Google Search just got 1,000 times smarter — from Mashable.com by Lance Ulanoff

Excerpt:

The Google Search of the future is here. Now. Today. The long-talked-about semantic web — Google prefers “Knowledge Graph” — is rolling out across all Google Search tools, and our most fundamental online task may never be the same again.

Google launches Knowledge Graph, a new intelligent search platform — from TheVerge.com by Nathan Ingraham

Excerpt:

Google has just launched Knowledge Graph, the latest refinement to its search engine product that seeks to provide users with more relevant and in-depth responses to search queries. The company actually started testing this new interface last week, but now its ready to take the wraps off its new method for connecting search queries to information-rich topics on people, places, or things. Along with the standard search results you’re used to seeing, Google’s search results page now displays instant results related to your queries — a search for Taj Mahal immediately brings up a list of facts, photos, and a map of the famous landmark, as well as quick links to other popular uses of the search term (like the musician or the casino in New Jersey). There are a multitude of sources behind this data — Google cites Freebase, Wikipedia, and the CIA World Factbook, but also notes that “it’s augmented at a much larger scale” and tuned based on what the average user searches for.

The search engine problem: Lack of ‘knowledge’ — CNET.com
Google’s walk-through of Knowledge Graph

With Knowledge Graph, Google can finally tell the difference between Apple Inc. and apples — from FastCompany.com by Christina Chaey

 

Screen resolution & browser trends [infographic] — from theultralinx.com by Oliur Rahman

 

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Google Education On Air - May 2012

 

From DSC:
My thanks go out to Mr. Rob Bobeldyk at Calvin College for this resource.

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The Google Drive review you’ve been waiting for — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell

Excerpt:

Google Drive, the long-awaited file storage and syncing service, launch[ed yesterday]. If you follow tech news closely, you’ve seen bits and pieces of the news leaking out over the past two weeks. We’ve tested it and we’ve talked to the team leaders. Forget all the speculation. Here’s what Google Drive actually is.

Full-sized screenshots of the Google Drive iPad app — from readwriteweb.com by Jon Mitchell

Excerpt:

Google Drive launched [yesterday], but the iOS version of the app was unexpectedly not ready. Google says it’s almost there, but it won’t launch for “a few weeks.” But Google provided ReadWriteWeb with a bunch of full-size screenshots of the app, so we could know what to expect.

Google’s Drive adds to a complicated cloud — from technologyreview.com by Tom Simonite

Excerpt:

A new cloud-storage service from the search giant steps on the toes of startups like Dropbox and opens a new front against Apple and Microsoft.

Addendum on 4/26:

  • Is Google’s onerous TOS designed to steal your stuff?– from PCMag.com by John C. Dvorak
    People are far too concerned about Google’s potential for abuse. (From DSC: I disagree; there is room for concern when you hold that much power/data in your hands. Think of political campaigns as but one example. What if someone — or some government or some terrorist organization or drug cartel — pays off some Google employee to nab Person ABC’s mailbox, documents, data? Call me skeptical…but I think anything’s possible these days given the moral fabric of our world.)
  • Google Drive terms of service: ‘A toxic brew’ — from cnet.com by Rafe Needleman
    Google isn’t about to make your private files public, but that doesn’t excuse its sloppy terms of service. Google has inadvertently stoked privacy concerns about files uploaded to its newly released Google Drive by issuing poorly written rules that are more apt to confuse than to clarify.
  • Hands on with Google Drive — from PCMag.com by Mark Hachman
    While Google has positioned its new Google Drive cloud-storage service as one that straddles the consumer and business space, those using it for collaboration will probably get the most out of it.

Also see:

Addendum on 4/27/12:

Project Glass from Google

 

Also see:

Good to know [from Google]

 

From DSC:
I originally saw this at elearningexamples.com.

2012 tech predictions: From IDG’s editors worldwide– from InfoWorld by David Bromley
Consumerization of IT is the consensus choice of the new year’s major technology force, one that will manifest itself in several forms

Several other commonly-mentioned items were:

  • Mobility
  • Patent disputes
  • Apple & Steve Jobs
  • BYOD (bring your own device to work) movement

Also see:

NEW: Google Student Blog

NEW: Google Student Blog

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Interesting quote from Larry Page wants to return Google to its startup roots — from Wired.com by Steven Levy

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

“You can’t understand Google,” vice president Marissa Mayer says, “unless you know that both Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids.” She’s referring to schools based on the educational philosophy of Maria Montessori, an Italian physician born in 1870 who believed that children should be allowed the freedom to pursue their interests. “In a Montessori school, you go paint because you have something to express or you just want to do it that afternoon, not because the teacher said so,” she says. “This is baked into how Larry and Sergey approach problems. They’re always asking, why should it be like that? It’s the way their brains were programmed early on.”

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From DSC:
Alan November has spoken to these items in the past as well…nice, informative infographic that I saw at Getting Smart (via Sarah Cargill) as she discusses the infographic from HackCollege:

 

Get more out of Google
Created by: HackCollege

Also see:

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HTML5 program promises to be game changer — from mediapost.com by Diane Mermigas

Also see:

  • Elevation Partners Director and Co-Founder Roger McNamee [Video-based presentation]
    Chapters (full program: 52 min 22 sec)
    01. Introduction
    02. Demise of Microsoft means opportunity
    03. Google in a tough spot
    04. Creativity rules in HTML5
    05.  Apple domination in tablets
    06.  Access from any screen
    07.  The social wave is over
    08.  TV the last protected media
    09.  Economic context and seed investing
    10.  Why Apple supports HTML5
    11.  Privacy regulation
    12.  HTML5 implications for content protection
    13.  Investment in Forbes
    14. Ringback tones
    15. Money in the music industry
    16. Subscription television

 

  • #1: “Next” web architecture = Hypernet + Hyperweb
  • #2: The decline & fall of Windows unlocks revenue
  • #3: Index search is peaking
  • #4: Apple’s model threatens web
  • #5: HTML5 is game changer for publishers
    HTML5 is not just a programming language; enables new models of web experience
    – Developers will embed audio and video directly in web pages, replacing Adobe’s Flash plug-in; enables much greater differentiation in sites, advertising, etc.
    – Content publishers will redesign their sites to reduce power of Google, ad networks
    HTML5 will be disruptive in ways we cannot imagine today: pendulum swinging to favor content creators and publishers. Imagine Amazon or eBay storefront as an ad.
    – Everything can be an app . . . every piece of content . . . every tweet . . . every ad
    – Ads: create demand and fulfill it at the same time . . . without leaving publisher’s page
    – Other tech (e.g., Wordnik) enables publishers to protect and monetize text onsite and off
  • #6: Tablets are hugely disruptive
  • #7: First wave of “social web” is over
  • #8: Smartphones in US: Apple + 7 Dwarfs
  • #9: Wireless infrastructure is a competitive threat to US
  • #10: Integration of TV & Internet could be disruptive

 

From DSC:

  • A recommendation that caught my eye:
    Focus 100% on companies that are cloud + multiscreen; HTML 5 as proxy.

 

Google TV reboot expected imminently — from informitv.com

Excerpt:

The release of Google TV 2.0 is imminent. It was supposed to be available in the United States before the end of the summer. Developers were told in May that existing devices would be updated to the version of Android known as Honeycomb, which has already been overtaken by a new release. While the first release of Google TV failed to impress many, the presence of Android applications on television could be the start of something.

Designing an infinite digital bookcase -- from Google

Designing an infinite digital bookcase -- from Google

 

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