Pod1 Blog

Google claim this will be the worlds most widely distributed sporting event, I’d like to see the same with the World Cup.

There was no need to watch the Oscars live this week you could have used Google instead, the search engine has released some lovely graphs to show how search traffic trended through out the night as different categories and winners were announced. I suppose this is one way to miss all those ‘gushy’ acceptance speeches. Anyway here is Google’s take on their lovely graphs, enjoy;-)

Winners
Throughout the night Oscar®-related searches rose and fell as nominations were introduced and winners announced. Avatar had the most searches before the ceremony, but as The Hurt Locker received more awards, searches for that film exceeded all others and peaked when it won Best Picture. Precious also had a good run throughout the night. Its peak matched that of “Avatar” during the ceremony:

Click on the image above for the full article

Checkout the newly redesigned homepage for www.jigsaw-online.com. The new design was introduced to aid the merchandising of the site. Allowing the client to promote more products and offers direct from the homepage while allowing users easy access to the area of the site they require.

It’s also much better for SEO, the site has already improved rankings for a number of generic search terms thanks in no small part to the category navigation now being on the homepage.

There is one thing that isn’t in any doubt Google Buzz has certainly lived up to its name and generated more than it’s fair share of buzz since launch but unfortunately not all for the right reasons.

By far the biggest concern to date has been around Privacy Issues which Google has been quick to address but it seems in many peoples opinion not quick enough. This has resulted in the filing of a class action complaint, yesterday in San Jose federal court, on behalf of a Florida woman Eva Hibnick. The complaint claims Google has broken a number of laws relating to electronic communication, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The problem arose with the way that Google effectively turned Gmail into a social networking site overnight without informing users and leaving them to opt out or run the risk of allowing access to a wide range of information that they would have preferred to remain private.

Google has apologized for various Buzz shortcomings in a series of blog posts and took steps to address many of the concerns, including allowing users to shut it off completely, but otherwise is refusing to comment.

Google is no stranger to legal disputes but this may have a wider impact on how it approaches Social Media in the future. With many still trying to work out how best to use Wave, Buzz was an important next step for Google and with a more considered launch approach could have been an instant success.

…With a beta launch to all English language searchers.

Google Social Search is a standard search results page add-on that displays socially relevant content from people in your online social circle, as determined by your Google Profile.

One recent addition includes Google Images, now when you use social search you might see relevant pictures from the people in your social circle. These are photos that members of your social circle have published publicly on the web through photo-sharing sites like Picasa and Flickr.

Looking at the screenshot above, you can see two links for “My social circle” and “My social content.” These links take you to a new interface where you can see the connections and content behind your social results.

- Clicking on “My social circle” shows your extended network of online contacts and how you’re connected.

- Clicking on “My social content” lists your public pages that might appear in other people’s social results.

This handy table from last weeks NY Times lets you see where the big 4 tech companies are concentrating their efforts. Click on the table for the full article

Earlier in the week the news was all about how many Twitter followers Bill Gates had amassed, now it appears the reason behind this was the launch of his new web project ‘The Gates Notes’, as the introduction to the site below explains.

“Welcome to the Gates Notes

Since leaving my fulltime job at Microsoft to dedicate more time to our foundation, a lot of people have asked me what I’m working on. It often feels like I’m back in school, as I spend a lot of my time learning about issues I’m passionate about.

I’m fortunate because the people I’m working with and learning from are true experts in their fields. I take a lot of notes, and often share them and my own thoughts on the subject with others through email, so I can learn from them and expand the conversation.

I thought it would be interesting to share these conversations more widely with a website, in the hope of getting more people thinking and learning about the issues I think are interesting and important. So, welcome to the Gates Notes.”

Google has threatened to pull out of China as a result of what it describes as “a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China”.

In a post yesterday on Google’s own blog the search engine outlined the details of the attack.

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I really like this as it plays to the British fascination with the weather:)

“This app searches Twitter for real-time snow reports and displays them on the map…

Tweet the hashtag #uksnow, the first half of your postcode, and rate the snow that is falling out of ten (0/10 for nothing, 5/10 for steady snow and 10/10 for arctic blizzard conditions).

For example: #uksnow NG9 3/10. Add your snow photo links and see them show too.

The map automatically updates every minute.”

Google has launched a new feature for its Android phone that searches using the camera instead of keywords to identify landmarks, works of art and products.

See it in action below…