google

Google SketchUp makes modeling easier

Long before I got into the business of writing about tech and Mac stuff, I worked with 3D graphics on Macs for my father's visual analysis firm. We were hired to create 3D models of architectural projects and superimpose them on photographs of a proposed site to study how a project would look before it was built and how it would affect its surroundings.

Some of our clients wanted to make the project look nice for city officials so it would get approved by city planning departments, while others wanted to prove that the new project would obstruct the … Read more

Yahoo shares get a dose of Miracle-Gro

Yahoo's stock price is beating a little stronger these days. And that rise was not necessarily driven by the full onslaught of the company's big, splashy, three-year financial game plan unveiled two weeks ago, say several hedge fund managers.

Rather, the 12 percent share price increase over the past fortnight may stem from Yahoo's quiet notation in that financial game plan that the company's first-quarter performance is expected to fall in line with Wall Street's current assessment.

"Their stock price has risen, not because of their plan, but because they reaffirmed their first-quarter guidance,&… Read more

Google Docs getting offline access

Google Docs' word processor is finally getting offline access. Using the free Google Gears extension, users will soon be able to read and edit their files even when they have no Internet connection.

The Gears-enabled version of Google Docs will roll out to users over the next few weeks, starting Monday. If you don't have access to the feature, just keep trying, Google Docs product manager Ken Norton told me. You'll know you have the feature when you see a little "offline" menu item in the upper right of your document window in Google Docs.

Offline … Read more

Hi5 gives high-five to OpenSocial Foundation with developer platform launch

Social network Hi5, founded in the San Francisco Bay Area but most influential in Latin America, announced Monday that the application program interface (API) for its developer platform is now live. This means that, as with other social networks that have opened up their code, third-party developers can create applications for the site.

More than 7,700 developers and development companies have already signed on to create apps for Hi5, which has 80 million registered users. (Note that the 80 million refers to total user accounts, not necessarily active ones.)

Hi5's platform is compatible with the OpenSocial standard initiated by Google, … Read more

Google Earth to get Street View within 'weeks'

A source tells me that the Google Earth app will get the Street View feature, currently available only in the browser-based Google Maps service, within a few weeks. What's not clear is whether this refers to general release or internal testing.

Clearly, Google's goal is to offer users the capability to continuously zoom from space down to detailed views of houses and buildings.

Google launched Street View in May 2007 and continues to collect street-level imagery in new locations (including at least one nonurban location, Yosemite). Google has also been collecting middle-distance overhead imagery from airplanes, thanks in … Read more

Apple, Google vie for hearts (and wallets) of developers

For the last four months, Howard Chau has been developing a mobile application that's designed to alert people to their next calendar appointment, factoring in data like the person's physical location and traffic conditions en route to a meeting.

In the next two weeks, Chau plans to submit the GPS-based application, called Mappily, to Google in the hopes of winning its Android Developer Challenge, a developer contest with $10 million in total prize money. Because Chau only stands to win tens of thousands of dollars in the first round of the challenge, the money would just be gravy.… Read more

Microhoo: When will the mating dance end?

The Microsoft-Yahoo mating dance or proposed shotgun wedding continues to drag out. Microsoft persists in saying nice things about Yahoo and outlining the reasons why the acquisition of $45 billion to $50 billion still makes sense (going after the high-profit-margin money with search and ads).

Yahoo recently outlined the reasons why Microsoft should pay more than $31 per share, citing a projected doubling of operating cash flow from $1.9 billion to $3.7 by 2010.

At the same time, as Mike Arrington reports, Yahoo is making efforts to ensure that the most valuable talent at the company doesn't … Read more

Google goes dark for Earth Hour

Google made an environmental gesture today by turning the lights out on the U.S. version of its search page. The black background doesn't save energy, but it's Google's way of observing Earth Hour. The global event, created by the World Wildlife Fund, encourages people around the world to turn off their lights at 8:00 PM today, March 29, for an hour.

Analyze, create robots.txt files in Google

Google's Webmaster Central has become a very important resource for anyone who has a Web site, works on a Web site, or, like SEO practitioners, helps others with their Web sites.

Google continues to roll out more features and better functionality to existing features, and now they just did a little bit of both with the addition of their Generate robots.txt function.

Google had previously added a robots.txt analyzer, which at this point is still the more useful of the two tools. For those who aren't aware, the robots exclusion protocol helps with instructing search engines … Read more