Google’s Star Trek doodle is fun to play with

Unlike a lot of Google’s doodles that are interesting homages to inventors, painters, and important events, today’s doodle commemorates the 46th anniversary of the original Star Trek. Unlike most doodles that have limited movement or interactivity, this doodle is very engaging.

Google’s Star Trek doodle shows the original cast as Google letters on the bridge. Move your mouse over the doodle and various different parts will light up. Click on them and you are treated to many of the shows sound effects and little scenes. If you click in the right place, you will find yourself in another scene with more interactive possibilities.


Be sure to mouse over all of the areas before you click on a piece of equipment in the scene that will take you elsewhere. You may find yourself in the transporter room before you have experienced all of the bridge effects. Of course there is an “Away” scene in which the Captain Kirk figure gets to save the day. Just use your mouse and you can find it.

The final scene, as it were, is of course Google’s version of the credits at the end complete with the shows theme music. There are several different actions that can be activated in each scene so if you seem to move from one to the other too quickly, go back and try each one again.

Should you have any questions about the original Star Trek show, just keep playing with the doodle and sure enough you will find yourself on a page that will lead you to the answer for any Star Trek question. For a show that was only on the air from 1966 to 1969, it left a legacy that is much larger than Gene Roddenberry could ever have imagined. It spawned movies, spin off shows, merchandise and a cult following that has only grown with the years. While some of us, I mean you, may have seen the original series when it was first aired, the majority of the current Trekkies have only seen the original on video or one of the spinoffs.

If you aren’t a Trekkie, I’m so sorry, but if you are, get over to Google now and have fun playing.

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Google gifts Nexus 7 prime advertising spot on homepage

Google really wants you to buy a Nexus 7 tablet. No, I mean really really. So much so it has gifted the device a prime advertising spot on its homepage.

The Nexus 7 is Google’s first own-branded tablet. Built by Asus, it’s a 7-inch powerhouse running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It’s not perfect, but the reviews have been very positive thus far. This isn’t surprising as it only costs $199, half the price of the iPad 2, and a full $300 less than the entry-level, Retina Display-boasting new iPad.


Google has already been promoting the Nexus 7 through television commercials and ads across the Web, but it has now brought it home. Literally. As first noted by CNET, the Nexus 7 is now popping up on the Google homepage for some people. This is prime advertising real estate, being one of the most-trafficked pages on the Web.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Google has sought to promote its own products by utilizing its homepage, that distinction goes to the Motorola/Verizon Droid. The Nexus phones and Chrome have also appeared on the Google homepage in previous years. However, these efforts were primarily text-based, while the Nexus 7 enjoys an eye-catching animation.


Google usually keeps its homepage free of clutter in a quest to retain its minimalism. This is excluding the iconic Google logo and the doodles which take its place at random times throughout the year. But advertising is usually off-limits, especially advertising of a visual nature. The Nexus 7 pops its head out of the page several times before emerging under the tagline, ‘The playground is open. The new $199 tablet from Google.’ This links to the 8GB version on Google Play.

The timing of the ad is interesting, coming some time after the Nexus 7 originally launched, at the same time as it became available in several more countries, and just a matter of weeks before Apple is expected to unveil the iPad Mini. It’s at that point that the real battle of the tablets will begin.

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Google+ vanity URLs for celebrities, brands

Google has started rolling out vanity URLs to the biggest celebrities and brands currently using its Google+ social network. Whether us mere mortals will also be afforded the pleasure of being ourselves rather than a random series of numbers remains to be seen.

According to TechCrunch, Google has gifted Google+ vanity URLs to a number of celebrities and brands, including Britney Spears and Toyota. This comes just days after Web comic The Oatmeal was punked with a jokey vanity URL that was character-for-character the same as the one The Oatmeal author Matthew Inman jokingly referred to in a comic mocking Google+.


The reference to “vanity URLs” is a bit of a misnomer. It suggests the only reason anyone could or would want a personalized URL is that they’re vane. The truth is very different. Although I’m sure there are some people out there who would pick a URL for those reasons, most people would choose their actual name and do so purely to make it easier sharing their Google+ profile with others.

These new vanity URLs mean Britney Spears is now reachable on google.com/+britneyspears and Toyota is reachable on google.com/+toyota. The rest of us, who haven’t made crappy pop songs or who don’t sell cars, are still making do with google.com/randomseriesofnumbers … which is just stupid.

Right now I cannot see anyone even remembering the random series of numbers that makes up their URL, let alone them sharing it with someone else who would also need to remember it or write it down. But I bet you could now find Britney Spears’ Google+ profile without sneaking a peek at the previous paragraphs, assuming you have been paying attention to this point.

Facebook started offering vanity URLs in 2009, and pre-empted the rush by allowing its high-profile users to stake their claim in advance. I can only assume this is a similar move on Google’s part, but the company has yet to reveal its plans for mainstream users of the service.

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Google’s employees benefit from death

Google has long been known for its very generous employee benefits. The company has from the start gone out of its way to keep its workforce happy and healthy, with the idea being that that happiness and healthiness contributes to productivity and consequently the bottom line. But it has now taken the idea a step further, in fact as far as you can take it.

In an interview with Forbes, Google Chief People Officer (Head of HR) Laszlo Bock revealed that Google now sees its employees OK even in death. If a U.S.-based Google employee dies while working for the company, his or her spouse of partner continues receiving a pay check – for 50% of their annual salary – for a further 10 years.


Furthermore, all stock held by the employee at the time of death is immediately vested, and any surviving children receive $1,000 every month until they reach 19 (23 if a full-time student). All of this comes without any special requirements, so the majority of Google’s workforce qualify as soon as join the company.

The writer of the piece suggests that this doesn’t offer any benefit to the company, but that isn’t strictly true. The biggest and brightest employees are hard to find and even harder to retain, especially in the cut-throat world of tech giants where companies will do everything they can to lure even the most-loyal worker away to pastures new.

In this context the motive for the after-death benefit becomes clear: it’s another way of Google tempting its workforce to stay put for the longterm. Interestingly the older employees are more likely to be swayed by such an offering, so we could see the mean age of Google’s workforce increasing. Either way it’s one hell of a good deal: giving Google another weapon to retain the best and brightest, Google’s employees enviable peace of mind.

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Google reads the writing on the wall

Google Translate is a clever piece of technology, as is Google Goggles. Stick them together and traveling aboard just became a whole lot easier.

The Goggles technology for Android handsets already has optical character recognition, meaning it can read signs, menus and other printed information, allowing features such as giving you reviews of a particular bottle of wine and food matching tips.


Now Google has had the brilliantly simple (in hindsight) idea of incorporating that with its Translate application. That means users can simply point their phone camera towards a sign or menu, click the camera icon then click screen, and finally use a brushing motion to highlight the text they want translated.

The translation is then available in both text and simulated speech forms. It’s also possible to have the text spoken out in the original language, the idea being this will help people who, for example, want to order something from a menu in the local language but aren’t sure how to pronounce.

At the moment the OCR function is available in Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. Aside from Russian, those all use the same Latin alphabet, albeit with a few additional punctuation symbols.

Google says it is working on other languages, so it will be interesting to see how quickly it can start recognizing Arabic and Chinese writing and how accurate and extensive that recognition is.

It’s not the first time Google has married other technologies with its translation tools. The company has previously worked on combining speech recognition, speech simulation and translation. The idea there is that eventually the whole thing will work quickly enough that two people could have a phone conversation without the need to speak the same language.

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Gmail messages to appear in Google search results

Google is working on including messages from your Gmail account in the results when you use its main search engine. While it could be useful for some, it will need incredibly careful handling to avoid further raising privacy concerns.

The company appears to be aware of the possible creepy image it could cause: even though anyone who thinks about it knows that Google is already searching your Gmail account whenever you ask it to, it could still be daunting to see the two sets of results mixed together.


Because of that, Google appears to be testing the user reaction as much as the technology in introducing the feature. For now at least it is an experimental feature that users must specifically go out of their way to activate. It’s also going to keep the Gmail results somewhat separate for now: they’ll appear in a column to the right of the main search results. The list will only show the sender and subject line, with the user clicking on this to open up the full message.

In time Google wants to add specific tools for particular type of information and display the results at the top of the main column. The first of these will be for flights: carry out a Google search related to flights and the system will check your Gmail messages for flight bookings, then list the flights along with any updated status information from the airlines such as delays or cancellations.

Personally I’ll be avoiding the feature as much as possible because there’s a major flaw in the way it works. At the moment, I’m happy for my wife to jump on my computer when she’s passing my office wants to check something quickly and it’s easier than firing up her own laptop or digging out a portable device.

Naturally I trust her not to take advantage of the fact that she could access my Gmail account if I’m still logged in (and frankly she doesn’t have much interest in its contents.) The problem now is that if she’s still dreaming of diamond earrings and carries out a search for the phrase, Google now seems intent on bringing up results that include the confirmation e-mail from the jewelers for her birthday surprise.

And yes, that is a hypothetical example. Sorry love.

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Google launches ludicrously fast broadband

Google has officially launched a 1Gbps broadband service. And that’s not a typo.

So which city will benefit from this mega-fast (or rather giga-fast) service? New York? San Francisco? LA?


Nope, Kansas City. That’s both Kansas City, Missouri and it’s neighboring Kansas City, Kansas. The area is currently the only planned location for Google’s gigabit service and was chosen based on submissions from people in the city. Symbolically it’s a good pick: there’s a big enough population to make it viable, but it’s still got that heartland, anytown feel that suggests the service isn’t just aimed at major cities with existing tech communities.

The new service, Google Fiber, costs $70 a month. There’s a $300 installation fee, though it’s waived if you commit to a two-year deal. Customers also get 1TB of online storage.

Those who don’t want the high speeds can get a free 5Mbps service; with this deal the $300 is mandatory but can be paid in installments.

Customers can also opt for a combined internet and cable TV package for $150, again with either a two-year commitment or a $300 installation fee. Those who opt for this package get a DVR and a Nexus 7 tablet thrown in.

The services aren’t available to everyone in the cities right away. Instead customers can pre-order now and Google will begin installation in an area of the city (dubbed a fiberhood) when a certain level of the local population is on board. The working plan is that half of all areas (those with the most interest) should have the service by the middle of next year.

Of course, most customers won’t literally be downloading at 1Gbps right away. Those who use wireless networking around their home will hit Wi-Fi’s upper speed limits, while even those with Ethernet cables all over the place could hit barriers. (One solution may be using existing power lines around the home to carry the signal.) Users will also likely experience more situations where the speed they can download at exceeds the speed the server of the site they are visiting can deliver information

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Web giants form Internet Assocation lobby group

Four of the most prominent websites are among those forming a new lobbying group to promote Internet forms. Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google are the first known members of the Internet Association.

The public face of the group is Michael Beckerman, who comes with connections. He was previously an advisor to Fred Upton, the congressman in charge of the committee that deals with the Internet among other issues.


Officially the idea of the group is to have a more united and consistent voice when lobbying for Internet firms, with a principle of promoting ” public policy solutions that strengthen and protect an open, innovative and free Internet.” Unofficially it may also be an attempt to cut costs or spend cash more wisely by avoiding the need for two firms to lobby hard on the same argument.

Beckerman says a full list of the Internet Association’s members and policies will be ready for September. At that point it appears the lobbyists will turn their attention to electoral candidates including potential congressmen.

All four firms known to have joined have increased their lobbying spending recently, with year-on-year rises between 10 percent (eBay) and 90 percent (Google), with a total spend of just under six million dollars between April and June.

It’s certainly true that the clout of these major firms may well lobby for measures that will be welcomed by many web users. For example, Beckerman has already indicated that such a group would have been better placed to fight proposed legislation such as the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. The firms could also take on cable companies and other internet providers that want to limit net neutrality.

On the other hand, until we see a full list of members, it’s hard to know how representative this will be of the web as a whole. There’s a danger it could simply be a big boys club that becomes preoccupied with staving off any antitrust measures that stop major firms abusing their market position at the expense of smaller challengers.

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Google may avoid European court battle

The European Union has announced it is in serious talks to reach a settlement with Google in an ongoing antitrust case. The settlement would avoid a lengthy court case and the potential for large fines.

The case is similar in principle to questions raised by politicians and officials in theUS. It centers on two points: Google has a very large market share inEurope(estimated at 90 percent of searches); and Google appears to favor its own products and services when determining the order and prominence of search results.


Neither of these points is illegal in itself. The argument is that the combination of the two may constitute unfair, unreasonable or even unlawful behavior under European Union trading rules.

There are also claims Google took content from review sites without permission, that it blocks some rival companies from advertising on Google, and that it puts up technical barriers to make it harder for Google advertisers to take their campaigns elsewhere.

Google has now put forward a proposed settlement. The EU says there’s enough substance to the proposals that it is ready to discuss the technical details of how they would work. That, and the fact that the EU has gone public, suggests it is happy with the general principle of what Google’s offering.

There’s no word whatsoever on what the settlement might involve, other than the fact that it’s probably going to involve Google changing its policies rather than paying large penalties. The chances are it won’t formally admit to any wrongdoing as this could open it up to legal action from companies who believe their sites have been unfairly downgraded in Google rankings.

While it’s clear that Google would benefit from avoiding a formal judgment and potentially heavy penalties, the New York Times also notes that a settlement might be in the interests of the EU as well. It argues that by the time the case concluded, any changes the EU ordered might be irrelevant because the Internet world changes so rapidly.

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Google facing $22.5 million fine for Apple sneakiness

Google is reported to have agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle claims that it broke promises about respecting consumer privacy. The fine would be the highest ever paid to the Federal Trade Commission.

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Google’s Nexus Q is made in the USA

What a novel concept, building electronic gadgets in the good old USA. Most of our devices are manufactured in Korea or China. We all know that Apple products are made by Foxconn in China. The fact that Google has decided to manufacture it’s new home media device in the United States may be the start of an American manufacturing renaissance.

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Google I/O: Nexus 7 tablet unveiled

The long-awaited Google Nexus tablet is real, is here, and is serious competition to everything from the iPad down.

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