News Summary

I was in Thailand during the past 8 days and didn't have time to blog about Google. Let's catch up by summarizing the hundred something RSS feeds I missed:

Google China released two beta products: Rebang and Daohang
Rebang and Daohang means Hot List and Web Navigation in Chinese respectively. Rebang is the Chinese version of Google Zeitgeist but creates more dynamic content and puts search trends into various groups. Daohang is a directory where users can find top sites in one single page.

Google Talk Gadget released
Google Talk Gadget allows users to chat within their personalized homepage and even your own homepage. There are two new features that the talk client does not support: Video and photo preview within chat window. (i.e. the gadget automatically identifies links to YouTube videos and images in Picasa Web Album and displays a snapshot in the chat window)

Google acquired both Adscape and Gapminder
Adscape is an in-game advertising company based in San Francisco California that "offers dynamic delivery of advertising with plot and storyline integration". Gapminder is a non-profit organization from Sweeden aiming to "make the data more accessible and easier to use for instant visual analysis". They developed a tool called Trendalyzer "that turns boring ... statistics into attractive moving graphics".

St. Patrick's Day Doodle









According to Wikipedia St. Patrick's Day is “the Christian feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. … A major parade takes place in Dublin and in most other Irish towns and villages”.

Aggregated Source: Official Google Blog Googlified Google Operating System