Google Knowledge Graph

This looks like a really nice enhancement to the way Google presents its search findings. I like it.

Android@Home seeks to rival Apple's Airplay

From http://www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/11026-android-home-could-rival-apple-airplay

"One area in which Google has yet to catch up with Apple is home entertainment. That may soon change, as Google is reportedly working on an Android-based home music system called Android@home. Such a system would likely be among the first products to come out of Project Tungsten, which Google demonstrated at their I/O conference last spring. There, Google showed a tablet that could manage various aspects of the home, including turning lights on and off, sending music from the Internet to a hi-fi, and speakers laced with an NFC chip to initiate music play."

Two ways to export your Google Docs

It's always good to be able to take control of your own data, and Google is certianly leading the way on this:

"Google Takeout supports a new service: Google Docs. Now you can use the same interface to batch export your documents." From http://googlesystem.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/two-ways-to-export-your-google-docs.html

It might be that Google's open approach to data has 'encouraged' Facebook to offer users the ability to download their information.

EDvent Calendar: Day 6 (Open street map)

If you're slightly concerned about how nicely Google has woven itself into anything on the web that requires a map, there is hope. Open Street Map is a wiki-based mapping site that allows people to participate in crowd-sourcing the creation of maps. Have a look at OSM. Is your street there? If it's not, log in and add it. Add points of interest like schools, hospitals and parks.

This video shows a time-lapse of the creation of the map covering the greater London area. It's a lovely metaphor for a community of people creating knowledge out of darkness.
London OSM Edits 2005-2010 from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

EDvent Calendar: Day 4 (Google Streetview)

Have some fun courtesy of Google Streetview. Explore the ruins of Pompeii:
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...or take a stroll through the Colosseum:

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 ...while Google Art Project takes the power of Streetview to the world's best art museums:

Have fun!!

Streetview or Skiview?

Like skiing? Are you stuck at your desk but feel a burning desire to sail down the slopes of Breckenridge and Whistler? Streetview may be able to help:

From the streets to the slopes, Street View in Google Maps recently updated its special collections to include a number of new ski resorts, so you can tour some of the world’s most beautiful ski terrain right from your browser. Whether you’re planning your annual trip to your favorite resort or hunting for an exciting new adventure, Street View can transport you to your desired destination. Tour a few of our favorite ski resorts below.

View Larger Map

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/street-view-special-collections-ski-and.html

Google Maps goes indoors

"Where am I?” and “What’s around me?” are two questions that cartographers, and Google Maps, strive to answer. With Google Maps’ “My Location” feature, which shows your location as a blue dot, you can see where you are on the map to avoid walking the wrong direction on city streets, or to get your bearings if you’re hiking an unfamiliar trail. Google Maps also displays additional details, such as places, landmarks and geographical features, to give you context about what’s nearby. And now, Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors."

From http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

Making ideas real

From The Official Google Blog:

"For the past decade, legions of Google SketchUp users have been quietly shaping the world around us. Two million professionals and hobbyists use this 3D modeling tool every week to design everything under the sun, including houses, room layouts, movie sets, aquariums, bridges, robots and furniture. They even rebuild cities. Chances are, even if you haven’t tried SketchUp yourself, you’ve witnessed, touched or walked inside something created by a SketchUp user. "

Google+ comes to Google Apps

I don't think Google+ is a Facebook killer just yet, but if it can crack social networking for organisations, it'll take a big step in that direction. Facebook's strength lies in it's ability to connect individuals, but it doesn't do a good job of coping with our complex, context-based social interactions. Depending on whether I'm in a work or family context, or talking geek or sport stuff, I'm a slightly different version of myself. It makes sense that whatever social networking tool I use reflects this kind of nuanced approach to my personality and I think Google+ has the making of this with it's circles. That's why I think it's a better fit for business and organisations than Facebook. Being able to share a link with my organisation and my geek friend but not my family, or family and organisation but not geek friends has the potential to be a very powerful way to connect with others.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-for-google-apps.html

Edit: I note in the admin information that Google+ is only available for higher education if you want to use it with Apps for Edu. It would be nice is expands to include high schools at some stage in the future.

Google Street Viewer comes to Pompeii

This is stunning. Whether you've visited the ruins at Pompeii or not, spend a few minutes wandering around them using Google Streetview. It's one of many historic and cultural sites that have been opened up recently by Google's clever map people.

Advice from The Steve

Okay, so I'll be the first to say that I'm not Steve Job's biggest fan. He's been spectacularly successful at developing a closed computing ecosystem and determining what users have access to and what they don't. It's quite different from my view of the way digital tools should work: seamless interoperability, regardless of hardware or software choices, with the user (and not the corporation) at the centre of everything. However, The Steve's advice to Larry Page of Google on how to be a good CEO is exceptional:

"We talked a lot about focus. And choosing people. How to know who to trust, and how to build a team of lieutenants he can count on. I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby and being larded with B players. The main thing I stressed was focus. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning you into Microsoft. They're causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great."

If you want to take over the world, this would be a pretty good starting point.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-steve-jobs-influenced-googles.html 

Chromium OS launched

Exciting times for Linux geeks. Google has open sourced its disruptive operating system Chromium. Essentially it's a lightweight operating system that contains just enough to power a browser (which is where Google sees us doing just about everything in the near future). The way Google have been able to achieve a boot time of 7 seconds is to strip out everything that is not essential to running a browsers. Anyone who's used computer before is probably familiar with the way operating systems get slower and slower over the life of the device. This is quite convenient for peddlers of locked in operating system, because it means you're more likely to pay for an upgrade, but the root cause is often sloppy programming of third party software. What often happens is that programmers put parts of their code into the boot process so that it run all the time. Why? Because if 50% of their programme is running constantly, when you actually start that programme, it appears to load faster. So the program looks like it's nice and fast, but what it's actually doing is choking your entire computer. Not good in the long run.
With Google's 7 second boot and Ubuntu's goal of a 10 second boot in its next release, it looks like speed is going to become on of Linux's hallmarks in the years to come. It may just be the tipping point for an increasingly impatient market.
More on the Chromium OS: