The PC Informant » Google

The Chrome operating system is no Windows rival- yet

Vic Laurie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:46:36 +0000

Ever since Google announced that it was creating a new operating system called Chrome, there has been speculation that this would be a problem for Windows. Very little was actually known about the potential OS until yesterday, when Google revealed some details. The OS will not be available for another year and seems to be strictly a Web appliance operating system. There are several interesting features. For example, the Official Google Blog says:

First, it’s all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn’t trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer.

Some other information about Chrome is at MaximumPC. Google has a kindergarten explanation of Chrome in the video clip below:

The Chrome OS is not anything like Windows or any other general PC operating system. It is for the Web and small devices only. However, a Web appliance is just what millions of people need and it will be very interesting to see if this type of system someday replaces the PC in many households

Searching for meaning

Vic Laurie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:24:46 +0000

The type of Internet search that we have now is mostly based on scanning for specific text although searching pictures is beginning to add some graphical features. The present search algorithms work remarkably well but have serious limitations and often turn up irrelevant links.

For example, if you ask a question, search engines will be unaware of the context and will instead look for pages containing the specific words used in the question. So if your search is, “How many lawyers work at Microsoft”, the computers will give you links to pages containing “Microsoft”, “lawyers”, and “work” but will not answer your question. I tried it on Google and got 2,650,000 hits. None of the first few hundred links answered the question although one estimated the number of lawyers at Disney. The answer may have been buried somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of pages but as a practical matter the question was not answered. When I searched the exact phrase, “How many lawyers work at Microsoft”, Google said nothing was found. I tried “size of Microsoft legal staff ” but had no luck. Bing didn’t know either.

Then I tried “legal budget Microsoft”. There were 7,270,000 hits but the answer was actually in the very first one. (If you are curious, the answer is an annual legal budget of $900 million and 1050 employees in its legal department, including 450 attorneys.) So, if you try different phrases, synonyms, and related subjects you may finally get your answer.

The example I have just given illustrates some of the problems with search algorithms but at other times the results are remarkably good. I searched Google for the question, “How many people live in Schenectady NY”, and got the answer right at the top of the search listing. But it was the answer for the county, not the city. The city population was several entries down. Bing gave the city population in the third entry.

Ideally, the computer would understand the meaning and context of our search queries but that’s a tall order and asks a lot of computers. Still, the goal of semantic search is being pursued and progress is being made. Science Daily reports a recent development:

European researchers have created the first integrated semantic search platform that integrates text, video and audio. The system can ‘watch’ films, ‘listen’ to audio and ‘read’ text to find relevant responses to semantic search terms. At last, computers are able to look for meaning in our multimedia searches.

Further on, the article discusses semantic search:

Right now, text in computing is defined by a series of numbers, most commonly the Unicode standard. Each number signifies a particular letter, and computers can scan these codes very quickly. So when you enter a search term, the machine has no idea what those letters signify. It simply looks for the pattern — it has no inkling of the concept behind the pattern.

But in semantic search, every bit of information is defined by potentially dozens of meaningful concepts. When a copywriter invoices for his or her work, for example, the date could be defined in terms of calendar, invoice, billing period, and so on. All these definitions for one piece of information are called ‘metadata’, or information about information.

Collections of agreed metadata terms for a particular field or task, like medicine or accounting, are called ontologies.

So the computer not only searches for the term, it searches for related metadata that defines types of information in specific ways. In reality, the computer still does not ‘understand’ a concept in its semantic search — it continues to look for patterns of letters. But because the concepts behind the search terms are included, it can return results based on concepts as well as text patterns.

Google developing new protocol to speed up the Web

Vic Laurie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:52:21 +0000

I have often thought that it is quite remarkable how well the methods have held up that were instituted at the beginning of the Web. Here we are, years later, and we are still basically using the initial designs.

However, the enormous increase in Internet traffic means that some of the old methods need updating. Google has announced that it is working on a way to make the Web faster. It’s rather technical but basically it is a replacement for the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) that Google calls “SPDY”. Google’s description of the research begins:

Today we’d like to share with the web community information about SPDY, pronounced “SPeeDY”, an early-stage research project that is part of our effort to make the web faster. SPDY is at its core an application-layer protocol for transporting content over the web. It is designed specifically for minimizing latency through features such as multiplexed streams, request prioritization and HTTP header compression.

This project is still in the experimental stage and it’s a long road to becoming an accepted protocol (if it ever gets that far) but it certainly looks interesting.

Google improves movie searches

Vic Laurie — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:48:32 +0000

Updates and changes to search keep pouring out of Google. Here’s one for movie fans. Google has announced:

Did you know you can immediately discover movie times and locations by typing a simple search on Google? For example, search for [where the wild things are] and you’ll see times and places to watch the film, or try [glendale 18 los angeles] to see movies playing at your local theater. You can also click on the showtimes search result to get more complete movie listings and information.

Today, we’re making a few improvements to movie results on Google, including more detailed movie pages, genre filters and a new map view.

New version of Google search coming soon?

Vic Laurie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:03:29 +0000

As previously posted, Google has been working on an update to the architecture of its search engine. The project is called “Caffeine” and an experimental site was made available for trying out the new search engine. That site has now been pulled and this announcement posted:

Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

So it looks like Caffeine will soon begin to be phased in. At CNET, Lance Whitney comments:

Caffeine won’t change the look or feel of Google’s popular search engine but will work under the hood to improve its performance, reportedly delivering faster, better, and more flexible results. Though Google continually tweaks its search engine, Caffeine represents the first major enhancement to its search indexing since 2006.

Google Zeitgeist

Vic Laurie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:14:42 +0000

By knowing what we are all searching about on the Internet, Google has an unprecedented database about our interests and even our feelings. Google shares some of this knowledge at a site called Google Zeitgeist. The German expression “Zeitgeist” is an apt one. As Google explains, it means “the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era”. Here is a description of the search trends that you can check out:

“Zeitgeist” means “the spirit of the times”, and Google reveals this spirit through the aggregation of millions of search queries we receive every day. We have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools are available for you to play with, explore, and learn from. Use them for everything from business research to trivia answers.

Google Wave

Vic Laurie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:08:24 +0000

I keep seeing references to Google Wave and even my wife is asking what it is, So here’s an explanation. It is an experimental program in Web collaboration. Groups of people can edit and discuss documents with each other in real-time. Presently, you have to be invited to participate. For more information see this Lifehacker guide:

Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that’s notoriously difficult to understand. This guide will help. Here you’ll learn how to use Google Wave to get things done with your group. Because Wave is such a new product that’s evolving quickly, this guidebook is a work in progress that will update in concert with Wave as it grows and changes.

Find out what Google stores about you

Vic Laurie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:41:42 +0000

If you have a Google account, you can now take a peek at what kind of information Google has stored about you. Google has announced Google Dashboard:

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard. Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account? The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.

The sign-in link to Google Dashboard is here.

Added later: here’s a closer look at Google Dashboard from PC World.

Google in favor of different password scheme

Vic Laurie — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:19:21 +0000

Having a multitude of passwords for all our different Web activities is a hassle and many people go the unsafe route of one or two passwords for everything. Google is advocating a method it calls “hybrid onboarding”:

Does anyone actually like passwords? Most people can’t stand them because they end up having to keep track of a long (and often memorized) list of usernames and passwords to sign into the websites they visit. Website owners hate them because it’s hard to get people to create a new account on their website, and almost half of those account registrations are never completed. Thanks to the utilization of new technology, we’re now seeing large-scale success in eliminating the need for passwords while increasing the successful registration rate at websites to over 90%. The most visible examples come from Plaxo, Facebook, Yahoo! and Google using a technique the industry calls hybrid onboarding.

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At PC World, Jeff Bertolucci comments:

It’s one of the basic tenets of online security: Never use the same password/username combo for every website that requires one. The logic is sound, of course. A single security breach could expose your most private information — such as banking and credit card numbers — to the bad guys.

Problem is, who can remember multiple passwords and usernames? Many times I’ve signed up for a service, returned to the site a few weeks later, and quickly realized that I couldn’t remember my login details.

Google and other major online players, including AOL, Facebook, Microsoft Plaxo, MySpace, and Yahoo, are pitching a simpler alternative: A single password/username combo, such as your Google or Yahoo ID, for multiple sites. The concept, based on the industry standard OpenID 2.0 protocol isn’t exactly new. In fact, Google announced over a year ago that it would support the single single-in plan.

So it’s a single sign-in but with some additional safety over just using the same password everywhere. However, Bertolucci doesn’t think Microsoft and others will buy it:

OpenID is a great idea, but wider acceptance is needed for it to become truly useful. I suspect that Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google aren’t truly comfortable with a single sign-in approach for their key properties. Today, for instance, I can’t use my Yahoo ID to sign into my MSN account, nor can I use my Windows Live ID to enter Yahoo Mail.

More Google search functions

Vic Laurie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:56:28 +0000

Yet more additions to Google search have come out.

One is called “related links”. Google Operating System describes the feature:

Google Related Links is a new Google Labs service that lets you add a list of related web pages and searches to your site. Unlike the homonymous service released by Google in 2006, the new Related Links restricts the results to your site.

A second addition is page previews; it is described:

Google added a new option to the web search toolbelt: page previews. If you click on “Show options” and select “Page previews” after performing a search, Google will show a longer snippet and a thumbnail for each search result.