Tuesday, March 2. 2010

Google Tidbits

This week is Cebit, the huge tech show in Hanover, Germany. While smaller than last year in terms of companies attending, a few new players have stepped in including Google and Amazon. Google is introducing its StreetView, which has yet to rollout in Germany.

Google will peddle its Street View service, which hasn't been launched in Germany because of privacy concerns. Michael Jones, chief technology advocate who specializes in Google Earth and Maps, will walk the audience through the product, which shows users street view images in Google's map products, at an event. The company will also give an update on how the privacy discussions are progressing.

PC Pro reports: "Quizzed over Google's stance on privacy Jones said "privacy laws need to be respected, but I hope they don't get in the way of innovation.""

Update: Bloomberg has more on the situation in Germany - which revolves around the country preferring 6 month holding of images and Google requesting 1 year.

Update 2: Now Bloomberg adds: "Google said there is no question Street View will be dropped in Europe."

- PC World
- PC Pro
- Bloomberg

Wayne Dell Manuel, a 23-year-old from the University of the Philippines beat 700 others to win the first Google Map Maker Global Competition. His prize? US$50,000 donation from UNICEF for the Philippines. His work? adding more than 1,500 qualifying map features and edits to Google Map Maker. His humble quote: "I'm so excited to have won this global competition because it represents a win not just for me, but also for the Philippines. To be frank, I entered the competition to win the US$50,000 for our country, and I hope that my win encourages more Filipinos to contribute to making the online map of our country even better. We Filipinos are known for our spirit of bayanihan, and this is a great way for us to come together in the Internet era to make life better for our fellow kababayans by literally putting their communities on the digital map."

- ABS/CBN News

Google has been granted a location-based advertising patent: Determining and/or using location information in an ad system. It "covers using location for targeting, setting a minimum price bid for an ad, offering performance analytics, and modifying the content of an ad" and was submitted back in 2004. Many are comparing it to the Facebook patent on "newsfeeds."

- VentureBeat

Topeka, Kansas is position itself to be one of the cities Google selects to test a new broadband venture. How? It's changed its name to Google, Kansas for the month of March. The city did this during the Pokemon fad, too.

- SJ Biz Journal