Google launches Google Drive, upgrades Gmail to 10 GB for all users

Google has launched Google Drive, a cloud storage service where users can upload and access all of their files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. The service is offering new users 5GB of storage for free with upgrades starting at 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. Google also increased the free storage in Gmail from the existing 7.5 GB to 10 GB to all users.

“Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive. To install these apps, visit the Chrome Web Store—and look out for even more useful apps in the future,” Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome and Apps, Google has said.

Google’s Dropbox competitor ‘Drive’ to launch today?

Google is preparing to roll out a service to let consumers store photos and other content online, a source familiar with the matter said, pushing into a market now dominated by the likes of Dropbox and Box.

The service, to be called Google Drive, could be announced as soon as Tuesday and would be offered with both free and premium for-pay versions, the source said.

Google’s “cloud storage” offering will incorporate search capabilities and allow users to store pictures, notes and other documents on the Internet and access them from any Web-connected device.

Consumers will get 5 Gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 Gibabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said.

It was not immediately clear how much Google will charge for the premium versions.

A Google spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumor or speculation.

The move turns up the competitive heat with high-profile Web startups such as Dropbox, Box and Evernote, as well as with Microsoft Corp and its SkyDrive service.

Some of those services, such as Box, have offered an increasing array of business-oriented features such as online collaboration capabilities.

Google is increasingly developing services to let consumers store their personal information, from digital music to photos, on remote internet servers and access the data any time with any device, such as smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.

The world’s No.1 web search engine with roughly $38 billion in 2011 revenue, Google generates 96 per cent of its revenue from advertising, such as the small ads that appear alongside its search results.

Google Drive will work with sophisticated image search technology to let consumers sift through a wide variety of document types, which could include the likes of Adobe PDF files and photographs, the source said.

Some details of Google Drive have appeared in various online blogs in recent months, including The Next Web, which first reported that the service could be rolled out this week.

Life of a Google Query

The “perfect search engine,” defined by co-founder Larry Page as something that, “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.” To that end, we have persistently pursued innovation and refused to accept the limitations of existing models. As a result, we developed our serving infrastructure and breakthrough PageRank™ technology that changed the way searches are conducted.

From the beginning, our developers recognized that providing the fastest, most accurate results required a new kind of server setup. Whereas most search engines ran off a handful of large servers that often slowed under peak loads, ours employed linked PCs to quickly find each query’s answer. The innovation paid off in faster response times, greater scalability and lower costs. It’s an idea that others have since copied, while we have continued to refine our back-end technology to make it even more efficient.

The software behind our search technology conducts a series of simultaneous calculations requiring only a fraction of a second. Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. We use more than 200 signals, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. We then conduct hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, we’re able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.

• PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

  PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance.

• Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Google also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user’s query.

Google innovations don’t stop at the desktop. To give people access to the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it, we continue to develop new mobile applications and services that are more accessible and customizable. And we’re partnering with industry-leading carriers and device manufacturers to deliver these innovative services globally. We’re working with many of these industry leaders through the Open Handset Alliance to develop Android, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform, which will offer people a less expensive and better mobile experience.

The life span of a Google query normally lasts less than half a second, yet involves a number of different steps that must be completed before results can be delivered to a person seeking information.

3.The search results are returned to the user in a fraction of a second.			1. The web server sends the query to the index servers. The content inside the index servers is similar to the index in the back of a book – it tells which pages contain the words that match the query.

	2. The query travels to the doc servers, which actually retrieve the stored documents. Snippets are generated to describe each search result.

Mozilla, Google Patch Browsers Before Hacker Fest

Google and Mozilla have been preparing for the Pwn2Own contest by patching their browsers. This is in anticipation to the contest, where hackers congregate to find and exploit vulnerabilities, especially in browsers. The same contest in the past had hackers holding on to existing but undiscovered vulnerabilities they knew about until the contest, when they exploited the same to save time. It’s little wonder that the Internet majors have patched up their browsers, as Google had paid $1,000 for their troubles last year. Google had also announced a $20,000 reward last month to anyone who can compromise its Chrome browser, which wasn’t be exploited in the last contest.

Google was the first to release a patch fixing 19 flaws in the Chrome browser; of which three bugs were classified as “medium” while the rest were marked as “high” risk vulnerabilities. This was followed by Mozilla publishing fixes for 10 security flaws in Firefox that included eight rated “critical,” while the remaining two were rated “High” and “Moderate”. One of those was particularly malicious, with the hackers being able to code a JPEG image that could save malicious code onto the system memory.

Speaking on the vulnerability, Mozilla warned its users, “Security researcher Jordi Chancel reported that a JPEG image could be constructed that would be decoded incorrectly, causing data to be written past the end of a buffer created to store the image. An attacker could potentially craft such an image that would cause malicious code to be stored in memory and then later executed on a victim’s computer.”

The Pwn2Own hacker contest has been an annual event since 2007, where hackers are encouraged, and even paid to compromise software, computing platforms and web browsers. However, it’s nothing illegal. The event sponsor pays reward money to the hacker and it in turn profits by alerting the vendors of vulnerabilities in their software/OS. The browsers targeted include Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Opera hasn’t been targeted because of the lack of widespread usage and the fact that the contestants use the browser for the same reason.

Successful hackers are asked to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding the vulnerabilities, and the vendors are free to patch their code with the information on vulnerabilities provided the sponsor. Think of this as a monetised form of ethical hacking, and everyone profits at the end of the day.

Google offers multiple sign ins in Gmail

Now those who have multiple accounts on the Gmail need not to enter the sign in or sign out process again and again. The Google engineers has offered the multiple sign in into the Gmails.

Users with multiple accounts on Gmail can use upto three email accounts through this new feature on the Gmail. For using the feature of the multiple sign in users need to go into the account option and change the setting.

New feature is not compatible in the picasa album and blogger. Users need to wait for sometime for the compatibility issue of Gmail multiple account signin at Blogger and Picasa.

Google received many requests from the users with multiple accounts who need to move from one account to other and undergo the process of sign in and sign out.

Google ‘researches’ social networks

Google has been researching social networking patterns, in what is believed to be preparation for the launch of its new social network, ‘Google Me’, according to reports.

Last month Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, started a rumour that Google was to launch a new social network, tweeting: “Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch Facebook competitor very soon “Google Me,” very credible source” on June 28.

Ever since technology pundits have been speculating as to how a new Google social network might work.

According to technology sites,Mashable and TechCrunch the search giant has been commissioning research into social networking habits, as preparation for the new launch.

TechCrunch’s tip-off leaked that the study is to take place at Google’s Dublin office and will take 60 minutes with pollsters receiving 60 Euros per survey. The questions are believed to centre around how social networking affects people’s lives both off and online.

A Google spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Paul Adams, Google’s lead user-experience researcher, recently posted a presentation of his onto the web which seems to reflect similar patterns of interest around social networks. In one section he looked at: ‘How interactions on the web are changing’.

He said: “The next stage of the web won’t have destinations, it will be a distributed network of content and people that will get reassembled depending on context and relationships. The increase in people interactions on the web will mean that building and managing communities will be important for responding to customer suggestions, queries, and complaints. Communities will need to be embedded in consumer experiences and not built at a new destination.”

TechCrunch’s Leena Rao said: “While the survey doesn’t confirm the existence of ‘Google Me’, it certainly is another piece of evidence pointing in that direction.”

Last week both Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, and Matt Brittin, Google’s UK chief, failed to deny that the company was creating a new social network.

Add Rich Text Signature in Gmail

Now add images, and change the font colors to make your own custom signature

If you’ve been using Gmail exhaustively then you’d surely love to add your contact details or a custom image at the end of each email you send. Google has introduced rich text editor for Gmail’s signatures using which you can set your own custom signatures including pictures and glitterati till you’re satisfied. 

Till date, a lot of people have tried their own workarounds like Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox, browser plugins and other ways. So far, one couldn’t change the signature text color but now Google’s software engineers have made it possible. Now users get to see a custom rich text editor just like in Gmail’s compose mode. Just in case you don’t know where signatures are, hit the Settings link in Gmail and scroll down till you see Signature option.

Not only that, Gmail also brings support email specific custom signatures. If you’ve associated one or more email address to a particular Gmail account then you can assign different signatures for each email address.

We don’t know how many of us would really be happy to see glittering and flashing red text as signatures. However, we do hope to see users making the best of it. Go ahead and impress your friends and clients with some cool text and images based custom signatures.

Google Discloses Requests on Users

Google Inc. moved to highlight the issue of government censorship and demands for information about Web users, just as the Internet company came under fire from a group of government officials over the way it handles user privacy.

The Silicon Valley giant Tuesday disclosed for the first time the number of requests it has received from government agencies for data about its users. Google also disclosed how many government requests it gets to remove content from its search engine, YouTube video site, Blogger blogging software and other services.

Google is also showing how often it complies with government demands to remove Web content and said it later plans to include how often it turns over data on users. Google’s disclosure tool, an online country map, excluded data for China where Google says numerating the requests would be illegal.

David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said the company decided that “greater transparency” about its activities could lead to less censorship. “We hope this tool will shine some light on the scale and scope of government requests for censorship and data around the globe,” he wrote in a blog post.

Google’s move comes as its critics continue to accuse the company and its peers of being reckless with user data. On Tuesday, a group of privacy commissioners from countries including Canada, France and the United Kingdom held a press conference to push Google to build better privacy protections into its services. On Monday, the group sent a letter scolding Google over privacy.

A Google spokesman said the company “released the tool now because we thought it would be useful in conversations about this trend.”

Google is pushing a broad campaign to try to curb censorship, an issue that contributed to a recent decision to shut down its censored search service in China. While Google faces heightened criticism for not doing enough to explain how it uses the information it collects, the company is trying to draw attention to other entities that seek user data.

Privacy advocates—who have long hounded Internet companies to be more open about how they use what they collect—praised the move. “It puts some numbers behind all the stories we have,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights non-proft organization.

Others cautioned the raw numbers are hard to interpret, in part because there is little to compare them with. But they said that showing how countries stack up is a first step.

Google says government requests for user data go through Google’s legal team, which examines each to see if it is valid based on the law, narrows the request if possible and complies only when it must legally do so. Some requests are backed by court order; others aren’t.

The company says it tries to notify users when information about their accounts has been requested. A Google spokesman said it is sometimes asked for account and log-in information.

The company’s new disclosure tool shows that Brazil made the most requests for user data during the last six months of 2009, with 3,663. The U.S. was second with 3,580. Brazil also led with 291 requests for removal of content, with Germany in second place and the U.S. fourth, behind India.

Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal, its federal prosecution service, said in a statement late Tuesday that it “acts based on reports of crime or complaints received directly from users” or forwarded by a nonprofit dedicated to child safety, according to a translation of the statement.

“The information released today by Google demonstrates the care with which all levels of law enforcement agencies treat electronically protected data,” said a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. She said the number of requests in the U.S. “reflects a targeted approach by law enforcement agencies to effectively root out” crimes by criminals such as identity thieves and child predators.

The Mountain View, Calif., company stressed limitations to the data, which don’t include countries where it receives a small amount of requests or statistics that could jeopardize important investigations. In the case of YouTube, the company said the data doesn’t include requests by government agencies for removal of copyrighted content.

In their Monday letter to Google, the privacy commissioners scolded the company for what they describe as a range of privacy abuses, ranging from inadequate protections in its social-networking service Buzz to its procedures for retaining images it gathers for its Street View mapping services. It calls on Google to create “privacy-protective” default settings and make it easy for people to delete their accounts, among other measures.

“We are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world’s citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications,” reads the letter, which also asks for Google to issue it a response for how it plans to meet these requirements. “Privacy cannot be sidelined in the rush to introduce new technologies to online audiences around the world,” it states.

A Google spokesman said in its response to the letter Monday that the company has “discussed all these issues publicly many times before” and had nothing to add.

European authorities have been among the Internet giant’s harshest critics when it comes to privacy issues, pressuring the company to shorten the time it retains search logs, for example.

European governments blasted a settlement between Google, authors and publishers over digital books in part over concerns with what Google would do with users’ reading records.

Criticism is the U.S has been building too. A group of lawmakers recently asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s roll-out of its Buzz service, which they contend exposed private information about Google users. Monday’s letter also dwells on Buzz, claiming its launch “betrayed a disappointing disregard for fundamental privacy norms and laws.” Days after launching Buzz, Google acknowledged it should have made some user privacy controls more prominent and adjusted the service.

Google search your way in city

All you need to know is where you are and which place you want to reach and Google maps will find the way for you. Not just this. The search engine will also tell you the place from where you can catch a public transport, the distance to be travelled, time required and expenditure for the trip. Already available in Delhi, such a facility may soon come to Chandigarh.

On Thursday, Jagjeet Chawla, product manager, Google India, said, “It will be easier to do it for Chandigarh as it is a well-planned city. Google maps have covered most places in India and road directions are already available to guide vehicles. For enabling maps to tell about public transport, we need schedules and routes from the government.”

Google is learned to have requested the central government to provide data of various public transport systems that can be mapped, like Delhi, where, for instance, if you wish to take the tube from Rajouri Garden to Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station Gate No 2, you must just enter your location and destination on Google map. In a few seconds, the engine will tell you that your journey will take 45 minutes, location of Metro station, frequency of tube on the route and nearby taxi stand.

Google search using speed to rank sites

Google web search rankings are now partly affected by a site’s speed, the company has announced on the same day as it reveals its first UK acquisition.

Google search results are now being based partly on a website’s speed, the company has announced. Previously, ranking was purely based on the relevance of a site to the terms a user searched for, but the system has been adjusted after Google studies found that site visitors discriminated against slow web pages.

The search giant said, however, that only a very small number of sites would be affected. Writing on the company’s Webmaster Central Blog, engineers Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts wrote that “While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1 per cent of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation. If you haven’t seen much change to your site rankings, then this site speed change possibly did not impact your site.” The blog post also emphasised the importance of speed for web users and provided links to tools that site owners could use to speed up their web pages.

The news came on the same day that Google announced it had bought Plink, a two person start-up based in Cambridge. The company works on visual search, and its first application, PlinkArt, identified a painting if a user took a photograph of it using their camera phone.

Founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin will now go to work on Google’s Goggles visual search application. Google added that the acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, marked the start of an ambition to buy one firm a month.