Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

Last night, Google announced that they have branded the Personalized Homepage as iGoogle. This shorthand has been used around the Googleplex for a while now. It’s definitely much easier to refer to it as iGoogle versus Google Personalized Homepage.

A little bit of history on the personalized homepage (source):

When the idea originally came up to have a personalized homepage, the original mockup showed the iGoogle logo back in 2004.  The URL was and always has been google.com/ig which lead people to believe it was called Google IG. It never really had a name until yesterday when they officially branded the personalized homepage feature as iGoogle.

While they were at it, they made a few changes to the feature as well. For starters, the dramatic themes which have turned out to be popular in the US are now available around the world.  They’ve also added 22 new locations to the list.

Gadget development is something that anybody can do now. All you have to do is click on “Add Stuff” and then click on “Make your own gadget – no programming required.” From there you can create and share the Google gadgets that you created, and all it takes is filling out a form. You can select from:

• Framed photo: share a photo or series of photos via a gadget.
• GoogleGram: send a message, flowers, etc.,
• Daily Me:think Twitter– what’s your status? (pictured to the right)
• Free Form: Write whatever you want!
• YouTube Channel: Have a favorite channel your friends should see?
• Personal list: Favorite movies, grocery list, etc.,
• Countdown: How many days until your birthday?

Getting to iGoogle is the same as it’s always been, or you can go to iGoogle.com

Google Responds to Viacom

In related Google news, Google has finally responded to the lawsuit that Viacom slapped them with. If you’ll recall, back in March, Viacom filed a $1 billion dollar lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement.

Yesterday Google filed their response and responded just as everybody thought they would.  They said they go above and beyond what is required of them with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gives hosts protection from copyright lawsuits if they remove the material when requested.

The response has been made, now what? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on December 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

Back in May of this year, YouTube started the process of sharing the wealth and paying some of their top users for their unique video content.  More specifically, 100 high profile partners were accepted into the YouTube Partner Program and were able to make some decent money (reportedly thousands per month). YouTube has decide to expand the program and now more people will be able to haul away some Google cash.  Unfortunately it’s only open to those in the United States and Canada, and there is an application process that you’d have to go through and not everybody will get accepted. The good news though, is that those who weren’t a part of the program previously but receive many view on their videos will be able to start earning some cash.

In the announcement, YouTube says “we feel it’s important to reward our most dedicated community members: those who are regularly uploading original content to YouTube.” So if you regularly upload content and you’ve built a “significant audience,” there’s a chance that you’ll be accepted into the program. There’s no word on whether or not this will be extended to lower-traffic users in the future, but they have said that they will open it up to other markets in various countries soon.

Here’s a quick rundown on what you need to do to qualify for the YouTube partnership:

• You create original videos suitable for online streaming
• You own the copyrights and distribution rights for all audio and video content that you upload — no exceptions
• You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users
• And as mentioned, you live in the United States or Canada

The whole application can be found here, and it just requires pretty general information. Given that Revver and Metacafe have offered similar programs for quite some time, it’s about time that YouTube gets this program movin’! It took them an awfully long time to get the program started, and quite a bit to open it up to more people. I’m curious how much money participants will earn, however, YouTube makes no mention of the specifics.

Thanks for the tip S!

Source: TechCrunch

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Hangout video sharing is one of Google+’s more appealing features — not that we use it often, but when it comes to things to do in an online social gathering, watching YouTube clips would certainly rank near the top. Now you can launch Hangouts directly from YouTube, rather than heading over to Google+ and pasting in a link. Sure, it’s a simple tweak that probably took less than an hour to code, but it’s a clever addition nonetheless.

YouTube adds Google+ Hangout button, lets you share videos with a click originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on August 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

You may recall last summer when “Google” was added to both the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary as a verb. I hear Google used as a verb quite frequently, for example: “Why don’t you go Google it if you don’t know what it means?” When it was added to dictionaries, Google made it clear that their trademarked name was not to be used as a verb because they feared it would turn into a general term for performing a web search. At this point, I don’t think there’s anything they can do to stop people from using “Google” as a verb.

So while they’ve discouraged the use of Google as a verb, they’ve actually made YouTube a verb themselves on one of their official blogs. The article is titled “How to YouTube” and correct me if I’m wrong, but YouTube was definitely the verb in that sentence! So perhaps it’s okay for them to use their own trademarks as verbs, but not everybody else?

Googlified points out a YouTube definition from Urban Dictionary (slang dictionary) where it’s defined as:

• v. when one looks for a particular kind of video on the website.

Used in a sentence, it would look something like: “I YouTubed “old commercials” and found a ton of classics.”

Whether Google likes it or not, I think YouTube is on its way to becoming an “official” verb, which then got me thinking about other Internet terms that have become verbs over time. The first one that came to mind was Photoshop. And like Google, Adobe has said that the Photoshop trademark should never be used as a verb – too late though! They even give correct and incorrect examples on their website:

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.

INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

I do see why companies are a bit skeptical over the use of their trademark though, particularly recently when I read on a blog “Checkout this image, I photoshopped it in Paint.” Hmm… last time I checked, you could only Photoshop something in Photoshop.

So what other examples are there? I could only think of Photoshop, but I know there’s got to be more…

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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A committee of 25 Icelanders submitted the first draft of a rewritten constitution to the country’s parliamentary speaker Friday, and despite our recommendations, Rebecca Black was conspicuously absent from the proceedings. The democratic experiment bravely asked citizens to log on to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter to engage with the committee in a discussion about the nation’s future. While the project’s Facebook page played host to pleads for free ice cream and more volcanoes, the constitution’s creators managed to stay on task, focusing on issues of decentralization and transparency in government. The draft is slated for review beginning October 1st.

Iceland’s crowdsourced constitution submitted for approval, Nyan Cat takes flight over Reykjavik originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AFP  |  Stjornlagarao 2011 (Translated)  | Email this | Comments