Weird News

Indian PM makes state visit to Washington

2009-11-24T01:00:00.016-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
President Obama will welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for an
official state visit Tuesday.

http://news.by-expert.com/indian-pm-makes-state-visit-to-washington/

January Iraq elections face obstacles

2009-11-24T01:00:00.015-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
The Iraqi parliament passed an amended election law Monday, but it failed to
address concerns of the country's Sunni Arab vice president. That raised doubts
about whether nationwide elections will take place as constitutionally required
in January.

http://news.by-expert.com/january-iraq-elections-face-obstacles/

20 militants killed in clash between Taliban, Pakistani army

2009-11-24T01:00:00.014-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
The Pakistani military killed 20 militants during military operations in
northwest Pakistan late Sunday night and into Monday morning, a senior military
official told CNN.

http://news.by-expert.com/20-militants-killed-in-clash-between-taliban-pakistani-army/

Obama, advisers meet on Afghanistan

2009-11-24T01:00:00.013-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Monday night with his national security
team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House announced.

http://news.by-expert.com/obama-advisers-meet-on-afghanistan/

Chinese drywall, toxic effects in U.S. linked, report says

2009-11-24T01:00:00.012-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
The suspected link between Chinese drywall and toxic effects reported by
thousands of U.S. homeowners was strengthened Monday by three preliminary
reports issued by the federal government.

http://news.by-expert.com/chinese-drywall-toxic-effects-in-u-s-linked-report-says/

Second fire at Russian weapons depot kills eight

2009-11-24T01:00:00.011-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Eight Russian bomb disposal experts were killed Monday as they cleaned up after
a massive fire at a navy arsenal 10 days earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry
said.

http://news.by-expert.com/second-fire-at-russian-weapons-depot-kills-eight/

Philippines region on alert after massacre

2009-11-24T01:00:00.010-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
The wife of a candidate for governor and about 30 others were abducted Monday
morning in the southern Philippines -- with some in the group feared beheaded,
state-run media said.

http://news.by-expert.com/philippines-region-on-alert-after-massacre/

Easy holiday shopping with Google Product Search

2009-11-24T01:00:00.009-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
This holiday season, whether you're shopping for a new sweater for Fido, a Lego
set for young builders, or that fancy camera you've been eyeing all year, Google
Product Search can help you find what you're looking for at a great price. You
can compare products and prices from merchants across the web, from popular
retailers like Amazon and Best Buy to places to buy unique gifts like eBay and
Etsy.Check out some of the recent improvements we've made to Google Product
Search:Our new gallery view shows larger, higher-resolution images to help pick
the style or model that is right for you. Check out some [digital cameras] or
[sweater boots].Check the Reviews section of our product pages before you buy
— we're now including review summaries to help you see what people are saying
at a glance. We've recently integrated video product reviews from YouTube,
which appear right on the product pages so you can get an in-depth look at items
before you buy. If you want to see or purchase an item in person, click nearby
stores to see a map of nearby store locations for that seller. Product Search
works great on mobile phones, so you can compare prices, read reviews and even
find coupons from the Local Business Center while you're shopping. You can also
use the nifty barcode scanner on your phone to compare prices quickly and
easily.We hope these new features help you find the perfect gifts for your
friends and family (and maybe even something nice for yourself) this holiday
season.Happy shopping!Posted by Sameer Samat, Product Management Director & Jeff
Bartelma, Senior Product Manager

http://news.by-expert.com/easy-holiday-shopping-with-google-product-search/

Displaying the best display ad with Teracent

2009-11-24T01:00:00.007-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Can you spot the difference between these two sample display ads? Of course you
can. However, the most important difference is not discernible to the naked
eye.The lower ad was customized and chosen from thousands of different creative
elements, automatically and in real-time, by machine-learning algorithms
developed by Teracent, a San Mateo, California startup.We think that this
technology has great potential to improve display advertising on the web. That's
why we're pleased to announce today that we've entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire Teracent. The transaction, which is subject to various
closing conditions, is expected to close this quarter.As you know, we've been
busy releasing new features and products to help improve display advertising on
the web for everyone. We believe that Teracent's technology fits neatly into
these efforts.Teracent's technology can pick and choose from literally thousands
of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products,
messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like
geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or
the past performance of different ads.This technology can help advertisers get
better results from their display ad campaigns. In turn, this enables publishers
to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and
more ad-funded web content.We're looking forward to welcoming the Teracent team
to Google and to making this technology available to our display advertising
clients — including those who run display ad campaigns on the Google Content
Network and our DoubleClick clients.Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President,
Product Management and Joerg Heilig, Engineering Director

http://news.by-expert.com/displaying-the-best-display-ad-with-teracent/

Afghanistan decision to come within days

2009-11-24T01:00:00.005-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
President Obama will announce within days whether he will send more troops to
Afghanistan, the White House said after he and the National Security Council
met.

http://news.by-expert.com/afghanistan-decision-to-come-within-days/

Former Thai Prime Minister Samak dies

2009-11-24T01:00:00.003-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who was ousted from office last
year for appearing on television cooking shows for payment, died Tuesday.

http://news.by-expert.com/former-thai-prime-minister-samak-dies/

Alleged Baathists confess to attacks

2009-11-24T01:00:00.001-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
The Iraqi government has aired videos showing three men, who claim to be members
of the ousted Baath Party, saying they were involved in last month's devastating
Baghdad attacks.

http://news.by-expert.com/alleged-baathists-confess-to-attacks/

Releasing the Chromium OS open source project

2009-11-23T04:33:00.013-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
In July we announced that we were working on Google Chrome OS, an open source
operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web.Today we are
open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before
Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with
partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome
browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the
code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS
project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some
initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will
color it in over the course of the next year.We want to take this opportunity to
explain why we're excited about the project and how it is a fundamentally
different model of computing.First, it's all about the web. All apps are web
apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no
conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with
installing, managing and updating programs.Second, because all apps live within
the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional
operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is
contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to
infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time
you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its
code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a
reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we're going to make
life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys. If you dig security,
read the Chrome OS Security Overview or watch the video.Most of all, we are
obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing
many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can
go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our
obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying
reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome
OS.There is still a lot of work to do, and we're excited to work with the open
source community. We have benefited hugely from projects like GNU, the Linux
Kernel, Moblin, Ubuntu, WebKit and many more. We will be contributing our code
upstream and engaging closely with these and other open source efforts.Google
Chrome OS will be ready for consumers this time next year. Sign up here for
updates or if you like building your operating system from source, get involved
at chromium.org.Lastly, here is a short video that explains why we're so excited
about Google Chrome OS.Update at 8:55PM: Watch the video of our Google Chrome OS
event, which took place earlier today.Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Group Product
Manager and Matt Papakipos, Engineering Director

http://news.by-expert.com/releasing-the-chromium-os-open-source-project/

New site hierarchies display in search results

2009-11-23T04:33:00.012-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Google usually shows a green web address, or URL, at the bottom of each search
result to let you know where you're headed. Today we're rolling out an
improvement that replaces the URL in some search results with a hierarchy
showing the precise location of the page on the website. The new display
provides valuable context and new navigation options. The changes are rolling
out now and should be available globally in the next few days.Some web addresses
help you understand the structure of the site and how the specific page fits
into the site hierarchy. For example, consider a search for the biography of
Vint Cerf (Google's Internet Evangelist). The URL for one result,
"www.google.com/corporate/execs.html," shows that the page is located in a page
about "execs," under "corporate," which is on the "google.com" site. This can
provide valuable context when deciding whether to click on the result.Often,
however, URLs are too long, too short, or too obscure to add useful information.
For example, consider this result from ProductWiki for the query [spidersapien
reviews]:The URL of this result is "www.productwiki.com/spidersapien," which
doesn't provide much additional information about the site or this result. Now
take a look at the result with the new site hierarchy display:The new text
provides useful information about the page. You can tell that the ProductWiki
site has information about many different products, organized in different
categories, and you can even tell that Spidersapien is a robot toy. In addition,
each phrase in the green line is actually a link. For example, clicking on "Toys
& Games" takes you to ProductWiki's listing page for all toys, and clicking on
"Robots" takes you to a list of their robot toys. This way if you realize that
you're interested in a more general category than this specific product (there
are a lot of cool robot toys out there) you can easily access information on
broader topics.The host and domain for the site (in this case
www.productwiki.com) will always be shown, so you always know what website
you're going to before you click. There's not always enough room to show the
complete hierarchy, so sometimes we use ellipses to replace some of the
intermediate levels, like in this result for [how to make granola]:The
information in these new hierarchies come from analyzing destination web pages.
For example, if you visit the ProductWiki Spidersapien page, you'll see a series
of similar links at the top, "Home> Toys & Games> Robots." These are standard
navigational tools used throughout the web called "breadcrumbs," which
webmasters frequently show on their sites to help users navigate. By analyzing
site breadcrumbs, we've been able to improve the search snippet for a small
percentage of search results, and we hope to expand in the future.When we design
the way results appear on google.com, our goal is to get you to the information
you're looking for as quickly as possible. Sometimes that means improving how we
represent websites, and other times that means giving you new ways to explore
content. We're always happy when we can introduce a feature, like site
hierarchies, that does both!Posted by Harvey Jones and Daniel Rocha, Software
Engineers, Result UI Team

http://news.by-expert.com/new-site-hierarchies-display-in-search-results/

This week in search 11/20/09

2009-11-23T04:33:00.011-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs
on Fridays. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series.
- Ed.This week brought a number of new features to the fore.Google TranslateThe
biggest and most visible release this week was our update to Google Translate.
New changes to the interface help you translate instantly and see translations
as you type. We have also introduced both input and output transliteration: for
selected languages, our tool will show you letter by letter how a word or phrase
appears in a different language as you type. We have also added text-to-speech,
so you can figure out how to pronounce new words as you learn them.Rich snippets
in JapaneseOn the topic of international launches, at our Searchology event in
May we announced the launch of rich snippets, which webmasters can use to help
Google show more useful information from the page. For example, if you are
thinking of trying out a new restaurant and are searching for reviews, rich
snippets could include things like the average review score, the number of
reviews, and the restaurant's price range. Starting this week, this feature is
available in Japanese.Flu shot finder now on results pagesFollowing in the
footsteps of last week's launch, we have now added our flu shot finder to the
search results page.Example searches: flu shot, h1n1 shot, flu vaccineSite
hierarchies in search resultsGoogle usually shows a green web address, or URL,
at the bottom of each search result to let you know where you're headed. Tuesday
we began rolling out an improvement that replaces the URL in some search results
with a hierarchy showing the precise location of the page on the website. The
new display offers valuable context and new navigation options. For example, on
the eHow.com result below, you can see that this page is in the Martial Art
Techniques section.Example searches: venn diagram, how to punch harder,
hodgkins lymphoma, keurigHope you enjoyed this week's new features. Stay tuned
for more!Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Search

http://news.by-expert.com/this-week-in-search-112009/

Cool. Even Batman uses Google.

2009-11-23T04:33:00.010-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
When I first started at Google, Craig Nevill-Manning, engineering director here
in New York, said to me: "The Google homepage doesn't belong to us. It belongs
to the millions of people who use it." Besides the fact that Craig can make one
of those insanely cool leaf patterns in his latte, I find the simple truth of
his statement inspiring. I often refer to it as a guidepost for our work.So when
we got together with the search team to brainstorm ways to talk about our latest
innovations (like music in search results), we decided to feature them through
stories inspired by our users. Because while we're proud of the innovations
we're making in search, we're proudest of the things people use search to
accomplish. In other words, the best search results don't show up on a webpage
— they show up in somebody's life.So in that spirit, we made a bunch of
videos. There's one about grandma dipping her toe into technology. One about
friends taking a Kerouac inspired road trip. And yes, there's even one about
Bruce Wayne.Here's the first one:You can see them all here.As they say in the
movies, all the characters in these videos are fictional, any resemblance to
persons alive or dead are purely coincidental.We hope you enjoy them.Posted by
Robert Wong, Google Creative Lab

http://news.by-expert.com/cool-even-batman-uses-google/

What's cooking with iGoogle...

2009-11-23T04:33:00.009-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
We're both huge foodies, and we always love spending time in the kitchen with
friends and family, especially around the holidays. Particularly during this
season, many of us turn to Google when searching for recipes. But, in addition
to spicing up your recipe repertoire, Google can be a huge resource in the
kitchen. From helping you with sugar measurements, to jump starting ideas for
unique Thanksgiving table settings, the web has made becoming a culinary master
much easier.Since many of us love to celebrate great food, we're excited to
announce that we've partnered with a variety of top chefs and food industry
experts to bring you some elegant new, food-focused iGoogle themes and gadgets.
iGoogle is all about personalization and freshness, and in that spirit, these
unique themes are sure to delight the chef in all of us. Be sure to check out
our iGoogle gallery, where you'll find some tasty new themes from chefs like
Alton Brown and Paula Deen, food artists like Carl Warner and James Parker and
even famous bakeries like New York City's Crumbs Bake Shop and Magnolia
Bakery.In addition to these taste bud tantalizing themes, we've also partnered
with many top food industry names to build a suite of new gadgets for your
iGoogle page. For example, Supercook lets you input various ingredients you have
on hand, then gives you some great recipes you can whip up. And if you're
feeling like a night out at a new restaurant, Urbanspoon will help you pick a
restaurant on the fly — all from your iGoogle page.We hope this new element of
gourmet iGoogle personalization will get you even more interested in enhancing
your cooking and dining experiences. Here's to some great new food with family
and friends this holiday season!Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of
Search Products and User Experience and Brittany Bohnet, Product Marketing
Manager

http://news.by-expert.com/whats-cooking-with-igoogle/

Automatic captions in YouTube

2009-11-23T04:33:00.008-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Since we first announced captions in Google Video and YouTube, we've introduced
multiple caption tracks, improved search functionality and even automatic
translation. Each of these features has had great personal significance to me,
not only because I helped to design them, but also because I'm deaf. Today, I'm
in Washington, D.C. to announce what I consider the most important and exciting
milestone yet: machine-generated automatic captions.Since the original launch of
captions in our products, we've been happy to see growth in the number of
captioned videos on our services, which now number in the hundreds of thousands.
This suggests that more and more people are becoming aware of how useful
captions can be. As we've explained in the past, captions not only help the
deaf and hearing impaired, but with machine translation, they also enable people
around the world to access video content in any of 51 languages. Captions can
also improve search and even enable users to jump to the exact parts of the
videos they're looking for.However, like everything YouTube does, captions face
a tremendous challenge of scale. Every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded.
How can we expect every video owner to spend the time and effort necessary to
add captions to their videos? Even with all of the captioning support already
available on YouTube, the majority of user-generated video content online is
still inaccessible to people like me.To help address this challenge, we've
combined Google's automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology with the YouTube
caption system to offer automatic captions, or auto-caps for short. Auto-caps
use the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically
generate captions for video. The captions will not always be perfect (check out
the video below for an amusing example), but even when they're off, they can
still be helpful—and the technology will continue to improve with time.In
addition to automatic captions, we're also launching automatic caption timing,
or auto-timing, to make it significantly easier to create captions manually.
With auto-timing, you no longer need to have special expertise to create your
own captions in YouTube. All you need to do is create a simple text file with
all the words in the video and we'll use Google's ASR technology to figure
out when the words are spoken and create captions for your video. This should
significantly lower the barriers for video owners who want to add captions, but
who don't have the time or resources to create professional caption tracks.To
learn more about how to use auto-caps and auto-timing, check out this short
video and our help center article:You should see both features available in
English by the end of the week. For our initial launch, auto-caps are only
visible on a handful of partner channels (list below*). Because auto-caps are
not perfect, we want to make sure we get feedback from both viewers and video
owners before we roll them out more broadly. Auto-timing, on the other hand, is
rolling out globally for all English-language videos on YouTube. We hope to
expand these features for other channels and languages in the future. Please
send us your feedback to help make that happen.Today I'm more hopeful than ever
that we'll achieve our long-term goal of making videos universally accessible.
Even with its flaws, I see the addition of automatic captioning as a huge step
forward.* Partners for the initial launch of auto-caps: UC Berkeley, Stanford,
MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, PBS, National Geographic, Demand Media,
UNSW and most Google & YouTube channels.Posted by Ken Harrenstien, Software
Engineer

http://news.by-expert.com/automatic-captions-in-youtube/

Finding the laws that govern us

2009-11-23T04:33:00.007-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
As many of us recall from our civics lessons in school, the United States is a
common law country. That means when judges issue opinions in legal cases, they
often establish precedents that will guide the rulings of other judges in
similar cases and jurisdictions. Over time, these legal opinions build, refine
and clarify the laws that govern our land. For average citizens, however, it can
be difficult to find or even read these landmark opinions. We think that's a
problem: Laws that you don't know about, you can't follow — or make effective
arguments to change.

Starting today, we're enabling people everywhere to find and read full text
legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme
courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases
(like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other
queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on
the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button, and try the query separate but
equal. Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in
the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which
explore the acceptablity of "separate but equal" facilities for citizens at two
different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include
opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played
an important role.

We think this addition to Google Scholar will empower the average citizen by
helping everyone learn more about the laws that govern us all. To understand how
an opinion has influenced other decisions, you can explore citing and related
cases using the Cited by and Related articles links on search result pages. As
you read an opinion, you can follow citations to the opinions to which it
refers. You can also see how individual cases have been quoted or discussed in
other opinions and in articles from law journals. Browse these by clicking on
the "How Cited" link next to the case title. See, for example, the frequent
citations for Roe v. Wade, for Miranda v. Arizona (the source of the famous
Miranda warning) or for Terry v. Ohio (a case which helped to establish
acceptable grounds for an investigative stop by a police officer).

As we worked to build this feature, we were struck by how readable and
accessible these opinions are. Court opinions don't just describe a decision but
also present the reasons that support the decision. In doing so, they explain
the intricacies of law in the context of real-life situations. And they often do
it in language that is surprisingly straightforward, even for those of us
outside the legal profession. In many cases, judges have gone quite a bit out of
their way to make complex legal issues easy to follow. For example, in Korematsu
v. United States, the Supreme Court justices present a fascinating and
easy-to-follow debate on the legality of internment of natural born citizens
based on their ancestry. And in United States v. Ramirez-Lopez, Judge Kozinski,
in his dissent, illustrates the key issue of the case using an imagined
good-news/bad-news dialogue between the defendant and his attorney.

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of several
pioneers, who have worked on making it possible for an average citizen to
educate herself about the laws of the land: Tom Bruce (Cornell LII), Jerry
Dupont (LLMC), Graham Greenleaf and Andrew Mowbray (AustLII), Carl Malamud
(Public.Resource.Org), Daniel Poulin (LexUM), Tim Stanley (Justia), Joe Ury
(BAILII), Tim Wu (AltLaw) and many others. It is an honor to follow in their
footsteps. We would also like to acknowledge the judges who have built this
cathedral of justice brick by brick and have tried to make it accessible to the
rest of us. We hope Google Scholar will help all of us stand on the shoulders of
these giants.

Posted by Anurag Acharya, Distinguished Engineer

http://news.by-expert.com/finding-the-laws-that-govern-us/

Google Apps highlights – 11/20/2009

2009-11-23T04:33:00.005-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every
couple of weeks. Look for the label "Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to
the series. - Ed.Over the last two weeks, we've made improvements across Google
Apps, some geared for individuals, others meant for business customers.Green
Robot icon in Gmail LabsThe green, orange and red chat bubbles in Gmail signal
if your contacts are online, idle or unavailable, but as more people sign in
from mobile devices, it's becoming harder to tell when someone is actually
online at a computer or just connected with their phone. The Green Robot feature
in Gmail Labs helps you spot when you might want to tailor your exchanges with
more succinct messages for people who are signed in with Android-powered
devices. Look for the green beaker icon at the top of Gmail to enable Green
Robot and other Labs features.Site templatesOn Tuesday we launched templates for
Google Sites. The templates gallery is filled with useful example sites ranging
from wedding websites to corporate intranets, which you can copy and customize
so they're just right. This lets you create a useful, visually appealing
collaborative workspace in seconds. And if you have a great site other people
would find useful, you can submit it to the gallery. If your business uses
Google Sites, templates you submit stay private within your company.More
overflow storage for lessIf you're using Google Apps to store photos and manage
large volumes of personal email, you'll be happy to hear we're now offering more
extra storage for less. Our new overflow storage plans start at $5 per year for
20 GB. For the most avid shutterbugs, the 16 TB plan is enough space for roughly
8 million high resolution pictures!Improvements to Sync for Outlook Last week,
we released an update to Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, our tool that
lets companies stop running Microsoft Exchange while still letting some
employees use the familiar Outlook interface. Now, employees can sync multiple
calendars between Outlook and Google Apps, and look up free/busy information
from Exchange for co-workers who haven't migrated to Google Apps yet.Google Apps
Premier Edition innovation – Year in reviewBusinesses using Google Apps not
only save money compared to running their own email systems, but also their
employees get access to innovation at a much faster pace than with conventional
business technologies. We've launched over 100 improvements to Google Apps in
the last year, and on Thursday I hosted a webcast to recap noteworthy recent
updates for businesses, including push email, contacts and calendar support for
BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android, Sync for Microsoft Outlook,
offline access and more. If you missed the webcast, you can watch it on
YouTube.Who's gone Google?This week I'm pleased to welcome a new crop of
companies, schools and public agencies that have recently switched to Google
Apps, including Delta Hotels, Michigan State University, the City of Orlando and
the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General. The Motorola Mobile Devices
Division deployed Google Apps to its employees this week, and the Los Angeles
City Council recently voted unanimously to move 30,000 city employees to Google
Apps.We hope these updates help you get even more from Google Apps. For details
and the latest news in this area, check out the Google Apps Blog.Posted by
Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

http://news.by-expert.com/google-apps-highlights-%e2%80%93-11202009/

Explore images with Google Image Swirl, now in Labs

2009-11-23T04:33:00.003-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
Back in 2001, to give people a new, quicker way to find images, we launched
Image Search. When you do a search for [eiffel tower] you'll find an array of
images of the tower in the daytime, in black and white, at sunset and more. With
Similar Images, which recently graduated from Google Labs, you can click "Find
similar images" to narrow your search to, say, pictures of the Eiffel Tower lit
up at night. Today, we've launched an experimental feature in Labs called Google
Image Swirl, which builds on new computer vision research to cluster similar
images into representative groups in a fun, exploratory interface.For example,
if you search on Image Swirl for [washington], you'll see 12 image thumbnails
including President Washington, the Washington Monument, a map of Washington
D.C. and the Capitol Building:Once you find the group of images you're
interested in, you can click on the thumbnail and a cluster of images will
"swirl" into view. For example, here's what you'll see if you click the image of
the Washington Monument:You can then further explore additional sub-groups
within any cluster. The interface may look familiar to those of you who have
tried Google's Wonder Wheel available in the Search Options panel, which enables
you to explore related search queries.Image Swirl expands on technologies
developed for Similar Images and Picasa Face Recognition to discern how images
should be grouped together and build hierarchies out of these groups. Each
thumbnail on the initial results page represents an algorithmically-determined
representative group of images with similar appearance and meaning. These aren't
just the most relevant images — they are the most relevant groups of
images.Image Swirl currently works for more than 200,000 queries and we plan to
include more queries in the future. Available queries will auto-complete as you
start to type in the search box, similar to Google Suggest.You can try out
Google Image Swirl in Google Labs today. The feature is experimental and the
underlying technology is a work in progress, so please share your feedback and
let us know how we can make it more useful.Posted by Aparna Chennapragada,
Product Manager, and Yushi Jing, Google Research

http://news.by-expert.com/explore-images-with-google-image-swirl-now-in-labs/

Connecting citizens and journalists with YouTube Direct

2009-11-23T04:33:00.001-08:00

[This is an article syndicated from CNN,This article has been syndicated from
CNN]
(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)Every day, people with video cameras are
changing the ways we get our news. We see it during elections. We see it during
earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters. We see it on our freeways, in
our schools and in our public spaces. Almost any event that takes place today
has a chance of being captured on camera. As YouTube has become a global
platform for sharing the news, media organizations have been looking for a good
way to connect directly with citizen reporters on our site so they can broadcast
this footage and bring it to a larger audience.That's why we created YouTube
Direct, a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and
rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users. Built from our APIs, this
open source application lets media organizations enable customized versions of
YouTube's upload platform on their own websites. Users can upload videos
directly into this application, which also enables the hosting organization to
easily review video submissions and select the best ones to broadcast on-air and
on their websites. As always, these videos also live on YouTube, so users can
reach their own audience while also getting broader exposure and editorial
validation for the videos they create.Though we built YouTube Direct to help
news organizations expand their coverage and connect directly with their
audiences, the application is designed to meet any organization's goal of
leveraging video content submitted by the community. Businesses can use YouTube
Direct to solicit promotional videos, nonprofits can use the application to call
out for support videos around social campaigns and politicians can use the
platform to ask for user-generated political commercials. The opportunities to
use the tool are as broad as the media spectrum itself.Already, we've seen ABC
News, the Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle, the
Washington Post and WHDH-TV/WLVI-TV in Boston using YouTube Direct. We look
forward to seeing many more organizations to do the same.To get started, visit
youtube.com/direct.Posted by Steve Grove, YouTube News and Politics

http://news.by-expert.com/connecting-citizens-and-journalists-with-youtube-direct/

Ladies Get Surprise at Gadhafi 'Party'

2009-11-23T04:25:00.012-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi hosted a soiree in Rome for some 200 young Italian women, but instead of the party they expected the women were given a lecture on Islam and copies of the Quran, a news report said Monday.

http://news.by-expert.com/ladies-get-surprise-at-gadhafi-party/

'Unfriend' Is Word of the Year

2009-11-23T04:25:00.011-08:00

This is an article syndicated from CNN
What word sums up 2009? How about “unfriend”?

http://news.by-expert.com/unfriend-is-word-of-the-year/

Man Who Claimed Disability Sentenced

2009-11-23T04:25:00.010-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
California tax officials say an interior designer’s false disability claim was uncovered when he was spotted on a home improvement television show.

http://news.by-expert.com/man-who-claimed-disability-sentenced/

Galileo's Fingers, Tooth Are Found

2009-11-23T04:25:00.009-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei’s corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

http://news.by-expert.com/galileos-fingers-tooth-are-found/

Man Freed After Killing Wife in Sleep

2009-11-23T04:25:00.008-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
A British man who said he strangled his wife during a nightmare about fighting off an intruder has been found innocent in her death.

http://news.by-expert.com/man-freed-after-killing-wife-in-sleep/

Did Bank Robbery Suspect Eat Evidence?

2009-11-23T04:25:00.007-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
Police say a bank robbery suspect in Ohio may have eaten evidence when he gobbled a piece of paper while handcuffed and lying across the hood of a police cruiser.

http://news.by-expert.com/did-bank-robbery-suspect-eat-evidence/

$40,000 in Rare Coins Left at Shrine

2009-11-23T04:25:00.006-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
Operators of a Catholic shrine in Maryland thought they had been blessed with a big donation this month when a worker found $40,000 worth of rare coins on the grounds. But officials at Mount St. Mary’s University said Wednesday that the bags of money had only been left at the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes for safekeeping.

http://news.by-expert.com/40000-in-rare-coins-left-at-shrine/

US Man Wins Rock-Paper-Scissors Title

2009-11-23T04:25:00.005-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
While dressed as Captain America in honor of his home country, Tim Conrad won the world Rock Paper Scissors championship in Toronto on Saturday night. The Michigan man, who defeated his best friend for the top honor, took home $7,000 in prize money. Oh, and in case you were wondering: paper ended up beating rock.

http://news.by-expert.com/us-man-wins-rock-paper-scissors-title/

Getting Soused

2009-11-23T04:25:00.003-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN

http://news.by-expert.com/getting-soused/

Mail Carrier Allegedly Found Drunk

2009-11-23T04:25:00.001-08:00

This article has been syndicated from CNN
Police in Marion, Iowa, and postal authorities are investigating the case of a mail carrier who was allegedly found drunk inside a residence while on the job. Police said the postal worker was charged with public intoxication after she was found sitting on the kitchen floor of 95-year-old woman’s house, eating leftover noodles from her refrigerator.

http://news.by-expert.com/mail-carrier-allegedly-found-drunk/

Maine says 'NO to Same Sex Marriage - YES TO POT!'

2009-11-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

It looks like the folks up in Maine want to be able to sit back, roll up a big doobie and smoke while they tell the homosexuals "You can't get married, nah nah nah na na na."

According to the Bangor Daily News Election Results page, 87% of the precincts have reported in and the current vote is at 52.75% of Mainers saying that they don't want to allow same-sex marriage compared to 47.25% who do want to support it. A difference of only 5.5% not a landslide, not a major victory but a very narrow margin.

The count is 266,324 voting YES to rescind the law and 238,595 a difference of only 27,729 votes, and there are still 65 precincts with almost 100,000 registered voters who haven't weighed in yet. But it looks as though "results are official."

What Maine was able to pass though was the Maine Medical Marijuana Act, Question 5, by an almost 60% favorable vote. Maine already had Medical Marijuana laws on the books thanks to a 1999 initiative that passed with a 61% vote, in 2002 it was amended by a State Bill that doubled the legal amount of pot that one could possess. Now they've passed a law similar to California's where dispensaries can be created to distribute marijuana.

So I guess the folks up in Maine like taking away people's rights to get married - but damn if they tell them they can't smoke pot!

Source: chicagonow.com