Of the many things you’ve probably asked yourself, the question: “What would Twitter look like if it was invented in the 80s?” probably would be at the very bottom of the list. However, that hasn’t stopped one site from showing what popular online products like Twitter, Angry Birds and Google would have looked like if they were made in the 80s and 90s.
The videos, created by the website Squirrel-Monkey.com, depict the most popular apps and products online and on smartphones as if they ran on MS DOS. Complete with DOS commands and the sounds of disks loading and dial-up internet, it just reminds us how lucky we are not to put up with MS DOS, Windows 3.1 or any computer product made in the 1980s. So next time, your Twitter app doesn’t refresh as fast as it usually does, just remind yourself how lucky we are not to rely on outdated technology.
Since it’s April 1st, today has become less about pulling pranks and more about coming up with silly ideas that would never see the light of day. Not that we’re complaining though, so long as they’re funny, we’re more than happy to indulge the silliness, and one company that seems to embrace this year after year is Google.
Not happy with just unveiling the one joke, they’ve come up with numerous different products or updates for most of their products such as Youtube , Chrome and Google Analytics. One such example is Gmail Tap. Since keyboards require so many fingers to operate, Tap resurrects Morse code and replaces the 26 button keyboard with just two, a dash button and a dot button.
Another one involves Street View in Australia and their coverage of the outback through a unique method (pictured below), which Google believe will capture 98 per cent of the outback in three years.It’s perhaps best to let Google Australia explain the initiative itself:
Today, we’re happy to announce that Google has found an innovative way to capture a special collection of images from the back of beyond to include in Google Street View. Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours.
The cameras on our Street Roo collection team will be powered by solar panels stitched into the back pocket of custom-made roo jackets. Images will be wired to Google in real-time. A GPS tracker embedded into the jacket will match the location of the kangaroo to ensure the image is accurately uploaded onto the new Street View layer.
To ensure a seamless experience – and to avoid motion sickness – we have also developed software that will smooth over the bouncing effect experienced with the raw data. Users will be able to move backwards or forwards in Google Street Roo as they would use Street View”
The last one featured here is actually real and can be accessed by all, but its still silly nonetheless. Since you can access Google Maps from both computers, smartphones and tablets, there was one area that Google felt had been neglected all these years, the NES. So with help from Nintendo and Square Enix, they’ve created an 8-bit version of Google Maps in the style of the classic NES game ‘Dragon Quest’.
You can also go into street view and see what the world looks like from the perspective of an 8-bit character, although unfortunately you won’t encounter any slimes or monsters to fight (Probably just as well to be honest). For those who don’t have immediate access to their NES, you access the feature by clicking the ‘Quest’ option at the top right hand corner of maps.
Of course, Google has a track record when it comes to making these type of videos. Last year, they unveiled that they created a new feature for Gmail called Motion. Although considering how much attention Kinect and motion controls, this April Fool’s joke mightn’t be as farfetched as you would think, but the gestures used probably won’t be as silly as the ones featured below.
Google Maps already has a feature which shows you exactly how good/bad traffic is in a particular area, but now they’ve added a new feature which highlights just how long it will take you to reach your destination by factoring in both live and historical traffic data.
Accessing it is just a matter of bringing up the directions feature on Google Maps, this time when you enter in your locations, alongside the estimated time it takes to travel from point A to B, there will be an estimate underneath it that factors in current traffic conditions. The information offered is regularly updated so that you can adjust your travel plans in due course.
The idea is that through this feature, you can estimate how long it will take to travel using different modes of transport and find the quickest method. So comparing driving to public transport or cycling may show that the latter option is the fastest if faced with current traffic conditions.
Google say that it’s available in specific areas for now, mainly in U.S. cities, but like all Google products, it’s only a matter of time before the service is expanded to other countries.
After originally announcing their self-driving car project in 2010 and doing numerous tests and experiments since then, Google has made real progress in making the project a reality. With more than 200,000 miles of computer-led driving completed since then, the company has shared a preview video highlighting their progress so far through a test journey.
The video features a blind man named Steve Mahan who, through a pre-programmed route, is driven to a fast food outlet and to the dry cleaners before being dropped back home. While the car is carefully programmed to drive in a specific route, the cameras and sensors fitted into the car makes sure that it avoids any obstacles and doesn’t get into any unfortunate collisions.
While there’s clearly a lot of work to be done before such cars are made commercial – the lack of traffic in this video highlights that coping with the unpredictable nature that is human drivers is still beyond its capabilities – they’re fascinating experiments to watch and shows how far the technology has come.
While they won’t be available for a while, certain organisations are warming to the idea. For example, Nevada became the first U.S. state to allow the use of self-driving vehicles on its roadways after approving it back in February. Test vehicles will display a red license plate, and when the technology is approved for public use, these cars will carry a green license plate.
Google gathers a lot of data about your activity online, but did you ever wonder just how specific this data is, or how often you use the web? If the answer to that is yes then Google has provided a visual description of how much you use their products.
The company has introduced a new feature called Account Activity and is now available in all Google Accounts. Announcing it on their main blog, the feature is entirely optional. If you decide to sign up, you’ll be sent a link every month to a report – password protected so that only you can see it – with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.
If you want to see just how frequent you search for things, or find out what the most common words you search for, you’ve find them here. The information shared can be quite specific in places, with the sign-in feature alone telling you what country, browser and operating platform you’ve signed in from. What other data is displayed on this page depends on how many Google related services you’re signed up to, and how many you haven’t disabled tracking on the dashboard feature.
On their blog, Google product manager Andreas Tuerk said that while the feature is interesting, it can be used for security reasons saying:
“Knowing more about your own account activity also can help you take steps to protect your Google Account. For example, if you notice sign-ins from countries where you haven’t been or devices you’ve never owned, you can change your password immediately and sign up for the extra level of security provided by 2-step verification.”
To be honest, this isn’t entirely new, instead it makes your data more visual so that you can digest it better. As mentioned earlier, any Google users could access the dashboard where, arguably far more useful information is displayed.
Although judging from that above quote, it could be Google’s way of helping users adapt to its decision to combine all its privacy policies across all its services, which happen at the start of this month. Account Activity may be a way for the company to allow users to see how they spend their time online. Users may be intrigued by all the data that’s on offer, which again the dashboard feature provided, but the more visual approach may entice them to check in and care about how much data about them is being gathered.
Google has been implementing its social media project into each of its products over the last few months. Having integrated Gmail and Youtube into the mix, the company is now extending its presence to a new area: comments.
The Next Web reports that Google is planning to launch a new commenting system that will tie in with the Google+ platform, web services and web search.
The Google commenting platform, alongside several other new Google features that have yet to be announced, was discussed at the Google event G-Saudi Arabia, according to Tech-WD. The system will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and more importantly, third party sites will be allowed to use the service.
It’s an option that will be handy for sites as they try to combat against spam. Despite its criticisms, having Facebook comments on your site means that it’s real people that are commenting on your site. On the flip side, this might be a concern for certain people who would wish to comment via a pseudonym instead of using their real identity.
There seems to be a mixture of sites either opting for Facebook comments, or for commenting platforms like Disqus which allow users to connect via their social media profiles or post comments through a specialised account.
Even if you take out Google+, there are millions and millions of users who have Gmail and Youtube accounts who will be logged in to their accounts. Using Facebook comment as an example, users will automatically be logged in and will be able to comment without having to register or log in.
Google is hoping that it will increase the popularity of its products (most specifically Google+) through this comment platform, and as its third party sites that will determine its success, Google is hopeful that they can convince users to log in more and increase the number of people actively using their product.
With the domination of online advertising practically sorted, Google has been branching out to other areas and spending large amounts to cement its place as a major web and technology company on par with Apple and Microsoft.
According to the Wall Street Journal , Google has spent about $213 million advertising its own products in the U.S., four times greater than the $56 million they spent in 2010, according to estimates from Kantar Media.
Online adverts represented the greatest area of spending for Google, accounting for $123.3 million of its advertising spend in 2011, while advertising via other media (newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor) has increased from $4.0 million in 2008 to $20.7 million in 2011.
However, the greatest increase in advertising spending came from television, mainly because Google has practically ignored this area up until recently. Last year, Google spent $69.3 million towards advertising on television which highlights how much Google is spreading its nets in a bid to build up awareness of its products.
Overall Ad Spend
Overall, Google’s ad spending last year represented 1.2 per cent of its U.S. revenue of $17.6 billion, compared with $1.5 per cent for both Microsoft and Apple, according to data from Kantar.
Ads such as ‘Dear Sophie‘, Angry Birds for Chrome and their Google+ hangout ad featuring the Muppets, represent this shift and shows how their stance towards advertising through mediums outside the web has greatly softened. This is also in conjunction with the company developing products outside of search, including tablets, smartphones, the Android operating system, and Google TV. For Google+ alone, the company reportedly spent an estimated $12 million on promoting the service across all mediums.
This shift could be perhaps directed at Apple, who have turned into a rival for the company. While not competing against them in search, every other area is practically a battle against them as Google goes from a search company into a technology and multimedia company.
Also in a bit of self promotion, Google has placed its new service Google Play in the centre of its main toolbar. Play is Google’s new download portal where Android users can download apps, books,movies and music. The range of products they can download is dependent on what country they’re based in; the majority of countries only have access to apps for now.
After expanding one of their flagship products so that it would map the railways of Switzerland as well as highlighting the interior of buildings and businesses, you would have figured that was everything pretty much covered on their part. Well think again as Street View has now extended its coverage to the Amazon Basin, allowing users to travel down the famous rivers and estuaries.
Announcing it on their Lat Long blog, the team used their Street View trike, as it’s pretty difficult to drive a car around the Amazon basin, to capture the surroundings. The trike, which was equipped with a tripod camera with a fisheye lens, captured more than 50,000 still photos that were then stitched together to create their 360 panoramic views. As they say themselves:
“Take a virtual boat ride down the main section of the Rio Negro, and float up into the smaller tributaries where the forest is flooded. Stroll along the paths of Tumbira, the largest community in the Reserve, or visit some of the other communities who invited us to share their lives and cultures. Enjoy a hike along an Amazon forest trail and see where Brazil nuts are harvested. You can even see a forest critter if you look hard enough!”
The initiative was done to celebrate World Forest Day and was completed by members of Google’s Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams in Brazil and the U.S.. The project was completed last August and can be now viewed on both Google Street View and on the Google maps gallery.
With the success of the Amazon Kindle and the news that Nokia is planning on jumping into the tablet market with their own offering, Google have become the latest company to throw its hat into the ring with its new Nexus tablet.
Android and Me is reporting that the 7 inch tablet could arrive as early as May and that the potential retail price for the device will be somewhere between $149-199. Earlier rumours stated that the tablet would have a quad-core Tegra 3 processor but this has been dropped and could be the reason behind the lower retail price, which was originally valued between $199-249.
It’s also rumoured that this device will ship with the latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich, however there is also the possibility that Google will equip it with the next version of Android, codenamed Jelly Bean.
Originally, Google had revealed a different tablet called the Asus MeMo 370T at CES back in January but this has been reportedly scrapped in favour of this new tablet. The drop in price could also signify that Google wish to undercut the Kindle Fire by purchasing cheaper technology to bring costs down. If the tablet is cheaper than its competitors, that might be enough to entice consumers to purchase the product and give Google a foothold on the market.
The source of these rumours comes from a senior employee at a supply chain company based in the U.S. who claimed that the partnership between Google and Asus is “a done deal”. The device is expected to be announced at the CTIA Wireless show, which takes place in New Orleans from May 8-10
With all the different services such Google has, switching back and forward between the Android Market, their music service or their ebook was something that the company felt was too unfocused for them to successfully market their products.
With that, Google has combined these services and placed them under the one umbrella with their new service ‘Google Play‘. Describing it as a “digital entertainment destination” on their blog, the service combines the company’s 450,000 apps for its Android device, 20,000 songs, their range of ebook and their movie service and places them in the one spot for you to find. From today, all links to the Android Market, Google Music and their eBook service will automatically redirect to Google Play.
The full service is currently available in the U.S. who have access to music, movies, books and apps. For other countries, Canada and the U.K. have access to movies, books and apps, Australia have access to books and apps and the rest of the world only has access to apps for the Android store.
The service is entirely cloud-based so any music, movies, books and apps you own are stored online so you can recover them once you log in with your Google account. to promote the launch, Google are offering a different album, book, video rental and Android app at a special price each day for the next week in their ’7 Days Of Play’ sale.
It’s an obvious move to make but the reason it’s such a good one is that it taps into Google’s most popular market, the Android App Store, and exposes them to their other services. While downloading a game or app, they may feel inclined to try out the movie service or download songs from their collection by letting them shop in the same space.
Of course this is all relevant to the number of Android users out there, but considering that they currently have the biggest share in the smartphone market, Google may be onto something once they begin adding extra content and services like they’ve promised.
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Of the many things you’ve probably asked yourself, the question: “What would Twitter look like if it was invented in the 80s?” probably would be at the very bottom of the list. However, that hasn’t stopped one site from showing what popular online products like Twitter, Angry Birds and Google would have looked like if they were made in the 80s and 90s.
