New Google Earth Imagery

New Google Earth Imagery

We've just verified that there is new imagery in various places around the world. You can check out the Google LatLong Blog for hints on where some of the new imagery is located.

New and updated imagery (UPDATED 25-SEP 0615 ET)

• Antarctica - Dry Valleys (thanks 'Tom')


• Argentina - Cordoba and Mendoza


• Austria - Strip of new winter imagery near Tirol (thanks 'Jonas')


• Brazil - Florianopolis (thanks 'Tiago')


• Canada - Diavik Diamond Mine


• China - Lhasa (thanks 'jk')


• Finland - Various area (thanks 'cristi')


• Iceland - Some stripes of imagery


• Italy - Strip of winter imagery east of Rome


• Maldive Islands - Male' (thanks 'Alsay')


• Mozambique - Maputo (thanks 'Antonio')


• New Zealand - Te Anau (thanks 'dapascha'), and Central parts of the country, including places like Canterbury and Darfield


• Nigeria - Lagos (thanks 'Snakeye')


• Pakistan - Karachi (thanks 'Adil')


• Portugal - Madeira (thanks 'Samuel')


• Russia - Norilsk (thanks 'cristi')


• Saudi Arabia - Color corrections


• South Korea - Ulsan (thanks 'Munden')


• Ukraine - Sevastopol


• United States
  
  
  • California - Mission Viejo and Ventura
  
  
  • Connecticut - Central part of the state
  
  
  • Delaware - Most (or all) of the State
  
  
  • Florida - Large parts of the state, including: Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Marion County, Miami and part of Taylor County
  
  
  • Maryland - Most of the state
  
  
  • Massachusetts - Eastern 1/3 of the state
  
  
  • Michigan - Metro Detroit area
  
  
  • Washington - Various parts of the state


• Also, there appears to be new hi-res bathymetry off the east coast of the US - east of the continental shelf.

As you find others, please leave a comment and let us know. Because this imagery has not yet been added to Google Maps, you can compare any area in Google Earth against the same location in Google Maps to know for sure whether or not it's been updated.

Posted by mickmel

Google Earth Users Talk, Google Listens

Google Earth Users Talk, Google Listens

One of the things I like best about the Google team developing Google Earth and Maps, is that they really listen to their users. Over the past few months, Google has been making many changes to their imagery processing for Google Earth. The goals seem to be to make imagery more consistent in appearance, improve coloration so the view of the globe looks less "mottled" (with strips of different photos), and to improve the interface between the 3D ocean bathymetry and the coastlines. According to GEB readers, and yours truly, some of the changes haven't been for the best.

For example, when GE 5 first came out, the interface between the coastlines and the new bathymetry actually covered over data for some islands and parts of coastlines. Google recognized the problems, but it took quite some before the changes were fixed. Several months. Then in June, Google introduced new coloration for the US. GEB was pretty vocal about complaining on this one - and a month later Google fixed it for some areas (but, not all). Unfortunately, they also added a new "coastline cutting" algorithm to cut the shape of the aerial imagery to the shape of the coastline. Many GE users complained about this one. Although it does look "cleaner" when viewing from higher altitudes, the change resulted in a loss of valuable data of offshore imagery (showing ships at sea, air traffic, anchorages, and more). Some of us told Google they should at a minimum not introduce the coastline cutting to the "Historical Imagery" archives. Again, Google has been listening: the recent imagery update removed the coastline cutting from most of the historical imagery!

The processes Google uses for making changes to the imagery, processing them for the servers, verifying the quality, and then delivering them to their live servers has taken at least 60 days normally. However, there are signs Google is improving the update speed.

Last week, an imagery update was pushed out (and found by GEB readers). Several places were found to have sub-standard imagery - clouds in the satellite photos, and dark and poor contrasted images. Now, only a few days later, several people have reported some of those images have been fixed. That's a much faster turn around!

On behalf of GEB readers, and other GE users, I would like to thank Google for listening. And, hopefully with their improved processes, we won't have to wait so long for future changes to materialize.

Posted by FrankTaylor

Google Buys CAPTCHA Technology

by Chloe Albanesius

Google announced Wednesday that it has acquired reCaptcha for an undisclosed sum – an endeavor, it said, that will help it improve the quality of its book-scanning project.

CAPTCHA tests are the squiggly letters that are displayed when Internet users are signing up for a service or buying items online. Computers cannot easily recognize these letters, so if the user gets it right, it's a fair bet that a human is behind the computer screen and not a machine trying to scalp concert tickets or hack into e-mails.

As a result, Google will use the reCaptcha technology to improve fraud and spam protection. But it will also assist with Google's complex and controversial book- and newspaper-scanning efforts.

Many of the words included in Captcha challenges come from scanned archival newspaper and old books. "Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text," Luis von Ahn, co-founder of reCaptcha and Will Cathcart, Google product manager, wrote in a blog post.

Technology from reCaptcha "improves the process that converts scanned images into plain text [and] powers large scale text scanning projects like Google Books and Google News Archive Search," they wrote.

Converting these scanned documents to text is important, Google said, so that it can be searched, displayed on mobile devices, and accessed by the visually impaired.

"So we'll be applying the technology within Google not only to increase fraud and spam protection for Google products but also to improve our books and newspaper scanning process," they wrote.

Google's book-scanning program is currently drawing criticism from copyright holders, libraries, and scrutiny from regulators. Critics like Microsoft and Yahoo argue that a 2008 class-action settlement essential allows Google to scan now and answer copyright questions later. Google argues that its program actually provides a financial incentive for authors to come forward, claim their works, and allow them on Google Books.

Using Google Earth to Review Urban Development Project

Using Google Earth to Review Urban Development Project

Gerardo brought to my attention a post at the GEC about a proposed bridge construction project at the Columbia River in the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington region. The author, Nick Falbo, has produced some excellent Google Earth visualizations in opposition to the project. The visualizations use the new Tour function of Google Earth 5, and he's created embedded versions of the Tours on his blog. You can watch the three tours here - using the GE plugin in your browser, or visit his blog page to download the GE content directly. The tours include narration, 3D models of proposed bridges, and overlays to illustrate possible effects of the road project.

This is not at all the first time Google Earth has been used to visualize urban projects. Check here for some others:

• New York Buildings project
• Fight against logging plan in Santa Cruz
• Cape Wind Project

Posted by FrankTaylor

Google Product Search: Find Items for Sale

Google Product Search: Find Items for Sale

Google Product Search (formerly called Froogle) is a searchable and browsable shopping index tuned to finding products for sale online. Click on the Shopping link at the top left corner of Google’s window:

or visit www.google.com/products. Search results include price, brand, description, and, if available, a photograph. Note that unlike other online shopping services, Product Search doesn’t actually sell things.

Product Search obtains listings for products from vendors and by scouring the web. When Google finds a page that appears to sell something, it feeds the information it collects to Froogle. Vendors don’t pay to have their products included in Froogle’s search results. However, they can purchase sponsored links, which appear along the right side of the Product Search results pages.

You can browse products by clicking on a category or you can search by entering your query in the Product Search search box. Interested in buying a watch for a child? Look in Product Search for [ watches children ].

The results included several different meanings of the word “watch”, pages selling children’s jewelry and an LP record. Study results to get ideas for more effective search terms. Consider searching for specific brands.

Near the top is a drop-down box that lets you sort the results by relevance, by price, by reputation of seller, and more. You can also click “Show grid view” to see the results in a more compact format:

Search for specific types of watches — for instance, [ watches children timex ].

or [ watches children teacher ]:

Product Search also shows a link with the seller’s name (in the previous example, both watches came from Amazon.com) and, if available, the average seller’s rating that other Google Product Search users gave the seller. Click on the rating to read detailed reviews and ratings of this seller.

Want products with prices in a specified range or more control over your search? Fill in the Advanced Product Search form. Access the form by clicking on its link to the right side of the search box on a Product Search page or visiting www.google.com/advanced_product_search.

For more information on Product Search click the “Help” link near the bottom of Product Search pages or visit www.google.com/products/about.html.

Exercises

These problems give you practice with shopping on Google Product Searche. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page.

1. Find 100% cotton comforter covers with Product Search.
2. Find unbreakable 8 oz. drinking glasses in the price range $10 - $30.
3. Tired of putting on sun screen? Find sun-protective clothing with Product Search.
4. Find heated toilet seats with Product Search.

Hurricane/Cyclone Tracking with Google Earth

Hurricane/Cyclone Tracking with Google Earth

One of Google Earth's most powerful features is the ability to pull in real-time information from other sites and overlay the information for visualization (thanks to the network link). Weather data is one of my favorite applications in Google Earth of this ability. Imagine pulling in the latest satellite photos, radar animations, hurricane tracking, live web cams on the ground, sea surface temperature analysis, etc. Well, you can do all that with the set of the very best weather tools for Google Earth which GEB has bundled together into this: the weather and storm tracking tools collection . Simply drag this network link into your Places folder to keep it handy. It won't take up space until you turn it on. It first loads several folders of weather tools you can explore. You may want to turn only one layer on at a time - these layers weren't designed to all be turned on at once. Although, some of the layers are complimentary (like current lightning strikes with clouds or storms turned on). Read more about the storm tracking tools.

Google has added a new Hurricane Season 2009 layer in the Weather layer folder. It also will automatically highlight current named storms. But, the tools in the collection above will take you much further if you have an interest in weather. Check out this GEB video of storm tracking (from 2007) in Google Earth:

NOTE: Many of these storm tracking tools have been around for some time. While they are still cool, I'd love to see some weather sites using the Google Earth API to full advantage. Weather data is great stuff when viewed in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor

GoogleGuide logo Google Guide > Part IV: Services > Technology Playground: Google Labs « Previous: Answers Technology Playground: Google Labs

Technology Playground: Google Labs

Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” To this end, Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google’s research group.

Visit Google Labs’ home page at labs.google.com.

Note: Google Labs updates its site periodically. So you may find prototypes or demos different from the ones shown here.

In the Parts Query Input and Understanding Results, we mention graduates of Google Labs, services and tools that have been refined and made available through Google’s home page.

• Google Maps (Search by Location)
• Google Alerts
• Google Glossary

Google will likely refine some of these demos and make them available through Google’s home page. If you want to become part of Google’s development process, try out these prototypes and provide feedback to the engineers who developed them.

In this final page of Services, we describe a Google Labs’ prototype search tool:

Google Sets

Google Sets - labs.google.com/sets - automatically creates sets of items from a few examples.

Enter a few items from a set of things. Then press the Large Set button or the Small Set button and Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set. For example, if you enter Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, and Coit Tower, Google Sets suggests other places worth visiting in San Francisco.

Use Google sets to suggest: people who might share interests with you, places to visit, books to read, movies to see, synonyms, food you might enjoy, stores where you can buy a particular type of item, etc.

Exercises

These problems give you practice in using Google Labs prototypes and demos.

1. Visit Google Labs. Try two of the prototypes and demos that are listed on the site.
2. Get suggestions for books by entering some of your favorite authors or titles and asking Google Sets to predict other members of the set.
3. Enter some of your favorite movies and see if Google Sets recommends either movies you haven’t seen or other of your favorite movies.

Technology Behind Google StreetView - Immersive Media

Technology Behind Google StreetView - Immersive Media

During Where 2.0 yesterday, the company which is behind the technology of Google Maps StreetView presented - Immersive Media. One of the many secrets behind their technology is a patented 11 lens camera system that simultaneously takes photos in 11 directions based on a dodecahedron geometry. They can capture 30 frames a second of high resolution photography. That's right - we're talking high resolution video in digital 360. You can stop, start, back up, single-frame, etc. And they even showed technology where you can add 3D objects into the video scene (augmented reality). This technology has been used for things like planning state visits of dignitaries for security planning. The demonstration was very amazing to watch. There were lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" in the audience. I have to say it was the most awesome technology I saw demonstrated at Where this year. I managed to grab a small bit of the presentation with my camera (watch it all the way through, it is very cool!):

Posted by FrankTaylor

Google Search Appliance

Overview

Google is Stanford University's official search engine. Google represents a significant enhancement to the University's web environment, providing:

• Better and quicker search results
• Advanced search features, including searching for PDF, .doc and .ppt files, and displaying them as HTML
• Easy and powerful search administration
• Easy integration into web sites

Bringing the Google search appliance into the Stanford infrastructure allows us features that the commercial Google Stanford index cannot duplicate, such as:

• continuous crawling
• managing our own Collections and Front Ends
• customizing Format, KeyMatches (equivalent to the commercial service's "sponsored links"), Synonyms, and Filters of the search results
• as FERPA and HIPAA regulations begin to have an effect on the availability of web content (requiring some pages to be access-restricted, for example), the campus search appliance can be authenticated to crawl and index where outside search engines cannot.

IT Services, which supports and manages the University's central web infrastructure and services, operates and maintains the Google search appliance.

University Communications, which operates and maintains the Stanford home page (http://www.stanford.edu), has implemented the Google search feature on the home and second-level pages of the Stanford web site.

Getting more information

• An announcements mailing list exists for Google users: search-partners@lists.stanford.edu.
  If you use the Google search appliance on your Stanford web site, please subscribe to this list for notifications of service changes, updates, etc.
• Information and instructions for web creators includes information about:
  • getting your page into the Google index
  • keeping your page out of the Google index
  • adding a Google search feature to your site, plus:
    • advanced parameters
    • Collections
    • Front Ends
  • Stanford's configuration of the Google search appliance
• If you have comments or questions about using Google to power the search feature on your website, enter a HelpSU request.
• If you need a page indexed immediately, enter a HelpSU request.
• A newsgroup has been created for Google users: su.computers.search. Post questions or discussions to other Stanford Google users on this newsgroup.

How to Search Google News Search More Efficiently

There's more to Google News than just the Personalized News Page, Google News Search RSS feeds or the News Alerts.

You can write very powerful queries inside Google News to filter all the irrelevant information and get the exact news story you are looking for.

The trick is to use undocumented Google news search operators. Here we have written down some practical and most commonly used news search queries which you can easily visualize and then modify according to your own requirements.

A lot of these queries can be constructed from the Advanced news search page but if you like to type commands instead of using wizards, this is just for you.

Show stories related to XBox published on the BBC Website
xbox source:bbc_news

Show news about Digital Cameras from either Sony or Nikon
"digital camera" Sony OR Nikon

Show news about Video Cameras from Sony but not Panasonic
"camcorders" OR "video camera" OR "handycam" Sony -Panasonic

Show news about blogger Steve Rubel from publications located in New York
steve rubel location:ny

Show news where Seth Godin is mentioned in the headline of the news title
allintitle: "seth godin"

Show all news published on CNN in the last one hour
http://news.google.com/news?q=source%3Acnn&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=h

Show all news stories on Safe Sex published in the last one month
http://news.google.com/news?q=safe+sex&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=m

Show news about Plasma TV published in newspapers and media websites from England.
plasma-tv OR plasma-television location:uk

Show all news stories on Stem Cell Research from media website ibnlive.com
"stem cell" allinurl:ibnlive.com

Show news about Microsoft Zune but filter out press releases
microsoft zune -press-release

I want to know if xyznews.com is indexed by Google News or not ?
allinurl:xyznews.com : if you get zero results, it's probably not indexed.

How do I search for News Headlines on Google News ?
Use the allintitle operator as described before.

Show news with Microsoft and Google in the title but in any order ?
allintitle:microsoft allintitle:google

Google News is one of the most popular product but there's no help file for Google News yet. Until then, you can refer to the queries above for an idea on how to construct your own advanced news search queries.

The Technology Behind Google

By Chris Sherman, Search Engine Watch, Aug 12, 2002

Want a behind the scenes glimpse at the technology that powers Google? Take a guided tour with Jim Reese, Google's Chief Operations Engineer.

Google is often praised for its accurate and on-topic search results. While the software powering the search engine is undoubtedly first-rate, there's a less heralded part of Google that's just as important to the engine's success: its underlying technology.

Google's hardware is a massive "farm" of more than 10,000 servers, capable of not only indexing more than 3 billion web documents but handling thousands of queries per second with sub-second response times. It's an awesome engineering feat in its own right.

I've had the privelege of visiting two of Google's server farms, getting guided tours from Jim Reese, Google's Chief Operations Engineer. Jim and his team designed and built Google's hardware plant, and maintain it on a daily basis.

Though Jim's a hardcore engineer, he does a great job of explaining how everything works in a straightforward, easily understood way. He's also a lot of fun just to talk with -- before Google he was a practicing neurosurgeon, and still regularly performs gigs with his band.

In November, Jim will be presenting the keynote address at a conference for systems administrators, offering the behind the scenes look at Google's operations that he does so well. A similar talk that he presented at the Atlanta Linux Showcase in October 2000 was recorded, and is available in MP3 format from Dr. Dobb's TechNetCast.

So fire up your MP3 player, sit back, close your eyes, and take a virtual tour of Google with the good Dr. Reese.

The Technology Behind Google (MP3 Audio)
http://technetcast.com/tnc_play_stream.html?stream_id=420
The technology behind Google: company overview, search parameters and results, hardware and query load balancing, Linux cluster topology, scalability, fault tolerance, and more (1hr 13min - available in streaming and downloadable formats).

Google Inside Part 2: Q&A Session with Jim Reese
http://www.technetcast.com/tnc_play_stream.html?stream_id=421
15 minute Q&A session with Jim Reese, Google's Chief Operations Engineer.

Lycos Announces InSite AdBuyer Program

Lycos is launching a new keyword based advertising program, allowing advertisers and marketers to create text-based ad panels for display on Lycos Search and HotBot.

The company has teamed with FindWhat.com to provide the technology platform for InSite AdBuyer. FindWhat uses a proprietary technology where advertisements are purchased via an open bidding system. Advertisers are only charged for actual clicks, or traffic, to their sites.

According to Tom Wilde, general manager of search services for Terra Lycos, the system is intended to complement rather than replace existing keyword advertisements currently provided by Overture.

You can sign up for the Lycos InSite program now, and gain access to the AdBuyer program when Lycos formally launches the service later this month.

Lycos InSite Search Services Products
http://insite.lycos.com/searchservices/

Everything about Google News Technology

Google News made the first public appearance in Dec 2001 sourcing news from only 100 websites. Today, Google News scans 4,500 different websites in real time, determines which news stories are related and then groups them based on importance. And there aren't any journalists to work on the service, Google News is managed entirely by computer programs.

Google News started as a small demo created by one Google engineer on a weekend after he was frustrated trying to read news after Sept 11 event. More Googlers started to use it to read their news. Google then assigned 3 people (one was UI designer) and one PM to work on it. The rest is history.

Google News includes articles that have appeared within the past 30 days.

The inventor of Google News:

Krishna Bharat, the Google Principal Scientist, is the brain behind Google News.

John Burke covers the WEF conference where Krishna Bharat expressed his views about his own baby, Google News - "immune to local biases and constraints," like a web site "hosting a conversation about stories in the news" where "all newspapers are invited" and the host "won't take sides" and "won't have a point of view."

Krishna further says "Our relationship with newspapers is symbiotic; we sent traffic directly to the content provider and we do not have special relationships, and we amplify the amount of news being read." "I am hoping, he says," to have all newspapers participate with Google News; for our readers we want an interesting debate that makes them think."

Krishna, how does Google news plan to deal with Rumours, Humour and false stories ? Axis of Logic took the top spot on Google News when it reported about George Bush arrest in Ottawa. See Picture

List of Google News sources:

Though Google remains silent when it comes to disclosing the details of their news sources, Newsknife.com is tracking Google news since early 2004 and they recently released a list of ~ 3000 news sources which feature on Google news. Private Radio is another Google News Tracking site which released a list of some 5136 news sources grouped by country and frequency of update.

Is Google News Biased

At PrivateRadio, JohnnyMC reasons that there are some human editors working behind the scenes based on rankings of Chinese Xinhua's and Voice of America. At the very least, their coders are weighting to favor certain sites. Eric Ulken of Online Journalism Review studied the 2004 US election and conclude that Google News results suggest a political bias and several relatively obscure, online-only news sources (read, weblogs) figure in the Google News sources list.

Google Patent Trustrank

Google is filing a patent for TrustRank, a technology that aims to sort Google news results by quality rather than simply by "date" and "relevance" to search terms.

Google database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business, the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news search.

There are some interesting and valid points mentioned in the Google Research paper on Combating Web Spam with TrustRank.

Q. How is TrustRank different from applying a weighting to PageRank ?

A. It attempts to detect clusters of pages which have few inbound links, which also propagating "trust" scores to all other sites by using their linking structure. For sites that have many inbound links (high scroring in pagerank), the authors claim this modification tends to classify spam and reputable sites differently.

Q. What if such an owner decides to link to a page of commercial or spam links ?

A. The paper suggests using only highly reputable organizations with long-term stability for the seed pages. Government organizations, universities, very well known companies.

The technology behind Google's great results

The technology behind Google's great results

As a Google user, you're familiar with the speed and accuracy of a Google search. How exactly does Google manage to find the right results for every query as quickly as it does? The heart of Google's search technology is PigeonRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.

Building upon the breakthrough work of B. F. Skinner, Page and Brin reasoned that low cost pigeon clusters (PCs) could be used to compute the relative value of web pages faster than human editors or machine-based algorithms. And while Google has dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of our service on a daily basis, PigeonRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.

Why Google's patented PigeonRank™ works so well

PigeonRank's success relies primarily on the superior trainability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.

By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters, Google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.

When a search query is submitted to Google, it is routed to a data coop where monitors flash result pages at blazing speeds. When a relevant result is observed by one of the pigeons in the cluster, it strikes a rubber-coated steel bar with its beak, which assigns the page a PigeonRank value of one. For each peck, the PigeonRank increases. Those pages receiving the most pecks, are returned at the top of the user's results page with the other results displayed in pecking order.

Integrity

Google's pigeon-driven methods make tampering with our results extremely difficult. While some unscrupulous websites have tried to boost their ranking by including images on their pages of bread crumbs, bird seed and parrots posing seductively in resplendent plumage, Google's PigeonRank technology cannot be deceived by these techniques. A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality websites with information relevant to your search.

Data

PigeonRank Frequently Asked Questions

How was PigeonRank developed?

The ease of training pigeons was documented early in the annals of science and fully explored by noted psychologist B.F. Skinner, who demonstrated that with only minor incentives, pigeons could be trained to execute complex tasks such as playing ping pong, piloting bombs or revising the Abatements, Credits and Refunds section of the national tax code.

Brin and Page were the first to recognize that this adaptability could be harnessed through massively parallel pecking to solve complex problems, such as ordering large datasets or ordering pizza for large groups of engineers. Page and Brin experimented with numerous avian motivators before settling on a combination of linseed and flax (lin/ax) that not only offered superior performance, but could be gathered at no cost from nearby open space preserves. This open space lin/ax powers Google's operations to this day, and a visit to the data coop reveals pigeons happily pecking away at lin/ax kernels and seeds.

What are the challenges of operating so many pigeon clusters (PCs)?

Pigeons naturally operate in dense populations, as anyone holding a pack of peanuts in an urban plaza is aware. This compactability enables Google to pack enormous numbers of processors into small spaces, with rack after rack stacked up in our data coops. While this is optimal from the standpoint of space conservation and pigeon contentment, it does create issues during molting season, when large fans must be brought in to blow feathers out of the data coop. Removal of other pigeon byproducts was a greater challenge, until Page and Brin developed groundbreaking technology for converting poop to pixels, the tiny dots that make up a monitor's display. The clean white background of Google's home page is powered by this renewable process.

Aren't pigeons really stupid? How do they do this?

While no pigeon has actually been confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court, pigeons are surprisingly adept at making instant judgments when confronted with difficult choices. This makes them suitable for any job requiring accurate and authoritative decision-making under pressure. Among the positions in which pigeons have served capably are replacement air traffic controllers, butterfly ballot counters and pro football referees during the "no-instant replay" years.

Where does Google get its pigeons? Some special breeding lab?

Google uses only low-cost, off-the-street pigeons for its clusters. Gathered from city parks and plazas by Google's pack of more than 50 Phds (Pigeon-harvesting dogs), the pigeons are given a quick orientation on web site relevance and assigned to an appropriate data coop.

Isn't it cruel to keep pigeons penned up in tiny data coops?

Google exceeds all international standards for the ethical treatment of its pigeon personnel. Not only are they given free range of the coop and its window ledges, special break rooms have been set up for their convenience. These rooms are stocked with an assortment of delectable seeds and grains and feature the finest in European statuary for roosting.

What's the future of pigeon computing?

Google continues to explore new applications for PigeonRank and affiliated technologies. One of the most promising projects in development involves harnessing millions of pigeons worldwide to work on complex scientific challenges. For the latest developments on Google's distributed cooing initiative, please consider signing up for our Google Friends newsletter.

Google Lashes Out at Android Dev

By Katherine Noyes
LinuxInsider
Part of the ECT News Network
09/29/09 4:00 AM PT

Google is under fire in the Android community, where some developers have not taken kindly to its heavy-handed "cease and desist" action against CyanogenMod. The fuming is not so much over whether Google is on solid legal ground -- that much seems clear -- but rather over its failure to take a more collaborative approach to solving the problem.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) sent shock waves through the Android community late last week by launching a cease-and-desist order at well-regarded modder Cyanogen for bundling some of its closed-source applications with his CyanogenMod ROM.

CyanogenMod is a free, heavily optimized build of Android 1.5r2 that focuses on performance and reliability. Its developer -- Steve Kondik, also known as "Cyanogen" -- claims some 30,000 users for the firmware product, which bundles closed-source Google apps such as Gmail, Market, Talk and YouTube .

"Google just cease and desisted me," wrote Kondik in a short chat transcript uncovered by Android and Me last Thursday. "Cyanogenmod is probably going to be dead. I'm opening a dialogue with them."

Kondik did not respond in time to LinuxInsider's requests for comment on Monday. The official CyanogenMod site, meanwhile, has been unavailable due to the controversy's "Slashdot effect," Kondik wrote in a Twitter post.

'Nurturing' the Platform

CyanogenMod enhances the Android platform with extra functionality including multitouch capabilities and an improved user experience -- such as by providing five home screens instead of the usual three, according to reports.

Kondik's product has also reportedly spurred innovation in the development community.

"Countless other developers have sourced his work to breathe new innovation into their own creations and making it more stable or functional or both," wrote Mobility Site blogger Tariq Bamadhaj, for example. "In short, if Google gave birth to Android, Cyanogen was the one who nurtured and continues to nurture this growing baby."

'These Apps Aren't Open Source'

Google, for its part, attempted to respond and clarify its position through a post from Android developer Dan Morrill on Friday.

"I've noticed some confusion around what is and isn't part of Android's open source code," Morrill wrote.

Android apps for Google services like YouTube, Gmail and Google Voice "are Google's way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself," Morrill explained.

"These apps aren't open source, and that's why they aren't included in the Android source code repository," he asserted. "Unauthorized distribution of this software harms us just like it would any other business, even if it's done with the best of intentions."

Google spokesperson Carolyn Penner declined to provide additional comment.

"We don't have much more to say beyond what was included in the blog post," she told LinuxInsider.

'I Intend to Respect That'

On Monday, Kondik posted an update on the situation on the CyanogenMod site, which was viewable in Google's cache.

"What has become clear now is that the Android Open Source Project is a framework," Kondik wrote. "It's licensed in such a way so that anyone can take it, modify it to their needs, and redistribute it as they please. Android belongs to everyone. This also means that big companies [like] Google, HTC, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) , and whomever else can add their own pieces to it and share these pieces under whatever license they choose.

"The issue that's raised is the redistribution of Google's proprietary applications like Maps, GTalk, Market, and YouTube," he added. "These are not part of the open source project and are only part of 'Google Experience' devices. They are Google's intellectual property and I intend to respect that."

'A Bare Bones ROM'

Kondik will no longer distribute the apps as part of CyanogenMod.

Rather, "what I intend to do is simply ship the next version of CyanogenMod as a 'bare bones' ROM," he wrote. "You'll be able to make calls, MMS, take photos, etc. In order to get our beloved Google sync and applications back, you'll need to make a backup first. I'm working on an application that will do this for you."

Nevertheless, many in the open source community are now questioning Google's commitment to its open source offspring.

Not So Open?

"Google throws the 'open' out of 'open-source' by shutting down Android mod" read one headline, for example. Scores of comments on sites across the blogosphere expressed similar sentiments.

Several petitions are circulating -- on PetitionSpot and on Cyrket, for example -- urging fans to help save CyanogenMod.

An Android developer who reportedly works for Google's Morrill, meanwhile, wrote in a tweet on Friday, "To my Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?"

'A Confrontational Approach'

It is surprising that Google "took a more confrontational approach rather than contacting the developer directly in order to sort out the differences," Stephen Schultze, associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, told LinuxInsider.

Google's intellectual property claims are "legitimate and understandable," but there is probably "a reasonable 'third way' solution," Schultze added.

To wit: Cyanogen's own proposed solution, "divorcing his code base from the proprietary elements," may mean the developers are "on their way to solving the legal issues by creating a simple way for end-users to patch in their legal copies of the proprietary Google apps," he noted. "I would hope that Google would consider ways in which it could facilitate this process from its end."

Terms and Conditions

Android "has spawned a plethora of individuals and companies leveraging that platform with their own products," Raymond Van Dyke, a technology attorney in Washington, told LinuxInsider. "Since Google has expended considerable sums to roll out their paradigm, they naturally wish to maintain some control over it," he added.

Cyanogen's CyanogenMod "got Google's attention" by rolling various modules of Android into a bundled and popular product, Van Dyke noted -- "hence the cease and desist letter to let them know that this behavior was not OK."

Indeed, in Android's Terms and Conditions, Google not only expressly says that it retains all intellectual property, but it "also states that 'you agree that Google may stop (permanently or temporarily) providing the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) (or any features within the SDK) to you or to users generally at Google's sole discretion, without prior notice to you," Van Dyke pointed out.

'Not Just Google'

Cyanogen's attempts to work around the problem will likely be permitted "so long as they avoid Google's IP," Van Dyke concluded. "Good luck!"

Looking ahead, in fact, luck may be just what Cyanogen needs.

"We are also trying to deal with the issue of htc/ti/qualcomm proprietary stuff," Kondik wrote in a tweet on Monday afternoon. "It's not just google.