Google doesn't do this

We recently received the email, via Gmail, a Google facility, that is shown in the illustration.Various similar types of mail have been received worldwide, but Google says it doesn't request information this way and that there is nothing called 'Accounts Department' at any of their many premises. We didn't click on the link because we're not stupid (we're foolish sometimes, but not too foolish either). We advise you Dear Reader, not to do so either if you have received anything like this. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ITEMS SUCH AS THIS MAY BE SUBJECT TO SUBSCRIPTION IN THE FUTURE but you can make a donation NOW, too! Please click here for more information on how to help us continue.

Google.es celebrates 300 years of Spain's National Library

SPAIN Today's Google.es logo (a.k.a. a doodle) is a cartoon of the Biblioteca Nacional, which celebrates its 300th anniversary today, coincidentally also on International Book Day. Founded on March 1, 1712, the National Library houses 28 million documents today. King Felipe V approved of the creation of a Royal Library on December 29, 1711, on the condition that it would be open to the public. It began its life on this day in a passageway called Pasadizo de la Encarnación, now the magnificent Plaza de Oriente in Madrid, and contained numerous tomes from a large variety of places. The library moved several times over th years until it settled at its present location on Paseo de Recoletos, but was expanded with an annex in 1993 at Alcalá de Henares. These days it functions not unlike the US Library of Congress, which keeps a register of all publications, with some 861,145 pieces registered in 2010 alone. Among its most important treasures are Leonardo da Vinci's Madrid Codexes I and II, the Biblia Politica Regia (a Bible in several ancient languages  including Arameic, Greek, Hebrew and Latin), the writings of the Beato de Liébana and the Brevary  of Queen Isabel the Catholic, the manuscript of Las siete partidas, a set of laws written by King Alfonso Xthe Wise, among many others.

Google privacy policy changes to reveal all about you

It's all over the internet with positive and negative comments. It's been there for a while so we have to apologize for not bringing you this earlier (we -that is, Prospero- can't be everywhere at all times!). Still one of the best articles we found on the subject of Google's new privacy policy changes (there are thousands) comes from ZDNet (UK Edition) Google: No opt-out of mix-and-match data, which is dated on January 25. Since then, there have been many more. Given that the change date is March 1st (that's the day after tomorrow!) the Daily Mail online chooses (as usual) to put the wind up everyone with 'Google will know more about you than your partner': Uproar as search giant reveals privacy policy that will allow them to track you on all their products. Typical. In any case it's worth looking at the comments on that one. Another article on ZDNet (US Edition), though, is titled Google's new privacy rules: get over it already. We're no experts at all and rely on big friendly people to help us out with even the most basic tech stuff, but we have taken precautions and did what we described below - but please don't blame us if they don't work!>>>

A Spaniard teaches Google how to listen

NEW YORK (El Pais / by Rosa Jimenez Cano) How does Google know what we are asking it to search for? Why does it have more difficulty in recognizing Vietnamese than it does Zulu? Before asking Google, a better place to start might be Pedro Moreno. The 47-year-old Spanish-born engineer works for the company at its New York offices, where he spends his time as part of a team of 40 people improving voice-recognition systems that will allow users to access Google verbally from their cellphones. The voice-recognition technology being developed by Moreno and his colleagues is also used by YouTube to transcribe the spoken words in videos into text.>>>

Picasa and Blogger to change name in push for Google+

WORLD (Mashable) Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned. The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant’s social initiative. Blogger and Picasa aren’t going away, of course — they’re two of Google’s most popular products. Instead, according to two sources familiar with the matter, Google intends to rename Picasa “Google Photos” and Blogger will become “Google Blogs.” Several other Google brands are likely to be affected, though our sources made it clear that YouTube would not be rebranded. The technology giant shut down Google Video, its failed web video service, in May. The move isn’t without precedent:>>>

Google's Blogger outage makes the case against a cloud-only strategy

INTERNATIONAL (ZDNet/Ed Bott/13/05/11) The same week that Google made its strongest pitch ever for putting your entire business online, one of its flagship services has failed spectacularly.
Earlier this week, Google rolled out a maintenance release for its Blogger service. Something went terribly wrong, and its Blogger customers have been locked out of their accounts for more than a day. Google’s engineers have been frantically working to restore service ever since, although they haven’t shared any details about the problem.>

Google search for some Eroski, Carrefour, Renfe and El Corte Inglés pages come up with porn

SPAIN (Agencies) It's called 'google bombing' and it means 'placing certain images or websites at the top of Google search results'. The first of the victims of the latest bout was Eroski in Málaga, which was much commented on Twitter over the weekend and was placed as a 'trending topic' worldwide on Monday. Other victims included Carrefour Murcia, Renfe Coruña and El Corte Inglés Córdoba. Not unusually, the company websites were temporarily replaced by pornographic content. Now let us tell you what happened to us this morning.>

Did you see Google's tribute to John Lennon?

John Lennon would have been 70 today if that shithead (no need to excuse the French it's what Mark David Chapman is) hadn't shot him dead on December 8, 1980. Anyway, Google has paid tribute to John: if you click on the drawing, you'll hear a little of one of his best post-Beatle songs - and, because Google now owns the world, you'll be transported directly to the what else but Google page for John Lennon. We like the little movie (Google also owns YouTube now) that accompanies the music, but they went a little OTT, don't you think?

Google's YouTube planning pay-per-view video service

(Source: Financial Times) Google’s YouTube video site is in negotiations with Hollywood’s leading movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service by the end of 2010, putting it head-to-head with Apple in the race to dominate the digital distribution of film and television content. Google has been pitching to the studios on the international appeal of a streaming, on-demand movie service pegged to the world’s most popular search engine and YouTube, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. Google will use its search technology and YouTube to direct viewers to the new service, which is likely to launch first in the US, with other countries added over time.

Have you Googled today?

Google is doing something different today. It's logo, always subject to changes according to what interests the powers that be there, today bursts into colourful bubbles. Our sources say that, while Google is only 12 years old today, and wants to remain mysterious about why the burst of colour, it is prior to presenting some new functions next Wednesday. The colour burst may not be visible in certain navigators as it is made with HTML5. Still, Happy Birthday Google. Below is an extract from the company's history that you may find interesting:>

Google tops comparative review of malicious search results

(Source: ZDNet/Ryan Naraine and Dancho Danchev) According to a newly released report by Barracuda Labs, based on a two-month study reviewing more than 25,000 trending topics and 5.5 million search results, Google remains the most popular search engine used by malicious attackers, relying on poisoned keywords. The company, which also sampled Yahoo Search, Bing, and Twitter, contributes Google’s leading position to the fact that Google remains the market share leader in online search, and consequently the most targeted search engine. Key highlights of the study:>

Spain joins UK, Italy and Germany in Google investigation

SPAIN

The Spanish Data Protection Agency has opened an investigation that alleges that Google has transgressed the law and rights when it collected information on Wi-Fi networks, without the owners' consent, when it was also collecting images for its StreetView facility. The Google van came through the Campo de Gibraltar last year. The UK, Italy and Germany have also opened similar investigations. The company admits it has gathered information on SSIDs, which identifies the owners names and MACs, the numbers that identify the routers.