Japan chases title of world’s fastest computer with new system

Taking a cue from China, Japan is developing a new supercomputer that could be among the world’s fastest systems when released in 2020.

The computer — being developed as part of a national project called Flagship2020 — is being developed with the aim to deliver “100 times more application performance” than the current K, which is installed in Japan and is the world’s third-fastest computer, according to the Top500 list of supercomputers, released on Monday.

The supercomputer will be deployed by 2020. It is being developed by Fujitsu and Japanese research institution RIKEN, which also developed K. The current K supercomputer has 705,204 processing cores and offers 10.5 petaflops of performance.

Details about the new supercomputer will be shared  at two different sessions on Tuesday at the Supercomputing 15 conference being held in Austin, Texas.

The systems will be based on the Linux OS and the use of a “6D mesh” will be considered, according to details shared on the Supercomputing 15 website. That indicates the use of a six dimensional design, which could facilitate connections for  more simultaneous CPUs, memory and storage compared to systems today. The system will also have many storage layers, according to information on the site.

The current K is based on Fujitsu’s SPARC64 VIIIfx processors and Tofu interconnect.

The U.S., Japan and China are in a race to build the world’s fastest supercomputer. An earlier version of the K computer briefly held the title of the world’s fastest supercomputer in 2011. China’s Tianhe-2 is the world’s fastest supercomputer today, delivering peak performance of 54.9 petaflops.

Countries are rushing to develop faster computers to boast about their progress in technology, but also to boost economic, weapons and science programs.

A number of supercomputers that are faster than existing systems are on the horizon. A U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer called Aurora, due in 2019, will deliver 180 petaflops of performance. China is also planning a supercomputer of more than 100 petaflops.

The countries are hoping to create exascale supercomputers between 2018 and 2020, in which systems can conduct million trillion calculations per second.

#internet, #science, #technology

PLEN2 is the world’s first printable, open-source robot

---

Say hello to your new robotic sidekick. 

---

R2-D2. GERTY 3000. Marvin. K-9. Jinx. These are just a few of the most well-known robotic sidekicks that super geeks like us have come to love over the years. Soon, PLEN2 may join the ranks of these memorable sci-fi characters, with the only difference being actual use in the real world. Whether you’ve ever wanted someone to go to class in your place, to break the ice with an attractive girl at the bar, or to fetch your morning cup ‘o joe, you’re in luck.

Launched on Kickstarter by Japan-based PLEN Project Committee, the 3D-printable, humanoid robotic kit consists of a control board, servo motors and other electronic accessories that allow Makers of all levels to put together themselves. What’s more, you don’t need any technical knowledge or special tools in order to bring your open-source PLEN2 to life.

3D data for the main components of the robot are provided free of charge, and with the help of a 3D printer, users can customize the data as well as make their own original parts. Upon completion, the easy-to-manuever and highly-agile humanoid stands approximately 7.87” tall, weighs just over 21 ounces and boasts 18 degrees of freedom. Designed to mirror its human counterpart, PLEN2 aspires to revolutionize the relationship between homo and robo sapiens. To help spur this adoption, the project’s creators have made its kit super simple to assemble, personalize, and of course, use.

The robot’s command center is built around an Arduino Micro (ATmega32U4), and by employing some open-source software, can be programmed to meet any Maker’s wants and needs. PLEN2 is equipped with 24 RC servo motors, 1Mb of on-board EEPROM and an RS-485 communication port in both its control and head board. The head unit also comes standard with a BLE113 Bluetooth Smart module and a six-axis motion sensor, while PWM will drive the LEDs that PLEN2 uses for eyes.

Gadget-lovers can take pleasure in knowing that each PLEN2 can be customized not only in color and design, but in the way that it is controlled as well — this includes by iOS or Android smartphone, facial expression, gestures, myoelectrics and brainwaves, among countless other input methods.

Not only for leisure activities, the humanoid can play an integral role in both educational and medical settings. A wide-range of uses cases include communicating with others in your place, carrying small items around, throwing a pickup game of humanoid soccer, as well as improving medical rehabilitation. What’s more, it can help entice children to pursue STEM disciplines and enable them to experience the joy of making things themselves.

As to whether this project takes off, or if you decide on programming a PLEN2 of your own, one thing is certain: Its theme song will get stuck in your head. Consider yourself warned…

…We told you so. Interested in learning more? Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where its team is currently seeking $40,000. If all goes to plan, you can have can have a PLEN2 alongside of you come November 2015.

#internet, #plen2-is-the-worlds-first-printable-open-source-robot, #robotics-2, #science, #technology

Increase Google Chrome Browser Speed

Google Chrome is the fastest Browser.Some times we notice that your Chrome is working Slow Don’t worry.Today we are going to know about how the increase the Speed of Google Chrome with this simple Tips –

Disable Extensions

Some times few extensions Cause to Dump your Browser Speed.Extensions are a part of chrome they are similar to plugin but they are not plugin.So here ate the tutorial to disable Extensions of chrome.

Tutorial:

1) Open Google Chrome and go the Link – Just put this link in URL Bar.

chrome://extensions/

2) Disable the Extensions by removing the select Icon.

Disable plugins

Plugins are third party they are needed to perform a specific action in the browser.How to disable a Unwanted Chrome Plugin.

Tutorial:

– Open Google Chrome and go the Link  as above.

chrome://plugins/

– Remove the unwanted plugins.

Clear your browsing data

So as soon as you browse any website chrome automatically collects its data and next time it will provide to give you more easier right.But some time this Data cause slow down of chrome.

Tutorial:

Easy way to do this is.

– Click Ctrl+H at same time now you will be taken to history window.

– Now click Clear browser Data.That’s it you data will be cleared.

This are the simple tips to speed up your Chrome.

so share out this ,ROhan is here for you

#browser, #chrome, #google-2, #internet

People hate Internet Explorer : Analysis

People hate Internet Explorer because it used to be slower and more problematic then other browsers like Netscape, Firefox, and Chrome. For years, IE has been the most problematic browser, of the bunch, in the sense that it was the worst to keep up to par with web standards. As a developer IE was the ‘nightmare browser’. Since IE was never up to par with web standards, websites would display correctly in most browsers, but display incorrectly in IE. Keep in mind that Microsoft made IE the default web browser for Windows, so you had a plethora of people who were using it, unaware that there were much better browsers available. People who were web savvy tended to think that IE users were unsophisticated, in this respect, and they were right. The only reason people used IE was because Microsoft shoved the Browser into their customer’s face, and the customer started using it blindly. If the customer was aware of the better browsers, they would have switched. No one wants to browse through the internet slower, or see web pages with missing links.

IE was a developer’s nightmare.

As a developer I can tell you that IE was nothing short of a nightmare. When a developer created a website for a customer, the site would have to be compatible in all popular browsers. Usually this wasn’t a difficult task, but because IE was bad at staying up to par on web standards, a developer would have to hack and fan-dangle the website to make it compatible IE while appearing the same in Chrom and Firefox. When a developer or a web savvy person suggests better browsers to IE users, many IE users don’t listen.

People love to use outdated version of IE.

Most people are still part of the baby-boomer generation. They don’t really care about web stuff. They like old cars, eating, black-and-white movies, and trying to stay married. Finding a faster better browser was the last things on their lists. They stick to Internet Exporer because they are afraid a new browser will be a hassle to learn or be a headache to install. They don’t even update their browser’s version because they just don’t care. The developer would have to perform magic to make websites work in IE for the sake of the careless IE users who were a significant number of leisurely internet users.

The spiteful IE user

What sends smoke out of the web savvy person’s ear is the spiteful IE user. The IE user who will insist on using IE because they don’t want to admit to making a mistake or being duped, kind of like Apple iPhone users. Using outdated IE is a security risk, and people would still insist on it. As a hard worker and civilian I can tolerate breaking my back as a web developer to better society, but I can’t tolerate breaking my back to stroke someone’s ego and damage society. Many developers started to insist on not making their web programs compatible with old version of I.E. even though many people still used it. Many customers would argue with fellow developers over this, and it caused tension in the developer community. Some developers and designers would accuse other developers of being sell-outs if they still developed for the spiteful zombie IE users.

New users and more hate

Internet Explorer’s suck started about 1990 and still sucks today. The baby boomers are dying off, and the X and Y generations are reaching their primes. They were born using the internet so much so that even the unintelligent ones recognize the inferiority of IE to other browsers. With the birth of CMS people that aren’t necessarily web developers are tinkering with websites and noticing the inconsistent compatibility with IE browsers.

Recently, after many years of major ‘suck’ and broken promises, IE has finally created a browser that’s fast and up to par with web standards. I.E. 9 may even be as good as Chrome, but I don’t trust the company at this point.

#browser, #google-2, #internet, #people-hate-internet-explorer

Google Fiber

Google Fiber is a new fiber-optic internet and television service from Google offered in select cities that provides up to 1Gbps internet speeds (both upload and download). According to Google, the Gigabit internet speeds are up to 100 times faster than the average broadband speeds in place today.

Google Fiber made its public debut in Kansas City in September 2012, and expansion plans are in place for Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, as well as additional cities in the future. The Google Fiber service is available for $120 per month for the combined internet and television services, or $70 per month for just the internet service. A free Google Fiber internet service option is also available that offers speeds of up to 5Mbps for a one-time “construction fee” of $300.

Google Fiber subscribers are provided with a Network box with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, a DVR Storage box with 2TB of data storage that can record up to eight live television shows simultaneously, TV boxes for each TV or HDTV to be used with the service, and a Google Nexus 7 tablet device that can be used as both a viewing device and a remote control for Google Fiber. In addition to the included 2TB storage box, Google Fiber customers are also provided with 1TB of cloud storage via Google Drive.

#google-2, #internet

CONFERENCE CALLS

CONFERENCE CALLS — SOME HANDHOLDING REQUIRED

Standard

Those of us in investor relations are already gearing up for Q4 earnings, and the longest document many of us will work on is the conference call script.

The earnings conference call represents a valuable opportunity to directly reach out to& analysts and shareholders. Practically everyone who cares about the company’s performance will either listen to the call or catch the replay. There’s a lot of pressure to perform, and the quality of management’s prepared comments sets the tone. So the script must make all your key points — and make them clearly.

This is easier said than done.

Conference calls in my opinion are one of the hardest venues for communication. The reason is they are stubbornly linear. Once something is said, it’s gone and you’re off to the next point. If a listener didn’t fully grasp a particular point, there’s no way to know. There’s also no way for that listener to skim back through the text.

That’s why it’s critical to repeat … repeat … repeat. Now, I don’t mean keep hiting your two or three key talking points again and again until they become a bore. Rather, I mean repeat prior points that set up or create the context for a new idea.

There are lots of ways to use this technique in practice and I urge you to give them a shot if you haven’t already. With slides you can use a pointer. With press releases, readers can scan back themselves. But on a call, you can only use verbal references like these to guide your listeners through the presentation.

#internet, #technology

Few Modern Facebook Best Practices 2015

Facebook has changed – a lot.

It’s no longer in its infancy. It has matured and is now in the teenage phase, constantly updating its look and its friend groups to maintain its popularity.

You, as a Facebook Marketer, need to be updating with it. When it dyes its hair purple or starts wearing nail polish on only one hand, you need to follow suit (because this cool kid is a powerful friend to have).

But how do you make sure you’re as tight with Facebook as possible? How do you make sure Facebook will share your content, let you talk to your own Friends?

How do you make sure you’re getting as much out of this relationship as Facebook is?

In this post I’m going to share with you 7 modern day best practices to ensure that you’re still in the “in crowd” on Facebook.

Check it out!

1. Utilize Facebook Page Insights

---

Facebook Insights is an incredible tool that will help you gain valuable information about the people who Like your page. You’re able to see the demographics of your fans by gender, location and age range.

Not only can you see the insights of your Fans but specifically you can look at those Fans who are most engaged with your page and your content. For Wishpond, for instance, you can see that the majority of our fans are in the age range 25-34. Knowing this will help you when you’re targeting (see how to do this in the next section).

You’re also able to see, from week to week, how you’re doing in comparison to the previous one.

Another really cool feature of Insights is the ability to see how you’re doing compared to you competition. This allows you to determine if you need to change your approach (if they’re doing better than you) or pop champagne if you’re kicking their ass.

2. Target the right audience on each post

---

With the information gathered on Facebook Insights you’ll be able to target your posts and make sure they’re shown to the people who want to see them.

Each Facebook post you share on your Facebook Page can be narrowed down by segment of your Fans.

Here’s how I target posts on Facebook:

• Gender, Relationship status, Education, Age: Our post engagement isn’t affected by these targeting capabilities, though could be really effective for brick-and mortar or ecommerce businesses.
• Location: The majority of people who’re engaged with our page are from the US. India is third and Canada fourth.
• Language: We have dedicated English, Spanish and Portuguese customer support specialists. Therefore I target the language to those three even though all of our posts are in English. Why? So that even if someone has their language setting to Spanish or Portuguese they’ll potentially see my posts and traffic to a site that can work with them.
• Interests: Your target Interests may vary based on the type of content you’re sharing. For example, as a SaaS company that creates simple marketing tools, we will always want to target marketers. However, if I was sharing this article (for instance) I’d also want to target those who are interested in Facebook ads, Facebook marketing etc. It’s important to note that it will target each interest individually. Therefore the more interests you pick the larger your target audience will be. Here’s what my Interest targeting might look like for this article (you’ll understand why by the end of it).

  

• Post end date: Post end date is great if you’re posting something like a webinar. If you post about your webinar on the Monday and the webinar is on the Wednesday you could set your post end date for when the webinar starts.

  

3. Incorporate videos into your posts

---

In case you didn’t hear, video posts are getting way more organic reach (and engagement) than any other type of post on Facebook.

Why is this happening?

While I can’t be 100% sure, I think it’s a combination of two things: Firstly , Facebook will have done extensive customer feedback and questionnaires, determining that their users want to see videos more than they do images, links, or text posts (so they’ll genuinely be rewarding Pages which post that content).

Secondly , Facebook favors posts that keep a Facebook user on Facebook rather than taking them to an external link. This just makes sense. Facebook want posts that ensure users remain on the platform (where they can see more ads, equalling more money in Facebook’s pocket).

How does this work?

When you upload videos directly to Facebook (don’t use Youtube – remember, that’s an external link) they automatically start to play but without sound. I’ve seen our engagement double for video posts over any other type of post.

Best Practices for making a Facebook Video

Captivate your target audience within the first three seconds without sound: This means be as visually appealing as possible. Include things like: graphics, movement, colors, signs and anything that will make the video visually grab the attention of a Facebook user in their News Feed. It needs to be captivating enough to get someone to stop and press the volume button in the bottom right corner.

Include a call-to-action: Facebook allows you to create a call-to-action that will appear at the end of the video. You can insert any link, a landing page, your blog etc. Make sure it’s directly related to the video. Keep in mind that your call-to-action will not appear until the end.

Your video should be able to speak for itself: Does the main message come across in the video or is audio necessary in order to get the gist of the message? Again, if possible use visuals to communicate your message.

.

4. Create a series of Facebook ads aimed at the same goal

---

Facebook recently ran an experiment which examined the difference between sequenced (what I’ll be explaining in this section) and non-sequenced ads (one ad at a time):

“Among those who were exposed to the sequenced ads compared with those who were exposed to the non-sequenced ads, there was an 87% increase in people visiting the landing page.”

Showing a series of ads around the same goal is essentially telling your target audience a story to pique their interest. They might not like the first ad but over the series of ads they’ll be more likely to see an ad that resonates with them.

Best practices for creating an ad sequence:

Determine a single goal : The goal you choose can be anything from a specific product to a designated landing page. For this example we’ll say that you’re looking to drive traffic to a landing page that offers a free trial of your products.

Create a series of at least 3 ads. Depending on your target audience you would show different ads based on how far along they are in the sales funnel.

For example if they had no idea who your company was but they were interested in similar companies it would go like this: Ad #1 : Brand awareness, Ad #2 : Key benefit of your product, Ad #3 : An ask to start free trial. At any point they could click your ad and be directed to the same landing page but if you do it in three stages you’re warming them up.

Source : https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Multi-Product-Ads-and-Enhanced-Custom-Audiences-from-your-Website

5. Use Facebook’s Multi-Product Ads in your retargeting strategy

---

Facebook multi-product ads are like dynamic Google Ads but better. This is because the ads will look and feel the exact same as a Google Ad but because of the slew of information Facebook has on its users, the ads will allow for better targeting.

Facebook multi-ads allow you as an advertiser to show up to three products in a single ad on desktop or mobile.

How does this work?

You set up a bit of code on your website so you can track which pages a person went to on your website. A person comes to your website and they visit different pages but never purchase anything. Next time they go back to Facebook they’ll be shown different items they viewed on your website in a carousel-style advertisement.

For example, let’s say you have an online travel site and a person searched for three different destinations to visit but they never book a flight. You could set up a multi-product ad of the three destinations (with pricing) to remind them of the flights they looked at with the headline, “Last minute deals to your favorite destinations” and the CTA “Book While Prices Last.”

6. Facebook content needs to be familiar, timely or novel if you want it to be shared

---

It doesn’t matter if your post gets a ton of reach if you’re not creating posts that people want to click. You need to create a variety of posts, with different lengths of headlines, pictures or videos that strike an emotional chords and links that are valuable to your target audience.

Not sure what to post? Here are some guidelines for creating the right type of post on Facebook:

• Familiar content: This is catering to people’s emotions. Humanize your posts so that people are able to relate. One post we recently used was aslideshare on Seinfeld quotes that related to online marketing. There has been a resurgence in the popularity of all things 90s recently (timely as well) and we used this to evoke nostalgia and familiarity with our Fans.
• Timely content: Look at what’s trending and use relevant hashtags so that when people search for something they’ll find it on your Facebook Page. Just make sure that you know the full story before creating your posts in case you’re not using the content in the right way.
• Novel content: When you create original posts, Facebook users will feel more excited about clicking on your post and engaging with your business. Try using a new tone, format or something that is in stark contrast to your competitors to stand out.

7. Run a Facebook Contest with a specific goal in mind

---

Running a contest on Facebook is a great way to nurture existing relationships and get awareness of your business to spread like wildfire.

Here are some specific contests you can run for contest goals:

• Get new emails and leads by running a sweepstakes contest : This is the lowest barrier to entry and therefore the quickest way to grow your list. Combine it with a prize that is relevant to your business and you’ll get leads that like your products.
• Grow brand awareness with a photo contest : A photo contest will encourage your entrants to share with their friends and family so that they’ll win your contest. You’ll also be getting extra leads.
• Keep your fans engaged by running a vote contest : Take two or three of your most popular items and get people to vote on the one they like best. Award a winner by random.

Conclusion

---

There you have it, 7 new ways that you can utilize Facebook in your social media marketing strategy. Have you been keeping up-to-date with Facebook as it’s changed over the years?

Are there any new Facebook best practices you’ve found work? Start the conversation below

#facebook, #internet

Promoting Business through Facebook

Facebook Basics

Facebook can help you to reach all of the people who matter most to your business

If you’re looking for a general overview of how to use Facebook to help your business grow, these fundamentals will set you up for success. You can also focus your activity on Facebook to meet specific business goals.

In-Page Navigation

• 1. Set up your Page
• 2. Identify your audience
• 3. Create compelling content
• 4. Advertise
• 5. Measure and adjust

1. Set up your Page

Create the hub for your business on Facebook

Your Facebook Page makes your business:

• Discoverable: When people search for you on Facebook, they’ll be able to find you.
• Connected: Have one-to-one conversations with your customers, who can like your Page, read your posts and share them with friends, and check in when they visit.
• Timely: Your Page can help you to reach large groups of people frequently, with messages tailored to their needs and interests.
• Insightful: Analytics on your Page will give you a deeper understanding of your customers and your marketing activities.

When you set up your Page, you can request a web address such as “facebook.com/yourgreatcompany”, which makes it easy to find. To maximise the impact, include this address on your business card, website and other marketing materials.

Remember: Your Page is an extension of your business. It’s an easy way to share updates and more with the people who matter most. It’s ready to help you engage your customers on desktop and on mobile.

Learn how to create a Facebook Page.

Create Page

2. Identify your audience

Think about who you’d like to meet, and introduce yourself

Not only can you reach more people through Facebook, you can reach the specific people who are most likely to become your customers.

To help you connect, consider:

• What do your ideal customers have in common?
• How old are they and where do they live?
• How can your business help them?
• Would one group be more interested in specific messages, products or services? A sale or a timely offer?

To build your audience, encourage your current customers and supporters to like your Facebook Page. They’re the people who are most likely to see your posts in their News Feed. Also, explore the options under the Build Audience button:

• Invite your friends: Let the people in your life know about your Page so they can support you by liking it. This initial audience helps you to establish credibility and spread the word straight away.
• Share your Page – and make sure you like it yourself. Be a spokesperson for your business.
• Invite your businesses contacts: Upload a list to send people an email so they know about your new Page.

Remember: It isn’t about the number of likes. It’s more important that you genuinely connect with the people you engage with on Facebook. If you do, they’ll help tell your story.

See more Facebook Advert targeting options.

3. Create compelling content

Make your business come alive on Facebook

As you post updates, photos and more, think about what your customers find interesting and inspiring. Experiment with different kinds of posts. Does your audience love photos or prefer it when you share useful links? You’ll find out quickly by looking at your Facebook Page Insights.

• Be authentic: Share what you’re genuinely excited about and your customers will be excited too.
• Be responsive: When people comment on your posts, show that your business is listening and that you care. If you need more time to answer a question, let them know that you’re looking into it.
• Be consistent: The more regularly you post, the greater an opportunity you have for connecting with people and building trust. Setting a schedule for your posts can also help to maximise your team’s time.
• Do what works: Replicate your success on posts that get more engagement.
• Make successful posts into successful promotions: When you notice that a post is getting a lot of engagement, promote it to reach even more people. When people like, comment on or share your posts, their friends are also eligible to see those posts in News Feed.

Remember: Your recipe for success is to create Page posts and adverts that are interesting and valuable to your customers – and to target your messages so that the right people see them.

Learn how to create engaging posts on your Facebook Page.

4. Advertise

Reach more of the people who matter most to you

Once you’ve started connecting with your customers on Facebook, you’ll want to find other people who are likely to be interested in your product or service. You can use Facebook adverts to send the right message to the right people, just when they’re most open to discovering your business.

Create Advert

Creating Adverts

• You can create an advert directly from the admin panel of your Page to engage more people, or you can use the Advert Create tool.
• Once you’ve built a community around your Page, use the Advert Create tool to target your adverts to reach the friends of the people who already like you. It’s a way to naturally grow your customer base through word of mouth.
• Be specific about the audiences for different adverts. You can create sets of adverts to connect with different target audiences. People are more likely to respond to a message crafted just for them.
• To make sure that your adverts look great wherever they’re seen on Facebook, you can see the Facebook Adverts guide for detailed specifications such as image dimensions.

Fine-tuned Targeting

• Add a private list of your current customers to Facebook usingCustom Audiences and then use Lookalike Audiences in the Advert Create tool to find other people who are similar to them.
• When you create an advert using the Advert Create tool, use “interest targeting” to reach people who already like or have a connection to other things on Facebook that are similar to what you’re offering.

Remember: You can maximise the return on your investment by creating adverts for specific audiences.

Learn more about creating Facebook Adverts.

5. Measure and adjust

Find out what’s working well so you can maximise the impact of every post and advert

Facebook has a lot of different tools to help you measure how you’re doing.

• Your Page Insights will keep you up to date on activity on your Facebook Page.
• Use Page Insights to understand who responds to your messages. Make sure that you look at the gender, age and location of the people who are the most engaged with your business so you can continue to engage them through targeted adverts and promoted posts.
• When you create your adverts, try out different images and headlines to see what works. Facebook will automatically optimise your campaign so that more of your budget goes to the advert that’s performing the best.
• Ask how people heard about you – at the end of a call, in a survey or at the point of sale – and keep track of what they say. It will supplement the data Facebook’s tools provide.

Remember: Marketing your business is all about helping you achieve your goals.

#facebook, #internet

Google Docs: Advantages and Disadvantages

Google Docs is a publically available free service that permits collaborators to jointly develop and edit documents.

Advantages of Google Docs:
1. Documents on Google Docs are saved to Google’s servers. Therefore if your computer’s hard drive crashes, you won’t lose the document that you’ve been working on.
2. Google Docs offers the feature of allowing people to view past edits.
3. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.

4. Google offers one of the best services for cloud computing document sharing.

5. While other cloud computing services charge fees, Google Docs is free.

Disadvantages of Google Docs:

1. Google Docs is cloud computing and with cloud computing there is no physical location of the documents shared.

2. Security is paramount to a financial adviser and many companies may prefer the idea of data stored on site where they are in control of it, rather than at a remote location where someone else is hosting it.

3. There is a lack of quality in Google Docs.

4. Starting March 1, Search will know the contents of people’s email and the videos you watch on YouTube.

5. If you use Google Docs for work, Search will know which company they work for and which industry they work

#google-2, #internet, #searchengine

Google Tips part 2

17 of the coolest hidden Google tricks

By Rohan on 27 March, 2015

Google is awesome. Yes, there have been questions raised about its new privacy policy and creepy Safari tracking and frankly, it just knows way too much about everyone who has ever created a Google account. But let’s put that aside for a moment and focus on all its cool quirks, shall we?

They’re built into practically every Google product — if you look hard enough, you’ll find that entering the right search term or typing a code can make Google collapse, spin or create fictional characters. Here are 15 easter eggs (hidden, entertaining things developers build into a website or program) for you to discover the next time you’re Googling.

1. Walking to Mordor:

If you’ve ever watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (or just seen various versions of the meme) you may never stop laughing at this Google Maps quirk (or maybe it’s just me). If you try to get walking directions from “The Shire” or “Rivendell” to “Mordor” (just type in the words and ignore all the auto-complete suggestions that pop up), Google will give you the route… and a warning. In other news, according to my Google Maps, Mordor is located just outside Cape Town, South Africa. Nice.

2. Barrel roll:

Endlessly entertaining, this one trended worldwide on Twitter in November. Simply search “do a barrel roll” — if you have Google’s instant results functions enabled, your results page will be spinning before you’ve completed the instruction.

3. 42:

What is 42, you ask? Geez, it’s only the answer to life, the universe and everything. Ok, so if you’ve never read or watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you won’t get this one. But Google’s built-in calculator will.

4. Gravity:

If, by any chance, you feeling like searching “Google gravity” and hitting “I’m feeling lucky”, don’t be surprised if Google comes crashing down around you the second you move the mouse. (Hint: you can disable Google’s instant results in your account preferences page to make sure you get the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ option).

5. Recursion:

Google pokes fun at its own “did you mean” suggestions if you search recursion(repetition or returning) by questioning your spelling even though you didn’t make a mistake.

6. Klingon:

So “GoogleDaq ylnej” means “Google search”. Hmmm. Who knew? Well, you, if you speak Klingon. Yes, there is a Klingon version of Google. There is also a pirate and Elmer Fudd version, if that’s more your thing.

7. Kerning:

Designers will love this one — kerning is the spacing between letters in a word. When you do a search for kerning, Google changes the spaces between letters in the word ‘kerning’ in all the results. Heehee. You see what they did there?

8. Hello, Nessy:

Picture this: You’re working under a tight deadline, your clock is slowly counting the minutes past 3AM and your coffee and Red Bull combo is failing. The sleep deprivation is starting to affect you — you are starting to see things. You click to your home page, and there, rising gracefully from the dark waves in your iGoogle theme, is the Lochness Monster.

No, you’re not hallucinating — you really did see Nessy. If you are ever awake and online at 3:14 AM (those are the first three digits in Pi, by the way), and have the iGoogle beach theme installed, Nessy will come to visit for a minute. If you’re not an insomniac, you can always just change the timezone on your computer and in your iGoogle settings and just wait until 14 minutes past the hour (I was in Bangkok last night, as far as Google knows). Unfortunately, it looks like the monster will be no more after iGoogle is retiredin November 2013.

9. Nagging Rams:

Similar to the ‘recursion’ response, if you search for ‘anagram’ (rearranging the letters in a word to make a new word or phrase, in case you didn’t know), Google rearranges the letters to suggest you were really searching for ‘nag a ram’.

10. Antarctic Penguins:

If you ever want to creep the Antarctic on Google Maps, you may be surprised to find the little orange peg man you drag and drop to change to Google Street View has transformed into a fat little penguin. Awwww.

11. Doodles:

What do you get if you don’t actually search for anything, and just hit ‘I’m feeling lucky’? A catalogue of all the Google doodles — all the way back to 1998. There were just three in that year — there have already been 69 in 2012.

12. Konami ninja:

If you type in the Konami code (a cheat code used in Konami games) in Google Reader, the side panel will turn blue and a cute ninja will appear on the left of your screen. Use your arrow keys and keyboard to enter the code — it’s up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, followed by the letters B and A. Like iGoogle’s Nessy, this one is going away after Reader is retired in July 2013.

13. Street View team:

Ever wanted to see the people who work at Google doing cool things like Google Street View? Well, if you hop along to the back of the Google offices in Mountain View, you can see them all.

14. Laundry:

There are a lot of things Gmail can do for you — filter spam, flood you with ads, apply a plethora of pretty coloured labels to your messages — but, as yet, it can’t do your laundry.  However, it is an option on the ‘suggest a feature’ page for Gmail.

15. Pacman:

It started out as a Google doodle to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of Pacman in 2010, but the Google Pacman game was so popular, it was given a permanent home.

16. Zerg rush:

Google “zerg rush” and prepare to defend your browser against hordes of the letter ‘o’ in Google’s logo, which will start to destroy your search results. They’re apparently undefeatable, but you can try to fight them off by clicking on them and share your high score on Google +. For those who aren’t familiar with StarCraft, a ‘zerg rush’ is a tactic where swarms of aliens known as ‘zergs’ descend in multitudes in order to overwhelm their enemies.

17. You’ll never find Chuck Norris

Because Chuck Norris jokes never get old, there is a warning hidden in Google search results to ward off those who dare to attempt to find him. Just search ‘find Chuck Norris’ and hit ‘I’m feeling lucky’ and you’ll see what I mean.

Update:

#google-2, #internet, #searchengine