G-news

Google revamps logo and search page...

Google has begun rolling out a redesign of its homepage -

 the world's most visited web address.

The revamp features a flattened, reshaped logo and replaces the previous menu bar with a smaller range of links on the page's right-hand side.The move comes in the same month that Yahoo's logo and Microsoft's Bing search tool have also been updated.A Google spokeswoman said that similar changes would now be "slowly rolled out" across its products.A blog post added that the firm intended to "streamline" users' experience of its services to prevent "distractions".It is the first change to Google's logo since 2010. Not all users will be able to see the redesign yet."This is the season for consumer tech updates and whether you sell a product or it's free everyone wants to look fresh ahead of the Christmas shopping season," said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at the tech consultancy Forrester."What they are doing is actually pretty subtle and that's because these software companies depend on user loyalty - they don't want to do anything that would alienate their customers."Another analyst suggested that cutting down the number of links would encourage people to use Google's social network, Google Plus.To reveal other products - such as Google Drive storage, YouTube videos or the Android app Play Store - visitors to the firm's search page must now click on an icon made up of small squares."I do think that there is a move to try to make Google+ more central to everything its users do," said Carolina Milanesi from the tech advisors Gartner."It might be the case that it is not obvious to some people that they need to click on the box to reveal the firm's other services."

Google, Facebook, Yahoo seek permission to publish FISA requests

Three prominent online companies filed a petition with the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in an attempt to improve transparency with users.Google, Facebook, and Yahoo on Monday announced the petition which requests that the US government allow the companies to publish, in detail, the types of national security requests they have received under the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Google has also requested that the court hold the hearing publicly and not in private."It's time for more transparency," Google Law Enforcement and Information Security Director Richard Salgado and Public Policy and Government Affairs Director Pablo Chavez wrote in the blog post on Monday.FISA has become a lightning rod of controversy in the online world after claims made by former security contractor Edward Snowden and further leaks suggested that major online companies were providing access to user information at the request of the US government. The companies have confirmed that they have received requests under FISA, but the US government has so far declined to allow certain, specific information about the requests to be made public.

All three companies have released some information. However, the US government has only allowed the companies to release information that lumps together any and all law enforcement agency requests, and not those specifically tied to FISA. Like Yahoo and Google, Facebook also believes it's time for more specific information to be shared."The actions and statements of the U.S. government have not adequately addressed the concerns of people around the world about whether their information is safe and secure with Internet companies," Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch wrote in a statement on Monday. "We believe there is more information that the public deserves to know, and that would help foster an informed debate about whether government security programs adequately balance privacy interests when attempting to keep the public safe."It's not clear when FISC might make a decision or whether it will ever be made public.





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Google Acquires Bump for at Least $30M

Google has acquired the mobile startup Bump. A source close to the transaction said it was worth at least $30 million, and perhaps as much as $60 million.Bump had raised about $20 million from backers including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, so it was “not a home run,” the source admitted.

Founded in 2008, Bump made one of the original have-to-have iPhone apps, for its magic trick of transferring files by physically “bumping” phones together. It has been downloaded more than 100 million times. Over the years, the company has expanded and contracted its features, and also created a group photo-sharing app called Flock.

Launched last year, Flock had proved somewhat popular; it was a Top 10 photo and video app in about 50 countries, according toApp Annie.

“Bump and Flock will continue to work as they always have for now,” Bump CEO David Lieb wrote in a blog post today. That “for now” wording is ominous when it comes to startup acquisitions, but it’s notable that this was not a pure “acqhire” for the team alone.

“The Bump team has demonstrated a strong ability to quickly build and develop products that users love, and we think they’ll be a great fit at Google,” said a Google spokesperson. Google declined to comment on what team Bump will be joining.

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Google makes Quickoffice for Android and iOS free for all, bringing Microsoft Office editing to the mobile masses.

Google today announced it is making Quickoffice free for everyone. That means Android and iOS users can edit Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go without paying  a dime.

You can download the free versions now directly from Google Play and Apple’s App Store. The only requirement is that you sign in with your Google Account.
Oh, and if you do sign in to your Google Account from either of the new apps by September 26th, Google will give you anextra 10GB of Google Drive storage for free for two years. It’s noteven October, but Google is clearly in the spirit of giving.Back in December 2012, Google stopped offering Google Apps for free; the premium version still costs $50 per user, per year.
 Two weeks later, the company released Quickoffice for iPad, making it exclusively available to its Apps customers for free. In April, the company followed up with free Android and iPhone versions for Apps customers as well.We’ve noted multiple times that this likely wasn’t a coincidence: these “free” apps made Google Apps for Business more attractive to organizations. 
Yet now it seems that this extra frosting has been removed, and Google’s war against Microsoft Office has hit another level. Anyone can use the apps, whether they pay for Google Apps or not.Microsoft shot itself in the foot here. Sure it finally released Office Mobile for iOS in June and Office Mobile for Android in July, but there was one small problem: an Office 365 subscription was and still is required.

In other words, Microsoft matched Google’s deal. Now Google has hit back and undercut Microsoft once again, and this blow might be the biggest yet.Google acquired QuickOffice back in June 2012. At the time, QuickOffice offered native apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Symbian. Symbian can be of course ruled out, but it makes sense for the company to support both Android and iOS.As we’ve said before, however, Windows Phone and BlackBerry users are out of luck. Google is simply not interested in supporting either platform. Meanwhile, you can bet it will continue to improve Quickoffice for Android and iOS.

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Google's 'Android KitKat' Will Appear on 50 Million Candy Bars.

 Google's 'Android KitKat'

Google's next mobile operating system is called Android KitKat and will appear on 50 million Kit Kat wrappers around the globe in the coming weeks, the digital giant and Hershey, the candy brand's United States distributor, revealed today. The companies forged a no-cash, publicity-focused agreement for the co-branding effort, according to multiple reports.

The development surprised many in the tech space, which had expected Google's next mobile OS to be called Key Lime Pie. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has customarily given Android iterations sweets-minded names, such as Cupcake in 2009. While Kit Kat is licensed to Hershey in the U.S., the candy brand is produced and marketed elsewhere globally by parent Nestlé—which ultimately forged the Google deal.

"We are proud and excited to have one of the world's leading mobile innovators pair up with one of America's favorite chocolate brands," Jennifer Podhajsky, vp of U.S. chocolate for Hershey, said in a statement. "Google's choice to name their next Android platform release Kit Kat brings together two well-known icons from pop culture and technology and gives the classic jingle of 'Gimme a Break' a whole new meaning in the tech world."

In addition, Hershey and Google are offering consumers the chance to win 1,000 Nexus 7 tablets, 150,000 Google Play credits worth $5 apiece and 20,000 coupons for eight-ounce bags of Kit Kat Minis. Starting Friday and running through Jan. 31, 2014, the giveaways will be advertised on Kit Kat packaging.

The co-branding arrangement appears to be the first of its kind in terms of blending software and a consumer-packaged item. And it shouldn't hurt Google's reputation with the sweet-tooth set.

Google's Android already garners 46 percent of the domestic smartphone OS market, besting Apple's iOS (38 percent), per eMarketer.

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Can Google and Facebook Keep U.S. Ahead in Global Tech Race?

So far, no one outside the United States has built a global social network, created an operating system adopted at an astonishing rate by smartphone and tablet manufacturers, created the best search engine in the world or been at the vanguard of genomic science. For several reasons, that is not likely to change. America will remain the intellectual property center of the globe, likely for decades.

 

There are several reasons. The first is simple inventiveness. Whether this is the by-product of the vast university system, federal government R&D or something in the DNA of American academics and entrepreneurs is hard to say. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was the product of university-based work. So were the inventions of more ancient technology like the PC chips that drove the rise of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and the subsequent rise of Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), a company that has become Intel’s greatest nemesis.

Google’s Android roiled the mobile operating system (OS) market in a way that could never have been predicted. It stole the market from Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) OS and older products like Symbian and the one invented for BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) at a pace that even Moore’s Law could not anticipated. In Android’s case, how American is it to fundamentally open source something as precious as an operating system, and to do so in a fashion that essentially made it free to hardware and software developers? Impossible to say. But Google’s habit of offering technology for free has changed more than one market, and not just in the United States.

Social networking took a different path altogether, but it does share some foundations with Android. The huge system of users created by Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was based on adoption of a product that was free to them, run on the back of complex cloud computing and at the risk of never identifying a revenue model. Perhaps that was why its user base rushed to more than a billion. Or perhaps Facebook caught a tide not visible to social scientists or demographers. That will be debated for decades, along with the basis for the rise of all of Web 2.0.

Probably the greatest technology advance of the next 10 years will be the rise of genomic research and its practical application to human development and disease. The movement to do this many be global, but a disproportionate portion resides in the United States.

It is not as though Germany, China or Japan would not like to “own” the world’s primary technology intellectual properties. China has tried to build home-grown models of everything from operating systems to video compression. None has worked, along with any related efforts in other basic tech. Japan and Germany have benefited from U.S. inventions, but neither has become a huge center of invention on its own.

It often has been pointed out that manufacturing has moved offshore and will not return to the United States. An observation is that tech’s cradle in the U.S. has as well. However, what has become evident more recently is that the cutting edge of such things has not moved an inch outside of America.