Google's 2011 Shopping list

Google has really involved itself in loads of activities this year, including buying a number of tech companies and start-ups, just so as to keep in shape with the fierce competition that the tech landscape has seen this year.

As the year is about to end we bring you list of all the companies that google has acquired in 2011. It may not be surprising to see more additions latter in the year since things do happen fasted than you expect in the tech world.

	Date of Acquisition	Company	Business	Country	Value	Used As
	02011-01-13 January 13, 2011	eBook Technologies	E-book	USA		Google Books
	02011-01-25 January 25, 2011	SayNow	Voice Recognition	USA		Google Voice
	02011-01-26 January 26, 2011	fflick	Social networking service	USA	$&1000000001000000000000010,000,000	YouTube
	02011-03-01 March 1, 2011	Zynamics	Security	GER
	02011-03-07 March 7, 2011	BeatThatQuote.com	Price comparison service	UK	£37,700,000	Google Advisor
	02011-03-07 March 7, 2011	Next New Networks	Online video	USA		YouTube
	02011-03-16 March 16, 2011	Green Parrot Pictures	Digital video	IRL		YouTube
	02011-04-08 April 8, 2011	PushLife	Service provider	CAN	$&1000000002500000000000025,000,000
	02011-04-26 April 26, 2011	TalkBin	Mobile software	USA		Android
	02011-05-23 May 23, 2011	Sparkbuy	Price comparison service	USA		Google Product Search
	02011-06-03 June 3, 2011	PostRank	Social media analytics service	CAN
	02011-06-09 June 9, 2011	Admeld	Online advertising	USA	$&10000000400000000000000400,000,000	DoubleClick, Invite Media
	02011-06-18 June 18, 2011	SageTV	Media Center	USA		Google TV
	02011-07-08 July 8, 2011	Punchd	Loyalty program	USA		Google Wallet
	02011-07-21 July 21, 2011	Fridge	Social groups	USA		Google+
	02011-07-23 July 23, 2011	PittPatt	Facial recognition system	USA		Android
	02011-08-01 August 1, 2011	Dealmap	One deal a day service	USA		Google Offers
	02011-08-15 August 15, 2011	Motorola Mobility	Mobile device manufacturer	USA	$&1000001250000000000000012,500,000,000	Android, Google TV
	02011-09-07 September 7, 2011	Zave Networks	Digital coupons	USA		Google Offers
	02011-09-08 September 8, 2011	Zagat	Restaurant reviews	USA	$&10000000151000000000000151,000,000	Google Places
	02011-09-19 September 19, 2011	DailyDeal	One deal a day service	GER	$&10000000114000000000000114,000,000	Google Offers
	02011-10-11 October 11, 2011	SocialGrapple	Social Media analytics service	USA		Google+
	02011-11-10 November 10, 2011	Apture	Instantaneous search	USA		Google Search
	02011-11-14 November 14, 2011	Katango	Social circle organization	USA		Google+

All these made up a total of 24 acquisitions for this year only and there are rumours of more to come before the end of the year.

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Top Five Newest Smartphones

We check out the best high-tech phones in the market and here is our result:

1. Samsung Galaxy Nexus

It doesn't have the 5.3-inch screen of the recently released Galaxy Note, but the Nexus is no lightweight either, boasting a 4.6-inch high-definition screen and 1.2GHz dual core processor. The real attraction, though, is the fact that the Nexus will be the first smartphone to show off the new Android 4.0 software - also known as Ice Cream Sandwich - and will include advanced new features such as face-recognition to unlock the phone.





2. RIM Porsche Design P 9981

RIM really needs a hit to make up for its network downtime last month, and the P'9981 is certainly a looker - as it should be if the rumours about the price are true. Essentially an upmarket version of the Bold 9900, the P'9981 is made out of gleaming stainless steel, wrapped in sleek black leather. The inside of the phone is conventional enough, with a 1.2GHz processor and 2.8-inch touch-screen, but RIM has come up with some fancy new software. This includes as an augmented-reality 'world browser' that can locate fancy restaurants and expensive Porsche dealerships all over the world.

3. HTC Rezound

HTC's latest arrives imminently - but only in the US. The Rezound looks very similar to the Sensation XE that other markets have seen, with a 4.3-inch screen, 1.5GHz processor and the Beats sound system. However, the screen of the Rezound is full 720p high-def and the phone has 16GB of storage compared to the modest 4GB of the Sensation XE. It costs about $650 sim-free in the US, but there's no news yet on whether it'll be released anywhere outside the States.




4.HTC Edge

Apple's only just put a dual-core processor into its new iPhone 4S, but if the rumours on the net are to be believed then HTC is about to go one better - or two better in fact - with a quad-core powerhouse called the Edge. We don't know much more about the rumoured phone yet, but the quad-chip is believed to run at 1.5GHz, and will be accompanied by a 4.7-inch high-def screen and 8MP camera. The new chip is designed by the graphics gurus at nVidia, so you can expect some serious eye-candy when this one arrives


5. Motorola Razr

Motorola hasn't actually announced the launch date of its new Razr, but sites such as Amazon are already taking orders for it so you shouldn't have to wait too long. The Razr is a streamlined marvel, measuring just 7.7mm thick, yet its toughened Gorilla Glass 4.3-inch screen and woven Kevlar back panel give it a quality feel and ensure that it'll cope with the occasional bit of rough treatment. Your emails and contact info are kept safe too, thanks to high-tech encryption techniques, and there's plenty of power from the 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1080p high-def video recording.

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Google Reader Redesign needs fixing

You know something went wrong with your site's redesign when two people who used to work on it publish detailed, scathing assessments.Google Reader, revamped this week, falls into that category. Google gave the RSS site the new red-and-black look that's sprouting at Gmail and elsewhere and, deeper down, changed the mechanics of how people can share posts they're interested in.
Former Google Reader product manager Brian Shih took Google to task for a monochromatic user interface (UI) that squanders too much screen space on a header bar and for making it harder to share posts: "Taking the UI paradigm for Google+ and mashing it onto Reader without any apparent regard for the underlying function is awful and it shows."
And former Google Reader lead designer Kevin Fox offered to come back to Google for three months to undo what he sees as the redesign's damage. He said he believed "Google Reader was held to a mandate of refreshing Google products under a common style guide" but without the staff to fine-tune the interface for Reader.

The redesigned Google Reader (right) uses less color and more white space.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Also piling on are numerous people on the Google Reader forum: "How do I revert this absolutely horrible style?" "Slow with dumb scroll bar." "Bring back COLOR!" "Please change Google Reader back!"
I have sympathy for these concerns. I appreciate that the new Gmail and Google Apps interfaces that use this same template can be set up with denser text for those who prefer more text and less white space (me), so the fact that you can't on Google Reader is unpleasant.
And I can't stand the monochromatic look. The Reader site looks much more polished, but color has a lot of information value in communicating what's active or important. It's also useful for demarcating different entries in an RSS feed so I can scan titles faster, for example.
Almost the only relief from this dreary black and gray tedium is a giant red "subscribe" button. Maybe Google's heat-map statistics show that a lot of people click on this, which in the old interface was more descriptively labeled "add a subscription." But I haven't, not once, in years of usage, and I suspect hardcore Reader fans would be better served with something with more utility. Right now, a full top third of my laptop screen is lost to overhead rather than the actual content.
Breaking the old-style Reader sharing is a more serious question. It's completely fair to drive people to Google+ for this mechanism, not only as a way to drive Google+ usage and utility but also to avoid duplicating development and server resources. But I agree with Fox's idea that it would have been better to "rebuild Google Reader's social sharing using the Google Plus API as a foundation."
As it stands, Reader gets nothing special out of Google+; it's just another source of URLs that can be posted, albeit with some automation that your average Web site often lacks. So the social aspect of feed-reading probably will suffer.
But I think it's worth it to step back for a moment.
First, I'm unconvinced that RSS (and Atom, its rival technology for subscribing to a Web site's updates) will be a big deal for mainstream users.
I like my RSS feeds. My usage of Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ has definitely cut into my RSS time, but it hasn't replaced feeds. The RSS subscription extension for Chrome was one of the first extensions I installed. But I'm an information junkie, off at the far end of the data-voraciousness spectrum. I suspect social RSS reading was even nichier than RSS use in general, and when it comes to building products for mainstream users, Google was right to focus its energies on Google+.
Second, site redesigns always bring out a huge contingent of people vociferously rejecting what's different. Sometimes they have very good reasons, but sometimes it's because they just don't like change. And as much as I hate re-learning how to use the same Web site, it's safe to say that change is a competitive necessity for today's world of strong competition for online services.
Stasis is most definitely not bliss, and Google has to move. Resurrecting the old-style Reader sharing doesn't seem like it's in the cards, but there's plenty of work to be done addressing complaints that are negotiable.

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Google Turns The +1 Button Into Its "Like" Button (Finally) - Now Good for Rankings and Traffic

Google has announced changes to the +1 button that could mean huge things for sites and businesses in terms of driving traffic. Google has turned the +1 button into what it should have been when Google+ was launched: a means of sharing content to your Google+ Circles. Or in other words, Google's version of the "like" button.

Do you expect Google's +1 buttons to have a major impact on traffic? Let us know what you think, leave your comments below.

Before, the +1 button was basically just a way of telling Google that content was good enough to be considered a good search result. It presumably still serves this function as well. +1s simply showed up in the +1s tab on a user's profile. You know, where none of your friends see them.

Now, you can share content with your circles more easily like you're using a social network - which you now are.

For publishers, this should be tremendously helpful in boosting traffic from Google+. It means more visibility and more reason for people to share your content on Google+.

"Clicking the +1 button is a great way to highlight content for others when they search on Google.," says Google's Vic Gundotra. "But sometimes you want to start a conversation right away—at least with certain groups of friends. So beginning today, we're making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button. Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new 'Share on Google+' option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share."

"When you share content from the +1 button, you'll notice that we automatically include a link, an image and a description in the sharebox," he adds. "We call these '+snippets,' and they're a great way to jumpstart conversations with the people you care about."

Publishers can customize +snippets. You can alter the markup to fit the kind of content you provide. "You may already be using this markup to build rich annotations for your pages on Google Search," says Group Product Manager Daniel Dulitz. "If not, marking up your pages is simple. Just add the correct schema.org attributes to the data already present on your pages. You'll set a name, image, and description in your code."

More on the markup types here.

A New inline annotations feature may remind you a bit of some Facebook social plugins. "Now, when a person visits a page that someone they know has +1'd, they can see a name and face reminding them to pay special attention to your content," says Duliz.
You can add inline annotations by updating your +1 button code from the configuration tool.

A report from BrightEdge last month found that adoption of the Google +1 button was already on the rise. The launch of Google+ itself only served to increase this adoption, and this new functionality should increase it even more. Why not use it on your content? It can influence your search rankings for the better and encourage social traffic.

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Facebook Games, Apps Revamped - a Response to Google+ Games Launch

As you may have heard, Google announced the launch of games on Google+. Well, Facebook quickly followed that announcement with one called “Making Games Better,” which includes news of a new game ticker and a bigger screen for game play, as well as the ability to bookmark your favorites.

“When you’re playing games, you’ll now see a separate stream of your friends’ game activity, scores and achievements in a ticker,” explains Facebook’s Jared Morgenstern. “The best way to find new games is through friends, and now you’ll have more opportunities to see what they’re playing.”

“You can now control who can see these stories for each individual app in your Settings,” he says. “If you want friends to see you’re playing one game but not another, you can change that. You’re also able to limit visibility directly from the ticker by clicking ‘X’ on a story to remove it.”

Not all games take advantage of the bigger game play screen, but right off the bat, Cityville, Zoo World, Monster World and Mystery Manor will over the coming days, according to Facebook.

As far as bookmarking, you can keep the ones you want at the top of your bookmarks on the home page. Just click the menu next to the bookmark to add a new favorite. These can be rearranged as you like.

Additionally, Facebook announced some updates to the app experience in general. A major redesign of the Canvas Page includes what the company calls some of the “biggest updates to the apps experience” since they first launched Platform.

Features include: bookmarks, real-time social app activity, game stories, more room for apps, homepage bookmark improvements and quality distribution.

On the top right of each Canvas Page, you’ll find bookmarks for your top apps and games. They include red counters to notify users of outstanding requests.

“The live ticker below the bookmarks shows real-time app and game activity from a user’s friends to make the game playing experience on Facebook more social than ever,” explains Facebook’s Bruce Rogers. “We automatically generate ‘playing’ and ‘using’ stories in the ticker when friends use an app or play a game respectively helping users re-engage and discover new games and apps that their friends are using. These are generated for apps that have enabled Social Discovery in their Developer App settings.”

“In addition to the automatic stories, we are launching new Graph APIs for achievements and scores so you can publish stories for user’s achievements, passing friends’ scores, or leaderboard movement to make game play more competitive, social and exciting for your users,” Rogers continues. “You now have the option to expand the size of your apps based on the user’s screen resolution. Fluid Canvas allows you to make your app left aligned so it takes up the full height and width of the user’s browser. You can enable Fluid Canvas, by selecting ‘fluid’ for ‘Canvas Width’ in your app settings.”

In the “quality distribution” department, Facebook has begun rolling out a new ranking system aimed at better surfacing app stories to people who will most likely engage with it. Hopefully this works better than their way of determining the people I’m most likely to chat with, because they’re kind of missing the boat there sometimes.

There comes the question if Facebook’s redesign has brought back viral spam.

This would seem to go against the grain that Facebook has been setting with things like what happened with the ban bot recently, and Mark Zuckerberg’s criticism of the Chill app wall posting.

It kind of seems as though Facebook is going back to taking a more aggressive approach with games as Google+ gives them some competition in this department.

Google+ is already only charging developers 5% commission compared to Facebook’s 30%. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that come down.

Yesterday, Facebook also launched Insights for Credits to help developers in their monetization efforts

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