Google was late to the social network game, but now they are going to try their hardest to make up for lost time. Everyone’s favourite search engine has already started including some results that highlighted if one your Google+ contacts has recommended something in your search results. But now they are taking it to the next level with “Your World” which will actually populate your search results with posts and recommendations from your friends (who are on Google+ of course). These posts will naturally carry some priority over standard search results. Users can still instantly switch between “Your World” results and standard search results. Your World will focus in three key features (as stated by Google’s Blog):

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page; 
2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and, 
3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community. 

Naturally some of your “people” might not like their posts and recommendation flying around the internet in people’s search results, so Your World uses SSL security layers to protect those recommendation from landing in the wrong hands.

This type of social networking integration into the world’s most popular search engine is going to have Facebook and Twitter worried. And rightly so. Google might want to look out – they will probably face an antitrust suit in the future for this feature. Using their market share in search, which was grown organically into a monopoly due to good results, and then using that market in order to push their flailing social networking agenda might not sit well with a few people. For some good viewpoints on the potential antitrust issues, read MG Siegler’s opinion.

According to the official Google Chrome blog, the browser will “now start loading some web pages in the background, even before the user has finished typing the URL” and if the URL auto-completes to a site the user is likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page which reduces the time between hitting Enter and seeing the fully loaded we page.

In terms of the enhanced security, protection from additional malware attacks is provided by improvements to Chrome’s Safe Browsing technology. Google noticed an increase in malicious websites that try to convince users to download and run a file that will harm a computer, even those that pretend to be an anti-virus program.

To help protect users against malicious downloads, Chrome now includes “expanded functionality to analyze executable files (such as “.exe” and “.msi” files) that can be downloaded.” If a file that a user downloads is known to be malicious, or is hosted on a website that hosts a relatively high percentage of malicious downloads, Chrome will warn users that the file appears to be malicious and recommend that it should be discarded.

Just a few weeks ago Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt allegedly revealed that the company had plans to market “a tablet of the highest quality” within the next six months. While Schmidt’s statement created a lot of buzz and speculation, Google has refused to go into any further details about the clarity of the comment.

Now, a recent report from DigiTimes sourced from Google’s upstream supply chain claims that a so-called Google branded tablet that may be developed is a 7-inch device running on Android 4.0, it’s latest Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The device is also expected to be priced at under $199, directly competing with Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

The report also revealed that the tablet could be introduced by April.

As for the integrity of the rumour, it should be taken lightly as the Taiwan news site already has a shaky reputation for accuracy and Google’s Taiwan office denies knowing anything about a Google-branded tablet.

Source: Business Insider

If Android device users search for the application, while a number of Siri clones and third party solutions may appear, the search results for Siri for Android can no longer be found. The developer’s other app “Pinterest”,  a mobile wrapper for Pinterest’s own website, has also been removed from the listings.

It was reported that an official Siri port for Android called ‘Siri for Android’ had been launched on the Android Market place on the 28th December. The Android app had launched using Apple’s very own Siri icon to function as a shortcut to Android’s version. Google’s lack of attention to and check-ups of its marketplace, allows developers such as “Official App” to launch copyright/trademark infringing applications in minutes by not having to contend with application approvals.

Since Google’s removal of the developer’s account, the app has also become unavailable. By using the developer name, Android Market users could be fooled into thinking that the app was an official port, rather than the creator of the app itself.

It is clear from this occurrence that Google faces issues with its open marketplace but the speed with which the developer’s account and its apps was removed shows that Google are beginning to pay more attention to fake and misleading apps claiming to be “official”.

Source: The Next Web

Today, Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2011 through the collective eyes of the world on the web, offering a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends based on searches conducted in South Africa.

WhatsApp Messenger – a cross-platform mobile messaging app for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia – tops the list of fastest rising searches in South Africa for 2011. The Rugby World Cup follows at number 2 with the Royal Wedding claiming third position. The late Amy Winehouse, in fifth place, gets beaten by Facebook, ranked fourth on the list. Songbird, Adele, takes spot number 6, followed by deceased Libyan dictator, Gaddafi, and the iPhone 5, appearing in seventh and eighth position respectively. SA’s new low-cost airline, Velvet Sky (launched in March this year) appears second last on the list with Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, who passed away at the beginning of October claiming the number 10 spot.

Top newsmaker? You guessed it: Julius Malema, recently suspended President of the ANC Youth League. From marches to landmark speeches, a hospital trip and a hate speech ruling, Julius appeared in many South African and international headlines in 2011. The top celeb is none other then reality star, Kim Kardashian. She is joined by Idols, Beyoncé, Britney, Rihanna, Megan Fox, and Angelina Jolie amongst other Hollywood sweethearts.

The most popular questions South Africans were asking include ‘what is Facebook’ and ‘what is love’ alongside ‘what is life’. In addition, most searchers are singing along to Lady Gaga’s controversial track, ‘Judas’, according to the top song lyric searches for 2011. Other popular songs include ‘Super Bass’ by Nicki Minaj and ‘Man Down’ performed by Rihanna. For sports enthusiasts, Super Ruby and Wimbledon generated the most interest, while for TV buffs the winner of Survivor: Tocantins sparked the most searches.

In terms of the top global searches, American pop singer and YouTube star, Rebecca Black, is the top fastest rising search. The video of her single, Friday, went viral in March 2011, acquiring millions of views in just a few days. Google’s newly launched social network, Google +, takes second place on the list. Adele, whose album 21 has been nominated for a ‘Best Album’ Grammy, makes another appearance, this time in seventh place, while Steve Jobs ironically outranks the device he introduced this year, the iPad 2.

View the full list of Top 10 Searches after the jump:

Fastest rising searches:
1. Whatsapp
2. Rugby World Cup
3. Royal wedding
4. Facebook
5. Amy Winehouse
6. Adele
7. Gaddafi
8. iPhone 5
9. Velvet Sky
10. Steve Jobs

Fastest rising people:
1. Amy Winehouse
2. Adele
3. Gaddafi
4. Steve Jobs
5. Darren Scott
6. Sonny Bill Williams
7. Nicki Minaj
8. Selena Gomez
9. Chris Brown
10. Mandela

Top news:
1. Julius Malema
2. Kaizer Chiefs
3. Orlando Pirates
4. Facebook
5. News24
6. YouTube
7. ANC Youth League
8. Nelson Mandela
9. Manchester United
10. Arsenal

Top images:
1. Facebook
2. Nicki Minaj
3. love
4. Selena Gomez
5. cars
6. Rihanna
7. flowers
8. YouTube
9. Justin Bieber
10. Beyonce

Top celebrities:
1. Kim Kardashian
2. Idols
3. Beyonce
4. Britney
5. Rihanna
6. Megan Fox
7. Angelina Jolie
8. Scarlett Johansson
9. Mariah Carey
10. Jennifer Aniston

Top “what is”:
1. what is Facebook
2. what is love
3. what is life
4. what is HIV
5. what is research
6. what is technology
7. what is energy
8. what is aids
9. what is cancer
10. what is ubuntu

Fastest rising song lyrics:
1. Judas
2. Super Bass
3. Adele
4. Man Down
5. Coming Home
6. Grenade
7. Selena Gomez
8. Rick Ross
9. Rihanna
10. Lil Wayne

Top sports searches:
1. Super rugby fixtures
2. Wimbledon live scores
3. RWC 2011
4. Tri nations 2011
5. Billabong pro 2011
6. Super rugby results
7. Dakar rally 2011
8. Foxsports fantasty rugby
9. Tabgold racecard
10. xscore

Top soccer searches:
1. spbo live score
2. afcon qualifiers
3. vodacom challenge 2011
4. soccer livescore
5. orlando pirates news
6. goal.com
7. kaizer chiefs fixtures
8. copa del rey
9. psl league table
10. copa america 2011

Top TV searches:
1. Survivor Tocantins winner
2. Bigbrother Amplified
3. American Idols 2011
4. The Bachelor Jake
5. The Bachelorette Jillian
6. The Bachelorette Ali
7. American Idols 2011
8. Xfactor usa
9. Mentalist season 4
10. Topgear festival

Today Google announced its new Flipboard competitor, called Currents. The concept is simple – it functions as a magazine type interface for your favourite sites, and it is also a great way to discover new content. Currents is a new social publishing platform, which was only know as Propeller before it was official launched, but today Google is rolling it out to Android, iPhone and iPad. Publishers can choose how they want their site to display, using HTML5 tools. You can go download Google Currents right now from the relevant Appstores / Markets, or just click here. There is some great content on already, and you simply choose the categories you are interested in. All the big online news sources are there.

Publishers have significant freedom with layouts and design, and great monitoring tools with plug ins into Google Analytics, and the end result can include AdSense content as well. The design can also be defined based on class of device – for example, the content can be displayed differently on tablet than a phone. Rich features like video plays right there in the published pages.

We built a custom version of Bandwidth Blog for Currents – just click here. If you do not have Currents, the link will first let you install the app on your Android or iOS tablet or phone. Let us know what you think!

The new tablet, expected to shake up the market just as the Kindle Fire did when it launched in November, offers a MIPS XBurst 1GHz CPU and includes front and rear cameras, 3D capability, 1080p video decoding and an HDMI port. It also provides 8 hours of battery life and also features a multitouch-capable touchscreen. Where as other inexpensive tablets are known for running an older version, the Novo7 comes with the latest version of Android. the Novo7 has also been certified by Google and is tantamount to Google and MIPS competing with ARM and Amazon devices.

While Amazon’s Kindle Fire is technically built upon Android, the mobile operating system was drastically forked to suit the e-retailer’s needs. The $199 tablet also does not provide users with access to the Android Market while the Novo7 does.

It appears, that with Google currently struggling to compete with Apple’s iPad in the market, their strategy is to focus on providing devices for the lower end of the market who may otherwise be excluded. This very strategy proved successful with Android smartphones where it has been taking a significant chunk of the market and outselling the iPhone. For MIPS, the Novo7 could represent an aggressive push into the tablet market currently dominated by ARM processors. Earlier this year, MIPS said it planned to have an Ice Cream Sandwich demo available within weeks of the release of the source code, with a model in production within 90 days. Instead, the Novo7 became available within a few weeks

Google’s Android head, Andy Rubin, said that ”I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market. Low-cost, high-performance tablets are a big win for mobile consumers and a strong illustration of how Android’s openness drives innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers around the world.”

source: PC World

Google’s mobile operating system has reached a significant milestone with a total of 10 billion applications having been downloaded by users from the Android Market. It took the market about 20 months to serve up it first billion apps and only five more for the second billion. Impressive numbers at a rapid rate.

Now, Android is delivering a billion apps per month, the same figure that Apple revealed at the launch of its latest iPhone 4S in October, that will be reaching South Africa’s shores on the 16th December.

However, Android still has a way to go to catch up to Apple let alone surpass it, which as of October 4, had more than 18 billion app downloads by iOS device users.

Take a look at the Android Market’s growth below:

source: AllthingsD

A senior Sony executive revealed that the Sony Ericsson brand would be phased out as the company focusses on becoming a complete smartphone business that will sell its new smartphones under the Sony label. The move aims to invigorate Sony’s smartphone sales, which slowly began to pick up when Sony Ericsson decided to soley develop smarthphones powered by Google’s Android operating system.

With this decision, Sony Ericsson will invest significant amounts into its marketing and advertising channels for the new Sony smartphone brand. Kristian Tear, executive VP and head of sales and marketing at Sony Ericsson commented that “A lot of planning goes into getting the branding right but we will be done by middle of next year. It will also mean that the marketing and advertising investments will go up. We haven’t been as fierce as we were a few years back but we will step it up, refocus and invest more in brand-building in select markets.”

Although Sony is the world’s leading entertainment company, it holds only 2% of the global smartphone market and expects its mobile presence to increase with its assets on the content, technology and brand side along with its planned marketing and advertising boost.

Sony’s acquisition still requires approval, so the changes aren’t expected to be implemented until next year.

source: The Next Web

The search giant’s streaming video arm launched a total site overhaul with the aim of reshaping the entire media landscape around the concept of ‘the channel’. Until now, Google concedes that YouTube viewers haven’t seen the site as a destination for channels filled with varying content, but rather a place to view different videos found on the web. With the re-design Google intends for the YouTube audience to become a destination site for media. Instead of presenting a grid with random one-off videos, the front page features a feed running down the center of the site, that displays the top channels in a user’s stream. Every feed will look different, with selected channels based on YouTube recommendations and sitewide viewing trends, what a user’s friends are sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, as well as those channels specifically chosen by the viewers themselves. The overall design is cleaner and more streamlined.

The redesign and new layout also serves to enhance the experience of users discovering new content that interests them who may have previously found it difficult to navigate the millions of videos uploaded on the site in search of what they liked.  A.J. Crane, YouTube product manager explains that “we are trying to make everyone an effective programmer on YouTube.”

The re-design is not only for  consumers but also aims to appeal to content creators with Partner content providers having the ability to customize their individual channels to display media in whatever order they prefer. Appealing to the major industry players is in line with YouTube’s recent activity in improving the site’s premium, professionally produced content that was publicised in an announcement last month that it would begin building out a network of content providers who would produce original videos across multiple categories. YouTube also made a major deal with Disney, furthering the availability of co-branded content.

In addition to its aesthetic focus, Google will also be launching a new Xbox application in the near future that is in line with Google’s theme of media convergence that will stretch YouTube’s reach across multiple devices outside of the desktop.

Take a tour of the new YouTube in the video below:

source: Wired