We didn’t verify if Google really has a history of $20,000-$30,000 holiday bonuses for employees. Regardless of past amounts, Googlers are getting Google phone instead this year. There is, after all, an economic crisis going on. It could be worse. Employees at a certain other search engine got pink slips. Still, one imagines it’s a hard come-down from being so pampered. Part of the memo, courtesy of Valleywag, reads this way:
Education Through the Cloud with Google
Google Apps for Education has had a big year, further emphasizing Google’s push for cloud computing. A push that has included a recent guarantee of 99.9% uptime on certain Google Apps. Cloud computing with Google Apps has often been discussed in the business context, and it is clearly quite relevant to the education field as well.
More Ways to Use Google Mobile for the Holidays
Google has been counting down the days of December heading into the New Year by offering tips for Google Mobile, just as they have been doing separately with Google products in general.
Google Delivers Gmail Toys for the Holidays
Google and Yahoo seem to be continuing to try to outdo each other in the email department, particularly in recent weeks. While last we checked, Yahoo still dominated the market share in the email category, Google seems to be doing everything it can to move in on that territory. They’ve been rolling Gmail features left and right.
Google Gives More Options for Narrowing Down Image Search
Much like with email, and obviously search in general (although the market share doesn’t dictate such obviousness), the competition between Google and Yahoo seems to be heated on the image search front as well. Maybe "heated" is the wrong word, but you know what I mean.
Google, Mozilla Growing Apart
Compared to a lot of businesses out there, Mozilla’s got nothing to worry about; a search partnership with Google has guaranteed it revenue through 2011. But with Chrome becoming more and more of a threat to Firefox, it’s hard not to view the link between the parent companies as being a bit strained.
Street View Draws More Privacy Trouble to Google
Google’s Street View feature on Google Maps is certainly no stranger to privacy concerns. It has attracted lawsuits, but it is still moving right along. Google even dismissed one lawsuit bringer as being "out of touch with the real world."
What Will Google SERP Changes Mean for Reputation Management?
Some say ranking is dead. Google’s going though changes that may turn SEO on its ear. Google’s Matt Cutts talked about some of these changes with Murdok not too long ago. "I’m not sure I would say ranking is dead but it’s not as important as it used to be," he said.
Google Aims to Ease Cloud User Experience
Google has redone the Google Docs Help Forum. It has added a few features to improve the ease with which users can obtain info, and increase the overall user experience. New features include:
Embedded Video Woes and Google Reader
Ever had trouble getting your embedded videos to show up in Google Reader? You’re not alone. Apparently your site has to be on a whitelist for it to work for you. For example, YouTube videos work, because YouTube is on the list. WordPress videos don’t, because Wordpress is not on the list. Somebody complained about the problem in a Google Groups post, and was met with a response from a Google Reader Engineeer, Mihai Parparita: