GoogleAddiction is CLOSED

I have some bad news and some good news for my fellow addicts. Thank you to everybody who has supported me over the past couple months, your comments and contributions were very welcome and I had lots of fun with it.

The bad news first:
GoogleAddiction.blogspot.com is closing it's doors. I would have kept posting here for many years to come, but I have to pull the plug. It was a slice, and I'm really going to miss that great logo ;)

The good news:
ZDNet has hired me to blog about Google for them! Not only is this a huge step for me personally, it will also be better for the readers. With more exposure we will get more comments, feedback and tips which always keep the content interesting.

With any luck there will be even more google addicts running around in the near future. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity and I will see you all there! Update your bookmarks, and get ready for more of what you have come to love at googleaddiction.

The new address is http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google

Recent Google Video Buzz

Over the last day, readers have been starting to "buzz" about Google Video. Some people have wrote to tell me they have noticed there is a new "Google Video Blog" link at the bottom of pages when a search is performed (see below). Others have been mentioning that you can now resize video, though I think that feature has been there for a couple of weeks.

Maybe Google is gearing up to integrate Google Video with Google Base? Only time will tell, but it definitely looks like they are putting more resources into this service.

Google has also mentioned you can "charge" people to download videos. As of right now, Google does not display videos that require payment. No doubt this feature will require some sort of payment processing power (ie. Google Purchases). With these three things: purchases.google.com, base.google.com, video.google.com... we can start to visualize the future of this service.

Imagine visiting video.google.com in hopes to find last week's airing of a special broadcast you saw on your favourite TV network. When the network uploads their video (possibly to Google Base in the future), they specify that the broadcast will cost $25 dollars to download.

As the customer, you will be able to watch a small portion of the broadcast to know what you are getting for your money, similar to how Google Print works. Once you have decided that this is in fact what you were looking for, you can now use Google Purchases to make payment.

This type of system does not only apply for videos on Google Video, it could have uses in many other present or future Google services. For example, When you upload any type of information to the Google Base you may be able to specify a price for it (all payable through Google Purchases of course).

Google has been scrutinized in the past about how their services don't seem to integrate with each other. This might be the beginning of a new "Integrated Google Experience".

Purchases On Logout

I just logged out of my Google account, and it had information regarding Google Purchases. About an hour before, I had attempted to log into the purchases.google.com but I haven't seen this result before.

Below is a screenshot...

Base is Back!

Google Base has just come back online.

Check out out at http://base.google.com

Update:
The only screen that seems to work is the main one... any other page you request you will get one of two error messages. Attached are some screenshots.







Update:
And it's gone again.

Will Google Purchases be a Download?

Since Google Earth has now started to be available for users choosing to "Check for Updates", I have been poking around the dl.google.com domain using telnet to view headers and I have found something quite interesting. I was testing subdomains and this is a screenshot of what I think I have discovered.



Basically what it looks like is Google Purchases will have some sort of downloadable component to it. The headers are a bit "off" for the sub directory "/purchases". It mentions something about "Starlight Server", and that it "Moved Temporarily". This is strange because when you try and visit a subdirectory that doesnt exist at all (test1234) the message is quite different.

What could Purchases possibly need a physical application for? Maybe Google will allow people to store sensitive information on their own computers to counter the privacy concerns that surround information such as credit card numbers and bank accounts.

Does anybody have ideas as to what this download might be?

What is Google Base?

From when the service was live, briefly, here is what Google says Google Base will be used for:

Google Base is Google’s database into which you can add all types of content. We’ll host your content and make it searchable online for free.

Examples of items you can find in Google Base:

• Description of your party planning service
• Articles on current events from your website
• Listing of your used car for sale
• Database of protein structures

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.”

To me this is confusing. Doesn't this sound a bit like what a normal search engine does, only all the content is hosted on Google's server? Is Google starting their own "internet"?

It's also interesting that the logo does not contain the word "beta"... Either it has been making its way through QA for years, or they are still working on the details and probably won't be launched any time soon.

Google Zeitgeist '05 Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Invitation-only Zeitgeist '05. It will be interesting to see if there are any leaks as to what is going on inside the walls either during or after the zeitgeist. The catch, for the few that dont know, is that nobody is allowed to talk about what goes on during the conference.

I hope that Google will release either (or both) Google Calendar or Google Purchases. I will be watching everything closely to see if anything changes during these next few days.

calendar.google.com and purchases.google.com both still resolve and redirect you back to google. This is usually what Google does before they launch a new product or service. Keep tuned!

Google Secure Access is History

Like Google Web Accelerator, the Google Secure Access client is no longer available to the public. Unfortunately, it is now restricted to only some Mountain View hotspots.

I really liked the concept and I hope it will become available once again in the future. It looks like vpn.google.com still resolves, however when trying to connect to the service nothing happens.

It really made me feel more secure when surfing by knowing that any data I was sending over the network was secure, https or not. Please bring it back!

"The Search" Contest #1

Can you name this city? Use Google Maps or Google Earth to determine which US city this is. You have until the end of Oct. 24th to submit your answers.

The first person to send me the correct city (one entry per person) will recieve a hardcover copy of "The Search" by John Battelle. You will also be crowned "King of Google Earth" which includes your name on Google Addiction for a week and the time it took for you to pinpoint this location.

Good Luck!

Email's Birthday

As the new googleblog post says, it is the birthday of that little symbol we know and love... "@". 34 years and counting for this thing we all love and hate. Less hate than love thanks to the amazing spam filter on my gmail account ;).

Interestingly in the post, they mention that they have some stuff up their sleeve which will hopefully "shake things up", just as GMail did.

But wait, there’s more! :) We also have a new batch of exciting innovations on the way that we hope will shake things up again and make Gmail even better for even more people.

I hope they are referring to Google Calendar!

Attention All GOOG Shareholders...

Zachery Kouwe from New York Post is looking to inverview some people who have purchased Google shares (possibly in the IPO) and have made lots of money. He is not looking for weathy people or sophisticated investors, but someone who is just a retail investor who thought the company was a good buy and was lucky enough to get shares in the auction.

If you fall into this group of people, please contact Zachary before 5:30 today (this story is for tomorrow's paper)

Google Earth .0693

About 3 minutes ago, a new version of Google Earth was released... See below for an excerpt from the changelog.

Features
---

- default Cache path moved to Local Settings (accomodates roaming profiles and avoids backups)
(note, upgrade installs will _not_ be moved)

- Creating overlays now respects the aspect ratio of original image

- "Save As" uses feature name by default

- 3D models now have better lighting

- When reloading an identically named file, a "Don't Ask Again" option is offered


Bug Fixes
---
- Embedded icons failing in kmz loaded by network link

- Filled clamped polygons Intel graphics cards now draw correctly

- unclamped floating lines now z-buffer correctly with polygons

- drag-n-drop of text in URL keyfield would (rarely) crash

- some obscure crashes after long runs

- "Wind Guru"-related crash

- custom schema regression: newlines missing from output in description balloon

- upgrading installation might cause new GE to open maximized the first time

- embedded web window "pop-out" now respects default browser

Update:
It seems as though it's still not available for download. It will probably be ready shortly.

Google Earth (Flash Edition)

I was thinking about Google Earth today and the physics of making it web-based.

With the Google/Sun alliance, I thought it would probably make sense to create a java applet for Google Earth. This theory is a good one, and it would really make sense... however, we have recently witnessed Google implementing flash-based technology into some of it's services. Google Video now uses flash to show videos, and AdWords now supports flash ads.

The beauty of Flash is it's ubiquity and it's amazing ability to load quickly in most circumstances. Wouldn't Flash be a great candidate for Google Earth as well?

This isn't an undiscovered project or anything, but take a look at "flash earth" created by Paul Neave. If only this demo would allow you to change the angle and rotate (which flash is very capable of), it would be quite similar to the core functionality of the current Google Earth!

I am quite impressed also with the load time of this project; I wouldn't hesitate to use a google-made version of it instead of "Google Local".

AAP Files Lawsuit Against Google

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has filed a lawsuit against Google today regarding their "Google Print" service. They are upset that Google is trying to "make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers."

More information can be read here

GMail in UK No Longer

Google has been forced to change the name of their service in the UK to Google Mail as of today. As one of our regular readers noticed, his logo had been switching between the regular GMail logo and the new Google Mail logo over the past couple of weeks.

Users who have registered for GMail up until now can keep their @gmail.com address, but from now on, users will have to live with one with the domain @googlemail.co.uk.

So now in two countries GMail is officially known as Google Mail, Germany and the UK. Google does not plan to change the name of their service in any other countries.

Update:
Some interesting things about the new announcement that I found while digging around... if you visit http://googlemail.co.uk, you will notice it's not GMail. I assume they will be forwarding this to mail.google.com/mail sometime in the future.

As for the domain itself, here is the whois record:

Domain Name:
googlemail.co.uk

Registrant:
Future Movies

Registrant's Address:
The Birches 2c Sandford Road
Aldershot
HANTS
UK
GU11 3AE
GB

Registrant's Agent:
eMarkmonitor Inc. t/a Markmonitor [Tag = MARKMONITOR]
URL: http://www.markmonitor.com

Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 19-Jan-2004
Renewal Date: 19-Jan-2006
Last updated: 18-Oct-2005

Registration Status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers listed in order:
dns0.easily.co.uk 213.161.76.87
dns1.easily.co.uk 217.206.221.213

WHOIS database last updated at 16:15:01 19-Oct-2005


Looks like "Future Movies" is the registrant. Does this mean Google purchased this domain from Future Movies, or is Future Movies somehow related to Google (just like Data Docket Inc.)? It may be that Google is using Future Movies as a holding company... As of right now, there is no evidence for either of these two scenarios. I will have to do some more investigation on this one.

Update:
The announcement on Google's website is different than the press release mentioned earlier in this article. On Google's website, they say that new user's email addresses will be @googlemail.com, but in the press release it says they will be googlemail.co.uk. I'm thinking the press release must be wrong? (even though google does own googlemail.co.uk... I think...)

Google Desktop 20051010-en

Keeping up with the trend of announcing new product/service releases, it looks as though google has recently released a new version of Google Desktop.

A new minor version of Google Desktop according to CaptainK has been silently released. We cannot find any differences between the two versions so it is likely only bug fixes. Hopefully in the future Google will include changelogs with product releases.

Google Purchases Banned from eBay Already?

Before "Payments" has even been launched, it seems as though eBay has already created a "Safe Payments Policy" that bans google from being accepted as a method of payment.

It looks like eBay was in a bit of a rush when creating this policy too... usually misspellings aren't common on this type of thing:

"Sellers may also offer to accept ban- to-bank transfers, often known as bank wire transfers or bank cash transfers, and the online money order service Bidpay."

One clause that could cause some concern for Google, in the short term anyway, is the one which says any payment service used must have a "substantial historical track record". Does this mean that Google will be banned for years after "Google Payments" is officially released?

This might be just what google needs to hear to start their own online auction-type service.

Gootch's GCalendar Wish List

While we are waiting for GCalendar to be released, I thought it would be fun to compile a wish list for this upcoming service. Even though it's unlikely many of these features will be available in the initial beta release, it will give us something to look forward to. If you can think of additional features that you would like to see, post a comment!

1. Of course, it must use AJAX. An interface that is as slick, functional and clean as GMail is mandatory for this new service.
   
   
2. Host it on a cluster of computers that can handle the traffic (unlike Google Reader). Please be sure it remains responsive even under heavy use.
   
   
3. “Starring” events will definitely not be left out of the beta release. Hopefully the items you star (close to the current date) will be visible at all times so I don't forget my wife's birthday.
   
   
4. There should be a link similar to “Inbox” or “Drafts” called “Events” that if you click, would show you today's scheduled items. Even just a link to the calendar service from GMail would be greatly appreciated. (put one for reader too while you are at it)
   
   
5. The ability to set up auto-notifications by email.
   
   
6. Repeating events such as birthdays should be included in the first release.
   
   
7. It is obvious that Google spends a lot of time on integration and the implementation of open standards. I don't expect anything less from GCalendar. RSS and an API would be great to see.
   
   
8. One of the more exciting items on my wish list is the ability to create private and public “local” events that are accessible to everyone in the area. You should be able to search for local events and add them to your calendar very easily.
   
   Public events can be added to any users calendar and private ones require an “event password”. Based on the number of people who have replied, the creator of the event can see how many people are attending.
   
   Even if this is a pay service, the ability for local businesses to hold “events” that GCalendar users can see would be very cool. In addition to radio advertising, local stores could include things like “Today Only, 50% off everything in the store – Best Buy”. When users add this to their calendar, it would act as a “lead” and therefore would cost Best Buy their bid price.
   
   
9. Sharing appointments with other GCalendar users should be simple.
   
   
10. Attach GMail conversations to an event. When you view your calendar, you would see related conversations regarding the selected event.
    
    
11. Inviting GMail contacts to participate in a GCalendar “event” is needed.
    
    
12. The month and year views should probably show shaded boxes based on the number of scheduled items (similar to how the search history feature currently works). When you click on a shaded box it would drill down to the selected day.
    
    
13. The week view should show Monday – Friday on separate lines horizontally. If there are many appointments for each day, you would click an arrow which would scroll sideways to see more items. (almost like the guide on your digital TV box)
    
    
14. The day view has to show appointments for each hour. Scheduled items are easily drag & dropped which would be automatically saved (thank you AJAX).
    
    
15. I also hope GCalendar is run through QA before it is released. The last thing Google needs right now is a buggy service that has been long awaited. Take your time, make sure it's up to Google's standards before you release this beast on the world.
    

GCalendar, at first, will probably be your typical web-based calendar application without the bells and whistles. It will probably be a bit like GTalk on the features and Reader on the speed, so I'm not going to get my hopes up for anything ground-breaking yet. But just like the rest of their services it will evolve and slowly work it's way into every day conversation.

Domain Registration Facts

There are a handful of new readers who don't know how DataDocket, MarkMonitor and Google are related. Because of this, they assume that the information I am posting is uninformed and possibly irrelevant.

Let me take this opportunity to review the facts:

1) MarkMonitor.com is in the business of protecting brands. The service they provide includes registering domains for large corporations such as Google, Yahoo, and Apple. Mark Monitor only allows Google themselves to register domains with "Google" in them, or with "Google" as the registrant.

If you see a domain registered by "Google" through MarkMonitor.com (such as googlecasinogames.com), you can guarantee that the information in the WHOIS record is accurate.

2) Data Docket Inc. was discovered in my second post to this blog. You can read it for more information about them, and how they are related to Google. If you find a domain registered to "Data Docket Inc" through MarkMonitor.com, you can also guarantee that it is registered to Google.

There are likely more holding companies (or soon will be) like "Data Docket", and I have been searching for them. If I find any others, my readers will be the first to know.

Google Toolbar for FireFox (1.5)

UPDATE
Modify your Google Toolbar to work with Firefox 1.5 RC1

It looks as though Google Toolbar for firefox now works with the latest versions of the browser. If you were holding off on downloading the beta versions of FireFox because you didn't want to lose your toolbar, you don't have to worry any longer.

FireFox 1.5 is beta, and with all beta software there are issues that need to be worked out. I have noticed very annoying copy + paste issues with the browser, but other than that it seems quite good.

So if you haven't yet and you are feeling adventurous, give FireFox + Google Toolbar a shot... you might like it!

Google Casino Games

Is Google getting into the online games arena? It has been known that Google isn't really interested in creating content, and until now I really didn't think they would ever get into games. Google has been rapidly expanding into areas (Payments, WIFI, TV, etc.) which seem to stray from their original mission, to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. But casino games? This seems especially strange.

Check out the very self explanatory domain: googlecasinogames.com. Why would Google register this domain? From what I can tell it was previously registered to someone else using GoDaddy as recently as Jan 23, 2005 (much after the "Created on..." date in the whois records). Maybe you will be able to spend your GoogleBucks(.com) at Google's Online Casino?

Stay tuned for more interesting and fun findings from Google.

The Google Card?

I was reading somewhere today (please tell me where if you know) that google registered the domain googlemastercard.com. It never really surprised me, as PayPal has their mastercard for business accounts. But then an acquaintance of mine (who also has the google addiction) was digging around through some whois information and found that they have also registered googlecredit.com.

Registrant:
Google Inc.
(DOM-1368019)
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US

Domain Name: googlecredit.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6502530000
Fax- +1.6506188571
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Admin
(NIC-1467103)
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US
dns-admin@google.com
+1.6502530000
Fax- +1.6506188571

Created on..............: 2004-Sep-26.
Expires on..............: 2007-Sep-26.
Record last updated on..: 2005-May-05 15:42:55.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS2.GOOGLE.COM
NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NS3.GOOGLE.COM
NS4.GOOGLE.COM

MarkMonitor.com - The Leader in Corporate Domain Management
----------------------------------------------------------
For Global Domain Consolidation, Research & Intelligence,
and Enterprise DNS, go to: www.markmonitor.com
----------------------------------------------------------


This isn't based on any facts or evidence, but wouldn't it be neat if Google created their own credit card company like mastercard or visa? "We accept visa, mastercard and google". Since they are getting into the "merchant services" arena anyway, why not this?

Outgoing GMail Problems

For all the Google employees who read this blog, this very serious GMail problem... GMail has stopped sending outgoing mail to its destination.

As an email administrator who has access to log files on our server, I can confirm that email from GMail never reaches us. There are lots of people experiencing this problem as it has been happening since yesterday afternoon.

Here is a thread that you should read: GMail Problem Solving Group.

Update (Oct.12, 3:02PM)
It looks like everything is back to normal... thanks G!

Google.org Announced

Google has just announced "Google.org". They have committed 1% of their profits and equity towards philanthropic efforts. In this article, they mention a few things they are planning to do with the one percent.

1) 5 million dollars towards the Acumen Fund, a non-profit venture fund that invests in market-based solutions to global poverty.

2) They are working with TechnoServe to help economic growth in developing countries.

3) They also mention the "One Laptop Per Child" program to which they are donating 2 million dollars to.

Read the official google blog for more information

Google Purchases Close

Wow, thanks to GoogleRumors.com, we have learned that Google Purchases could be very close to launching. You can "sign up" for the service here

Go to http://www.google.com/purchases and see the screen where you will log into your google account for this service. In the next couple days we will hopefully see what they have in "store" for us!

Here is the original article from GoogleRumors.com

Inline Google Ads?

I don't think I've seen this before, but I have noticed some inline google ads throughout the SERPs...

try this link out for example

Does anybody else see this? Included is a screenshot of what I just noticed.



Update: I guess this isn't breaking news... I just havent noticed it. There are reports that google has been testing inline results for related searches (not ads). Here is an article that may be related.

New Search History Feature

It looks as though Google has decided to add some new features to "Search History". Now you are able to "bookmark" sites that you visit, basically eliminating the need for bookmarks or favorites in your physical browser.

You can pull up your favorite sites regardless of which browser you are using on any computer that has internet access.

GoogleReader.com & Min Choi

Yesterday I posted an article about the previous owner of "googlereader.com". Min Choi from Seattle seemed to be the previous registrant, so I did a little research. Who is Min Choi? Why did he register GoogleReader.com?

Well I might have found out some more information that will help us understand these questions. I found a blog created by someone named "Min Choi" in Seattle. I wasn't sure if this could be him, there HAS to be more than one Min Choi...

I was browsing through his blog, and his last post on October 6 seemed a bit suspicious to me.. it was kinda cryptic and I'm still not sure what he is talking about...

"I might be able to get out of my little predicament. Some inside people know some inside people that might be able to sweep it under the rug. Hehehe. That would be great, but chances are it wont happen."

Could he be talking about the domain (googlereader.com), which happened to be "registered" by Google on the same date this blog entry was posted?

So I then started reading his blog to find out more information... you will never guess where Min works.... Microsoft! Read this post.

Insert conspiracy theories here...

Google Reader Domain History

I was looking at the list of domains that Google had registered and I noticed that "googlereader.com" was on the list. Just out of curiosity, I did a lookup on the domain to see more information about it.

I was surprised to see when it was "registered". As you can see in the WHOIS lookup, it was registered the day before the service was launched (rather than months or years). This must be what happens when google transfers a domain from someone like "Data Docket Inc." to their own name.

Does anybody have access to WHOIS history which would show us the original WHOIS information for this domain? It would be interesting to see when this domain was originally registered and to whom it was listed under.

Update (October 9, 2005 7:24PM):
Thanks to GoolgeRumors.com for finding this information for us. To me, this is quite interesting... it looks as though someone named Min Choi from Seattle had registered googlereader.com before Google became the rightful owner. Is Min Choi "in" with Google? Did Google buy this domain from Min Choi? Or did the domain simply expire before Google had purchased it? Time to investigate :)

Here is the cached whois record for GoogleReader.com from Nov 9, 2004:
Domain: googlereader.com
Cache Date: 2004-11-09
Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Registrant:
Min Choi
P.O. Box 33556
Seattle, Washington 98103
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: GOOGLEREADER.COM
Created on: 13-Apr-04
Expires on: 13-Apr-05
Last Updated on: 13-Apr-04

Administrative Contact:
Choi, Min Email protected from Robots by Whois Source
P.O. Box 33556
Seattle, Washington 98103
United States
2065223344 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Choi, Min Email protected from Robots by Whois Source
P.O. Box 33556
Seattle, Washington 98103
United States
2065223344 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
PARK13.SECURESERVER.NET
PARK14.SECURESERVER.NET

Google Reader

Go to the labs and check out "Reader"... google's new project. More information will be available shortly. In the mean time, check out the google blog.

Update: I assume it's because of the large amount of people accessing the Reader, it is extremely slow and quite difficult to navigate. However, from what I can tell it's a very slick app... I'm really looking forward to using it.

Update: Here are some comments from others about Google Reader:
http://google.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000663062331/
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-10-07-n12.html
http://www.googlerumors.com/2005/10/07/google-reader-launched/#more-65

More Logo Changes

The same reader who noticed his logo had changed in his GMail, has also noticed that today, his Google Maps logo is GONE! The maps logo simply says "Google Local" now.

This is very interesting as he says "it clearly shows a focus on localisation to search for business listings...". I coudln't agree more.

Also, the right hand column is now on the Left... maybe Google is taking their own advice?

Update (Oct 6, 2005 3:04PM) Google Maps and Google Local merge into simply, "Google Local". An official press release from google about the merger can be found here.

Google VS. Microsoft (Round 1)

Update: The reporter from thecouriermail.news.com.au is wrong about this information. Google never announced a free spreadsheet or word-processing software, please disregard!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Today Google officially announced, according to "The Courier Mail" that it will be offering spreadsheet and word processing software, free.

This probably won't be a first-round knockout, but I am sure Google can prevail if they throw their punches right.

What could be next? I think if they add more useful and "cool" features to Google Talk, they could put a serious dent in MSN & Hotmail. Where else does Microsoft make their money?

They make money in their Operating Systems... could OpenSolaris be GoogleOS in the coming years? I wouldn't bet against it!

Google Goes Political

Google had opened an office in Washington DC with their first employee Alan Davidson today according to their blog. This location will help them "Defend the Internet as a free and open platform for information, communication and innovation". Net Neutrality, Copyrights and fair use, and intermediary liability are what they are interested in.

They are also looking outside of the U.S. according to the post as well.

Blogger Outage

Blogger was down for over an hour today, between 6:00 and 7:30 according to my logs. I wasn't sure what would have caused the blackout... I was suspecting maybe they switched from Linux to Solaris since they are now partners with Sun and probably have more servers than they can shake a stick at... but that's not the case. Blogger is still running Apache under Linux.

Then I thought maybe they did something with their DNS.. but that's not the case, their IP is still the same as it was before the blackout...

That left me with only one choice... to search blogger for information on blogger... weird hey?... anyway, here is their explanation for the outage.

A New GMail Logo

As one of our readers has posted, his GMail logo has changed from the original "GMail" logo to a new "Google Mail" logo. My GMail logo hasn't changed yet, so they must be testing it out on some accounts?

Here is a picture of each logo... the second one is the "new" one.





Update: The reader who reported this finding to us (residing in the UK, not Germany) has since noticed his GMail logo has switched back to the old one today... Something strange is going on.

The edge of our seats are getting warm

Google and Sun have joined forces. The first thing on their agenda is to bundle Google Toolbar with the JRE. According to Eric Schmidt, the momentum of the Java platform is good for Google.

There was no mention of any other upcoming products or services Google and Sun may launch as they would like to "maintain an element of surprise". Even though future products and services weren't really discussed, Sun CEO, Scott McNealy said in the questioning period that there has been some speculation, and lots of it is valid.

To me, the conference was a bit of a let-down, but I'm sure there are some great products that will come out of this partnership in the near future.

GMail Auto-Save Live

GMail's Auto-Save feature is now online. The "What's New" link is back at the top of your GMail. For more information click here.

Google Talk 1.0.0.72 Just Released

About 2 minutes ago Google released a new version of Google Talk... I will look for changes and post an update.

Update: No visible changes in this release, definately just bug fixes. When you click on a user who is away or offline it tells you what that users status means... Perhaps it has been there in previous versions and I just hadn't noticed.

Google Sun

I was reading a story on the thestreet.com today which references information regarding a possible announcement Tuesday.

Speculation says that what they will announce may be something about StarOffice, Sun's "Desktop Productivity" suite. This would indeed be very exciting and I'm looking forward to what may come tomorrow.

One of Google's domains, "GoogleSun.com", I thought would be an interesting one to take a look at today... I cant seem to reproduce this behaviour on many DNS servers except the one I use on a regular basis, but when I do a lookup on googlesun.com, it acts as though it's partially resolving... could they be getting ready to release a product called "GoogleSun"?

Attached is a screenshot that shows what my DNS server is giving me when I do a lookup on googlesun.com. Usually when you look up a domain that doesnt exist, you recieve a different response.

Is anybody else getting the same information?

GCalendar.com Updates

Thanks to one of our readers who left a comment on a previous story, he discovered that when you visit gcalendar.com (still owned by DataDocket) you now get a login screen for a WEBppliance control panel. What the heck?

If you do an NSLOOKUP on gbrowser.com, you will notice it resolves to 67.15.12.24. If you do an NSLOOKUP on that IP now, you will see that that IP resolves to s1.eroute.net. I wonder what this is telling us?

Keep your eyes peeled, as we find out more information you will hear it here first! :)

Whois Google?

I was just poking around today while waiting for big news to come out of Mountain View, so I decided that ARIN would be a fun place to start. ARIN is the American Registry for Internet Numbers; basically that means they are in charge of assigning IP addresses to companies.

Just for fun I typed "Google" into their Whois search. I found some fun information... not sure what to make of it yet, but it was fun :)

Here are some of my results (you can poke around there too and have a little fun of your own):

Strange:
One entry that I found strage was assigned to a company called "Google Children Care" in Plano Texas.

Interesting:
3 days ago, ARIN approved a block of IP addresses for Google in Waterloo Ontario... you can see this by doing a whois on 67.69.26.16

On the results that you get from searching for "Google" there are the following addresses assigned to the IP's... are these Google's data centers?

2000 Town Ctr. Ste 1900, Southfield, MI
5430 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy. Ste 1700 telco room, Dallas, TX
2020 Main St, Irvine, CA
444 N Michigan Ave. Ste 620, Chicago, IL
268 Bush St. #5000, San Francisco, CA
(Private Address), Plano, TX
490 Dutton Dr. Unit B 9, Waterloo, ON

Up and Atom!

I think Google is having trouble displaying atom feeds from blogger in their Google Personalized Homepage... when I add the feed:

http://googleaddiction.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Most of the time it gives me an error saying "Information is temporarily unavailable"... and other times it gives me the feed, but the most current post is from yesterday!

There are many Googlers who visit this site regularily... do any of them have an answer for this?

Gmail Auto-Save

It looks as though GMail will be introducing a new feature called "Auto-Save" which is designed to save messages that you are writing automatically incase of a browser crash. This information can be seen on the GMail What's New Page.

There is no information on this page to suggest integration between GMail and GCalendar (yet), but we will keep our eyes peeled!

Google Calendar is Here!!!

This is just in... breaking news!

calendar.google.com now has CName record pointing to www.google.com!

This is what happened just before Google Talk showed up.

More news to follow....

Update: calendar.google.com does not log you out anymore... it's possible they are getting very close to launching now.

Google Index Size Estimates

Since Google has removed their index size from their front page, one of our readers has decided to take it upon himself to figure out how large google's index really is. In his blog, he explains what he thinks the size of Google's index is by using information he has gathered.

Send Google Addiction tips and links you think our readers might find interesting. In just over a week this blog has exploded in popularity. We have regular visitors from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo... as well as the hundreds of regular Google addicts!

Cheers!

Unused Google Domains

One way to feed your google addiction is to search for domains that google has registered but not used. As posted by Gary Price from searchenginewatch.com Here is a good list of domains that you can take a look at.

If you are doing some investigation on your own, look for domains that are registered to either Google or Data Docket Inc. Have fun!

A Date To Remember

Google is developing a Calendar service that will likely be known to everyone as "GCalendar". There has been speculation in the past about such a service, but now there is evidence that Google has been thinking about it since 2004.

Another mysterious domain registered by our friends "Data Docket Inc." called gcalendar.com was registered April 2, 2004. From previous posts that revealed that Data Docket Inc. was somehow affiliated with Google, we can finally say that Google is the owner of gcalendar.com!

The only question we are asking now is... what date should we mark on our "calendar" for this one?


Domain: gcalendar.com

MarkMonitor.com - The Leader in Corporate Domain Management
----------------------------------------------------------
For Global Domain Consolidation, Research & Intelligence,
and Enterprise DNS, go to: www.markmonitor.com
----------------------------------------------------------

Registrant:
Data Docket Inc.
(DOM-1314960)
391 N Ancestor Pl.
boise
ID
83704
US

Domain Name: gcalendar.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
Data Docket Inc
(NIC-14393213)
Data Docket Inc.
391 N Ancestor Pl.
boise
ID
83704
US
info@datadocket.com
+1.2083895740
Fax- +1.2083895740
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Data Docket
(NIC-14393215)
Data Docket Inc.
391 N Ancestor Pl.
boise
ID
83704
US
info@datadocket.com
+1.2083895740
Fax- +1.2083895740

Created on..............: 2004-Apr-02.
Expires on..............: 2006-Apr-02.
Record last updated on..: 2005-Jul-25 19:10:31.

Domain servers in listed order:

REMUS.EROUTE.NET
MAXIMUS.EROUTE.NET

MarkMonitor.com - The Leader in Corporate Domain Management
----------------------------------------------------------
For Global Domain Consolidation, Research & Intelligence,
and Enterprise DNS, go to: www.markmonitor.com
----------------------------------------------------------

Google Video and Flash

Google now uses Flash Video for playing movies on Google Video. I am as much an open source fan as any, but I support this move unlike some users. Macromedia has made a great player that is simple for the average user to use.

It's true that VLC would have worked fine for what they needed, but what's the big deal? The majority of users who will be using this service already have Flash installed in their browser. Why bother installing more plugins that do the same thing?

Google is a fast moving company wanting to provide the best service they can to the majority of users. They make very complicated systems run easily on computers with close to zero configuration and that's exactly what they have done here.

Google does loves idea of open source, yet they also love idea of functional and easy-to-use software. It's all about balance.

I could get into a lengthy rant about how many open source advocates take it way too far and don't believe anything good can come from closed source software... but I'll save that for another time.

Google Talk 1.0.0.70

Google has released this new Google Talk version. I am unable to see any differences between .68 and .70... it's probably only bug fixes.

The only real difference I see is the version number in the about box is black instead of a hard-to-read grey.

If you find any changes post a comment!

DataDocket & MarkMonitor Related!

A very intelligent researcher has determined there is a link between DataDocket and MarkMonitor.  In his comment to the article "Who is DataDocket and Why Does Google Love Them", he explains the following:

"If you look at the initial filing of Data Docket, you will find that the officers of the company are the same as the officers of Mark Monitor (see thier web site, about us, management team). Also, you will see that Mark Monitor has a European presence. So there could be a Norwegean connection. My guess is that Google is using Mark Monitor and Data Docket, (and probably others..) to acquire and monitor all "google" names / products, for possible / planned future use, without them being directly tied to Google. At least for now..."

Thanks imghost!

Google Payment Corp.

Thanks to a tip from one of our readers, we have some more information regarding the "Google Wallet" service that is set to come out in the future.

Google has registered a corporation in Delaware on April 13, 2005 that "Will do business in California" called Google Payment Corp.

As you have probably guessed, or knew, there is also a domain registered to Google called "googlepayment.com".

I would say that we should be looking for a payment.google.com in the coming months!

Update: This is OOOOOOLD news!

Data Docket Inc. & Google

I'm calling for an investigation. All addicts on board! I would really like to know who DataDocket is and possibly even some domains that they have registered in the past. There is a definite link between Google and this company as I mentioned in my article about GDrive.

An online reporter has covered this story and he is just as curious as I am. If you have any information or if you can dig up some dirt on this company everyone reading this blog would LOVE to hear from you.

Feel free to post comments anonymously.

WiFi & VPN... it makes sense now

As I posted a few days ago, I noticed that wifi.google.com and vpn.google.com were live and functioning domains @ Google... it now looks like google is providing a new service called Google Secure Access Client.

This client is used for Secure WiFi access via Google VPN (as of right now it has only been tested in San Francisco on "certain wifi networks"). Basically what happens is the following:

1) anything your computer would normally send over the internet becomes encrypted using the Secure Access Client.
2)Once encrypted, it is then sent to Google for processing.
3)Google decrypts your data
4)Google sends your data to it's final destination
5)a response is sent back to google.
6)Google takes that information and encrypts it
7)Google sends you the encrypted information
8)Google Secure Client decrypts the information
9)everything seems to have worked as it did before you had Secure Access Client installed.

Here is more information

Yet another great product idea from Google :)

GoogleTV in the works?

Is it a surprise that Google is also getting into television? There have been rumors flying around that google will try to incorporate it's wireless network with on-demand streaming television. Purchasing unused fiber lines would be one way they could afford to do it. Surprise surprise, It seems as though Google has purchased unused fiber from Cogent according to this article.

Google has registered the domains googletv.com, googletelevision.net, googlehd.net, googlehdtv.net, googlehidef.com and googlehighdevinition.com... It definitely looks like they are going to be doing something with TV in the future.

I'm looking forward to it! :)

VPN.google.com... interesting...

What do you figure Google is doing with a domain like "vpn.google.com" or better yet, the domain "googlevpn.com"?

Non-Authoritative answer:
Name: vpn.google.com
Addresses: 66.28.250.23, 66.28.250.25, 66.28.250.26, 66.28.250.27

These IP addresses belong to a company called Cogent (which has the "Google Feel" doesn't it?).

Would this have something to do with the WiFi rumors floating around? On that note, wifi.google.com (googlewifi.net is also registered by Google) accepts web connections, but redirects to google's main page.

I'm still figuring out what this means so when I find out more information, you will be the first to know!

GDrive wasn't such a bad idea....

Google is making their own G: drive as we speak. You may think this is speculation... but there is lots of evidence to support the idea that google is really digging into "Online Storage"...

Just imagine. A place where you can store files which can be used anywhere, anytime on any device... believe it! Google will allow people to store information on their servers using something as easy to use as a G: drive.

Here's what I know....

Do you remember gbrowser.com?

Registrant:
Google Inc. (DOM-1278108)
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 US

Domain Name: gbrowser.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
DNS Admin (NIC-1467103) Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 US
dns-admin@google.com +1.6502530000 Fax- +1.6506188571
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Admin (NIC-1467103) Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 US
dns-admin@google.com +1.6502530000 Fax- +1.6506188571

Created on..............: 2004-Apr-26.
Expires on..............: 2006-Apr-26.
Record last updated on..: 2004-Apr-26 16:46:39.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.ALLDOMAINS.COM
NS2.ALLDOMAINS.COM

MarkMonitor.com - The Leader in Corporate Domain Management
----------------------------------------------------------
For Global Domain Consolidation, Research & Intelligence,
and Enterprise DNS, go to: www.markmonitor.com
----------------------------------------------------------


We know that google owns a domain called gbrowser.com for whatever reason... many people have speculated that a future web browser created by Google will be named "GBrowser"... After you read this, you may reconsider what they are calling a "browser"... how about a "File Browser"?

I was doing a little brainstorming and decided that if google was smart, they would provide some sort of online storage medium that can be accessed from anywhere... a similar 3rd party application had been developed called "GDrive" which utilized GMail as it's storage. This application has suspiciously been discontinued.

Is it possible that the developers of this 3rd party application came under some serious pressure from Google? I decided to do a quick lookup on the domain gdrive.com just to take a look at who the owners were... here's what the whois information says....

Registrant:
Data Docket Inc.
(DOM-1291683)
391 N Ancestor Pl. boise
ID
83704 US

Domain Name: gdrive.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
Data Docket Inc
(NIC-14393213)
Data Docket Inc.
391 N Ancestor Pl. boise
ID
83704 US
info@datadocket.com +1.2083895740 Fax- +1.2083895740
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Data Docket
(NIC-14393215)
Data Docket Inc.
391 N Ancestor Pl. boise
ID
83704 US
info@datadocket.com +1.2083895740 Fax- +1.2083895740

Created on..............: 2002-Apr-04.
Expires on..............: 2006-Apr-04.
Record last updated on..: 2005-Jul-25 19:01:51.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS.HOSTING4U.NET
NS2.HOSTING4U.NET

MarkMonitor.com - The Leader in Corporate Domain Management
----------------------------------------------------------
For Global Domain Consolidation, Research & Intelligence,
and Enterprise DNS, go to: www.markmonitor.com
----------------------------------------------------------

It looks like a company called "Data Docket Inc." has registered this domain... however, i became a little bit suspicious when i noticed that both gbrowser.com and gdrive.com were registered using the registrar "MarkMonitor.com" which (from what I can tell) don't really offer their domain registration services to just anybody.

It was a long shot, but I decided to pursue this a little bit further... you will be surprised what I found...

The whois information for the domain DataDocket.com didn't provide any kind of helpful information other than it was also registered with MarkMonitor.com... that wasn't a huge surprise... however, a subsequent WHOIS lookup blew this whole thing wide open and put things into perspective....

Domain Name: GOOGLEVIDEO.BIZ
Domain ID: D8667205-BIZ
Sponsoring Registrar: EMARKMONITOR, INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 292
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID: MKN-1467103
Registrant Name: DNS Admin
Registrant Organization: Google Inc.
Registrant Address1: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Registrant City: Mountain View
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 94043
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Country Code: US
Registrant Phone Number: +1.6502530000
Registrant Facsimile Number: +1.6506188571
Registrant Email: dns-admin@google.com
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C21
Administrative Contact ID: MKN-1467103
Administrative Contact Name: DNS Admin
Administrative Contact Organization: Google Inc.
Administrative Contact Address1: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Administrative Contact City: Mountain View
Administrative Contact State/Province: CA
Administrative Contact Postal Code: 94043
Administrative Contact Country: United States
Administrative Contact Country Code: US
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +1.6502530000
Administrative Contact Facsimile Number: +1.6506188571
Administrative Contact Email: dns-admin@google.com
Administrative Application Purpose: P1
Administrative Nexus Category: C21
Billing Contact ID: MKN-1467104
Billing Contact Name: Data Docket
Billing Contact Organization: Data Docket
Billing Contact Address1: 391 N Ancestor Pl.
Billing Contact City: boise
Billing Contact State/Province: ID
Billing Contact Postal Code: 83704
Billing Contact Country: United States
Billing Contact Country Code: US
Billing Contact Phone Number: +1.2083895740
Billing Contact Facsimile Number: +1.2083895740
Billing Contact Email: info@datadocket.com
Billing Application Purpose: P1
Billing Nexus Category: C21
Technical Contact ID: MKN-1467103
Technical Contact Name: DNS Admin
Technical Contact Organization: Google Inc.
Technical Contact Address1: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Technical Contact City: Mountain View
Technical Contact State/Province: CA
Technical Contact Postal Code: 94043
Technical Contact Country: United States
Technical Contact Country Code: US
Technical Contact Phone Number: +1.6502530000
Technical Contact Facsimile Number: +1.6506188571
Technical Contact Email: dns-admin@google.com
Technical Application Purpose: P1
Technical Nexus Category: C21
Name Server: NS1.GOOGLE.COM
Name Server: NS2.GOOGLE.COM
Name Server: NS3.GOOGLE.COM
Name Server: NS4.GOOGLE.COM
Created by Registrar: EMARKMONITOR, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: EMARKMONITOR, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Tue Jan 11 22:58:17 GMT 2005
Domain Expiration Date: Tue Jan 10 23:59:59 GMT 2006
Domain Last Updated Date: Mon Jan 24 08:51:19 GMT 2005


Attention should be paid to the "Billing Contact"...

You can now put all the pieces of the puzzle together.... step aside.. here comes google's very own GDrive!!!

The Introduction

Hello Readers!

If you are reading this right now, you have probably already declared yourself an addict when it comes to the inner workings and mysteries of the greatest company on (google) earth. Your friends and family are probably sick of hearing you spout off random tidbits about Google and every little service they offer. You have probably become that little paper clip that everyone hates in Microsoft word!

There are many things I have discovered about Google that you will find interesting... I will share one of them with you in the upcoming days as I compile all the notes I have gathered. I know you are interested in learning more of their secrets, and I won't disappoint you. Keep tuned, and don't hesitate to share your ideas with other addicts reading this blog. There are many.

All ideas and posts that appear on this blog are derived purely from the author's own personal research by means of using conventional tools available to the public. No information gathered or shared have been obtained by any means other than that of common research.