Why is Google called Google?

The Google name was derived from the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.


According to the founders of Google.com, they were thinking about a good name, something that would relate to arranging and organizing large amounts of data. It was mentioned that one of them said it would be like ‘googolplex’. Googol was a term which referred to 1 followed by 100 zeros, a very large number. They had it shortened to ‘Googol’ instead.

They tried to search it over the domain name registry database and found that it was available for use. However, one of the founders was not that good at spelling, and typed ‘Google’ instead. Since then, they had Google.com registered under Larry Page and Sergey Brin ‚ the domain name registration records show that the domain name was registered on September 15, 1997.

What was Google called before it was called Google? =)
Search engine Google was called BackRub by founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were developing the search engine at Stanford University after their graduation.

Could Google buy Twitter?

To know the hottest news we should read... no, not Google news, but Twitter!
Google is the leading search engine, but there's one area where the company's software prowess fails: real-time search.

It's an area that Twitter dominates, and savvy Internet users know to turn to the site first for the very latest news and discussions. That, combined with Twitter's ongoing struggles to turn a profit that matches its outsized Internet presence, has made Twitter a very attractive acquisition candidate.

Yahoo, Microsoft, News Corp. and Google are among the companies believed to be looking at Twitter. (Microsoft owns and publishes Top Stocks, an MSN Money site.) But perhaps Google might be the best match for the young company.

A lack of profitability did not stop Facebook from acquiring Instagram for $1 billion, and few believe that it will stop Twitter from also being snatched up.

Historically, the best acquisitions don't involve companies that could be profitable. They involve companies that are already making money. But just as YouTube fell into Google's hands as a streaming video infant with only hopes and dreams in its eyes, Twitter would do the same for its buyer.

But nobody knows which (if any) of the aforementioned corporations is most likely to gain control of the social media website...

Aaron Kessler of Raymond James has a similar viewpoint, though he believes that the company already pays Twitter to search tweets. Kessler thinks that it would make the most sense for Google to incorporate Twitter into the Google+ social network to expand its social media participation. But Kessler is also unsure that this deal will actually happen.

What do you think? Who is going to make the first move? I suggest we'll see soon ;)

Google Art Project. Visit a museum in a single click!

The Google Art Project has exponentially grown, adding virtual tours of 46 museums, 1 billion pixel images, zoom in features and thousands of works in dozens more countries.

The project provides access to more than 30,000 ultra-high resolution images of paintings, sculptures and photographs from 151 museums and other institutions in 40 countries. Google Art Project launched in February 2011 with about 1,000 artworks from such institutions as the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Uffizi in Florence and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

"From now on anyone can visit these great institutions with just the click of a mouse," Google President Margo Georgiadis said. "This project breaks down all of the barriers and allows people to study art in a seamless way."

It's all part of Google's ambitious effort to enable anyone with an Internet-connected device to check out the vast reservoir of human knowledge and creativity stored in libraries and museums around the world.

Google already has made digital copies of more than 15 million books during the past seven years, although it can only show snippets from many of them because of copyright restrictions. The company also has been scanning manuscripts and other documents in public and academic libraries.

Google Art Project also offers a virtual tour of 46 museums using the high-tech giant's Google Street technology. With images larger than a gigapixel (1 billion pixels), the zoom-in feature allows viewers to get inside cracks in the parchment and other details that are not visible to the naked eye.

Google hasn't disclosed how much its patronage of the arts is costing. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., can easily afford the expense with $45 billion in the bank.
GREAT JOB!!!

New account activity tool from Google

Google has released a new tool that allows us to look at our monthly activity on Google while signed in to its services. Users have a possibility to receive the reports by e-mail. Those who choose to receive the reports will receive a link directing them to sign in to their accounts for a summary of their online activity.

The report will tell users information such as how many e-mails they’ve sent and received in the past month, their Web history (if they’ve opted to have Google collect it), where they surf the Web, what browser they use, and information on accounts associated with their e-mail address. As people run more reports, the activity summary will also note changes in use over time.

If you notice sign-ins from countries where you haven’t been or devices you’ve never owned, you can change your password immediately.

For a more comprehensive look at your Google account activity, users can still sign in to Google Dashboard to look at all of their services.

P.S. Try it! Very convenient and interesting tool!

Want to escape for a vacation? Travel with Google Street View in the Amazon rain forest and Thailand!

Today I came to know what is Murphy's law =( The sun is shining, birds are singing, nature invites to the forest and me... being laid up with runny nose without any strength =(
But!!! I have Google and it's new Street View mapping projects, which make it possible to travel to Amazon rain forest or the cities of Thailand. As I always wanted to visit Thailand, it's a great chance to make my weekend more colorful.
Viewers can comfortably take a trip through the Amazon basin or witness the reconstruction of Thailand after last year’s devastating monsoon. The string of 50,000 images taken along the rivers capture give us a beautiful 360 degree view. If you’re unsure of where to look, Google offers various locations for “sightseeing.” You can walk down the paths of the largest developed community in the Amazon, or float down the Rio Negro. If you’re feeling adventurous, feel free to navigate the jungles or plot the location and take note of where Brazil nuts are harvested. =)
With its latest Street View images, Google brings more attention to the Amazon rain forest and its issues, namely the effects of deforestation on a grand scale, despite the potential for beauty that lies within.
On the other side of the globe, the roads of Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai have also received the Street View treatment, to much fanfare by The Tourism Authority of Thailand.
“We really want to show that Thailand isn’t still underwater,” David Marx, Google’s Tokyo-based communications manager, told Reuters. “People should see Thailand for what it is.”
So if you are bored at home and have no possibility to go outside, let's travel with Google!

ST. PATRICK’S DAY GOOGLE DOODLE. A MASTERPIECE!

New Google's Doodle impressed me a lot! Jennifer Hom, the author of the Doodle says that she wanted to go deeper than cliched shamrocks and leprechauns and wee pots o’ gold.
Her quest for the authentic led her to the “Book of Kells,” arguably the world’s greatest collection of illuminated manuscripts. Created by early medieval Celtic monks, the book now sits in Dublin, beheld and upheld as a national treasure.

Given the complexity of the Doodle, as well as her tight deadline, Hom knew she’d need to create the logo digitally. Working 40 hours over four days, she would sometimes zoom in by 300 percent to render those precise Celtic knots — closer than the Doodle artists typically work, she says, given their limited canvas of “300 to 400 pixels wide” and about “100 pixels tall.”
Here’s the Google illustrator’s step-by-step breakdown:

BRAVO!

Google services and applications. Alphabetically

A                     Google AdWords, Google Alerts, Google AdSence, Google Apps, Google Analytics B                     Blogger, Google books

C                     Chrome, Chromebook, Calendar, Google Checkout

D                     Google Docs, Doodles

E                     Google Earth

F                     Feed Burner (for Valia!) =) – connected with RSS

G                     Google Groups

H                     History of Google

I                      iGoogle

J                      Google Jobs

K                     Knol

L                     Google Latitude

M                    Google Maps

N                     Google News

O                     Orkut, Google Ocean (as a pert of Google Earth)

P                     Google Plus, Picasa, Panoramio, Google Apps Control Panel

Q                     Google Quick Scroll

R                     Google Reader

S                     Google Sites, Google Store, Google Storage, Google SketchUp

T                     Google Search Techniques, Google Translate, Google Talk, Google Toolbar

V                     Google Voice

W                    Google Webmaster, Google Wave

X                     Google X

Y                     Youtube

Z                     Google Zeitgeist

Russian hacker received $60,000 from Google for broken Chrome

Google has awarded the prize of $ 60,000 dollar for Russian student from Tyumen Sergei Glazunov, who first discovered the bug in the browser Chrome. Competition of hackers Pwnium was held in Vancouver.

As a company says, that guy managed to find the bug in browser associated with UXSS-attack and the history of navigation in Chrome.

Details will be announced later. Meanwhile, Google asked users to install security updates.
Earlier Google has promised a million dollars for information on bugs in Chrome. Also recent American journalists have found problems in the software of mobile devices from Google.

Google’s driverless cars are on the road: Hurray or Ooops?

Flying autos may still be something of a pipe dream, but letting you car conduct itself is coming closer and closer to reality.

March 1 (Bloomberg) - A California state senator arrived at a press conference at the Sacramento capitol in a Google Inc.-modified Toyota Prius that drives itself. He announced new legislation written with Google’s input at the event, timed to coincide with new regulations allowing the world’s first autonomous vehicles to be road-tested and registered in neighboring Nevada. This step has a goal to to show policymakers that while the cars of the future aren’t yet ready for public use, it’s time for laws to accommodate them.

Google’s autonomous Prius concepts, equipped with computer-controlled gas, brakes and steering mechanisms aided by GPS, cameras and dozens of other sensor systems, have already logged over 200,000 miles on public roads.

“I imagine a lot of people think of a self-driving car as science fiction or something out of The Jetsons and something that may not be available for a long time,” Padilla said after climbing out of the black Prius with a Google logo on the side and spinning sensors attached to the roof.
Of course there are a lot of things to develop in that driverless cars, but still it's a breakthrough!
New cars become like good horses, which draw their owners home even when owners are enable to drive =)

P.S. Maybe I've hurried to get a driver's license?.. =)

What's new in Google search?

As usual Google develops and improves the mechanism and functionality of search engine. In 2012 Google has already made something new to make our search easier and better.

Related search previews
Find that great image you're looking for or explore a topic through pictures with related search previews. You'll find them along the top of your image search results.
Mouse over "Related searches" for a preview of the new set of results and click through to see the full results for that search.

Profiles in search
As part of Search plus Your World, Google launched profiles in search, a feature which allows you to find people faster by seeing their Google profile appear right as you type their name in search. By creating a Google profile and making it visible in search, you give Google the ability to surface the most relevant content about you.

Personal results
Google launched personal results as a feature of Search plus Your World. With personal results, you'll see relevant tips, photos, and posts from your friends right alongside results from the web. Personal results are marked with an icon so you know they're just for you. Because these results are personal and private, you'll need to be signed in to Google to see them.

To read more about news of Google search, visit http://www.google.com/insidesearch/

P.S. do you also start your day with Google? :)

New Privacy Policy of Google: improvement in usage or new KGB???

Last week Google started to to let know beforehand about new Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service, which will come into effect from March 1, 2012. The staff of information administration of Google propose us to read is quite big, but I've read it and now I'll try to present it in a short way.

Changes that I like: simplified usage of services e.g. if we’re reading an email that reminds us to schedule a family get-together or finding a favorite video that we want to share, Google want to ensure us can move across Gmail, Calendar, Search, YouTube, or whatever our life calls for with ease.

Changes I dislike: Google starts to gather information about us!!! Information about the services that we use and how we use them, hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number + calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls!!! Іnformation about our actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device...+numbers of credit cards if you mentioned them!

Google says that these changes are made to improve interaction, to provide, maintain, protect and improve different Google services, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and its users. Google also says that they use this information to offer us tailored content – like giving us more relevant search results and ads.

New privacy policy as if allows us to merge our information collected from a single service with information from other services.  They will treat us as "a user of all their products", which means more simple and intuitive use of services from Google. The company promises not to transfer the received data to third parties, and while not collect information without obtaining the consent of each individual user.

According to critics, the process of "deanonimization" users started long before. Google Privacy Policy steadily shifting toward data sharing by all users of services. Thus, if at first company required the use of real names for social networking Google +, then these names will now appear on every search query that performs user. This fact is especially disturbing because of the lost of privacy which promoted Google before. All information will now be collected for the purposes of the corporation.

Changes I dislike are more numerous. It seems like new KGB version starts working!

P.S. personally I wouldn't like someone listen to my telephone conversations... even if they tell me that it is confident =(

Most-loved features of Chrome

Themes
Customize your browser with themes from artists around the world.

New Tab page
Visit your favorite websites easily from the New Tab page. When you open a new tab, the sites you visit most often are readily available.

Omnibox
Use the Omnibox to type both web addresses and searches in Chrome.

Incognito mode
When you don't want your website visits to be recorded in your browser history, you can browse in incognito mode.

Tabs and Stability
 Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected. You can also arrange your tabs however you wish - quickly and easily. 

Google: office of my dream

Much of Google's success derives from a business strategy which CEO Eric Schmidt has described as 'ubiquity first, revenues later'. What is the secret behind Google's capacity to innovate successfully? Commentators frequently mention the freedom Google gives to its staff to work on projects of their own choosing, and the fun atmosphere created at the company headquarters.

'People in Google have up to 20 per cent of their time to 'play' with ideas and initiatives which might be of interest to the customers', explains Phil Anderson, a client director at Ashridge Business School. 'There is also a wonderful physical environment - the Googleplex - where people are provided with free food, coffee and 'play areas'.' Google staff say that typically half of all new products and features result from 'personal project' time.

Designers AMA – Albert Monti and Associati have done a great job and has successfully passed the philosophy of Google, while preserving national characteristics. In such an office where every day is it’s a great joy. It is more public space of the office. Everything was done very well, but not emphasized luxury. Comfort in the workplace includes, among other things: a nice view from the windows, good lighting, convenient location in the city center, restaurant, game room, gym, massage room, shower and other aspects make the office a place where not only has to be done. Workers can relax your body and mind, to gain new strength of positive energy. All this contributes to the creative and productive work for IU to attract new workers from among the most talented people.