Salesfoce in Google App Engine

Salesforce.com is set to announce that it is connecting its Force.com development platform with Google's App Engine.

The news, follows Salesforce's recent announcement of a similar arrangement with Amazon Web Services' Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3).

Google's App Engine, is aimed at developers who want to quickly and easily build scalable Web applications, while AWS is positioned as a more generalized, flexible infrastructure platform for serving all types of programs.

Meanwhile, Force.com provides a database, Java-like programming language, integration and workflow capabilities, and user-interface design tools for creating business applications that run on Salesforce's cloud infrastructure.

Google said the integration will foster the creation of new Web applications and further demonstrate the power of the Web as a platform.

The announcement is the latest stage in Salesforce and Google's relationship, which has also resulted in an integration between Salesforce and Google Apps, and could prompt another round of speculation that the search giant will buy Salesforce.

Google announces unlocked G1 for developers

If you're a developer itching to get your creative developer hands on a T-Mobile G1, good news for you.

An especially good news if you happen to be a developer who lives outside an area covered by T-Mobile.

Google has announced a SIM- and hardware-unlocked version of the first Android smartphone.

To get an Android Dev Phone 1, you'll first need to register as an Android developer on the Android Market site, which entails a one-time setup fee of $25.

Then the device will cost you $399 (free shipping here in the States). To accommodate demand, Google says it's one device per developer account--for now.

The device will be available for purchase in 18 international markets, including the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary. And more territories are on the way, Google says.

Now go build us some amazing apps, developers! Or if you're just pretending to be a developer to nab one of these, go enjoy your new unlocked smartphone!

Recession hits Google

The Wall St. Journal reports that Google has realized its "torrid growth" can't go on forever and is implementing a series of belt-tightening moves aimed at helping it weather the current economic downturn.

These include cutting back on engineers' less promising "pet" projects (so much for that vaunted 20% time), while focusing more on probable profit-generators such as display ads and mobile phone advertising.

While the moves are disappointing -- especially for the engineers that Google lured in with promises of a blank checkbook -- they aren't surprising in this economic climate. But Google's success has always been predicated on its engineer-run culture. Keep aiding the customer's Internet experience and the revenue will follow.

As Google cut costs, it has to make sure it also doesn't cut opportunities. Google's new mindset is captured in these recipes:

• New hires go to revenue-generating groups first.


• Ad-sales reps now have to meet quotas.


• More employees now find their pay tied to performance.


• Standard procurement, and price paid, across departments.


• Hiring only when needed, not just when talent is available.


• Earmarking funds for only the most promising projects.


• Building data centers only when capacity needs require them.

Source: PCWorld

Chrome will add extensions

Google has published its plan to build into Chrome its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.

The Chrome extensions document, spotlighted Saturday by Google programmer Aaron Boodman, doesn't include a timeline, but it does shed light on why the project is a priority for Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome.

When Google launched Chrome three months ago, it promised a Chrome extensions framework. Extensions are a popular feature of Chrome's most likely rival, Mozilla's Firefox, and one very popular extension is AdBlock Plus.

And AdBlock makes a specific appearance on the list of extension uses that Google said it would like to support eventually:

• Bookmarking/navigation tools: Delicious Toolbar, StumbleUpon, Web-based history, new tab page clipboard accelerators.

• Content enhancements: Skype extension (clickable phone numbers), RealPlayer extension (save video), Autolink (generic microformat data--addresses, phone numbers, etc.)

• Content filtering: AdBlock, Flashblock, privacy control, parental control

• Download helpers: video helpers, download accelerators, DownThemAll, FlashGot

• Features: ForecastFox, FoxyTunes, Web Of Trust, GooglePreview, BugMeNot

Google Street View available in New Zealand

Google has announced the launch of Street View on Google Maps in New Zealand.

More than 100 metropolitan areas in six other countries around the world are presently visible in street view, which first launched in the United States in May 2007.

Tourism New Zealand has selected a gallery of Street View images that showcase some of New Zealand's best tourist attractions and locations to the world.

Many other organisations have already identified significant opportunities for Street View to be used in travel, tourism, house buying and renting, education, and helping make small businesses easier to find.

Google has gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all New Zealanders to benefit from this feature.

Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads, and blurs identifiable faces.

Anyone can easily flag for removal images that they consider inappropriate by clicking on “Report a concern” at the bottom of the Street View image in question.

The Street View imagery was collected by camera-equipped cars that drove public roads in New Zealand over the past 12 months.

Flash 10 for Google Android

Adobe showed at the Adobe MAX 2008 developer conference Flash 10 running on Android.

The Apple iPhone might never get Adobe Flash because it would impact Apple's software control over the iPhone.

This is a real disadvantage for the iPhone as Flash is very popular on the web especially for video playback and online games.

When the Flash Player 10 will be released on the Android OS is not known yet.

Any smartphone with a 200 MHz or better processor and 16 MB of RAM should be able to run the new version of Flash, opening many phones up to the software. A completely capable web browser is also required, implying support of typical standards.

Previously, Flash was only available on a few smartphones via Flash Lite, a greatly stripped down version of the software.

Google tests Picasa for Mac beta

After Linux and Windows users, Google's Picasa photo management tool is currently being tested for Macs.

People familiar with the matter say the search engine giant has just begun internal beta testing for the Mac-native version of the software.

While its proximity to a final release is still unknown, Picasa for Mac would serve as one of Google's few fully offline Mac apps and has often been one of the most conspicuous omissions on Apple's platform from a company otherwise known for its cross-OS friendliness in programs like Google Earth and SketchUp.

The company has previously made gestures towards integrating the app with Macs, including iPhoto and web plugins to upload images to Picasa's Web Albums service. To date, however, most observers have seen Picasa's basic organization, editing and sharing features as making the app a direct competitor to iPhoto that hasn't been as necessary as on Linux or Windows platforms, which have generally gone without rough equivalents.

Google sorts one petabyte in 6 hours

Google has sorted a record 1 terabyte of data on 1,000 computers in only 68 seconds, which breaks the previous mark of 209 seconds established in July by Yahoo.

Team leader Grzegorz Czajkowski wrote that the team followed the rules of a standard terabyte sort benchmark and used Google's MapReduce software framework that supports parallel computations over large (multiple petabyte) data sets on clusters of computers. Yahoo's effort had featured a 910-node cluster, and used Hadoop, an open-source MapReduce implementation.

The sort benchmark, which was created in 1998 by computer scientist Jim Gray, specifies the input data (10 billion 100-byte records in uncompressed text files), which must be completely sorted and written to disk. Not content with just rewriting the record book, the Google team then decided to up the ante in sorting massive volumes of data.

One petabyte is a thousand terabytes. One way to put that amount in perspective, according to Czajkowski, is to consider that the aggregate size of data processed by all instances of MapReduce at Google was, on average, 20 PB per day in January 2008. A paper explaining MapReduce on the Google labs site says that the upwards of one thousand MapReduce jobs are executed on Google's clusters every day. So the infrastructure team's MapReduce job that extended the benchmark factors out to 50 typical MapReduce jobs, or one-twentieth the total of all daily MapReduce jobs run on Google's clusters.

Layoffs in Google

Rumor of the day is that even Google is not as immune to the recession as we used to believe with 500 people already laid off and a total of 10 thousand to be affected as well.

And while the blogosphere is actively engaged in a conversation about the huge number of layoffs, everyone agrees that the rumor is most probably wrong and the number of people will not reach anything near 10,000.

The figure of 10,000 itself arrives from the fact that Google has 10 thousand people working for the company as temporary workers, or contractors without all the full-time employment benefits involved. This arrangement both makes the expenses lower as these workers are not paid benefits or offered stock options and also makes the company look healthy to shareholders as the productivity per employee is higher than it could be if everyone was actually counted.

Laying off personnel classified as temporary workers (or in this case cancelling or not renewing their contracts) does not require public reporting - which explains why we did not know of the 500 people already out of their jobs if this actually happened. Still it is rather surprising that no one of the 500 people sent a tip to a technology blogger who would have gladly covered the story given the existing trends of the layoffs coverage. But some commentators suggest that the people were requested to sign non-disclosure agreements which could explain why we have heard nothing about it.

Use Google Docs Via Gmail with a new gadget

Gmail users can now add a Docs gadget to the sidebar of their Gmail inbox that will let them access files as well as drag and drop content into e-mails.

By default the gadget shows a list of your most recently accessed documents, but you can change this to documents you own, you have opened or you have starred. And let's not forget search - you can find any document by typing a few letters into the search box.

Users interested in the gadget will have to add it themselves via Gmail Labs. To access it, sign into Gmail, click Settings, and select the Labs tab. Find the Google Docs gadget at the bottom of the page, click Enable, and save your changes. Gmail will reload with the Docs gadget intact.

This gadget isn't just about accessing your documents. You drag any document from the gadget into an email you are composing and the unique link to your document automatically shows up in your email--a quick and easy way to share your documents with others. Users can also create a document while composing an email with the "New" menu in the gadget.

SearchWiki, your personal customized search

SearchWiki, the new Google search lab tool is a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results.

With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong.

These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users. Google stores your changes in your Google Account. If you are wondering if you are signed in, you can always check by noting if your username appears in the upper right-hand side of the page.

The changes you make only affect your own searches. SearchWiki is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the "See all notes for this SearchWiki" link.

This new feature is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic, giving people tools that make search even more useful to them in their daily lives.

Google shuts Lively down

The 20% time project Lively is now facing the end of it’s life, as Google announced today that the virtual chat and meeting tool is set to be shut down by the end of the year. In a concise post Google notify users about the shut down:

"In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives. But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off.

That's why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business. Lively.com will be discontinued at the end of December, and everyone who has worked on the project will then move on to other teams.

We'd encourage all Lively users to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms."

And, that's all folks...

DoCoMo to sell phone with Google Android

Japan's NTT DoCoMo and South Korean partner KTF will jointly develop a smartphone using Google Android software for launch next year.

DoCoMo owns 10 percent of KTF and the two companies have been jointly procuring handsets to cut costs.

Smartphones, which combine the capabilities of personal computers and mobile phones, have been gaining popularity in Japan, in part led by the July introduction of Apple's iPhone.

DoCoMo aims to introduce the Google phone at a price about 20 percent lower than existing smartphones, as it will save costs on software development using the Android software, the report said. Google is offering the software for free.

The new phone would be the first Google phone to be sold by Japanese and South Korean carriers.

A DoCoMo spokesman said the company had not yet decided to launch an Android-based phone next year.

Local search available for China

Users already using the AJAX Search API for local search, should now be able to search for businesses in China without having to make any changes.

Try typing "hotels in Beijing" in your site or app which uses the Google AJAX Search API, and you should see some results. This version of Google's local search for China has maps for a number of cities and information on businesses. Maps are provided by mapabc.com.

To take advantage of local search functionality, take a look at the AJAX Search API. The samples are also particularly useful.

The Google AJAX Search API lets you put Google Search in your web pages with JavaScript. You can embed a simple, dynamic search box and display search results in your own web pages or use the results in innovative, programmatic ways.

For Flash, and other Non-Javascript environments, the API exposes a raw RESTful interfaceNew! that returns JSON encoded results that are easily processed by most languages and runtimes.

The Google AJAX Search API provides simple web objects that perform inline searches over a number of Google services (Web Search, Local Search, Video Search, Blog Search, News Search, Book Search, Image Search, and Patent Search). If your web page is designed to help users create content (e.g. message boards, blogs, etc.), the API is designed to support these activities by allowing them to copy search results directly into their messages.

Google maps available in Argentina

Google maps product manager for Latin America Marcelo Quintella, announced today the availability of Google Maps service in the major cities of Argentina. In this way, Argentina ceased to be a white island in Google maps as of today.

We must remember that Microsoft with its service Livemaps was the predecessor in the area, but Google does not want to get out of the arena. In a first stage, the service will be only a visual aspect and the search for basic directions. In a few days may also be available on mobile devices. In the future, the plan is to include the remaining features of Google Maps in Argentina: search for specific addresses with more complex data, the "From here" functionality, search for shops and even StreetView (the latter for the coming year) . In addition, Quintella said: "The information will cover the spaces in the 80% of the population area. " This includes major cities like Buenos Aires, Rosario, Mendoza, Bariloche and Cordoba among others.

The reason why Argentina was not even present at the Google maps service is because the company had no material with sufficient coverage and quality for Argentina. Google began to work with the company Geosistemas, which has the necessary information for the implementation of the service.

Speak to Google with your iPhone

Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company’s search software for the Apple iPhone. Google’s voice search software works only with iPhones, but the company plans to make it available to other phones.

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available soon in iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest hotel?”. The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location.

The ability to recognize just about any phrase from any person has long been the supreme goal of artificial intelligence researchers looking for ways to make man-machine interactions more natural. Systems that can do this have recently started making their way into commercial products.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft already offer voice services for cellphones. The Microsoft Tellme service returns information in specific categories like directions, maps and movies. Yahoo’s oneSearch with Voice is more flexible but does not appear to be as accurate as Google’s offering. The Google system is far from perfect, and it can return queries that appear as gibberish. Google executives declined to estimate how often the service gets it right, but they said they believed it was easily accurate enough to be useful to people who wanted to avoid tapping out their queries on the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard.

The service can be used to get restaurant recommendations and driving directions, look up contacts in the iPhone’s address book or just settle arguments in bars. The query “What is the best pizza restaurant in Noe Valley?” returns a list of three restaurants in that San Francisco neighborhood, each with starred reviews from Google users and links to click for phone numbers and directions.

Auction-based ads on YouTube

YouTube officially unveiled an auction-based advertising system, similar to the one Google pioneered, that promotes sponsored video clips alongside regular search-engine results on the website.

The move tries to take advantage of YouTube's new status as the No. 2 Web search provider. It recently passed Yahoo and now trails only its corporate parent, Google, in terms of searches conducted.

YouTube wants to emulate the success of Google, which became the first company to turn searches into huge profits. "What we're trying to do is bring the best parts of Google and the best parts of YouTube together," said Matthew Liu, product manager for the service, called YouTube Sponsored Videos.

Google bought YouTube for $1.7 billion two years ago and has been looking for ways ever since to capitalize on its popularity. With the economy in the grips of the deepest recession in a quarter of a century, the search giant needs some help restoring Wall Street's faith in its growth prospects.

YouTube's new sponsored video program allows advertisers to create ads and bid for placement alongside certain keywords, through a self-service website modeled after Google's AdWords system for search ads. YouTube says the approach, which is initially available only in the United States, levels the playing field by making the ads available to individuals and small businesses as well as major brands.

Videochat available in Gmail

You can now use voice and video capabilities in your Gmail chat. From within Gmail, you can have an actual conversation with someone, or even chat face to face over video.

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in, quit all open browser windows, and install the plug-in.
Sign in to Gmail.
In the Chat section of your Gmail, select the contact you want to call. If they have a camera icon next to their name, you can make a voice or video call to them; just click Video & more.

If your friend doesn't have a camera next to their name in your chat list, you can invite them to download the Gmail voice and video chat plug-in from the Video & more menu in a chat window.

Even if your friend doesn't have a video camera, you can still make a voice call or a 1-way video call.

Debugging tool for Google Android

Klocwork, known for its debugging software, today announced a new version of its Java source code analyzer for the Google Android operating system.

“We created about a dozen checkers that look for specific mistakes you could make in the Android environment,” CTO Gwyn Fisher said.

Devices built on Android – only T-Mobile’s G1 smartphone presently – feel from a developer perspective like ordinary open-source Web servers, he said. Fisher said that approach has some benefits for designers, but it also means there can opportunities for denial-of-service attacks if software is not thoroughly checked for errors.

For more tasks, Google did well at abstracting coders from hardware. “The chances of you being able to cause real trouble are slim,” Fisher said.

Klocwork’s Insight product for Android is slated to ship later this month. A server analysis license costs $15,000 and per-user licenses cost $1,750. Licenses are also available bundled for enterprises.

Next up for Klocwork is an Apple iPhone version. Fisher declined to state a timeframe for that.

Gmail is now more enterprise friendly

Those of you who haven't dusted off your Gmail accounts in a while, please do so now. You may well not recognize it from when it was launched in 2004 by invitation only. Google has jazzed up the application to the point where it is more of a personal productivity tool for businesses than a consumer communications application.

Take for example, new features that let users add Google Calendar and Docs gadgets, or small applications also known as widgets, to the left-navigation bar next to Chat and Labels.

Users can now view their Google Calendar agendas and get alerts, and search recently accessed Google Docs from within Gmail. The idea is to improve worker productivity by saving users the trouble of leaving Gmail to check their appointment schedules or access their files.

These gadgets are not exactly what you think of when you look at early Gmail or older Yahoo Mail or Microsoft Live Hotmail Web mail applications. Here's another example of how Gmail is going wide, albeit on the communications front.

Users have long been able to send instant messages from Gmail with the chat feature, but on Oct. 30 the Gmail team attempted to open this up a little more by allowing users to send text messages from their Gmail accounts to contacts' mobile phones.

This is a prime example of how Gmail is also becoming an ubercommunications tool with which users can do more than just send and receive e-mail messages. Of course, Gmail is not without its hiccups.

This chat SMS (Short Message Service) feature has only been enabled on a few user accounts because Google wasn't able to turn it on for everyone. The company is working on a fix, which should be ready this week or next.

These features hint that Google may have bigger plans for Gmail, perhaps something along the lines of making the application the hub of work productivity communications for its tens of millions of consumer and business users.

Think about it like this: If you were able to access all of your Google Apps from Gmail, wouldn't you be inclined to make Gmail your home page?

You wouldn't need to go to each application individually, you could just launch everything from Gmail as the central hub for working and playing online. This is something neither Yahoo nor Microsoft seems ready to offer yet.

Google maps available for Blackberry Enterprise Server

The iPhone may have outsold RIM's Blackberry devices here in the U.S., but Google knows that getting their software in the hands of business execs still means building Blackberry apps. The company's recent offering in this arena is a new, deployable package of Google Maps for Mobile which IT admins can distribute using Blackberry Enterprise Server.

Although an end user may not understand why their IT admin won't let them use their iPhone at work, what they don't understand are the complexities behind the need for standardization of equipment. Once an IT shop standardizes on one platform, like the Blackberry for example, making the decision to support other devices is not something made lightly. Standardization means less training is required for IT support personnel, fewer problems due to less variables in play, cost savings by buying in bulk (equipment and/or licenses), as well as numerous other advantages, too.

In addition to the benefits provided by standardization, IT departments also have to take into account the investment in their current infrastructure technology. To date, that investment often includes BES, or Blackberry Enterprise Server, which supports the needs of email-on-the-go for millions of corporate users.

Now, BES admins can deploy Google Maps for Mobile to those millions of users with ease, thanks to Google's new packages designed specifically for this server technology.

First antivirus for Android G1

VirusGuard from SMobile, is the first commercially available mobile security solution specifically developed to protect devices utilizing the Google Android operating system.

Using the knowledge gained by developing antivirus and security applications for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm and iPhone, SMobile engineers began development of VirusGuard for Android more than a year ago.

SMobile VirusGuard for Android will allow users to scan their devices and memory cards for over 400 known instances and variants of mobile Malware. These viruses, worms and trojans can infect and cross-over between mobile devices via the memory card. New Malware can infect devices via the web-browser, memory card and the installation of malicious open source applications. As Android Malware grows, VirusGuard for Android users can rely on SMobile to detect new viruses, trojans and worms and to provide users with timely virus signature updates.

In the coming weeks and months, SMobile plans to adapt the remainder of the SecurityShield suite to offer firewall, anti-spam and lock, wipe and backup for the Android platform. SMobile will also be able to offer parental controls that will allow parents to closely monitor their child's cell phone voice and messaging activities to ensure they are safe.

Currently, VirusGuard for Android is available to consumers at www.smobilesystems.com and www.handango.com . In early Q1/09, G1 users can visit the Android Market Place to purchase and download VirusGuard for Android.

Google-Yahoo ad deal ended

Google has ended the search-ad partnership with Yahoo that would have given Yahoo major new revenue but that raised antitrust concerns.

In words of David Drummond, Google's chiel legal officer "after four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn't have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement."

Yahoo continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court. Google notified Yahoo of its refusal to move forward with implementation of the agreement following indication from the Department of Justice that it would seek to block it, despite Yahoo's proposed revisions to address the DOJ's concerns.

FCC approves Google plan to free airwaves

U.S. regulators agreed to free up unused television airwaves for wireless Internet access, handing a victory to Google and rejecting claims by broadcasters that the plan would disrupt TV signals.

The proposal, approved today by the Federal Communications Commission, would let unlicensed devices use the vacant channels, known as white spaces, if they come equipped with anti-interference technology. Mobile-phone makers such as Motorola would have to obtain FCC certification for each white-space product before putting it on the market.

Kevin Martin, FCC Chairman said: "We've been very cautious in our approach, the plan will promote wireless innovation while requiring safeguards to protect broadcasters from interference".

Google and Microsoft say the plan would expand Americans' Internet access, especially in rural areas. White-space devices will tap into free, wireless Web access, while providing a wider range of coverage than today's Wi-Fi technology.

Craig Mundie, Microsoft Chief Strategy Officer said last week that if the FCC approved Martin's plan, white-space devices might be available in 12 to 18 months. Microsoft would make software for the products, he said in an interview.

Google fixes Android security issue

Google has begun distributing a patch to its Android mobile phone operating system, an early test for how the company can respond and how well the infrastructure works to distribute and install updates.

For the Android phone people are using, a T-Mobile G1, the update is smoother than the process by which the software problem came to light publicly on October 24.

The handset gives a message: "A system update is available," and a choice to update now or later. When you click the button to begin the update, it downloaded new software, which takes a few minutes, then installs it, then resumes working with no hitches.

The patch fixes the highly publicized security problem with Android's Web browser and makes a few other minor changes, according to a Google spokesman.

The researchers--Charlie Miller, Mark Daniel, and Jake Honoroff of Independent Security Evaluators--called the Android Web browser flaw serious, but Google said its severity was mitigated by Android's design, which restricts each program to its own area.

Earlier, Google appealed for what it called "responsible disclosure" of security vulnerabilities--in other words, a grace period to fix problems before they're made public to reduce the likelihood an attacker will get a chance to exploit a vulnerability. There's an ages-old tension between companies that want to fix their products and security researchers who want to get the word out, in part because attackers also are trying to find the vulnerabilities.

Source: CNet news

Google G1 unlocked

One of the major problems people had with the iPhone was that it was going to be offered exclusively with AT&T. Once the phone was released, the race was on to see who would be the first to have the phone unlocked and working on a network of their choice.

The same is true about the G1. While people were less vocal about the need to unlock the G1, offering a handset tethered to any specific network is going to be a pain for people who want the device but don’t want to switch networks.

Unlocking the first generation iPhone was easier than many people expected and the same could be said for the G1. It seems the folks over at Unlock-TMobileG1.com have managed to unlock HTC’s G1, available exclusively on T-Mobile. Unfortunately, the opportunist site is keeping schtum on exactly what you need to do to get your hands on the unlocking code needed for your handset and instead is offering to sell G1 owners the unlocking code for $23.99 a piece.

After placing an order (you’ll need to supply Unlock-TmobileG1 with your handset’s IMEI code) you will receive an eight-digit unlock code for your device. Video proof on YouTube shows that it actually works and judging from the abundance of 5-Star feedback from the site, it’s not just a hoax to scam you out of $24.

Google offers OpenID

Google announced last night that it will become a single sign-on provider using OpenID solutions. This will allow Google users to login with their Google account information when signing up for new accounts on other sites.

Microsoft and Yahoo have both adopted the same strategy, using OpenID, and now Google has jumped on the bandwagon in a bid to offer its users a better "value" for their accounts. Google's API is based on the OpenID 2.0 protocol and is designed to be embedded by third party web services.

OpenID is a free framework that eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites. If you have a Microsoft Live Mail account, a Yahoo account, or a Google account, you can log in with those same credentials on other websites like AOL, MySpace, Plaxo, Zoho or Buxfer, without having to create a new account on any of these sites.

Yahoo and Microsoft, and now Google, are only using OpenID for login information, which means that accounts with these services are not transferable. You won't be able to use your Windows Live account to access services on Yahoo's site or vice-versa, same as you won't be able to use your Yahoo ID to start using Picasa without opening a separate Google account. The full OpenID solution will be only used for third-party sites.

You also shouldn't expect to see the OpenID logo anytime soon when you sign in to your Gmail, Hotmail of Yahoo Mail account. Even though major web service providers are adopting this technology, Yahoo and Google went for the option of promoting their own brand, bypassing the OpenID title. Users will be given the option to "Sign in with a Google Account" or to "Sign in with a Yahoo! ID" on other websites such as Plaxo or Zoho.

With support from the web's big names, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and MySpace, OpenID is poised to see a large-scale adoption. However, this is only the first step toward a truly unified and portable web. Contacts are the the next big thing that I'd love to see transcend various service providers. Maybe one day we'll be able to transfer our e-mail accounts the same way we do our phone numbers when we change networks.

LinkedIn introduces apps from Google

LinkedIn followed today in the footsteps of other social networks in opening an applications platform that lets the business social site's 30 million users share presentation files, blog posts and reading lists.

Launch partners for LinkedIn's Intelligent Applications platform include Amazon, Google, Six Apart, Wordpress and lesser known startups, such as Box.net, Huddle, SlideShare and TripIt. LinkedIn also launched its own Company Buzz application, which allows workers to see Twitter tweets associated with their company.

The corporate social network's integration with Google Presentations lets workers embed presentations from Google or Microsoft PowerPoint on their profiles. SlideShare Presentations offers a similar service.

Huddle Workspaces from Huddle.net gives users project and collaboration tools in an online workspace. Box.net lets users add its Files application to manage all of their files online. WordPress and Blog Link from Six Apart lets users link their blogs to profiles.

The more frivolous Reading List by Amazon lets colleagues share books they're reading with other LinkedIn members, while the MyTravel app from TripIt lets users see where and when others in their LinkedIn network are traveling for business trips.

Why LinkedIn is launching with two blogging apps and two presentations apps is curious, but the smart money is that the network wants to provide users more choice.

LinkedIn's app platform launch comes at an interesting time for social networking apps platforms. Many programmers have declared the Facebook Platform dead since the implementation in July of more rigid standards that effectively shut down spammy apps. The prevailing sentiment seems to be: If it isn't easy as pie any more to ping friends with a new app, why bother?

But LinkedIn's apps platform is a different animal because it offers trusted applications to help business workers connect, communicate and share information. These apps have been vetted by millions of users, so LinkedIn expects employees will trust using them in a work context.

Whether or not LinkedIn's apps platform succeeds will let the world know whether applications development for social networks needs a rest, and perhaps a new approach.

To install an application on LinkedIn, users can go to the LinkedIn apps directory and click "add application." Users can then customize their applications.

Google Streetview available in Spain

It's available from Google the new 'StreetView' mapping for Spain. Spain is the second country in Europe where Google StreetView offers its service for the cities of Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona and Seville where you can see high quality images taken at 360 º, from both Google Maps and Google Earth services and their corresponding mobile versions.

Although 100% of the cities is not covered, it provides the core of these and the intention is to continue expanding the service to cover the main urban areas. In a second phase, Google wants to cover other cities, both in Spain and other countries, although no dates are confirmed.

'Street View' is beneficial to many users, but also to many businesses. Google has submitted three examples. The first, Fotocasa is a real estate portal where you can see how customers are able to see from their computers the houses they want to buy or rent, equipment in the area, and so on.

Another example is focused to the leisure industry, so Google has taken the entertainment guide 'online' LaNetro. A user can get an idea of the distance between the bar at which he stayed with his friends and the bus to calculate the distance.

EsMadrid, dedicated to the promotion of the capital, is the third of the examples of applications of 'Street View' for businesses. In this case, one can 'tour' virtual places to meet and engage all from the same site.

After "several months of work," Spain is set to the fifth country to get the service 'Street View', after the United States, Australia, Japan and France.

Google Earth for iPhone

Today, the dream to carry the Earth to your pocket becomes true, with the availability of Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch. With just a swipe of your finger you can fly from New York to Paris, or anywhere else. It brings all the power of Google Earth to the palm of your hand, including all of the same global imagery and 3D terrain. You can even browse any of our 8 million Panoramio photos or read Wikipedia articles.

With Google Earth for iPhone, you can:

• Tilt your iPhone to adjust your view to see mountainous terrain
• View the Panoramio layer and browse the millions of geo-located photos from around the world
• View geo-located Wikipedia articles
• Use the 'Location' feature to fly to your current location
• Search for cities, places and business around the globe with Google Local Search

It's available today in 18 languages and 22 countries in the iTunes App Store.

Gmail for mobile 2.0 is here

Google has lanched Gmail for mobile version 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. In words of Google, this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable. Gmail for mobile has been rearchitected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improving the client-side caching scheme and optimizing every bottleneck piece of code.

For the final user this means:

Overall performance improvement: user should experience significant raw speed improvement, smoother scrolling, and no freezing.

Multiple accounts management: If you have both a Gmail and Google Apps email account, you can easily switch between them quickly. You will no longer have to use two different mobile apps to access personal and work emails.

Multiple mobile email drafts: You can save multiple email drafts in your mobile phone, so that you can pick and choose what you would like to send later.

Powerful shortcut keys: If you have a QWERTY phone, you can use shortcut keys. Hit 'z' to undo, 'k' to go to a newer conversation, and 'j' to go to an older conversation. See Menu/Help in the app for more shortcuts.

Basic offline support: Can't get a signal? Not a problem. You can compose and read your most recent emails even when there is no signal. Also, any outgoing messages will be saved in the outbox on your phone and sent automatically when you're back in coverage.

Also, Gmail for mobile 2.0 is available in over 35 languages now. Not all features are available for all phones.

Go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser to download the new Gmail for mobile for your phone.

Enjoy now with Android Market

Yesterday, Android Market launched for users to download applications along with the first Android-powered phone—the T-Mobile G1.

With Android Market, users can easily download apps to their Android-powered phone. Users can also rate the apps they've downloaded and leave comments. These users' ratings along with anonymous usage statistics help determine how apps are ranked and presented within Android Market.

Android Market helps developers get their applications in the hands of users by acting as an open distribution system. A beta version is now available on the world's first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1.

You can get several fine applications:

Amazon MP3 for Android where you can download music from Amazon MP3 right from your phone. Browse, search, sample, and buy high-quality MP3 files that play on your phone or any MP3-capable device. This Android version of the Amazon MP3 Store lets you discover and download music you love with just a few clicks.

Compare Everywhere that helps you shop smarter using your phone. Scan a barcode to instantly check if that "sale price" really is a good deal. Read reviews to find out if those hiking boots will last a lifetime, or fall apart next month. Keep track of shopping lists, wish lists, and more.

e-ventr is your personal event organizer and friendship scout. Now it's so easy to arrange meetings with your friends, organize them and accept invitations, whether it is a party, sports, a concert or any other activity. In no time, you can organize your free time activities!

iSkoot For Skype puts the features of Skype in your Android handset. Acess your Skype contacts, make & receive Skype calls, chat, and place SkypeOut calls to phone numbers all over the world. iSkoot delivers unsurpassed mobile Skype call quality and does not require a WiFi connection.

LifeAware let you know where your friends and family are. Locate them from your phone or the LifeAware website, and setup zones to trigger alerts when they enter or leave them. Tag that favorite spot on a trip with descriptions and images to share. Locate, Tag, Share, Where is your life?

These are just a few examples, view all at Android Marketplace...

Android source code available

Google finally published today the source code of its Linux-based Android mobile platform. This long-awaited release arrives at the same time that T-Mobile is officially launching its new G1 handset, the first mobile device that will ship with Android.

The lack of inclusiveness in the Android development process has also been controversial. The openness of the platform has been called into question as a result of Google's failure to communicate and by a general lack of transparency around the project. These issues have soured some third-party developers and could hinder Google's ability to build a community around the platform. The past friction will likely be forgiven if Google works hard now to ensure that ongoing Android development is participatory and truly open. The signs so far seem promising: the documentation published today alongside the source code includes instructions on how to contribute to the project and seems to to reflect a willingness to collaborate with the open source software community.

The source code is housed in the kernel.org git version control repository. The code can be obtained by installing git and running Repo, a wrapper script written in Python that automates some git interaction. The build instructions indicate that the source code can be compiled on either Linux or Mac OS X. The Android developers specifically recommend Ubuntu and say that it Android is frequently tested on that distribution.

The build dependencies are pretty much what you would expect. You need Python, the JDK, a standard compilation toolchain, and a small number of other easily available open source libraries. The build instructions tell you exactly what Ubuntu packages you need to install to get all of these. Mac OS X users will need XCode, MacPorts, and a few other standard components. OS X users will have to use an Intel Mac because PPC isn't supported.

To contribute patches, third-party developers will need to use Gerrit, a code review tool. A visual overview of the patch submission workflow is available on the project's web site. Google has defined several levels of participation and has documented how third-party developers can gain higher access privileges, including the ability to approve inclusion of changes and new code into the Android code base. If Google adheres to the guidelines that it has defined, then anyone who has demonstrated sufficient technical expertise and has made significant code contributions will be permitted to participate at the highest levels and help guide the future of the project.

This is a very good start and it goes a long way towards addressing the concerns of critics, including myself, who have voiced suspicions of Google's motives and commitment. The contributor documentation paints a pretty clear picture of how Google intends to integrate the broader open source software community into the development process. There is still room for greater clarity, however, and it seems likely that the project would benefit from a more structured articulation of its governance model.

Android, Motorola and the social networks

Just days before T-Mobile is set to officially start offering the Google Android-based G1, Motorola is getting in on the Android craze, discussing plans to have a smartphone based on the open-source Linux operating system by the middle of next year.

Citing Motorola insiders, Motorola's engineers are working on an Android handset geared toward users of social networking tools like MySpace and Facebook. The device will let users update and manage their social networking sites from the device, a feature that has become popular on handsets.

Motorola's Android device is expected to feature a touch screen similar to the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile G1 or the recently announced BlackBerry Storm from Research In Motion. Motorola's yet-to-be-named Android device is also expected to feature a G1-style physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

While Motorola has declined to specify its plans, it issued a statement saying, "We're excited about the innovation possibilities on Android and look forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google", indicating that Motorola has been showing wireless carriers spec sheets and images of the device, which is expected to hit the U.S. market in the second quarter of 2009.

Word of Motorola's first Android-based device comes just weeks after reports surfaced noting that the Schaumburg, Ill.-based handset maker is trumping up its Android development team by assembling a group of up to 350 Android developers to reinvigorate its struggling mobile device business. The added developers will bulk up Motorola's Android team from the 50 members it has today.

Motorola's Android device will pit it head-to-head against other touch-screen titans that have recently stormed the market in attempts to dethrone Apple's 3G iPhone from its spot at the top. As a sort of prelude, Motorola last week released its first-ever touch-screen phone, the Motorola Krave, which launched Oct. 14 on Verizon Wireless.

Google Chrome more secure and stable

The developers behind the new web browser Google Chrome have released the latest dev channel version. Google Chrome for testers is now in version 0.3.154.3. This is mainly a bug and security fix update.

Release 154.0 had a few browser crashes, including a crash on startup on tablet PCs running Windows Vista. Has been fixed the new crashes and 154.3 should be much more stable.

There are more plugin performance updates in this release, including fixing some videos that halt after 1 second (r3123, Issue 115) and plugins causing the browser to become unresponsive (r3323).

r3228 Changes the download behavior for files that could execute code (exe, dll, bat, etc.). These files are now downloaded to unconfirmed_*.download files. In the browser, you’re asked if you want to accept the download. Only after you click Save is the unconfirmed_*.download file converted to the real file name. Unconfirmed downloads are deleted when Google Chrome exits.

Gmail down for more than 24 hours

The Gmail services were down for nearly 30 hours. Some Google Apps customers were also affected by the outage. Google said that the Gmail problem is fixed. However, Google said the outage only affected a small number of Gmail users.

Gmail is one of Google's most popular services. Google Apps administrators were facing high tensions at times. In some cases they had to deal with extremely upset CEOs and other high ranking executives who unable to access their Gmail accounts.

Google Apps is a suite of hosted collaboration and communication applications designed for workplace use. Its Standard and Education versions are free. However, many CEOs and executives use the service as an e-mail solution. These companies use the Premier edition which costs $50 per user and offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee for Gmail.

While Gmail services has been reliable, it also faced an outage in August. The first two outages occurred on August 6 and August 15 where it affected a small number of Apps Premier users and lasted over 24 hours. On August 11, Gmail was down for about two hours. In all three incidents, users were unable to access their Gmail accounts.

Google decided to extend a credit to all Apps Premier customers who were affected by the outage in August. However, customers said Google could do a much better job at just notifying Gmail users of problems. The only problem with this is the e-mail notifications. If their primary e-mails are with Gmail, there's no way the company can notify unless the account holder has setup a secondary e-mail account outside of Gmail.

Despite a few hiccups with the Gmail service, most customers are satisfied with their Google accounts.

Google tops brand loyalty list

For the second consecutive year, Google was the top brand in the "2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Leaders List", which included 374 brands. The study was conducted among 26,000 consumers in September.

"[Google is] always coming up with add-ons that are cool," said Warren Church, vp of brand strategy at Deskey, a branding agency in Cincinnati. "Talk about eye-tracking studies . . . you're always staring at Google."

Innovation, creativity and a consumer-comes-first attitude helped Google retain the top position.

Avis, which held the top slot for six of the survey's 11-year existence, was No. 2 this year. Meanwhile, rival Hertz shot up from 87 to 13. Again, innovation was a key factor driving consumer loyalty. "Car rental companies have always had high expectations," said Robert Passikoff, president at Brand Keys, New York. "Hertz has done some nice work in terms of added value extras they provide."

According to Rich Broome, a rep at Hertz, Park Ridge, N.J., "Innovation leadership is an important part of our DNA. It continues to this day and will accelerate for years to come." However, Broome said the key is "never reducing vigilance on anything that has to do with customer service."

Cosmetics, a category that focuses on constantly creating new and better products, was introduced to the survey this year. Many of the segment's leaders drew high marks, and 12 of the top 25 brands overall were from cosmetic companies. Mary Kay (3), Maybelline (4), Estee Lauder (5) and Clinique (8) led the pack. The "emotional engagement" that women share with their favorite beauty brands is powerful, said Passikoff. "At a time when many brands are becoming commodities and turning into category placeholders, creating that emotional bond is the only way they can guarantee loyalty."

Cosmetic brands benefit because their marketing is more about faith than claims, said Church. "They've stayed out of the trenches of 'our product will give you a seven-times more shinier face.' It's more 'do you want to look younger and more radiant?' That's home run language right there . . . [For the consumer], it's about looking into the mirror and seeing what you want to see."

Other segments are suffering because of the economy, including higher-end hotel chains. Fairmont Hotels dropped from 10 to 28, Hyatt slipped from 8 to 32 and Marriott fell from 15 to 55. "That's the economy talking," said Passikoff. "It's become a value proposition."

Still, some hoteliers have remained strong. Embassy Suites successfully straddled value and luxury and jumped from 180 to 30. Hilton remained at 53 while Ritz-Carlton fell only slightly, from 45 to 50.

Wal-Mart's "Save money. Live better" value message is serving the retailer well. It moved to 18 from 63. "Times are hard. You look at Wal-Mart and say, 'They're really not that bad.' With all of the cost cutting going on, why not go to Wal-Mart," said Church. "It's cool to be thrifty these days."

Source: Kenneth Hein, Brandweek

Android and the kill switch

Just days before the launch of the first "Google Phone", the HTC G1, to be released by T-Mobile, Google has admitted that its Android software is not as free as its fans would believe. In fact, Google could remotely zap software from your phone without your permission.

Google's admission followed an investigation by Computerworld, which discovered a "kill switch" clause in the fine print of Android's terms-of-use contract.

The fine print says: "Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement ... in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion."

Google has responded that if any commercial software is removed from a person's Android phone, then the user will be refunded for the cost of the software.

Apple also admitted to the existence of a kill switch for its iPhone OS, although not until some time after its AppStore launched. Although the AppStore unrequested recall feature has never been used, Apple has been relatively tight about screening what software is placed on its software download service, while Google is taking a much more open approach.

StreetView available in France

Google has begun expanding its Street View feature of Google Maps to several major cities in France, the first European country to get the Internet giant's driver's-eye view.

"We've added coverage for six major cities in France: Paris, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Marseille, and Nice," Luc Vincent, engineering director of Street View and a native of France, said Wednesday in a blog. "France is the first country in Europe to benefit from Street View imagery, and I'm delighted that many of my favorite places are included in the new coverage, including the street where I grew up."

Google gave a preview of coming attractions in July by showing Street View for the Tour de France bicycle race route.

Street View has raised privacy hackles, but Google now blurs faces in Street View to avoid users concerns.

Google declined to detail when Street View will spread to other parts of Europe. "We have been taking photographs to bring Street View to Europe and we will be adding Street View imagery for new cities and countries on an ongoing basis," the company said in a statement.

Google Message Discovery is cheaper now

Google Message Discovery, powered by Postini, is an easily-deployed, hosted service that helps your organization manage email retention and security, providing you with both complete email security and a centralized, searchable repository so you can locate email quickly in the event of legal discovery.

From now Google Message Discovery, included within Google Enterprise, will be available for a flat fee of € 17.50 per user per year, a service for obtaining e-mail files hosted on Google with a holding capacity of up to 10 years messages, and with anti-virus and spam filtering, based on technology from Postini.

With this service you can:

• Capture and index all of your organization's email and attachments in a centralized repository
• Store email in redundant and secure Google data centers, creating a reliable, offsite backup
• Identify specific emails and attachments quickly through a search interface using parameters such as date range, sender, recipient, subject and content
• Place search results on litigation hold to preserve messages beyond their retention periods
• Export search results to PST or MBOX format for further review and analysis

G1 Android phone with 1.5 million preorders

More than 1.5 million people in the US have pre-ordered Google's first mobile phone.

The device, known as the G1, is made by HTC, and will be available on the T-Mobile network. It runs Android, an operating system designed partially by Google that aims to bring the desktop computing experience to mobile devices. The G1 gives one-touch access to popular Google online services, such as its email service, YouTube video-sharing site and Google Maps.

The G1 features a touchscreen and a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, as well as internet browsing via 3G and Wi-Fi, music downloads, and the ability to buy and install additional software, programs and games on the phone from the Android Market application store.

Although some technology experts have suggested that the estimate of 1.5 million pre-orders is too high, there's little doubt that expectations of the G1 are high ahead of its launch. First impressions of the G1 were largely positive, with many technology experts seeing the potential of the Google operating system if not the design of the handset itself. But, as analysts have pointed out, the launch of the G1 needs to be a success if Google is going to establish the Android platform as a potential "iPhone killer".

The G1 is the latest in a long line of touchscreen hansdets aimed at toppling the iPhone. More than 1 million iPhone 3G handsets were bought in its first weekend of sale, and Apple is on course to hit its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of the year.

Washington replaces Microsoft with Google Apps

Washington DC is the latest organisation to decide Microsoft Office isn't worth the cash, moving to Google's suite of cloud products. Google Apps is software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security.

Instead of Word, Excel and Outlook, 38,000 employees in the district will now be using Google Docs, Google Mail, Google Video for business and Google sites for intranets and the like.

The deal is estimated to be worth around $500,000 (£292,000), and consolidates an impressive uptake for Google Apps, launched just over two years ago.

Google claims around 500,000 organisations currently use its Apps products in one form or another, with 3,000 being added each day.

However, Microsoft is still turning in decent user numbers for its Office Live Workspaces applications, but these require the Office suite to be of real use, thus negating the real benefit of cloud working.

OpenSocial available in Ning social networks

Social network platform provider Ning today announced that it is adding support for the OpenSocial standard to the more than 500,000 social networks created by its users.

The OpenSocial initiative was launched by Google and MySpace to create APIs that developers can use to build applications that can run across multiple social networks and other Web sites.

The OpenSocial support allows new applications like file sharing, poll creation and e-commerce to be added to social networks created on Ning, the company noted in a blog post. Ning added that 30 OpenSocial applications are available on the site.

The OpenSocial directory on each Ning network will automatically inherit the branding and visual design of that network, Ning said. Also, OpenSocial applications can inherit the visual style of the member profile page to which they are added.

Ning also said that OpenSocial applications can automatically be integrated into a social network's viral features. Thus, an OpenSocial application could add updates to their members' latest activity feed and send messages on behalf of a member.

Ning joins a growing number of social networks that support OpenSocial, including MySpace, hi5, Orkut and Bebo.

For developers, supporting OpenSocial makes good sense, as they can reach a far larger audience with an OpenSocial application than if they just programmed for a given network's own APIs.

The only holdout [from] supporting OpenSocial is Facebook. However, Facebook is considering the option of opening up its development platform to other social networks in the future.

Google GeoEye first image released

Google GeoEye, released today the first color half-meter ground resolution image taken from its GeoEye-1 satellite. The satellite has been undergoing calibration and check-out since it was launched on Sept. 6 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The Company will begin selling GeoEye-1 imagery products later this fall.

Matthew O'Connell, GeoEye's chief executive officer, said, "We are pleased to release the first GeoEye-1 image, bringing us even closer to the start of the satellite's commercial operations and sales to our customers. This is a remarkable achievement, and I want to thank all of our employees, customers, especially the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, strategic partners, vendors and investors for their support."

GeoEye-1 simultaneously collects 0.41-meter ground resolution black-and-white imagery in the panchromatic mode and 1.65-meter color (multispectral). This first image showing Kutztown University located midway between Reading and Allentown, Penn. was produced by fusing the satellite's panchromatic and multispectral data to produce a high-quality, true-color half-meter resolution image. Though the satellite collects imagery at 0.41-meter ground resolution, due to U.S. licensing restrictions, commercial customers will only get access to imagery that has been processed to half-meter ground resolution.

Bill Schuster, GeoEye's chief operating officer, said, "We are bringing GeoEye-1 into service within four years of our contract award with no contract cost overruns. The entire program which includes the satellite, launch, insurance, financing and four ground stations was less than $502 million. That's the amount established and agreed to four years ago." He further noted, "GeoEye-1 is an excellent fit to meet the U.S. Government's important requirements for mapping and broad area space-based imagery collection over the next decade."

Brad Peterson, GeoEye's vice president of operations, said, "This image captures what is in fact the very first location the satellite saw when we opened the camera door and started imaging. We expect the quality of the imagery to be even better as we continue the calibration activity."

Google game advertising

Google’s game-focused advertising initiative is going to come to life later this month. Google, which bought in-gaming advertising company, AdScape, earlier this year for about $23 million, will unveil its game-focused strategy in two steps.

The main advantages for publishers according to Google are:

Join a network tailored for web-based games: Google has focused on building a network and ad technology specifically for games played within the browser.

Build a business model while respecting your users: Independent research has shown that most users do not have a negative opinion of in-game advertising and will watch video ads exchange for free game play. As the publisher, you control where and when your ads show, whether it’s before, within, between, and/or after game play.

Access campaigns from the world’s top brands: Top brands like McDonalds, Esurance, Wrigley’s, Kohl’s, and more have already run campaigns in the Google network. See our current success stories.

Fill up to 100% of your remnant inventory: In addition to campaigns which Google’s sales force sells directly to top brands, you can receive contextually targeted image and text ads which are targeted based on various content and demographic signals.
Filter out unwanted ads: Google combines filtering technology, an editorial team, and your input to create a robust set of filters that are right for you. In addition, publishers can filter ads from partners with whom you have exclusive relationships, or competitive ads you may want to block.

And for marketers:

Extend the reach of your video ads: Re-purpose your spots or create new ones, and they'll appear before, within, between, or after game play.

Drive your brand: In-game ads have been shown to drive brand familiarity and consideration by significant percentages and have the option for custom sponsorships and integrations: In addition to the media buy you make directly with Google, your Google sales representative can connect you directly with publishing partners for deeper integrations.

Reach the new generation of social gamer: The face of online gaming is changing to include users of all ages, backgrounds, and interests. Get your brand in front of users on the largest social networks, including MySpace, Facebook, and sites across the web.

Engage the user while respecting the user: Third party research confirms online gamers don't mind in-game ads as long as they're relevant and conveniently placed.

Combine your campaign in games with one in video: Build an integrated in-video and in-game campaign, adding unequaled opportunities for scale in the #1 and #2 media which users are consuming.