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Search, plus Your World

Search, plus Your World
Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience. Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met. Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search. Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. This is search that truly knows me, and gives me a result page that only I can see. Profiles in Search Every day, there are hundreds of millions of searches for people.

Google Fuses Google+ Into Search — And There Are Bigger Changes Afoot Since the launch of Google+, Google has been putting a lot of muscle behind promoting and integrating the service into its core products. Fire up a new Android 4.0 device, and you’ll be prompted to create a Google+ account if you haven’t already. They’ve given it TV ads, not to mention a priceless promotion on its homepage. And today, Google is launching an update to its core search engine at Google.com that continues this trend — and then some. The short version is that Google search results are going to be automatically personalized (to a greater degree than they were already) for each user, with signals drawn from your Google+ Circles being used to highlight things your friends — or you, yourself — have shared. This is probably easiest to understand with an example, so here goes. For most people, this would probably pull up links to the books, the films, and a variety of fansites. It’s starting small, with Google+ and Picasa integration.

Pinterest: 13 Tips and Tricks for Cutting Edge Users On Pinterest? Follow Mashable to check out our favorite infographics, tech news, internet memes and digital culture! Pinterest has been one of the hottest new social networks on the radar for a few months now. For many users, Pinterest serves as a comprehensive wish list of sorts. SEE ALSO: Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network Like many new startups that experience an unprecedented spike in popularity, Pinterest has yet to streamline some of its features. Still, the service is fresh, relevant and entirely different from any social network we've encountered thus far.

When patents attack Android I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on. Here is what’s happening: Android is on fire. More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers. Android and other platforms are competing hard against each other, and that’s yielding cool new devices and amazing mobile apps for consumers. But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents. A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a “tax” for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. This anti-competitive strategy is also escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth.

I Want My Ubuntu TV! CES is upon us, and is no doubt chock full of the usual suspects of consumer electronics OEMs, ODMs, and more. One interesting new attendee this year is Canonical, the folks behind the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution. Canonical is making a big push to get Ubuntu onto more than just desktops and laptops, and have been busy building relationships with CE companies to get it onto tablets, phones, and automobile in-vehicle infotainment displays. We’ll see Ubuntu make appearances at several booths to demo this work. Tablets, phones, IVI systems and Ubuntu TV are a far cry from Ubuntu’s humble beginnings as an easy to use Linux desktop. According to her, CES 2012 will be the first glimpse of an expansion of Ubuntu’s reach across a spectrum of consumer devices. Ubuntu TV is to be the first proof point of this new strategy. Playing on the Ubuntu tagline, Silber claims Ubuntu TV is “TV for human beings. That notion of “reasonable middle ground” extends beyond just Ubuntu TV.

My Google+ Class @ the Library Two days ago I taught the first of two public classes about Google+ at my library. Three days after the private beta opened on June 28th, I scheduled the classes…figuring that by the time the class dates rolled around, I’d have something to say. They became part of our library’s summer Tech Boot Camp class series–20 tech classes from July to September. I didn’t realize that I was the first librarian teaching a Google+ class until people started pointing it out to me and asking for my class outline, learning plan, slides, etc. Good news: I’ll share what I have. Bad news: I have only an informal outline, and no learning plan or slides. The class was a one-hour true introduction to the social network, giving people a tour of the profile set-up, privacy options, and many features. So here’s how I did the class. I distributed two printed handouts to the class: I pulled up my own profile (with a caveat that I didn’t know in advance what my contacts had posted). What would I do differently?

How to Get Your Content Shared on Google+ Sure Google+ can be a powerful tool to share your message with, but this network is in it’s infancy, and with millions of users your message can be left largely unheard unless you have created circles who care about what you have to say and will share it with their own circles and help you get the word out. What you need to do is dig for people who are sharing a lot, get re-shared often and maintain a level of interest in what you want to talk about. Even though this is a Google product and we know they must have a lot of data and information collected on the conversations on Google+ that data is still pretty hard for users to find. So how can you measure how effective your Google+ engagement is? How can you find the influencers on topics you want to discuss and get them to share your message with their network? What can we learn from how Ripples work? Dig through the ripples in your area of interest. Pay attention to your own ripples. Popular gets you shared, but is it your message?

Some Tech Goals for 2012 Last week, I wrote some reflections on 2011 and after looking back on the past year, I decided it would be good to also think about 2012 and some of the tech goals I hope to accomplish. The first one is to keep up with this blog and to start adding more pictures to my posts! I think I got a good start with this goal in my last post. :) I want to learn more about coding this year. Another tool I’ve been exploring and want to begin using more frequently is Google Reader. After recently receiving an invite, I just started to poke around on Pinterest and I would like to explore the site more. Wikis are also on my list of goals for 2012 because I plan to create at least one wiki for my master’s program this year for a weekend course I’m teaching in the spring on Technology as a Global Learning Tool. One other fairly new tool/site that is on my list is Google+. Like this: Like Loading... Related Thinking Forward Into 2013 In "Thoughts" New Goals for a New School Year!

Microsoft Responds To Google’s Extortion Claim: “Waaaah.” God I love this stuff. Microsoft’s head of communications, Frank Shaw, has just responded to Google’s “extortion” claims — on Twitter, of course. This type of response is clearly Microsoft’s M.O. And we thank them for that. I’m sure someone from Google will hop on Twitter to respond as well. These are serious claims, but neither side is clearly going to move on this. Below, Shaw’s response: And more from Shaw: He links to this post. We recognize that some businesses and commentators – Google chief among them – have complained about the potential impact of patents on Android and software innovation. I’ll break this one down for Shaw: Google, pay up.

Google reportedly faces maximum fine from Korean trustbuster | Digital Media Google could face the maximum fine for allegedly obstructing a Korean investigation of its business practices, the head of the Korean Fair Trade Commission told that country's fourth-largest newspaper. That antitrust official, Kim Dong-soo, made the comments in a recent interview with the paper, Hankook Ilbo (note: original article is in Korean), according to CNET's independent translation of the article. The paper reported that when the agency raided Google Korea's office in September , the company obstructed the investigation by deleting key files from PCs and asking its employees to telecommute from home, which had the effect of undermining the investigation. Google denies that its employees deleted documents or that it instructed them to work from home in order to impede the investigation. "We will, of course, continue cooperating with this and other government inquiries," said Google spokesman Adam Kovacevich.

Google+ Chrome Extension Brings Tweets Into Your Stream If you’re both a Twitter and a Google+ user, you know that sometimes you want to post things in the same place. Or while you’re using one service, you think of something to post on the other. Switching tabs isn’t exactly strenuous, but it can take up a few minutes of your day if you add it up. In the Bronx, a New School Combines Tech Skills and Cultural Literacy - Education Digital literacy is a required skill for the 21st century, but in today's globalized economy, knowing how to work with diverse groups of people is just as critical. So Tech International Charter School, a new middle school campus set to open this fall in the Bronx, hopes to give the area's low-income students an edge in both technology and cross-cultural understanding. The school's founders, Steve Bergen and Adjowah Scott—both former teachers at some of New York City’s most elite private schools—say their goal is to give kids from the Bronx kids (including immigrants still learning English, and those with special needs) the same technology and cultural literacy opportunities as the wealthier students they've worked with. They hope that setting high academic standards and "clear expectations of international responsibility through experiential learning" will help put the students on the college track and build an understanding of our "shared humanity and cultural differences."

MG Siegler's bias against Google is seriously pissing me off | The Verge Forums Posted by okungnyo on January 11, 2012 08:00 am And really, I shouldn't care, because he's just one guy, right? No. Because apparently, his personal blog must be like the Bible to some people. Heck, look at how high his posts are ranked on Techmeme! One of those four blog posts is Twitter complaining that Google is being anti-competitive by including Google+ into search results. Back to MG Siegler's four blog posts attacking "Search, plus Your World," he is not even right. Regarding the public dispute between Google and Microsoft in August 2011, that started with Google's David Drummond's post "When patents attack Android": that's when I first realized that MG Siegler really hated Google. I used to think that I was alone in my annoyance at MG Siegler's bias, but I recently found out that I wasn't alone (Joshua Topolsky, my favorite writer at The Verge) and I just had to write this.

Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you I used to think that, as with Linux and web services in the early part of last decade, Android was going to be the mortar for the Internet of post PC devices— an essential ingredient to put stuff together. And as bonus, unlike Linux which puttered away quietly in the background doing the heavy lifting for services like Amazon and Google, Android was largely user-facing and would also therefore benefit from massive platform scale (and the resulting de-facto standard it would create) the way no piece of software since Microsoft Windows had. To to see the early onslaught of CES announcements, one would think so. What all of the talk of Android momentum and inevitability obscures though is that the dream of a common Android that developers can write/deploy apps to and users can become familiar with is burning. The three events: 1. The result of this elephant dance? Users: Remember the olden days when the carriers were in charge and you got whatever they were serving for dinner?

Google+ Rolls Out New Look Google announced on Wednesday that it is rolling out a significant redesign for its social networking platform Google+, which will allow users to create a more customized experience on the site. The company said it will introduce a variety of new features to the site in the next few days, from customizing apps and the navigation bar to more flexibility with profile pages and pictures. In addition, the update introduces a new Explore page that posts what's interesting and trending across the site. Google also noted that the social network now boasts more than 170 million users since it's 2011 launch. Google+ will now offer profile pages that will include bigger photos, a la Facebook's Timeline, and feature a chat list that puts friends front and center on your page. Another major update involves how users can navigate around the news stream. A dedicated Hangouts page has also been added to the site, so people can have quick access to public and On Air video chat hangouts.

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