Google Helps Save Your Pictures from getting lost

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Google – Year In Search 2015

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Google — Year in Search 2015

Google to pay £130m UK tax deal with HMRC

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When we read in the the news a huge profit making company has been hiding things to avoid tax in the UK or simply not paying the tax they should be, we generally feel anger towards the company, however with Google we believe we should look at what they do for the people in the World – for FREE.

Give Google a break

Coffee companies hit the news and because they sell coffee that everyday people purchase it is easy to quickly get angry about this due to the fact that they are not adding value to our life.

Today in the new headlines it states that Google has agreed to pay £130 million in back taxes to the UK tax authorities. This payment is to cover the money that is owed since 2005. This tax cost has been calculated following a six year inquiry by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

We work with Google and have an inside view of what they actually do to provide FREE services to users across the globe and for this reason when we read the headlines we don’t feel the same anger towards the situation.

Google is a giant when it comes to business and profits, but they also provide a service that is taken for granted that is used everyday by billions of people all over the world for FREE.

A lot of what we do in the world we live in today involves something online and due to this things can go wrong or cyber criminals can attack taking things offline and when this happens we find out how important this service or product is to our life.

With all the new technology available we can control our homes when away including heating, plugs and watch CCTV to check all is ok and this is only possible thanks to the internet.

One of the biggest things that we take for granted is Google

Have you ever stopped to think about what Google provides to people all over the world for FREE and also what is  one of the most reliable services available to us in the online world – Google products.

Every day people use GMAIL for free and this is used by companies even putting all the trust in a product that is FREE to use. GMAIL is one of the best email platforms available and as a web company that provides email services we fully understand the complications and costs involved to operate an email service to clients.

In 2015 Chameleon Web Services was able to provide 99.2% up-time for email services and this we was proud of and this is with a small number of email accounts compared to Google’s Gmail which services hundreds of millions of users with 99.978% availability and no scheduled downtime.

Google technology supports more than 100 billion Google searches each month for FREE and provides us with information that we use daily to do tasks like fixing things or building something. Google search is used to find anything when we research and shop. The latest Google Voice Search has made searching even more simple and even provides a voice feedback about our searches.

Google DataGoogle also provides more than 100 hours of YouTube video uploads every minute and as a web hosting provider we find this amazing. To handle the storage required to serve the global users is a ridiculous cost and then to maintain this is technically an achievement and have you ever been to YouTube to watch a video and found it is down?

Google’s application and network architecture is one of the best developed systems available, designed for maximum reliability and up-time distributing data across Google’s servers and data centers and the only way Google is able to provide such an amazing service to us all for FREE is with a huge expense in both hardware technology and staff.

If a Google server was to die or even an entire data center fails instantly the data is still be accessible and this is one of the biggest things taken for granted.

Google owns and operates its own data centers around the world to keep the services we use for FREE running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and the cost behind each data center is huge.

One of the most amazing things about how reliable Google’s computing platform is the way that the system is designed to assume an ongoing hardware failure and the robust software fail-over can literally handle any disruption.

All Google systems are inherently redundant by design and the platform is completely independent with each subsystem not being dependent on any particular physical or logical server for ongoing operation.

To make this possible the data stored is replicated multiple times across Google’s clustered active servers protected in the case of a machine failure which mean the stored data will still be accessible through another system.

On top of this Google also replicate the data to secondary data centers to provide a further level of protection ensuring that even if a data center was to fail there would be no loss of data and no down time.

Any IT specialist operating in a large company will understand how complex this is and the costs involved to provide these services and yet we do not pay for it.

What does Google provide us for FREE?

  • Google Search – Search billions of web pages
  • Google Chrome – A browser built for speed, simplicity and security and one of the most used browsers today.
  • Google Bookmarks – Access your bookmarks and starred items
  • GMAIL Fast, searchable email with less spam
  • YouTube
  • Google MAPS including Mobile – View maps, traffic and directions
  • Google Earth – Explore the world from your computer
  • Google Drive – Create, share and keep all your stuff in one place
  • Google Docs – Open, edit, and create documents
  • Google Sheets – Open, edit, and create spreadsheets
  • Slides – Open, edit, and create presentations
  • Forms – Build free surveys
  • Drawings – Create diagrams and flow charts
  • Sites – Create websites and secure group wikis
  • Calendar – Organize your schedule and share events with friends
  • Translate – Instantly translate text, web pages, and files between over 50 languages
  • Custom Search – Create a customized search experience for your community
  • Scholar – Search scholarly papers
  • Trends – Explore past and present search trends
  • Google+ Real-life sharing, rethought for the web
  • Blogger – Share your life online with a blog – it’s quick, easy and free
  • Groups – Create mailing lists and discussion groups
  • Hangouts – Conversations that come to life. Anytime, anywhere, for free
  • Code – Developer tools, APIs and resources

There are many other things that we use that is using Google in some way or another and Google is also the company behind many of the leading technology advances we use today always driving us forward.

Inside a Google Data Center

From here you can walk into the Data Center and around at Google Lenoir.


The Android area:-

Google Goggles & Voice Search

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Google are always working hard to find ways of making cool and exciting things that we can use and people often take for granted that the amazing products and services that Google provide are normally FREE.

Google have been working hard in the background with Google Voice Search and this is now fully functional and being advertised by Google in the mainstream advertising space.

Google Voice Search Functions Example

“Ok Google” voice search which kicks Google into action when using the Google app or Chrome allows you to ask questions and get answers making search simple. For example “OK Google, Where is Chameleon Web Services?” which will then allow opening times and directions.

“OK Google, Is Chameleon Web Services Open?” which will let you know the business hours on that day.

Google Voice Search

You can also create reminders for example “Ok Google, remind me to call Chameleon Web Services Tomorrow” and this will set a reminder for tomorrow.

If you have not tried Google Voice Search it is simply amazing in our view and very useful especially if driving as you can be sat in traffic and ask a question without typing on the keypad.

Some example Google Voice Search commands using “Ok Google”:-

  • Where is the nearest [sushi restaurant]
  • Navigate to [Chameleon Web Services]
  • Directions to [Chameleon Web Services]
  • Directions home
  • “Post to Google+ [Chameleon Is The Best SEO Company]”
  • “Remind me to [buy milk] at [6 PM]”
  • “Remind me [tomorrow] to [send and email to Chameleon]”
  • “Set alarm for [8 PM]”
  • “Call [Chameleon Web Services]”
  • “Call [mum / dad / wife / uncle / aunt …]”
  • “Is it going to rain [tomorrow / Monday]”

You can have some fun with this, try things like:-

  • “Ok Google, Flip a coin”
  • “Ok Google, Roll dice”
  • “Ok Google, Do a barrel roll”

Google Goggles

Google have also created Google Goggles and this enables photos to provide search results. For example if you open the APP and photograph a Coffee Cup Jar it will carryout analysis of the photo and can pull of the wording and then search in Google for the most relevant results to what the photo was.

What is Google Goggles Used for?

Google Goggles is an APP that creates a smart phone to become an image recognition device and then passes the data discovered into a Google search result. The Google Goggles mobile application was developed by Google for searches based on pictures taken by the smart phone to provide quick access to information such as a famous landmark searches for information about it, or taking a picture of a product’s barcode searches for information on the product.

When using Google Goggles it is recommended to take photos Horizontal as they work better than vertical photos. Once the photo is taken then basically if Google can recognise the image in the photo taken it will pass the user search results to inform the user about the photo.

Google Goggles on Android

To use Google Goggles on an Android device is simple. Go to the Play Store and search Google Goggles.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.unveil&hl=en_GB

Google Goggles Android Installation

Google Goggles Android Install

Google Goggles Android Search Results

Once installed open the APP and simply take a photograph of what you are looking to find information about and Google will do the rest. In the example of Google Goggles above we photographed a coffee jar to see what Google found.

Google Goggles ipad & iphone

If you are ipad or iphone user then you can use Google Search Image in a different way to Android user.

Firstly you will go to the Safari web browser. Once open you need to type “www.google.com/ncr” on the address bar and tap Enter key. This will open Google.com on Safari for iOS. When you have the website loaded you need to select the additional options by pulling down from the address bar.

You must “Request Desktop Site” from the menu and then the Safari desktop version will be loaded. Now select the Images tab on the top right corner which will open the Google Image Search and this will then allow you to use Camera icon on the search bar which enable the Search by Image functions.

If you want to search using an image URL, just paste the link in the Paste Image URL tab and tap on Search by image button and then go to the Upload an Image tab and select Choose File button. You can now select to take a photo using the camera or use an existing photo in the Library.

There is an APP available like Google Goggles called CamFind which provides a Visual Search, QR Reader, Price Comparison & Barcode Scanner located here:-

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camfind-search-your-camera/id595857716

When did Google Glass come out?

Google launched in April 2013 Google Glass and the first launch was with the Explorer Edition. This was made available to Google I/O developers only in the United States at cost of around $1,500.

Google actually began testing Google Glass in April 2012. Back in April 2012 at the Foundation Fighting Blindness event in San Francisco Google’s Sergey Brin wore a prototype of the Glass to demonstrate what was coming.

What is the use of Google Glass?

So what is Google Glass?, it is a wearable computer that contains an optical head-mounted display. This functions as a heads-up display and provides voice activation control to allow users to see and interact with information in a hands-free operation.

 

Google Goggles Ipad & iphone

Google Goggles PC Download

Why Has Google Disabled Instant Phone Verification

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Ever wonder why Google has Disabled Instant Phone Verification for Google Map Pins.

Well this was after Seattle techie, Bryan Seely created a fake listing for a Secret Service office to show loopholes in Google’s system that can allow scammers to divert traffic from local services.

Bryan Seely started by going to Google Map Maker which is the tool provided by Google that allows regular users to add information on local places to Google Maps.

He then created entries for two ATMs, including a phone number for each of the locations. The ATMs were actually real but the phone numbers were number that he had set up.

Then he went into Google Places, where businesses can create a place page and created a listing for the ATM which then requires a verification which was completed using the automated call to the phone numbers he had created for each ATM. This automated service provides him a PIN number which is then entered to make the place listings live in his control.

He then changed the to ATMs to be the Secret Service office in Washington and an FBI office in San Francisco which then once live means that in Google Maps this was now real.

He then set up the phone numbers to forward any calls to the actual Secret Service office in Washington or the genuine FBI office in San Francisco.

To monitor things he also recorded the calls received that were made to these numbers and the fake listings got calls.

Of the calls received one was from a Washington police officer calling the Secret Service to discuss counterfeit money he had discovered.

He then having completed the exercise pulled the plug after 24 hours. He went to the local Secret Service office in Seattle to show and explain what he had done and deleted the listings while there.

Google has disabled the instant phone verification now and in order to get a business listing you have to use the Postal Service to get a postcard containing your PIN to verify.