Audio Indexing: Google listening

No no. There is no spelling mistake in the title of this ticket. Google is not "to" listen to (whatever ... but that's another matter), but Google now has the ability to listen in terms of indexing. More specifically, it "simply" indexes, in videos or audio files, the content of these videos or files, "verbatim”. This service called Google Audio Indexing (Gaudi) this therefore allows the user to search "word for word" directly in those files. The experimental at the moment (it is still attached to the Google Labs) runs only on political speeches and videos of the contenders for the White House. This news is important because indexing audio is a crucial issue for those involved in information retrieval.

Google Updates Google Suggest

Google Suggest is a feature designed to make searching both faster and easier. Whether you are typing into the search box on Google Toolbar or Google.com, or the Omnibox in Google Chrome, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. So for example, if you type "bass," Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include "bass fishing" or "bass guitar." Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like "prog," Google Suggest might offer you refinements such as "programming," "programming languages," "progesterone," or "progressive." Again, these suggestions allow you to enter your searches faster, but also in a way that will more likely get you the results you're looking for.

That's what occurs on the surface of Google Suggest. Here's what happens under the hood. To provide its recommendations Google Suggest needs to know what you've already typed, so these partial queries are sent to Google. For 98% of these requests, we don't log any data at all and simply return the suggestions. For the remaining 2% of cases (which we select randomly), we do log data, like IP addresses, in order to monitor and improve the service.

However, given the concerns that have been raised about Google storing this information -- and its limited potential use -- we decided that we will anonymize it within about 24 hours (basically, as soon as we practically can) in the 2% of Google Suggest requests we use. This will take a little time to implement, but we expect it to be in place before the end of the month.

All data retention is a balance between user privacy and trust on the one hand, and security and innovation on the other. In the case of Google Suggest we decided it's possible to provide a great service while anonymizing data almost immediately. But in other cases - such as our core web search - storing data like IP addresses for a time is crucial to make improvements to search quality, improve security, fight fraud and reduce spam.

Source: Official Google Blog: Update to Google Suggest

Download Google Chrome now

Google's new web browser Google Chrome is now now live and available for download.

Visit http://www.google.com/chrome to download and start exploring.

Chrome: Google launched its open source browser

After the failed takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft, there is a new arm wrestling on the Internet with the response from Google. The giant search engines on Tuesday launched its Internet browser, Google Chrome facing Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Google has unveiled its official blog Monday evening: "We will launch the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in over 100 countries." This will be free software: you can download the applications without paying. Its source code is open; the software will be free, reusable and modifiable by any user.