Google plans changes for Reader

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21 October 2011 Last updated at 11:41 GMT Google has slowly been overhauling the look and feel of many of its core services Google is planning to strip some features from its Reader to boost the Google+ social network.

In a blogpost, the company revealed that the sharing features on its RSS news reader would soon be removed.

Instead, anyone wanting to share or highlight posts on blogs and websites will have to do so via integrated Google+ tools.

Reader, like many other Google services, will also get a new look in the next few days.

The blogpost by Google software engineer Alan Green said that the changes would be coming to Reader "in the next week".

The first change will be the re-design to change how it looks and then it and Google+ will be brought "closer together".

What this will mean, said Mr Green, is that Reader's own-brand social features, which allow users to share items they find interesting, will disappear. Instead, anyone wanting to friend, follow or share items will have to do so via the corresponding Google+ tools.

Mr Green acknowledged that these changes might mean some people decide Reader "is no longer for you". To help those that want to switch Google said it would beef up the export tools so it gets easier to take their feeds with them.

"Your data belongs to you, after all, and we want to make sure you can take it with you," said Mr Green.

To help people switch ExtremeTech published a short list of six potential replacements for Reader that included NetVibes, Feedly and FeedDemon.

The changes to Reader are one of many tweaks Google has made to its services. These started with slight tweaks to the logos on the main search page and will continue with a revamp of GMail that will overhaul its look and feel.

The news of the GMail changes were leaked via a video accidentally put on YouTube. This was removed, but Google watchers managed to get copies and post it again.

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Google third-quarter profits jump

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13 October 2011 Last updated at 21:59 GMT Google boss Larry Page said the company had "a great quarter" Internet giant Google has reported a large rise in profits in the three months to September.

The search engine said net income in the third quarter surged 26% to $2.73bn (£1.74bn), up from $2.17bn in the same period last year.

Earlier this year, Google launched Google+, a social network to take on Facebook.

"People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate," said Google head Larry Page.

The profits were well ahead of market expectations, and shares in the company rose 6% in trading after the market closed.

"The real interesting thing here is the expenses weren't as high as the Street was anticipating," said UBS analyst Brian Pitz. "This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line."

Revenue rose 33% to $9.72bn - just shy of having a quarterly turnover of $10bn.

Mr Page, a co-founder of the company, replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April.

"We had a great quarter," he said. "Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million-user mark."

Facebook, around since 2004, has around 800 million users.

As well as generating money through advertising based on search, Google also makes the popular Android mobile phone operating system.

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Google Giving 'Buzz' the Axe

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Everyone's favorite Twitter clone that never really went anywhere is being put to sleep sometime in the next few weeks. Google Buzz was launched in February of 2010, immediately ran into trouble for opting every Gmail user into the service, and ended up paying out an $8.5 million settlement later that year. It's seen a lot of hoopla for a service nobody uses, in other words.

And then there's Google+, which now pretty well makes Buzz completely irrelevant. Says Google:

"In a few weeks we'll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout...

...Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today's announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome."

While we likely won't see any measurable outrage over Buzz's closure, Google's also closing down Code Search, Jaiku, iGoogle's social features, Google Labs, and the University Research Program for Google Search if you want to try to find something in the list to get whipped up about. Other than that, the old "fail fast" adage appears to be alive and well.

MORE: A Brief History of Google's Social Networking Flops

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IRS Investigating Google over Foreign Subsidiaries

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Tobias Schwarz / Reuters

If you think being audited by the IRS is scary, imagine how Google is feeling. According to Bloomberg, the company is undergoing a private audit over its offshore subsidiaries and their use in avoiding federal income taxes.

The agency has requested information from the company about offshore deals following three large acquisitions, including its 2006 purchase of YouTube, according to an anonymous source, who also describes the IRS as acting with "more than typical scrutiny" in the current investigation.

(MORE: Eric Schmidt to Senators: Google Is Nothing like Microsoft)

The three deals in question are the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube in 2006, the $625 million purchase of Postini in 2007, and $3.2 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc. in 2008. Of concern is the possibility that Google's foreign subsidiaries underpaid for foreign rights to software following these deals, which has the net effect of helping Google avoid U.S. income tax.

America isn't the only country interested in Google's ability to cut around $1 billion from its U.S. tax bill annually by using holdings in Bermuda, Ireland and the Netherlands; French tax bodies have been working on the same matter since December of last year, although no findings have been released yet.

MORE: The High-Tech Behind Occupy Wall Street's Low-Tech Message

Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Page: Google + in the impact of large and all other Google products

Google co-founder and CEO Larry page made it clear on Thursday has high expectations for the company for its new social-networking site Google +.

During a conference call the company's third quarter financial results page outlined significant implications he sees Google + on the company.

"Our ultimate goal is to transform the whole Google experience-so almost by chance nice easy, because we understand it immediately deliver what you want and can", he said.

"This means baking identity and Exchange in all of our products, so that we build a real relationship with our users." Exchange on the Web be like the release in real life over all your stuff. You better, more relevant search results and view must, "he added."

Although it clearly since its launch in June, that Google + is an important initiative on Google, latest comments leave no doubt page, which is a lot riding on the success of social-networking site.

"Think about it this way: last quarter, we delivered"Plus"and now we ship the part of Google," he said.

Of course, now comes the hard part: development Google + in a way that a critical mass of users to achieve and makes it a real contender on Facebook.

Although page much excitement on Thursday about the fact expressed, that Google + has topped now 40 million members, success is sure.

Finally, Facebook has more than 800 million members, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down down-- on the contrary. And since the launch of Google, Facebook has new and updated features have been aggressive.

Some industry observers have pointed out that Google + functions requires that a clear differentiation from Facebook, be it as unique functionality, which is enough to hundreds of millions of people to make the command prompt, forcing their preferred social network.

A Google engineer named Steve Yegge this week incorrectly publicly published a post in which some sharp criticism of Google +, called it matched much of "A knee-jerk reaction, a study in short term thinking", because it lacks a strong developer platform.

Data analytics company Chitika recently released results of a study which showed that Google + traffic has deflated, came after after a bit of social networking service from a limited beta on Sept. 20, and back please use had level always publicly available.

In short, the consensus appears that Google + risk runs the millions of people, at the end as a good social-networking site, but that come with Facebook's position in the market not close.

In this scenario would Google + lag behind the big vision, the page for it has painted on Thursday. Google would leave a lot of online data, which is for the Google search engine, from the growing threat of Facebook as advertising competitor, as a close partner of Microsoft, as well as the gatekeeper.

In the coming year, it will be interesting to see, Google, Google + to make the page the vast service sieht-- and that the company needs.

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Google translate: real time speech translated into 14 languages

Phrasebook and botched debate can soon a thing of the Vergangenheit--well, for Smartphone users, at any rate be. Google translate for Android facilitates traveler of directions in foreign countries to questions, without feeling embarrassed or create a diplomatic incident.

Android allows translation of entertainment mode, the Google in January presented, to translate speech between languages in real time.

The first release supports only two languages, English and Spanish. But the new and improved Edition is Japanese, Korean, and Polish a multi-lingual powerhouse, with 12 additional languages including French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Chinese (Mandarin).

The video below shows how to use entertainment mode:

Google Gets an "experimental feature", which indicates that the speech to speech translation are far away, perfectly conversation mode. Not surprisingly it, actually, how voice recognition technology is notoriously problematic.

Auch Apple, the rare functions, contained before they are finely polished, which has called Siri-voice-control new tool in the iPhone 4S "Beta" software, a term, a little to dampen the user told their expectations.

Here, MacWorld is a meaningful conversation with Siri editorial director Jason Snell:

Contact Jeff Bertolucci on Twitter (@ Jbertolucci), Today@PCWorld or jbertolucci.blogspot.com.

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Dead Sea Scrolls Come Alive On Google

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Google and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem have partnered to launch a new website that allows people the ability to view the Dead Sea Scrolls in detail. Host Audie Cornish talks with Jon Stokes, who writes about technology for Wired.com.

Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

AUDIE CORNISH, host: For 2,000 years, the Dead Sea scrolls were seen by no one. Today, they can be viewed by anyone with access to the Internet. Google and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem teamed up to put high-quality images of the scrolls online. Images of the relics - the oldest known copies of biblical text - went live on the Web last week. Jon Stokes writes about technology for Wired.com. He is also a scholar of biblical history. And he joins us from KALW in San Francisco. Jon Stokes, welcome to the program.

JON STOKES: Thank you. It's good to be here.

CORNISH: Now, the scrolls may be new to the Web, but they were discovered in 1947, and historical scholars have had access to copies and translations for decades. I mean, what's the big deal about having them online now?

STOKES: So, there's a long and kind of sordid and really interesting publication history behind the scrolls. Because if you're a scholar, you dig something up out of the ground that's brand new or you're assigned to work on something that hasn't been discovered, you might take, you know, a decade to publish this, to really get it in shape to publish it because this is your career. I mean, this is going to be your piece of immortality. You're going to be the guy that did the first critical edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know, Isaiah Scroll or what have you. And so there was fierce scholarly competition and the work just dragged on and on and on and scholars got really frustrated at the delays; the wider scholarly community, because they said, hey, you know, this is a once in a generation kind of find and it's been, you know, 20 years and we haven't had access to this, especially not in the way that we want. So, when I was in grad school, there would be a special day in the semester and everybody would get excited because we would get to go and have an in-person look at some of the manuscripts that were in the University of Chicago's collection, or in Harvard's collection. And, you know, the students would sit and these things would be laid out for us and we wouldn't be able to touch them and you could look at them with a magnifying glass. But that was, like, you know, once or twice in my life that happens. Most scholars are lucky if you're able to just get your hands on a really good high-quality color copy of a text that you're working on. So, now this thing has been put online and anyone, you know, my daughter, you know, God forbid, decides to follow in my footsteps and try to become a humanity scholar or a historian, she'll have grown up in a world where she can get really, really close to these manuscripts in a way that almost nobody could.

CORNISH: How close will you be able to get. I'm trying to imagine - what will the scrolls look like online? Will you be able to zoom in on the material the way you can like Google Earth or?

STOKES: Yeah, that's correct. So, these were photographed at a 1,200 megapixel resolution. You know, so if you think about an eight megapixel camera. I mean, this is, you know, 10-Xed out or better. And you can scroll up and see the fibers, you know, and the particles in the manuscript.

CORNISH: Jon, you're a biblical scholar, so I have you ask: have you gone online and looked at the Dead Sea Scrolls and are you excited about the possibilities of what it means for your own work?

STOKES: Absolutely, absolutely. These are searchable. You know, I can actually search these, you know, by English translation. You know, I can go to a specific verse or a specific phrase and I can zoom in and I can attach comments to it. But, yeah, I mean, it's definitely the kind of tool that scholars need.

CORNISH: So, it's not the same as actually getting to touch it but it's the closest any of us are going to get.

STOKES: It's almost better. I mean, I've seen these things in person. And, you know, you look at them with a magnifying glass and it's almost better to be able to do the kind of really, really high-level zoom in and that's going to be incredible.

CORNISH: Jon Stokes is a technology writer and biblical scholar. He joins us from KALW in San Francisco. Jon Stokes, thank you so much for joining us.

STOKES: Thank you.

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Microsoft, Google Tussle Over Android Phone Patents

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Jin Sung-chul/AP

The Galaxy S II is a Samsung smartphone that runs on Android. Analysts say Microsoft could be getting as much as $15 for each phone Samsung sells.

Apple's iPhone may be the most talked about smartphone on the market, but there are far more phones using Google's Android operating system — 40 percent of the U.S. market. Microsoft's Windows for Mobile comes in near the bottom, with around 5 percent.

But Microsoft says Android steps all over its patents.

"Microsoft has invested for decades billions of dollars. In fact, this year alone we were investing over $9 billion in research and development in creating innovations in the software space for these type of devices," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez says.

Microsoft has told phone-makers using the Android operating system that they need to pay up, because Android is built on software that is patented by Microsoft.

Samsung, the largest maker of Android phones, isn't saying what it's paying. But analysts say Microsoft could be getting as much as $15 for each Android phone Samsung sells.

Julie Samuels, a patent attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, is skeptical of Microsoft's motives. She says companies that aren't winning with consumers often assert their patents.

"When faxes started to go out of style, all of a sudden you saw this crazy uptick in litigation among fax companies," Samuels says. "It's because when a party isn't making much money selling their product, they realize they can maybe monetize their patents instead."

Not all companies have agreed to pay Microsoft licensing fees on Android. Motorola has gone to court, though that company's mobile unit was recently acquired by Google. Barnes & Noble is in court because it's using the Android system for its Nook e-reader. Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, says Microsoft hasn't proven that Android steps on any of its patents. And he questions the quality of Microsoft's patents.

"Many software patents are simply overbroad and vague," Walker says. "In fact, when they've been re-examined by the patent office, they're either invalidated or cut back, roughly 80 percent of the time."

Microsoft and Samsung won't say which Android patents are part of their licensing deal. But it is possible to see some of the patents because they're being used to sue Motorola and Barnes & Noble.

Patent No. 5889522 — a patent for bringing up different windows in a browser — was filed in 1994 before the days of smartphones and e-readers. David Martin, an expert who evaluates the value of patents, says not only is it a broad patent — it wasn't even a novel idea. Martin says Microsoft had a lot of company.

"They were not alone in the universe, but they were very clearly in heavy company in what they were doing," Martin says.

He says that in the 1990s, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was bombarded with requests for software patents, and there was a lot of confusion. Often, patents were granted to companies for the same thing.

Now it's easier to settle than it is to sort it all out.

"It becomes expedient for parties to settle, because it allows the secrecy ... that protects the absence of quality in both portfolios from ever having to be confronted," Martin says.

Of course, not everyone agrees that Microsoft is holding a portfolio of lousy patents, even if some of them aren't good. Florian Mueller, an intellectual property consultant, says that Android may be infringing on Microsoft patents.

"Maybe not all of them are valid, maybe not all of them would be found to be infringed, based on a detailed analysis," Mueller says. "But chances really are, if they asserted everything in court, if they went to court over their whole past portfolio, that probably Android would infringe hundreds of them."

We may get a chance to find out if that's true: If Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is approved, then it will be Google facing off directly against Microsoft in court over its Android operating system.

But in the meantime, Android phones may cost more because the makers have to pay Microsoft. And that may help give Microsoft's Windows operating system a better chance in the smartphone market.

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All Things Considered–

Apple introduced the new iPhone 4S today in California.

The newly updated iPhone 4S will go on sale Oct. 14. It will work on the GSM and CDMA networks.

While we wait for Apple news, we're wondering whether you care — and why.

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TECHNOLOGY, Google Launches Paid Premium Version of Analytics

Google has developed a paid version of its Analytics website usage monitoring service that offers better performance, more sophisticated features and broader technical support than the free product, the company said on Friday.
Analytics Premium is designed for sites with very heavy traffic that need "extra processing power" behind their analytics software so that they can collect more data, perform more complex analysis and generate more granular reports, Google said.
The paid version of Analytics will also feature advanced service offerings for things like custom implementations and around-the-clock technical support, the company said in a blog post. Google also offers service level agreements for Analytics Premium.
While developing Analytics Premium, Google worked with some of its biggest Analytics users, including Travelocity and Gucci. The service is available in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for an undisclosed annual fee. Companies can sign up for it directly with Google or through Analytics resellers.
Google Analytics used to be a paid service back when it was called Urchin on Demand, but after Google acquired the company in 2005, it made it a free product.
Google's decision to offer Urchin on Demand as a free product rocked the website analytics market at the time, since most vendors charged for their wares. Urchin on Demand, for example, cost US$199 per month.
Since acquiring Urchin Software, Google has continued to develop and sell an on-premise version of the software, which in its most recent version -- Urchin 7 -- costs $9995 in the U.S.
However, Google from the start has encouraged customers to use Analytics, whose software is hosted by Google in its data centers in a software-as-a-service cloud model.
It's interesting to see Google come around after six years and reintroduce a paid version of the cloud-hosted product to the market for heavy-duty users who rely on Analytics to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of ad campaigns or the popularity of website content. The decision may in part reflect the increased importance websites play in businesses, and the need for companies to closely track usage to fine-tune marketing campaigns, e-commerce initiatives and content strategies.
Google said on Friday that it will continue to develop and enhance the free version of Analytics.

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Google Chrome Could Beat Firefox by Year-End

Google's Chrome advertising push seems to be paying off, as the browser climbs closer to overtaking Mozilla's Firefox.

Since January, Chrome's browser market share has climbed roughly one percentage point per month, while Firefox's share has fallen by roughly 0.4 percent per month, according to data from StatCounter. Chrome's current share sits at 23.16 percent, compared to 27.49 percent for Firefox.
As Computerworld's Gregg Keizer points out, Chrome's rate of growth and Firefox's rate of decline put the browsers on track to switch places in market share as soon as December. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead with 41.89 percent share, but its share is steadily falling.
StatCounter's findings are echoed by other firms that measure browser share. NetApplications also keeps track of the browser market, and gives Firefox a stronger lead over Chrome (22.57 percent for the former, 15.51 percent for the latter.) But even by NetApplications' metrics, Chrome could overtake Firefox by mid-2012.
Google has aggressively marketed Chrome with sentimental TV advertisements, including one that shows a father using YouTube, Gmail, and other Google services to create a digital time capsule for his young daughter. The ads started airing in May, and the two following months saw Chrome's sharpest market share increases of the year.

Firefox, meanwhile, has drawn criticism for a new rapid release schedule. The six-week cycle brings new features to the browser on a regular basis, but it also has caused problems with squashing bugs and breaks some add-ons.
Chrome is also stealing market share from Internet Explorer. This could be in large part due to Microsoft's push to kill Internet Explorer 6. Both Microsoft and third-parties are encouraging companies to drop the aging browser, and while IE as a whole is in decline, Internet Explorer 9 is quickly gaining market share, especially on Windows 7 PCs.
None of these metrics take smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices into account, but the mobile market is dominated by whatever browser is preloaded on the device. Apple's Safari 5.0 for iOS has the big lead with 46.15 percent share, followed by 15.15 percent for Android Browser 4.0, according to NetApplications. Firefox accounts for just 0.03 percent of the mobile market.

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TECHNOLOGY, Oracle, Google Set Third Settlement Conference

Oracle and Google will engage in another attempt to settle their lawsuit over alleged Java patent and copyright violations in the Android mobile OS.
The parties are set to appear October 1 for the settlement conference, according to a ruling filed late Friday by Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
It was not immediately clear whether Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page will appear at the conference, as they did for previous sessions, including one held last week.
Android head Andy Rubin and Oracle co-president Safra Catz have also both appeared at past settlement talks.
Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment. An Oracle spokeswoman declined comment.
Oracle sued Google in August 2010 over Android's alleged infringement on Java, which Oracle gained through the purchase of Sun Microsystems.
A trial date has been set for October 31.

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TECHNOLOGY, How to Prepare Your Business for Google+

Google+ just opened its doors to the world by enabling open signups and moving to the beta, testing phase. The nascent social network is still thin on features and ways for businesses to properly use it, but its minimalist approach has gained Google+ millions of users in a very short period.
If you've tried it out for yourself, you'll know that making your way around Google+ is a simplistic, uncluttered experience compared to that of Facebook.
Back in July, Google promised that business profiles and features would be coming later, and as we get a little closer to when they are supposed to be announced later in 2011, it's time to position your business to take advantage in advance.
What's Coming for Business in Google+?
Google is preparing Google+ for businesses, as Christian Oestlien, Product Manager for Google+, explains in the video below. Rich analytics and the ability to connect to AdWords will be among those features.
Advertising will likely happen when Google rolls out business features, as Oestlien has stated that AdWords will play a part in the new business features. The ability to extend an existing advertising campaign into Google+ where you can target your client's interests will be invaluable. This will also extend Google's ability to advertise to local users for businesses that only offer services within a specific geographic area, exactly as you can on Facebook.
Stake Your Claim on Google+
Google has asked businesses to hold off on claiming user profiles for their businesses on Google+ until it rolls out certain features. This means that companies will likely have their own pages as they currently do on Facebook. As soon as Google+ business features are announced, you'll want to claim your company's home on Google+ by tasking someone in your company to watch for the announcement and setting up your Google+ business profile as soon as it comes.
You'll also want to stick with your company's real name. While it will be tempting to grab other names, such as keywords related to your business or misspelled versions of your company name, I suspect this practice will very likely be against Google policy. In addition to being your home on Google+, your business profile will be a valuable back-link for search engine optimization purposes.
If you've logged on and noticed that someone has taken your company name, don't panic. What they have created is not a business profile, and those are likely to be a little harder to establish than a user profile. This person is likely not from Coca-Cola, for example. Google has been actively cracking down on people who aren't using accounts for personal use only, and you can expect to be shut down if you try.
Prepare a list of influential people in your industry that you can apply later to your Google+ business profile.
What Edge Will Google+ Have Over Facebook?
Google+ will have a hard slog against Facebook. It will directly compete with the social network that has consistently gotten it right, especially when it comes to business use. Facebook's recently launched business portal is a great all-in-one tool for businesses to manage their presence on Facebook.
Google+ also lacks Facebook's user base of 800 million, although the Google+ user base has blown through 20 million so far and is steadily increasing.
Google's biggest ally against Facebook is Facebook itself. Facebook users have been getting ornery about its massive makeover rolled out this week, to the point where many may look at Google+ as a viable, pared-down alternative. The new Facebook Timeline should be a big concern for all of those new hires in the marketplace who may not want their frat-party status updates resurrected for co-workers on Facebook to see.
There is also the issue of demographics. Google+ is young-adult rich. This is the golden demographic that most marketers want to reach, and being able to reach it through a campaign that can be tracked through Google Analytics is a very attractive value proposition. In addition, there are other tie-in services Google could build into its features for business, which we have covered here.
How Can I Prepare My Ad Campaigns?
You can start researching targeted ad campaigns and the keywords you'll need to use so that when Google+ for business is launched, all you'll need to do is push a button. The first businesses to get on the more competitive keywords on Google+ will likely reap some rich rewards.
Prepare Content for Your Profile
A Google+ business profile is likely to follow the model of the current Google+ user profile. Have a concise, one paragraph description of your company ready, as well as any company logos and product photos that you would want to add. Make sure that your "About" paragraph contains relevant keywords for your business, just like your website copy does.
If we follow the model of the current user profile, videos will be an option as well. If you don't already have a product or company video, consider shooting one, since this can set you apart from your competitors in Google+.
Get Comfortable With Hangouts and Huddles
Google+ Hangouts and Huddles appear extremely useful for videoconferencing and cloud collaboration, and as a webcast platform. While they aren't a replacement for services like GoToMeeting yet, they do a great basic job and may be expanded on in the future.
While we can't say exactly when the new business features will be announced, they're promised for later in 2011, which could mean anytime between now and the end of the year. Prepare your company to hop on as soon as you can.
Angela West dreams of opening a Fallout-themed pub featuring wait staff with Pip-Boys. She's written for big insurance companies, small wildlife control businesses, gourmet food chains, and more.

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Netflix, Google Wallet, Falling Satellites, and More

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By IDG News Service, PCWorld   Sep 23, 2011 4:30 PM

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How to Prepare Your Business for Google+

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Google+ just opened its doors to the world by enabling open signups and moving to the beta, testing phase. The nascent social network is still thin on features and ways for businesses to properly use it, but its minimalist approach has gained Google+ millions of users in a very short period.

If you've tried it out for yourself, you'll know that making your way around Google+ is a simplistic, uncluttered experience compared to that of Facebook.

Back in July, Google promised that business profiles and features would be coming later, and as we get a little closer to when they are supposed to be announced later in 2011, it's time to position your business to take advantage in advance.

What's Coming for Business in Google+?

Google is preparing Google+ for businesses, as Christian Oestlien, Product Manager for Google+, explains in the video below. Rich analytics and the ability to connect to AdWords will be among those features.

Advertising will likely happen when Google rolls out business features, as Oestlien has stated that AdWords will play a part in the new business features. The ability to extend an existing advertising campaign into Google+ where you can target your client's interests will be invaluable. This will also extend Google's ability to advertise to local users for businesses that only offer services within a specific geographic area, exactly as you can on Facebook.

Stake Your Claim on Google+

Google has asked businesses to hold off on claiming user profiles for their businesses on Google+ until it rolls out certain features. This means that companies will likely have their own pages as they currently do on Facebook. As soon as Google+ business features are announced, you'll want to claim your company's home on Google+ by tasking someone in your company to watch for the announcement and setting up your Google+ business profile as soon as it comes.

You'll also want to stick with your company's real name. While it will be tempting to grab other names, such as keywords related to your business or misspelled versions of your company name, I suspect this practice will very likely be against Google policy. In addition to being your home on Google+, your business profile will be a valuable back-link for search engine optimization purposes.

If you've logged on and noticed that someone has taken your company name, don't panic. What they have created is not a business profile, and those are likely to be a little harder to establish than a user profile. This person is likely not from Coca-Cola, for example. Google has been actively cracking down on people who aren't using accounts for personal use only, and you can expect to be shut down if you try.

Prepare a list of influential people in your industry that you can apply later to your Google+ business profile.

What Edge Will Google+ Have Over Facebook?

Google+ will have a hard slog against Facebook. It will directly compete with the social network that has consistently gotten it right, especially when it comes to business use. Facebook's recently launched business portal is a great all-in-one tool for businesses to manage their presence on Facebook.

Google+ also lacks Facebook's user base of 800 million, although the Google+ user base has blown through 20 million so far and is steadily increasing.

Google's biggest ally against Facebook is Facebook itself. Facebook users have been getting ornery about its massive makeover rolled out this week, to the point where many may look at Google+ as a viable, pared-down alternative. The new Facebook Timeline should be a big concern for all of those new hires in the marketplace who may not want their frat-party status updates resurrected for co-workers on Facebook to see.

There is also the issue of demographics. Google+ is young-adult rich. This is the golden demographic that most marketers want to reach, and being able to reach it through a campaign that can be tracked through Google Analytics is a very attractive value proposition. In addition, there are other tie-in services Google could build into its features for business, which we have covered here.

How Can I Prepare My Ad Campaigns?

You can start researching targeted ad campaigns and the keywords you'll need to use so that when Google+ for business is launched, all you'll need to do is push a button. The first businesses to get on the more competitive keywords on Google+ will likely reap some rich rewards.

Prepare Content for Your Profile

A Google+ business profile is likely to follow the model of the current Google+ user profile. Have a concise, one paragraph description of your company ready, as well as any company logos and product photos that you would want to add. Make sure that your "About" paragraph contains relevant keywords for your business, just like your website copy does.

If we follow the model of the current user profile, videos will be an option as well. If you don't already have a product or company video, consider shooting one, since this can set you apart from your competitors in Google+.

Get Comfortable With Hangouts and Huddles

Google+ Hangouts and Huddles appear extremely useful for videoconferencing and cloud collaboration, and as a webcast platform. While they aren't a replacement for services like GoToMeeting yet, they do a great basic job and may be expanded on in the future.

While we can't say exactly when the new business features will be announced, they're promised for later in 2011, which could mean anytime between now and the end of the year. Prepare your company to hop on as soon as you can.

Angela West dreams of opening a Fallout-themed pub featuring wait staff with Pip-Boys. She's written for big insurance companies, small wildlife control businesses, gourmet food chains, and more. Follow her on Twitter at @angelawest.

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Netflix, Google Wallet, Falling Satellites, and More

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By IDG News Service, PCWorld   Sep 23, 2011 4:30 PM

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Google Doodle Honors Muppets Creator Jim Henson

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Google is paying homage to Muppets creator Jim Henson with an interactive doodle that celebrates what would have been the famous puppeteer’s 75th birthday.

Saturday’s doodle on the Internet search leader’s homepage features six original characters that together resemble the Google logo. You can click on a hand button under each character and see them move and do tricks.

The doodle was created in partnership with The Jim Henson Company.

According to The Creature Shop, the digital puppetry system behind the animation is a combination of proprietary hardware and software that provides real-time performance of 3-D generated characters that are “directable” like actors. The patented system is called the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio and has been contracted for live event presentations, commercials, feature film visual effects, game development and for the TV show “Sid the Science Kid.”henson.com

Henson was the creative genius behind Sesame Street characters such as Oscar the Grouch, the Cookie Monster and Big Bird, all of whom are still entertaining and teaching children today. He also created The Muppet Show in 1976 and brought to life personalities such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and The Great Gonzo who were joined every week by famous guest stars such as Gene Kelly and Steve Martin. Henson also was responsible for a half dozen Muppet Show movies as well as the fantasy films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. He also had a hand in crafting Yoda for Star Wars’ “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Henson died in 1990 in New York City after contracting a bacterial infection.

Brian Henson, Jim’s son and now chairman of The Jim Henson Company, wrote a guest post on Google’s blog in which he said, “Jim often had a little lesson about the important things in life: How to be a good person. How to believe in yourself and follow your dreams … Every day for him was joyously filled with the surprises of other people’s ideas. I often think that if we all lived like that, not only would life be more interesting, we’d all be a lot happier.”

Visit www.henson.com to hear people talk about what it was like to work with Henson and learn more about the Google doodle, which people are buzzing about on Twitter and other social networking sites.

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Google will: change your password.

A Google home page is displayed on a phone Motorola Droid on Washington, August 15, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri 09/09/2011 2:47 pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)-Google Inc is advising its customers e-mail service Gmail in Iran to change their passwords after a ciberataque that affected a country's main strip.

Google itself has not been compromised, but the attackers may have been able to invade the connection between Gmail and the computer of a person, essentially. As such, the attack was the latest illustration of the difficulty and complexity of Web security.

"We learned last week that the compromise of a Dutch company involved with to verify the authenticity of the Web site could have placed the Internet communications of many Iranians at risk, including your Gmail," Google said in a post on his official blog on Thursday.

"While Google's internal systems have not been committed, that are directly contacting possibly affected users and providing similar information below because our main priority is to protect the privacy and security of our users," Google said.

A certificate ensures that a Web surfer is safely with a site and is not being monitored by another person.

In mid-July, DigiNotar systems, Dutch company information technology were cut and security certificates were stolen by a number of domains, DigiNotar and its owner, U.S. listed VASCO Data Security International, said on August 30.

The stolen certificates have been revoked immediately upon detection of a robbery, but, for the site, just "recently" Google.com.br was revoked after a warning from the Dutch Government, said DigiNotar and VASCO.

Google, which warned users the threat last week, recommended on Thursday that all users in Iran follow a series of steps to protect yourself, including changing your Gmail password and verifying your account recovery options.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Peter Henderson and Richard Chang)

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Google buys Zagat feuding with OpenTable, Yelp

1 of 2. A guide book Zagat restaurant is depicted in Los Angeles, September 8, 2011. Google Inc. has bought popular Zagat rating authority dinner, adding a valuable brand its content offering and strengthen your shipment to the growing market of local trade.

Credit: Reuters/Fred ProuserBy Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri 09/09/2011 3:21 am EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)-Google Inc has purchased the popular Zagat rating authority dinner, adding a valuable brand its content offering and strengthen your shipment to the growing market of local trade.

The local commerce offers services such as finding a discount of a nearby store, or a review of a neighborhood restaurant, and search engine plans of paragraph 1 of the world to compete in this market against Yelp and OpenTable.

The deal, for which Google did not provide financial information, gives you valuable content about restaurants, hotels and nightclubs which can be combined with its popular online maps and mobile search services.

Google needs to provide more than just directions to consumers who seek information about restaurants and other local businesses, said Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Local services, maps and location, in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

"It's also about getting them a sense of place. A sense of what to expect, "said Mayer. "Zagat reviews, in a few short lines and some sheet music, gives you a great sense of a place very quickly when you're on the go."

The move is part of Google's effort to adapt its online services to a world in which consumers increasingly access the Web on mobile phones like the iPhone from Apple Inc on rely on social networking services like Facebook to get information from friends.

Last month, Google announced plans to acquire the mobile phone manufacturer Motorola mobility for $ 12.5 billion. The deal, if approved by regulators, will allow Google to produce its own line of smartphones based on its Android software.

"A reasonable person say that Google never can beat apple in product design by itself. At least not for a sustainable period. But Google could better integrate content and who became one more reason to buy these devices, "said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan.

The 32-year-old Zagat, which controls consumers and compiles reviews on restaurants around the world, will become a cornerstone of the offer "local" of Google, Google said.

"This highlights local and Google's mobile initiatives," said Brian Pitz, an analyst at UBS, which provides for the acquisition to give a boost to Google Maps, as customers look for restaurants. Last year, Google moved Mayer, an executive search, to direct its local initiatives.

Google needs to reviews and other content for their websites "Google places", in part to fend off criticism. He was accused of using review sites like Yelp reviews, essentially diverts your readers and above all your clicks. Google has dampened borrowers of comments recently, Pitz said.

The Federal Trade Commission has looked at the issue as part of a broader antitrust investigation, said a source familiar with the probe.

The move raises the question of whether the search giant will start their own restaurant booking service, building links with restaurants that advertise on it.

The actions of the OpenTable restaurant reservations service, which also publishes reviews and ratings, closed in more than 8% r $57,50 on Thursday after hitting a low of 54.50 earlier in the day.

OpenTable is the bicho already financial results that have disappointed investors this year and his departure in May of CEO Jeffrey Jordan, who joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Jordan continues to be President.

Pitz said expanding reserves would require extra steps as developing software reservation and obtaining restaurants to install it, as well as build different relationships with restaurants.

"It is apples and oranges," he said.

While much of the content of the Zagat is free and available to anyone, some content remains behind a paywall and it was not clear whether Google would remove it.

Founded by Tim and Nina Zagat, the service of the same name provides the Pocket Guides Burgundy family to restaurants in over 100 cities. Can be one of the earliest forms of user generated content, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer said in a blog post on Thursday.

Zagat gave Google a classification ironic in its home page on Thursday, awarding the Internet company a maximum 30 points classification for your categories "local, social, mobile and usefulness". Analysts argue that the local social and mobile markets, as some of the areas fastest growing technology sector.

The founders, "we are thrilled to see our baby placed in such good hands and to start today as an official ' Googlers '", said in a joint statement.

Zagat enlisted Goldman Sachs to explore a sale as early as 2008, although there are no buyers emerged in the middle of a recession. The company can fetch over $ 200 million, it was reported at the time.

At the end of 2009, Google is in talks to buy Yelp for less than $ 500 million, according to press reports at the time, but the deal was dissolved.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan and Sarah McBride; editing by Maureen Bavdek and Andre Grenon)

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