Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Get out of town: Don Dodge suddenly anti-Microsoft, very pro-Google

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

After Microsoft laid off startup liaison Don Dodge earlier this month, reactions from the tech community heavily favored Dodge. TechCrunch even shot a bizarre “exit interview” video during which Dodge was treated well and not harmed by his captor Michael Arrington.

Now that Dodge has landed on his feet at Google, there’s some backlash against the initial You-can’t-do-that-to-Don-Dodge gasps. Dan Lyons, AKA Fake Steve Jobs, plays Tim Russert and parses a Google Dodge blog post, in which Dodge’s opinons about Google have been magically adjusted.

Valleywag pulls it all together, with side-by-side, before-and-after opinions:

Before:

“Even Microsoft’s online version of Outlook called Outlook Web Access is far better than Gmail… Gmail… doesn’t compare to Microsoft Outlook.”

Now:

“Outlook… was getting kind of tired. Gmail is new, fast, web based, and has all the features I need. I especially like the way it threads conversations making it easy to keep everything in context… One other subtle thing: no spam. I never realized how much corporate spam invaded my Microsoft inbox.”

Google Trike may map Quincy Market

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Google is conducting a poll to decide which landmark should be next to be mapped by its Street View-recording tricycle. Other candidates include Stanford University, the Bronx Zoo and Alcatraz, among others.

What, no Fenway? No Castle Island? They may as well digitize the art installation that is City Hall Plaza while they’re at it, if they end up mapping Quincy Market across the street. Mapping things like the Somerville bike path also would add more walking routes around the Paris of the 90s, and just more Somerville, which the world clearly needs. It would also be pretty cool, if not particularly useful, if they strapped one of these things to an MBTA train, or just had someone drive the tricycle up and down the Orange Line.

After the jump, watch the innovative power of a company that made $1.6 billion in profit last quarter distilled into a guy riding a tricycle. (more…)

William Kamkwamba, ‘Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,’ @ MIT this month

Friday, October 9th, 2009
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”

Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”

Kamkwamba is scheduled to speak at MIT’s Technology & Culture Forum on October 21.

After the jump, watch Kamkwamba’s presentation at the TED conference in Tanzania in 2007. (more…)

MHT on NECN: Brightcove, PermissionTV change strategies

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Staff writer Julie Donnelly dropped by New England Business Day to talk about local online video companies like PermissionTV and Brightcove — rumored to be bought by Google last week — targeting smaller publishers of Web video.

Google to buy Brightcove?

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Google Inc. is in talks with video publishing platform provider Brightcove to buy the Cambridge-based startup for $500 million to $700 million, PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser writes in a post to Twitter today. A Brightcove spokeswoman declined to comment on what she characterized as a “rumor.”

Google developing micropayment system for news

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Google’s proposal to the Newspaper Association of America

Harvard’s Niemann Journalism Lab posts a document outlining the micropayment platform being developed by Google. The search giant submitted the plan to the Newspaper Association of America in a response to a request for proposals the NAA released to offset the journalistic apocalypse.  

The platform is an outgrowth of Google Checkout. The 8-page outline suggests a few options, including packaging access to customizable groups of news outlets under a subscription, and charging $.10 for access to an article from an outlet outside the package; and a Fast Lane-esque account that would be debited every time you read an article.  

That’s all fine, but what does Jeff Jarvis think? Last week, the new media guru, author of What Would Google Do? said the company had a media problem, and could help fix it becoming “news’ best friend.” Evidently, he does not think this qualifies. Via Twitter:

Goog micropayments for papers: A cynical act, I’d say: a tool no one uses used to coopt foes on a useless quest.

Incidentally, that’ll be five bucks — pending the establishment of a standardized, widely adopted micropayment system, please send payment to Brendan Lynch, Mass High Tech, 160 Federal St., 12th Floor, Boston, MA 02110.

Hasbro to release irony-drenched Google Maps Monopoly game tomorrow

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Pawtucket, R.I.-based toy maker Hasbro plans to release an online, Google Maps-ified version of the board game Monopoly, according to the Guardian. Google apparently has a sense of humor about itself, but not enough of one to name the game what everyone will likely end up calling it anyway — “Google Monopoly.”

Monopoly City Streets launches tomorrow. According to reports, players get $3 million to play Monopoly using real streets. Given recent antitrust rumblings in Italy, the game could end up being a good test of the search giant’s algorithm’s ability to parse confusing search terms, or a handy way to divert web traffic from people searching for “Google” and “monopoly.”

And since including Adobe or WordPress would run counter to the spirit of the game — it’s not called Healthy Competition City Streets — the game allows you to design houses and hotels using Google Sketchup, and is releasing news on a Google-hosted Blogger.com blog.

T helped inspire Google Transit

Monday, August 10th, 2009


View Larger Map

The Globe finds the inspiration behind Google Transit to be no different from the inspiration for most things — a ride on the T. Two former locals helped develop the product, which recently rolled out service for the T. One of them had already been mashing T data into Google Maps before he started working at the search giant:

“As a developer in a bedroom in Somerville, the MBTA would not give me the time of day,’’ Hughes said. As a result, he spent hours extracting data from PDFs on the T’s website.

Google maps Boston to a T

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Google has added Boston’s MBTA to its Google Maps GIS service, as of this morning. The new integration means Bostonians can map point-to-point routes and compare travel times by car, on foot, or by public transit – as on this map of the route from Mass High Tech’s newsroom downtown to MBTA headquarters in the Theatre District. Twitter user @j_b_f was first to notice the development, late this morning.

The MBTA this afternoon invited news media to a joint announcement tomorrow at 11 a.m. at South Station with city transportation officials and Google Cambridge’s engineering director, Steve Vinter. No details of the planned announcement were released, but the website Universal Hub reports officials will announce the new tool at the presser. A Google spokesman said the company is “evaluating data,” but has no information to release. MBTA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to a report on the website Greater Greater Washington earlier this month, Boston and Washington DC were the only two major U.S. transit systems remaining without integration with Google Maps. Since 2006, the T has offered a wayfinding solution on its own website that provides much of the same functionality as the new Google integration.

The T and general manager Daniel Grabauskas are overdue for some good news this week, after three of the agency’s boardmembers wrote letters to state transportation secretary James Aloisi saying they have no confidence in Grabauskas’ leadership. The letters cited a damning NTSB report, out earlier this month, on a Green Line trolley crash that killed an operator in 2008.

Ray Ozzie compares Google Wave, Groove Networks

Friday, June 5th, 2009

TechCrunchIT liveblogged Microsoft chief software architect and former tech-industry townie Ray Ozzie’s Q&A session at  the Churchill Club’s Potential of Cloud Computing event in Palo Alto, where he talked about Groove’s technology being used in Microsoft’s Live Mesh, and Google Wave.

Affiliate publications: ACBJ.com, Boston Business Journal, Bizjournals.com, Portfolio.com, Wired.com

Web Site Developed by Neptune Web, Inc.

Use of, registration on, this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement. Please read our Privacy Policy (updated) A publishing partner with Portfolio