Google Goggles is now available in the Apple iTunes Store.

Earlier last week, Google made the announcement that Goggles, its popular Android app, is now available for iPhones and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store. The app which allows users to do searches by taking pictures of objects with their phone's camera. The result of those searches may varies depending on the object photographed; for instance, the pictures of a street sign or a landmark will reveal things such as a Google map of the area along with articles or Wikepedia entries related to the area.
To app can be had by downloading the Google Mobile app for iPhone which will give users much more features such as voice search, location recognition, contact search and others Google services.
Here a video to see how the feature works:



For more, see AppScout.com

Google to introduce automatic caption to YouTube videos.

As if being already the world biggest video site isn't enough, YouTube owned by Google, has announced last week that it is adding automatic caption that will bring text captions to many videos on the site.
YouTube has already several hundred thousand videos with close captioning but they are mostly from broadcast networks and some other professional Web sites. What the new initiative will achieve, is to allow anyone who upload a video on YouTube, to use the technology which is called "auto-timing", to upload as well a text file of the words spoken in the video and have them automatically turned into captions by Google.
The underlying technology for auto-timing is the same as the one used for Google Voice service which is used among others things, to transcribe text messages into voice messages.
For now, Google is adding captions on its own to videos from selected channels like the ones from PBS, the National Geographic and some Universities. The reason given for this gradual roll 0ut is that Google recognize that the technology isn't perfect and that time is needed to get feedback from the video owners and the viewers before being released to the public at large.
Also, the automatic captions will be available in English only for now, but can be translated to 51 languages using Google Translator service.

For more, see news.Yahoo.com

Google Chrome operating system is unveiled.

Last Thursday, Google unveiled the underlying of its much anticipated Chrome operating system and the early reviews are generally good. According to the New York Times, the new operating system takes its clues from Google recently released Web browser by the same name. For that reason, it will not reside in users computers but rather in the "clouds", the catch name giving to the Internet in such cases. Already, most Internet users rely on cloud computing as the whole concept is called, to access a lot of things like e-mails, photo albums, maps etc. The Google Chrome operating system that was unveiled last week is an early version running on a netbook rather than more powerful PCs. It is at least a year from being offered to the public, and when that happens, it will certainly be restricted to the netbook category for a while. Regardless, the test version unveiled last week, showed an impressive boot time of seven seconds and according to the New York Times, people at Google are promising an even faster start up time once it goes in production. But for now, Google is not saying which PC manufacturer plan to built machines with the Chrome operating system.

For more, see NewYorkTimes.com

How to read Gmail offline

Earlier this year, Gmail owned by Google, introduced a feature called Offline Gmail that will allow users to check their mailbox while offline.
The way Offline Gmail works a copy of your mailbox with the latest messages in it, is downloaded while you are online, and then stored on your browser for later viewing offline.
The function needs to be turned on by logging to your Gmail account, click the Settings tab and then the Labs tab. From there, click the Enable button for Offline Gmail and hit the Save Changes button.
Once those steps are taken, you can start downloading your mailbox by clicking the new Offline line on the mailbox page.
Web-based mail is great — until you don’t have an Internet connection. To ease the separation anxiety, Google recently introduced a feature called Offline Gmail, which downloads a copy of your mailbox and all the recent messages when you do have Internet access, and then keeps it all available in your Web browser for when you don’t.
To turn it on, log into your Gmail account on the Web, click the Settings tab and then, in many browsers, the Labs tab. Click the Enable button for Offline Gmail and then the Save Changes button.
To start downloading your mailbox, click the new Offline line on the mailbox page.

For more information, go to the Gmail Blog where a video explain the process in simple terms can be viewed.

Free Internet calling services for cellphones.

Even if the possibilities have been around for a while, making free international calls via cellphones have remained challenging. Two companies, Skype, the market leader and Fring, an Israel based company, offer the most user-friendly cellphone applications for international calls. But, there are still some hussles and for these applications to be worthwhile, someone has to plan to make a lot of international calls.
For these two applications to work best, they better be downloaded on a phone with WI-FI capabilities with the user staying within the hot spot during the phone call.
For both Skype and Fring, users are assigned an ID or name that they use to dial up with the call going through the service's Internet servers.
Calls made to others members of both services are free while those made to non members using a Skype prepaid account, are at a cheaper rate than the one charged by traditional phone companies.
The Skype cellphone application can be dowloaded directly to a phone using Windows Mobile or to a PC and then transfered to the phone later.
According to the New York Times,"for those without a Windows Mobile phone, Skype recently introduced Skype Lite, which runs on dozens of Nokia and Samsung phones with Symbian software, as well as a few Motorola Razr models. On Skype.com, these users can type in their mobile numbers and Skype will send a message to the phone with a link to download the software."
Skype Lite also runs on the G1, from T-Mobile, also known as the Google phone, which operates on the Android software platform. To get the application,one's only need to visit the “Market,” Android’s app store and click on the free Skype application.

For more, see NYTimes.com

HP new touchscreen wireless Web capable printer

According to PC World, printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard is planning the release later this year of a touchscreen inkjet printer that is capable of letting users print documents from the Web without a PC.
Priced at $399 , the printer will allow users to br0wse some specific Web based content on a 4.33-inch touchscreen panel. Some of that content is provided by an initial selected group including Google, USA Today, Coupons.com and DreamWorks Animation.
Additionally, users will be able to print or upload photos directly to HP's Snapfish photo-sharing and printing service.
The company will also provide applications so that users can personalize Web-based content such as coupons and calendars that can then be printed. Users will also be able to print customized news from USA Today based on their interests, HP said. Users will not be able to print articles from newspapers other than USA Today, but support for more sites and content will be added over time.
The wireless printer will also print pictures from PCs and the iPhone through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and like other all-in-one printers, it will also copy, scan and fax documents.

For more, see pcworld.com

Google Wave, a new multi conversations service.

Last Thursday, Google announced a new service called Google-Wave designed to be a central place where services like email, instant-messaging and documents sharing can be all accessed by one person working alone or a group working collaboratively.

According to the Wall Street Journal," the service, will allow users to start a conversation, called a "wave," and to invite their contacts to join it. Any member of the wave can put photos, notes or other content into the group, which updates in near-real time...Participants can scroll through the wave and see what content has been added to it."

The service which is to be open-source, is in its early developments stages and is slated to be released to the general public later this year.

For more, see mashable.com

Microsoft to become the default search provider for Verizon.

Despite an intense competition with Google, Microsoft is close to becoming the default search provider on Verizon Wireless cellphones. Under the agreement being finalized, Microsoft would enter into a revenue sharing deal with Verizon for the ads shown next to cellphone Web searches. The deal would also guarantee Microsoft payments to the carrier of between $550 million to $650 million for the next five years.
That may have been the sweetener that helped Microsoft clinch the deal. There are some separate negotiations under way right now which if they come thorough, would put Windows Mobile software in more Verizon devices.

For more, see thestreet.com

World Federation of Adverisers against the Google/Yahoo deal.

According to the Wall-Street Journal, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has joined the rank of trade organizations opposed to the proposed deal between Google and Yahoo. The proposed deal would have let Google sells search ads on Yahoo with the proclaimed goal to serve better targeted ads. It would guarantee Yahoo a least $800 million a year in payments from Google. The WFA expressed its opposition to the deal in the form of a written argument to the European Competition Commission which is already investigating the matter following a previous complaint by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
In the U.S., the National Association of Advertisers has already expressed its opposition to the deal for fear that it will give Google, control of nearly 90% of the online advertising market.
The U.S. justice Department is actually reviewing the deal at the request of the the two companies involved who voluntarily agreed to delay its implementation.

For more, see Mediapost.com

Search ads getting hit by slow economy.

A recent survey by marketing firm Covario, showed that search ad marketing is not immune to the slow economy. The survey of 12 large tech companies found that last quarter, search ad spending rose by the smallest percentage since early 2007 when the survey was first started. The surprising news was that search ad spending with Yahoo by those 12 companies, was up while down with Google. Experts attribute the Yahoo uptick to its emerging year old Panama search ad service.

T-Mobile to be the first to offer Google's smartphone.

T-Mobile has been chosen to be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone powered by Google's Android software. The phone to be manufactured by HTC , one of the world largest makers of mobile phones, is expected to go on sale in the United States before Christmas, or as early as October.The high-end phone is said to match many of the capabilities of Apple's iphone and other smartphones that run software from Palm, Research in Motion , Microsoft and Nokia to access the Internet and perform computerlike functions.

For more see : Canada.com

Google is launching Insights for Search today.

Google is introducing a new free service today called Insights for Search. The service is like a more refined version of Google other search tracking tool, Google Trends which is two years old. The new service offer more details about what people are searching and can aggregate the results by cities, states, or nations. It is a great tool for marketers who can use it to study trends and develop or follow advertising campaigns, but it is available to anyone.

Google launchs free music-search service in China.

Months of negotiations have paid off for Google who is launching a free music-search service in China. With the service, Internet users in China can search for songs by singer , album or title on Google's search page and follow that by downloading licensed music files for free. The service is said to be supported by advertising revenues.