Google Docs & Spreadsheets, sometimes referred to as Google Docs, is a Web-based word processor and spreadsheet application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents and spreadsheets online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Docs & Spreadsheets combines the features of two services, Writely and Spreadsheets, which were merged into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations, originally designed by Tonic Systems, is expected for the summer of 2007.
Documents and spreadsheets can be created within the application itself, imported through the web interface, or sent via email. They can also be saved to the user's computer in a variety of formats. By default, they are saved to Google's servers. Open documents are automatically saved to prevent data loss. Documents can be tagged and archived for organizational purposes.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Orkut
Orkut is an Internet social network service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Friendster and MySpace, Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of easy-to-setup simple forums (called "communities") of users. For a short time between October 2006 and April 2007, Orkut permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. In April 2007, Orkut introduced polls in communities
Google News
Google News is an automated news aggregator provided by Google Inc. The Google News website was introduced as a beta release in April 2002. The service came out of beta on 23 January 2006. There are different versions of the aggregator for more than 20 regions in 12 languages, with more added all the time. Currently, service in the following languages is offered: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (traditional and simplified characters), Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Arabic, Hebrew, Norwegian and Swedish.
To quell any charges of reporting bias, Google claims that the service is fully "automated" with no human editors. However the sources included are determined by human review, and their selection has come up for criticism. The first major issue came in 2003 in regard to the inclusion of Indymedia sources, after an anti-semitic posting was included with Indymedia's syndicated articles. Google received complaints, and decided to remove all Indymedia postings, claiming it had not sufficient editorial controls to justify its inclusion as a news source. Indymedia's issues were shortly resolved and Google News includes a limited number of its postings. In March 2005 attention was called to Google's inclusion of the white supremacist National Vanguard magazine, and the resulting controversy forced Google to remove that site from the service. In another case, Google was criticized for not including sources which are censored in China. In the official Google Blog on 9/27/2004, the Google Team wrote: "For users inside the People's Republic of China, we have chosen not to include sources that are inaccessible from within that country."
To quell any charges of reporting bias, Google claims that the service is fully "automated" with no human editors. However the sources included are determined by human review, and their selection has come up for criticism. The first major issue came in 2003 in regard to the inclusion of Indymedia sources, after an anti-semitic posting was included with Indymedia's syndicated articles. Google received complaints, and decided to remove all Indymedia postings, claiming it had not sufficient editorial controls to justify its inclusion as a news source. Indymedia's issues were shortly resolved and Google News includes a limited number of its postings. In March 2005 attention was called to Google's inclusion of the white supremacist National Vanguard magazine, and the resulting controversy forced Google to remove that site from the service. In another case, Google was criticized for not including sources which are censored in China. In the official Google Blog on 9/27/2004, the Google Team wrote: "For users inside the People's Republic of China, we have chosen not to include sources that are inaccessible from within that country."
Google Desktop
After initially installing Desktop, the software completes a full indexing of all the files mentioned above. After the initial indexing is completed the software continues to index files as needed. Users can start searching for files immediately after installing the program. After performing searches, results are returned in an Internet browser on the Desktop Home Page much like the results for Google Web searches.
Google Talk
Google Talk is a computer application for Voice over IP and instant messaging, offered by Google. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005.
The Google Talk client is currently only available for Windows (2000, XP, Server 2003, and Vista), but with the release of the Google Talk gadget, a user on any operating system with a web browser can use Google Talk. Other XMPP clients, like Pidgin, do however support other operating systems. Check the list of Jabber client software for compatible software.
Instant messaging between the Google Talk servers and its clients uses an open protocol, XMPP, allowing users of other XMPP clients to communicate with Google Talk users. VoIP in Google Talk is based around the Jingle protocol. The technology used within the Google server network however is not publicly known.
The Google Talk client is currently only available for Windows (2000, XP, Server 2003, and Vista), but with the release of the Google Talk gadget, a user on any operating system with a web browser can use Google Talk. Other XMPP clients, like Pidgin, do however support other operating systems. Check the list of Jabber client software for compatible software.
Instant messaging between the Google Talk servers and its clients uses an open protocol, XMPP, allowing users of other XMPP clients to communicate with Google Talk users. VoIP in Google Talk is based around the Jingle protocol. The technology used within the Google server network however is not publicly known.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Spamdexing
Spamdexing is any of various methods to manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, usually in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system. Search engines use a variety of algorithms to determine relevancy ranking. Some of these include determining whether the search term appears in the META keywords tag, others whether the search term appears in the body text or URL of a web page. Many search engines check for instances of spamdexing and will remove suspect pages from their indices.
The rise of spamdexing in the mid-1990s made the leading search engines of the time less useful, and the success of Google at both producing better search results and combating keyword spamming, through its reputation-based PageRank link analysis system, helped it become the dominant search site late in the decade, where it remains. Although it has not been rendered useless by spamdexing, Google has not been immune to more sophisticated methods either. Google bombing is another form of search engine result manipulation, which involves placing hyperlinks that directly affect the rank of other sites[1]. Google first algorithmically combated Google bombing on January 25, 2007.
The earliest known reference to the term spamdexing is by Eric Convey in his article "Porn sneaks way back on Web," The Boston Herald, May 22, 1996, where he said:
The problem arises when site operators load their Web pages with hundreds of extraneous terms so search engines will list them among legitimate addresses. The process is called "spamdexing," a combination of spamming — the Internet term for sending users unsolicited information — and "indexing."[2]
The rise of spamdexing in the mid-1990s made the leading search engines of the time less useful, and the success of Google at both producing better search results and combating keyword spamming, through its reputation-based PageRank link analysis system, helped it become the dominant search site late in the decade, where it remains. Although it has not been rendered useless by spamdexing, Google has not been immune to more sophisticated methods either. Google bombing is another form of search engine result manipulation, which involves placing hyperlinks that directly affect the rank of other sites[1]. Google first algorithmically combated Google bombing on January 25, 2007.
The earliest known reference to the term spamdexing is by Eric Convey in his article "Porn sneaks way back on Web," The Boston Herald, May 22, 1996, where he said:
The problem arises when site operators load their Web pages with hundreds of extraneous terms so search engines will list them among legitimate addresses. The process is called "spamdexing," a combination of spamming — the Internet term for sending users unsolicited information — and "indexing."[2]
Google Bombing
The first Google bombs were probably accidental. Users would discover that a particular search term would bring up an interesting result, leading many to believe that Google's results could be manipulated intentionally. The first Google bomb known about by a significant number of people was the one that caused the search term "more evil than Satan himself" to bring up the Microsoft homepage as the top result. Numerous people have made claims to having been responsible for the Microsoft Google bomb, though none have been verified.[4]
In September of 2000 the first Google bomb with a verifiable creator was created by Hugedisk Men's Magazine, a now-defunct online humor magazine, when it linked the text "dumb motherfucker" to a site selling George W. Bush-related merchandise. A Google search for this term would return the pro-Bush online store as its top result.[5] Hugedisk had also unsuccessfully attempted to Google bomb an equally derogatory term to bring up an Al Gore-related site. After a fair amount of publicity the George W. Bush-related merchandise site retained lawyers who sent a cease and desist letter to Hugedisk, thereby ending the Google bomb.[6]
In April 6, 2001 in an article in the online zine uber.nu Adam Mathes is credited with coining the term "Google Bombing." In the article Mathes details his connection of the search term "talentless hack" to the website of his friend Andy Pressman by recruiting fellow webloggers to link to his friend's page with the desired term
In September of 2000 the first Google bomb with a verifiable creator was created by Hugedisk Men's Magazine, a now-defunct online humor magazine, when it linked the text "dumb motherfucker" to a site selling George W. Bush-related merchandise. A Google search for this term would return the pro-Bush online store as its top result.[5] Hugedisk had also unsuccessfully attempted to Google bomb an equally derogatory term to bring up an Al Gore-related site. After a fair amount of publicity the George W. Bush-related merchandise site retained lawyers who sent a cease and desist letter to Hugedisk, thereby ending the Google bomb.[6]
In April 6, 2001 in an article in the online zine uber.nu Adam Mathes is credited with coining the term "Google Bombing." In the article Mathes details his connection of the search term "talentless hack" to the website of his friend Andy Pressman by recruiting fellow webloggers to link to his friend's page with the desired term
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