Computer Research

Google Gears Released

I jumped out of the Google Developer Day in Hamburg, Germany, because this is big news (coming straight from Sydney’s Developer Day): Google released an offline web app framework called Google Gears. One of the first applications is an offline version of Google Reader. Google’s Gears homepage explains that Gears is ...

<<... an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:

- Store and serve application resources locally
- Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
- Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness>>

Google in a press release states that Gears “marks an important step in the evolution of web applications because it addresses a major user concern: availability of data and applications when there’s no Internet connection available, or when a connection is slow or unreliable.” They go on to say that making the browser environment more powerful is increasingly important (Google snatched up a couple of Firefox developers – this makes even more sense in the light of this announcement).

You can install this for a couple of operating systems, though Google warns that this is an early-access developer’s release (which would be called Alpha, but Google calls it Beta). Like many recent announcements, this one too had been foreshadowed in Google’s internal documents which leaked last year. By moving web applications into the offline sector, Google Inc is moving into Microsoft Office competition territory even more clearly.

Gears is also free & open source, so Google is hoping to get the community to accept this technology and run with it. Without developers, Gears won’t be able to take off, which might explain the announcement around the time of the Developer Day. Already, according to Google’s press release, other big industry players are in the boat, including Adobe (senior vice president Kevin Lynch: “[t]he Gears API will also be available in Apollo, which enables web applications to run on the desktop”), Mozilla (chief technology office Brendan Eich: “a significant step forward for web applications”) and Opera (chief technology officer Håkon Wium Lie: “we’re excited to work with Google to extend the reach and power of Web applications”). Google says their “long-term hope is that Google Gears can help the industry as a whole move toward a single standard for offline capabilities that all developers can use.” Being so nice and open to turn a powerful online/ offline web framework into a commodity naturally makes business sense for today’s web application leader, Google; we saw what happens when they figure something doesn’t make business sense, even when it benefits developers.

TechCrunch’s Nick Gonzalez in the meantime reviews how Gears is already enabled for Google’s Feed reader:

<<Reader will add a green download button to the user interface. When you click the button, Reader will download the last 2,000 messages to your computer, preparing your computer to work offline or under a spotty internet connection.

Downloading will take place in the background, using the asynchronous JavaScript API. While offline you can read these articles and carry out your usual sharing and tagging. When you get back online, just click the button and Reader will sync your offline activity with their server. Right now the syncing is initiated manually, but it’s easy to see that it will become more seamless as the program develops. Gears could conceivably solve the large data overhead problems of Google’s AJAX applications, pushing updates to your desktop instead of slowing down your browser. >>

At the live presentation in Mountain View, Google suffered from the web OS equivalent to the Windows blue screen (you know, a browser error message) but this may have had more to do with the connection Google set up for the presentation than product bugs.

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Kevin G., Googlaxy and Krishnan S.]

[This post was updated as new information came in.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

Google Developer Day Webcasts

As you may know, tomorrow (May 31st 2007) Google will hold a developer day in different locations around the world. If you can’t make it, you can watch the developer day webcasts for Mountain View and London – and if you do make it, please add your photos and other impressions in the forum thread.

According to a Google press release, the webcasts will include:

<<- The Mountain View keynote by vice-president of engineering Jeff Huber (10:00 a.m. PDT)

- The London keynote by open source programs manager Chris DiBona and geospatial technologist Ed Parsons (4:00 a.m. PDT)

- Presentations by Google director of research Peter Norvig on artificial intelligence; Google technical director Mark Lucovsky on Google’s AJAX APIs; Google tech lead Adam Sah on distributing applications with Google universal gadgets; and Google Web Toolkit co-creators Bruce Johnson and Joel Webber on building AJAX user interfaces in Java.>>

And these are the webcast locations:

• Developer Day London
• Developer Day Mountain View Exhibit Hall
• Mountain View Room A5
• Mountain View Room A6
• Mountain View Room A7
• Mountain View Room A8

I wonder if any of the new technologies released yesterday – Street View and Mapplets – will also be covered in the different sessions, though there seems to be no hint in the session descriptions so far.

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Anthony H.!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

Google Maps Street View and Mapplets

The previous rumors are coming true: announced at today’s Where 2.0 conference, Google has added a feature called “Street View” in certain locations on Google Maps. Also, Google is adding developer-created gadgets callled “Mapplets” to Google Maps starting today.

Street View

“Street View” displays an interactive panorama photo for certain locations on Google Maps. Note to get this to work outside the US, you need to add “&gl=us” at the end of the search URL. Below are screenshots for a search for 94111 (that’s San Francisco). Camera icons and blue lines indicate the availability of Street View data.

This new view is available for some regions (Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver and New York, according to Colin Colehour from the US, who says the Street View button disappears when you move the map away from North America), and is an alternative to the existing Traffic, Map, Satellite and Hybrid views. Clicking it you will see a photograph of the location as if you were standing on the streeet looking around. The O’Reilly Radar blog, who says the data for these pictures is coming from Immersive Media (except for San Francisco, which also has a better zoom level, as it turns out), comments, “This is not just a static, A9-style image. It will also let you move along the street in a smooth manner and even more amazing it will let you change your angle and continue moving that way.”

Here’s a video grab showing Street View in action – this looks & feels amazing, albeit there’s potential privacy issues due to the level of detail (you can make out individual faces, license plates and so on):

The Google help blurb on the Street View feature, displayed at Search Engine Land, explains how the navigation works:

• “Blue outlines show roads where street view is available.”
• “[A person icon on a green arrow] shows where you are on the map. The green arrow points in the direction you’re looking. You can drag the icon to navigate to a different location. You can also just click on a blue outlined road to go there.”
• “Drag the street view to look around 360°. Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboad.”

Google in a press release adds that Street View data “will soon expand to other metropolitan areas.” The world is shrinking.

Mapplets

Also today at the Where 2.0 conference, Google announced Mapplets (as in “map applets”). A Mapplet is a special flavor of a Google Gadget, the XML/JavaScript-based widgets you can add to iGoogle – only that this time, you’ll be adding it to Google Maps. From a press release by Google:

<<Mapplets enables third party developers to create mini applications that can be displayed on Google Maps, much like Google Gadgets are displayed on iGoogle. These Mapplets contain a variety of information, from housing listings to crime data, and tools like distance measurement. Users can select from a wide range of Google and third party Mapplets to display on the Map, essentially creating their own “mashup of mashups” directly on the Google Maps site, while still enjoying the built-in functionality of Google Maps, such as local search and driving directions. A number of our partners, including WeatherBug, Booking.com and Platial have already created Mapplets.>>

You can take a first look at this feature at a special preview page. Mapplets can be found in the Mapplets directory, and a developer documentation is available as well, clarifying that “Mapplets are mini-webpages that are served inside an IFrame within the Google Maps site. You can put anything inside this mini-webpage that you can put into a normal webpage, including HTML, Javascript, and Flash. Google provides a Javascript API that gives the Mapplet access to services such as manipulating the map, fetching remote content, and storing user preferences.” Google goes on to say that when a Mapplet is enabled by the user, Google will grab a copy of the source from your server to then serve it from gmodules.com (the domain currently caching iGoogle Gadgets as well).

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Anders C.R., Colin Colehour, TomHTML, Megan Q. and Daniel Garcia!]

[Note that I’ve constantly updated and edited this post as more information came in.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

Google Acquired GreenBorder

Google acquired security company GreenBorder Technologies earlier this month. GreenBorder say they “will continue to support ... existing customers through the end of their current subscriptions.” Google blog Googlified.com quotes from an old About page of GreenBorder for context:

<<Headquartered in Mountain View, California, GreenBorder Technologies was founded in 2001 to bring a new approach to enterprise security. GreenBorder, the industry’s first Desktop DMZ software for Windows, keeps Internet invaders out and enterprise data in. It allows users to safely connect anywhere, go to any website, open any Internet email or attachment, and use any downloaded files without worry. GreenBorder’s unique, signature-less approach never needs updating and provides continuous protection against corruption, theft and invasion of business data systems.>>

Google in an email statement confirms the deal, adding “We were impressed by their small team of talented engineers and believe they can help to build products and features that will benefit our users, advertisers and publishers.”

Ongoing comments

[Thanks Haochi!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

Chicken Soup for the Office Worker’s Soul

The first day Andy came to work, he saw a 17-inch screen sitting on his desk, and there were no speakers, and his mouse had no scrollwheel. But Andy made it through the day anyway, checking up on his email and performing other mundane office tasks.

When Andy returned home, he told his wife of his work day. “What,” his wife uttered, “You don’t have a scrollwheel, and a big screen? You must tell your boss, and request better equipment!”

The next day at work, Andy knocked on the boss’s office door. When the boss invited him in, Andy in quiet voice told the boss that he would need better equipment to become more effective at work. “I need a mouse with a scrollwheel, and speakers, and a 19-inch screen,” he said. His boss nodded, said “Makes sense!” and made sure that Andy would receive all that. When Andy returned to his desk after lunch, he found his desktop equipped with a larger screen, a better mouse, and hi-quality stereo speakers.

When Andy returned home, his wife was already waiting to hear Andy’s story. After Andy finished, his wife frowned, and said, “But you still don’t have an ergonomic keyboard and comfy chair... this is impossible!”

The next morning, Andy knocked on his boss’s office door again, and made another request for better equipment. “I need a comfortable chair so I can sit and work in a relaxed manner... and I need a keyboard that will cater to my hand’s comfort.” The boss looked at Andy and said, “Makes sense.” And thus, an hour later when Andy returned to his desk, he found a new chair and keyboard in place.

Returning home that day, Andy found his wife away, but she left a note: “If you got all the new stuff we talked about, also ask for a raise and your own office.”

Hence the next day, Andy knocked at his boss’s door once more, and requested a raise and his own office room. “Because my work is excellent, and I need to fully concentrate while typing.” His boss looked at him for some seconds, and nodded, once more, and said, “Makes sense Andy!” And a little while later, Andy moved his computer, chair, keyboard and mouse and everything else to his new room, free from much of the surrounding noises of his former cubicle.

And Andy was quite happy about the state of things as they were. And after a hard day’s work, he returned home, and his wife was already awaiting him. After Andy told her the day’s events, she gave him a long, hard stare; “Why,” she said, “you have a high income, your own office, an excellent chair and everything... you should be boss!”

Andy was briefly worried but found the logic to be irrefutable, and the next morning at work, he knocked on his boss’s door. “Boss,” he said, “to be an even more effective worker, I think I should be boss.” And Andy’s boss looked at Andy with a puzzled face for a moment, and then replied, “You’re fired.” And when Andy returned to his old office room a while later, he found his computer, chair, mouse and everything else gone, and to this day, Andy is really happy all that happened because in the end he didn’t like this office work all that much anyway because of the constant deadlines and headaches and shouting and everything and he’s now running a successful but undemanding business selling flowers at a little shop.

[The end, with thanks to the Grimm Brothers.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]