Google Stuff

I wasn’t worried about this in the first place (see comment 42 in http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_google_have_rights_to_all.php), but now it’s official.

Official Google Blog: Update to Google Chrome’s terms of service
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, and you can read the updated Google Chrome terms of service. If you’re into the fine print, here’s the revised text of Section 11:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

And that’s all. Period. End of section.

It’s a layer on top of Windows, which is great, but underneath … it’s still Windows!  Ccheck out what happens when you unsuspectingly click on Options > Under the Hood > Change Proxy Settings.

That’s right, it’s the familiar, and hideous,  Internet Properties dialog frow Windows.

It lost this race with my Wordpress “Press It” button, which loaded faster in Firefox despite a 5 sec hind start.

Official Google Blog: Google Chrome now live

Ok, this is fun … my first post via  Google Chrome.

The logical next step is to open up ContentID to the masses, so that any fool with a video camera can “monetize” their shenanigans.

Official Google Blog: Making money on YouTube with Content ID

Google runs 50-200 search experiments at any given time. this makes me insane with jealousy. When I was at LexisNexis, it was essentially impossible to run experiments in production.

Official Google Blog: Search experiments, large and small

I’ll be really happy when you can limit searches to results that occur only in Popular Passages.

Inside Google Book Search: Meditating on books
The concept of transience and impermanence runs through Kenkō’s work, but the book has been given a long life by other authors who have cited him. Here you can read all the instances of the above quote on Book Search. I would guess that Kenkō never imagined this blog-rebirth I have granted him, but he would know that as blogs become passé, antiquated and finally forgotten, he’ll still be there to be found by unknown friends.

Now

What a mammoth investment in reinforcing existing MSM media opinions. It would be a lot more interesting, and a lot cooler, if the Google Reader folks came up with something that would draw on sources outside the echo room.

Official Google Blog: Follow what Obama, McCain and leading political commentators are reading
At google.com/powerreaders now you can track the news sites and blogs Barack Obama and John McCain read (from Drudge to The Daily Show) and follow articles catching the eyes of leading political journalists

Google’s looking out for us.

Official Google Blog: Time to “Free the Airwaves”
When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web. There’s no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the Internet. That’s certainly good for Google (not to mention many of our industry peers) but we also think that it’s good for consumers.

… which is that people who don’t already use Google Docs refuse to fill out these forms. Unfortunately, because it’s a brilliant idea.

The official update feed from the Google Apps team: Google Docs makes it easier to set up and share a new form

Google Docs users can now select ‘Form’ from the ‘New’ item menu to customize and send an interactive form. Form submissions are automatically recorded in a sp

readsheet.