Google Wallet may be soon in Indian Pockets

Google is mulling to bring its mobile wallet services to the country.

According to Reuters, Google is forcing Android app developers to adopt Google Wallet and failure to do so might result in getting their apps suspended from the Android marketplace which is now known as the Google Play.

Google Wallet is a mobile payment system that allows its users to store credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards among other things, as well as redeeming sales promotions on their mobile phone.

So basically the Google Wallet service will initially meant for users who want to buy applications from Android Market. However, this may lead to full fledged roll out of the services in the country.
App developers who were earlier using payment services such as PayPal, Boku and Zong will now have to resort to Google Wallet which charges a higher transaction fee or charges per transaction resulting in lesser saving for the developers, ultimately lowering their profit margins per app sale.

But for the users the inclusion of an integrated service like Google wallet would mean lesser transaction time and even lesser worries as the Android devices already are linked to the Google account with which the wallet service is also linked.

With a one stop payment service, many app developers are also okay with the fact that users will have to suffer a lot less because of the simplified process and even though the charges for Google Wallet are little bit on the higher side, a lot of customers will now opt for purchases because it will be much simpler now.

There is no deadline set for the shift from third party payment services to Google Wallet for the payment services but many developers are shifting their services as they want to retain a good relationship with Google Android which has been on a growth path since the day of its launch.

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Google Maps Android application updated UI with simpler Navigation menu

Google has released a minor update for its Maps for Android app today. Bumped to version 6.4.0, app now includes simpler navigation menus for Google Maps Navigation. Company has replaced the vertical menu with a grid-based one.

There seems to be no change in other parts of the Maps app, so you are living one of the select countries where Maps Navigation is currently available, head over to Play Shop on your device or Google Play online to grab the update now.

Download upgraded Google Maps for Android here

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Google+ Now Available In 60 Languages with 8 Indian Languages

Google Plus (Google+) is fastly growing social network site owned by Google. You can share your thoughts and experience with your friends easily using Google Plus. Google plus is user friendly website it has more features. Language is very important to understand meanings, in previous Google plus was available in 44 languages around the world and now it is available in 60 languages including eight Indian languages(Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu). Even more people around the world can use Google+ in their native tongues.

Now it’s easy to start a Hangout in Zulu [Qala i-hangout], share your favorite photos in Tamil [படத்தைப் பகிரவும்], or post about your weekend in Urdu [اس اشاعت کا اشتراک کریں].

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Google forcing developers to use Google Wallet

Google Inc has been pressuring applications and mobile game developers to use its costlier in-house payment service, Google Wallet, as the Internet search giant tries to emulate the financial success of Apple Inc's iOS platform.

Google warned several developers in recent months that if they continued to use other payment methods - such as PayPal, Zong and Boku - their apps would be removed from Android Market, now known as Google Play, according to developers, executives and investors in mobile gaming and payment sectors.

Developers say the Internet search giant is trying to simplify consumer payments, hoping apps-buying will rise and offset their higher costs. Google's payment service charges a higher cut per transaction than some rivals'. But the move also suggests Google is using its powerful position in the mobile apps market to promote an in-house offering.

"Although this move by Google might seem high-handed, it reduces the friction for purchases inside Android apps and therefore makes users more valuable," said Hugo Troche, chief executive of Appsperse, a cross-promotion network for app discovery.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.

Android Market, or Google Play as it is now known, is the company's answer to Apple's apps store, where consumers browse and buy or download everything from games and music to individual software or applications. Google wants Google Wallet to be the dominant way that people pay for anything on this platform.

In one email sent to a developer in late August, Google said the developer had 30 days to comply, otherwise the developer's apps would be "suspended" from Android Market. Reuters obtained a copy of the email this week.

"They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use," said Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, a social gaming network on Android. "Whether it's right or wrong, we have to follow the rules."

Papaya placed social games on Android more than two years ago. At that time, the search company's payment service - now known as Google Wallet - was not available for Android app payments, Shen explained.

She said Papaya used PayPal, owned by eBay Inc, and Zong, a mobile payments company that has since been acquired by eBay. Papaya has now dropped PayPal and Zong in favor of Google Wallet for in-app billing, she said.

"If we had a choice, the freedom to choose which billing service, then that's even better. But if we have to follow the rules, we will," she added. "I want to maintain a very good relationship with Google. We are very collaborative. It's very important to the business."

MOTIVES

The initiative is important for Google. While Android Market has been a hit in terms of the number of smartphones using the platform, there has not been a commensurate increase in purchase activity by users.

In early 2011, Android platform manager Eric Chu told a conference that while the number of Android smartphone users was surging, the number of purchases of paid apps in the Android Market was not doing nearly as well, Forbes reported.

This is partly because the buying experience has been varied and confusing for users - reducing the chance that they will go through with a purchase, something known as conversion.

By pushing all app developers to use Google's payment system, the experience should be simpler, increasing conversion.

"On Android it used to be laissez faire - you could use any payment provider you liked," said Todd Hooper, chief executive of Zipline Games.

"It's probably naive of developers to think they could keep choosing different payment providers," he added. "If purchasing on Android is all over the place, that is worrying."

Apple's iOS platform generates higher conversion rates mainly because the company required developers to use its own payment system from day one, according to Hooper and others.

"This is one of the things that has helped Apple succeed," said Charles Hudson of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile social games company in San Francisco. "Every single developer is using the Apple payment system. Google sees the benefits that provides for the Apple platform and wants to create a similar system."

When Bionic Panda started on Android Market about a year ago, Google Wallet was not available, so the company used PayPal initially, Hudson said. It switched exclusively to Google Wallet around the spring of 2011, he added.

Developers using Google Wallet typically have to pay Google a 30 percent cut of revenue from purchases - higher than the cut taken by rival third-party payment services.

But Hudson and other developers said this may be worth it, if conversion rates increase.

When Bionic Panda dropped PayPal it lost some customers, but there was "an overall lift in conversion and monetization on a per-user basis," Hudson said.

"Without having to chose your payment option it's closer to the one-click experience of the Apple iOS platform," he added. "The convenience factor would outweigh customer losses."

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Google introduces Google Play - The upgraded version of Android Market

Google launches Google Play and say

"Google Play: All your entertainment, anywhere you go"

Google in it's blog post says

Entertainment is supposed to be fun. But in reality, getting everything to work can be the exact opposite—moving files between your computers, endless syncing across your devices, and wires…lots of wires. Today we’re eliminating all that hassle withGoogle Play, a digital entertainment destination where you can find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the web and on your Android phone or tablet. Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again.





With Google Play you can:

• Store up to 20,000 songs for free and buy millions of new tracks
• Download more than 450,000 Android apps and games
• Browse the world’s largest selection of eBooks
• Rent thousands of your favorite movies, including new releases and HD titles

Starting today, Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore will become part of Google Play. On your Android phone or tablet, we’ll be upgrading the Android Market app to the Google Play Store app over the coming days. Your videos, books and music apps (in countries where they are available) will also be upgraded to Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music apps. The music, movies, books and apps you’ve purchased will continue to be available to you through Google Play—simply log in with your Google account like always.


To celebrate, we’ll be offering a different album, book, video rental and Android app at a special price each day for the next week in our “7 Days to Play” sale. In the U.S., today’s titles include the collection of top 40 hits Now That's What I Call Music 41, the popular game Where's My Water, the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and the movie Puncture for just 25 cents each. In addition, you'll find great collections of hip-hop, rock and country albums for $3.99 all week, detective novels from $2.99, some of our editorial team's favorite movies from 99 cents, and our favorite apps from 49 cents.


In the U.S., music, movies, books and Android apps are available in Google Play. In Canada and the U.K., we’ll offer movies, books and Android apps; in Australia, books and apps; and in Japan, movies and apps. Everywhere else, Google Play will be the new home for Android apps. Our long-term goal is to roll out as many different types of content as possible to people around the world, and we’ll keep adding new content to keep it fresh.


To learn more, head over to play.google.com/about or keep up with the latest on ourGoogle+ page. If you’re headed to Austin later this week for South by Southwest, come to the Google Village to see Google Play in action. We can’t wait for you to try Google Play and experience a simpler way to manage your entertainment.

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Google Doodle honors International Women's Day

Internet Search Giant Google on Thursday paid tribute to women around the world with yet another of its patented doodles to mark International Women's Day.

Visitors to Google's website (www.google.com) were greeted with an image with symbols of women replacing the familiar Google logo.

The "G" in Google was replaced with the female symbol while one "o" depicted a flower.

As in the past, clicking on the doodle would bring a visitor to the site to a Google search results page for "International Women's Day."

On Thursday, the Philippines joins the world in marking International Women’s Day, an occasion observed since the early 1900s.

“Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike,” it said.

It said the new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation.

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Google releases Patch for 14 Chrome bugs, pays record $47K in bounties and bonuses

Google yesterday patched 14 vulnerabilities in Chrome and handed out a record $47,500 in rewards to researchers, including $30,000 for "sustained, extraordinary" contributions to its bug-reporting program.

The record checks were cut just two days before Google will put up to $1 million on the line at CanSecWest, a security conference set to kick off Tuesday and run through Thursday.

Sunday's security update to Chrome 17 was the second for that version since it launched Feb. 8.

All 14 of the vulnerabilities patched yesterday were labeled "high," Google's second-most-serious threat ranking.


Ten of the bugs were tagged as "use-after-free" memory management vulnerabilities, a common type of bug reported by researchers, who continue to use Google's own memory error detection tool, AddressSanitizer, to sniff out flaws.

While the 14 bugs reported by four outside researchers earned them $17,500 in bounty payments, Google also rewarded three of them with surprise bonuses of $10,000 each for what it said was "sustained, extraordinary" work.

The three bonuses went to researchers Aki Helin and Arthur Gerkis, and to someone identified as "miaubiz." All three reported vulnerabilities that Google patched Sunday.

They also have been among the most prolific researchers for Google.

In 2011, for example, miaubiz earned more than $40,000 in bounties, while Helin took home $7,500 and Gerkis received $4,000.

"To determine the [$10,000] rewards, we looked at bug finding performance over the past few months," said Jason Kersey, a Chrome program manager, in a Sunday blog. "We have always reserved the right to arbitrarily reward sustained, extraordinary contributions. We reserve the right to do so again and reserve the right to do so on a more regular basis!"

So far this year, Google has paid nearly $73,000 to outside researchers.

It could lay out a lot more than that this week at CanSecWest, the Vancouver, British Columbia, security conference that opens tomorrow.

Last week, Google withdrew its sponsorship of the annual Pwn2Own hacking contest at CanSecWest, and instead said it would offer up to $1 million in cash prizes to researchers who demonstrate exploits of unknown Chrome vulnerabilities.

Google will pay $60,000 for what it called a "full Chrome exploit" -- one that successfully hacks Chrome on Windows 7 using only vulnerabilities in Chrome itself -- $40,000 for every partial exploit that uses one bug within Chrome and one or more in other software, and $20,000 for "consolation" exploits that hack Chrome without using any vulnerabilities in the browser.

The company has promised to pay out as much as $1 million, assuming it has that many takers.

Also included with Sunday's Chrome 17 was an update to Adobe Flash Player. Google again beat Adobe to the punch on delivering a Flash upgrade; Adobe is issuing a security update today that fixes two critical flaws in the popular media software.

Adobe credited two members of Google's security team, Tavis Ormandy and Fermin Serna, with reporting the Flash bugs.

Sunday's update to Chrome 17 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Google's website. Users running the browser will be updated automatically through its silent service.

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Jelly Bean is next Android OS, confirms Asus Corporate VP

Back in September, even before Google's current operating software was introduced, it was reported that Google would name their future Android OS, Jelly Bean. Google has a tradition of adopting names of desserts for the operating software and have in the past gone with the likes of Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb and more recently Ice Cream Sandwich.

Another interesting piece of information is that all these monikers are titled alphabetically. Rumours were rife that the name of the upcoming Android OS would be titled Jelly Bean as there were not many desserts that start with the alphabet J.

The report in the past could not be as concrete as the source of the latest information about the name comes from Asus's Corporate Vice President Benson Lin in an exclusive interview with Tech Radar.
Asus is the first brand to release Google's current Android operating software Ice Cream Sandwich on a tablet.

Speaking at the interview, Lin said, "Asus is very close to Google, so once they have Android 5.0 I think there will be a high possibility that we will be the first wave to offer the Jelly Bean update."

This bit of information may not come as a surprise as Asus is generally quick in offering Android updates. They were the first brand to release Google's current Android operating software Ice Cream Sandwich on a tablet.

This tablet was the Asus Transformer Prime. Judging by Lin's statement we can certainly expect the update to be pushed out to their devices almost as soon as Jelly Bean is announced.

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Hack Chrome and get $1 Million from Google

Internet search giant Google has announced that it would pay up to one million dollars in prizes to hackers who can expose bugs and vulnerabilities in their Chrome browser.

Calling it a "big learning opportunity," Google staffers Chris Evans and Justin Schuh unveiled three ways in which hackers can win the cash by finding flaws in their technology.

A top prize of 60,000 dollars will go to each hacker who can find a "Full Chrome exploit", a flaw that exists exclusively in Chrome.

The next prize of 40,000 dollars will be paid to those who can find a "Partial Chrome exploit", a bug or flaw in Chrome that may also exist in other programs.

Lastly, Google will give 20,000 dollars "Consolation rewards" to hackers who expose bugs of "exploits" that are not specific to Chrome, but affect users of all Internet browsers, The New York Daily News reports.

"We will issue multiple rewards per category, up to the 1 million dollar limit, on a first-come-first served basis," the Google Chrome Security Team said in a blog post.

Each winner will also score a Chromebook, the report said.

Earlier Facebook also offered incentives to programmers who can help expose bugs.

The social networking giant began giving out "White Hat Bug Bounty Program" Visa cards last year, doling out thousands of dollars to hackers who found flaws and paying them on an exclusive debit card, which can be used just like a credit or ATM card.

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Google's new privacy policy breaking law says EU Commissioner

Data protection agencies in European countries have concluded Google Inc's new privacy policy is in breach of European law, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Thursday.

France's data protection watchdog, the CNIL, has also cast doubt on the legality of the policy and informed Google it would lead a European-wide investigation into this.

Reding told BBC Radio Four data control authorities in Europe asked French counterparts to analyze the new policy.

"And they have come to the conclusion that they are deeply concerned, and that the new rules are not in accordance with the European law, and that the transparency rules have not been applied," Reding said.

Google said in January it was simplifying its privacy policy, consolidating 60 guidelines into a single one that will apply to all its services including YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+.

Users cannot opt out of the new policy if they want to continue using Google's services.

Asked in what respects the policy could be breaking EU law, Reding said: "In numerous respects. One is that nobody had been consulted, it is not in accordance with the law on transparency and it utilizes the data of private persons in order to hand it over to third parties, which is not what the users have agreed to."

It would have been impossible for Google to instigate the policy under proposed legislation she laid out on January 25, Reding said.

"Protection of personal data is a basic rule of the European Union. It is inscribed in the treaties. It is not an if, it is a must," she said.

Google earlier posted a blog defending its policy after what it called "a fair amount of chatter and confusion."

"Our privacy policy is now much easier to understand," the company said.

"We've included the key parts from more than 60 product-specific notices into our main Google Privacy Policy -- so there's no longer any need to be your own mini search engine if you want to work out what's going on."

Reding argued most users were unaware of what they were signing up to when they used mainstream Internet services.

"Seventy percent of users rarely, or never, use terms and conditions which very often are written in small print, very complicated, not understandable for the normal user, and users are worried," she told the BBC.

"Eighty percent of British citizens say they're concerned about what is going on now."

She also said these issues affected many companies, not just Google.

"We know data is the bloodstream of these new industries ... but at the same time there are basic European rules ... which have to be applied, and unfortunately we always see that those rules are just not observed, and illegality is taking over."

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Google releases Panda 2.0 - Official Release

Late February, Google launched a substantial algorithm change (known as “Farmer” or “Panda”) aimed at identifying low-quality pages and sites. These are pages (often seen on so-called “content farms”) with text that is relevant for a query, but may not provide the best user experience. (Google calls it a “high quality sites algorithm”.) Today, Google has rolled this change out to all English language queries and made a few minor updates (with an estimated impact to 2% of U.S. queries).

Live for All English Queries
The original algorithm update impacted only U.S. queries. As of today, this change is live for all English queries worldwide. This includes both English speaking countries (such as searches on google.co.uk, and google.com.au) and English queries in non-English countries (for instance, for a searcher using google.fr who’s chosen English-language results).

In the United States, the initial launch impacted nearly 12% of queries, so it stands to reason that the impact may be similar for English-speaking searchers across the world.

Incorporating Searcher Data About Blocked Sites
Google has always used a number of signals in determining relevant search results. Some of these are on the pages themselves (such as the text on a page), some are on other sites (such as anchor text in links to a page), and some are based on user behavior (for instance, Google gathers data about how long pages take to load by using toolbar data from users who access those pages).

In recent months, Google has launched two ways for searchers to block particular sites from their search results. The first was a Chrome extension. More recently, Google has launched a block link directly in the search results that appears once a searcher has clicked from the results to a site and then return to the search results.

When Panda launched initially, Google said that they didn’t use data about what sites searchers were blocking as a signal in the algorithm, but they did use the data as validation that the algorithm change was on target. They found an 84% overlap in sites that were negatively impacted by Panda and sites that users had blocked with the Chrome extension.

Now, they are using data about what searchers have blocked in “high confidence situations”. Google tells me this is a secondary, rather than primary factor. If the site fits the overall pattern that this algorithm targets, searcher blocking behavior may be used as confirmation.

Impact Seen To a Wider Variety of Sites
In the initial launch, large sites were primarily affected. This makes sense as larger sites, with more pages, traffic, and links, have more signals available. With the latest update, smaller sites may see an impact. Amit Singhal, in charge of search quality at Google, notes in the blog post, “this change also goes deeper into the “long tail” of low-quality websites to return higher-quality results where the algorithm might not have been able to make an assessment before”.

Amit Singhal told me,

“We’re focused on showing users the highest quality, most relevant pages on the web. We’re cautious not to roll out changes until we’re confident that they improve the user experience, while at the same time helping the broader web ecosystem. We incorporate new signals into our algorithm only after extensive testing, once we’ve concluded that they improve quality for our users.”
What To Do If Your Site Is Impacted
When this change was launched in the United States, site owners who were impacted were vocal in their unhappiness and Google opened a thread in the Google webmaster central discussion forum so site owners could provide feedback to Google. In the latest post, they said:

“Based on our testing, we’ve found the algorithm is very accurate at detecting site quality. If you believe your site is high-quality and has been impacted by this change, we encourage you to evaluate the different aspects of your site extensively. Google’s quality guidelines provide helpful information about how to improve your site. As sites change, our algorithmic rankings will update to reflect that. In addition, you’re welcome to post in our Webmaster Help Forums. While we aren’t making any manual exceptions, we will consider this feedback as we continue to refine our algorithms.”
As I noted in my previous articles, take an objective look at the user experience of the site:

Can visitors easily find their way around?
Is it obvious what topic each page is about?
Is the content original or is it aggregated from other sources?
Do the number and placement of the ads obscure the visitor’s ability to quickly access the content?
When looking objectively at the site, is the primary focus the user need or the business goal?
Is the content on the page authoritative and valuable? Does it answer the query better than other pages on the web?
If some of the pages on the site are very high quality and engaging, are other pages on the site not as high quality? (Google has stated that enough low quality content on a site can reduce the entire site’s rankings, not just the low quality pages.)
Use these findings to target improvements to your site that will enhance the overall user experience (which should also benefit overall engagement, loyalty, and conversion).

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Google Glasses to see the web world in real life - Virtual reality web browsing

Later this year, Google is expected to start selling eyeglasses that will project information, entertainment and, this being a Google product, advertisements onto the lenses. The glasses are not being designed to be worn constantly — although Google engineers expect some users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed, with the lenses serving as a kind of see-through computer monitor.

“It will look very strange to onlookers when people are wearing these glasses,” said William Brinkman, graduate director of the computer science and software engineering department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. “You obviously won’t see what they can from the behind the glasses. As a result, you will see bizarre body language as people duck or dodge around virtual things.”

Mr. Brinkman, whose work focuses on augmented reality or the projection of a layer of information over physical objects, said his students had experimented on their own with virtual games and obstacle courses. “It looks really weird to outsiders when you watch people navigate these spaces,” he said.

They have not seen the Google glasses. Few people have, because they are being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main Mountain View, Calif., campus where engineers and scientists are also working on robots and space elevators.

The glasses will use the same Android software that powers Android smartphones and tablets. Like smartphones and tablets, the glasses will be equipped with GPS and motion sensors. They will also contain a camera and audio inputs and outputs.

Several people who have seen the glasses, but who are not allowed to speak publicly about them, said that the location information was a major feature of the glasses. Through the built-in camera on the glasses, Google will be able to stream images to its rack computers and return augmented reality information to the person wearing them. For instance, a person looking at a landmark could see detailed historical information and comments about it left by friends. If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party. They might also be used for virtual reality games that use the real world as the playground.

People flailing their arms in midair as they play those games is a potentially humorous outcome of the virtual reality glasses. In a more serious vein is the almost certain possibility of privacy issues and ubiquitous advertisements. When someone is meeting a person for the first time, for example, Google could hypothetically match the person’s face and tell people how many friends they share in common on social networks.

This month, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research and advocacy group for Internet privacy, asked the Federal Trade Commission to suspend the use of facial recognition software until the government could come up with adequate safeguards and privacy standards to protect citizens.

Mr. Brinkman said he was very excited by the possibilities of the glasses, but acknowledged that the augmented reality glasses could pose some ethical issues.

“In addition to privacy, it’s also going to change real-world advertising, where companies can virtually place ads over other people’s ads,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing how the government can successfully regulate augmented reality in this sense. They are not really going to know what people are seeing behind those glasses.”

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Yahoo, Gmail should route all mails through Indian servers

Internet content providers Yahoo, Gmail and others would be asked to route all emails accessed in India through the country even if the mail account is registered outside the country.

The move comes in the wake of instances where security agencies could not have a real-time access to some emails as they were registered outside the country but were opened in India.

During a recent high-level meeting held in the office of Union Home Secretary RK Singh, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) was asked to take up the matter at the earliest with the content providers.

During the meeting, director general from CERT-in informed that content provider Yahoo automatically locates all email accounts registered in India to the server in India, minutes of the meeting said.

However, Yahoo accounts registered outside India and subsequently accessed from India are routed through servers outside India, it said.

"It was decided to advice Yahoo, Gmail etc that all emails accessed from India should be routed through servers in India," it said, adding that the DIT would take up the matter with the content providers.

When the content provider was approached, the sleuths were told that in order to see the mails, which had been accessed from India, a request to a European nation where the server was based, was required, official sources said.

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Pakistan's Mobilink officially launches Gmail SMS

Mobilink officially announced the launch of Gmail SMS in collaboration with Google. Mobilink and Google signed an MoU to launch this innovative service earlier last month.

Gmail SMS, a free web-to-SMS service which enables a Gmail user to send SMS to any Mobilink subscriber via Gmail. Mobilink subscribers can also reply back to that SMS which will appear on user’s Gmail interface.

Speaking at the occasion, VP Marketing Mobilink, Jahanzeb Taj stated, “This is indeed an innovative step towards enhancing the accessibility of Mobilink subscribers by allowing them to be connected with Gmail users anywhere in the world via SMS. We are proud to have been able to partner with Google Inc. on this initiative which is another move in strengthening of our commitment to reshape lives through connectivity.”

Ahmad Hamzawi, Head of New Business Development for Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, Google Inc. said, “We are excited to partner with Mobilink, the country’s premier cellular services provider to offer the ability for users worldwide to communicate via Gmail with millions of Mobilink’s subscribers. We feel this is a tremendous opportunity that will facilitate desktop to mobile communication and we look forward to deepening our relationship with Mobilink with other value added services”.

To use the service, the chat must be initiated by a Gmail user logged into the Gmail account via web browser. SMS sent by Gmail users to Mobilink subscribers will be free of cost while SMS sent by Mobilink subscribers to Gmail users will be charged at Rs. 1+Tax/SMS. No subscription is required to avail Gmail SMS service. Spam Protection Policy & Quota System (as defined by Google) will be applicable.

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Microsoft slams Google bypassed Internet Explorer Privacy Policies

In the wake of reports that Google had bypassed privacy settings in Safari, Microsoft announced today it had discovered the Web giant had done the same with Internet Explorer.

"When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: Is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too?" IE executive Dean Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post this morning. "We've discovered the answer is yes: Google is employing similar methods to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track IE users with cookies."

The blog post, which details Microsoft's findings and offers privacy protection tips, said it has contacted Google about its concerns and asked it to "commit to honoring P3P privacy settings for users of all browsers".

Google representatives did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

In the blog post, Hachamovitch explained how the bypass occurs:

Technically, Google utilizes a nuance in the P3P specification that has the effect of bypassing user preferences about cookies. The P3P specification (in an attempt to leave room for future advances in privacy policies) states that browsers should ignore any undefined policies they encounter. Google sends a P3P policy that fails to inform the browser about Google's use of cookies and user information. Google's P3P policy is actually a statement that it is not a P3P policy.


P3P, or Platform for Privacy Preferences, is an official recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium that sites use to summarize their privacy policies. However, the recommendation has been largely ignored in the past decade since introduction a decade ago with many major Web sites such as Google.com, Apple.com, CNN.com, and Twitter.com opting not to use it to describe their policies.

Hachamovitch also took the opportunity to point out at IE users have access to a Tracking Protection List that it says prevents the P3P bypass. Additionally, he said Microsoft is "investigating what additional changes to make to our products. The P3P specification says that browsers should ignore unknown tokens. Privacy advocates involved in the original specification have recently suggested that IE ignore the specification and block cookies with unrecognized tokens."

Microsoft slammed Google earlier this week after The Wall Street Journal reported that Google had sidestepped Safari user privacy settings to track Internet users. The search giant and other ad companies reportedly used special code to get around Safari's privacy controls in order to track users on computers and mobile devices.

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Google cookies bypassed Apple's Safari privacy protection to track users

Google and other online advertisers bypassed the privacy settings of an Apple Web browser on iPhones and computers in order to survey millions of users, stated a report on Friday.

The report said the companies used a special code that tricks Apple's Safari software into letting them monitor the browsing habits of many users.

Safari -- the most widely used browser on mobile devices and the default browser on iPhones and Mac laptops -- is designed to block such tracking by default, the report said.

The Journal said Google disabled the code after the newspaper contacted it and that Google removed a message on its website saying users could rely on Safari to prevent the search giant from tracking them.

It quoted Google as saying the report "mischaracterises what happened and why."

"We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It's important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information."

The report quoted an Apple official as saying the company was "working to put a stop" to the circumvention of the privacy settings.

The code was first spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and independently confirmed by Ashkan Soltani, a technical adviser to the report.

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Google, Facebook,Yahoo face possible forex violation probe in India says report

The Wall Street Journal has reported that India's federal finance ministry, which tracks foreign exchange transactions and money laundering activities, have sent notices to the local branches of Google and Yahoo, according to an unnamed senior official. The Web companies are being investigated for potential foreign exchange violations, the source added.

A Google India spokesperson pointed out that it had not received the notice and was not able to comment on specific details. Yahoo India declined to comment, said the report.

The Google spokesperson also told WSJ: "We have an obligation to our shareholders to set up a tax efficient structure and our present structure is compliant with the tax rules in all the countries where we operate...We make a very substantial contribution to local and national taxation and provide employment for close to 2,000 people in India."

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European Union Clears Google Acquisition of Motorola

European Union antitrust regulators on Monday approved Google’s acquisition of the U.S. cellphone maker Motorola Mobility without conditions, but added a stern warning: Play fair in markets for smartphones and tablet computers, or face tough sanctions.

Joaquín Almunia, the E.U. competition commissioner, did not impose any formal requirements before Google could complete the $12.5 billion deal that represents the Internet search giant’s first foray into hardware.

But the deal, coming at a time of heightened scrutiny by regulators over ownership of intellectual property governing computers and mobile communications, moved Mr. Almunia to indicate that the commission would be watching.

The decision, he said in a statement, “does not mean that the merger clearance blesses all actions by Motorola in the past or all future action by Google.” He said any action on “the question whether Motorola’s or Google’s conduct is compliant with E.U. antitrust law” would be taken separately.

Because U.S. and European regulators seek to coordinate on major transactions when possible, the Department of Justice, which is also reviewing the deal for antitrust concerns, could similarly approve the deal soon.

The clearance in Europe will also come as a relief for Google: The company is still attempting to fend off a separate investigation by the commission into whether the company has abused a dominant position in online search and advertising.

If it wins global approval, the takeover could give Google a portfolio of patents that form an impressive defense against infringement claims as it works to develop its popular Android operating system for mobile devices. Google could also use the expertise and facilities acquired in the purchase as a step to manufacturing other consumer devices, including a home entertainment system.

Mr. Almunia said he cleared the deal partly because Google’s business model has been to share its Android mobile operating system with other device makers in order to gain the widest user base, making it less likely that the company would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola, which is a relatively minor player in Europe.

But Mr. Almunia expressed strong concerns about the way powerful technology companies had participated in setting the standards for the proper functioning of mobile devices like smartphones.

Owners of such patents could, “hold up competitors or even an entire industry to the detriment of consumers and innovation,” he said. “I can assure you that the commission will take further action if warranted to ensure that the use of standard essential patents by all players in the sector.”

Phone makers including Apple, Motorola and Samsung — a South Korean company that relies heavily on Android for many of its products — are pursuing legal battles worldwide over the levels and fairness of fees that they impose on each other for using patented technologies.

The commission is already investigating Samsung for the way it used standard essential patents and for the way it sought injunctions against its competitors in national courts. “That review is on-going and is being dealt with as a priority,” said Mr. Almunia, referring to the case against Samsung.

In one of the most recent cases, Apple filed a lawsuit in California last week claiming that the Galaxy Nexus, a Samsung smartphone, infringes on patents underlying the features customers expect from Apple products, like how the phone is unlocked and how it searches for information by voice command.

Last week, Google wrote to standard-setting organizations around the world pledging to license Motorola patents on fair and reasonable terms if the deal succeeded. Google promised to keep a cap on the fees it charges for licensing its technology at a top rate of 2.25 percent of the net selling price for each phone and sought to outline the conditions under which it would sue companies for patent infringement.

Google asked for permission to complete the deal in November, and the merger review lasted a month longer than originally foreseen because the commission asked Google for additional evidence in the case. But Google managed to fend off the much lengthier, in-depth review.

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Google releases Chrome Browser for Android - The faster browser for PC is now available for Phones

Launch:

Google officially releases the Beta version of Chrome for Android Operating system. This can be successfully installed in Android powered smartphones. The official version of Chrome Beta Browser can be downloaded from the Android Market for free. Google's official Blog post by Sundar Pichai boasts the features of Chrome Beta.

Description
The speed and simplicity of Chrome, now on your Android phone and tablet.
Browse fast on your Android smartphone or tablet, and bring your personalized Chrome experience with you anywhere you go. Chrome for Android is available, initially in Beta, on Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. To check if it is available in your country, please visit: http://goo.gl/6ARvc
Features:
- Browse fast with accelerated page loading, scrolling, and zooming
- Search and navigate directly from the omnibox
- Open and switch between unlimited tabs in an easy-to-view stack
- Sign in to Chrome to sync your bookmarks and view tabs you have open on your computer
- Send pages from desktop Chrome to your smartphone or tablet with one click and read them on the go, even if you’re offline
- Browse privately in Incognito mode

Screenshot:

Customer Feedbacks:

Several users reported that Flash is missing in this chrome. But anyway themselves console by considering Flash is almost dead.

User Ratings: 4.5 / 5

Download Links : Chrome Beta for Android Download now

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Google removed controversial contents after Court's order - [Web Censorship]

Google Inc. removed some controversial content from its Indian services to comply with a court order in a civil lawsuit, the latest twist in the legal drama over Web censorship in the world's largest democracy.

A person familiar with the matter said Google removed content from its Search service, YouTube video site and Blogger after receiving an order to do so from Judge Mukesh Kumar of a New Delhi district court.

The material, which includes images of religious figures, has been removed only on Google's localized India Web domain—it is still accessible elsewhere.

In a written statement, Google said: "This step is in accordance with Google's longstanding policy of responding to court orders." The company didn't say which specific items it removed.

The court also issued directions to Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc. to take down offensive content from their sites. Facebook and Yahoo declined to comment.

The district court judge's orders stem from a civil suit filed against several Internet companies by Ajiaz Arshad Qasmi, a private citizen.

The suit alleges that the companies hosted content that is intolerant of religious communities and that could spark communal unrest in India.

That isn't the only challenge Web companies are facing in India. A separate criminal lawsuit brought by journalist Vinay Rai makes a similar set of allegations against Google, Facebook and others. A trial in that case is set to begin next month, but a Delhi High Court judge will hear the companies' appeal to quash the case Feb. 14.

Controversy over edgy Web content is growing as Internet use increases in India. Free-speech advocates have expressed concern that the lawsuits and recent actions by the government amount to censorship and muzzling of open debate.

Google's general policy is to monitor content flagged as offensive by users and check whether it violates the company's terms of usage or the laws of the countries in which it operates. In India, government officials often invoke laws against inciting enmity between communities as reasons for wanting to censor politically or religiously sensitive content.

Between January and June 2011, Google received government requests in India to remove 358 items of content and complied a little more than half the time, according to the company's Google Transparency Report. One local law-enforcement agency asked the company to remove 236 social-networking communities and profiles that were critical of a local politician, but Google denied the request on the grounds that the material didn't violate its terms of usage or local law.

Indian regulations put in place last year require Internet companies to remove within 36 hours of being notified offensive material, including content that is "grossly harmful" or "ethnically objectionable."

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