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Posts tagged Google

Customizing Google results

Mar11
2011 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Tim Conneally at Beta news reports that “[...]  Google on Thursday introduced an experimental feature which continues its mission to chip away at undesirable search results and information from “content farms”: the ability to block all results from a particular URL.

Now, when search results are returned, there is a button next to each link labeled “Block all [URLNAME] results.” When clicked, that site is sent to a block list, which can be managed in the user’s Google account.

“We’re adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google. In addition, while we’re not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we’ll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future,” Google search quality engineers Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang said today. [...]” (full article here).

Jacqui Cheng at Ars technica adds that “[...] The new blacklisting feature is triggered when you perform a Google search, click on a link, and then go backto Google after having decided that link isn’t what you wanted. When you return to Google the second time, a new option appears next to the Cached link that says “Block all [website name] results.” If you’re logged into your Google account (which is required in order to maintain a blacklist), you can then click that link and get a confirmation message that you want to block it.

Google wrote on its blog that you may not see the site disappear right away if you simply refresh your browser with the same search, but running a new search should get that domain out of your face for good. “The next time you’re searching and a blocked page would have appeared, you’ll see a message telling you results have been blocked, making it easy to manage your personal list of blocked sites,” Google Search quality engineers Amay Champaneria and Beverly Yang wrote. “This message will appear at the top or bottom of the results page depending on the relevance of the blocked pages. [...]” (full article here)

I don’t believe this will give in full control to the user (come on, results mean completeness of search and more practically money), but I appreciate the effort mad by Google to allow users to customize they’re searches.

This post as a comment also at Betanews and at Ars Technica

Posted in communication, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Google new browser concept is without URL bar?

Feb22
2011 1 Comment Written by hotrao

Raymond Wong at Dvice (http://dvice.com/archives/author/raymond_wong) reports that some mockups from Google seems to be “[...] killing the URL address bar in its Chrome web browser. Always looking to shave pixels off of its Chrome web browser, Google is toying around with four different layouts that could drastically change the way you browse the web: classic, compact, sidetab and touch. The most notable change is of course the “compact” version that does away with the URL bar, and puts “multiple URL bars into tabs.” It essentially gives you more vertical pixels, which means less scrolling within websites. [...]” (full article at http://dvice.com/archives/2011/02/google-is-think.php, original article at Lifehacker and by Wolfgang Gruener at http://www.conceivablytech.com/5746/products/google-may-kill-chrome-url-bar/).

I think that browsing has made lot of step forwards during time, but one thing remained quite the same the URL bar. But I’ m confident that Google usability magicians will be able to imagine something without the bar.

This post as a comment also at   http://dvice.com/archives/2011/02/google-is-think.php

Posted in communication, Other, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Emailing the right way

Jan09
2011 1 Comment Written by hotrao

I came through a quite old post from Leo Babauta at GigaOM on how to be effective with email (full article at http://gigaom.com/collaboration/7-rules-for-communicating-clearly-and-concisely-in-email).

Leo’s rules and my comments:

  • Use the minimum amount of sentences. True and try to use bullets were make sense to be schematic
  • State what you want right away. Email is not (only) an exercise of style. Is communication with no escapes, since no facial or hands expression help to clarify your thoughts. So go to the point as fast as you can
  • Write about only one thing. True. This also helps recipients to answer one thing a time
  • Leave out the humor and emotions. True, because recipients read the messages as they are, and you’re not there to explain is a joke.
  • Use “If …then” statements. Is part of being schematic
  • Review for ambiguity, clarity. Revise for conciseness. Review always the message and if you can )and the message is really important) save it as a draft and come back later

This post as a comment also at http://gigaom.com/collaboration/7-rules-for-communicating-clearly-and-concisely-in-email/?go_commented=1#comment-572170

Posted in communication, Work - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Chrome OS

Dec10
2010 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Russell Holly at Geek.com (http://www.geek.com/users/rholly/) writes a small but good article on Chrome os and CR-48 from Google.

“[...] I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that off the top of your head, you know of at lease five people who only use their web browser, or applications that require the web, 100% of the time. They don’t code, they don’t edit video, and they probably don’t even use their CD/DVD drive. We are web creatures, and Google has noticed. They noticed that users have more productive time if they didn’t have to worry about things like antivirus updates, drivers, and waiting for their programs to install yet another update. Chrome accomplished this in browser form. It’s always up-to-date, you never have to maintain it, and it comes with the stuff you actually use on the internet like Flash, Silverlight, and a PDF viewer already installed. It doesn’t need you to take care of it. Chrome OS pushes this same functionality into the whole computer. It’s an environment where maintenance is a foreign concept, rather than the first thing you do when you sit down to your computer. [...]” worth a read at http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/what-is-chromeos-2010128/.

Posted in Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Monopoly or not?

Nov26
2010 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Mathew Ingram at GigaOM writes a good article starting from Tim Wu new book on if we should be scared or not of Google, Apple and Facebook and if we are going toward a de-facto monopoly.

Mathew writes “[...] that just as AT&T was a monopoly during an earlier phase of communications history, companies like Google, Facebook and Apple now have what he calls “information monopolies” that could be just as damaging to our society. But does he present a convincing case that this is true? Not really. [...]”

I agree with Mathew that we are not facing a monopoly, but I think better a “specialized” oligopoly, because Apple is a market maker for Phone trends, while Facebook is a reference for Social Networking.

Google is quite different, since offers a broader number of services, but there’s always an alternative for each of them. The truth is that in most cases Google services are better than the rest.

This post as a comment also at http://gigaom.com/2010/11/25/tim-wu-google-facebook/?go_commented=1#comment-524467

Posted in Economy, Other, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Facebook email still blocks some links

Nov20
2010 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Ryan Singel at Wired reports that “[...]  Facebook’s “modern messaging system” may make it convenient to seamlessly move between instant messaging and a Facebook.com e-mail account, but not if you are sharing a link to a file sharing site. Facebook began blocking BitTorrent link-sharing on Facebook walls and news feeds last spring, and also started blocking private messages between users that included a link to torrents on the Pirate Bay. [...]” (full article at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/facebook-link-blocking).

I do not endorse or support bittorrent sharing for protected materials, but I think that blocking bit torrent anyway is quite meaningless. I also think that is strange this kind of approach by a company that has demonstrated that security is maybe its last concern.

This post as a comment also at   http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/facebook-link-blocking/comment-page-1/#comment-58772

Posted in communication, Economy, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook revisited: do we really need another email system?

Nov16
2010 1 Comment Written by hotrao

Tim Conneally at Beta news (http://www.betanews.com/author/tim) reports that “[...] Popular social networking site Facebook today announced it is rolling out a whole new messaging system over the next few months that “isn’t just e-mail,” but integrates four common ways users communicate: email, Facebook messages and chat, and SMS, and archives it all in a single thread. [....]” (full article at http://www.betanews.com/article/Facebooks-new-messaging-system-handles-email-chat-SMS-Office-Web-apps-all-in-one/1289847427).

Same thing is done by Sharon Gaudin at Computerworld (full article at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9196618/Facebook_messaging_throws_a_blow_at_Google), Jacqui Cheng at Ars technica (full article at http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/11/facebooks-new-messaging-system-mashes-up-sms-e-mail-im.ars), John Brownlee at geek.com (http://www.geek.com/users/jbrownlee/ and full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/news/facebook-introduces-new-messaging-system-e-mail-sms-and-im-all-in-one-place-20101116/), Om Malik at Giga OM (http://gigaom.com/author/om/ and full article at http://gigaom.com/2010/11/15/meet-the-new-new-facebook) and Adam Dachis at Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/5690721/why-you-should-embrace-the-new-facebook-modern-messaging-system).

In some ways it reminds me Google wave, but I wish for Facebook it doesn’t follow the same path.

I agree with Google CEO that this new Facebook features aren’t a threat to Google activities, because the target is different (Google is a quite serious email provider and most of all is more secure than Facebook) and though messaging is integrated with Facebook, IMHO Google is more usable.

Again, I understand FB need to cover a gap and use his vast “installed base” (or addressable market),  but it would have better consolidate and strengthen his features before getting into a such complex addon, with no (substanntial) innovations and more risks for privacy.

This post as a comment also at http://www.betanews.com/article/Facebooks-new-messaging-system-handles-email-chat-SMS-Office-Web-apps-all-in-one/1289847427, at http://www.computerworld.com/comments/node/9196618#comment-708663, at http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/11/facebooks-new-messaging-system-mashes-up-sms-e-mail-im.ars?comments=1&p=21020590#comment-21020590, at http://www.geek.com/articles/news/facebook-introduces-new-messaging-system-e-mail-sms-and-im-all-in-one-place-20101116/comment-page-1/#comment-3924221, at http://gigaom.com/2010/11/15/meet-the-new-new-facebook/?go_commented=1#comment-513643 and at http://lifehacker.com/5690721/why-you-should-embrace-the-new-facebook-modern-messaging-system

Posted in communication, Economy, Other, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Email coming: trick or treat?

Nov12
2010 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Stephen Shankland at Cnet (http://www.cnet.com/profile/Shankland/) reports that Facebook is going to announce his own Email service that will be integrated with Facebook services (full article at http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20022625-264.html).

“[...]Facebook already has a rudimentary system for direct, private messages among its members, including several people in one discussion thread. But it’s missing not just the ability to communicate outside Facebook, but also countless useful features available in real e-mail. Forget filtering, free-form attachments, a means to organize messages, and access from third-party e-mail client software such as Outlook or Thunderbird. [...]“.

I think and agree that mail is a natural extension of Facebook activities, but I ask my self a very complex question on this opportunity.

Facebook is having problems managing its current structure, I’m not confident that will be able a more complex add on such as email.

In my opinion would have been better to consolidate the existing and then focus again on development.

This post as a comment also at http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20022625-264.html

Posted in Other, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , ,

The quest for technology is paved with strange things

Oct09
2010 Leave a Comment Written by hotrao

Mike Elgan at Computer world reports ten things that he doesn’t understand in modern technology (full article at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9190164/10_things_I_don_t_understand_about_consumer_technology).

What follows is my non serious comment, reported after Mike question (btw, his answers are very professional and worth a read, but today I’m in really bad mood and so I need to joke on something… :-) ):

  • Why did Apple make the iPad so slippery? Because Apple earns a lot in maintenance, and so you know the most slippery the more spectacular the crash…
  • Why doesn’t Twitter auto-shorten URLs? Come on, you have the limit to 140 chars in twitter, maybe they felt the need have to have something longer ;-)
  • Why do people call iPod Touch the “iTouch”? Because they are testing Twitter shortening service
  • Why can’t Google Chrome read RSS? Because just came out from nursery; is expected to start reading in a couple of years
  • Why does Windows cover the very button you need to click? Because loves joking or because someone hard coded Murphys law inside of it
  • Why is iTunes for Windows the opposite of every other Apple product? Do You mean heavy and not easy to use? Well is a matter of chance and of doing something you’re not really willing to support and try to boycott windows…
  • Where are those Google personal-time projects? Mmmh this is tricky. Maybe the guys at Google are experiencing gardening projects? :-)
  • Why can’t Facebook be used as an address book? And what would do Plaxo if this was like this?
  • Why can’t I use Google Reader as an RSS Reader? Still mumbling on this…
  • Why are driving directions so tiny on the Google Maps iPhone app? Because the developing team has undergone eye surgery and now spots a coin at 4 miles

This post as a comment also at

    Posted in Other, Tech - Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    What’s strange with Google street view and corpses?

    Oct02
    2010     2 Comments Written by hotrao

    Chris  Matyszczyk at Cnet (http://www.cnet.com/profile/ChrisMatyszczyk/) and Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo report that Google streetview service launched in Brasil captured two distinct dead bodies and that images were removed by Google (full article at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20018320-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 and at http://gizmodo.com/5656497/murder-captured-by-google-street-view-car).

    I’m not surprised of cams having captured this sad moments. Is like having a lot of people watching for you and sometimes you get good things, someother you don’t.

    On the other side I think that is quite impossible to censor this images before going live.

    This post as a comment at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20018320-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20#addcomm and at http://gizmodo.com/5656497/murder-captured-by-google-street-view-car

    Posted in Other, Tech, Thoughts - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
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