As Google continues to innovate with Google Chrome OS and build new products like Google Wave, it might seem as if they’re leaving their core business — search — to gather dust. a few recent developments are proving otherwise.

You may recall that GoogleGoogle acquired AdMob in the hopes of gaining market share and attention in the mobile search space, and yesterday they also announced the acquisition of Teracent, for improved targeted display ads.

Today, the company is talking up another new development around search: new ad formats. Google is actively testing and developing new ad formats, some already live in the US, and incorporating visual elements, more links to specific pages, location and maps, comparison ads, and even images and prices for specific products.

The new ad formats are designed to capture your attention and provide you with more relevant and contextual information that you don’t typically expect from ads. The visual elements in ads mean that should you search for a movie title, you might see an ad with a trailer that you can watch on the search results page.

Plus, if you’re searching for local products or businesses, one of the new ad formats you’ll see is a map that pinpoints a nearby shop, or a map that highlights all the surrounding locations of a particular chain.

According to Google’s blog post on the new ad formats, you’re also about to experience ads that help you with comparison and price-point shopping. Here’s their description of how these ads will function:

“You might spot ads that include images and prices for specific products. when shopping for the ski outfit your nephew has been hinting about all year, you might see pictures from the retailer’s inventory to help you quickly determine if they have the color and style you had in mind.”

Still other ad formats may introduce new ways of presenting information, such as Comparison Ads, which allow you to specify exactly what you’re looking for and to compare rates and prices in a single location. With the approaching new year comes resolutions to get things in order, so you might want an ad that lets you see side-by-side refinancing offers.”

Ideally the new ad formats will serve up content that searchers can actually use, and may blur the lines between an advertisement and valuable content. What’s your take on the new formats? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Google will finally take the wrapper off its highly-anticipated Chrome operating system during a presentation at Google HQ on Thursday. The event will include a complete overview of the product featuring a Chrome OS demonstration and Q&A session. Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, Google engineering director for Google Chrome OS, will speak at the event, according to TechCrunch.

Thursday’s presentation will provide at least some answers to the many questions gone unanswered since Google announced the project in July. I have no doubt Google’s event will inspire more questions than it answers, but at least it’s a start. Here’s what we’re likely to find out:

How Long until Liftoff?

Part of Google’s presentation on Thursday should include more information about when the OS will be available to consumers. It’s possible Google will remain silent, and stick to its “second half of 2010″ statement that we got earlier this year. but I’m hoping the company will be able to narrow it down to a particular month or at least a season.

What the Heck is Google Chrome OS?

Despite hyperbolic statements that Google dropped a nuclear bomb on Microsoft with its Chrome OS announcement, the fact is no one really knows what this system can do. Questions about Google Chrome OS’s capabilities should disappear on Thursday. we should also find out whether Chrome OS is just another Linux distribution or something entirely new.

Where do Developers Fit in?

Part of Google’s promise when it announced Chrome OS is that it would make the operating system’s code open source by the end of the year. If Google makes good on its promise tomorrow, where will developers fit into Google’s ecosystem?

Google is making strides to involve developers in creating Google Chrome extensions and Google Wave applications. but an operating system that will supposedly change everything should present new opportunities for developers. What will those be? is Google hoping its developer community will simply help the company improve the OS, or does Google have a more interesting plan in the works?

What’s Up With the Hardware?

When Google starts the Chrome OS demo on Thursday, everyone will want to know what kind of computer is running the OS, and when we can expect to see consumer products on store shelves.

We already know that some of Google’s Chrome OS partners include Acer, ASUS, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba, but when will we see some merchandise and what will it be? Google said Chrome OS will be available on netbooks to start, but what about the specs? for instance, does Google believe a Web-centric netbook should come with a lot of storage space? Does it even need a hard drive? What about RAM or optical disc drives?

Wave and Microsoft

I’m also interested to see if Google highlights Chrome OS’s integration with Google Wave. as anybody who’s on Wave can tell you, Google Wave is the coolest spot on the Web, but there’s not much to do right now. How important is this revamped e-mail project to Google, and how will Chrome OS complement it?

We should also get a sense of how Chrome OS might fare against Windows. who knows — Microsoft may even issue a statement about it. Let’s be honest; it’s laughable to think the most dominant operating system since the human brain is going to be upended by a fancy Web browser. but hey, you never know.

Chrome OS Doubts

Although a lot of excitement surrounds Chrome OS, I can’t help thinking the importance of this product is already overblown. I mean, if you wanted a lightweight operating system that just gets to the Web faster, why not pick up a copy of Linux, and just run Firefox on it? If you want one-click shortcuts to get to specific Web apps you can use Mozilla’s Prism for that. You’ll also have access to a huge library of Firefox add-ons to enhance your browsing experience.

Will Chrome OS be any different than what I’ve described above? Maybe a little, but I’m not getting my hopes up for Thursday’s announcement. What about you?

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul).

It’s not too often that legacy media learns a new mass communication tool along with its audience. But that’s exactly what’s going on now because of Google Wave. although it’s still invitation only and in preview, the real-time wiki collaboration platform is being used by some media companies for community building, real-time discussion, crowdsourcing, collaboration both inside and outside the newsroom, and for cross publishing content.

Google WaveGoogle Wave may seem familiar to older users of the Internet, who have been using the parts that make up the whole of the platform for years. Wave, however, brings those pieces together cohesively to allow users to share photos, embed videos, and converge other GoogleGoogle applications such as Google MapsGoogle Maps and Google Calendar to create customized blocks of user-editable content on the fly. here are four ways that newsrooms are using Wave.

Using Waves to Foster Engagement

Using Google Wave allows newsrooms to reach out to their audiences and invite their active participation on news stories. In the process, waves become a vehicle to create an engaged local community who can also play a role in the newsroom. that may redefine how news is gathered, reported and presented to its audience, blurring the boundary between newsroom and community bulletin board.

Chicago Tribune’s RedEye blog started its first public wave on November 10, and since then it has attracted more than 300 blips. Following that success, Stephanie Yiu, RedEye’s web editor, and Scott Kleinberg, senior editor of digital and print, now lead a half-hour public wave session every day.

“It’s a lot more live than TwitterTwitter because it’s like you can see people typing and everybody gets to know each other,” she told me. “It’s really about connecting with our readers on a new platform. We’re learning with our readers and moving forward together.”

RedEye sends out tweets promoting each wave with a link asking Twitter followers (those that have access to Google Wave) to join the conversation. Yiu told me the daily wave is a discussion about RedEye’s cover story. During the last 10 minutes they ask participants for suggestions on how to make the wave better.

What makes Google Wave so useful is the community building aspect, according to Yiu. “The great thing is once it ends at 11 o’clock, it keeps on going. They keep on talking,” she said. Yiu is hoping it will be a cool way to get feedback, such as movie reviews, from their readers that that they can also run in the RedEye print product, which is something they’re already doing with Twitter.

Using Waves As ‘Town Squares’

Robert Quigley, social media editor at the Austin American-Statesman, has started two public waves so far. “People are enthusiastic and they want to talk about news. I was surprised how much discussion there was about the news,” he said.

However, said Quigley, the challenge right now is keeping public waves on topic. If they get more than 50 blips discussion grinds to a halt, reported Quigley. he added that in order for Google Wave to work during a news event, there needs to be the ability to moderate and or easily spin something into another wave and link to it in the first wave to keep it on topic. he stressed Google Wave is in its early stages and in preview, but there’s definitely potential with it, so these are issues that could be addressed in the future.

“We’ve been looking for years for collaboration with the public in a meaningful way and this could be the tool,” he said.

Quigley is eager to keep pushing the envelope with Google Wave to see what it possible. he told me, for example, that he wants to try a participant’s suggestion to embed a Google Calendar with links to waves listed within it so users can follow that calendar with the wave schedule. he also hopes to try the map gadget the next time Austin gets hit with an ice storm. he said he would embed a map into a Google Wave and then people could report conditions at their house. Users could edit the map as weather conditions change.

Google Wave has the potential to become a virtual “town square,” where otherwise separate gadgets applied to content created by journalists and enhanced by the wave’s users can be used to provide an accurate, detailed description of what’s happening locally.

Wave as a Newsroom Content planning Tool

Chris Taylor, online editor at TBO.com, is also the online breaking news editor in charge of planning content for his converged newsroom (which includes the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com). Each night he emails a content budget to the deadline team, but he is now also using a daily wave that others in the newsroom can add to, edit, etc. Taylor said there are about 15 people on this wave and he has requested more invites from Google to get more people involved.

The daily wave accounts for all the content the newsroom knows is coming or is chasing down. there are about 40 stories in a wave and each story gets a paragraph and after each story is a blip. “Anything we can do in a newsroom of this size [to help] the content we produce to keep from falling through the cracks is a plus,” Taylor said.

When Taylor comes into work in the morning he can immediately get caught up on the status of all items in the newsroom budget by checking the wave. he said reviewing the wave at his desk takes one-tenth the time of having meetings.

“I think using it for this will get people comfortable with wave, which is my ultimate goal,” he said. “As we get more comfortable with it, we’ll be able to be where our audience is.”

Turning Blog Posts into Public Waves

Andrew Nystrom, senior producer of social media and emerging platforms at the Los Angeles Times, collaborated with social media reporter mark Milian on the blog post “How Google Wave could Transform Journalism” that ran on the newspaper’s web site a couple of months ago.

Among some of the ideas listed in the post were: collaborative reporting, smarter story updates, live editing, discussing while reading, and a transparent writing process. Nystrom said in an email interview they’re looking at all the potential uses that Milian posited in the blog post. In a case of “eating his own dogfood,” so to speak, Milian even embedded the post as a wave and it has since received more than 350 blips.

“That experiment was definitely an eye-opener. My understanding of Wave has always been that it’s a valuable tool for small-team collaboration. so to see it succeed as a larger-scale crowdsourcing tool was unexpected to say the least,” Nystrom said by email. “People quickly swarmed the wave and provided a ton of really smart insights. Things we had never thought of.”

He added that they’ll definitely do more of this and that it’s just a matter of identifying which topics would benefit from collaboration.

“Ideally, every post would plug into wave because I love the inline commenting system. But I don’t want to flood the ocean,” according to Milian. “When we do another piece on Google Wave, or on something that begs for crowdsourcing, you will definitely see it in Wave.”

LONDON (SHARECAST) – News Corp. has held discussions with Microsoft about a partnership that could result in News Corp. removing its newspaper content from Google’s search engine while continuing to feature it on Microsoft’s online properties, according to people familiar with the matter, says the Wall Street Journal.

The contest for Cadbury could become a little more crowded. while Kraft Foods $16.7bn offer for Cadbury is the only official bid on the table, other snack companies are weighing their next steps. Hershey is considering making an offer of at least $17bn, while both Nestl of Switzerland and Ferrero of Italy are pondering their options, according to people briefed on the discussions at the companies, writes the NY Times.

The FT adds that the British chocolate maker is more amenable to being owned by Hershey than Kraft if a bid comes at the right price.

Reliance Industries, the largest private company in India, said that it had made an offer to acquire a controlling interest in the worlds third-largest chemical company, LyondellBasell. Reliance did not disclose late Saturday how much it was willing to pay for LyondellBasell, but a person briefed on the offer said the final price could range from $6 billion to $12bn in cash, reports the NY Times.

US unemployment is likely to peak at about 10.5 per cent and may not start to come down until the summer of 2010, according to Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Evans told the FT he had been a little surprised by the latest employment report, which showed unemployment at 10.2 per cent, and had edged up his forecast for the peak jobless rate accordingly.

Chieftain Capital Management, an iconoclastic investment firm with a strong two-decade track record, is splitting up following personality conflicts among its leaders, according to people familiar with the matter, says the Wall Street Journal.

Foreign companies could be sued more easily in US courts under legislation working through Congress that has led to concerns in the European Commission. The Investor Protection Act (IPA), approved by the House financial services committee this month, contains a provision to make it easier for investors to sue public companies in the US even if they are based abroad and listed on overseas exchanges, according to the FT.

A new wave of foreclosures stands to hurt people who may have never taken out a mortgage: renters. in cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where many investors are carrying upside-down mortgages on large rental buildings, some tenants are watching their homes fall apart along with the financing, writes the Washington Post.

For the third time in 16 years the federal government is forming a blue-ribbon panel to try to save the USA’s troubled airline industry, which has racked up $58.5bn in losses and shed 158,000 jobs this decade. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who has ordered up the panel, vows it won’t be “just another advisory committee,” reports USA Today.

A new brand identity to be adopted by AOL next month, when it is spun off from Time Warner, ditches the odd-looking triangle that has long served as the brand symbol and replaces the letters AOL with Aol. complete with a period, according to the NY Times.

With fears brewing that the US housing market is in for another dive, the automakers remain optimistic that the market and their pickup sales will continue to rebound. Pickup sales are closely tied to the housing market, says Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s US sales analyst. so as housing rebounds, so will sales of pickups, reports USA Today.

Recession be damned, Hollywood is on its way to what could be its merriest holiday season ever, thanks to a group of undead teenagers. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” posted the third-largest opening in domestic box-office history, not accounting for ticket price inflation, having sold an estimated $140.7 million worth of tickets in the US and Canada from Friday through Sunday, writes the LA Times.

While Google Apps will always have a soft spot in my heart for freeing me from Outlook I’d be the first to admit its UI is getting rather tired. so it appears would Google…

Leaked to Engadget today are some seemingly legit screenshots of new interfaces for Gmail, Google News and Google Docs all integrating Google Wave-style layouts. The site’s tipster said “the goal is to provide a consistent experience throughout all Google Apps and blur the line between the browser and the website (e.g. drag and drop, right-click, etc.).”

Certainly makes sense to us, and – as Engadget itself postulates – suggests that Google Wave (despite a somewhat mixed initial reaction) is fundamental to the search giant’s future plans. could it also be combined with the newly launched Google Dashboard to provide a unified experience in the impending Chrome OS? Well it wouldn’t hurt.

Donning my sceptical hat for a minute, let’s not get too carried away before an official Google confirmation/denial. Still given my own personal view is Google Wave isn’t a replacement for email, but blending its key functionality into email would be very welcome indeed..

Rest of the screenshots below.

In related news Google News could come under threat from a charged up News Corp after chairman and overlord Rupert Murdock said he will block aggregator sites from listing its content. Speaking to Sky Australia he said: “The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories – they just take them. That’s Google, that’s Microsoft, that’s ask.com, a whole lot of people … they shouldn’t have had it free all the time, and I think we’ve been asleep”

As for those publications who cite stories originated from News Corp publications (which include The Times and The Sun): “if you look at them [referencing the BBC], most of their stuff is stolen from the newspapers now, and we’ll be suing them for copyright”.

Better? we beg to differ, but a brave new world awaits journalism and one everyone will be monitoring with interest.

Link:
via Engadget

While Google Apps will always have a soft spot in my heart for freeing me from Outlook I’d be the first to admit its UI is getting rather tired. so it appears would Google…

Leaked to Engadget today are some seemingly legit screenshots of new interfaces for Gmail, Google News and Google Docs all integrating Google Wave-style layouts. the site’s tipster said “the goal is to provide a consistent experience throughout all Google Apps and blur the line between the browser and the website (e.g. drag and drop, right-click, etc.).”

Certainly makes sense to us, and – as Engadget itself postulates – suggests that Google Wave (despite a somewhat mixed initial reaction) is fundamental to the search giant’s future plans. could it also be combined with the newly launched Google Dashboard to provide a unified experience in the impending Chrome OS? Well it wouldn’t hurt.

Donning my sceptical hat for a minute, let’s not get too carried away before an official Google confirmation/denial. still given my own personal view is Google Wave isn’t a replacement for email, but blending its key functionality into email would be very welcome indeed..

Rest of the screenshots below.

In related news Google News could come under threat from a charged up News Corp after chairman and overlord Rupert Murdock said he will block aggregator sites from listing its content. Speaking to Sky Australia he said: “The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories – they just take them. That’s Google, that’s Microsoft, that’s Ask.com, a whole lot of people … they shouldn’t have had it free all the time, and I think we’ve been asleep”

As for those publications who cite stories originated from News Corp publications (which include the Times and the Sun): “if you look at them [referencing the BBC], most of their stuff is stolen from the newspapers now, and we’ll be suing them for copyright”.

Better? We beg to differ, but a brave new world awaits journalism and one everyone will be monitoring with interest.

Link:
via Engadget

Home Page – InternetIndustry & Economy – Entrepreneurship A demand Wave for new Google tool AUCTIONING INVITES.

Sagar Bhadra Adith Charlie

Mumbai, Nov. 14 Netizens with entrepreneurial instincts are capitalising on the hype surrounding Google’s new online collaboration tool — Google Wave.

Invites for Google Wave are being auctioned at online markets such as eBay. The highest bid price is $50 per invite. In India, the highest bidder paid Rs 403.

With Google Wave, multiple users can communicate and work with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, etc on a real-time basis. In other words, it is e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking all rolled into one.

Like most Google products, Google Wave too is given free of cost. However, to join, a newcomer needs to be invited either by an existing user or request for an invitation from Google directly. On an average, a Google Wave user gets six to seven invites to share. With a shortage of existing invitations and growing hype of the ‘coolness’ of the new Google product, techies are even willing to pay for the ‘Wave’.

“I wanted to try out ‘Google Wave’ and ultimately settled on buying it from eBay,” said Mr George Varghese.

A quick search on eBay shows that 2,118 postings have been made since Google Wave made its debut.

“What is happening on eBay is a perfect example of the entrepreneurial wisdom of sellers where they are looking at scarcity of products and are coming up with innovative plans,” an eBay spokesperson said. On eBay India itself, there have been eight listings last week of which seven got sold.

However, Google has a different view.

“Google Wave’s policies prohibit users from selling, trading, reselling or otherwise exploiting the service for any unauthorised commercial purpose. Google does not endorse and encourage these activities,” said a spokesperson.

The sale of ‘invites’ is not new to Google as a similar trend was seen when it launched Gmail, an email service and Orkut, a social networking Web site.

Related Stories:Google pitches for unique ID projectGoogle rolls out ‘Internet Bus’Explore Google

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Google Chrome OS: Do you believe the hype?Nov 14, 2009 12:49

As with most products that have the name Google attached to them, Google Chrome OS is generating a lot of hype–and, if this TechCrunch post is true, then Google Chrome OS will launch within the week and we’ll finally get to see if it will live up to the hype.

I’m curious how Google’s attempt at pushing its own OS will pan out, but I’m not ready to join the choir singing how Google is once again starting a revolution and changing the OS as we know it. I like many of Google’s products, but I didn’t feel the need to switch to the Google Chrome browser, and so far I haven’t really found a compelling reason to regularly use my Google Wave (though of course it’s still just a preview).

Google has achieved such a stature in the tech industry that for some people it commands as much admiration and downright fanboyishness as Apple or Nintendo–companies that are media darlings and who have legions of followers, some of whom believe their idol can do no wrong.

Don’t get me wrong: I agree with what Google is saying that it’s all about the Web now, and that ironically operating systems were designed in an era before the advent of the Web. So yup, they want to rethink the OS with Google Chrome OS just as they want to rethink e-mail with Google Wave.

What I don’t get, however, is why Google needs to push its own OS. By their own argument, they’re saying the OS is no longer that important. They’re saying most PC users just want to be able to check their e-mail and connect to the Web. Well, actually that’s not true. If that’s all I want to do, I use my mobile phone. I don’t need a Netbook to do that.

Obviously, Google wants to take advantage of the surge in demand for Netbooks. The funny thing about Netbooks, however, is that they’re becoming more and more bloated compared to the first generation of devices. Windows XP has been the OS for many of these devices, because you’re talking about mainstream consumers who want a familiar desktop OS rather than a dressed-up version of Linux. Google Chrome OS is positioning itself as an alternative to Windows XP (of course, Windows 7 is out and Microsoft claims it will also run well on Netbooks) in the Netbook space, supposedly offering more functionality than Android while also being able to run on different platforms.

But why push its own OS when Linux-based OSes are already available, and Google Chrome OS itself will be based on the Linux kernel? The supposed advantage is that it will be integrated with the Google Chrome browser.

While I’m curious to see how Google Chrome OS will fare, I also think all this talk of a new OS War is just hype, and that the world has moved on from the era of browser wars. If Google is rethinking e-mail and the OS, maybe tech media should also rethink the way it covers the industry and move away from the old riffs on the OS wars, browser battles, and Microsoft as the Evil Empire (wow, look at all those war motifs). The Web is no longer the playground of geeks, and computers are used by ordinary people everyday. Many mobile phones are computers in their own right, much more powerful than the desktops of those bygone years. Even handheld consoles like the PSP are powerful computers.

In the end, the average consumer really couldn’t care less about a device’s operating system, or architecture, or microprocessor. They’ll care about what they can do with it, whether it’s easy to use, and if it looks good. So if people like the iPhone, they’ll use its OS. If people love their Nokia or their Sony Ericsson, they’ll use whatever is the OS of these phones. Sure, technology is the underlying enabler for these devices, but the point is that they are supposed to be invisible to the consumers, just as they are in other appliances.

Then again, this is Google. Maybe they’ll have better luck with this than what they’ve done with Google Chrome so far. At the very least, it’s another choice for computer users.

Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he — we feel certain — felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren’t enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.

Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber — wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles — eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.

Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous “ladies,” giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked… at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.

Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home — on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse — he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.

17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual ‘Furniture’
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site ‘Habbo’ in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime — whether actual or virtual — does not pay.

Phishers Going After Your Phones in New ‘Vishing’ Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones’ fertile frontier. The result? “Vishing.” Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn’t sound like a James Bond villain saying, “Wishing.”

Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into — that’s right, into — a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they — apparently uninterested in the cash register — stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We’ve all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation’s thieves, too?