Techcrunch
Video: Sergey Brin On His Six Months Using Google Buzz, The China Situation, And More
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Today, Google's social strategy took a big step with the launch of Google Buzz — a new FriendFeed-like feature that's integrated into Gmail, mobile search, Maps, and more (you can see our live notes from the announcement here). Shortly after the event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin fielded questions backstage from members of the press. Our own Steve Gillmor was there to record the conversation (and ask a few questions himself). We've embedded the footage below, and have transcribed some of his answers. In the video, Brin answers questions covering a broad array of topics, including Google Buzz, Google's current situation in China, and the company's research in clean energy. Among the revelations: Brin hopes to eventually remove the task of having to choose between Email, Buzz, and IM, so expect those to converge more in the future. 
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FriendFeed (and Gmail) Founder’s Reaction To Google Buzz: “This Seems Vaguely Familiar”
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As soon as Google Buzz was released earlier today, all the early adopters piled in to give it a spin. Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmal and a founder of FreindFeed, was among them and his initial reaction was: "This seems vaguely familiar . . ." Or, as he put it elsewhere, "There's a FriendFeed in my Gmail. Sweet! :) " It is vaguely familiar to him on various levels. Like FriendFeed before it (which was acquired by Facebook), Buzz acts as a way to bring together different social streams together—Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Google Reader shared items, status updates, shared links and videos. It presents them all in a single stream from everyone you follow from you Gmail contacts. Each item can be commented on, "liked," or taken into a private email or chat conversation. You end up getting comment strings around a single shared link, photo, or video, just like on FriendFeed, except FriendFeed can import items from many more social websites. (Although FriendFeed is not enabled as a connected site for most users, strangely enough it is enabled for Buchheit's account.).
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Baidu Raises Revenue Forecasts In Wake Of Google’s Potential China Exit
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Baidu, the leading search engine operator in China, this afternoon reported blow-out financial results for the fourth quarter of 2009. The company's Q4 profit rose 48.2% to 427.9 million yuan (approx. $62.7 million), or $1.80 a share. Revenue rose 40% to 1.26 billion yuan, or about $184.7 million, compared to the same period a year ago. In the wake of Google's stand against censorship of its search engine in China and its consideration to cease business operations in the country altogether, Baidu - to Wall Street's surprise - raised its sales forecasts for the first quarter of 2010, projecting total revenues ranging from $176 million to $181 million, representing a 48% to 52% year-over-year increase.
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Scrapblog’s New App Lets You Make Pretty Scrapbooks From Your Facebook Photos
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With 400 million users, Facebook is seeing 2.5 billion photos uploaded every month. Scrapblog, a startup that allows you to make beautiful Flash-based online scrapbooks, is hoping to help Facebook users make pretty collages of their photos via a new Facebook app, Share the Love. When you first start using Share the Love, the app will employ Scrapblog's recently launched QuickMix technology to instantly generate a photo collage with up to ten Facebook photos. The photos will be automatically arranged with a set theme, which you can change easily (Valentines themes appear to be set at the moment). Similar to Scrapblog's online site, the app offers users coordinated stickers, backgrounds and captions. And users can easily change photos from the photos they are tagged in and from their personal albums. You can also bypass Scrapblog's technology and start from scratch by picking a theme and choosing the photos to feature. Once you are finished designing your collage, you can publish the scrapbook to your Facebook page and photo albums. 
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Microsoft Seizes 23 Domain Names In One Swoop
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Apple recently made headlines here on TC for depriving an individual of 16 .com domain names that contained some of the company's brand names, including MacBook and iPod. Microsoft saw that move and then played an even better hand: the company was granted no less than 23 .com domain names in one fell swoop earlier this month. Of those, 22 relate to the software giant's desktop operating system, Windows, while one contained the trademark-protected term 'XBOX'. 
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Crunchnotes
A Day In Our Lives At TechCrunch
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Description: Sometimes we get into it a little bit on our Yammer account at TechCrunch. It’s usually me and MG, and every once in a while I like to post the exchanges. See this one for example. Tonights fabulous discussion – embargoes and the frustration they cause.
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Choosing between Buddy and a buddy.
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Description: A couple of weeks ago Loren Feldmen put on the Audience Conference in New York. We supported the conferece, first announcing it and then writing more posts and tweets to help with ticket sales. I also committed to speaking at the event. About a week before the event I was asked if I could foster [...]
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Foo Camp 2009
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Description: Just back from Foo Camp 2009. You don’t see a ton of stuff on the Internet about Foo because it’s mostly off record. Here are my notes From Foo Camp 2008. This year I decided to do something a little different and created an Animoto show with their new video product. Cool stuff. CrunchBase Information Animoto Information provided [...]
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Paul Carr: An open letter to Sam Sethi, on the occasion of him completely losing his mind
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Description: If you’ve been following the whole Sam Sethi/TechCrunch lawsuit debacle (see here and here and here), you’ll want to read this post by Paul Carr as well, where he prints emails from Sethi sent on record. I’m also reprinting below, these things have a tendency to disappear when lawsuits strike: An open letter to Sam Sethi, on [...]
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Enterprise Hacks Opining On The Law, And Other Blogging Tragedies
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Description: Ok, the reasoned low key approach didn’t work. Now it’s time for some more truth. The ridiculous Sam Sethi dispute has gone on for far too long, and far too many have continued to be sucked into his web of confidence only to be spit back out the other end angry, bitter or worse. The complete [...]
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Mashable
Associated Press Returns to Google News
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After more than a month of proverbial radio silence, news stories by the Associated Press are back on Google News.
The AP and Google have been in talks to establish a new agreement that would allow Google to continue to aggregate and host AP content, but because the AP has adopted a hawkish stance with regards to controlling its content online, Google stopped posting new AP stories in anticipation of a fall-through in talks.
Today the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog noticed that AP stories were again appearing on Google News. We have confirmed this as well.
When contacted for comment, Google released the following statement:
“We have a licensing agreement with the Associated Press that permits us to host its content on Google properties such as Google News. The licensing agreement is the subject of ongoing discussion so we won’t be commenting further at this time.”
The AP also responded, simply saying that it had nothing to add to Google’s statement.
Last year, AP CEO Tom Curley said of online news aggregators, “We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves — at great human and economic cost, to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it.” He also said that he and other figures in the journalism industry “must quickly and decisively act to take back control of our content.”
That attitude is obviously in stark contrast to Google’s standard of openness for web content. Even though the AP and Yahoo struck a deal just over a week ago that allows Yahoo to keep posting AP content, we weren’t sure whether or not a Google/AP deal would follow because Google is known for fervently holding the free information line.
If you’re curious what the AP or Google gave up to make the deal happen, you’re out of luck — no details about the deal have been made public yet. Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Tags: ap, associate press, Google, google news, media
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The Location Implications of Google Buzz
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GMAIL USERS: You can now follow Mashable’s official Google Buzz profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mashable
We learned earlier this morning that Google Buzz adds a shared social experience — very similar to FriendFeed and Facebook — to your Google contact circle via Gmail. Google also made it very clear that the mobile component, especially around location, is important to the product as a whole.
Location plays a big role in Buzz — we saw this with the introduction of the snap, Google’s answer to the check-in.
That one key feature demonstrates how right we were when we predicted late last year that “everything points towards Google taking big leaps on the location front in 2010,” and that “Google is interested in further assimilating the Latitude and Place Pages products into a more full-fledged location and recommendation service centered around places.”
The assimilation is Google Buzz for Mobile, and the ambitious endeavor is Google’s attempt to catch up to the likes of Foursquare, centralize the location-sharing experience around Place Pages and collect valuable place data. Here we’ll explore Google’s second attempt at getting the location-sharing formula right, and what it means in terms of the bigger picture.
Mobile Feature Run-Down
The mobile experience supports all the following features and functionalities:
Menu: From the Menu page you can search, select Following and Nearby stream options, navigate to My Posts, and view who you’re following as well as who is following you.
Snap to a location: Google Buzz’s version of the place check-in is a snap-to-location feature that lets you associate your physical location in place form with a buzz/status update.
Buzz: The “Share what you’re thinking” buzz box is located atop the My Posts, Following and Nearby tabs, and it’s the quickest possible route to snapping your location.
Once you start typing your buzz update, you’ll notice that a location is automatically associated with that post. If that location is inaccurate, you’ll want to click the light blue box and select the appropriate location from the list of nearby options. At the very bottom, you can also specify if the post is public or private. Once you select a post mode, your buzz is snapped to that location, and shared with Google Buzz users that are following you.
Replies: Right now the autocomplete reply feature supported in Google Buzz via Gmail doesn’t exactly carry over to the Google Buzz for Mobile experience, which means you won’t currently be able to type official replies from your mobile device just yet. You can, however, view replies as they were intended. Also, clicking on the associated user URL will direct you to the mobile version of the user’s Google Profile.
Streams: In the mobile application you have two stream types: Following and Nearby. Both are straightforward stream options.
Buzz Maps: In the Nearby stream, you can click “Buzz map” to view nearby buzz on a map.
Buzz Threads: Any item in your Following or Nearby streams has the potential to become a thread featuring comments and likes. You can moderate comments to your individual Buzz posts. What’s especially interesting about threads is that your check-ins, a.k.a. snaps, can become interactive conversations. That functionality doesn’t exist in location-sharing apps like Foursquare.
Buzz Permalinks: Each individual buzz and its associated conversation has a permalink, which means you can share individual items. If they’re public, anyone can comment on or like shared buzz items.
Place Pages: Every place in Buzz for Mobile is associated with a Google Place Page. Navigating to the Place Pages is a tad complicated at times, but there are a few ways to do it. If you’ve snapped to a location, you can select “Show map” from the specific buzz and click the link for the location. In the Nearby stream view, once you select a location, you can click “More info” to navigate to the Place Page.
Search: You can search all Buzz updates from the people you follow or just those nearby by selecting the search icon.
Is it Foursquare Re-imagined?
The answer to that question is not a simple yes or no, but Google was clearly inspired by the check-in model that Foursquare made popular. Here we will focus on the primary differences between the two approaches.
Snaps are conversations, check-ins are sport: Google’s approach is conversation-oriented. To snap to a location you need to post a buzz, and that buzz becomes the beginning of a potential conversation with friends. There are no points, no leaderboards, no mayorships and no rewards, but that doesn’t mean those elements won’t be added into the mix in the future. Buzz updates snapped to a location will also appear on Place Pages, which will expose them to a much wider audience.
Location-based deals are place-specific, but not tied to snaps: One of Foursquare’s finer features are the official location-based specials and mayor deals offered by businesses to Foursquare users that check in at their locale. While business owners have the ability to create mobile coupons for their Place Pages and promote them, the idea of snapping to a location and discovering nearby deals doesn’t seem to exist.
Place buzz and chatter: Lately we’ve seen Foursquare become a hub of curated content via its media partnerships, which bring in content from respected restaurant review sites (like Zagat), city tourism offices, reality stars, celebrities and fictional characters to serve as a dynamic and pocket-friendly city guide that travels with you. Right now, Google’s not attempting to separate the venue-related chatter from buzz updates that are meant to be recommendations or tips. Buzz for a particular place is mix of all location-shares and could be perceived as lacking the same value as Foursquare tips and to-dos. As a product that aims to reduce noise, this feature doesn’t deliver on that promise yet.
Place Page Significance
One way to look at the location features of Buzz for Mobile is to see as it another way to encourage business owners to claim their Place Pages. Google has been pushing Place Pages since their launch, and Buzz for Mobile extends the value of those pages. Now all Google Mobile and Gmail users are a few clicks away from Place Pages.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google has finally found a way to support its own system for status updates and to tie those to physical locations in a potentially mainstream way. We’ve already seen that this data is incredibly valuable, especially to businesses and advertisers, and with every snap and its associated buzz, Google is learning more about what we’re doing and where we’re going.
Is Buzz for Mobile Too Ambitious?
While there are advantages to using the location-sharing functionality of Buzz, the mobile application is bloated with features and will be a challenge for the average mobile user to grasp.
The mobile application is certainly a nice complement to the Gmail experience, providing a convenient way to follow along and contribute to conversations. As a location service, however, Buzz for Mobile is overly complex. For those of you who have latched on to the location-sharing trend, the advantages to transitioning your check-ins from more niche apps with built-in rewards to Buzz are nonexistent at present.
Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, FriendFeed, Gmail, Google
Tags: Google, google buzz, location, Mobile 2.0
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Google Buzz: What It Means for Twitter and Facebook
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GMAIL USERS: You can now follow Mashable’s official Google Buzz profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mashable
So far, Google has failed to launch a successful social web product to U.S. Internet users. Orkut has taken off in including Brazil and India, but not in North America. Wave is a neat concept, but it has proven too abstract to catch on.
Is Buzz — Google’s new Twitter and Facebook-like social stream — the product that’s going to win Google a dominant — or at least prominent — place in the social web?
That all depends. Integration with existing social networks are critical for Buzz’s success — especially Facebook. I don’t believe Buzz can enjoy significant success without Facebook integration. When Google unveiled Buzz today, it announced that the app will share your Twitter updates with your Buzz followers. That’s great news, but you won’t be as thrilled to learn that (at least at launch) there will be no integration with Facebook at all.
We ought to consider the consequences of Buzz’s relationships with Twitter and Facebook. What are the relationships? Will Buzz, Twitter and Facebook co-exist elegantly or is this a zero sum game with a winner you can place your bets on?
Google Buzz and Twitter: Probable Peaceful Partners
When you post a new tweet using Twitter, Google can import that tweet and send it out to your Buzz followers with the rest of your Buzz updates. You won’t have to jump through any hoops or use any back-door methods to make it happen. Twitter is officially supported by Buzz — the same is true of Flickr, Picasa, Blogger and YouTube.
However, you won’t be able to publish out to Twitter using Buzz, which makes this all seem less useful. And since Buzz won’t aggregate tweets from your Twitter followers (unless you happen to be following them on Buzz and they also happen to be pushing their tweets into Buzz as described previously), you’ll still have to keep both Twitter and Buzz open to reach all your contacts across both networks.
That’s disappointing, but it’s no where near as disappointing as Buzz’s completely nonexistent relationship with Facebook.
Google Buzz and Facebook: Cold Shoulders
While Buzz and Twitter have some connectivity, there’s none at all between Buzz and Facebook. Buzz doesn’t import your Facebook status updates. It doesn’t post updates to your Facebook feed. It doesn’t display your friends’ feed updates. There’s no Facebook Connect integration at all. When asked about it this morning, Google said it has nothing to announce at this time.
Google is going to have a difficult time building a userbase when everyone who has a Facebook profile (that’s just about everyone who uses the social web at all now) is concerned that they can’t see their friends’ updates. They’ll have to keep using Facebook to stay in touch with their Facebook friends.
With more than 400 million users, Facebook is the world’s largest social network; Twitter by contrast has only 18 million or so. Gmail’s unique visitors numbered around 36 million as of last year. Clearly, Facebook is dominating. Google is attempting to challenge that dominance with Buzz, but Facebook is at the same time planning to move just as aggressively into Google’s territory.
It was recently discovered that Facebook will eventually launch its own webmail service. You can already send messages to e-mail addresses from Facebook, but the execution isn’t as smooth as it needs to be. The new e-mail plan would address that.
Codenamed Project Titan, the service would offer users e-mail addresses ending in @facebook.com. Facebook would become the largest webmail provider overnight. If the service is functional enough, it could threaten Google’s Gmail. People will be able to comfortably make the switch because they won’t lose the ability to e-mail their Gmail contacts — even if they move to another mail provider.
The Outlook: Buzz Won’t Win the Social Web Without Facebook Integration
I predicted at the end of last year that Facebook is well-poised to try to pry web dominance away from Google in 2010. Buzz doesn’t change my mind. Facebook is threatening Google, but Google isn’t threatening Facebook because it doesn’t offer any features so great that they incentivize people to leave behind their existing networks or spend their time updating and following yet another one when their friends are already all on Facebook or Twitter.
Facebook now dominates the social web so completely that it’s difficult to imagine an exodus to a competing service, unless that service offered some revolutionary new features that Facebook couldn’t possibly match — Buzz doesn’t.
I can picture one other success scenario, though: a service that aggregates other services’ features and content, and then offers up its own set of unique perks (like Buzz’s noise-control algorithms) that make the social web experience better. People would feel comfortable switching for the extra perks, because they wouldn’t have to leave their existing connections behind.
The outlook could change if Buzz integrates with Facebook the way it does with Twitter. Unless that happens, though, you’re better off keeping your bets on Facebook in the coming year or two — at least if your standard of success is something greater than niche appeal.
GMAIL USERS: You can now follow Mashable’s official Google Buzz profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mashable
[img credit: Drew Olanoff]
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Gmail, Google, Mashable, Orkut, Picasa, Twitter, YouTube, blogger
Tags: facebook, gmail, google buzz, Google Wave, orkut, project titan, social media, social networking, software, twitter
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Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue Delivers Video from Page to Phone
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Bummed because you don’t have the time to salivate in front of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Ustream? Well, now you can get plenty of SI content sent directly to your cell: All you need is a physical issue of the mag and a camera phone.
Once you pick up your issue (available on stands today), simply search through the pages for the JAGTAGs — or 2D barcodes — featuring a black and white image of what they’re calling a “mobile beauty.” Snap a photo of the JAGTAG and send it via MMS in order to get behind-the-scenes videos of the models sent directly to your phone.
As the web becomes more and more ubiquitous, encroaching on print’s territory (iPad, anyone?), magazines continue to try to find new and different ways to convince people to buy the physical copy (especially as newsstand sales are on the decline).
Back in November, Esquire launched its augmented reality issue, a neat little edition that gave one more content when one held a page up to a webcam. Back then, editor-in-chief David Granger told The Wall Street Journal that the issue was a gimmick, but one that allowed for a more interesting reader experience and cross-platform ad sales.
SI’s efforts with the Swimsuit Edition could be considered a horse of a very similar color. Although mobile technology such as this is far from new, and even though SI has used it in the past (in various articles last summer and in recent marketing materials), the swimsuit issue has a certain cache with SI fans (i.e.: It features girls in swimsuits, and dudes like that).
“The 2010 Swimsuit Edition is a mass media event and JAGTAG is the only 2D barcode solution capable of reaching a mass mobile audience,” said Charlie Saunders, executive director of integrated marketing for Sports Illustrated. Saunders is referring to the fact that you don’t need a smartphone to yoink this content, which opens it up to a wider audience.
Have you picked up the latest Sports Illustrated yet? How’s the view from inside?
[img credit: SI Vault]
Tags: MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, pop culture, software, sports, video
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What Google Buzz Means for Mobile
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GMAIL USERS: You can now follow Mashable’s official Google Buzz profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mashable
Earlier this afternoon, Google announced Google Buzz, a semantic approach to social status updates that live inside Gmail. The demonstration video showed off some of what you can do with Buzz on your desktop — but what seems really exciting is what Buzz can do in your pocket.
Android and iPhone Optimized Sites
If you visit http://buzz.google.com on your iPhone or Android device, you’ll be taken to a WebKit-optimized interface for using and connecting with Google Buzz.
When you do that, you’ll either be asked to log in to your Google account or, if you’re already logged in, you’ll be taken straight into the main Buzz screen. Here you can see Buzz from the people you follow and from nearby locations, view your own posts, and find other people.
The web-based interface fits in perfectly with the Gmail-optimized webpages that iPhone users are accustomed to using — Buzz is merely a new tab in the interface.
Sharing with Friends
You can view Buzz surrounding your followers in a real-time stream. The concept is very similar to something like FriendFeed or Cliqset, in that each status update can become its own conversation.
You can also share and view photographs via Buzz.
The Buzz About Location
One of the most compelling aspects of Google Buzz is its integration with Google’s Latitude service. Using your device’s GPS or Wi-Fi connection, Buzz will find your location (or show you nearby locations) and you can send an update and pin yourself to that location. Unlike Foursquare, where you can just check in to a location, if you want to indicate that you are someplace currently (or leave an opinion about an establishment), you have to send a Buzz message.
The Nearby tab is pretty cool because it shows you information from the public stream about what’s going on nearby. If you’re in a new city or simply trying to find out what’s going on in your neighborhood, this could potentially work like Gowalla or Loopt Mix.
Overall
Like Buzz in general, Buzz Mobile is still very much in development. The web app, while well-designed, doesn’t let you actively manage any of your accounts or connections. It’s also somewhat limited, for the time being, in what you can do — based on what type of access you or your followers have been given.
Once everyone has Google Buzz in Gmail, we’re sure that the mobile options will become a bit more well-rounded. As it stands now, there’s lots of potential, but not a ton of substance.
Have you used Google Buzz for your iPhone or Android device? Let us know!
Reviews: Android, FriendFeed, Gmail, Google, Gowalla, iPhone
Tags: buzz, geolocation, google buzz, web applications
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eHub di Emily Chang
Done.io
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Description: A new simplified approach for to do lists. Exposes only what you need to get done right now with the concept of “shifts.” Any incomplete items at the end of the day are also automatically shifted to the next day’s list. URL: Done.io
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Siri
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Description: A personal assistant in your iPhone. Speak your tasks into your phone and have Siri connect to services and make plans for you. Just like a real assistant, Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your preferences over time. URL: Siri
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app.itize.us
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Description: A curated site of “the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store.” URL: app.tize.us
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MinuteBase
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Description: An online application for writing meeting minutes. It provides you with easy-to-use tools to create meeting agendas, format minutes, assign actions, and share documents with your colleagues and partners. URL: MinuteBase
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GetApp
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Description: Find the right application for your business and IT needs. Choose the most appropriate deployment method. Contact providers and compare different solutions. URL: GetApp
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Del.icio.us
Flickroom - BETA
Date Published: 2010-02-10T00:42:52Z
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Tags: flickr application adobe air photography software tools photo web2.0 lightroom
Typechart - Browse Web Type, Grab CSS.
Date Published: 2010-02-10T00:42:36Z
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Tags: tools font fonts webdesign web design typography css type webfonts web2.0
SimplyBox - Think Inside the Box
Date Published: 2010-02-10T00:42:32Z
Description:
Tags: simplybox organize bookmarking web2.0
Magma
Date Published: 2010-02-10T00:42:10Z
Description: Exploring, discovering, collecting, and tracking online videos.
Tags: video videos social web2.0 streaming viral tracking socialmedia
Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots
Date Published: 2010-02-10T00:41:53Z
Description:
Tags: webdesign tools html web2.0 testing browser
