Google NOT Working On Google Desktop For Mac
Don’t you love it when people blow things out of proportion? Boing Boing is reporting that any reports of Google Desktop coming to the Mac are just bogus. Eric Schmidt was asked by Tim O’Reilly if Google was planning a MacOS version, and he said “Yes, and no,” that a Mac version would require a new project from the ground up, and that while Google would like to, it wasn’t planning anything. O’Reilly explains it, and Sean Bonner backs him up. My, my. Are searchblogs turning into political blogs?
Google Working On MacOS Version Of Desktop Search
Google is working on bringing its Google Desktop Search product to the Mac, says CEO Eric Schmidt. Talking at a UCLA conference celebrating the 35th anniversary of the internet, Schmidt said, “We intend to do it,” but would not set any sort of timetable. Because of the differences between the systems, Google will have to build an entirely new product from the ground up. This would mark the first time Google has ever released a product for a non-Windows operating system.
(via Web Stractions)
Gmail Security Vulnerability Fixed
InfoWorld is reporting that Google says it has fixed the Gmail security problem. That was fast!
(via The Unofficial Google Weblog)
Gmail Security Breach Discovered
A major security hole in Gmail has been found, reports the Israeli site Nana. A hacker, Nir Goldshlagger, told Nana NetLife Magazine that, “Everything could get publicly exposed – your received mails might be readable, as well as all of your sent mail, and furthermore – anyone could send and receive mail under your name”. He also warned that even a novice hacker could exploit the hole. Google has admitted to the existence of the breach, which involves allowing a hacker to steal your Gmail cookie and use it to log in to your account. Gmail is noted to be more of a security threat than most email inboxes, since users tend to store more mail than on most services, thus increasing the likelihood hackers will find sensitive information, like credit card numbers. Aimless Words suggests not clicking on the “Don’t ask for my password for 2 weeks” option, and notes that it is an XSS exploit. Slashdot talks about it here, as does the Register. Google Blogoscoped notes that all Gmail users who did click the auto-login button were forced to re-login this morning, so Google may have already dealt with it.
Google Celebrates Halloween
Today in the Google Blog, Google celebrates Halloween, with pictures of Google employees in disturbing and hilarious costumes. My personal favorite is the dog with devil ears, because he has a bad case of red-eye that is just perfectly fitting. Google Blogoscoped also points to Blogger, where you can see their “Happy Halloween” message, and two dudes as goats! And of course, there’s the Froogle Halloween doodle.
New Issue Of AdWords Newsletter Online
You can read the latest issue of Google’s AdWords newletter here.
(via Search Engine Watch Blog)
SEO This!
PR Newswire announced a service they are offering to optimize your press releases. They announced it in this press release. The irony, as explained by Andy Beal at Search Engine Lowdown: They announced it four weeks ago, but nobody noticed it, since they didn’t optimize the release! Oh, yeah. Great job. Taking a quick look at the release, it seems like they didn’t optimize it at all. Perhaps they should release a new version that is optimized, and maybe we’ll see some improvement, thus making it a good advertisement, instead of just embarrassing.
Ram Shriram Talks About How Google Gets Good People
Silicon Beat has an interview with Ram Shriram, the investor and current Google board member who guided founders Page and Brin through the companies early days. He basically created their hiring philosophy, in which a candidate is grilled for four hours to the point of exhaustion, a process which you might remember Russell Beattie dropped out of yesterday. The article explains his philosophy:
It’s all in the grooming. Shriram set out to made sure Page & Brin hired only the very best, or “A” people. He cited the well-known Silicon Valley tenet: Hire only A people, and they’ll hire other A people. If you hire the B person, they’ll hire C or D people.
Yahoo Redesigns Front Page
Yahoo officially activated its new front page today, and it’s quite the improvement. It’s still Yahoo, so it’s still cluttered, but at least it now has structure. Yahoo says it redesigned it based on feedback from users. Many of the long lists are now alphabetical, so no more searching through a random list, some stuff is cutomizable, and the directory has been shoved all the way to the bottom. You can read all about the changes at this page.
