IntellectBeat

Google Chrome on Monday was crowned the top Internet browser, officially ending the long reign of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). NetMarketShare calculated the Chrome had 41.7 percent of desktop browser share in April, narrowly topping the 41.4 share for IE. Mozilla's Firefox browser was third with 9.7 percent, according to the market tracker. A second market tracker, StatCounter, had given the title to Chrome four years ago and gave Google's software for browsing the Internet an even bigger lead over IE in April. A graph posted online at netmarketshare.com showed a Chrome use trend line rising while a line for IE sloped downward. When it came to using browser software to access the internet from mobile devices, Chrome commanded slightly more than 49 percent of the market, according to NetMarketShare. The results came as Google faces regulatory scrutiny, particularly in Europe, over its dominant position in Internet lifestyles and as Microsoft was pursuing a shif...

Commemorating what would have renowned cartoonist Mario de Miranda's 90th birthday, Google has posted an illustrative doodle on its homepage today. Miranda had not formally studied Art and started his career as a cartoonist for The Times of India and The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1953 and also illustrated numerous books including Inside Goa, A family in Goa, and The Open Eyes. His works were inspired by the bustling city of Mumbai and often featured complex, multi-layered scenes with each character maintaining its individuality. The beloved illustrator had also been invited to sketch and exhibit in many countries including the US, Japan, Germany, Spain, and France. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and All India Cartoonists's Association, Bangalore, honoured him with a lifetime achievement award. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan on 4 April 2012. Guest doodler Aaron Renier, who is also a comic artist, has created today'...

What do you do if you want to retain employees? Offer free lunches, boost the HR practices or bring in true motivation. But, if you are Google you might just build another startup to let employees pursue their own personal projects. The internet giant is reportedly building Area 120 - a startup incubator for some of its employees to work full time on their '20% projects' - the personal projects that the company allows in a fifth of their working hours. A  report  on Engadget notes that any employee who wants to pursue their own project without losing their current job at Google could do so provided it the business plan is accepted by Google. Although the company hasn't officially confirmed building such a work space for its ambitious employees, but such an initiative might help the company save important talent from being poached away by rivals.

This year Google is marking Earth Day with a series of five doodles created by Google doodler Sophie Diao. Each of the doodles represent one of earth’s five major biomes: the tundra, forest, grasslands, desert, and coral reefs. "In each illustration, you’ll find one animal who’s been singled out for their 15 minutes of fame," Diao says in her post describing the doodles. Each time users visit the Google home page, they will randomly see one of the five doodles. The five doodles feature the tundra and polar bear, forest and red fox, grasslands and elephant, desert and tortoise, and aquatic/ocean, coral reef and octopus. The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 and was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson. The original Earth Day was attended by about 20 million Americans. The Earth Day movement went global in 1990 and is now celebrated in over 175 countries across the globe. April 22 was officially designated as the international Earth Day by the United Nations ...

Google announced Wednesday an expansion of its program which delivers sped-up versions of news stories to smartphones and other devices. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, which aims to make Google a key hub for news and challenge rivals like Facebook and Twitter, was implemented in mobile search results earlier this year. On Wednesday, the program came to all Google platforms including its Google News apps for Apple and Android devices. "In the few months since AMP launched, thousands of publishers have embraced this new format and are regularly publishing AMP-versions of their content," said Maricia Scott, engineering director of Google News, in a blog post. Like Facebook's "Instant Articles," the Google project aims to bring a better experience to news readers by loading mobile pages faster than most news websites. "Our tests have shown that AMP documents load an average of four times faster and use 10 times less data than the equivalent ...

Existing and potential Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P smartphones can now create their own unique protective cases. The new custom  Live Cases  cost just $35 and the patterns and effects are only limited by the user's sense of style. The simplest way to create an original case is to choose a favourite photo or a geographical location via Google Maps. Once selected tonal or patterned effects can be applied and overlaid and the finishing touch is a matching ‘live' wallpaper for the handset's screen to tie everything together. But as well as style, the case offer functionality. They ship with a programmable shortcut button that can be pressed to quick launch an app or feature of your choice.

Google on Wednesday made it tougher for people to hide behind excuses when it comes to finding time to hit the gym or learn new languages. Google added "Goals" tools to free calendar applications tailored for smartphones powered by Apple or Android software, using artificial intelligence to let software figure out when one could fit in workouts or lessons. "Whether it's reading more books, learning a new language or working out regularly, achieving your goals can be really hard," Google product manager Jyoti Ramnath said in a blog post. "That's why starting today, we're introducing Goals in Google Calendar." People can add personal goals such as going for runs or getting to gyms, and then Google calendar software analyses schedules for optimal times to squeeze in activities, according to Ramnath. Calendar will automatically reschedule time for personal goals if conflicts arise, and is programmed to automatically reschedule activities if ...

Google has removed a Taliban smartphone app from its online store, the US internet giant said Monday, countering the tech-savvy Afghan militant group's increasing efforts to boost global visibility. The Taliban launched their foray into smartphone apps on Friday with a Pashto language app called "Alemarah", giving access to propaganda statements and videos. The digital campaign, first reported by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, added to the Taliban's already robust social media presence and a website in five languages including English. But barely a day after the launch, the app was no longer available for download on Google Play Store, the tech giant confirmed in a statement. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was not reachable on Monday for comment. He told AFP on Sunday that the militant group's "technology department" was also working on a Farsi version of the app. Once seen as uneducated thugs, the Taliban have developed a media-savvy...

Google has been helpful in educating children and now the search giant has come up with a new way of teaching the young minds about the wildlife. A new feature in Google search now also tells how animals sound like. If users search for 'animal noises', other than showing illustrations of animals, names, the search engine will also show a sample of what they sound like. To narrow the search, one could also search for specific animal noises like dog, cat, owl, cow, etc., with a query reading ' what does the (animal) say'. A Mashable report notes that there a list of 19 animal sounds include zebra, ape, cat, lion, moose, owl, pig, cow, duck, elephant, horse, raccoon, bowhead whale, humpback whale, wolf, rooster, sheep, tiger and a turkey.

Google Maps, which in the past has been attacked with several bogus edits, appears to have been marred again by another embarrassing incident. The latest goof in Google Maps comes in the wake of the recent Jawharlal Nehru University (JNU) controversy that led to the arrest of JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and Anirban Bhattacharya, on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy. Type in words like "anti national", "sedition" or "leftist" in Google Maps, and it will take you to Jawharlal Nehru University. While there could be more keywords redirecting you to the same location, but we, so far, have been able to verify only these three apart from the legitimate ones. While in the past many such incidents where Google provided users with botched up results appeared to have occurred because of the phoney edits suggested by users via the company's crowd-sourced map making tool, the latest incident doesn't seem to have ...

Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo has been awarded the highest Go grandmaster rank, reserved for those whose ability at the ancient board game borders on "divinity", South Korea's Go Association said Tuesday. The association announced the award before the final game of AlphaGo's five-match series with South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol, with the computer currently holding an unassailable 3-1 advantage. AlphaGo was given an honorary "ninth dan" professional ranking, equivalent to that held by Lee who has 18 international titles to his name and is widely considered one of the greatest Go players of the modern era. "Neither man nor machine has ever received a honorary professional dan certificate to date, although many people have received honorary amateur certificates", an association spokeswoman told AFP. The citation on the certificate, serial-numbered 001, said it was given in recognition of AlphaGo's "sincere...

YouTube on Tuesday added interactive, 360-degree animation video to its line-up, with help from the makers of "Wallace and Gromit." Dubbed "Spotlight Stories," the new feature will be viewable on the YouTube  app of an array of Android-powered smartphones. Showcasing the technology was a Santa-themed short film from Academy Award-winning studio Aardman Animations, entitled "Special Delivery." The animated short centers on a building custodian trying to find a "mysterious stranger" who remains just out of sight but leaves behind a trail of gifts. Designed by  Google  as a new form of storytelling, the immersive films allow users to drill down into sub-stories within their plot by moving their phone towards what they want to see. "The sensors on your phone allow the story to be interactive, so when you move your phone to various scenes, you unlock mini-stories within the story," technical project lead Rachid El Guerrab said in a blo...

Google, part of Alphabet Inc, is building a new mobile messaging application to better compete with rival services such as those offered by Facebook Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new service would tap into Google's artificial intelligence know-how, integrating chatbots, or software programs that answer questions, inside a messaging app, the Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The new app will enable users to text friends or a chatbot, which will search the Web and other sources for information to answer a question. It is unclear when the service will be launched, or what it will be named, the report said. Source:- Reuters

As the Christmas and New Year celebrations kick in, Google is here with its first holiday doodle that is inspired by papercraft models and cut outs. The 1st of its holidays 2015 doodles has been created by doodler Robinson Wood and shows off several festive characters and items including little stars, candies, and also a horizontal Christmas tree. Papercrafting is an ancient art form and is believed to date back to 1440. One could easily see the craft forming the core of the modern day 3D printing in which akin to the old craft, a pattern is first conceptualised onto the computer and later printed to form an object. Over the years, Google has been posting a series of doodles with the onset of the holiday season.

Want to Get Hired by Google? Try This Hidden Route Want to score a programming gig at Google? Don't hesitate looking up for complicated queries on Google. That's precisely how Max Rosett recently landed a job at the search giant. In a blog post, Rosett has taken the lid off a rather unconventional recruiting practice by Google. The world's biggest search engine maintains a recruiting tool hidden in its website which triggers if you're working on sophisticated programming problems that resonate with what Google does. Of course that in itself won't get you a job. If you wish to go down the rabbit hole, you'll have to clear the test Google puts in front if you. Rosett noted that when he looked for a programming query, "python lambda function list comprehension," the search page showed the pop-up "You're speaking our language. Up for a challenge?" When he agreed, he was led to google.com/foobar, a programming test the company has also use...

Google is said to be in talks with automaker Ford Motor Co to help build the Internet search company's autonomous cars, Automotive News reported, citing a person with knowledge of the project. The contract manufacturing deal, if finalised, is expected to come during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January, Automotive News said. "A Google spokesman told Automotive News that the company would not comment on speculation, although Google officials confirmed that the company is talking to automakers." Earlier this year, Google began discussions with most of the world's top automakers and assembled a team of traditional and nontraditional suppliers to speed efforts to bring self-driving cars to the market by 2020. In June, Google began testing tiny, bubble-shaped self-driving prototype vehicles of its own design on public roads around Mountain View. The company has also started testing self-driving prototyp...

Help Google Translate and You Could Win 1 of 50 Android One Phones Google has announced Translatathon 2015, a campaign aimed at improving translations for nine Indian languages. This is the second consecutive year when Google has kept a Translatathon for translations and validation for words and sentences in the  Google Translate  Community. This year, Google has  included nine Indian languages, namely - Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Punjabi. Contributors can participate on their phones or computers. They are required to just type, swipe, or tap translations in the languages they speak. Contributors will have the option to either translate phrases directly, or  validate existing translations . The Translatathon 2015 will end on December 30. The search engine giant has announced that in return, the 50 participants with highest score will each receive an Android One smartphone. The company's initiative is to reach to the...

2016 might be the year that virtual reality finally takes hold in the tech world. Sony, Microsoft and Oculus VR are all planning to launch their own hardware before the end of next year, with tons of developers already hard at work on games, apps and other software to ensure that VR hits the ground running. But if you don’t want to wait until next year to see what VR has to offer, you can take a sneak peek at the innovations today without putting a strain on your wallet. The first and most obvious way is to acquire a Google Cardboard viewer, which should run you about $20 (if you can’t find one available for free somewhere). As the name implies, the viewer isn’t an especially advanced piece of hardware, but it’s all you need to try out a whole ecosystem of VR apps with your smartphone. If cardboard isn’t your preferred VR viewer material, you can spend a few extra dollars and pick up the Mattel View-Master for $25 instead. Cardboard works fine, but if y...

Two months after unveiling the Pixel C, Google on Tuesday announced that its Android tablet is available for purchase in select markets. The 10-inch tablet is priced at $499 (roughly Rs. 33,000). Alongside the launch of the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 5X at its September event,Google unveiled the Pixel C tablet, the company’s first Android tablet in the Pixel lineup. At the time, the company had said that it would begin shipping the device sometime later this year. The Pixel C is also one of the most premium Android tablets you can purchase today. Unlike the plastic body that you would find on the Nexus and most other tablets, the Pixel C sports a slick aluminium unibody frame, and comes equipped with a USB Type-C port, a technology that only a few other devices have. As for other specifications, the Pixel C sports a 10.2-inch display with a 2560x1800 pixels screen resolution. It is powered by Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC with 3GB of RAM and houses 32GB of ...

Google has topped the list of world's best company to work for, grabbing the top position for the third straight year, while software developer SAS Institute and manufacturing firm W L Gore were ranked second and third respectively. The annual 'World's Best Multinational Workplaces List' ranks the top 25 global companies to work for. Rounding out the top five on the list are data storage specialist NetApp and mobile communications provider Telefonica. EMC Corporation has been ranked sixth, followed by software giant Microsoft at seventh position in the list compiled by research and consulting firm 'Great Place to Work Institute'. No Indian company however, made it to the coveted list. Others in the top ten include, BBVA (8th), Monsanto (9th) and American Express (10th) place. The list also include, Marriott (11th), Belcorp (12th), Scotiabank (13th), Autodesk (14th), Cisco (15th), Atento (16th), Diageo (17th), Accor (18th), Hyatt (19th), Mars (20th), Cadence (...