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.
Tag Archive for 'Google'
Google has announced the release of it’s own mobile phone, the Nexus One. Built by HTC (a Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer), the phone will run on Google’s own Android software. Dubbed as a “superphone”, a notable technical specification is the 1 GHz (gigahertz) processor, faster than other competing smartphones (the iPhone runs on 600 megahertz, the Blackberry Bold runs on 800 megahertz). Purchase the Nexus One here.
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.
Millward Brown (a leading marketing research company) has released a report on the most valuable global brands of 2009. For the first time, Google is officially the most expensive brand in the world, valued at just over $100 billion. Congratulations to the Google team and we hope more tech companies continue to dominate the global branding world.
Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering at Google (a former Microsoft general manager), gives a few words on what drove him to switch companies, and the furute of mobile technology.
