NewsFruit

Google makes a Venture Fund

2009-03-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Google's newest venture

In this economic recession it's nice to see that some people are still investing and Google's doing just that. Google has started a venture capital fund called Google Ventures which "encourage[s] promising new technology companies". This makes you wonder though, will this fund just give Google more comtrol over the internet? Already their AdSense product supplies ads to most monetized websites. Not to mention that getting a high Google listing is like digital gold. A fund like this could just give Google more leverage over the internet. However, at the same time this is a good idea because Google is a very innovative company and surely only the best products will sprout from this fund.

The Haunting in Connecticut (4 of 5)

2009-03-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting things I noticed about this movie was that it the supposedly true story that it was based on was well publicized. I saw the same story on the Discovery channel on the show A Haunting. However, I believe the film's story was altered because it was slightly different than the Discovery channel show. The movie is about a family with a sickly 16-year-old with cancer. They live too far away from the hospital where he is being treated so they decide to move closer. They find a seemingly normal house where the only problem seems to be that it "has a history". They later discover that it was a funeral home where necromancy was practiced. The teenager is particularly disturbed and seeks help from a reverend. Eventually, the whole "haunting" is resolved and the movie ends. This movie is scary enough to freak you out for the night but not any longer than that. Overall though, it was a great movie.

Google to introduce new Voice product

2009-03-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Here comes Google Voice

Google aquired a company called GrandCentral in 2007 for over $50 million. GrandCentral was a service that allowed you to do a bunch of cool things with your phones. Google froze the service previously and only now is relaunching it under the name of Google Voice. Google Voice uses an interface similar to Gmail that allows you to listen to or read your voicemails, read your texts, and place free calls to anyone in the U.S. Google Voice also has a host of other features like phone routing, phone forwarding, conference calling, and many others. You can see all the features at https://www.google.com/voice/about.

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Google

GrandCentral

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Why Obama doesn't know what he's doing.

2009-03-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama is the first African-American to be elected to the office of president. He's also a moran. Clearly, he doesn't understand that what he says will affect the stock market. If he was smart he would give bad news (like the government taking a 40% stake in Citigroup (C)) on a Friday after the markets closed. If he even gave bad news after the markets closed on ANY day we wouldn't see nearly as many days where the markets are down. Obama needs to realize that what he says will affects millions of peoples college and retirement funds. Then what would you expect from someone who used to be a junior senator and was a previous "community organizer".

Why global warming is a scam.

2009-03-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here's another article trying to "save the earth". Well, I got something to tell you. There is a great deal of evidence that suggests that they're is no global climate change that is man-made. In fact as far as my knowledge goes, there have been hotter periods of time before cars were even invented. Yeah, believe it or not though, I'm not an expert on this so check out globalclimatescam.com.

Official Google Blog: Power down for the planet

Why we need social finance.

2009-03-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

Mutual funds are a great idea. Multiple people invest their money and a manager invests this money. The only problem is that the fund holders don't get a say in where their money goes. They have to trust that the fund manager knows what they're doing and that the companies the manager invests in won't go down the toilet. That's why I propose a new type of mutual fund. A more social mutual fund. No, not a fund that spreads the wealth. I'm talking about a mutual fund were the fund holders make the calls. The holders could democratically select stocks to invest in, with a website perhaps, and then the manager would execute the trades. I believe this is a good idea because when an individual investor decides he wants to purchase some securities they have the choice to invest in whatever company they want. I think a democratic mutual fund would prevent exposure to market volatility. It would also save money for the fund because the fund wouldn't have to pay for stock research.

Santa, Twitter, and Google

2008-12-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

Noradsanta.org let's you track where Santa has and is visiting. This technology uses Google Earth and Google Maps to deliver the location of Santa Claus. It's pretty nifty. Check it out.

And though this technology is interesting the article on the Google Blog says that you can also follow Santa's progress on Twitter. Twitter has also recently integrated Google Friend Connect into it's service. This leads you to wonder if Google and Twitter just have a very close relationship or if there's the possibility of an acquisition. What happens if Google buys Twitter? Clearly, Twitter can be used as a news service and if Google were to aggregate specific user's tweets they could integrate it into Google News. They could also integrate Twitter into their search. Clearly if Google bought Twitter it would be beneficial to it's services.

Official Google Blog: Tracking Santa: the backstory

CrunchBase Information

Google

Twitter

Google Friend Connect

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Hey, if Baidu's so great, why doesn't it have an English version?

2008-12-23T14:49:00.000-08:00

As yet another day where Baidu's stock price goes up passes it leaves you to wonder(Baidu trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol BIDU)how a company that has no service in English ,spoken in the US, the world's second largest internet user, be so successful? Well answers to that question will be varied but it likely has something to do with the fact that Baidu is one of the few search engines that has more users in a designated country than the titan of search, Google. When it comes to search, China is a very difficult market to sell to. China's Communist government will actually go as far as to censor the internet! They will filter out sites that do not represent the government in a positive way or even display content from sites that do not represent the government well. This is done through a system that those familiar with this issue refer to as "The Great Firewall of China". Obviously a more local company which knew the culture and the government's likely behaviors better would have an edge. Baidu also has a few fingers on the pulse of China's culture. Fingers which an American company, such as Google, can't successfully replicate. However like a political candidate, Google likes to attempt to harm Baidu's reputation. It's claims include that
Baidu doesn't differntiate between paid advertisments and organic results within it's search results. Baidu has also been shunned for the linking to pirated MP3s. Baidu however claims that even though these allagations may be true (or at least partly) the Chinese user base should be the one who decides who's results are truly better. Baidu's stock price seems to also whisper that the latter is correct. And as they say, money talks.

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Baidu

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Musical Microwaves, Anyone?

2008-12-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

Google knows differance between photos, clip art, and line drawings

2008-12-21T09:01:00.000-08:00

Google Image Search can now tell the difference between faces, line drawings, clip art, news content, and regular photos. This is a very useful feature as it is now much easier to find clip art especially. However the ability to filter results to faces opens up obvious privacy concerns. Try searching Google Images for yourself or a relative. If the person you're searching for is prominent on the internet it is that much easier for someone to find what you look like. However, this could also be helpful. Say you're going to a class reunion and you don't remember everyone's face. You could plug them into Google and see what they look like now. All in all I think this is a very helpful feature.

Official Google Blog: New search-by-style options for Google Image Search