Google to get into the gaming industry?

Or perhaps just put AdSense into our favorite games?

From the Official Google Blog:



Official Google Blog:

Asteroids, Space Invaders, Centipede and Tetris—remember when you could only play these games at an arcade? I would line up behind at least 6 people for my chance at Asteroids.



Time warp—now it's 2007. Games can be played anywhere and at anytime. In this mobile world, games have evolved to become a part of our lives. Unlike television, gamers can make games their own - customizing their experience in new ways—and we are helping them do that big time.



But of course developing these sophisticated games can be very expensive. Back in the 80s the cost of producing a single game was about $100K. Today it can cost $25M to produce a game. The good news is there are some very passionate gamers out there that have come up with some interesting new ways to introduce non-intrusive and targeted advertising in order to make gaming accessible and affordable for all.



Our charge at Adscape has always been to honor the game that was developed and find new ways to enable that game to continue so others can enjoy it. That's why we are so stoked to join Google—because these guys get it, and are committed to helping us continue our mission."

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Exec Confirms Google Phone

Ooooooh! Exciting. I'll be the first to have one.

Slashdot
"cyberianpan writes "The head of Google in Spain and Portugal has confirmed that Google is working on a mobile phone. "Some of the time the engineers are dedicated to developing a mobile phone," This could be the 20% free time development but publicizing that would be stupid. Obviously this phone could link in with Google Earth/Maps... it is a marketers dream for targeted advertising.""

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

New Picasa Features!

I'm excited! This must have just happened today, because it wasn't there last I checked. Picasa's got some new features and I'm so happy. Here's what you got now:

• 1 Gig free storage, or an extra gig if you already upgraded storage.
• You can now hotlink photos and embed them elsewhere, no more Flickr for hosting. Just click on "Link to this image" from the picture's page and it even formats html for different sizes. Awesome.
  
• Any photo you post on a Blogger blog of yours will now appear on PicasaWeb under an album titled the same as the blog. Sweet. I love integration.
• Search anyone's albums! If they have opted in, which I hope most people will do, you can now search all of the captions and tags on PicasaWeb. Sweet. Maybe some integration with Google Image search, ala the YouTube/Google Video integration.
  

Now if we could throw in some Orkut integration. Picasa Web Albums needs more info available about it's users. That's what made Flickr so successful, its user had names, faces, information. It was a community. Picasa needs community spirit.

Even More To Read

Since I've become increasingly lazy, I've added the Google Reader 'Shared' items to my blog. It's over there to your right on the sidebar. It's just cool stuff that I'm too lazy to actually throw on the blog. Enjoy.

Yeah Baby! Orkut SMS!

Official Google Blog: SMS on orkut

Sweet, one more reason to love Google.

Google Has A Sense Of Humor

Some I've seen before, some are new. But I like them all.

Nine Billion Names Of God

I love Google. And this story is an interesting take on my love. Here's a snippet, enjoy.

“Here’s the thing. Google has memorized who you are. It’s memorized all of us, through those little forgotten bits that we leave behind like breadcrumbs. And what’s more important, it’s memorized its own idea of you. Google is omniscient. It’s omniscient and omnipotent. When it cached its cache for the first time, back in 1994, that’s when Google realized what it was.”

Google Start Menu

If you'd like to have a Google Start Menu, (the unofficial) GUtil for Firefox could help you a little. The extensions adds on your navigation toolbar a big list of Google services. Instead of trying to find the name of the service in the list, you can just type the first letters from the name (typing "r" opens Google Reader).

The list is customizable, and might be a good way to open a certain Google site, instead of going to another page that contains the list.

via Google Operating System

Open Letter To Google

I recently signed up for Google Apps and purchased benmarvin.com to use. I have used Google Page creator and that was an ok experience, but I don't mind doing my own HTML. I would like to use the benmarvin.com domain and just upload a main HTML file and perhaps a couple of pictures or something and use as a personal homepage. I do not need to have "users creating accounts" or people personalizing their startpage to my domain, or any of the Google Apps really. No offense, I just don't want that. Did I sign up for the wrong thing? Am I screwed now? Can I somehow redirect benmarvin.com to another site with flexibility? Can I take my purchased domain and host it elsewhere or is benmarvin.com tied to Google Apps until next year?
Please help me, I love all Google products and I've never been disappointed before. But the one time that I pay for a service, I end up being frustrated and running in circles from help file to forum and back to help file without an answer.

Thanks,
Ben

*Update*
All I got were a couple of general responses pointing to the help files that I already read and the forums that I already posted to that already had threads complaining about the same thing. Downgrade.
Until I can figure this out, you can find my personal webpage at http://benmarvin.googlepages.com

Unsafe Search

Via monzy.org

It's a shame when someone searching for pornographic material related to, say, llamas, is forced to slog though many pages of perfectly innocuous llama sites before finally hitting upon the llama porn he was looking for.

Click to call in Google Maps

Another reason why I love Google:

From the Official Google Blog:

Last week, I was trying to buy blue lightbulbs for a party at my house, and I ended up calling ten different stores before I found one that carried them. Now with the new calling feature on Google Maps, I can do this quickly and easily, and never have to lift a finger to dial.

Here's how it works: Search for a business, like a hardware store, on Google Maps, and click the 'call' link next to its phone number. Then, enter your phone number and click 'Connect For Free.' Google calls your phone number and automatically connects you to the hardware store.

There are two things that I really like about this. The business's phone number is automatically stored in your caller ID so you can easily call back in the future. And by checking the box to save your phone number, you can make future calls from Google Maps with just two mouse clicks (after you pick up your phone, of course).

We're offering the 'call' link as a free service to all businesses. These aren't ads and don't influence the ranking of businesses in the search results. We foot the bill for calls (local and long distance), but airtime fees or other mobile fees will still apply if you use a mobile phone number. Currently, the calling feature works if you live in the U.S. and are looking for a business located in the U.S.

Googlewhore

Verb

googlewhore

1. (Internet slang) To promote via Google; in particular, to do so by googlebombing.

Noun

googlewhore

1. (Internet slang) An ardent user of Google services.
2. (Internet slang) One who googlebombs.

googlewhore - Wiktionary

This is so me. By all definitions. Speaking of, you folks need to start linking me in more places.

technorati tags:google

Blogged with Flock

Google's Search Statistics for benmarvin.blogspot.com (average for the last week)

Top search queries		Average top position
1. ben marvin		3
2. killing yourself		17
3. wonderea		10
4. suicide		20
5. killing yourself in a car		4
6. my shnakie		1
7. "ben marvin"		3
8. oohya		7
9. 7130 ringtones		9
10. "www tuneusin"		10
11. light and know yourself		37

Official Google Blog: Do you "Google?"

Very well written article. I couldn't have said it better myself. I wish people could realize this kinda stuff on their own.

This is why is use Google exclusively. I'm a total Googlewhore.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Google Talk

Those of you with Gmail: Get it now. IM on my phone. Talk to me on the computer. AIM sucks my ass. I may not be using AIM much longer.

Ben Marvin

In furthering the thoughts from my last post, I got into researching Google bombs. A Google bomb is when you get a bunch of people to link a particular search term to a particular page. Here's an interesting article on Google Bombs. It has a more expanded definition and some history. So I decided I'd like to make my own Google Bomb. All you (the reader) has to do is link to this page (benmarvin.blogspot.com) and use "Ben Marvin" as the linking text. Eventually I will rank #1 on a Google search for "Ben Marvin". Now go, bomb for me.

PS. Google "Fruitpony". My blog is there, but not Carrie's.

moon.google.com

I know you've all seen maps.google.com and played around with it. But have you seen the latest?

I love it!