Computer Technology News & Tips

Today, we’re announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.

Some background for those of you who don’t build search engines for a living like us: when you search Google, you’re not searching the live web. Instead you’re searching Google’s index of the web which, like the list in the back of a book, helps you pinpoint exactly the information you need. (Here’s a good explanation of how it all works.)

So why did we build a new search indexing system? Content on the web is blossoming. It’s growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex. In addition, people’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.

To keep up with the evolution of the web and to meet rising user expectations, we’ve built Caffeine. The image below illustrates how our old indexing system worked compared to Caffeine:

Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

We’ve built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it’s a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you. So stay tuned, and look for more improvements in the months to come.

Source: Google

Google has unveiled Google TV at the I/O conference today.  If you didn’t know, Google makes nearly all of its income from advertisements and Google states that the television market is a $70 billion dollar a year industry.  It only makes sense for Google to get into the TV advertising game so that they can expand upon their advertising empire.

Via the Google Blog, while the details are not yet clear on how Google will profit from this idea, the concept, it a nut shell, is to bring the entire Internet to your TV.  By having Google search on your TV you can now do anything you can imagine.  You will be able to search about the show you are watching, browse flash based content, use apps (Android market place), interact with advertisements, augment streaming content, and all of this occurs on an external box that has Wi-Fi, HDMI, IR blaster, a “strong processor” that is capable of surfing the web, and it will be manufactured by third party vendors.

The basis for the box will be Android with a Chrome browser that has Flash 10.1 built in; you will be able to download apps on your computer and they will sync to your Google TV via the Wi-Fi connection.  It appears that you will have to use a keyboard for text input and you will also be able to use your phone as well but to what extent is unclear.

Sony is expected to launch the platform on its TVs and its Blu-ray players this fall and Logitech will introduce a standalone set top box with a Harmony remote and camera for video chat, the date for release was not disclosed.

Source: neowin.net

The first serious challenge to the Apple iPad is coming from the most obvious of teams: According to Verizon Chief Exec Lowell McAdam, the carrier is working with Google on “a tablet computer.” This should be fun.

The WSJ report is about as sparse as possible, mentioning nothing beyond the fact that Verizon wants a tablet, and are now working with Google. Says McAdam:

We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.

I’m guessing that didn’t come out quite right, but I’ll hazard a guess that this means the the partnership is brand new, and that neither company knows exactly how they’re going to move forward. I hope for the sake of both companies, and us, that this means that Google is working with Verizon on making the ultimate Android tablet, and that Chrome OS will get brushed aside until it’s a bit, er, better.

Let’s play a little game of best case/worst case, shall we?

Best Case

Google’s ready to prove its tablet mettle, and Verizon wants an answer to AT&T’s iPad. It’s Shakespearean, almost, kind of! Within months, AT&T and Verizon will fall deeply in love, and commit suicide due to an easily avoidable misunderstanding. No, wait, wrong play. I wanted the one where EVERYONE FIGHTS EVERYONE, AND IT IS AWESOME. This could mean:

• An Android tablet launched with the backing of a major carrier, and presumably a high-profile hardware manufacturer (Motorola?)
• Hardware within six months
• An interesting data pricing strategy from Verizon, which will need to compete with AT&T novel (but flawed) a la carte system
• An early start against other tablets, specifically from the newly invigorated Palm
• WAR

Worst Case

Sometimes Google is unfocused. Sometimes Verizon is out of touch. With their powers combined, we could end up with:

• A Chrome OS tablet. Web-only tablets aren’t as cool as you’d think. Google and Verizon need to beat the iPad, not the JooJoo. Remember this concept? Eh. Eric Schmidt reportedly told people that the first Google tablet would run Android, but you never know.
• Massive lead time. Android was announced in November of 2007, which was interpreted (correctly) as Google’s move to compete with the iPhone. Problem is, the T-Mobile G1 didn’t ship until nearly a year later. This tablet needs to hit the market well before the next iteration of the iPad, and at least as quickly as whatever WebOS slate HP is working on right now.
• Stupid data pricing. Verizon took Microsoft’s promising new Kin and strangled it in the delivery room. A traditional contract, or overpriced data, could do the same to a tablet.
• A raw Android tablet. The iPad has problems, nearly all of which Android is poised to avoid—but that could befall it, if Google hasn’t been paying attention. I’m talking about better media support, open accessory compatibility, and a syncing app that exists, but isn’t necessary for the device to function.

Granted, this whole thing could be a public bargaining strategy for Verizon, a misrepresentation of the facts by an executive who doesn’t seem to have a perfectly clear view of the facts, or mere hot air. But I don’t want to believe that. I can’t. [WSJ]

Source: Gizmodo.com