Google is Working on Their Own Version of Linux?!

According to The Register, Google is working on its own version of of Linux. The Google version is based on the Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, which itself is based on Debian and the Gnome desktop. At Google, this is known internally as ‘Goobuntu’.

I’m not sure that I’m buying this — it sounds like a wild rumor to me. Why would Google even confirm that they had this project in the works at such an early stage in the game? And really, why would Google even want to get into the OS business? It is no minor undertaking, to say the least. Supporting myriads of software apps, peripherals, drivers, handling security updates, etc. etc….and how does this progress Google’s mission to "organize the world’s data?" You don’t need to be the OS to control the deskop. You just need a sidebar, a toolbar, a desktop search, an email notifier…oh wait, that’s right — Google already has all that. So why bother with the OS? With this one, I’ll believe it when I see it.

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The official Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta has now been released to the public. The beta currently only works on computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2.  With tabbed browsing and RSS support, IE 7 was designed to directly compete with Mozilla’s Firefox browser. Although I’m thankful for the long overdue upgrade, with all of Firefox’s features and handy extensions, it will take more than tabs to get me to switch.

Someone send me a Newsvine invite! I’ve heard a lot about this new website called Newsvine lately, and I’m dying to check it out. Newsvine wants to be the Digg.com to the not-so-bleeding-edge masses of online users, whose primary source of news still comes from traditional sites like CNN and MSNBC. What makes Newsvine different, though, is that they are not simply a culmination of mainstream media sites (although that would be cool), they also include blogs and stories found on the net and submitted by their community of users; and when I say "blogs," I don’t mean personal blog entries like those about what your cute little poopie-kins did today, rather blog entries that are more like news stories — editorial journalism at its best.

Submitted stories are auto-tagged, categorized, and displayed online without any filtering. To find anything on Newsvine, the URL would be newsvine.com/subject, where subject would be news item you want to read about. So far, the reviews are good, but I wonder how the masses will ever hear of this new website. I like the idea of catering to the average online user, but it’s hard to make them aware of a new site without a big marketing campaign. Unless you count an isolated phenomena like MySpace, it takes time and a lot of money to bring the average surfer to your new site; they simply aren’t in the loop. Still, that’s not to say it can’t be done or that Newsvine won’t be the one that makes it happen. Let’s wait and see….now, how about that invite?

OK, I want to know — did Firefox recently update itself on the sly? Did they put out an update in order to break IE installations everywhere? Seriously, I just noticed that when I type in an address in the address bar of IE, my page opens in Firefox. I discovered this interesting new feature this morning, but thought it was just a fluke - just a weird thing happening on my main computer. However, this evening I discovered the exact same thing is happening on my laptop, too. What are the odds?! What the heck is going on? I know this is a new bug, since I still use IE from time to time.

Comments, suggestions, anyone?

Google has unveiled its new toolbar for Internet Explorer, called Google Toolbar 4, and it is loaded with features. One of the best new features, is the Custom Buttons feature. With Custom Buttons, "you can add buttons to your toolbar that will let you visit and search your favorite websites and keep up with interesting feeds." The Google Button Gallery has many buttons for popular sites, but you can also easily create your own.

The new Enhanced Search Box of Toolbar 4 uses what appears to be the Google Suggest feature to suggest popular searches, and this makes searching that much faster. Then there is the "Send To" button that lets you send a link via email, text message, or lets you blog it (via Blogger, of course). Finally, there is a Bookmarks feature that lets you save favorites to your toolbar, instead of your browser, so you can access them from everywhere, provided you have the Google Toolbar installed wherever "everywhere" is.

What’s really interesting about this beta launch, is that there is an enterprise version of the toolbar available. Designed for business, the enterprise version comes with an installer that makes it easy to distribute to multiple desktops. It offers some different features like intranet search, plus features for administrators like a whitelist of approved websites and integration with Google Search appliances.

This, quite possibly, could be the BEST TOOLBAR EVER.

If you haven’t heard already, a Russian site called AllofMp3.com has been operating for years, selling mp3s for download at rates of only pennies per song. Since the site is based in another country, U.S. copyright laws don’t apply. The site claims it has licenses to sell these mp3s from a local clearing house, but the record labels disagreed, so the Moscow City Police Computer Crimes division launced an investigation last year. As it turned out, prosecutors did not pursue the case, since Russia does not actually have any copyright laws for digital media.

Along these same lines, torrent sites like The Pirate Bay claim to also be immune to U.S. copyright laws, since they operate out of Sweden, where our laws don’t apply. The question remains, despite months of debate, is this really legal? The answer at this point is probably not for long. I can only imagine the RIAA and the MPAA are spending all their resources trying to figure out how to shut these types of sites down. I’m surprised that the two haven’t joined forces to form some sort of evil conglomerate, whose sole purpose is to stop the creation and use of any technology that might cost them money.

In the meantime, the feeling is reminiscent of the early days of Napster - file-sharing and downloading without the guilt. Hey, it’s legal somewhere.

The ever fabulous Google Personalized homepage is now available for your cell phone. With the mobile homepage you can preview your latest Gmail messages, see headlines from top news sources, get weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes, and choose from a variety of popular RSS and Atom feeds. To get to this homepage, you go to google.com on your cell phone’s browser, click the link to the Personalized Home, and sign in to your Google account. Your Google Personalized homepage will display. Your phone must support xHTML in order for this to work.

I was pretty excited about this news, as you can imagine. I realize this has been available for weeks, so please don’t bother leaving one of those "you’re so behind the times" comments. What I really want to know is if it works on your phone, and if so, who’s your carrier and what model phone do you use? So far, I’ve been getting "this page cannot be displayed" on my phone…and I thought the Motorola Razr was a modern phone! I’ll have to try again later just to make sure that the problem isn’t with T-Mobile. Using the Personalized Homepage does not require a data plan to get the login page to display, but apparently it does require a data plan to show your personalized content. Quite frankly, I’m a little annoyed it won’t work.

Speaking of the whole data plan thing - that’s another thing bugging me lately. In order to use many new and cool services on my cell, I would have to purchase a data plan for $20/month. Way too pricey.

Has anyone seen FeedButler? It claims to be a site that is a "feedreader with social bookmarking and non-hierarchical editorial control." And maybe I’m missing the point, but at first glance, it looks like a wannabe Digg, with less flair.

In a recent interview, Yahoo! CFO Susan Decker made some interesting statements about Yahoo!’s position as a search company. She said,  "we don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google. It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share. We have held our own, and we should gain revenue share in the industry as we roll out these new initiatives. Our goal has been to hold our share and to be a leading, if not the leading, total marketing platform, which would include both brand and search."

Read between the lines here: Yahoo! doesn’t want to be your search engine - they want to be your portal. I think they are on the right track. If you Yahoo!, then everything you need is one click away from their homepage: movies, music, games, email, news, personals, etc. - all the links sit right at the top of yahoo.com. And I wouldn’t be surprised if all their recent acquisitions mean that they are going to make their portal pretty darn useful, too. In fact, I’m betting on a Web 2.0 makeover for the very old-school Yahoo! homepage this year — one that highlights all their new offerings.

It’s been a slow news day. The top story was that Google News is out of beta…*yawn*...so I went Digging. I followed a link through to an older Engadget post about hacking elevators, and I learned something new! Apparently, "lots of elevators have an express mode that lets you override everyone else’s selections and go straight to the floor you’re going to. You just press "Door Close" and the button for your floor at the same time." Now that is a useful tip!