Google Docs - Finally Readying Support For Offline Mode

Google Docs

Google has already established dominance in the market for cloud-based office suites, with Google Docs, and for months the search engine behemoth has reportedly been testing offline support, but now a member of the Google Docs team confirming that it will begin to unfurl the ability to use the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software while not connected to the Net later this summer.

Offline support from Google Docs that was slated to arrive early this year, has often been an iffy proposition. Last month, Google promised offline Google Docs this summer and said it is testing the feature internally.

But according to Cnet, it is not just internal: the unofficial Google Operating System blog reported a case in which a reader noticed a black status bar at the top of the browser window with the tag line indicating “Offline Docs,” the alert “network connection lost,” and apparent links for “switch to online mode” and “switch to offline mode.”

However, it is a sometimes-on, sometimes-off thing, with Google supporting various means of using Docs offline. In addition, offline Google Docs will also have huge repercussions for Google's Chrome OS, which has been disapproved for being unusable when there is no internet network available; but if you can still edit documents while offline, it could become much more useful.

Offline Edits:

Writing in a Q&A thread on Reddit, Jeff Harris of the Google Docs team quoted as saying, “You are going to see offline start to roll out later this summer. We used to have offline with Google Gears, but it became pretty clear that plugins were not the right approach. We have been reimplementing offline using HTML5 standards like AppCache, File API, and IndexDB.”

“We are some of the first web apps that are really intorducing those standards to the test, so it has taken a while to iron out the kinks,” he added.

As such, it should also be noted that one of those offline applications, IndexedDB, is still in rather early days of the standardization process and has not necessarily won over all the browser makers. Do not be surprised therefore if only early fans such as Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome support offline Docs.

The Gears concept to offline Google Docs provided the feature earlier but with considerable restrictions. For example, spreadsheets could not be edited offline. Technical challenges pop-up when offline Docs go online again, particularly when multiple people are editing the same document, Harris said.

He also explained how the service will work:

Nevertheless, we will release in whatever incremental pieces make sense. But “The long term direction is if you access a Doc URL while offline, it should open the local copy of the doc and let you edit. When you go online all your edits get synced in the background. You should also be able to see a list of your docs while offline.”

“We will need to work through all the knotty problems with how to merge conflicting edits. It is fun stuff.”

Of course, this is pretty inspiring to folks interested in a free and easy-to use Office suite that you can use from just about anywhere. Now the question is when this will happen, and how Google plans to actually implement it.

Read MOre :- http://news.ebrandz.com/google/2011/4119-google-docs-finally-readying-support-for-offline-mode-this-summer.html

Google Launches “Me On The Web” Online Reputation-Management Tool

Google "Me On The Web "

With the astronomical boom in social media networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, managing your reputation online just got easier with Google's newly released tool, dubbed as “Me on the Web,” to help users manage their online identities.

The feature called Me on the Web is a reputation management tool accessible online now. The tool can be found on the Google Dashboard, below the Account details and offers to “help make it easier to monitor your identity on the web,” said Google.

The feature is pretty simple and can be activated for alerts through a user's Google dashboard for mentions of their e-mail addresses or other search terms they associate with their online identity such as a business or product. Alerts can be sent weekly, daily or as Google picks up the mentions.

“In recent years, it has become easier and easier to broadcast information about yourself online through powerful new platforms like social media-networking sites and photo-sharing services,” explained Andreas Tuerk, a product manager at Google.

He recognized that way to supervise your privacy on these sites is to decide who can see this information, determining whether it is visible to just a few friends, family members, or everyone on the web. But Google is taking a different approach. Me on the Web is not a privacy tool.

According to Michael Fertik, CEO of Repuation.com, concluded that he was enormously excited to find more than 100 emails in his inbox Thursday about a new Google application aiming to help people take control of their online identity.

“The biggest thing Google could do is endorse the space, which is really cool,” said Fertik, whose company sells technology for managing online reputations.

The Me on the Web component of the dashboard also offers links to Google resources on how to get content removed from searches and tips on managing your online reputation (including a pitch to create a Google profile, which gets picked up high in search results for your name.)

According to Tuerk, another significant consideration when publishing information on the web is selecting how you are identified when you post that information. That is where Google is putting its efforts.

“We have worked hard to create various identity options into Google products. For instance, while you may want to identify yourself by name when you post an answer to a question in a forum so that readers know the response is reputable, if you upload videos about a controversial cause, you may prefer to post under a pseudonym,” Tuerk said.

He further explained that your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you -- whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag, or a reply to a public status update. When someone searches for your name on a search engine like Google, Tuerk said, the results that appear are a combination of information you have posted and information published by others.

However, alerts can be organized using Me on the Web that will notify you if your name or email address gets mentioned online. It will also suggest some search terms that you might want to consider monitoring. Besides alerts, the tool offers links to resources for information on what third party information is posted about you on the web and tips like how to request content to be taken down.

But with the masses flocking to the web for more and more interaction online on social media networks and the likes with often no clue about the ins and outs of what they are letting themselves in for, especially with the minefield that is online privacy.

While Google Alerts would not detect every single mention of the terms you arrange, it is a good initiative for people concerned about their online reputation, and Me on the Web is a bit more convenient than managing several Google Alerts.

Read More :- http://news.ebrandz.com/google/2011/4108--google-launches-me-on-the-web-online-reputation-management-tool-.html

Google Debuts Voice And Image Search For Mobile And Desktop

Google

In its relentless quest to maintain its position as the de facto resource for searching information on the Internet, global search engine behemoth Google Inc. debuted an array of enhancements to its flagship search box on Tuesday, with new features for both mobile searchers, desktop searchers adding voice queries, drag-and-drop image search and background preloading of the top result page to make search faster and more interesting.

The company, on Tuesday at its Inside Search event in San Francisco, took the wraps off several new features that has bolstered its world-domineering search service once again, alongside minor updates to its mobile web search functionality.

First up, the voice search service for desktop computers, which the Web giant launched, which was earlier available on mobile platforms like iOS and Android is now available on desktop computers.

Voice Search on the desktop moves computing one step closer to the natural user interface that has been the holy grail of computing for decades. With Voice Search, people query Google by speaking aloud. A tiny mic icon appears in the search bar. When clicked, a built-in or hooked-up mic will let you bark out some search terms and Google will pop off to find results online.

Google Voice Search for the desktop (Credit: Google)

"The lust for knowledge does not ends when you step away from your computer, it continues on your mobile device." "In the past year alone, Voice Search traffic has grown six-fold, and every single day people speak more than two years' worth of voice to our system," Google fellow Amit Singhal said in a blog post.

A Google employee demonstrated the power of the voice analysis with complex requests like "pictures of the yellow-bellied warbler" and "weather for Schenectady, New York". The speech recognition feature is useful for difficult-to-spell words and long phrases, according to Google.

Basically, Voice Search on desktop works by utilizing Google's Speech API and will be available to anyone using Chrome 11 in English when it is "released over the next week", Johanna Wright, Google's director of search product management, said in another blog post. The feature, which will be released for 40 languages, also requires a working internal or external microphone. And, for now, it is only available in U.S. English.

"We have endowed tremendous energy into improving the quality of our recognition technology -- for instance, today we teach our English Voice Search system using 230 billion words from real queries so that we can accurately recognize the phrases people are likely to say," Singhal wrote.

In an interview, Singhal said Google's voice recognition technology is far beyond search and that the company wishes to make voice input a ubiquitous component of computing, and will eventually become a staple of services like Google Docs.

"The way we think about voice is that it is an intuitive way for human beings to interact with other human beings or even with phones and computers," he said.

"When you have a voice recognition system that is available everywhere, you just do not think about whether I can talk to this application or not, whether I should type here or talk here. With our vision behind voice, we want to make voice search ubiquitous. But not just voice search, we want to make voice input ubiquitous as well."

Another excellent new feature is the ability to search with an image. Search by Image empowers people to use a picture rather than text to submit a query. Users can drag-and-drop an image into the search box or copy and paste the image's URL into the search bar. Google will analyze your image and find some handy results related to the image.

Google images

One example Google demonstrated during its presentation on Tuesday was using the Search By Image function to determine the exact location where vacation photos were snapped. Google plans to roll the new service out to users in 40 languages immediately.

"The application behind Search by Image examines your image to determine its most distinctive points, lines and textures and creates a mathematical model. We match that model against billions of images in our index, and page analysis helps us derive a 'best guess' text description of your image," Wright said.

Google's Search by Image feature allows people to use a picture rather than text to submit a search query. Photo credit: (CNET News)

In addition, Google plans to release Chrome and Firefox extensions that will allow users to right-click any image on the web to conduct a search. Google's Search By Image application is very similar to the reverse image lookup service like TinEye, developed by Toronto's Idee Inc.

Read More :- http://news.ebrandz.com/google/2011/4106-google-debuts-voice-and-image-search-for-mobile-and-desktop-.html

25-year old dies using Chinese phone

25-year old dies using Chinese phone

If you happen to be a Chinese phone user, here's a shocking piece of news for you. In one of the most bizarre events, a 25-year old man from the Panchmahal district of Gujarat died after being electrocuted by his China-made phone.

The incident occurred when 25-year-old Dhanji Damor was trying to make a call while his phone was plugged in for charging. The victim was pronounced dead by doctors due to electrocution.

Already, the low-cost unbranded China-made handsets have seen the Indian government cracking down upon them for failing to comply on the security standards. Last year, the government was mulling to adopt various steps, including strict surveillance of grey market deals and restriction on import of devices without proper code.

The government had also banned the unbranded Chinese mobiles that do not have IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers. However, they still continue to sell across India's grey mobile markets with the IMEI numbers reportedly fudged.

Read More :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/telecom/25-year-old-dies-using-Chinese-phone/articleshow/8888462.cms

CIA website hacked

CIA website hacked

The public website of the Central Intelligence Agency went down evening as the hacker group Lulz Security said it had launched an attack.

Lulz Security has claimed responsibility for recent attacks on the Senate, Sony Corp, News Corp and the US Public Broadcasting System television network.

The CIA site initially could not be accessed from New York to San Francisco, and Bangalore to London. Later in the evening service was sporadic.

"We are looking into these reports," a CIA spokeswoman said.

Lulz Security has defaced websites, posted personal information about customers and site administrators, and disclosed the network configurations of some sites.

Security analysts have downplayed the significance of these attacks, saying the hackers are just looking to show off and get as much attention as possible.

In the case of the CIA attack, hackers would not be able to access sensitive data by breaking into the agency's public website, said Jeffrey Carr, author of the book Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld.

"All they're doing is saying 'Look how good we are,'" Carr said. "These guys are literally in it for embarrassment, to say 'your security is crap.'"

Lulz only made claims that it attacked www.cia.gov, and there was no evidence on Wednesday evening that sensitive data in the agency's internal computer network had been compromised.

There also were no apparent links to more serious network security breaches recently at the International Monetary Fund and Lockheed Martin Corp. Lulz Security has not been linked to those incidents.

Lulz, whose members are strewn across the globe, announced the attack shortly before 6 p.m. East Coast time.

"Tango down," the group Tweeted, pointing to www.cia.gov.

Although the group, also known as Lulz Boat, fashions itself more as pranksters and activists than people with sinister intent, its members have been accused of breaking the law and are wanted by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Lulz broke into a public website of the Senate over the weekend and released data stolen from the legislative body's computer servers.

In May, the group posted a fake story on the PBS website saying that rapper Tupac Shakur was still alive and living in New Zealand. Shakur was murdered in 1996.

Read More : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/CIA-website-hacked/articleshow/8875574.cms

Microsoft finally loses Word patent battle

Microsoft's Office 2007

Software giant Microsoft finally lost its battle over Word patent with Toronto's i4i Inc. Thursday.

Rejecting Microsoft's appeal, the US supreme court upheld the 2009 lower court order against Microsoft to pay $290 million in damages to the Toronto firm for infringing its patent.

The Canadian company had taken the software giant to court in the US in 2007 over violations of its patent in Word applications and won the case and got $290 million in damages in December 2009.

In its lawsuit, i4i had claimed that the world's biggest software company infringed on a patent granted to it in 1998.

The patent pertained to i4i's technology that can open documents using the XML computer programming language and manipulate complex data in electronic documents. The technology allows users to sort out and manage tons of information by turning complex documents into more accessible databases.

The Toronto company claimed that Microsoft violated its patent when it created Word 2003 and Word 2007 software. Later in 2009, the US court of appeals upheld the lower court order banning Microsoft from selling its patent-infringing Word processing software from January 2010.

Though Microsoft complied with the court order by stopping selling versions of Word with the disputed technology from that date, it challenged the verdict in the US supreme court in August last year, arguing that the current system is disproportionately loaded in favour of patent holders.

i4i chairman Loudon Owen called Thursday's court decision "extremely gratifying'' for his small firm. "It has also become one of the most important business-law cases decided by the Supreme Court in decades,'' he told the local media.

Twitter introduces link-shortening feature

Microblogging site Twitter has finally fulfilled users' longtime wish. The company has introduced an automatic URL shortner. A major complaint that many users had with Twiter has been that its 140-letter cap often makes it impossible to include long URLs in tweets. This forced users to use URL shortening services such as bitly.

Announcing the new feature on its blog the company said, "Today, we're releasing something that many of you have been asking for – automatic link shortening on Twitter.com."

As to how it will work? "Just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com. After you've composed your Tweet and you hit the "Tweet" button, we'll shorten the link so that it only takes up 19 characters," said the company in the blog.

As for the users who want analytics for their links? "You can continue to use your favorite third-party link shortening services," says the company.