bitbol

From past experiences on this blog, I have found that Google employees are best contacted through public posts. In this particular post, I must voice my distaste at the newest (9/5/07) update.



I am not a fan of wasted space. White space is acceptable in some places, but the newest update of Reader has added an intangible void. The left column has become unnecesarily wide. It must be 50-75 pixels wider than it once was. Also, the new icon to hide the sidebar was poorly implemented. The icon simply hogs space and ruins the consistency of the design (note the difference in spacing of sidebar items relative to column space).

Update (9/6/07): They finally added a search bar to Reader. At least something was done right.

Labels: Design, Google, Rants

Round-up:

• Google is being sued for their use of sponsored links. From what I can tell, it is a suit that should not even exist. Perhaps I am missing details, but there are two ways that the "problem" occurred. The first is that a company googlebombed the competition to get their name first. The other is that people are too stupid to know what the "sponsored links" box is. I bet on the latter. As far as I can tell, Google isn't even involved in the conflict (other than the search result).
• What Google is involved in is a matter of comedy. Google wrote a bad check. An Adsense publisher found that the check bounced when trying to cash it- not what you would expect from a billion dollar company. The publisher also reached phone hell in Google's computer handling of calls.
• Police brutality on video. While I don't approve of what the fans did in this video, I don't blame them. Police these days seems to believe that they can do anything. If they officers had simply carried the man off the field, everything would have been avoided, but they repeatedly hit the man with the nightstaffs (of all things). There was no reason for what they did.
• The republicans are not big fans of civil rights.
• Edwards: Bush's remarks border delusional.
• Optimum copyright period, as determined by economics: 14 years.

I have a feeling that I am going to be busy this summer.

Labels: America, Bush, Copyright, Edwards, Google, Iraq, Legal, News, Politics, Video

Today's news round-up:

• Google took a big bite in the rear when the Health Advertising blog published a negative review to Moore's Sicko. Google took in all of the negative headlines over this story. Since then, the author of that post has stated that it was only her opinion. But that does not explain why Google allowed that to be published, and it is still untouched since the coverage. I think that Google made a huge mistake in even getting involved. As such a large company, they have no business in making such statements.
• Obama outdoes all other democratic candidates in fund-raising. He must be making a good impression on people.
• AT&T is ruining Apple's reputation. Some AT&T stores were forcing customers to buy accessories with the phone. This has to be Apple's biggest mistake. They may have a flawless device, but ever time the AT&T blunders, Apple takes a hit.

I am finishing up my Apple Store post mentioned yesterday, so expect it tomorrow.

Labels: Apple, Collections, Google, News, Obama, Politics, President '08

The weather here is unbearably hot. Thankfully, I get air conditioning for the time that I am here. Here's the round-up:

• There is a short interview/internal Microsoft email about life at Google. It really gives a nice perspective about how people at Google live. It is interesting to see Google compared to a college.
• A police officer was put on leave after a videographer caught him fighting with a group of young teens for skateboarding. Much of the officer's actions were unprovoked, and it appears that there is no justification for his actions.
• Headline: FEMA knew!! Um... surprise?
• Slightly dated news, but Fox News viewers are less informed than Daily Show viewers. I think this is funny as a "news organization" loses to a comedy show. America at its best.
• There is a cute little story of the 15 year journey of fleet of rubber ducks. The ducks were washed off a cargo ship, an have been floating around the world in the ocean currents.
• Reports are saying that year-old Apple employees get a free iPhone. Another great reason to want to work for Apple. Anyone who recently quit may (or may not) be upset.

It can cool off in New York City any time now.

Labels: America, Apple, Collections, Google, Microsoft, News, Politics

It's just smoldering in NYC, but it's nice where there is air conditioning.

• The RIAA buffoons are at it again, but in some of the most disgusting ways. This time, the cronies called a 10 year old's school to intimidate her. The target was the mother, but it is simply gross to see a collective of jackasses that are so disrespectful of everyone. And the other thing I don't get is why congress or judges won't do anything to stop them; oh wait- bribes.
• Trying to fight copyright infringement, an Aussie ISP regularly deletes media files: any file ending in .mp3, .avi, .mov, and .wmv. This is a prime example of how stupid people ruin things for everyone else. And by people, I mean recording industry goons.
• Cheney decides that he really is part of the executive branch.
• Ann Coulter claims that the Edwards are using her attacks as a way to raise money. I think her logic is a bit backward: when she attacks, Edwards' name is all over the news, thus people notice him and then donate. I may offend many with this, but anyone who listens to a word that woman says I deem a babbling moron.
• Google is complaining about Microsoft, people are saying Google is just jealous, but everyone has a point. I don't like that Google is being so aggressive to get their claim to fame, but I also think that Microsoft is still a monopoly. I mean, not like Vista's market share is large or anything, but Microsoft cannot lock you into their product in the way that they do. Microsoft deserves to be called a monopoly for life because of the way they treat consumers.
• Warren Buffett, the world's third wealthiest man, asks for a tax raise for the rich, citing that all rich pay a smaller proportion into the system.
• Giuliani praises Regent University for their "wonderful" influence.
• The bald eagle is about to be delisted from the endangered species list. While there is no longer a threat of extinction, there is no reason to stop protecting it. Perhaps we need another list for animals that must be protected. Why do people think that it is alright to trample animals and their environment? Cows, sure, we eat them. Eagles on the other hand are simply birds that have no reason to be shot.

I'm beginning to love New York.

Labels: America, Cheney, Collections, Copyright, Giuliani, Google, Internet, Legal, Microsoft, News, Politics

Google is taking a big step forward with their newest option to take the services you use offline. They have just released Google Gears, which allows you to use the services even without an internet connection. In my case, it offers to store 2000 items from Google reader for reading offline.

This is where Google's word processor really comes to compete with Microsoft word, but not just yet. Documents aren't yet supported by this program, but I expect that will be in due time.

Labels: Google, Internet

Google has finally made it easier to access all of the services they offer. Now, the Google homepage has a bar of links for different search divisions (web, images, etc). There is also a drop down for the lesser-used items like patent search, calendar, etc.

Now that we have this, what I want to see is a "smart" link bar. By that I mean, links to the services you use the most are the most prominent. The other option would be to allow people to individually select what links they would like to show up in the link bar.

Labels: Google, Internet

Google is confident that they are protected by the law in the Google vs. Viacom lawsuit. Google says that they are protected by copyright law because they have done everything that was required of them. From the article:

Viacom said that by the time it filed the lawsuit, it had identified over 150,000 clips on YouTube that infringed its copyright and asked for them to be taken down. Viacom also argued that YouTube's reliance on rights-holders to notify it of cases of infringement places an unfair burden on them.

Wait! It's unfair to Viacom that they have to notify YouTube? It's unfair that YouTube is 100% responsible for monitoring the thousands of videos uploaded every day. It's not as if Google is a pain to work with; they remove all the clips that they are sent notices for. What are they complaining about?

Labels: Google, Internet, Legal, News, YouTube

Information has been uncovered that suggests that even though Microsoft offered a higher bid, DoubleClick opted to join Google instead. Here's how I see what happened: Google initially stepped in the bidding, surely driving the price up, but apparently Microsoft stayed put. Then, Google acquired DoubleClick causing Microsoft to get mad and fight it.

As much as I don't trust the amount of information that Google collects, I still prefer them over Microsoft. Microsoft has a terrible track record for respecting users, while Google is the opposite ("Don't be evil"). The only complaint that I have about today's technological state is data retention; if companies would purge it once and a while, that would alleviate many people's privacy concerns.

Labels: Advertising, Google, Internet, Microsoft, News

I don't care about much about what Google does, but there has been recent coverage of a growing issue. Matt Cutts, a Google employee, has solicited the help of people to report paid links to Google. There has been quite an outrage among the internet about this, and many are pissed.

Google seems to be abusing their control of the search market. They are calling out for people to report sponsored links, and are penalizing people for writing posts/links for money. Google, more and more, is seeming like the identity that would love to control the internet.

Google is increasing approaching becoming the Microsoft of the internet. Step by step, I am pulling my out of different services simply because Google seems to focus too much on money. Blogger has gone for months without any kind of update. Google Analytics is confusingly complicated to navigate. The only product actively being improved is advertising and search- the moneymakers.

Labels: Advertising, Google, Internet, Rants

Determined not to be one-uped by Google, Microsoft is starting an antitrust case against Google. It's the pot calling the kettle black here. Microsoft has always been fighting antitrust lawsuits, and now they are calling out at others.

I think that this is just jealousy and Microsoft is made that Google stepped in and took DoubleClick. Microsoft could have stopped this had they bought DoubleClick themselves. I think they are just mad because they can't make money off the internet like Google is succeeding in doing.

Labels: Advertising, Google, Internet, Microsoft, News

Google has announced that they have acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in stock, which is nearly twice as much as what they paid for YouTube. I thought that Google wanted this for to expand their advertising network, and is what happened.

I mentioned before that DoubleClick uses tracking cookies to make the ads relevant to what people view, but borderlines invading privacy. Perhaps Google will live up to the "do no evil" and stop the tracking cookies and make the ads less intrusive.

Labels: Advertising, Google, Internet, News

Don't worry, not everything is cars now, still some tech in between. Google is reportedly interested in buying DoubleClick, the advertising company. Their intent is still unknown, but I speculate that it is to gain more control over the advertising network.

DoubleClick offers video advertising (which I have seen), and almost surely this is what Google wants. Google hasn't gotten far with their video ads, so this is likely to gain those customers.

Perhaps if Google buys out DoubleClick they can stop the questionable practices of DoubleClick. DoubleClick (in the past at least) uses tracking cookies to "serve the most relevant ads," but I block DoubleClick for that very reason. Google would have the ability to stop that if they buy them out.

Labels: Advertising, Google, Internet

Google has announced their newest service: TiSP. To get started, sign up and they send you a free installation kit. From there, you simply flush the unit down the toilet where it then connections to the sewer's fiber optic network. I waited all week for Google to do their April fools joke, and this one was pretty funny.

Labels: Google, Internet

The Google Blog just got a redesign so it is now similar to some of its counterparts. I like the redesign, not that I ever actually go to the blog itself (RSS for me). The only thing that bothers me is the amount of "stuff" thrown into the sidebar. To be honest, I don't care about other Googler's websites, otherwise I would already be reading them. [via Google Blogoscoped]

Labels: Google, Internet

I don't blame them. Link. [via digg]

Labels: Google, Internet, Microsoft

After the initial lawsuit against Google/Youtube, the dirt is out against Viacom. One of their own properties, iFilm, could potentially hamper their copyright lawsuit. The site in question, iFilm, also contains copyrighted material to which Viacom doesn't not own the rights.

This is turning into one of those sorts of things where the verdict is practically expected before any progress is made. In this case, Google is in the best position. Viacom is already looking like the antagonist because of their overly aggressive attack on the video-sharing site. Everything comes down the the media companies demanding the far-reaching control of everything.

Viacom admits that they want to "show our content in an environment we control" (read in TIME). TIME magazine makes a point that people enjoy the neutral platform that is YouTube. YouTube works with all operating systems, typically free of annoying ads, and lets you share them. Media companies don't want any of that. They don't wan to share.

Labels: Google, Internet, Legal, News, YouTube

Viacom, a leader in TV broadcast, has sued YouTube/Google for copyright infringement. They should be happy the stuff is on YouTube. I don't watch TV (except select shows), so the internet is the only way I would see anything from them. They should make a deal with Youtube already. From the article:

Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws. In fact, YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site, thus generating significant traffic and revenues for itself while shifting the entire burden - and high cost - of monitoring YouTube onto the victims of its infringement.

Viacom says that Google isn't doing anything to stop infringement, but that is false. Google has announced a plan to deal with this. The whole problem lies in the fact that no program can be 100% true, and not without false positives. It also doesn't recognize fair use. The media companies just need to make content available themselves if not through YouTube; that is what the consumers want.

Labels: Google, News, Technology, YouTube

Microsoft and Google are starting a battle over copyright infringement, but the kick is: neither infringes on the other's copyrights. Microsoft is suing because Google makes money from other people's work by adding advertisements or affiliate sales for books. The way I see this, Microsoft is saying: "I don't think it's fair that you are making more money than us." I see nothing wrong with the way that Google does business.

Google searches shows snippets; a whole article requires you to go to the site to read it. You can tell Google not to cache your site easily with robots.txt. Book searches only show a few lines at a time; Google also gives a link to Amazon where you can buy the book- they are promoting further sales of the book!

In other Google news: Google CEOs take $1 salaries like Steve Jobs. They make more than enough money in stocks.

Labels: America, Google, Legal, Microsoft, News

Google has released their Australia Day fly-over pictures. There is a lot of zoom, but the beach images are too poor of quality to actually make out much of any details.

[via googlified]

Labels: Google, Internet