Daily Tech Digest

In the past we have seen many big companies that came in to change the way we think,communicate, search and analyze the data we receive. No matter whether it’s related to something as simple as making our journeys pleasurable to navigating for information to using machines with the least of knowledge about it. The list of companies goes on from the likes of Ford, IBM, Yahoo, Apple, eBay, Microsoft, Toyota, GM Motors to the latest MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and the last but not the least Google which brought a virtual revolution in the 21st century and forced me to further investigate and discuss the ideas given below.

Earlier to Google there were many search companies like Alta Vista and Lycos who offered good enough service of extracting information from data but it was not sufficient and accurate enough to meet the demands of the ever growing demand for information. Google came in and devised it’s very own ranking system called as “Page Rank” which filtered out the relevant information from load of data on the internet. The main idea behind it was that it judges the relevance of a web page by the links its getting from other sites on the web which indirectly worked as a ranking system and then giving the importance on the no. of links its getting. It worked wonders for Google and soon they became the leaders in the search engine industry on the internet. This was the turning point for Google as they knew how to gather and distribute the information across the internet and by which they came to know the likes and dislikes of the users. After this enormous success they were struggling to make some money out of their own invention and after the brainstorm they came up with an idea of stepping into advertising sector which again transformed the way in which goods and services are sold which was named Google Adwords and Adsense. It changed the traditional “Push Strategy” to “Pull Strategy” in the advertising world.

The third biggest service they launched was Gmail – an email service which has a very easy to use interface which has a similar design to their search engine ( i would refer the similarity to the search engine by colors they use ie. white background and blue or black font color which is very simple yet appealing). It has got all the perks you can ask for like chatting within email that too with the facility of video chat as well and it also has got the facility of adding plug-ins to enhance the overall experience.

Then came the most used navigation software in the world called Google Earth (earlier called BBS Keyhole) which revolutionised the way we find our way around work & home. They further polished it with the introduction of Street view in almost 15 countries raising concerns over privacy but at the end it was Google who won and still leads in the best online navigation systems. The whole list goes of products released after goes on and on and on and from which the latest being Google Android OS for mobile phones which is also gaining very quickly over the rivals. It is one of the best open source operation system for a mobile device in the market as of now. Many operators have opted to go for it on their devices which include the likes of Sony, Samsung and HTC as of now and many manufacturers would follow the same in future. Google is also ready to release their Operating System called Google Chrome for netbooks this year but would move into Laptop & Desktop PC’s in future. The forecast about Google making wave in the OS market is very thin as people are very used to Windows and MAC  as they have been in the market for more than 35 years and its not that easy to overtake them so quickly.

As you see the growth of Google in the recent years, there have been one common trend in Googleplex and that is acquisition of budding companies who they think will overtake them or give them a run for their money. The list starts with one of the most successful companies bought by Google known as YouTube which streams over 2 Billion Videos per day. It has become so famous that many of the celebrities have their own homepage and many channels can now be watched free of cost in HD quality from comfort of your home. Recently it also hosted LIVE Twenty20 WorldCup for users worldwide. They are one of the best companies in forecasting the future of their rivals with some of them described below.

-> Google Picasa – Product born from Idealab acquisition.

-> Google Earth – Product born from BBS keyhole acquisition.

-> Google Youtube – Product born from Youtube acquisition.

-> Google Android – Product born from Android Inc.

What is my Opinion about Google?

Well my personal experience tells me that no matter how many companies they might have acquired to gain an upper hand in the competition, they are still the best The best thing about them is that they know how to polish an unfinished product and then release it with all the required options that meets the end user requirements.

So Do I THink that they are becoming the sole authority on the (Pla) Net?

I         WOULD              SAY                  YES…….

All the opinions expressed above are my personal and does not reflect any authority whatsoever. Feel free to leave your comments on my article.

Microsoft beware there is one more rival in the OS world, Google. In the latest turnaround Google have announced that they are working on a Operating System which would be probably released by mid of 2010 for Netbooks as a starter and then expand to the mass market depending on how it performs. There have been many speculations over the years that Google has been working on their own variant of operating system, which has now become a reality and can give Microsoft a run for their money.

The latest news has been given at the official blog of Google with further details given that the OS will be open source and lightweight and would be targeted towards the online community users and there would be no need for any spyware or malware removers in it!!!!!!!! It will run on both x86 and ARM chips which will include netbooks in the first phase and then the laptops and desktops at a later stage.

In brief this operating system as told by Google

Is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. (Source: Official Google Blog)

So for further updates stay tuned on this website or you can visit the official GoogleBlog.

In the latest addition to the features of Gmail they have introduced another facility wherein a user can attach multiple files within a folder while pressing “Ctrl” to select and then it shows you the overall upload progress with a “live progress bar”. The progress bar really helps if you want to send big attachments ie.10MB as it gives a real time feedback of the progress. This is the same as you do in Windows OS if you are selecting more than one file at a time. This is a real time saver whenever you want to select multiple files in a folder containing hundreds of files as compared to the earlier practise of first selcting the files you wanted and then copying it to a new folder and zipping it to send.

I think “Googlers” are geeting an edge over their email rivals as they continue to improve and enhance Gmail features that could soon see them becoming the largest email provider surpassing Yahoo and Hotmail (As discussed in this article).

Feel free to leave your comments on the features in Gmail and which you would like them to be add in future.

[SinglePic not found]Vodafone recently announced a second Android powered mobile phone called HTC Magic “G2″ which is very similar to its predecessor HTC G1 except for some minor changes. It will be made available on Vodafone across Europe by April this year and maybe worldwide in the future.

[SinglePic not found]

It looks almost the same as HTC G1 with a full touchscreen but no physical keypad and a 3.2 MegaPixel camera. Android has included some new functionality in G2 that includes a full onscreen keyboard and a functionality to capture video whch was not there in G2. It has a 3.2 inch QVGA touchscreen with a trackball and it includes the standard Google applications like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Youtube with POP3 and IMAP to back it up.

It has got a USB adapter port for the headset instead of a standard headphone jack which can become a neagtive.

HTC Magic is a result of the successful relationship between Vodafone and HTC, with Vodafone joining the Open Hanset Alliance bandwagon.

Lets see how this second Android phone performs in the smart touchphone dominating market.

Check out this link for a  further insight given at the press release of Vodafone.

Google has recently changed its favicon after 8 long years. Earlier it was an upper-case “G” within a square box but now it has been changed to a lower-case “g” within a round corner rectangle. It appears on the left hand side of the browser address bar and also tabs and bookmarks giving a unique identity to a website. A Favicon is a 16×16 pixels image, a standard size for favicons.

I think that this favicon looks much cooler than the previous one as it much more distinguishable, What do you think? Feel free to leave your comments on this.