Viewing entries tagged
Google

1 Comment

Saying Goodbye to Google

Google's first visual designer Douglas Bowman explains his reasons for leaving and critiques the company's over reliance on data and reductive philosophy which he argues handicaps Google, "paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions."

I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.

It seems to be the classic tension or dichotomy between the quantitative and the qualitative. Anyway, it's an interesting read that pulls back the curtains a bit.

[Via]

1 Comment

7 Comments

Get Your Gmail Stickers

Nifty gmail stickers produced by the gmail product marketing team at Mountain View.

To get your own set of these stickers while supplies last, send a self addressed stamped envelope to the following address:

Send me some Gmail stickers already P.O. Box 391420 Mountain View, CA 94039-1420

Update: People, I am not the person to request these stickers from. Again, send a self addressed stamped envelope to the address listed above.

7 Comments

Comment

Google Eye in Sky Captures First High Res Image

Wired Science:

This bird's-eye view of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania was the first image ever seen by the GeoEye-1, the world's highest-resolution commercial satellite sponsored by Google, when it opened its camera door earlier this week.

The 4,300-pound satellite collected the image at noon EDT on Oct. 7 while moving from the north pole to the south pole in a 423-mile-high orbit at 17,000 miles per hour, or 4.5 miles per second. The spacecraft can take photos at a resolution of up to 41 cm -- close enough to zoom in on the home plate of a baseball diamond, according to Mark Brender, GeoEye's vice president of communications and marketing.

So crisp.

Comment

1 Comment

Google Chrome's Easter Egg

While in San Francisco I was talking to my friend at Google about their new new (beta) web browser. He told me to type in about:internets into the URL address bar and see what happens. I did. And it's pretty awesome. It's a good throwback reminder to the days of computing yore.

1 Comment

1 Comment

Google Releases Web Browser: Google Chrome

Named the Google Chrome, Google the ubiquitous online Goliath is releasing their own fully open source web browser. So whatisit? Google's official blog explains:

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

The beta version will be launching and available for download tomorrow Tuesday, September 2 in over 100 countries. Windows only for the time being, with Mac and Linux to arrive soon.

I. Cannot. Wait. To. Try. This. Baby. Out! W00t w00t!11!

Read more here!

1 Comment

2 Comments

GOOGLE: SKIP FLASH INTROS

Google searches now have a new feature (not sure when it was deployed) that allows you to skip those oft-annoying flash intros on websites from Google's search results page.  I'm not sure how web designers feel about this, and I know advertisers will hate this, but strictly from a user experience standpoint it is a nice addition that makes obtaining information just that much easier and quicker. This is yet another example of why Google is what it is and why everybody else is in last place.

Find out more here.

2 Comments

Comment

BLURRY FACES UPDATE ON GOOGLE MAPS

Starting with New York City, Google Maps has begun updating its street view function by blurring people's faces who were inadvertently captured by the roving camera equipped cars.  This should address a lot of the privacy concerns. In addition to humans, Google is also very concerned about the privacy rights of horses:

Read more here.

Comment