Betting On Google

Google's stock has climbed over $500 per share and it has been acquiring different companies left and right. If you look at the corporate world, you could see that it is a very common practice anyway. One may argue that Google may eventually grow too big and become the second coming of the evil empire (Microsoft), but we can worry about that later.

Interestingly enough, the online gambling industry is picking this up as well. We are starting to see people placing bets on which company Google is going to acquire.

At this time, Facebook has the best odds with 3 to 1, followed by CNETs GoDaddy and Associated Press. My guess is, Google will acquire fifty more companies before getting to these guys ...

Using Google Reader Offline

Google announced today you can start using Google Reader offline. To do so, you have to install the browser plugin from Google Gears. Once it is done, you can download your feeds and read them offline. To get started, click the "Offline" link in the top right of Google Reader.







It definitely helps if you travel a lot, trains, flights, etc... I'm wondering if it works in the mobile version.

Google Blogger API

Google Blogger just released a new copy of Blogger API Developer Guide.

The Blogger data API allows you to develop your own applications to view and update Blogger content in the form of Google data feeds. Your client application can use the feeds to create new blog posts, edit or delete existing posts.

A couple of things that can be done with the Blogger data API:

• Add a running list of blog posts and comments to a site.
• Create a desktop application or plugin that allows users to create and post entries from the desktop.
• Create a blog aggregator application.

The Google Blogger API certainly doesn't look too popular in the blogosphere. It looks like there are lots of catch up to do to compete with WordPress.

Smart Google Search

You would be surprised what kind of information you would be able to get by using some Google search operators in a Google search.

This video shows you how to use Google to look at unsecured video cameras and webalizer information of other websites:

Habitaquo - What is it?

For the last two days, the word "habitaquo" topped the search chart in Technorati. It looks like a Spanish word for me, so I look it up in Google Translate and found out that it doesn't have any meaning. Why does this word has large number of searches and blog posts then? Technorati's WTF on habitaquo,

google.dirson.com launched a SEO contest in which the winner will be the website appearing on the first position of Google SERPs on May 23rd with "habitaquo" word. The first prize is an Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo so there are lots of blogs inserting this new word.

Google search result page has different rankings on the same keyword in different countries/cities. Users in NY, Seattle or Toronto may see different results on SERP even if they type in the same word because they are using different data centers. Hence, google.dirson.com also specify the IP of the data center "64.233.167.100". You would be able to find out more information on Google datacenter here.

Google Mobile Search Open

Google opened their new mobile search today. This time, they have made some significant improvement to their mobile web search, which minimize the number of clicks to get to where we want to go to.

The biggest improvement I see with the new Google mobile page is that it is now customizable, pretty much like the the personalized Google home page. You can add information you interested directly to the homepage, including movie listings, stock updates, weather and site feeds. They have also made some improvements with the search interface itself and the mobile search algorithm.

You would be able to access the Google mobile web with your computer instead of using your cell phone here.

Google Plus Box in Google Finance

Google has launched a new plus box feature in its search result (looks like this ). This plus box feature can be found in two types of search results: maps and stock information. Google has always been finding ways to improve Google Finance to take on Yahoo Finance and this is one of the enhancement.


You can find a plus box next to the home pages of companies listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX. Click on the plus box icon in the business listings and it would expand and display the latest stock price, chart, and company information.

Google's Blog Software Hijacked by Scammers

According to Fortinet, a security vendor, Google's blogger.com is being hijacked to spread malware through fake blogs. Genuine-looking blogs on topics as wide-ranging as "Star Wars, school, furniture, Christmas, cars and girlfriends" are now being created to host a variety of script-initiated malware. It would be impossible for visitors to spot the danger of these sites, which now number in the hundreds, the company said. Although they look genuine, it appears that all the sites have been specially crafted to fool visitors.

Source: PC World

Blogger's Blog Search New Feature

Blogger's Blog Search has just made some changes to its look and the design. It was just updated today to give the same feel with Google, and it was tested in the usability lab and showed good results. It also added a new function called the "date-restrict options" along the sidebar, which allows user to pick the date range of the blog posts. I think this feature is pretty unique and I have never seen any other blog search has this feature. This is definitely useful to search for something that requires a time frame.

Google Maps Traffic, thinking ahead!

Parislemon has brought this new feature in Google Map to my attention, "Google Map Traffic". Google Blog explained this feature,

"For more than 30 major U.S. cities, you can now see up-to-date traffic conditions to help you plan your schedule and route. If you're in San Francisco, New York , Chicago, Dallas, or any of the other cities we now include, just click on the traffic button to show current traffic speeds directly on the map. If your route shows red, you're looking at a stop-and-go commute; yellow, you could be a little late for dinner; green, you've got smooth sailing."

Now, Googler can use it to find a better route to get to work and avoid some traffic. It is also a good news for the carriers. I am pretty sure this feature is going to be mobile friendly eventually and lots of people would be using it on their iPhone/Smartphone. It will replace the current GPS we had in our cars because we can carry it anywhere. Google might have re-defined GPS as "Google Positioning System" on this one.

How bad is DHL serving Toronto Customers?

If you type in "DHL toronto pickup" in Google.ca (Toronto IP), you would be able to see even Google can't find anything from DHL canada. Nothing from DHL is in sight, not even any Adwords ads.

Look closer, and you would be able to see MathPoints' post ranked #4 on this search term. Yep, it is this bad.

Make Something Worth Talking About: Seth Godin

Marketing guru Seth Godin presented @ Google last year. This video has the highest rating among all the Seth Godin's Google Video.

Gmail's definition of the world is pretty small

There was a post from Gmail, "Anyone in the world is now welcome to create a Gmail account at mail.google.com/mail/signup. Enjoy!"

But the truth is Gmail is only opened to the public in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Japan. Gmail's definition of the world is pretty small!

I wondered how many of the 3,000 people who dugg this story knew that they just fell for yet another Gmail hoax.