Huch, wo bin ich denn da wieder gelandet? #google
Posted in Funny discoveries, Google | Comments
By MIGUEL HELFT for nytimes.com:
SAN FRANCISCO — There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.
That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.
Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.
The C.D.C. reports are slower because they rely on data collected and compiled from thousands of health care providers, labs and other sources. Some public health experts say the Google data could Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Controverse articles, Google, from around the blogosphere | Comments
This is not a joke. If you are using Google Chrome then it is very easy for a malicious attacker to get the Remote Access of your Computer.
Less than a week after the release of Google (NSDQ:GOOG)’s new Web browser Chrome, security researchers detected a buffer overflow vulnerability that could enable remote attackers to completely take control of a user’s computer.
The detected buffer overflow vulnerability, deemed critical by security experts, is the result of a boundary error in the handling of the “Save As” function. If a user saves a Web page serving malicious content, the program could cause a stack-based overflow error, which could open the door for remote hackers to unleash malicious code on a user’s machine.
Remote attackers could then exploit the flaw by constructing a specially crafted Web page infused with malicious code. The attacker could then entice a victim to open and then Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Controverse articles, GReader stuff, Google, from around the blogosphere | Comments
Update: 10.09.08: As from today on, due to an update from Chrome the :% issue is no more valid.
Rishi Narang has been the first. A Denial Of Service simple as pie:
Just browse this page and place your mouse over this link (make sure you bookmark this page if you want to read on though):
Just “evil:%” in the anchor text is capable of crashing all the Chrome tabs (despite all the tabs are separated processes).
Someone has also reported that by entering a very long bookmark may kill the browser. Length has not been given but it’s worth a try.
If your Chrome is still alive you may want to try entering
about@:
in the location bar.
Good thing is that the browser doesn’t need Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Controverse articles, GReader stuff, Google, from around the blogosphere | Comments
Like most other browsers, Google Chrome has some special pages that show information about memory usage, cached files, plug-ins and more. Here’s a list of the most interesting about: pages available in Google Chrome (you can open them by dragging about:name to the address bar).
1. about:version – Google Chrome shows the version number the browser, WebKit and V8 (JavaScript engine). You can also find the user-agent used by Google Chrome:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1 Safari/525.19
2. about:plugins – the list of plug-ins that are available in Google Chrome: Shockwave Flash, RealPlayer etc.
3. about:cache – a list of all the web pages cached by Google Chrome. The browser doesn’t have an option to limit the cache’s size, so it’s recommended to regularly empty the cache.
4. about:memory – this pages compares the memory used by all the active browsers and by Google Chrome’s tabs.
Posted in GReader stuff, Google, from around the blogosphere | Comments
Image via CrunchBase, source unknown Shared by natadd
Very important!! You should always use SSL (https://) for Gmail!
A tool that automatically steals IDs of non-encrypted sessions and breaks into Google Mail accounts has been presented at the Defcon hackers’ conference in Las Vegas.
Last week Google introduced a new feature in Gmail that allows users to permanently switch on SSL and use it for every action involving Gmail, and not only, authentication. Users who did not turn it on now have a serious reason to do so as Mike Perry, the reverse engineer from San Francisco who developed the tool is planning to release it in two weeks.
When you log in to Gmail the website sends a cookie (a text file) containing your session ID to the browser. This file makes it possible for the website to know that you are authenticated and keep you logged in for two weeks, unless you manually hit the sign out button. When you hit sign out this cookie is cleared.
Even though when you log in, Gmail forces the authentication over SSL (Secure Socket Layer), you are not secure because it reverts back to a regular unencrypted connection after the authentication is done. According to Google this behavior was chosen because of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Controverse articles, GReader stuff, Google, from around the blogosphere | Comments
What if the next big thing in search intelligence will not be developed by Google?
As deeply described in this article , Google takes lots of efforts to know and understand its users better by following all their internet activities through various products and services.
But accorcing to real intelligence, like for answering questions, it is way behind optimal results.
Secretly, yet unattended by the media, a start-up company in beta-status developed a stunning search-engine offering right this: Real answers to real questions!
The Cambridge/UK based company [true knowledge] developed a stunning mechanism/algorithm to go far beyond everything seen on search development yet.
In their own words:
Our technology addresses one of the fundamental problems in internet search: namely that computers (unlike humans) cannot understand the content of web pages. As a result, finding information in the early 21st century still involves a process of guessing keywords that may appear in an appropriate web page and hoping that a search engine retrieves
Posted in Controverse articles, Google, Videos | Comments
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin 
announced that their aim with Google is to one day make it possible, that Google can answer real questions.
A forecast of how such could look is displayed in this video, showing a kid asking “Google Brain” for a picture of a pizza:
Another approach of Google is to make it possible to suggest individuals what they could possible choose as a job, what shall they do next, which could be suitable friends for them.
How could this be achieved?
Well, if we take a close look on what services Google offers now, all consolidated in a single Google Account, it becomes clear that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Controverse articles, Google, Videos | Comments
As recently shown on Googles YouTube Channel, Google sets the limits to what a spreadsheet application can do and can’t do to a further border.
By inclusion of the immense knowledge of the Google Search Index it empowers users of Google Spreadsheets to do increadible researches at the flick of a switch.
Videos tell more than a thousand words, so see for yourself:
Unfortunatly, untill now I have not been able to reproduce the procedure shown in the video yet, as Google Spreadsheets doesn’t auto-fill the cells like shown in the video.
Anybody got an idea what I am doing wrong?
