You gotta smell it to believe it. Google is well aware of this fact, which is why they launched their newest service: Google Nose. It is exactly what its name implies. Basically, you’ll have the same efficiency of Google web search, only you’re provided with the option of smelling your search results instead.
Search for ‘lemon’, and you’ll get a whiff of something citrusy and fresh. Google ‘new car’ and you’ll be treated to the scent of a brand new car of your preferred brand.
Conan O’Brien is back with more of his hilarious antics, and this time, he’s got Google Glass in his sights. In case you haven’t heard of it yet (although it’s highly probably that you already have, considering how much media attention it’s gotten lately), Google Glass is a revolutionary piece of eyewear that integrates camera, maps, translator, messenger, and Siri-like functionalities into a compact and wearable accessory. Just think of it as the glasses you’ve always wanted to have, but, well, never did.
Because he’s bitter that he wasn’t chosen to be an Explorer (that’s Google-speak for beta tester), he’s come up with a parody product called Google Ass that you’re supposed to strap to your butt. Nah, I’m just kidding… Conan came up with this fake product because it’s funny, and after watching his short clip featuring his faux revolutionary ass-wear, you’ll be nodding in agreement.
VIA [ Cnet ]
It was just last week that we were reporting on the return of Google Maps to the Apple App Store. In the article, we mentioned that a lot of people were still living with iOS 5 because of the absence of Google’s mapping solution on iOS 6. But few people had idea idea just how many people were in that boat! According to research by mobile ad company MoPub, in the five days following the release of the application, they saw a 29% increase in iOS 6 users, which they attribute to Google’s Maps being available again.
This is not entirely surprising: it was reported earlier that Google Maps was downloaded 10 million times in the first 48 hours. This is, we suspect, much to Apple’s chagrin.
VIA [ UberGizmo ]
Google has been trying to get in the social game for a while now, but it’s not easy to unseat the behemoth Facebook. According to some research by law firm Morrison & Foerster’s Socially Aware Blog, Google+ now has about 100 million active users per month. Not a small number, to be sure. But here’s the catch: the users there spend a total of 3 minutes on the site each month. In contrast, Facebook’s 1 billion+ users clock in at 6.75 hours monthly. That’s an astounding difference, and one that makes it pretty clear why Facebook is still far and wide the leader of social.
The firm produced an infographic that’s chock full of data about how we spend our time online. For example, Americans have reduced their time watching regular TV from 71.1 hours in 2006, to 59.4 hours in 2011. Conversely, time spent watching TV online has gone up almost fourfold from 6.3hrs to 23.1hrs in the same period. It’s clear that the Internet has entered a coming-of-age period where the gee-whiz this-is-awesome feelgoodery of the early 2,000′s has given place to a more mature and entrenched recognition that online is where an increasing portion of society is choosing to spend their lives. Video may have killed the radio star, but the Internet is going to reshape our society in ways that are still hard to predict, but always exciting to monitor.
Hit the jump for the full infographic.
Heard any good Chuck Norris jokes lately? No? Well, I have a couple for you. Before I pelt you with jokes, you’re probably already familiar with all the Norris-themed jokes and memes that are all over the Web these days. Never mind the whys and just enjoy the fact that we live in a Norris-dominated world these days. And he’s taking over Google.
Well, no, not really. Rather, a joke site has come up with a pretty creative way of showcasing the might of Chuck Norris. We won’t spoil too much for you, but instead, here’s what we want you to do:
1. Head on over to Google.com.
2. Type ‘Where is Chuck Norris?’ in the search field.
3. Click on the first result you get.
4. Laugh. (We didn’t really need to tell you to do this now, did we?)
Apple’s Maps application is garbage. Haha. We sure like to beat a dead horse, on the Internets, but we do it because some things stay funny even when they’re not. That is, they’re funny until someone makes a left turn off a bridge… But to be perfectly honest, the Maps application from Apple is very pretty and does at least one thing better than Google’s: it is much more data efficient. This means that you’ll use up to 7 times less data on it for the same actions on the other one. From the folks at Onavo:
Our data experts performed an identical series of activities on Google Maps and Apple Maps that included searching for several US cities, addresses and airports and zooming in and out to locate specific locations. On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB. Apple Maps came in at 271KB – that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X.
Why the difference? Mostly because the Apple Maps app uses vector graphics that can resize infinitely without having to reload any new data. But if you’re on a limited data plan and need to use this application a lot, we suppose that it’s some kind of silver lining.
[ Full Analysis ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]
By David Ponce
Of course that’s a metaphorical hotspot we’re talking about. In the glacial, barren land that caps our south pole not many people venture. But the Google Maps team ditched their famous cars and traded them for tripods and fisheye lenses, and went back to the south pole to get more pictures than they already had. This time they added a bunch of famous places, from the inside as well as the outside. Now we say they went, as if they ventured out on their own, when in fact
they teamed up with the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, [and] 360-imagery of many important spots, inside and out, such as the South Pole Telescope, Shackleton’s hut, Scott’s hut, Cape Royds Adélie Penguin Rookery and the Ceremonial South Pole.
Hit the source below for a bunch of links pointing directly to the new places on Google Maps.
[ Google Maps Blog ]
By David Ponce
This is what happens when you ask Google maps for walking directions into Mordor…
VIA [ Geekologie ]
How Could Google Glass Help You Out During A Date?
Google Glass isn’t even really available to consumers yet (unless you’re a developer with a great idea and $1,500 burning a hole in your pocket), but it hasn’t stopped creative minds with fertile imaginations to conjure up potential uses. In the hilarious video below, we see how the futuristic glasses could help you out during a date. From allowing you to Google them on the fly to give you a leg up on their likes and dislikes, to providing you with entertainment as they drift off into boring talk of politics, the glasses are there to save the day.
Granted the imagined uses are very far off from how the device actually works, but the fact that videos like this are cropping up now show that if Google Glass takes off, there’s going to be an adjustment period where people have to figure out just how to act and react to their presence in civilized society. Already some bars are talking about banning them, while some lawmakers in Wrest Virginia are proposing legislation prohibiting their use while driving. There’s a long road ahead for the search giant’s latest project, and it’s going to be interesting to see if this turns into a Gmail-like success, or a Google Wave-like failure.
In the meantime, why not watch the video? It’s pretty funny.
VIA [ Coolpile ]