Could Google Voice be a game changer?

I got mine today. :-)

Google Voice is the company's latest attempt to shake up the wireless telecom industry and is a follow-up of sorts to its open-source Android mobile platform. Just as Android was developed in part to spur innovation within the mobile development community and also to give users the ability to switch to new carriers without swapping their mobile devices, Google Voice was created in part to make it easier for users to change mobile carriers without sacrificing their phone numbers. In this FAQ, we'll discuss what Google Voice does, how it's different from other Web-based voice providers and how it could challenge the telecom industry to add more value to its services. (See also: Google grabs 1 million phone numbers for Google Voice)

Read the rest from PC World.

NSIG

NISG: Not Something I'd Google

For example:
- Britney Spears New Single: NSIG
- Pequena Sarah Palin: NSIG
- 2G1C/ Goatse/ Lemon Party: NSIG

Any other examples?

New Google Chrome Browser Available

Check it out here.

FULLSCREEN Android demo

Google’s latest Android prototype is miles improved over the versions we last saw. Back at CES the GUI was clunky and the whole thing looked relatively primative; Google themselves asked us to keep an open mind and instead concentrate on the OS’ potential. Now, they’ve brought out a device that you could, frankly, mistake for production hardware.

More.

Google Sky

Click here.

Now, That's an Office: Google Zurich

More Here.

Lost Islands of the Atlantic

Does anyone have any idea what these Islands are? Google maps doesn't label them! I can't find a resource that will tell me what's on a certain Latitude and Longitude. I don't have any Atlas here...

Island one.

Island two.

Thanks to BG

UPDATE: My friends Tsiemi and Bjarne got it for me. It's the Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha. Nothing like having sailor friends.

Man Beats Google - Brad williams

Very interesting, and what's even more amazing is the guy seems pretty normal!

Imagine being able to recall just about anything, your mind functioning as a nearly endless encyclopedic scrapbook of names, pictures, dates and events.

Wisconsin resident Brad Williams' total recall makes him a personified version of Google. His extensive memory allows him to recall almost any news event and anything he has experienced, including specific dates and even the weather.
Related Stories

Williams' type of detailed, exhaustive memory is called hyperthymesia and few known cases exist. Brad's brain scans are now being studied by neuroscientists at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the Univeristy of California, Irvine.

Initially, the drive-time radio broadcaster didn't think his ability to recall so much was anything special. Gradually over the years other people noticed how much he was able to remember in detail about the same events, Williams said.
...
In the film, which hasn't been completed yet, Williams takes on a person who is Googling answers to 20 questions.

He answered 18 of them correctly and was 11 minutes faster than the searcher.

More, with video interview from ABC News.

Gmail Collaborative Video

We asked you to help us imagine how an email message travels around the world. All it took was a video camera, the Gmail M-velope..., and some creativity — and, wow, did you get creative!

Cute. More.

Google Street Sightings

Patrick Norton of TWIT.

More sightings.

Google Launches Street View

Google TiSP (BETA) -- Free Wireless Broadband

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

"We've got that whole organizing-the-world's-information thing more or less under control," said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called "dark porcelain" research and development. "What's interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you - not to mention from you."

For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities. "There's actually a thriving little underground community that's been studying this exact solution for a long time," says Page. "And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and - splat - right onto your PC."

More.

Using Google Maps to Find Latitude and Longitude

How to get Latitude and Longitude from Google Maps

1) Go to http://maps.google.com/

2) Enter your address, or zip code, or airport code, or whatever you
wish to geocode.

3) click on a point a small distance from the marker (this is not always
necesary, but it never hurts).

4) click on the link that says ‘link to this page’ It is on the right
side, just above the upper right corner of the map.

5) The address bar (URL) will change. Copy the full link. For example:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=241+Florence+Ave,+Sebastopol,+CA\

&ll=38.407263,-122.828865&sp

6) The latitude and longitude are contained in those URL parameters. Look for this:
&ll=38.407263,-122.828865

7) The latitude is: 38.407263 and longitude: -122.828865

From Geocoder.us.

Google Maps + Wiki Mashup

Wikimapia is a Web 2.0 Google Maps + Wiki mash up. Basically a Geo-based wiki. Very cool, check it out.

Thanks to M. Batalha.

The Original '96 Google Storage

The development of the Google algorithms was carried on on a variety of Computers, mainly provided by the NSF-DARPA-NASA-funded Digital Library project at Stanford. Click to see the equipment in its laboratory setting on the basement floor of Gates Information Sciences. Crawling the web to obtain its link structure required an enormous amount of storage in comparison with typical student projects at that time. We show here the original storage assembly, containing 10 4 Gigabyte disk drives, giving 40 Gbytes total.

More.

Google Apps for Mobile Phones

Google has some really cool mobile apps. I've been using Gmail and Google Maps and they're really good. Go to gmail.com/app and www.google.com/gmm through your mobile browser to download the apps to your phone.

SearchMash Ungooglified

Those curious about what enhancements Google may implement in its search engine should check out a new site called SearchMash.

Operated by Google, SearchMash is a testing ground for user interface changes that may or may not graduate to the Google.com search engine, a company spokeswoman said via e-mail.
(...)
The experimental search engine looks very different from Google's Web sites and lacks Google branding. In this way, Google believes the site will yield more objective feedback from users, the spokeswoman said.

More from InfoWorld.

Try SearchMash here.

Google Scares

Google is offering free, downloadable, scary books for Halloween. Lookie here.