Google Prepare Whips Out an E-Wallet

Google demonstrates frameworks to make purchases and download of e-coupons with the e-wallet with a Google nexus S Android Smartphone. She added, that finally the consumers also could save they are in it.

Google portfolio has said Google sure, officials, and the NFC chip in the Smartphone is enabled only when the consumer actually wants to use the e-portfolio. This is to prevent that hackers steal "sniff" card and information.

Portfolio start Google studies in New York and San Francisco Thursday. They will later be extended to other parts of the United States.

Google has other banks and mobile phone carriers and retailers to work together with him called.

"The revolutionary part of this announcement that Google is to NFC advance", said Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research, TechNewsWorld. "But there is still no single standard NFC."

Google Announces offer in connection with the Google portfolio also Google - e-coupons - Thursday.
Some details about the Google portfolio

First, Google lists portfolio the Samsung nexus S Android Smartphone running. Should trying other issuers of cards on board to get standard Citibank MasterCard, although it will support other cards and Google.

Google Wallet is compatible with MasterCard PayPass, which is accepted by many retailers around the world.

Consumers tap on the phone, the box office numbers when shopping in the outlets, working with the portfolio of Google. Use the device automatically applies all the loyalty you reach more customers with live chat - free white paper rewards and coupons, credit them to the invoice.

If consumed their accounts, personal information goes on their banks, work with the first data (NYSE: FDC), Manager of reliable services for Google's portfolio.

They are then entitled, immediately use the Google portfolio, but spending is limited to $100, up to which a confirmation code by E-mail or SMS sent fill in.

Google announced also a prepaid credit card major consumers credit cards can be implemented in service, by you on the phone.

Google portfolio is based on the chip NXP PN65 from NXP semiconductors.

Google for free users by Google portfolio. The giant of the Internet is the merchant of record, but will not store data on transactions.
Deconstructing Google portfolio

"At this point the audience for Google is limited portfolio" noted that ABI Beccue. "You need a customer of Sprint with a Smartphone nexus S and a Citigroup (NYSE: C) MasterCard.". "I know how many people".

In addition, the number of retailers of who can accept payments is Google Wallet is currently limited.

"The dealer must a MasterCard PayPass device, and there are only about 120,000 people in the United States,", Beccue said. "There is nothing."

In addition, said there is no single standard for NFC, although the NFC Forum standards, works Beccue.

"Google has said in the announcement that they need their OEM build could affect a NFC chip in Android smartphones and the things in the direction of a de-facto standard", Beccue said.

If Google can force, the OEMs to implement an NFC chip in their Android smartphones is however open to question, warned Beccue.

ISIS, a consortium created by AT & T (NYSE: T) to the area of NFC mobile, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, payment, can enter come with their own NFC standard in the course of time.

"At least, conflict, be that a single standard was been raised, different forms of payment" warned Beccue. "Of course, could Google and ISIS finally agree a standard," he speculated.

We should really wait for NFC to about 2013, take off hit Beccue.
PayPal to play with or not.

Google will also head to the lead with a type of e-commerce, PayPal.

"The other companies are following the business model of PayPal, we are to come light years from Earth," PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar told TechNewsWorld. "More than 98 million people around the world already us with their digital portfolios confidence."

Draw a Map with Google

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is rolling out access in the U.S. to a tool that has already made a mark in other parts of the world: Map Maker. As the name suggests, Map Maker allows people to create and edit Google Maps.

It debuted outside the U.S. because Google didn't believe there would be much demand for it in the states, where there was already a wealth of online maps and geographical data. Map Maker's original goal was to provide mapping tools to people in countries with little or no access to such resources, so they could create their own maps. Using Map Maker, people have built and edited maps for 183 countries and regions around the world, according to Google.

With Google opening the map of the U.S. to Map Maker, users will be able to add locations of stores or other businesses, mark out bike lanes, or identify the buildings on a university campus, for example.

Think of it as crowd-sourced mapping.

one of the inherent weaknesses of crowd-sourced anything is the potential for error, especially as the application is open to anybody who can operate a computer. After all, one of the common complaints that people have had about Google Maps has been less-than-perfect accuracy, Charles King, principal of Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld.

Google says it will make sure the user contributions are accurate and that each edit will be reviewed. After approval, the edits will appear in Google Maps within minutes, the search engine giant promised.

Needless to say, much of this process will be automated. Human checks will come from the crowd, said Denis J. Dean, head of the geography and geospatial information sciences programs at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"Except in a few, rare cases, Google doesn't check the data for accuracy," he told TechNewsWorld. "Inaccurate data will be weeded out by the people adding/editing information to the maps."


"There is little that can be done to prevent users from entering inappropriate data," Dean continued. "I'd bet Google has some automated checks that prevent you from entering words or phrases that Google wants to entirely eliminate, but that's not going to fix the entire problem."

There are other safeguards, Google spokesperson Deanna Yick told TechNewsWorld. "Users must be signed into their Google account to make an edit, and the edit history for each edit will indicate the username of the person who made the update."

Also, Google does have a small team of reviewers across the globe that review and moderate updates to ensure data quality. There is also a system to report abuse, said Yick.

The bulk of the quality control clearly rests with other users, but that is not a bad thing, she maintained. "All changes are moderated and most of them are reviewed by fellow mapping volunteers in the Map Maker community. And as one makes additions or edits to an area they know, they'll often see pending updates from other users and review those updates to quickly build out the area they care about."
Many Applications

Leaving aside questions about accuracy, Map Maker offers several benefits to its users.

The most obvious use-case scenario is local advertising. Any local business that relies on foot traffic, for instance, can benefit by including itself on Google Maps via Map Maker.

It doesn't end there, though. For instance, King noted, a lot of online, user-generated maps will show building locations for an event based on Google Maps. "But then you get to the building and can't find the event or don't remember what floor an office is on. Map Maker can add that last mile, so to speak."

People have also used community mapping to produce coverage maps for cellphones, Dean said. "The ridiculous coverage maps the various cellphone service providers produce are often so generalized as to be useless, or they are just plain wrong. Community members have produced much more detailed and accurate coverage maps."

In general, community mapping is better at capturing temporary events, such as streets that are closed for repair than conventional mapping, he observed. It can be "very useful for route finding."

new algoritm by goole, Google's Panda is tested

Google has announced to change algoritmh and use new alogitima called google panda. Google panda is an outgrowth of previous algotitma and integrate how to assess a web optimaly. If the previous mode use google quality backlinks and quality content, to get this greatly improved. Google Web panda also delete considered spam, such as web-based AGC (Automentid generet e content) and besides that it also reduces the search index on the web that are considered waste or are considered less useful. Instead google give more to index a web that has a link quality that of very and useful content. the web like this will be very domanja by google though belonging to

new Web category.

The presence of this new alogottma really rocked the business web, and should change their way of promoting his website, With this change in harapakan google panda to give the best results by displaying the appropriate list with what is in the google.com search by service users and provide more specific targeted towards users Google AdWords and google adsense.

With these results, will create a web does not always stay in the top, large web likelihood will be at a different position Juka accessed from different countries because google uses collectivity or system integration resources in general and only yangterbaiklah that will appear. Security and quality is number one. google panda is already tested.

Google aids Japan quake victims

Google has launched a version of its Person Finder service for people caught up in the Japanese earthquake.

The website acts as a directory and message board so people can look for lost loved ones or post a note saying they are safe.

It is designed to be embedded on websites and social network pages to reach as wide an audience as possible.

The system has proved useful after other disasters that have stopped people getting in direct touch.
Victim log

In its first few hours, the Japan quake Person Finder had logged more than 4,000 records.

The extent of the damage caused by the Japanese earthquake is not yet known but its magnitude and the widespread devastation wrought by the subsequent tsunami is likely to see tens of thousands displaced.

The Person Finder was developed to solve a problem common in the aftermath of many catastrophes when many different agencies are on the ground giving aid and gathering information about victims.
Christchurch earthquake Google's Person finder was used in the aftermath of the 2011 New Zealand earthquake.

Before the advent of tools such as Person Finder it was much harder to compare the information gathered by separate agencies and help to re-unite families and friends.

Underlying the site is a common format for describing people who are lost or who want to announce they are safe by whatever means they can.

In the wake of disasters, many volunteers in other countries often scrape sites for this formatted information and add it to the People Finder database. Others take information from blogs, texts and tweets and convert it to the format so it can be put in the database.

The system was first used following the Haiti earthquake that struck in January 2010. That first tool was based around work done in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans.

Hurt by the Algorithm Change? Do the Google Rain Dance

Where we went wrong was in planting seeds without nurturing them at all. Had we done it right the first time, a day's worth of time would have been dedicated to each page. Had we done that, we'd probably have one of the better resource bases on the Net. Instead, we created the pages, then got caught up in running a business, got traffic from some of those poorly fertilized pages -- then Google kicked us where it hurt.If you are a victim of the latest Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) algorithm change and experienced an 85 percent traffic drop like the disgruntled fellow penning this article, you may be feeling the heat right now.

It's easy to blame others and point out competitors who are "getting away with worse," but what all of those wounded really need to do is look into the the mirror and figure out how to get better.

Here is a quick guide on how to right the ship if you've keeled over -- or, if you're just starting your website, how to avoid disaster to begin with.
Click Here
Plant the Seed When It Is Ready to Grow

There is a ton of thinking and planning ahead when it comes to developing a website. In our case, the website was ready before the company officially formed. Oftentimes, this happens in reverse, but the business side of things had to be sorted out.

This led to creating pages ahead of time, with certain "plans" that were to be accomplished soon in regard to content. Most of the pages had some original content, but it was largely generic.

At the same time, we provided consistent updates to our blogs to help the site along for when the business end would be good to go. Google has (or had) a way of rewarding websites that consistently updated their blogs, because it showed fresh content was being added to the mix.

We never copied content, but many of our updates were shallow in terms of coverage. In addition, the blogs were named for the search terms we wanted to rank them for. Not all of them, but many of them were named this way. At the time, it seemed like a good common-sense strategy. Now it looks like a big mistake. We did not monetize off of the traffic at all, and it still backfired.

In sum, create the pages offsite or don't publish them until they are absolutely ready and valuable to readers.
Attacking the Problem

As soon as we realized how Google's algorithm change was affecting our rankings, we went through a checklist of products we wanted to feature and what was still on the back burner in terms of content and resources that could eventually be provided. After that, we went on to delete half of the "resource" pages that had been created.

We then went back to the blog updates and deleted nearly half of those. On Day 1, we deleted probably about 100 pages that were of no real use. Some of those pages were linked to from the home page, yet they offered no real value.

All remaining page guides for the different model phones already had -- or will have -- the proper content and resources in the next few days. After that, we can think about expanding in the never-ending quest to add quality content.

Where we went wrong was in planting seeds without nurturing them at all. Had we done it right the first time, a day's worth of time would have been dedicated to each page. Had we done that, we'd probably have one of the better resource bases on the Net.

Instead, we created the pages, then got caught up in running a business, got traffic from some of those poorly fertilized pages -- then Google kicked us where it hurt.

This is not to say that our competition does not do some lame things that apparently have been overlooked or that Google's system is completely, ahem, fair.
How Long Do We Live in Purgatory?

Right now, we don't even show up for the important local terms, and we don't even have local storefront competition. Many of the websites that clearly don't provide anything of value and fill up the Web with pointless "state pages" rank higher for our local searches.

We still are found on Google, though, and my assumption is that once we have completed many of our resource updates over the next couple of weeks, the new algorithm will reward our efforts.

The obvious question is how long will this take? Our assumption is that it could take one-to-three months. Google is forcing us to go old school, think local and make the website better.

Still, when will it give us the "get out of jail free" card we feel entitled to? After all, if the banks get a bailout surely Google can feel for the plight of a few young and eager repair techs.
Special Treatment

Reports have come out that some website complained and got its rankings back immediately. We don't pretend to think Google master Matt Cutts or the rest of Google give a darn about our 85 percent drop.

Unlike many others who are upset about the crash, though, we understand why we lost favor with Google, and the problem is being corrected.

This is America -- our get-out-of-jail-free card will come. All we have to do is the Google dance, and the search giant will make it rain with rankings, once we've done our penance. With that in mind, maybe we can all start to sleep comfortably.

Some Gmail Users Lost Data in Weekend Outage

A weekend outage caused some Gmail users to lose data. Google said the number of Gmail users affected was small, about 150,000, and some accounts have reportedly been restored. Google also said it was trying to maintain other services besides Gmail and stop e-mail bounces. Microsoft's Hotmail and Research In Motion have also had disruptions.
Gmail experienced an outage Relevant Products/Services during the weekend that, according to Google, affected a relatively small number of users. Some problems reportedly continued through Monday, including loss of all e-mails in inboxes and sent-mail folders.

Complaints began showing up on the Google Help Forum Sunday afternoon. One user reported that his account was at first "unreachable," and, when he finally was able to log in, all e-mail had disappeared, as well as chat history, settings and labels Many others posted similar problems. One noted that his account has been reset "so it's like a brand-new Gmail account."

'Service Disruption'

As of early Monday afternoon, the Google Apps Status Dashboard reported there was still a "service disruption." The software giant hasn't indicated the cause of any problems, although it said it was working to fix the problems. Some accounts have reportedly been restored.

A Google Gmail engineer named Mike CH posted on the support forum early Monday morning that "we have temporarily locked the affected users out of their accounts whilst we perform repairs." He added that "accounts that are affected are fully disabled," and the company was trying to disable only Gmail so other Google services would be available in the meantime, and so that e-mail would stop bouncing and get "queued up for later delivery instead."

After the first reports began appearing, Google said the outage affected only 0.29 percent of worldwide users, while the latest update indicates 0.08 percent. That's a tiny percentage of the total user population, but a substantial actual number of users -- about 150,000.

Hotmail, BlackBerry Outages

Google promotes the uptime of its apps as a key selling point, and it's generally close to 99.99 percent. As a precaution, the company has given directions under its Help menu on how to back up Gmail to other e-mail accounts.

Reliability, especially of critical e-mail accounts, is of course essential to a service's reputation, as is the company reaction when outages occur. In early January, Microsoft Relevant Products/Services's Hotmail caused some users to temporarily lose access Relevant Products/Services to their e-mails and folders. The Redmond, Wash.-based company issued notices and updates on its Windows Live Solution Center and posted an apology.

In December, BlackBerry users got hit with two outages and related delays a week apart. Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry and manager of its e-mail service, said the outage affected customers in the Americas, as well as in China, South Korea, Australia and other countries. According to hundreds of messages posted on Twitter and other social-networking services, the outage appeared to be large.

Before that, there were also BlackBerry outages in February 2010 following a software upgrade and also in April 2007. It's not clear if the outages have had an impact on BlackBerry sales.

Google confirms it pulled malicious Android apps

After several days of silence on the issue, Google has confirmed that it removed several malicious apps from its Android Market earlier this week and said that it would remove the apps from users' devices as well.

Only devices running an Android version earlier than version 2.2.2 were susceptible to the rogue apps, which took advantage of known vulnerabilities, the Internet giant reported late last night in the Google Mobile blog. The company believes the only information accessed by the apps were the unique codes used to identify the the specific device and the version of Android that it was running.

Fifty-eight malicious apps were identified and removed Tuesday but not before they were downloaded to about 260,000 devices. Google said it would use a kill switch to remotely remove the apps from users' devices and push an Android security update to affected users to repair the damage done by the apps. Affected users can expect to receive an e-mail from Android Market support explaining the action, Google said.

The developer accounts associated with the apps were suspended and law enforcement officials were contacted, Google said.

Earlier this week, a Reddit user discovered that pirated versions of legitimate apps on the Android Market were infected by a Trojan called DroidDream, which uses a root exploit dubbed "rageagainstthecage" to compromise a device, according to a report on enthusiast site Android Police.

The malware was described as especially virulent because it apparently not only can capture user and product information from a device but also has the ability to download more code capable of further damage.

Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further information or comment.

Google tweaks search to punish the low-quality sites

Google has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites.

That could be a veiled reference to such sites as Demand Media's eHow.com, which critics call online "content farms" — that is, sites producing cheap, abundant, mostly useless content that ranks high in search results.

Sites that produce original content or information that Google considers valuable are supposed to rank higher under the new system.

The change announced late Thursday affects about 12 percent, or nearly one in every eight, search requests in the U.S. Google Inc. said the new ranking rules eventually will be introduced in other parts of the world, too. The company tweaks its search algorithms, or formulas, hundreds of times a year, but most of the changes are so subtle that few people notice them. This latest change will be more difficult to miss, according to Google engineers.

"Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem," Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts wrote in a blog post. "Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that's exactly what this change does."

Google makes significant adjustments to its search formula on the same scale as the latest change four or five times a year, Singhal said in a statement Friday.

What makes the new revisions so notable is that Google spent about a year trying to come up with a way to judge the quality of the content posted on the site.

That focus could hurt Demand Media, which depends on search engines for about 41 percent of the traffic to its websites, with most of those referrals coming from Google, according to documents filed last month after the company completed an initial public offering of stock.

Demand Media, based in Santa Monica, assigns roughly 13,000 freelance writers to produce stories about frequently searched topics and then sells ads alongside the content at its own websites, including eHow.com and Livestrong.com, and about 375 Internet other destinations operated by its partners. Articles range from the likes of "How to Tie Shoelaces" to "How to Bake a Potato" and more.

Many of the ads appearing alongside those articles are sold by Google, which accounts for about one-fourth of Demand Media's revenue of $253 million last year.

Demand Media said it doesn't consider itself a "content farm" or "content mill," but rather as a more responsive approach to addressing topics on people's minds.

"We believe that our platform for satisfying today's consumer demand is the most comprehensive and effective of any online publisher," Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt told analysts earlier this week after the company announced the first quarterly profit in its four-year history. "The standards we put in place, the process that we follow, and most important, the qualified professionals we rely on to create and copy at the solution are unprecedented in traditional and new media.definition."

In a Friday blog post, another Demand Media executive said the company applauds search engine changes that "improve the consumer experience." Google's revisions caused some of Demand Media's articles to rank higher and other to rank lower in search results, wrote Larry Fitzgibbon, Demand Media's executive vice president of media and operations.

"It's impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term — but at this point in time, we haven't seen a material net impact," Fitzgibbon wrote.

Investors seemed uncertain how Google's move would affect Demand Media. After falling nearly 5 percent in earlier trading, Demand Media's shares rebounded to close at $22.96, up 36 cents for the session.

Google search to reward high-quality sites

With the latest changes to its search algorithm, Google is aiming to reward Web sites that offer original, in-depth content at the same time that it penalizes those that simply borrow content from others.

Rolled out this week, the changes will help ensure that sites considered to be of "high quality" will rank higher in Google's search results, while those deemed of "low quality" will get dumped lower in the ranks, according to a blog posted yesterday by Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts.

Google is clearly looking to crack down on "content farms," sites that purposely tailor their pages with content that often makes little to no sense but is loaded with keywords and other information designed solely to generate a huge number of hits.

How does Google figure out which sites are high-quality and which ones aren't, especially since that sort of determination can be subjective?

Singhal and Cutts explained in general terms that sites with original information, such as research, in-depth reports, and thoughtful analysis would be looked upon more favorably, while those that offer low value-add, that copy content, or "that are just not very useful" would be in the doghouse. And the criteria used to make this determination are part of the new algorithm.

A spokesman for Google told CNET today that the company can't share the specifics of how the algorithm works because "we don't want to give bad actors a way to game our algorithms and worsen the experience for our users."

The company said that the new rankings won't rely on feedback obtained from its Personal Blocklist, a new Chrome extension that tracks which Web sites are blocked by users and then sends those results to Google. But the company said it did compare the information from the Blocklist with the sites caught by the new algorithm and found that many of them popped up in both places. Specifically, 84 percent of the top dozen domains flagged via the extension have also been caught by the tweaked algorithm.

For now, Google has deployed these changes only in the U.S. but plans to roll them out in other countries over time. The company is also promising further updates that it thinks can further improve its search results.

Google declares war on content farms

Google has announced a major algorithmic change to its search engine, subtle in nature and perhaps unnoticeable to many users, but one that should dramatically improve the quality of Google's search results.

With this move, Google is targeting content farms -- a common name for low quality sites whose main goal is to attract search traffic by piling up (mostly) useless content, usually by either producing large amounts of low-quality text or by copying it from websites with original content.

Google does not go into details of the change which should impact 11.8 percent of Google's queries (currently only in the U.S., with plans to roll it out elsewhere over time), but it does say that it will affect the ranking of many sites on the web.

"This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites -- sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites -- sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on," explain Googlers Amit Singhal and Matt Cuttsin a blog post.

While the change will surely have many website owners up in arms, complaining that their website was unfairly ranked lower than before (we're sure that in some cases they will be right), it's a very welcome one.

The popularity of Google's search engine is still second to none, but Google has been plagued by black hat SEO practices and content farms for a while now, with thecomplaints from users slowly mounting over time.

If Google manages to put an end to content farms or at least significantly reduce their influence in search results, it will be an important step in regaining the trust of its millions of users.

Microsoft Kinect to PC apps

Software developers will be able to tap into the Kinect gaming system thanks to an application builder that Microsoft plans to release this spring, the company announced Monday.

With this new development kit, Microsoft is hoping its innovative, controller-free camera system will woo more developers to Windows. Many developers have shifted their focus from desktops toward mobile platforms like Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

Unlike current Kinect games, which can be played only on an Xbox 360 game console, these apps would run on Windows computers connected to the device.

Enterprising app makers hoping to get in early on some kind of Kinect app gold rush will have to wait, however.

This first version, slated to release by late June, is being offered only to volunteers willing to give their programs away for free. Microsoft has a name for this target audience: "enthusiasts and academic researchers."

Microsoft says it plans to release a version later for people who want to sell their apps but declined to provide a time frame. Company spokespeople also declined to make executives available for interviews.

Developers have been attracted to the Kinect technology because unlike normal webcams, Microsoft's gadget has a depth sensor, making it more useful as a controller.

Shortly after the Kinect's debut in November, developers quickly hacked the device to create unusual demonstrations of its power. Developers have created body-controlled versions of "Super Mario Bros.," a realistic "Star Wars" light saber simulator and an app that turns your digital reflection into a ghost.

Consumers have taken to Kinect as well. Microsoft sold 8 million units in its first two months on the market, which coincided with the crucial holiday shopping season.

At first, Microsoft was hot and cold about the swelling community of Kinect hackers. At the same time some spokespeople were discouraging tampering, executives were expressing excitement about bringing Kinect to computers.

With an official development kit, engineers will be able to build standardized apps that can be distributed and run more easily than unofficial ones. Currently, someone would have to hook up a Kinect unit to a PC and run code to unlock the device before being able to play hacked games.

Microsoft's research arm held an event Monday to discuss recent initiatives including Kinect development, a company spokesman said.

These apps will apply to Kinect units running on Windows PCs and won't work on Xbox 360 systems, the spokesman said. Console makers, including Microsoft, work out royalty deals with game developers that want to build on their platforms.

But Microsoft has used its popular camera-powered device to bridge gaps between the company's various platforms. CEO Steve Ballmer's "one more thing" during a recent presentation described an initiative to make Kinect and Windows Phone devices interoperable.

Google Chrome 10 beta Performance

Google has just released Chrome 10 beta (10.0.648.82 for all you perfectionists) and it brings with it a whole slew of new things to play with.First off, there’s a significant JavaScript performance boost thanks to the updated V8 engine. According to Google, this version of the V8 engine offers a 66% performance advantage over the current stable release. That alone is pretty impressive.This beta also adds GPU acceleration for video. For those running video in full-screen mode this can mean a decrease in CPU usage of as much as 80%. A good thing for those living off battery.

Another new feature is that the browser setting page now opens in a tab of its own rather than in a separate window. A small change but one that makes a lot of sense. There’s also a handy search box to allow you to find the specific setting you are looking for. Might not be needed by geeks, but dead handy for everyone else (Hey, Microsoft! Here’s a setting that would be really handy for IE users … fire up those photocopiers!).

Syncing now includes saved passwords, along with bookmarks, preferences, themes and extensions. Synced passwords can be encrypted with a separate passphrase.

Google unveils payment platform

This January 2011 screen image shows the Google logo in Washington, DC. Google unveiled an online payment platform for publishers on Wednesday, a day after Apple launched a subscription service of its own for newspapers, magazines, music and video.

Google unveiled an online payment platform for publishers on Wednesday, a day after Apple launched a subscription service of its own for newspapers, magazines, music and video. Google launched an online payment platform for digital newspapers and magazines on Wednesday, as a subscription service unveiled by Apple a day earlier came under fire for the size of the bite it takes from publishers.

Google will take a 10-percent share of revenue from transactions handled by "Google One Pass," less than the 30 percent charged by Apple for subscriptions to applications sold through the App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

The iPad currently dominates the tablet computer market but a number of companies are developing tablets running Google's Android software and the technology giants are also fierce rivals on the smartphone platform front.

The dueling online subscription services are aimed at attracting content producers to their respective mobile devices and come as struggling newspapers and magazines seek to boost revenue from the Web.

Google's new payment system for online content was announced by the Mountain View, California-based company's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, in a speech at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Google said Google One Pass "is currently intended for periodicals, such as news and magazines, but is a flexible payment system that can be used for many other types of content."

Lee Shirani, director of business product management for Google Commerce, said publishers who opt to use Google One Pass to charge readers for digital content can set their own prices and terms.

"Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password," Shirani said in a blog post.

"Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don't have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices," Shirani said.

Google said publishers can offer readers a variety of options including full subscriptions or even single articles for purchase.

"With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them," Google said. "We've been working with publishers for some time now to help them find ways to engage their readers, attract traffic to their sites, and make money online," said Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, Google vice president for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Google said its launch partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online and Stern.de, France's Le Nouvel Observateur and Spain's Prisa.

Google's US partners are Rust Communications, publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Media General, which operates 18 television stations and 21 daily newspapers, and Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science.

The Internet search giant said Google One Pass is currently available from publishers in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States.

The announcement coincided with criticism of Apple's subscription service for newspapers, magazines, music and video.

While publishers mostly grumbled anonymously, digital music subscription service Rhapsody was one of the few companies to publicly hit out at Apple.

"An Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable," Rhapsody president Jon Irwin said in a statement.

"The bottom line is we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple's 30 percent monthly fee vs. a typical 2.5 percent credit card fee," Irwin said, adding that the company would be "determining an appropriate legal and business response."

Forrester research analyst James McQuivey said "taking a 30 percent toll amounts to a massive increase in the cost basis of a content business that will kill it.

"I staunchly defend Apple's right to price its products and services any way it wants," McQuivey said. "But it is shortsighted.

"Because now Apple has given every publisher, producer, and distributor in the business a reason to actively pursue alternatives to the elegant apps that Apple had hitherto taught us to depend on," he said.

Dan Kennedy, an assistant professor of journalism at Boston's Northeastern University, said Apple's terms "seem so onerous that I just don't think that there's going to be many publications adopting this.

Google makes Web search more social

Google is making Web search more social, weaving posts from the Twitter, Flickr, Blogger and other accounts of a user's friends into search results.

Google is making Web search more social, weaving posts from the Twitter, Flickr, Blogger and other accounts of a user's friends into search results. The move is an expansion of "Google Social Search," which the Internet giant introduced in 2009.

Instead of featuring at the bottom of a page of search results, relevant posts from the social media accounts of a user's friends are now integrated into the list of results themselves.

A Google search for camping, for example, may bring up a Twitter post by a friend about hiking trails or a link to campsite pictures uploaded by a friend to Flickr.

"Relevance isn't just about pages -- it's also about relationships," Google product management director Mike Cassidy and product manager Matthew Kulick said in a blog post.

"Today we’re taking another step forward -- enabling you to get even more information from the people that matter to you, whether they're publishing on YouTube, Flickr or their own blog or website," they said.

"This means you'll start seeing more from people like co-workers and friends, with annotations below the results they've shared or created," they added.

Social search will only be available to users who have a Google account.

Google account holders will also have the option of linking their social media accounts to their Google profiles.

Mindful of potential privacy concerns, Cassidy and Kulick said: "The new setting enables you to choose whether or not to show your connected accounts publicly on your Google profile."

Google said the new social search feature is only available in English for the moment.

It will also not display any input from the largest social network of them all -- Facebook -- which has previously declined to share data with Google.