Tag: Google
Street View gets the all clear from the Information Comissioner
Privacy International’s complaints to the Informational Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about Google’s Street View have been overruled, reports claim.
The introduction of the service to the UK hasn’t been without controversy, but the ICO says that Street View does not break privacy laws – it’s more like a televised football match where obtaining the consent of every attendee is impractical.
To try and quash privacy complaints, Google already blurs faces and number plates from its service, and will take down any pictures on request. The ICO said it would continue to monitor the situation.
(via VNUNet)
Google adds colour filter to image search
Google’s always tweaking its products, and the latest tweak is to Image Search. It’s added the option to filter search results by colour – offering you 12 options for which hue you’d like to dominate your results – red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, pink, white, grey, black and brown.
The update is still filtering out to data centres worldwide, but in the meantime you can use the filter manually by typing something along the lines of “http://images.google.com/images?q=bird&imgcolor=red” in the URL box. The tech comes from Google’s acquisition of Neven Vision, so expect to see a few more updates like this in the near future.
(via Google Operating System)
Village forms human chain to stop Google Street View car
A small village in Buckinghamshire has thumbed its nose to the world, and refused to allow Google to index its streets. Broughton, which is close to Milton Keynes, has suffered a few burglaries in recent months, so when the Street View car rolled into town, they formed a human chain across the street to stop it going any further.
“My immediate reaction was anger,” said resident Paul Jacobs “how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent?” The villagers called the police and accosted the driver, accusing him of “invasion of privacy”.
Google, for thier part, issued a statement saying that the vehicle was using public roads and wasn’t breaking any laws. They also reminded the public that anyone can remove their house from the service, and they also blur faces and vehicle number plates.
The street view car has recently been spotted in Reading, Preston, Ipswitch and Winchester. The service recently went live in London, but has been available in the USA for years.
(via Telegraph, image via @ruskin147)
Tech Digest Podcast #2
Here’s the second podcast from the team at Tech Digest. This week, we got stuck in to Twitter being bought by Google, Conficker’s no-show, and whether or not it’s reasonable for networks to get upset about Skype on the iPhone.
In the middle section, Dan extolled the joys of the Kaleidescape home cinema system, while I tried to convince him to use a couple of services that boost your Twitter experience – Mr Tweet and Topify.
Lastly, we talked about about the death of some poor guy while using Wii fit, and the end of Microsoft’s Encarta encyclopedia. I miss mindmaze so terribly 🙁
A small round of applause to the venerable Andy Merret, a.k.a. the Tech Trumpet, for coming up with some jingles for the start and end of the podcast. They’re rather good, aren’t they? Thanks Andy!
Download the podcast directly here, or subscribe via this URL.
As ever, if you have any comments, topics that you’d like us to talk about, or general abuse, throw it our way by sending us a tweet at @techdigest or emailing [email protected].
UPDATED: Google in talks to purchase Twitter
Google is in talks to acquire Twitter according to sources in a Tech Crunch article this morning. Negotiations have been believed to be at both late and early stages, so we can probably take from that that the stages are in fact somewhere towards the middle.
Google’s valuation of the microblogging platform is thought to be well in excess of the $250 million that Facebook offered a few month’s back. The important difference to this deal is in the payment plan.
Zuckerburg Inc. was looking to use overpriced Facebook stock for the majority of the bargain whereas Google is ready to pay in both cold, hard cash and more stable, publicly-valued shares.
The big questions surrounding the deal are about what Google plans on doing with Twitter and what founders of the service Evan Williams and Biz Stone want out of it too. Twitter represents a real-time search of news and events happening now whereas Google results give weight to pages according to when they were indexed and how many people link to them. If Google does go through with the deal, they would effectively own search but whether they would improve Twitter or leave it to rot is another matter.
For a bigger discussion of the ins and outs of this one, download the Tech Digest podcast.
(via Tech Crunch)
YouTube adds Germany to the blocklist
Not content with banning the UK from its ‘Premium’ music videos, YouTube has now done the same thing to its German users. Users located in Germany will no longer be able to watch content licensed by the major labels, following a dispute with collecting society GEMA.
The situation is exactly the same as the situation three weeks ago in the UK – where PRS for Music demanded higher streaming rates and Google removed access to music videos in protest. That situation is still unresolved.
(via MusicWeek)
Google launching free, legal, music downloads… in China
Internet giant Google today launched a service that provides completely free, legal downloads of songs from all four major labels. The caveat? It’s only available in China. Damn.
There will be over 350,000 tracks available at launch, from both Chinese and Western markets. Users will be able to search by artist and song name, but also by the level of ‘beat’ in the song, and its ‘instrumentality’, whatever that is.
Google’s making the move due to massive levels of piracy in the world’s most populous country. The search engine lags behind its competitor Baidu in the country, mainly thanks to Baidu’s MP3 search functions. This launch should help Google compete in a market where 99% of music consumed is illegal.
Google’s free music service (via Reuters)
Tech Digest Podcast #1
So, this morning, Dan and I got on Skype and had a go at recording a podcast. We chatted about the big stories of the week – Twitter and Last.fm trying to monetise their services, and the big media companies approaching Google to try to get their content higher in search rankings.
I’m a bit of a software person, whereas Dan’s into his hardware, so as a central feature, we thought it’d be fun to try to convince each other of the joys of a bit of software and a bit of hardware respectively. I plumped for Last.fm, whereas Dan tried to convince me I need Canon’s EOS 500D DSLR in my life.
Lastly, we took a brief look at some of the stranger news stories of the week – the 60ft penis on the roof and the CC all your emails to Jacqui Smith campaign. I wanted to talk about a few other stories here too, but we ran out of time.
Download the podcast as an MP3 here, or subscribe via RSS here.
It’s a little clunky, still – my voice buzzes a bit thanks to the cheap headset I’m using. We’re very much feeling our way around how the whole process works, so any recommendations and advice are more than welcome. Drop us a tweet at @techdigest or email me or Dan.
Exploring London's highlights with Google Street View
As Dan reported yesterday, Google has quietly rolled out Street View for a select number of cities in the UK.
Of course, London is one of those included allowing us to explore our immediate surroundings without even leaving the office. Judging from a photo of outside my house, the photography is around eight months old, as I remember moving a table visible in my window shortly after moving into my flat.
"Never Gonna Give You Up" earns author £11 in rickroyalties
It’s funny. Following the YouTube vs PRS spat last week, where the former blocked UK users from watching most music videos, many commenters erupted into anti-major-label vitriol, completely ignoring the fact that the labels aren’t involved in this argument at all.
Instead the debate centres around PRS for Music, which pays something called songwriter royalties, based on ‘public performances’ – YouTube, music in shops, nightclubs, radio, etc. These royalties exist completely seperately from the major label ecosystem, so blaming the ‘big four’ is a little unfair here.
Google’s short-term PR win might be placed in jeopardy, however, after Pete Waterman – who co-write “Never Gonna Give You Up” – revealed that he’s earnt just £11 from the 40 million+ views on the song on YouTube. YouTube wants to halve the fees that it’s paying to the PRS.
UK Music, an umbrella body of umbrella bodies in the British music industry, has labelled YouTube and Google ‘cyncial and exploitative’. It certainly seems to fly in the face of the corportations ‘Do No Evil’ mantra.
What’s your feeling on the matter? Is this a music industry failing to adapt to new technology and consumer behaviour? Or is Google taking advantage of consumer distrust of the music industry to desperately try to make YouTube profitable? Drop us an email, or a tweet, with your opinion and we’ll publish the best.
(via ITProPortal)
