Posts tagged google

How Tywyn thwarts Google Street View…

Mar 11th

Posted by andrew in Technology

1 comment

Google Street View has thrillingly – and rather scarily – managed to scan 95% of the homes in the UK. Which means that most of my childhood haunts are finally on Google Maps for an easy trip down nostalgia street.

However, when I try to go down this street in Tywyn and then move forward, I am magically transported through some mysterious blurred tunnel to another place in time and space. Also known as the back alley. Then I’m transported back.

Such a shame I can’t seem to find a way to tell Google how to correct their mistake. Unless there is a teleportation tunnel operating in Tywyn these days…

, , , ,

The trouble with being everywhere on the Internet…

Dec 14th

Posted by andrew in Funny

No comments

Miss H recently did a Google search for a local pizzeria near where I live and she works. My picture pops up – because I once wrote a favourable review of it.

Better yet, if you then do the same search but concentrating on images, there’s a Google Ad inviting you to travel with 1200 lesbians. Sounds like my average dating night out to me.

, , , ,

Why Google Maps Navigation won't be that huge

Oct 30th

Posted by andrew in Technology

No comments

So, Google Maps Navigation has launched and shares in sat-nav companies have already collapsed – following my sharedealing friend’s famous edict that you don’t want to launch any product that Google can march into. But I’m not so sure what they’re worried about.

I used Google Maps on my Android phone a while ago to try and drive to a remote location. Sure, the interface was incredibly clunky and it wasn’t the best set-up in the world – but I’d have been fine with that if it ACTUALLY WORKED. Ironically, while my phone had a GPS lock throughout the journey, it spent ages vainly looking for a data signal.

No doubt Google can improve on the user interface and speed of the application – but unless Google suddenly have powers to swamp the entire continent or planet with a coherent data signal, there’s still going to be a lot of room for a “traditional” satellite navigation company. Because when you’re lost, the last thing you want to find is that your freebie Google Maps device can’t tell you where you are either because it can’t download the relevant map of your location.

, , , ,

What happens if you type Google into Google?

Jan 31st

Posted by andrew in Online life

1 comment

Well, as at 14:48 GMT on 31 January 2009, you get:

Type Google into Google and...

Type Google into Google and...

Essentially, Google is warning you that THE ENTIRE INTERNET IS DANGEROUS AND UNCHECKED. Including its’ own sites. This is, I presume, a bug. ;) Although if Google is telling the world that websites are unsafe and harmful, does that mean website owners can sue Google for libel?

Google libels Scientology? ;)

Then again, I suppose it’s safer than what an IT manager thought would happen if you typed Google into Google…

, , ,

Cuil – not a Google-beater. Not yet anyway.

Jul 28th

Posted by andrew in Technology

1 comment

Fair play to whoever runs Cuil’s press relations – they’ve managed to get coverage in pretty much all the mainstream press I’ve seen today, including the BBC. Very impressive, considering the number of companies who have claimed to be better than Google at searching, but doing nothing more than aiming a slingshot to Google’s Goliath.

However, I think the next time before they launch their press releases, they might be advised to do a little more work on the search results and their engineering resiliencce. An ego search for Andrew Wong on Cuil does retrieve my LinkedIn profile – but attaches a picture of a totally different person. and a Chinese athlete. Try to run another search, and then you’re told that Cuil’s servers are over-boiling. Which you never get on Google, it has to be said.

, , ,