Google’s Go: A New Open Source System Programming Language, That’s Python Meets C++

Big news for developers out there: Google has just announced the release of a new, open sourced programming language called Go. The company says that Go is experimental, and that it combines the performance and security benefits associated with using a compiled language like C++ with the speed of a dynamic language like Python. Go’s official mascot is Gordon the gopher, seen here.

Here’s how Google describes Go in its blog post:

Go attempts to combine the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++. In our experiments with Go to date, typical builds feel instantaneous; even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go is designed to let you move fast.We’re hoping Go turns out to be a great language for systems programming with support for multi-processing and a fresh and lightweight take on object-oriented design, with some cool features like true closures and reflection.

 

Google Maps Shows Flu Shot Providers in the U.S.

Google has launched a feature in its Maps Web site that lets U.S. residents find nearby locations for getting seasonal and H1N1 flu shots, the company announced Tuesday.

Google previously launched a site where people can monitor current flu-infection levels in the U.S. and abroad.

In launching the flu-shot finder, Google warned that the service doesn’t yet have comprehensive data on all providers because it is still gathering that information.

In addition, Google Maps won’t tell people whether a particular provider has run out of vaccines, a big issue right now with the H1N1 shot, whose production isn’t keeping up with demand. Thus, people are advised to call the providers before heading to their location.

 

Google search primed for new ‘Caffeine’ injection

Google has completed testing on “Caffeine,” a semi-mysterious overhaul of its back-end search infrastructure, and it will soon roll the new platform behind its live search engine.

Google Caffeine

In mid-August, Google unveiled a online sandbox where it invited world+dog to test the new infrastructure, but as noticed by Mashable.com, the sandbox has been replaced by a brief message from the Mountain View Chocolate Factory.

“Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience,” Google’s missive reads. “Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.”

Previously, über-Googler Matt Cutts told The Reg that the new infrastructure was under test in a single data center – though he declined to say which one. A Google spokesman indicates that Caffeine will now be moved to a second data center for live deployment, adding that this will happen “over the next few months.”

In typical Google fashion, the company has been coy about the design of Caffeine. But Matt Cutts acknowledged that it’s built atop a complete revamp of the company’s custom-built Google File System (GFS). Two years in the making, the new file system is known, at least informally, as GFS2.

“There are a lot of technologies that are under the hood within Caffeine, and one of the things that Caffeine relies on is next-generation storage,” Cutts said. “Caffeine certainly does make use of the so-called GFS2.” Caffeine includes other fresh additions to Google’s famously distributed infrastructure, but Cutts declined to describe them.

Speaking with The Reg, Matt Cutts described Caffeine as an overhaul of Google’s search indexing system. “Caffeine is a fundamental re-architecting of how our indexing system works,” he said. “It’s larger than a revamp. It’s more along the lines of a rewrite. And it’s really great. It gives us a lot more flexibility, a lot more power. The ability to index more documents. Indexing speeds – that is, how quickly you can put a document through our indexing system and make it searchable – is much, much better.”

Building a search index is an epic number-crunching exercise. Today, Google handles the task using its proprietary Google File System, which stores the data, in tandem with a distributed technology called MapReduce, which crunches it. But these tools are used across other Google services as well, including everything from search to YouTube.

 

Google buys AdMob for $750 million

Google buys AdMob

The advent of the Droid is not the only sign of Google’s increasing focus on the mobile management marketplace, with the search titan yesterday announcing that it would purchase mobile advertising network AdMob for $750 million.

Analysts say that Google has pursued a multi-part strategy in its moves to conquer the mobile market as thoroughly as it has online search. Its free applications and extensive integration of other online products have made Android – especially in its zippy version 2.0 – the fastest-rising star among mobile operating systems.

AdMob is a giant company in its own right, serving as the mobile representative for Ford and Coca-Cola, among others. The purchase will allow Google to integrate and index AdMob’s networks for online and mobile searches, improving website visibility and making the search market even more valuable.

An Associated Press report cites ad research firm eMarketer’s prediction that while the mobile advertising market is currently a fraction of the size of the general online market, mobile will grow much more quickly than its stationary cousin.

 

Google Gives Wi-Fi Away Free at 47 U.S. Airports for Holidays

Google free Wi-Fi

Call it an early holiday gift from Google to millions of airline passengers. Google said will be offering free Wi-Fi to travelers across the United States starting Tuesday at 47 airports. Google says the Wi-Fi will be available until January 15, 2010. Google says it will also extend the free Wi-Fi offer to Virgin America flights within the continental United States.

For a complete list of participating airports visit Google’s dedicated Free Wi-Fi for the Holidays Website.

The FAA estimates 100 million people will travel back and forth across the country during the holidays, and those hunkered down in airport terminals due to weather delays will likely appreciate the free Wi-Fi.

Google has partnered with airports across the country, as well as Time Warner Cable, Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group and many others to offer Wi-Fi. Because Google’s partners don’t have a presence in all U.S. airports Google’s free Wi-Fi won’t cover everybody traveling this season.

Google’s move follows a similar free Wi-Fi offer from Yahoo. On Tuesday, Yahoo announced that it would provide free Wi-Fi for an entire year in New York’s Times Square.

Here is breakdown of how Google’s free Wi-Fi offer works:

Get Online For Free

Airports across the country offering Google’s free Wi-Fi include Boston’s Logan Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Las Vegas’ McCarran International, Seattle’s SeaTac and many others. But there are some notable absences from Google’s free Wi-Fi list including major hubs and popular destinations like Chicago O’Hare, LAX in Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Dallas-Fort Worth and all three New York-area airports. On the upside, however, Google says that Seattle and Burbank airports intend to offer free Wi-Fi for an indefinite period as a result of this free Wi-Fi program.

Contests and the Spirit of Giving

Starting next Monday, you will be able to win prizes by submitting photos of yourself using free in-flight or airport Wi-Fi during the holidays. Google doesn’t specify what the prizes are or what constitutes a winning photo, but it looks like you’ll be submitting photos to Picasa, Google’s online photo storage and sharing service. To get more details about the photo contest, you have to enter your e-mail to Google’s Holiday Wi-Fi Photo Contest page.

Google is also encouraging free Wi-Fi users to open their hearts and their wallets this year. When you log on to free Wi-Fi from any of the participating hotspots this season, you will be given the option to give back by donating to your choice of three different charities via Google Checkout. Charities include Climate Savers Computing, One Economy Corporation and Engineers Without Borders USA. Google says it will match donations across all the free Wi-Fi hotspots up to $250,000, and the airport that generates the most donations by January 1, 2010 will receive $15,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. Check out Google’s charity page for more information.

The Fine Print

Taking a closer look at Google’s offer there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of sneaky catches–unless you consider a request for donations a catch. Google says you will not need to enter any credit card or other payment information to get the free Wi-Fi, but if you usually buy day passes to Wi-Fi services like Boingo watch out when selecting a network. Among your available wireless networks will be paid hotspots and Google’s complimentary Wi-Fi, so make sure you choose the free service and save yourself a few dollars. One other thing Google doesn’t address in its announcement is whether its gift of free Wi-Fi will be ad supported or not.

You should also know that Google says it “will have access to some aggregate, non-personally identifiable information.” This should not come as a surprise to regular Google users, but if you’re squeamish about Google and its data practices then free Wi-Fi may not be the gift for you this year.

 

Google gets more time on books deal

Google Inc. and a group of authors and publishers have until the end of this week to revise a proposed settlement over the company’s plans to make millions of book available online.

A revised agreement had been due to be submitted yesterday to US District Judge Denny Chin. The judge, who had been scheduled to review the final agreement last month, extended yesterday’s deadline to give Google and the others more time to respond to questions about the plan to create a digital book library.

In a letter sent to the judge yesterday, the two sides said they plan to file a request for preliminary approval of the settlement by Friday.

They said they have been in talks with the US Justice Department, which had filed objections and said it was concerned about the “breadth of the proposed settlement.’’ The most recent meeting with the government was last Friday, the letter said.

Google, authors, and publishers are now trying to reach a new settlement to narrow the class of books to be covered by the deal. The talks also have focused on how to bolster protection for copyright holders who can’t be located, people familiar with the talks said.

Google was sued in 2005 by authors and publishers who said the company was infringing their copyrights on a massive scale by digitizing books without their permission.

Under the agreement, Google, the publishers, and authors groups would set up a Book Rights Registry to compensate copyright holders whose works were scanned.

It also would seek to identify the rights holders of so-called orphan works whose owners aren’t known.

Companies including Amazon.com Inc. say the settlement would give Google unfair control over a vast database of books online.

Also objecting are the governments of France and Germany, states including Missouri and Connecticut, authors from Japan and Austria, Time Warner Inc.’s DC Comics, and a group that includes Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

 

Google Co-founder Sergey Brin Fires Back at Google Book Search Critics

Google co-founder Sergey Brin lashed out at critics of Google’s Book Search settlement with authors and publishers, arguing that no other company or organization has stepped up to offer to scan the millions of out-of-print books and make them available to users. Brin argued against the claims that Google Book Search is a compulsory license and was sympathetic to concerns about user privacy. However, he sarcastically disputed Amazon and Microsoft’s notion that the deal stunted competition or limited consumer choice with respect to out-of-print books.

Sergey Brin Fires Back at Google Book Search

Google Book Search is the search engine giant’s proposed settlement with the Author’s Guild and Association of American Publishers to scan millions of books online and offer them to people for fees, with authors and publishers receiving the bulk of licensing revenues. The deal, announced one year ago this month, would settle a class-action lawsuit going back to 2005, but has been bogged down in a New York district court.

Nearly 400 parties have filed positions on the matter, with the majority of them opposing the deal for various reasons. The Department of Justice expressed concerns about the agreement’s treatment of book licensing rights and myriad other issues. Privacy advocates, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, fear Google’s Book Search system will not adequately protect data on users’ reading habits.

Rivals such as Amazon, Yahoo and Microsoft oppose the deal because they fear it will give Google too much control over orphan works, those books whose authors are unknown or cannot be found.

Brin, who is also Google’s president of technology, addressed all of these concerns in an op-ed published in the New York Times Oct. 8. It was a rare move for Brin, who like co-founder Larry Page prefers to steer clear from public speaking and let Google CEO Eric Schmidt serve as the company’s top spokesman.

Brin argued against the claims that Google Book Search is a compulsory license, noting that rights holders can set pricing and access rights for their works or withdraw them from Google at any time. He was sympathetic to concerns about user privacy, noting that Google has created a privacy policy specifically for Google Book Search.

Brin also sarcastically disputed the notion that the deal stunted competition or limited consumer choice with respect to out-of-print books. He wrote:

“In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns. Today, if you want to access a typical out-of-print book, you have only one choice—fly to one of a handful of leading libraries in the country and hope to find it in the stacks.”

 

Google Voice Could Bypass Apple’s Restrictions As A Web App

iPhone owners may ultimately get their chance to use Google Voice? and it may happen before the FCC finishes its investigation into why Apple rejected the app in the first place. That’s because Google is reportedly working on a web-based version of the Google Voice app, meaning iPhone users won’t have to go through the App Store to get it.

Google Voice App for iPhone

The NYT’s David Pogue first reported that Google was “readying a replacement” for the app that would include the same SMS, cheap long-distance calling and voicemail management features. InfoWeek followed up with Google, and though the company didn’t outright confirm the rumor?it didn’t refute it with this emailed statement either: “Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users, for example by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.”

The only way that Apple would be able to prevent people from using the Google Voice app-as-webpage would be for AT&T to block the site specifically. And given the almost instant scrutiny that both companies fell under after the app was initially blocked?not to mention AT&T’s reputation for being surveillance-friendly?that’s a highly unlikely outcome.

 

Google OpenID’s now up with Google Apps

Google has announced that now users can log in to web sites of third parties (which implement OpenID Google Federated Login API) with their Google Apps account. OpenID is a safe and private SSO technology that is slowly, but surely it is adopted.

Some of the web sites that are already included support big names such as Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors, and Ping UebEKS using identity. Ping Identity solution that allows users the ability to access these and many other Saas apps from one place.

What do you think about Google’s OpenID’s implementation? Now add your comment about it and we will discuss!!!

 

Microsoft-Yahoo Deal : A Rival for Google

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal announced Wednesday is likely to help Microsoft much more than it will hurt Google. And for Yahoo, it’s a mixed blessing.

The single biggest effect of the deal is that the now-separate auctions to place ads on the search engines of Microsoft and Yahoo will be combined. Since the two companies don’t have all the same customers, the total number of bidders will increase right away. And more bidders will be attracted to a marketplace that now has 30 percent of the search-ad inventory.

Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Against Google

More bidders for the same supply should lead to higher prices. That means more money for Microsoft and also for Yahoo, which will get 88 percent of the revenue from searches on its sites.

But that doesn’t mean that Google will lose anything. It still has the largest marketplace, the best advertising technology and thus the highest revenue per search. Even if Microsoft earns more, the bids on Google won’t necessarily go down.

Search is different from other media, in which advertisers set a budget and then allocate it between properties. Many search advertisers are more quantitative. They calculate the value of a click to their site, often based on the likelihood of a visitor buying whatever it is they are selling. They are typically happy to buy as many clicks as they can at that price. So if Microsoft and Google both have good search engines attracting a quality audience, they both will get active bidders, raising the total amount spent on search ads.

Google will start to feel pain only if its share of searches starts to fall. And it’s not clear that this deal will do much to change market share.

It certainly helps Microsoft to be able to claim that it is the undisputed Avis to Google’s Hertz. Its brand will benefit from the small tag line crediting Microsoft’s Bing on Yahoo’s search pages. And it now gets access to much of Yahoo’s search technology.

However, that’s not really enough. Yes, Bing has a nice design and a few useful features that have gotten noticed in the marketplace. But I don’t think that is much of a return so far on the billions of dollars Microsoft has spent on search. Yahoo historically has done a better job with its search engine. And since the two companies will spend at least a year trying to combine systems, Google has another year in which to expand its technical lead in search.

The best thing this deal does for Microsoft is to clarify its position in the search business. As Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, told The Times, “I got an opportunity to swing for the fences in search.”

Clarity, however, is still not a part of Yahoo’s story. Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s chief executive, blogged that the company wants to be “the center of people’s lives online with properties like our homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, etc.” But she doesn’t quite say what Yahoo will do to earn that central spot.

Sure, eliminating search simplifies its business and shaves $200 million a year in expenses. But for Internet users, Yahoo has yet to show that it is becoming more essential, not less. A nice new design for its home page is nowhere near enough.

For advertisers, Yahoo’s display ads will no longer be able to run on the same platform as its search ads. Google and Microsoft, which will still compete fiercely with Yahoo in display, can offer integrated systems.

Perhaps the best Yahoo can hope for is that this deal will get Microsoft and Google so locked into a battle over search that those companies will take their eyes off other areas in which Yahoo can thrive.