This new Google Goggles feature, which follows from the original function that Google Goggles allows you to photograph and search (click here for blog), now allows you to use your Android phone to translate text that you photograph.

Basically, you:

1) Take a picture of some text (e.g. foreign language menu)
2) Google Goggles translates it into your desired language

Google Goggles mobile translation is another outstanding innovation from the scientists and engineers at Google!

Please see video demo below:

YouTube turned 5 on Valentine's Day 2010. That's right... only 5!

The video upload and sharing website has 1 billion views of its videos EVERY SINGLE DAY, and it is only 5 years old!

Google Buzz allows social media users to collaborate social media profiles and social media uses into their email inbox, meaning within that one location, they can communicate in all their favourite ways.

Since its first release, Google Chrome was faster than all its competitors, including open source market sharer Firefox, which is developed by Mozilla and was earlier recognised as the fastest web browser.

Google Chrome was so much faster than Firefox that even amateur users were able to make that distinction. They realised that they could do nothing online faster than ever!

Firefox remains an outstanding browser with more extensions than Chrome, but I believe it is only a matter of time until it is overtaken by Google Chrome as the major competitor to Microsoft's much-maligned Internet Explorer.

The Apple iPad has been described as an oversized version of the iPhone, while Apple feels it brings together the best of a laptop and a smartphone, bridging what it says was a gap between the two prominent products for people on the go.

Despite being the founder of Microsoft and a philanthropist extraordinaire, Gates couldn't escape being given some search engine optimisation (SEO) advice for his new blog - thegatesnotes.com - by SearchEngineLand.com editor Danny Sullivan.

To most followers' surprise, Gates actually replied to Sullivan, stating:

thanks for the advice - the people who work on the site are on this now, should see improvements tonight...

The Nielsen report reads:

Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites in December. The United States and the United Kingdom came in a close second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

This report also revealed that the continuing rise of Twitter and Facebook lead to an 82% increase in global usage of social media websites in December 2009!

On his blog, Peter Parkes announced: "With the right gear, you'll soon be able to make Skype video calls in 720p HD."

June statistics (comScore) show that Twitter's Australian userbase grew from 13,000 in 2008 to 800,000.

Whether you like following trending topics while watching an episode of The Apprentice, twittering during a Conference or telling all of us what you are eating... you are clearly taking up micro-blogging with Twitter.

It is very clever, and as displayed in the video below, it allows you to take a picture of something with your mobile, and then automatically search for what it is on Google.

For example, you can photograph the Harbour Bridge, and this Android app will tell you what it is.

This feature is available to find out what a book is by taking a picture and auto-searching with Google Goggles, as well as info on a business card, logos, wine bottles and artwork!

Jensen used his Facebook profile to have a whinge on Tuesday, after his party leader Tony Abbott didn't give him a front-bench gig in his shadow cabinet reshuffle.

He wrote: "Pretty damned disappointed at the lack of a frontbench guernsey."

"Makes me wonder what I have to do ... probably the first in parliament to actively argue against AGW, first to speak of nuclear energy (March 2005 in parliament) and these are two issues front and centre of the agenda."

I can imagine very few Facebook regulars sympathising with the bloke.

The benefit of what is called 'GOOGLE REAL TIME SEARCH' is that searchers will be able to find what is relevant, using Google.

Murdoch, who calls Google's loose publishing of news 'stealing', met with search market share-aspirants Microsoft in what was seen as a threat to Google that if it doesn't stop providing free content, News Limited will block Google in favour of Microsoft and its search engine, Bing.

Google has seemingly buckled.

Google's program 'First Click Free' was designed a while back for publishers of paid content (e.g. Wall Street Journal owned by Murdoch) to show one page for free. Any subsequent clicks should lead to a need for users to 'subscribe' to the publisher's website.

This program did have a loophole, where the free version of this content was usually searchable and viewable via Google News.

Google now says: "Previously, each click from a user would be treated as free. Now, we've updated the program so that publishers can limit users to no more than five pages per day without registering or subscribing."

This concession, while small, could win some fans among publishers.

Please click here for a Reuters video covering this topic.

Well... Murdoch is definitely still shrewd.

He has started talks with Microsoft about his war with Google. Microsoft has forever been trying to take search engine market share from Google, and has made a little headway with the release of its improved search engine 'Bing'.

While it has not been said what Murdoch and Microsoft are talking about, if they cut some sort of deal where Murdoch's newspapers will only be searchable via Bing, that would be an interesting blow for Google.

Interesting because I would like to see how Google will react.

Although insanity has not replaced his shrewdness, it does not mean Murdoch is not insane...

He seems a bit petulant about the fact that he lacks a certain tool - in this case the talent of 'innovation' - and instead of employing or embracing such tools, he seems intent to keep selling his old, archaic tool in 'newspapers'.

He feels newspapers are sooooo valuable, that people will pay to view them online. Does Murdoch realise how 'news'ed up one can be on the web without what is offered by his empire? Does he realise how divided online news market share is?

Anyway, newspapers that choose to charge for exclusive feature content have my support - monetise what you can.

But newspapers who want to charge for news? They have no support and I predict the beginning of their end!

As it says, you will be able to use your super-fast Google Chrome browser to access most things (e.g. internet, email, documents, spreadsheets, etc.). This minimises the number of programs you need installed on your physical computer.

The result is a faster computing experience... much, much faster!

As described on the LinkedIn blog, it will mean:

"When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool."

This will be a good collaborative method for those who use both services, and it may entice some who only use one, to convert to both. By collaborating, LinkedIn and Twitter have made it easier for their user-bases to be active on two online networking websites.

Please see video interview below:

Baidu, a local product, owns 65% of the market, while Google has risen above the likes of Yahoo to hold second spot with about 30%.

However, Reuters reports that Baidu's new advertising strategy has not sat well with many users, and Google has seen this as an opportunity to try and agressively double its US$300million China 'Search' market share.

How does it work?

Regularly, if you search for a Canon EOS400D on Google, that product will be treated as a regular keyword. As a result, you will find regular search results relating to that word, which may or may not include links to some websites that sell the product.

With Google Commerce search, the Canon EOS400D will not be treated as a regular keyword. Rather, it will be treated as a product. The results will look different, and include prices you can sort and links to actually buy the product from your chosen website.

What's in it for Google?

A truckload of money from retailers, who will pay to feed their products to Google and appear in search results. Their investment will be US$50,000 at a minimum!

That may seem like a lot; but I know dozens of online retailers who are willing to spend double to achieve such exposure!

Who suffers?

For years, other companies - including Shopping.com, Shopbot.com.au, GetPrice.com.au - have provided a similar 'comparison shopping' service to their customers, and online retailers have paid to receive their benefits.

I predict these guys will suffer after the release of Google Commerce Search.

Most of the aforementioned spend plenty of dollars on PPC advertising under product names, so people click their website (e.g. shopping.com), then search again for the product, find their desired retailer at their desired price, and then buy.

Google Commerce Search gets rid of the middle man.

This innovation will re-energise this space, and I would be interested in what the 'shopping comparison' websites come up with in retaliation.

GOOGLE COMMERCE SEARCH VIDEO

Google Music Search allows you to search song lyrics, artists and song titles, returning results which allow you to preview and purchase the song online.

Please see video below for Google's official preview:

Google, which already allows you universally and individually search Blogs, News, Videos, Books and Maps was always going to include music eventually, considering its online popularity since the advent of iTunes and its controversial-at-times competitors.

After reading the story, Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson of the hugely popular Channel 9 Today Show called Meet A Pet Lover website co-owner Violetta Muccitelli for a live interview.

Click below to watch the interview now.

Pet compatible dating service

My client at KayWeb, Meet A Pet Lover, has had a write-up about their meetapetlover.com.au dating website in Melbourne's most popular newspaper, the Herald Sun.

The reason is that their story is sellable. Please click here to read.

In the past, KayWeb and its clients have been covered by print, radio and television media due to nothing but clever packaging of their innovative web product.

Click here to visit meetapetlover.com.au.

Please click here to see concept design image and full story.

The look and functions prove Apple are really the unmatched innovators when it comes to computing.

The obvious daggers stabbing MySpace in the heart are Facebook and Twitter, who now share nearly a massive 10million unique monthly user-base in Australia (Facebook with 8million, Twitter with 1.5million), compared to MySpace's 2million per month (consider Twitter has only risen to fame in recent 18-24 months).

MYSPACE QUESTION 1: Can one peak too early in web business?

It is fact that before Facebook and Twitter hit the mainstream, both had the benefit of MySpace's hindsight in the third person. For example;

Facebook, which is more of a comparable product to MySpace, made their entire operation private, where with MySpace, privacy was a choice. Facebook brought people together with a uniform and neat interface, where with MySpace, self-created themes were possible... allowing for some very ugly profiles.

MYSPACE QUESTION 2: Is second better than first in web business?

Under normal circumstances, I couldn't imagine a traditional or web entrepreneur contemplating being ‘second' to market with their idea, but the MySpace decline brings to light this important web trend.

Contrary to popular belief, most ideas on the web are not new, but they are newer and better than what others came up with. And careful analysis suggests that while being ‘first' brings short-term success, longer-term success is usually achieved by those who build on the experiences by those before them.

MYSPACE ANSWERS

No internet business strategist will suggest you wait for someone else to come up with your great idea, or to ‘screw your idea' and go with bettering someone else's.

However the questions raised means steps need to be taken to ensure your ‘new' idea does not expire. Here are some tips:

Harmann says the website "fuels the demand" for prostitutes and in a sense, degrades women by treating them as a commodity.

I won't argue her point. But I will argue her methods.

If she is correct, and what PunterNet does is commodify women, all Harmann has done is helped widen its outreach by discussing it in her profile as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

Old folks just don't get it. Or they do, but their motivations are dodgy.

With Harmann, it has to be the latter. The following quote, taken from SMH.com.au, shows her attention-seeking personality right off:

"Surely it can't be too difficult for The Terminator to terminate PunterNet and that's what I'm demanding he does," she said.

"And if he doesn't, I've got a message for Arnie: I'll be back."

What a geek!

It basically allows visitors of any website to click their Sidewiki button and comment on what they are seeing and provide further information.

It allows others with Sidewiki to read these comments, and ideally, be benefited by it in some way, shape or form.

See the following promo video, then refer to my comments below:

Minassian is the co-founder of this software and CEO of Liaise, who was on Thursday (AEST) awarded the DEMO 09 Enterprise Award of US$500,000 for this useful innovation.

Available as a Microsoft Outlook plug-in only at the moment, Liaise allows you to automatically generate and assign tasks, complete with deadlines and action items, from your Email.

See video demo below for a more in-depth description:

Further, below is an interview with Sidney Minassian:

The idea is to create an 'ad marketplace', where ad agencies will list available banner ad advertising real estat that is available to give your business exposure. And advertisers will visit this marketplace, find the banner ad that suits their needs, bid for it, and hopefully buy it.

Here is Google's short video explaining this latest innovation:

Google has announced a few minor additions with this release, one of which are much-anticipated extra themes users can use. See Google's release by clicking here.

President Lincoln would have got away with it...

But now, Google has a new type of competitor. One that is less direct. But one that is directly capable of affecting any business' bottom line.

The competitor I refer to is the courts!

Google publishes plenty of content in its search engine without 'permission'. And although in most cases this content is in the shape of page titles and meta descriptions which could lead searchers to your website, in some cases, this content is proprietary stuff that Google is being legally challenged for.

The product causing most controversy at the moment is Google Books.

In 1915, 1.5million Christian-Armenians living in Ottoman Turkey were systematically slaughtered in the first genocide of the 20th century. Unlike the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide was never recognised by Turkey, thus no punishment has ever been dished out to the nation... 95 years on.

The reason the Turkish government denies the Armenian Genocide is because acceptance will likely force payment of reparations, as well as the return of 9/10ths of Eastern Turkey to its rightful owners, Armenia.

The government of Turkey instead spends millions of dollars to spread the denial message.

Recently, this denial campaign reached the doors of Google, where the TCA started buying up pay-per-click keywords such as "Armenia", "Armenian", and "Armenian Genocide". Through their sponsored ads, they were linking people to the TCA website, which provides revisionist material that is discredited by the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

Google was told by Armenians that this was occurring, and true to its 'Don't Be Evil' motto, removed the ads.

The TCA and Turkey are now trying to strong-arm Google into allowing the ads to continue. It shows desperation from a government that needs to live up to its bloody history. It also shows that big corporations like Google can be moral and successful at the same time.

This issue is quite personal to me, as my great grandparents were victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Last year's winner of this notorious title, Brad Pitt, could only manage to come in at 10th place, with his famous wife Angelina Jolie beats him in 8th place.

While Bing has been hogging the search headlines with its innovative and well-budgeted marketing campaigns, Google has been developing a 'next generation' version of its own product.

Caffeine is the project Google is working on. and has today launched the test version of Google Caffeine for people to test and compare their results. Please click here to try.

Google's goal with the Caffeine engine is to improve its "indexing speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness". Not to mention "other dimensions".

Google's Sitaram Iyers and Matt Cutts wrote in their blog: "For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search.

"The new infrastructure sits 'under the hood' of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results.

"But, Web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback."

At the moment, it seems to be the silicon valley company that has the answer to all challenges, with its team a few steps ahead of all in competition.

The link again to Google Caffeine is: www2.sandbox.google.com.

Click here for the blog article.

FriendFeed is a bit of an unkown in the Australian market, so please watch video below to know exactly what Facebook's US$50million has bought Mark Zuckerberg and Co:

"Cyxymu" - which stands for the capital of the oppressed Georgian Abkhazia region from which he hails - has profiles on micro-blogging website Twitter, social networking website Facebook and Google's open LiveJournal blogging solution.

He blogs about all that is going on in Georgia, and among his writings is an open letter to the Russian President.

"Cyxymu", who says his real name is Giorgi, was the subject of the attacks that saw the websites he uses go down - in Twitter's case for over 1 hour!

Of course, he feels the Russian government is behind these attacks.

I personally notice numerous people I follow complaining 'what is happening with Twitter' between posts, until the service blacked out. The head office of the social networking phenomenon only managed to get the service up and running an hour later, with the warning that they are "continuing to defend against and recover from this attack".

No user data was under threat and everything seems to be running normally today.

I wonder if Twitter's ability to stifle censoring regimes like Iran and China by allowing people to report truths is a reason???

Well eureka! The deal is finally done. Yahoo will use Microsoft's new search engine Bing on all its websites, and in return Microsoft will hand over the management of all premium search advertisers to Yahoo.

After all this time, it took no cash. Just an exchange of resources that will see their global market share climb to about 30%. Google has 65%.

In Australia, the Yahoo/Microsoft partnership will not even reach 8% on current estimates, as Google controls 92%. But it is a start!

Recently, Google Australia announced real estate listings are now able to be searched via the revolutionary Google Maps.

Fairfax, owners of real estate listing website Domain, and News Limited, owners of RealEstate.com.au, are threatening to pull out their significant advertising dollars from Google if they become a competitor.

The following are my top 5 tips for starting a successful web business.

1) Test your idea on people

This sounds quite basic, but there is always a hesitance towards it by most clients. The reason is usually that they don't want their ideas stolen, or they are concerned about an awkward conversation which may eventually embarrass their dream.

But it is very important to say your idea over and over again and keep convincing others, and yourself, on its merits.

One option could be to go to a web development firm, like us at KayWeb, and make us sign a non-disclosure agreement before discussing your idea freely.

I personally challenge all entrepreneurial ideas to see if the client is someone I wish to be aligned with. If they are able to 'defend' their ideas in the face of my providing potential pitfalls, they are likely on a 'winner'.

I always say I am the client's first customer. Sell your idea to me.

2) Align yourself with right web developers

Therefore, the announcement yesterday that Google will launch their Google Chrome OS (OS = operating system) in the latter part of 2010 came as little surprise.

So far, we are on a need-to-know basis.

Sounds logical. LOL (which means 'laugh out loud' for those not on internet chat since ICQ).

40% looks especially low compared to the 70% retention rate of fellow social media website Facebook.

However what numbers cannot measure is the power of Twitter for business, the power of Twitter for organisations and the power of Twitter for individuals.

The news of his 'heart attack', then death quickly spread through Twitter. From the people I follow, it was Ashton Kutcher (aka @aplusk) who tweeted first after seeing the breaking report on celebrity gossip website, TMZ.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore had an outing, as did the Deputy Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, but it was all about the address of special guest, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.

Nagin was mayor when New Orleans was devastated first hand by climate change - when Cyclone Katrina belted the city and rocked its very foundations.

The idea came about based on the notion that when one does an internet search so research something particular (like US Presidents), they are often left clicking into many results to get the information they desire.

Google Squared tabulates these results, with possible relevant fields becoming the table's columns.

Click here to see example of a Google Squared search for US Presidents.

The following short video explains more:

In short, Google Wave collaborates all modes of internet communication into one common 'inbox'. These modes include email, instant messaging, blogging, tweeting, networking, etc.

As far as its methods... Google Wave allows you to do the above using web-exclusive technologies which allow for the live transfer of this data, the use of drag-and-drop for easy-adding, etc.

Most impressive is that it is 'open source', with Google inviting unlimited developers like my team at KayWeb Sydney to develop extensions which will continue to improve Google Wave for users.

I don't want to take any more of your time writing... what I want to do is beg you to place 1hr 20 minutes aside and watch the following video. This is an excellent demo led by Rasmussen, who also helped buit Google Maps, himself at the Google IO developer conference.

The following video has since made it to all television news bulletins and current affairs programs in Australia:

It is reported T-shirts and mugs have been made in Werbeloff's honour.

Will this attempt prove futile like previous attempts? Or will it manage to put a dent in Google's 92% (Australian) market share?

I ask to be forgiven for my prediction that Bing will fall smack bang on its face in this attempt.

Recently, Microsoft tried to make this dent into Google by unsuccessfully attempting to buy Yahoo.

Later, it teamed with Yahoo (in Australia at least) for pay per click advertising without making the dent they hoped.

Before both of these attempts, Microsoft had some massive advantages over Google that it was unable to capitalise on because of its inferior product.

Twitter has experienced 1000+% growth every month this year, and although its retention rate has been a debate worth having by some (see Nielsen Report criticism and VentureBeat's Jesse Farmer's reply), Google obviously sees enough value in it to engage in talks with the company which is the biggest thing on the social media scene since Facebook.

The UK Telegraph quotes Schmidt commenting on rumoured takeover talks: "We do not have to buy everyone to work with them."

Realising search is so far the best way to make money online, Microsoft is set to unveil its new search engine in California next week.

The Wall Street Journal says a key feature of the new search engine - being worked on under the code-name Kumo - is that results will be grouped into categories.

In typical Google fashion, the company is keeping their figures close to their chests, however a simple maintenance of their 25% annual growth rate will see Karim Temsamani (Google Ausralia General Manager) and Co. crack the big billion.

Fairfax says: "That would make Google bigger than the entire commercial radio sector and bigger than the total magazine and outdoor advertising markets."

"Power to the web", I say!

The event, held at Darling Harbour's Exhibition Centre on May 13 and 14, attracted speakers representing various businesses and areas of expertise. Among the talent on show were representatives from Google, Sensis, Fairfax Digital, News Limited, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Citrix Systems.

As with all such events, there was plenty of good to come out of it, and some bad.

The good is definitely associated with the feeling me and my KayWeb colleague and fellow-delegate Mark Simon had that we felt better educated after the experience. The bad is chiefly associated with certain businesses using their 20 minutes on stage to launch into a diatribe about their offerings, or as one delegate called it... speeches resembling an "infomercial".

But the bottom line has been that the Murdoch types have not been the innovators of the internet age, but have tried wherever possible to line themselves up as the beneficiaries.

Old man Rupert has now thrown up a curly! He is hinting that he will consider charging people for reading his online news!

Businesses are using video to more effectively communicate their offerings. Individuals are using video to better share talents, views and clips of functions. Politicians are using video to take their messages to the monitors. As monitors are where eyes are spending longer than they are on televisions in this information age.

With all these groups competing for online video space, YouTube provides an outlet for all to freely and easily upload, then share their visual product with the widest audience possible. YouTube, owned by Google, can be used by us in many ways. One is a way I did today!

This year, the big bonus is that General Manager of Google Australia and New Zealand; Mr. Karim Temsamami will attend and speak to us delegates.

The latest product their dugout has come up with is a Google Map detailing the affected areas of the swine flu.

I have had the pleasure of working with dozens of entrepreneur, corporate and government clients over the years, advising them on web strategies, inclusive of best practice website design, business-critical web system/application development and my area of expertise, web marketing (search engine optimisation, social media optimisation, etc.).

I think in his latest sound-bite acquired by the ABC, he has simplified his stance, thus made perfect sense.

Conroy responded to Opposition calls for further studies in relation to the NBN by saying: "We don't need any more studies, any more cost benefit analyses to know that this is an infrastructure development this country is crying out for."