what interests me might interest you
Via paidContent: Look Out, Flipboard And Zite: Google Said To Be Working On News Reader App
According to Robert Scoble, Google is working on an app for iOS and Android that would be like Flipboard, except, you know, from Google. The project is called Google Propeller.
This ad from Google perfectly demonstrates how people can form an emotional connection through digital projects. If you’re organizing people online to join a cause or take part in an offline event; or getting them to create content online — a video like this, where you get contributors to talk about why they want to take part is a great addition to the campaign.
(found on Open Culture)
Google is working on self-driving cars, and they seem to work. People are so bad at driving cars that computers don’t have to be that good to be much better. Any time you stand in line at the D.M.V. and look around, you’re like, Oh, my God, I wish all these people were replaced by computer drivers. Ten to 20 years out, driving your car will be viewed as equivalently immoral as smoking cigarettes around other people is today.
via Marc Andreessen on the Dot-Com ‘Bubble’ – NYTimes.com.
Facebook got caught trying to pull some Richard Nixon-style dirty tricks yesterday. They’re accused of, and have admitted to, trying to plant stories in the press defaming Google with what was already pubic information. The root of the story is that Facebook doesn’t want Google scraping its social graph for its Social Circle product — a pretty legitimate gripe. However, Facebook’s hiring of an outside PR firm to plant stories with influential bloggers is unseemly and cowardly.
Meanwhile, Google has gone all-in on cloud computing, finally unveiling the Google Chromebook, a sub-$500 notebook that uses a souped-up version of the Chrome browser that depends on Google docs, Gmail and web apps to run. The Chromebook will come in a Wi-Fi only version and a Wi-Fi/3G version and will have an offline mode.
At the intersection of the environment and politics, every major Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential election at one time supported cap-and-trade legislation on greenhouse gases and has now walked away from that position — a completely depressing prospect for sure.
Also, cellphone signals are killing honeybees which we need to, you know, live.
The Library of Congress has released The National Jukebox, the largest collection vintage recordings ever made available. So if you’re looking for that 1901 release of the Haydn Quartet singing, “The Owl and the Pussycat,” look no further.
And finally, a study from Ericsson reveals what we already know: We’re using our iPhones before we even get out of bed.
Today’s Google Doodle is pretty special. It’s simple, understated and has just the right amount of movement (you’ll need to go to the page to see it). In an era of omnibars and awesome bars, it’s cool that Google still finds a way to get you to come back to the home page and execute a search. Nice work Doodle guys.
Film Noir classic and Best British Film of the 20th Century The Third Man is now available online, for free in its entirety. Open Culture has the details and the film can be viewed here on YouTube. If you’re into this sort of thing, please do check out Open Culture’s collection of free Noir films. It won’t disappoint.
Google has a new project: Think Quarterly is a quarterly web-based magazine, beautifully designed and expertly written out of the UK. The first issue is dedicated to data (something Google knows a bit about). The Think Quarterly site describes the project this way:
“In a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters.”
Speaking of Google, SEOBook and ByJess.net have an excellent infographic out on the history of the Google Algorithm and how it has changed and shaped the web — not always for the better.
