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Google is a software giant that we all use, be it for email, Youtube, searching the web or for social networking with Google+. Honestly, that was kind of hard to say with a straight face, no one uses Google+, but apparently thats okay with Google. According to the NY Times, Google+ has been a ploy from the start, created to collect data from users and sell it to the highest bidder. This became evident when Google+ became the hub for all Google accounts, although it is neglected by users. By linking it to maps, gmail, youtube, Google now knows where you go, who you talk to, and what you find entertaining; valuable info for advertisers. This is especially useful, considering the fact that Google's main source of income, search advertising, is declining. This can be a huge concern for Google users who do not want to be tracked and monitored, I among them. While it was not this announcement specifically, similar news has persuaded me, and others undoubtedly, to abandon Google services. I have gone from using chrome, Google search, gmail and more to using free 3rd party software that is committed to maintaining user privacy. Realistically, however, I have not made a difference in Google's business plans, and they will continue along their path as long as it is profitable. Although many laughed at first at the Google+'s hefty price tag, Google is the only one laughing now.

Google Inc buys Nik Software's "Snapseed", in competition to Instagram, which was recently bought by Facebook. Despite being less popular than Instagram, and costing $4.99, in contrast to Instagram being free on Apple's mobile devices, Snapseed won Apple Inc's "iPad App Of The Year (2011)" award for its photo editing abilities. This article describes reactions to Google's purchase from companies including Google Inc., Nik Software, and BGC Partners. It seems once again that Google is playing catch up in social media to companies such as Facebook. Google Inc. reported this week that Google+ had reached 400 million users, and 100 million monthly active users. As a user of both Facebook and Google+, I feel as though Google is once again the underdog, albeit a rising one. In comparison to the battle for social media supremacy, Snapseed also has 9 million users, versus Instagram's 100 million. Google is rising in popularity and Facebook may have some competition. Perhaps this purchase of the photo-editing power of Snapseed may help Google in their obstacle ridden climb.

Google is taking one step forward in personal protection with their recently added feature. By automatically adding an "s" to http at the begining of the URL, they are encrypting the website and protecting its viewers from being seen by random people snooping around their searches, by making it more difficult to do so. This feature will soon be an available setting for Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, and Internet Explorer servers. Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere extention. Chrome and Chromium users can right click on the URL bar and add an "s" to the end of the "http". Internet Explorer users can add the setting in IE add-ons page.

Everyone has used google at one point in their lives. Well, a new revolution of google is on its way. When we google something have you noticed besides the 'www.' there is an 'http://'. This is means that your search worked but it isn't encrypted. This means that people can see what you're searching. With a new google search engine under development, the search engine revolution will advance. Instead of having to look for the website or whatever you're searching for, which sometimes makes me want to pry my eyes out of my head, the new google plans to take you directly to the website you searched for. What about 'http://' or whatever you ask? Another feature the new google will have is using the 'https://' system. The 's' at the end of the 'http' means 'secured', so basically no one can see what you're searching besides google itself. In other, more technical words, your data is encrypted. Looking forward to the new future of google!

This article talks about google and its effect on our society. Google+ now has 170 million users abd is becoming a NO.3 Social network. However if you go by active monthly users in the U.S., Google+ would rank 6. This relates to our course because we too use google and many people starts to use a lot of social networking programs as part of their daily lives. All of my friends has signed up for st least 2 social networking and it;s becoming a big part of our lives. Google used to be popular for searching things but now it's taking over social networking as well and becoming most popular and well known network. 

Google+ is said to be rated the third most popular social networking site. However, numbers of users are always changing. Google+ has recently changed their look of their website, which may or may not attract more users. Many people are reliant on social networking sites because they find it is a better way to keep in touch with those you do not see anymore. Google+ is still far behind facebook, with 850 millions users, while Google+ still sitting at a 170 million users. Technology is what everyone in this generation is doing, so the numbers will increase once more people start talking more about Google+ and less about Facebook. 

Google+ announced  that Google plus has 170 million users. With this number of users Google+ is #3 on the top social networks ahead of Google+ is twitter and facebook

This article notifies readers that Google has boosted the speed and their browser's hardware acceleration with the launch of Google Chrome, version 18. Google paid more than $210,000 to outside researchers to identify and prevent a number of bugs, flaws, and hacking challenges from this past year so these same problems wouldn't be involved in this new update. This interests me because I am a Google Chrome user both at home and school and when I hear that another version is offered that speeds up Web applications, various software's such as Adobe Flash Player, games, internet, etc, I am more than pleased to get on my computer to update my browser to overall experience a better and more efficient use while on my computer that Google has to offer. But in my opinion, the most intriguing part of this article is how even with Google constantly updating and improving their web browser, Google Chrome, in the month of February, Google's browser is only third with 18.9% of users, next to Firefox with 20.9% of users, and in first, Microsoft Internet Explorer with more than half of users at 52.8%. People are least invested in Google's web browser and this largely adds to the reason to why they are constantly changing their Google Chrome design to attract but also to maintain their users. My thoughts are how I think it be interesting to see what Google has next up their sleeve because they have the money, technology, and resources to develop a browser that has enough features and limited problems to double and almost triple their amount of web users in hopefully the near future. 

Google has bought Nest Labs, buying it for 3.2 billion dollars about a month ago. Though Nest was bought by Google, it will still be somewhat independent. Nest will most likely be much more emphasized now with Google, though what Nest does is much different than Google. This topic relates to the tags of "Legal" and "Economics" due to the fact that Google has now bought Nest. Legally, Nest is now under Google who bought it for 3.2 billion dollars. Questions that I ask are, what things will Nest do now that it is under Google, and what new possibilities do both companies have? My opinion on this entire occurrence is that Google is becoming much bigger than ever, with so many new things appearing. Now that Nest is under Google's wing, it can accomplish many more things, though unknown what may happen.

Google Reader is a useful tool to help keep readers updated on current news. Google is updating this "long-ignored RSS app", giving it a new, modern design but removing the social features of this site. The problem? The social aspect of this site is not as in-your-face like Facebook, but instead enables your friends to keep you updated on things that you may not be subscribed to in Google Reader. The writer of this article even accuses Google of taking away the social features on Google Reader to drive people to Google +, which sadly, I can see them doing. Haha, nice try Google.

My article is on Google's recent announcement that they will discontinue Google Reader, among other services. There was a strong response to this because there are many people who use it on a daily basis.  Google Reader is a RSS feed, or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Basically it is a technology that tracks websites for updates. Imagine you love to get your news from the Internet, and you like to go on The Verge, Wired, Lifehacker and Gawker. You visit all of those sites daily to get the news. But when you frequent a lot of websites, going to them all separately may start to take a lot of time. So here comes Google Reader, where you subscribe to all the various sites and get direct updates sent to just this one place, making it easier to absorb information. There are several different RSS feeds, but Google Reader is one of the more popular ones, and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people use this service daily. Google stated that over the years Google Reader's usage has declined, but that still means there are many people who rely on it go get all their information.  When Google announced its plan to discontinue the service, many people were lost as to why they would stop such a seemingly successful service and this has now lost the trust of Google by many people.  Regardless, it is clear that many people will have to find a new RSS feed or go back to visiting every website manually.

This article explains and acknowledges this week in Google. Google is improving its technology through their web browser, mobile devices, and in their social network. This is good for Google as a industry to attract more consumers to their products and this is really a step in a right direction for them improving and being recognized as one of the elite brands and companies in all fields of technology. I am happy for the success of Google and I hope they can continue to strive and do their best to satisfy their users with more faster and more efficient products delivering a high performance at every use. Also, I hope Google can continue to add and maintain a significant importance to the development and increase of their products throughout our evolving world of technology. 

If you are an inspiring artist, Google has a job for you. Doodle 4 Google is an opportunity for young artists to show what they've got and use their imagination to create a doodle for the Google homepage. The theme for the year is "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place...." and the submissions must be sent in by March 20, which is fast approaching. The winning doodle will be featured on the homepage of Google for a day and if that's not enough, the winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for his or her school of choice. On April 29, the 50 finalists will be open for the public to vote their winner and the winning doodle will be revealed sometime in June. Only one doodle per student is accepted so if you are interested in participating (only if you live in the states) then you can download an entry form on their Doodle 4 Google site. I think this is a great idea for students to tap into their creative sides and think about how they can change the world. Full classrooms are encouraged to participate which is a great idea for teachers to spend the day teaching the kids how they can make a difference to the lives around them.

Many with Google accounts have noticed that their homepage no longer has the nice background they picked, why? Once again, Google is eliminating another one of its least used service: iGoogle. At first iGoogle was a service with many features that are similar to those of other services, but Google also included additional gadgets to make it more Google-like. However, as time goes on, iGoogle's purpose became obsolete since many other apps, whether it is from Google or other services, of the same purpose became more popular. Less people used iGoogle and this forced the company to consider shutting down the service. Those who are upset about the company's decision still have a little less than a year to use the service since the company announced that they will completely shut down the service on November first in 2013. Although Google+, UStart, and ProtoPage, are services that can also serve as replacements, this is a disadvantage to those who prefer iGoogle. The company cannot make decisions that pleases everyone, so they make choices that appeal to the majority instead. For those who do not support the decision, will eventually have to adjust to using other services besides iGoogle.   

Google is looking to expand its high-speed internet service, Google Fiber, into the city of Austin in Texas. Google Fiber is an internet service that offers ultra-fast Gigabit internet speeds with no bandwidth caps that no other provider in Canada and the United States offer for a price under $120.  This is because there are major internet service providers who create a monopoly over the entire industry keeping all their prices the same so they maximize their profits and offer sub-par internet connection.  With Google Fiber, these companies will have to provide better internet or they won't be able to compete, so many people want Google Fiber to expand as fast as possible over North America so that the monopoly is broken and people are given better internet.   This plays into eLifestyle because Gigabit internet connections with unlimited bandwidth will allow most people who pay for internet to pay less, have a more reliable connection and have faster speeds. This also plays into economics because Google Fiber will allow small businesses to use the internet without fear of high costs.

Google is facing a privacy policy problem in Europe. Just last year Google was on 60 separate occasions about privacy notices. This brought the attention from the European privacy regulators. They told Google to give users "more control over their data." The European authorities found that Google had ignored their recommendations and requests. The European Commission stated that in order to strengthen national data, the authorities wanted to be able to give companies a fine up o 1 million euros, or  2% of their annual turnover.  Right now Google Now which is a mobile product in Android 4.1 which can access data on the phone through data points and it allows the phones physical location to be known. Google is having complete access to everyone's personal data which can be extremely unsafe

Google+ has decided that it is time they make a new look for their social networking site. The new design allows you to drag apps in whatever particular order you would like. Also, the timeline pictures are bigger so it is easier to view. Google+ also came out with a new addition, chat. The web designing for this page is similar to Facebooks; when viewing pictures on a timeline. The new look on Google+ will allow people to be more organized and nicer to look at. As web designers, they are supposed to catch the viewers eye. If a site does not appeal to the viewer they will not even bother looking into the website. By creating this new look, google+ is hoping to have more additions to their site. They designed this new look for Google+ to more flexible for people when viewing profiles, and it is evident because that is what most people want. They prefer when things are made easy for them.

A scam that takes advantage of Google Docs is making is spreading throughout the web. It uses the same google.com URL and even makes us of Google's SSL encryption. It is very difficult to tell that it is a hack. The scam starts with an email that leads to a GoogleDocs link. It then takes you to a fake login screen. Once you login, you'll be taken to an actual google doc but your credentials will be sent to a PHP script on a compromised server. To avoid this, you must be careful when clicking on links sent in emails, and if the login does not recognize you as a google user, the you should notice that it is the fake log in page. This is actually scary, and everyone should always be aware of their emails and scams.

This article is about google coming out with their own version of an app like siri called Google "assistant". I'm sure many companies are trying to find a way to compete with apple. Siri was just the next big thing that helped apple stay on top. Now companies like google are trying to compete and bring out their own version of this most loved app. Google says that unlike  siri, this app is more about accomplishing real-life goals, and less about returning search results. Google says 2012 is the year of "assistant".

Google Wallet now lets you SingleTap that app. So what is Google wallet? Google wallet is basically merging your phone and your wallet, or credit card to be exact together. with the addition of SingleTap, Google wallet is now allowing you to both pay and redeem coupons at a given retailer, without having to print out paper coupons. Instead, the phone 'remembers' the offers you have saved and redeems them automatically. Also included is the ability to have a prepaid credit card which lets you load virtual money to use, in case your credit card is not natively supported by Wallet. It sounds like Google is trying to make an Octopus Card 2.0 or perhaps merging, no assimilating it into it's application. Currently however, it is not worth getting in my opinion, as its only supported on a Nexus S 4G and credit cards are pretty fast already, so i think it is a bit over rated and hyped up.

This article is about how Apple's competition with Google is hurting both Apple and its users. The removal of Google maps and no Google+ integration in iOS6 is an example of this. It relates whats going today with Apple in 1985-1997 which had tried making many unsuccessful products. The author believes this has to do with its strong competition with Microsoft. They were focusing more on beating Microsoft with new products than actually developing quality ones. After Steve Jobs came back from leaving Apple he decided to partner with Microsoft and the quality of new products greatly improved. The author says that the same thing is happening with Apple vs Google, and unless Apple decides to stop, it will hurt the company and its users. I chose the tag of eLifestyle because everyday users of Apple are being affected by the new maps unreliability and no Google+ integration. Apple will continue to affect us even more if they don't decide to focus on creating quality products. In my opinion, I agree with the author and I think that Apple needs to think a little more like how Steve Jobs would.

This article is basically about how Google has Forked WebKit with Blink, making a new web engine for both Chromium and Chrome. WebKit is usually referred to as the glue that binds the moodern web: the rendering engine powers Apple`s Safari, Google`s Chrome and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium`s multi-process approach has added to much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it`s creating a seperate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit from the start, it`s expected to change over time as Google strips out unnecessary codes and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

With Google's new product, "Google Glass", the company must come up with a new way to promote the product to its customers. Since the device will be costly, most likely to be around $1500, the company has decided to expand into retail stores which will be open all around the world. This can make it easier for consumers to test out products before buying it, and Google is also promoting and expanding its market in this way. The launch of Google retails stores can create competition for other companies, like Apple or Microsoft, and is a risk to invest in such a large project. Google, however, think this idea makes sense if the company wants to expand its business, and they believe it will satisfy its customers. I think these stores can create easier access to electronic information and products, which can benefit the company's profits, and with the rapid expanding of new technology, Google stores can use this factor to benefit and change the way people buy products from the company.