrant:
DNS Admin
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain ViewCA 94043
US
Voice: +1 6303300100
Fax: +1 6506188571

So, Google registered the domain in mid-2005, and it currently costs around $40 to register or renew a Greenland domain.

Funnily enough, it is currently set to expire in a couple of weeks’ time, but presumably Google will be renewing it in good time.

Exciting stuff, huh?

Sensible move, though it can be a pain to piece together a decent selection of opinions when the connection is poor.

Enter Google — fresh from adding fading effects to the main search page — offering “Favourite Places on Google”.

Each chosen venue will now display a QR code in its window, which you can snap a photo of with the camera on your phone and then quickly get information and reviews from Google’s central repository.

Most phones can scan these codes, provided they have the relevant application or OS on board.

Yes, you could just type the name of the establishment into your mobile browser, but that defeats the object. You don’t want to be standing around outside looking like an idiot for too long.

Would you use this service or continue to take a Google-free chance that you might get a bad meal?

Via

You should, because Google wants you to notice.

They’ve added some fancy fading in of everything but the search box and logo, so that header and footer menu items only appear if you move your mouse while on the home page.

Fancy, huh?

I know Google’s a pretty big company but I wonder how much R&D time was taken from other projects to sort this little gem out.

Is Google running out of ideas?

I love this section of today’s announcement, which sums up the numerous variations they tried out on test groups:

…the variant of the homepage we are launching today was positive or neutral on all key metrics, except one: time to first action. At first, this worried us a bit: Google is all about getting you where you are going faster — how could we launch something that potentially slowed users down? Then, we realized: we want users to notice this change… and it does take time to notice something (though in this case, only milliseconds!). Our goal then became to understand whether or not over time the users began to use the homepage even more efficiently than the control group and, sure enough, that was the trend we observed.

OK, it’s late and I’m thick, but I don’t really get it, Google.

Not only have you put a ton of code (relatively speaking) on the front page that probably doesn’t even work in IE6 (has anyone tested it? Do we care? Oh wait, Google hates Microsoft. Never mind.) but you’ve intentionally planned to slow down users.

It’s not as if you’re showing them ads.

You’ve been able to search straight away by typing into the box as soon as you arrive at Google, thanks to a small bit of JavaScript that focuses on the search box.

You still can.

Now, if you want “Advanced Search” or any of the other searches you usually find on the home page, you have to move your mouse first.

An interesting thing happens in Safari on the Mac. If you have the Tab key set up to run through menu items, the first time you press “Tab” you land on the “Google Search” button. You then have to tab through all the stuff at the bottom before you make it back up to the top left menu (Web – Images – Videos etc.)

No biggie you might think, but it seems as if some degree of accessibility has been lost, and for what I see as mainly aesthetic feature. It may not bother mouse users, but how about those who use the keyboard to navigate web pages?

I tried testing this in Firefox for Mac, but the fade-in effect doesn’t (yet) work at all.

Hey, this is Forever Geek, so you’d expect some thorough testing.

If you don’t think this is thorough enough, please help me out by testing it out on other OS X, Windows and Linux browsers. What happens?

Do you like the effect? I think it’s OK, and that’s about it. I don’t see (sigh) the need.

Yeah it’s a silly game, but quite fun. Taking it further, here are some more that are worth taking a look at:

Geeks are…

Nerds are…

Steve Jobs is…

Steve Ballmer is…

Apple is…

Microsoft is…

Linux is…

Catch up on your reading. If you have a day job which takes up most of your time during the week, you might find yourself getting behind on reading. Get yourself the latest copy of The Atlantic, which has an interesting piece on Apple. In particular, it tackles the BIG question of what is going to happen to this company without Steve Jobs.

I am sure reading this piece won’t take long, so you might want to head on over to the movies. You’ve probably seen Star Trek already, probably even more than once. But hey, it’s that kind of movie that you would want to see over and over again. So why not do it? Also, have you heard of the work called The Hunt For Gollum? Not many people have heard of it, as it is not a mainstream piece of work. It’s made by fans and technically unofficial, but I have been hearing some good things.

Last, but not the least, why don’t you take some time to back your data up? If you have not heard, Google experienced some trouble on Thursday. I was one of those who was affected, although I hear that not everyone in the US experienced the downtime. In any case, for people like me who rely a LOT on Google, that experience is another stark reminder that Google is not almighty and error-free. Time to make sure that things are in order in case it happens again!