Google wave is open now...

Hey friends, I know i am not online since  last 1 year but sorry about that. I was bit busy working around new RnD stuff, so not found time to blog. But now i think i will be able to do this. I would love to tell you that Google wave is now open to all, and anyone can create new account Or use it by gmail account.

I don't think you need an introduction to google wave because many of us know it and use it. Also many sites are providing detailed usage and examples of using google wave. So i am not bother to write about that. Try it, use it as meetings, collaboration, communication, tutorials, polls etc... anything you want.

Google Wave

Google : Chrome EULA Update!

We just have discussed the issues about 'chrome is having and Google has done it right!Google has changed their EULA and now its your rights on your content,finally :).

The search engine has been quick to rectify this issue, attributing the whole issue to accidental copy and paste. Under Section 11 of Google's Universal Terms of Service, Google retains a license to transmit or display content through its services, as per US copyright law. However, the section in Chrome was not updated. Mike Yang, Senior Product Counsel at Google, writes:

"[Our] license is limited to providing the service. In Gmail, for example, the terms specifically disclaim our ownership right to Gmail content. So for Google Chrome, only the first sentence of Section 11 should have applied. We're sorry we overlooked this, but we've fixed it now..."

The updated EULA now reads:

"You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services." And, yes, these terms are retroactive."

Google Chrome - reasons to avoid

This is something really we should consider.I read this on neowin. Google chrome is a big thing these days.Everyone is talking about this small piece. But here users have submitted the flaws and vulnerability in this browser. It talks about what the users must keep in mind before use it because just the name of google. Google has released the thing without the patch for the problems.

Neowin said,

"The first, is the popular "carpet bomb" vulnerability that still exists within Chrome, as pointed out on our forums by our member matessim. This vulnerability allows malicious websites to drive by download and execute programs on your machine. Our visitors may remember the uproar that this same vulnerability caused for Safari users, and that Apple patched the carpet-bombing issue with Safari v3.1.2. Chrome is vulnerable to this exploit because it is based on the same engine, WebKit 525.13, and Google did not patch or update the engine before releasing the software.

The other, and less technical, problem with Chrome exists in its EULA. More specifically, the point that would seem to give Google rights to anything you post on the Internet while using their browser, mostly in conjunction with the promotion of its services."

As the google EULA says,

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

Which should not be in some browser which is an Open Source piece and expected to be a good software from a reputed company. I mean what google wants to prove?

So please think before you use it without the patch released and about your information sharing with google :).

Google launches new browser!

Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia. Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

"We realized... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said in a blog post by Google.

The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.

Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software.

Is this will be a successful browser, because there are many of them now rocking the market. Firefox,Safari and IE will face a tough competition?Is this a way to kill all other companies or so, because google is entering in everything on the internet now.May be this is helpful to growing technology,but may be it can make monopoly or something like that.Lets hope a better Open source thing from google.

BBC News

Ex-Google employees are Cuil!

It seems that now google has to be in tough competition in its main area,Search engine service. Yes, new search engine named 'cuil' which means 'an old Irish word for knowledge'. As per the team of this service, it seems now the person who had given google the basic architecture is in the bussiness. Check out the homepage for more.

Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

As they said,

"Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.

Then we offer you helpful choices and suggestions until you find the page you want and that you know is out there. We believe that analyzing the Web rather than our users is a more useful approach, so we don’t collect data about you and your habits, lest we are tempted to peek. With Cuil, your search history is always private."

cuil.com

More Security on Gmail now

This is what is expected since long.May be Gmail is safe as we think but excessive usage of Ajax and java script can be injurious to privacy and security!

I read this on gmailblog.They have added support for remote log off now.If you had logged in from another PC last time and forgot to log off,next time it will show you the IP address with a link for more details. On details, you will get more details regarding concurrent access to the account and recent activities.Which will show account type, access type and IP addresses with time of access.

More @ GmailBlog

Google has been sued, asked for $77.5 Million

One more 'sue' news. And this time one of the biggest companies caught. Yes, Google has been sued for copyright violation, for posting news from Belgian newspaper on Google news. What is this i mean? If Google is doing this since years, posting news and links to others, no one has complained till now.

What you think? Is this right? Or the newspaper company wants a benefit from Google? What Google will do? Because they just want their hands out of such things ASAP. I think they will pay something appropriate.

A group of Belgian newspaper publishers wants Google to pay up to €49.2 million (US$77.5 million) in damages for violating copyright law by publishing their articles on Google News and caching their web pages.

It made the claim in a court summons served last week, and made public on Wednesday. The Belgian publishers' group Copiepresse first filed suit over the Google News service in April 2006.

Read more @ pcWorld.com

Review - Google Sites

2 days back i received a link from my friend about Google site. I was quick to try it as i was curious to know what was in it. As i landed my steps to the main page i thought its something like Google Pages. I hadn’t much time, so i waited for Sunday.

So today i m tried google sites and found that my interpretation of Google sites was completely wrong. Google Sites is an online application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. Something like a collaboration service.
Sharing
Just as shown in the image there are 3 types of users.

Owners
* Invite other owners, collaborators, or viewers
* Change site themes, and layout
* Change the site name
* Delete the site
* Export backups and import to restore from backup
* Do everything a collaborator can do

Collaborators
* Create, edit, and delete pages
* Move pages
* Add attachments
* Add comments
* Add/remove pages to the sidebar navigation
* Subscribe to site and page change

Viewers
* Only view pages

Page Types
The strength of google sites is its Page type. There are 5 of them

Web Page
This is where your static content goes. Comes with very good Rich Text Editor. You can insert tables, images, google docs,picasa slide shows,etc.

Dashboard
Allows you to create something similar to iGoogle on a page within the site, useful for a landing page, news, etc. Warning: Something is not right. I get page errors when i add gadgets. The scrollbars seems to getting lost. All i can say is messy.

Announcement
Something like a webpage with a title in it, making it look like a blog.

File Cabinet
A repository. Mind you it only provides 100MB so dont go and overload this repository. One thing i didnt find on help site was what bout individual file size limitation that i can upload? Not mentioned anywhere. So i suppose u can upload 100MB file directly. Too bad will cause problem.

List
Couldnt make out what it is. Something for Collaboration i suppose.
They have got 4 List templates plus u can customize your own.

1. Action Items : Keep track of action items from a meeting or project
2. Issue List : Track your project's open issues
3. Unit Status : Track the status of individual units in your project.
4. Create your own: Define your own columns for your list
   

Overall it’s something for collaboration purpose. So, not every user can use it. Yeah if one wants to create a simple site you can try it but it is not what Google site is for.

Out of 5 i would give it 2.5 rating.

Google Translate - Finally comes up with Hindi

Google has finally launched Hindi as one of the languages on its popular Google translate application. The move indicates the importance that the Google accords to the expanding Indian market.

The Google translator is a very useful tool for providing translation services to the net users. The availability of Hindi in its translation application will give a boost to search engine’s use in the Indian market.

Nonetheless, the product is useful in a very narrow sense that it cannot translate intricate phrases and sentences and can be of help only for a very limited purpose.

On this shortcoming the Google says, "We're working to support other languages and will introduce them as soon as the automatic translation meets our standards. It's difficult to project how long this will take, as the problem is complex and each language presents its own unique challenges”.

Those of you who want to try translating in Hindi try this

Customized Linux PC for MySpacers

PC vendor Everex and gOS (Good OS), the Linux distribution based around Google applications, is taking the next step in online-based computing by introducing a limited edition MySpace PC.

The companies hope that the white-cased, two-pound MyMiniPC will attract what Everex officials claim is some of the more than 100 million MySpace users. As such, it’s the first PC, using any operating system, designed expressly to use with a social network.

More @ TechaChino

Google Docs & Microsoft Office Live With 'Gears'

Google took an important step forward Monday in its rivalry with Microsoft Office Live, reporting that Google Docs will allow users to edit word processing documents offline.
Google said users of its Google Docs word processing application can use Google Gears to save and then edit documents without being connected to the Internet.

"Cloud computing is great, but you need the cloud to make it work,"

Philip Tucker, software engineer, Google Docs, wrote in a Google blog.

"On an airplane, on the shuttle commuting to work, or at home when my cable modem goes down, I want to work on my documents. And, until now, that usually meant saving a copy and editing on the desktop.Now there's a better solution. With Google Docs offline, I can take my little piece of the cloud with me wherever I go,"

Tucker added.

"Once enabled, I have a local version of my document list and editors, along with my documents."

The editing feature, Google Gears, is an application programming interface introduced by Google more than a year ago to application developers to create Web applications that can run offline.

Security hack: Developer's Backdoor Hack in G-Archiver for GMail

A serious Gmail account hacking backdoor, has been found in the popular Gmail archiving software G-Archiver. This application, in all its innocence, allows you to download and backup all emails from your GMail account. But apparently the developer included the code to send an email to his email ID with all usernames and passwords!

G-Archiver has posted this explanation of what happened: "It is urgent that you remove the current version of G-Archiver from your computer, and change your Gmail account password right away. What happened was that a member of our development team had inserted coding used for testing G-Archiver in the debug version and forgot to delete it in the final release version."

winVistaClub

Tips: Get Unlimited Gmail accounts with your one!

Most Gmail users will answer one! Rest will answer 2-3 or little more. But in reality, all Gmail users have infinite Gmail addresses even if they have registered for only one Gmail account!

All these addresses act as aliases to Gmail address you use and can be divided in three categories as explained below. At the end some smart tips are given to make use of these aliases to get more from your Gmail accounts!

So lets start with aliases now…

#1. googlemail.com alias

Every address@gmail.com have a alias address@googlemail.com by default.

#2. dot [.] alias

Gmail ignores dot [.] character in email address. Means all of the following are same…

123.4@gmail.com

1.2.3.4@gmail.com

#3. Plus [+] alias

Now first look at this example - 1234+test@gmail.com

Now this is also same as - 1234@gmail.com

Gmail ignores plus [+] character and anything after that in ID part!

#4. Combination of aliases

Yep, you can use above aliases in any possible combination.

Now you can create specific filters for specific 'To' email ids.It will categorize your emails.

Read more @ DevilsWorkshop.org

YouTube to Improve Usage Metrics

Google's YouTube will soon give marketers more data about viewership of its videos, so that they have a better understanding of clips' reach and effectiveness at boosting brand awareness and sales. The online video site plans to make more granular metrics available in this year's second and third quarters, including data about the usage of YouTube videos that are embedded in external sites, said Brian Cusack, YouTube sales team manager.

"YouTube has enormous amounts of data, but not great reporting on that data yet," Cusack said during a keynote speech at the eRetailer Summit in Miami on Monday.

pcworld

Review: Digsby IM, multi-protocol IM client

Digsby is a newly launched multi-protocol instant messaging client.It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It works across AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber and ICQ networks. It supports GMail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Mail, AOL, POP-based and IMAP-based mail services.

Digsby is one of the hottest apps currently available, and is currently invite-only. It works seamlessly across all the above-mentioned networks, and is more than just an IM client. Its ‘extra features’ include mail notifications, in-line email replies (without you touching the mail interface), and integration with social networking sites (MySpace and Facebook) to show messages, friend requests, invitations etc. In-line email replies mean that, when you are alerted of a new mail, you can immedeately reply to it from within Digsby.

Digsby has several extra features like:

1. Mail and social networking integration.
2. Inline email repying.

As you can see, inline email replying is quite new, and has some convenience factor going for it.

More @ techzilo.com

Google Phone prototype to be unveiled in Barcelona

British chip designer ARM will demo an Android-based prototype mobile phone at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona next Monday. Google's open-source Android software platform will be used by T-Mobile and HTC when they release Android-based phones later this year.

In addition, Google is bidding on wireless spectrum space in the United States which would place Google in direct competition with the big mobile telecom providers.

ReUters.com

Coloured Labels Now Available on Gmail

Back in the Paleolithic Era, the world was a very different kind of place. People were hunter-gatherers, lived in caves, and kept all their email in folders*. You can't really blame them. Between tracking woolly mammoths, fashioning crude stone tools, and auditioning for commercials, having a highly tuned system for organizing email wasn't their highest priority.

But people changed. We moved out of caves and into skyscrapers. We hunt for bargains at the corner grocery. And we play video games simulating ourselves playing video games.

Today, we're happy to announce the next evolution of labels: the colored label. Until now the label has been a little inconspicuous creature, subtly suggesting categorical associations in its simple green coat. Oh, we've seen the colored label here and there, its precursors surfacing in various experiments and Greasemonkey scripts; but the label has never before been so brazen, so bold. How will it use its new colors? Will it disguise itself with the chameleon's camouflage or clamor for attention with the monarch butterfly's vivid contrast?

Official Gmail Blog

Best Chat Client - Open Source and lightweight - Miranda IM

I have been using Miranda IM since 6 to 8 months or so. It is the best open source chat IM client. Its very light weight and supports many facilities.

It supports AIM, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber (XMPP protocol means gmail will work and any local LAN chat also works).

Basic architecture is plug in based. You can add different kinds of plug ins as per your needs.I will show here which plug ins you must have after installing it so it looks good and gives some good functions.

The most basic plug in is 'send/receive messages' which is in built and supports simple sending and receiving of messages. All protocol plug ins are also provided with the setup.You need to find more plug ins from add ons from Miranda site.

TabSRMM
This is very good plugin.
It supports

• tabbed message windows for multiple IMs.
• Log/history view of previous chat in the IM.
• Send message to multiple users at once.
  
• And many other cool things which are not in srmm.

This plug ins is very advanced version of SRMM you can say.I am suggesting this one only because with this, you can use it like any other. You can also find smilyadd plug in to add basic smilies to your chat. But this one is most needed.

History++ (History plus plus)
This is very advanced version of basic log viewer for all previous chat.
Basic log viewer shows all chat in listbox view. Means you need to select particular datetime to see the chat.

History++ will show you whole chat done for particular contact to till date in one view all text! isn't it great?You can also search in that log view.See the image below.

I will provide more good plug ins which may be of interest because of their usefulness. I generally avoid skinny things used for UI changes only :)

Please provide if you also find some new plug ins for it as i am not doing it now. This is what i am using and must have once.

so please leave comments and give your favorite plug ins.

Addons site for Miranda

Google got shortest domain name!

Google has purchased the shortest possible domain name to make it easier for Chinese users to find Google: g.cn. Interestingly, "g.com," along with most other single-letter and single-digit domain names are reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The IANA is the master arbiter of domain names and addresses on the Internet. There are a few one-letter domain names out there, though: Z.com is owned by Nissan, Q.com by Qwest, and X.com is owned by PayPal. There was a proposal floated a few years ago to auction off the one-letter domain names, but nothing has come of it.

Google phone plans to be announced Monday

While it had been suggested that an announcement would come November 13th at the earliest, the Journal's sources say that it will mostly likely happen Monday, November 5th, and with different carriers. T-Mobile is still involved, but the other main party is said to be Sprint. Foreign carriers may be included, but have not been mentioned.

Google is again said to be working with cellular networks and phone makers to promote an "open" application platform, courting companies such as HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. With T-Mobile Google is claimed to be going even further, cooperating directly on building phones using its software. When the efforts of any of these collaborations might bear fruit remains unknown, but Journal proposes that the earliest date for sale of a Google-ready phone would be mid-2008.

Blogs.wsj.com