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Techabia

Google has unveiled a new web product based on it’s local business search technology. When a business (e.g. a restaurant) signs up to Google’s Local Business Center, it then appears in locally related search results. After visiting the restaurant, users are able to comment on the restaurant’s listing, giving a rating out of five. Google will then identify the popular local businesses and add them as a Favourite Place, which allows the business to leave a decal (sticker) on it’s door for daily pedestrians to be able to search the business upon discovery. The sticker will contain a QR Code (which is already heavily used in Japan), a form of barcode that requires a picture to be taken from a mobile device, which then directs the user to the local business’s page, where ratings and comments will appear. A great way to enhance the availability of information on the go.

PNC, a US based financial services corporation, has installed a green wall on its headquarters in Pittsburg (Pennsylvania). The green wall is a horizontal area of vegetation that covers approximately two tennis courts. Benefits of such an initiative include natural insulation and removal of air pollutants, a drop in temperature within the building (roughly 25%), as well as the capacity to display a positive public image. The wall was installed by Green Living Technologies LLC, which provides products and services that facilitate and simplify the integration of environmental technologies.

DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Project Agency), the research and development arm of the United States Department of Defence, has announced the launch of a new project known as the National Cyber Range. The initiative aims to create a private virtual world which will be used as a test site where advanced researchers (hackers) can test cyber warfare, as well as cyber defence. This is important because the United States Government receives roughly 80,000 cyber attacks a year. Keep in mind DARPA is the agency that created the internet back in the 1960’s.

ecoATM, a company that provides automated systems for recycling electronics, has rolled out a plan to place their ATM machines in mobile carrier stores. The concept is very simple: When a user decides to purchase a new electronic gadget (e.g. a mobile phone), instead of throwing the old device away, the user can “sell” it to an ecoATM. The user inserts the device into the ATM machine, it then values the device and offers a form of payment (or coupons) in exchange for the device. If the user accepts, the device is immediately binned and stored for pickup by a recycling agent.. Click Here to view what the ATM machines look like.

Google, in an effort to develop the online search experience, has announced several new innovations at the recent “Searchology” conference (in Mountain View, California). What spurred most attention is the introduction of Google Goggles, an image recognition system for mobile phones. Using this technology, a user can submit a search based on a photo snapshot. As Google VP Vic Gundotra put it, “Google Goggles could one day allow people to point at an object and have it identified”. Click Here for a brief video that explains it’s potential.

Virgin Galactic (part of the Virgin Group) has unveiled SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the world’s first manned commercial spaceship. The company aims to create “a new era in commercial space flight with daily space tourism flights set to commence from Spaceport America” (in New Mexico) by 2012.  Click Here for more pictures.