Google

"Don't understand Google Wave, even after Google's helpful video and Lifehacker's review? You're not alone: Some jokester created a site where users vote on how confusing Wave really is. Interestingly, while death is easier to understand, women are far harder. Some of the items are pretty clever, from super esoteric scientific theories (the Meyer-Overton Hypothesis) to political jabs (the healthcare bill, Obama's Nobel Prize). But was it really necessary to embed a ringtone version of an Avril Lavigne song? [Easier to Understand]" - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

Actually, women aren't that hard to understand...just enough harder that you would have to ask for help. God never gives out homework He doesn't provide that answers for...if you only ask. ;) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage... Heaven is your personal SparkNotes. ;) - Melanie Reed

"Google is swapping its “info window” in Maps out in favor a much richer full-page experience that offers more information and a number of new capabilities and features. The pop-ups on Maps previously opened to an expanded info-bubble view, featuring a tabbed experience that buried much of the information available about a business. The new “Place Pages” offer a more user friendly presentation of the same information. Also launching today are Place Pages that cover cities, neighborhoods, points of  interest and transit stops, in addition to business locations. (The Place Pages are accessible from the “more info” link associated with the listing or result.) Here’s an example of what the new Place Pages look like for a search on “San Francisco Cafes.” First the familiar result on Maps:" - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

"Last week we released two new features which can save you clicks when using web-based Gmail on an iPhone or Android-powered device. The first one is 'Move', which you can find under 'More' in the Floaty Bar. The 'Move' function lets you label and archive a message in a single step. So as soon as you 'move' a conversation to a certain label, that email will disappear from your Inbox and show up under that label. We introduced this feature to Gmail for your PC earlier this year, and now we're making it available for your mobile phone as well. Another improvement we made is 'Enhanced Refresh.' With this feature, your Gmail inbox auto-refreshes when you switch back to Gmail from another tab or application. And if your phone goes to sleep while Gmail is open, it will refresh when you wake it up. To try out Gmail for mobile, visit gmail.com in your mobile browser. This version of Gmail for mobile supports iPhone/iPod touch OS 2.2.1 or above, as well as all Android-powered devices, and is available in US English only. To make it easy to access your Gmail account, try creating a home screen link." - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

"This post will show exactly how one start-up improved their homepage conversion rate (visitor to sign-up flow) more than 20%, then 16% again, with a few simple changes and Google Website Optimizer. Once reading this, you will know more about split-testing than 90%+ of the consultants who get paid to do it… There are a few advanced concepts, but don’t be intimidated; just use what you can and ignore the rest. —" - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

Ooh, thanks for this, Susan. - Michael R. Bernstein

There's lots of news today. That demo is unholy fast, btw. - Chris Baskind

seriously amazing news today.. head is spinning - Susan Beebe

"Birthday Calendar for Google Contacts Google has recently added a birthday field in Google Contacts and many people asked for an integration with Google Calendar. Creating a birthday calendar shouldn't be very difficult: Google created one for orkut friends, even if the calendar has a lot of limitations. Until Google adds this feature to Google Calendar, you can try a third-party application that generates a public calendar for the birthdays associated with your contacts. The application uses Google App Engine and Google Contacts API, so your password is safe. Another good thing is that the calendar is updated automatically when you add new birthdays or you edit the existing ones. Add notifications if you want to receive an email or an SMS one day before each birthday. The major downside is that the calendar generated by the service is public, so anyone who knows its URL can see it. To use the service, you need to grant it access to your address book and Google recommends to do only... more... - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

This was so overdue! I wonder what took Google so long to implement this very basic calendar fuctionality. Hopefully it doesn't take them another eternity to add reminders for contact events & tasks... - Ralph

"Microsoft and Yahoo's newly forged search deal is about breaking Google's dominance, which is pretty overwhelming in the U.S. by any measure: queries, clicks or ad revenue. But as hard as it will be to dislodge Google in the U.S., it will be even harder overseas. Google has a 60% share of search queries in the U.S., but that number is 67% worldwide, according to ComScore. In many top and growing internet countries, including Germany, Canada, Brazil, Turkey and Italy, Google has more than 80% of the search market. Conversely, Microsoft has made few inroads abroad, and has 3% or less share in the U.K., Germany and Korea. Yahoo has one pocket of overseas influence: Japan, where its search share is 43%, close to Google's. advertisingage-small.jpg Ad Age Digital DigitalNext MediaWorks Google's dominance in Europe will likely be a strong part of its case when Microsoft and Yahoo seek the blessing of competition officials in Brussels for the deal. How are the search wars playing out abroad?... more... - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

Not bad, overnight they've become a credible #2 in Goog's core and only profitable business. - Adi

"Recent changes in the processing of the nofollow attribute have caused consternation and concern among many publishers. Let's talk about what has happened, and how you should adapt your SEO strategy accordingly. A Little History PageRank sculpting has been a hot topic since 2007. This was the idea that you could control, at a granular level, the flow of link juice in your Web site through the use of the nofollow attribute. The concept can be illustrated by this chart: ... Impact of the Change Based on this, it may make sense to remove any onsite nofollows you have. For example, if you nofollow all the links to your "About Us" page, the link juice in those links is discarded. If you let the links pass juice, your About Us page will be able to pass some of that juice back into the site through the links contained on it. If you want to be cautious about this, carefully check out the results of removing the nofollows. Monitoring the impact of every SEO change you make is always a good... more... - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

This will also bring up the same speculation as is what happened when Google announced they were building an open-source browser: will it see the light of day. Anti-Microsoft users will jump all over this. Short answer: yes. - Amir from iPod

"SAN FRANCISCO — In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google announced late Tuesday that it is developing an operating system for PCs based on its Chrome Web browser. The operating system, called Chrome OS, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. The move is likely to sharpen the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal computers. “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, in a post on a company blog. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds.” Mr. Pichai and Mr. Upson said that the software would be released online later this year under an open source license,... more... - Susan Beebe from Bookmarklet

Now I just want to play Simon. - Lisa L. Seifert

Rewind to 1995: "Oracle Plans Summer Release for Net PC" http://news.cnet.com/Oracle-... - Peter van Teeseling

I've got a tab open for the site and keep checking back. Nothing yet! - Martin Bryant

no problem Josh - Jay Neff

Guys, it is up - Wave is not a product, but a protocol and open source code. I'm sure Google will have some proof of concepts they'll deploy for the public to use, but anyone can write on top of this architecture, write code for it, write their own clients, etc. It's in developers' hands now - all the docs are at the linked sites on the page. - Jesse Stay

"11/20/2008 04:36:00 PM Have you ever wanted to mark up Google search results? Maybe you're an avid hiker and the trail map site you always go to is in the 4th or 5th position and you want to move it to the top. Or perhaps it's not there at all and you'd like to add it. Or maybe you'd like to add some notes about what you found on that site and why you thought it was useful. Starting today you can do all this and tailor Google search results to best meet your needs. Today we're launching SearchWiki, a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. We store your changes in your Google Account." - Susan Beebe

"You see that picture up there? That’s what your Android phone’s home screen potentially could look like. Think back to last week’s video demo of Android from the Google I/O conference. Recall the sliding from left to right, adding shortcuts, etc? How about that Google Search bar and clock? Those were simply gadgets dropped on the desktop. Now start thinking of other gadgets like sports scores, weather, stock quotes, eBay, and more. All of these beautiful things at your finger tips, without having to open an application!" - Susan Beebe

"If the 13 new experimental features in Gmail Labs have you salivating for new Gmail functionality, but your account still hasn't been enabled, here's a quick solution: Just copy and paste https://mail.google.com/mail... in your address box when you're logged into Gmail to enable it manually. Once you do, you'll have access to the new Quick Links, Superstars, Custom keyboard shortcuts, and yes, even Snakey. Note that this trick doesn't work for Gmail for your domain. Thanks Bashar, frstie, and others!" - Susan Beebe