WebRev Blog

When I first started reading about this story, I thought it was another of Google's April Fools Day jokes.  Does anyone remember Georgi LaForge, on Star Trek?  These look a cross between those glasses and the technology used in The Minority Report.

Although I have to hand it to Google for usually being out front in the world of technology (their numerous failed attempts to recreate the social network notwithstanding), I'm afraid this one is just plain dangerous.  Even more dangerous than robot-driven cars. 

I know I would find having "helpful" information popping up in front of me very distracting. And as for putting "helpful" information in front of me at the right time, it's not as if the glasses are actually going to know what I'm THINKING (I hope).  I may be looking in the direction of a woman who has a Gucci handbag (which may be advertised, conveniently on Google), but I may actually be focused on a set of restroom signs, to figure out which one is the girls room (and please, please, Google - don't even TRY to help me with that). 

But one really great thing that is likely to come out of this is that the technology is likely to be used in making our mobile devices intuitive in a way that we've never seen before.  Better assistance with street-level directions, and special offers for restaurants and retail stores I'm actually walking into would, in fact be appreciated.  We're already getting there with applications like Google Maps, and Foursquare. 

If Google really wants to make bring this technology into the Star-Trek age, I hope they ditch the eyewear, and focus on developing a great projection screen for their Androids.

I finally decided it was time to explore Google Chrome.  Sure, I mocked their logo about a year ago, but really thought this browser thing was going to be another Google flop like Google Wave and Google Buzz. But I've been hearing about more and more people who really like the stability of the browser, and many of its features, so I decided to give it a try.

When I first downloaded it, my first thought was, "This is it?!"  It looked just like my Google sign-in screen.  Ah, but the wonder of this browser is in the optional plugins, apps and extensions, like Chrome to Phone, which allows you to easily send links to your Android phone.

As for the not-so-obvious-when-you-first-sign-in-but-important-basic features, for those who like to read international websites, Google Chrome automatically translates websites into your preferred language, which is very convenient.  The "omnibox" at the top feels more like a mobile browser, in that it accepts both urls and search inquiries.   Chrome has tabs like most of the other browsers have now, but they apparently only crash one at at time - which is helpful if you're like me and tend to have about a dozen open at any one time.  For more about the basic features, go HERE.

The market includes plugs for games like Angry Birds (Web Rev has more about Angry Birds here), Evernote (which I wrote about recently), and Gardens of Time (which I have not yet explored, but plan to now), plus tons of other stuff.  I'm not sure I'm ready yet to make this my primary browser, but I'm definitely going to spend more time using it.

Do you have a favorite browser, and what do you like about it?

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that while I do enjoy using some Google products, I'm not exactly a fan of Google's newest social networking endeavor, Google+, due to some very serious privacy concerns.

But I believe it is important to give credit where credit is due, and this week Google announced a change to its privacy policy that will make it much easier for users to manage what is publicly viewable about them on the web.  The change will be effective in March. Some users may not have even been aware that some of the products they have been using are now owned by Google (like YouTube and Picasa), and interface with its other products.  Wikipedia keeps a running list of the products Google has acquired HERE.

Actually right now (and apparently there will be improvements between now and March 1st) you can go to your Google Dashboard (Google.com/Dashboard), login, and see all of the Google products you are signed up for using that Google profile.  You can then adjust your privacy to a level that suits you.  I recommend doing this now, and then again after March 1st.  Also, remember that if you have more than one Google profile (e.g. one for personal use and one for business), you'll want to sign in under each one separately.  After March 1st, all of these products will have one official privacy policy.  Mashable has some great information HERE and HERE.

Just remember that Google actually works for its paying customers, and who those customer are: The advertisers.  Google pays its bills by harvesting user data and packaging it in a way that is meaningful to its advertisers.  If you find this unacceptable, I hear Hotmail is trying get us all to switch back. 

The "fun" news of the week is that Google has an "Easter Egg" on its search page which is getting a lot of attention.  No, not the chocolate kind of Easter egg (my favorite).  A virtual Easter egg is a something unexpected that you find, usually while searching for something else.  The site Eeggs.com has a list of famous virtual Easter eggs found in in movies, tv shows, software, music, books, and art.  I'm sure they'll be adding this week's little gem from Google, as well.

The phrase "do a barrel roll" is making the rounds on Twitter and other sites, because if you type this phrase (or the related "Z or R twice" ) into the Google search bar, the whole screen will rotate automatically.  I must be easily amused, because I've done it about ten times now. 

The phrase originally comes from a video game called Star Fox 64 from the 1990s.  A n example of how the phrase is used is HERE in this YouTube video.  Fans of the movie Shrek may think the donkey looks a bit familiar.

So, go ahead, and do a barrel roll. Do it. You know you want to.

Speaking of rolling - remember to roll back your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday night.  It would be a shame to miss that extra hour of sleep.  Most of your computerized devices are set to automatically update, but you may still need to update your battery-powered devices and house clocks.  Some of us still need to update the clocks in our automobiles.  In case you're like me, and probably won't remember to do this (even after reminding everyone else to all week), you might want to consider downloading an app.

A story is making the rounds this week which is being pushed as "new" news, but actually isn't.  Well, sort of.  Let's start at the beginning.

I long time ago in a land far, far away (ok, it was about ten years ago, and this all happened in the Internet)...Google and other started crawling blogs and every started figuring out ways to get their own blogs to the top of the search engines in a field of study that would become known as "SEO (Search Engine Optimization)."  One of the techniques for gaining "points" on the search engines was to get people to link to your website, and eventually bloggers figured out they could trick the search engines into thinking other websites were linking to their own site by going on other blogs and posting links back to their own blogs.

So Google, which by then had become the mother of all search engines, and industry standard, changed its "algorithm" to not read javascript or AJAX script, which rendered most blog and website comments useless for search engine marketing.  Over time, Google has continued to fine-tune its algorithm to be able to read and index blog and website comments without counting the back-links to the blogs, giving an unfair advantage to bloggers who are just trying to "game" the system by linking all over the web to their own blogs rather than writing quality content that other people want to link to.

The big news of the week (so far) occurred when Digital Inspiration happened to discover that Google is now indexing Facebook comments, and then Google software engineer Matt Cutts confirmed the change on Twitter.  It is unknown right now whether there is a window of opportunity for SEO aficionados to grab some back-link "juice" by linking to their own blogs on Facebook.  If so, it will only be a "brief" window, as Google is pretty good at quickly recognizing this sort of tactic and shutting it down.

Now, more than ever, it is important to be aware that literally everything you do online is likely to show up in a Google search - even commenting on a friend's Facebook page.  So don't post anything online that you wouldn't want the world to know.  Also, now more than ever, it is important to realize that what your friends post on your blog and your website and your social networking profile (even as a comment) could reflect as much on you as it does on them, so moderating comments may no longer be an optional activity.  In fact, it's now more important than ever.

We discussed Google Plus here on WebRev - while it was still in a limited invitation-only beta trial.  in mid-September, it opened up to the public, and saw an immediate surge in membership and traffic.

A web analyst group called Chitika published a report on Friday showing that the new social network's popularity may have been short-lived.  Traffic immediately returned to beta-testing levels within a few days after the site went public (a plunge of nearly 60%).  Obviously, a spike in traffic is going to occur shortly after a successful media promotional campaign and "grand opening," type hype.  After a spike, there where inevitably be a fall in traffic, but a fall to the pre-opening level is a bit of a surprise. 

The Chitika analysts suggest the reason for the decline may be that the site does not really provide a significant service that is not available elsewhere.  They recommend an acceleration in innovation for services like the "hangouts" feature in order for the site to be successful (more on Chitika's blog).

My personal opinion is that in an attempt to become the "next Facebook," Google immediately started replicating Facebook's marketing model (which has worked for Google, too, on its search engine) by incorporating the privacy violations and other data-harvesting "features" that Facebook users find annoying at best, and unacceptable at worst.  In fact, Google took things a step further, and in an effort to make sure all of its users had advertiser-worthy online purchasing credentials insisted that all of its members use the name on their drivers' licenses - even requiring documention from some and encouraging other members to rat-out anyone they knew of that was using a pseudonym.  Suspected violators had their entire Google account (Gmail, photos, ect.) suspended.  (See If your life is not an Open Book, Google Plus may not be for You, and Privacy is not Dead, but its hiding from Google and Facebook).

The other problem Google Plus is going to run into with trying to grow its social network is that unless it finds a way to seamlessly integrate with Facebook, it is actually going to have to pull users away from there.  Facebook has over 800 million users, now, which means that everyone who wants to social network is pretty much already there.  Even though they might be upset with Facebook from time to time, most don't want to go through the trouble of moving all of their pictures, notes, groups, friends, and events over from Facebook to Google Plus without a really good reason.  And joining a new start-up with a reputation for flops like Google Buzz and Google Wave is not a good enough reason.

One thing is for sure.  If "Google Plus" doesn't get this figured out soon, all of those "Google Minus" spoofs might not quite so funny anymore.

(Hat-Tip, MailOnline)