YouTube launch global short film contest on India

India's external affairs ministry and YouTube have partnered to launch a second global short movie contest for students, video amateurs and filmmakers, top

officials announced here.


The competition is open to people around the world on the theme - "India Is A...Visual Journey",
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celebrating India and its diversity. The last date for submitting five-minute entries is Feb 9, 2013

 

Google updates search with new Knowledge Graph

Google's dominant search engine is set for another major revamp, as the Internet giant introduces a new tool called the “Knowledge Graph” – that will provide users with more relevant results. The new Knowledge Graph will appear in the form of short snippets to the right column of its results and provide users more information on a topic and help users explore related items as well. The new feature will be rolled out in the next few days to desktop, mobile and tablet users.

Google's new Knowledge Graph leverages Google-built database of over 500 million people, places and commonly sought queries to provide a brief information about a topic alongside the main search results.

click to enlarge

“The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query,” Amit Singhal, senior vice president of engineering at Google, said in a blog post. “This is a critical first step toward building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the Web and understands the world a bit more like people do.”

Google's launch of Knowledge Graph comes days after Microsoft revamped its own Bing search engine with deeper integration of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The revamped Bing includes option to feature social results from Facebook and Twitter in searches. Microsoft also added new features to Bing to make the search engine easier to use.

Google TV is coming this September

Sony will start selling Google TV-based products in Europe in September, according to a report by Les Echos.
The site reports comments by Sony France marketing director Stephane Labrousse that the CE maker will sell two devices: A set-top box which will go on sale for €200 ($266) and a box with an integrated Blu-ray player that will sell for €300 ($399). Labrousse confirmed the launch in France, and Les Echos is reporting that it could launch in Spain, Germany and the U.K. at the same time as well.
Also worth noting is that the new Sony boxes will apparently have a Google Play button on their remote controls, giving direct access to Google’s app and content store. The box will also come with Sony’s own content offerings, including Music Unlimited.
Google TV has so far only been available in the U.S., but Sony said at CES that it would make its devices available internationally in 2012 as well. This is, however, the first time the company has provided a clear timeline for its plans to enter the European market, as well as a price — which is high, one should add.
Google’s problem in the U.S. was that the first batch of Google TV devices was too expensive for consumers.
The second generation of Google TV devices, due to go on sale this year from manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, LG and Vizio, is based on ARM’s chips instead of Intel’s, which is meant to bring the price down considerably. However, in light of the European pricing, one has to wonder whether the CPU platform switch will really have that much of an impact.

Google+ growing to 500m users

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Like the strong-willed youth it is, Google's budding social network is confidently going its own way.

In an AFP interview, Google+ vice president Bradley Horowitz shrugged off Silicon Valley obsession with a Facebook rivalry and focused on the internet titan playing to its strengths with an eye on the future.

"The way we think about Google+ is not pretending that today we can compete along every dimension of every competitor that is in a space," Horowitz said.

"The goals for Google+ are long-ranging and broad," he continued. "This is a reinvention of the consumer's relationship with Google that is going to unfold over a period of years."

The average number of people who use Google+ each month has climbed to 100 million since it opened to the public in September of last year. The figure for daily users is 50 million.

"Eventually, the 100 million users today are going to blossom into 500 million and by that time you will discover that all of your friends will be there on Google+," Horowitz predicted.

A unique Hangouts feature that lets as many as ten people at once get together for group video chats is a huge draw at the online community.

Hangouts can be limited to invited friends or opened to anyone.

The US president, musician Will.i.am, Desmond Tutu and even the Dalai Lama have taken part in "On Air" hangouts in which intimate online gatherings can be openly viewed at the social network.

"We think looking somebody in the eye and communicating in the normal social way we've learned to do over millennia is important," Horowitz said. "We wanted to bring that authenticity back into the equation."

Hangouts have surprised the Google+ team. They have been used for language and music lessons. A stutterers' support group uses them for group meetings.

Hangouts are used to let bedridden people virtually explore the world.

Longtime photographer John Butterill of Canada was new to Google+ when he took a sick friend on a "virtual photo walk" using a smartphone, a professional camera, and a hangout.

Butterill hiked snowy woods near his home during a streamed hangout in which his friend saw through the camera lens and directed the shots. A video of the walk posted at the social network went viral.

"I came home from the walk and there it was being shared by everyone," Butterill told AFP. "My mouth dropped open."

The friends launched a Virtual Photo Walks page at Google+ with a mission to "walk for those who can't."

Google+ users in cities around the world have signed on to act as legs and hands of people physically unable to venture out for themselves.

A photographer in Australia freshly recovered from a broken back virtually took a woman with Multiple Sclerosis on a walk to a beach in Perth.

"She said she never thought she'd hear the ocean again," Butterill said. "These people really know how to choke you up."

A photographer for nearly 40 years, Butterill insists that those directing shots get credit and rights to walk images.

"I am just the arms and legs," Butterill said. "It is like the person on the other side is holding the camera. It's just plain cool."

Virtual photo walks can go beyond picture-taking to being a way for people with disabilities to attend meetings or political events or even negotiate contracts in real time, according to Butterill.

"A soldier could take his hospitalized friend virtually to a pub for beer," he said.

Butterill's vision includes taking sick children on virtual photo walks of Disneyland.

"When we brought hangouts to market we knew we had something very special, but there was no way of telling whether this would be the next Chatroulette or something more meaningful," Horowitz said.

"It is really delightful when a product you built changes people's lives and you get these heartfelt stories about how it has touched them."

Google is weaving its social network into offerings such as its search engine and online video-sharing stage YouTube for a synergy that could offset the edge given Facebook by its network of more than 840 million members.

"Google of five years ago had many magical products, but they didn't sing in harmony," Horowitz said.

"We are creating a more comprehensive user experience across all of what we are doing," he continued. "We are threading the needle very carefully to do that without spoiling the magic."

Google doodle celebrates Republic Day

 

NEW DELHI: As India celebrates its 63rd Republic Day on Thursday, popular search engine Google dedicated its latest doodle to this theme.

Internet users can see images of elephants and tri-coloured umbrellas decorating the word 'google' in the latest doodle. Three charming and joyful elephants denote the health of Indian culture and Indian economy. All three umbrellas contain saffron, white and green colour on them that gives the look and feel of the Indian flag. The 'O' of Google appear like the Ashoka's wheel.

Google regularly presents to the users colourful doodles to observe birth anniversaries of important personalities and significant dates. The Republic Day of India marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of India.

Rename Multiple Files Using Excel or Google Docs

Renaming multiples files on your Windows computer is easy. Select all the files, press F2 and type some descriptive text. Windows will append a unique sequence number to each of the file names.
That's a fairly quick solution but not very flexible because you don't get to specify any choices or criteria.
For instance, how do you append the current date to the filename ? Or you want to replace only certain words in the file names (like a spelling error)? Or you want files to follow a different renaming system like file-A.jpg instead of the default file(1).jpg.
To rename files in bulk more efficiently, you can either learn some complex shell scripting language (SED, AWK, Perl) or switch to something more simple  - a spreadsheet.

 

 Step 1: Type cmd and switch (using "cd" command) to the directory that contains the files you want to rename in bulk.
Step 2: Type "dir /b" to see a skeleton list of all files in the current directory. Copy that file list to the clipboard by selecting Mark from the contextual menu.
Step 3: The fun starts now. Fire your copy of Microsoft Excel or Google Docs Spreadsheets and paste those file names into the first spreadsheet column.
Step 4: In the blank adjacent column, add a corresponding Excel function - for instance, use SUBSTITUTE to change specific text in the filenames, use CONCATENATE() with DATE() if you want to add date to the filename, etc.

*For more complex criteria, you may want to put the file extensions in a separate column by splitting the file name using period (.) as the delimiter.
Step 5: Your source filenames are now in column A while the Destination files are in column B - we will now convert this into a DOS rename command.
In Column C, type the following Excel formula and your command is ready to be executed.

=CONCATENATE("ren ",A1, " ", B1)

Copy paste the same formula across all cells in column C for which you have corresponding values in Column A or B.
We are almost done. Copy all the values from column C to the clipboard and paste them inside the DOS window or better still, put them inside a new text file and give it a name like rename.bat.

 Execute and all files that match the criteria are renamed instantly...

Google Gravity

Google Gravity
visit this:
http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google_gravity/ 

you can also play with each pieces of google page by using mouse...

n-joy... :)

Google: Let it snow.....

> Go to www.google.com
> Type "let it snow" and then.. press enter...     n-joy.. snowing in Christmas......... :)

How to Switch between two Gmail accounts

Many time people want to open multiple accounts simultaneously.Now its possible in gmail.Sneaktech.com shows you how.

1)To sign into two Gmail accounts in the same browser simultaneously, first go to the Google Accounts page (www.google.com/accounts). In the Personal Settings section, find the 'Multiple sign-in' option and click the Edit link.

2)On the next page, ignore the warning that this is an advanced feature and choose the option 'On - Use multiple Google Accounts in the same web browser'. Tick the boxes  to show you understand how to use the feature, then click Save.

Google Plus Rocks

Google's Facebook competitor Google Plus grew to 10 million users in just two weeks, the company announced Thursday.
That's only a bit more than 1 percent of Facebook's 750 million global users, but it still represents staggering growth for Google's infant social network, which isn't yet open to the public. The site remains in a "limited" trial phase.
"Growth on Google has been great," Google CEO Larry Page said on a conference call with analysts. 

"Over 10 million have joined. That's a great achievement for the team. There has been a ton of activity."

Page said more than 1 billion items are being shared on the network every day. The " 1" button, which populates search results with friends' recommendations, has been clicked 2.3 billion times a day.
Google represents a part of the new CEO's grand vision for the 13-year old company. Despite Google's position as the worldwide leader in search, Page has opted to treat the company as a startup, increasing hiring and starting several new initiatives. 

"Today, I see more opportunities for Google than ever before; we're just at the beginning of what we want to do," Page said. "We're only at 1 percent of what's possible. Google's just getting started."

Accordingly, Google continued its hiring spree in the second quarter, upping its headcount by nearly 9 percent, or 2,500 employees -- including 450 from the acquisition of flight data company ITA .
The company also has spent freely, putting more than $900 million into its infrastructure during the quarter, including expanding its massive data centers. The company says it expects to continue to make "significant" capital expenditures going forward.
Google says all that spending will keep the company ahead of its rivals.

The past quarter has been a busy one. In addition to Google , the company started selling its Chromebook line of laptops aimed at current Microsoft corporate clients and launched its Music application to compete with Apple's iTunes and Amazon's Cloud Drive.
The company also unveiled Google Wallet, which will allow customers to pay for items using their smartphones, and it launched Google Offers, a Groupon competitor.
But Google also shut down several products that weren't working, such as Google Health and PowerMeter.
"Our focus is more wood behind fewer arrows," said Page. "I'm very happy with our progress."
Still, the free spending has made some stock analysts cautious. Page lashed back at that criticism, noting that when Google started its search engine, no one believed the company could monetize that besides the occasional banner ad.

"Fast forward to today, it seems like we're playing the same movie all over again," he said.

The world's online search leader said its net income in the second quarter rose to $2.5 billion, up 36 percent from a year earlier.
Results included one-time charges totaling $1.06 per share. Without the charges, Google said it earned $8.74 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, had forecast earnings of $7.85 per share.
Profit rose as both the number of clicks on Google's ads and the amount that advertising partners pay per click increased substantially: Paid clicks surged 18 percent and cost per click grew 12 percent compared to last year.

Sales for the Mountain View, Calif., company rose 32 percent to $9 billion. Excluding advertising sales that Google shares with partners, a figure also known as traffic acquisition costs, the company reported revenue of $6.9 billion, which topped analysts' forecasts of $6.6 billion.
Shares of Google jumped 12 percent after hours.
Still, not all the news has been positive for Google, which has recently landed in antitrust crosshairs.

The Federal Trade Commission began investigating the company for evidence of abusive practices, and a federal judge rejected Google's planned settlement deal in its attempt to create a universal online book library.
The Department of Justice also heavily scrutinized the company's recent purchase of flight data software company ITA, and Google set aside $500 million for a potential settlement with the DOJ regarding the company's advertising practices. The DOJ is currently studying Google's proposed $400 million purchase of digital advertising toolmaker Admeld.
Late last month, French search company 1plusV said it would seek $423 million in damages from the American search giant over alleged anti-competitive practices.