Google fights China

Google has shut its mainland Chinese-language portal and began rerouting searches to its Hong Kong site. China warns Google that its spurning of self-censorship had angered the one-party government, wary of ceding control over China's 384 million Internet users.

Google startled the world and the business community in January when it said it might quit China over censorship and after suffering from a sophisticated hacking attack that it said came from within China. Beijing has denied it was involved in any hacking.

Analysts said it was possible Google's plans for other services in China, such as its Android smartphone software, could be jeopardized by its move. Google's troubles in China are not unique. Many foreign companies such as eBay and Yahoo! have failed to make headway in the market due to localization problems and stiff domestic competition and have pulled out.

Internationally popular websites Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube are blocked in China. A former British colony, Hong Kong enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China.

But Google acknowledged that the Chinese government could at any time block access to the services, which include Google search, news and images.

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Facebook beats Google as Most-Visited Site

Facebook beats Google as Most-Visited Site!! This is according to hitwise as a Social network beat a search engine in the U.S..

This is a major win for Facebook. The ability to represent the social network as the number one site should count for a lot as corporate representatives talk to advertisers and investors, and could result in a direct boost in revenue. There could be momentum from user interest since most people like to be part of something that's popular.

But this doesn't mean people will stop searching on google, this just goes to show the stickiness and the rising users and interest in this social network we call facebook.

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The Google Buzz

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. Google Buzz is built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Google Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. Google Buzz is focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

Determined not to be left behind in the social media revolution, Google officially launched today a new product called Google Buzz which confirms earlier rumors of a new social status feature being integrated into Gmail.

Check out the Google Buzz Video:



Check out Google Buzz for Mobile:



Check out Google Buzz Event:



Google Buzz was presented to the media by Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president for product management. With the creation of Google Buzz – the integration of status updates and media-sharing technology into the Gmail interface, Google hopes that Gmail users would be spending more time on Google’s sites instead of going to other social media sharing sites like Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed.

Check out the Google Buzz Site HERE.

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Google Phone: Nexus One from HTC

I had a chance to only play with the Nexus One since it's partial support is of course "Outsourced" here and with that I got to handle and experience it's features first hand. The Nexus One phone is pretty fast — you can really feel that processing power kicking from inside. Android OS is quite intimidating at first but the more you explore and use it, it's pretty simple. And as far as specs are concerned, see below:

Cellular & Wireless

UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
HSUPA 2Mbps
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Power and battery
Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger

Talk time
Up to 10 hours on 2G
Up to 7 hours on 3G

Standby time
Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G
Internet use
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi

Video playback
Up to 7 hours

Audio playback
Up to 20 hours

Processor
Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system
Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity
512MB Flash
512MB RAM
4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location
Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
Digital compass
Accelerometer

Size and weight:

Height
119mm
Width
59.8mm

Depth
11.5mm

Weight
130 grams w/battery
100g w/o battery

Display
3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
800 x 480 pixels
100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash
5 megapixels
Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
2X digital zoom
LED flash
User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

The good: The Nexus One has a gorgeous display, a lightning-fast processor, and a loaded feature set. The enhanced voice capabilities worked flawlessly, and the phone delivers solid performance.

The bad: Like other Android phones, the Nexus One forces you to store apps on the internal memory. The media player remains average, and it’s missing some wanted features like multi-touch support, dual-mode capability for GSM and CDMA networks.

In Conclusion: It doesn’t have all the features we’d like, but the Nexus One greatly enhances the Google Android family with a fast processor, good call quality, and improved voice control features.

For more info. visit HERE

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