So, in case you’re been under a rock or just got back from partying outside the Vatican, Google has announced its plans to euthanize Google Reader in July. The fury has begun to die down on social media, but rest assured, those who were hard core users of Reader won’t forget this anytime soon. One Tweet that I saw—sorry that I don’t remember who wrote it, though I’m sure several thought along the same lines—threw Google’s unofficial motto back in its face:
What happened to “Don’t be evil”?
It seems as if Google is looking to expand its fairly successful augmented reality game Ingress franchise — with eBooks. In a pertinently appropriate partnership with bestselling conspiracy fiction author Thomas Greanias, Google’s Niantic Labs is giving the Enlightenment vs Resistance saga some narrative history.
I think this is a shrewd move. The game, fun and engaging as it is, practically cries out for some tangible backstory. Plus, if in-game chatter is an indication, additional media — swag, imagery, even motion pictures –would be quite welcome, and will also increase mindshare. There is no official word with regards to iOS functionality, and with quite a few players topping out at the higher levels, stuff like this could help maintain interest.
The eulogies to Google Reader have started and it hasn’t even closed down, yet. When it was announced on Thursday night that Google was closing down Google Reader, just after the New Pope was announced, my Twitter and Google Plus feeds became swarmed with messages lamenting it’s demise and outrage at Google for shutting the service down.
Honestly, it became the bigger news story of the night on my social network (which perhaps says something about the people I follow on social media) and the anger at Google became stronger and fiercer.
Some people even went as far as too call Google’s actions “immoral” (which brings up a huge question about the morality of businesses and “corporate sin”).
I thought, “Why the Google Reader outrage?”
The next day almost every blog had a guide on what service/services you should replace Google reader with which is perhaps a testament to Google’s near monopoly on RSS readers that it would cause this much uproar. However, It is also gives us an insight into the heart of Google.
We should have known this was coming when Google pulled the API for Feedburner.
This is another stream being cutoff by Google as they’ve also ended the free version of Google Apps. I always wondered when the loads of outstanding free services was going to end.
The most frustrating part for me, is the fact that they’ve bought-up and beat so many online services in the marketplace, and then turn around and end them–much like Twitter did with TweetDeck and Posterous.
So now what?
Although this list has a Valentine’s Day feel to it, we all want some Google love no matter what time of year it is!
Many of these may seem like ‘non-brainers’ and you may be looking around for some ‘magic solution,’ but the fact of the matter is, there isn’t one. Having Google ‘love’ your website takes hard work–plain and simple.
Take a look at these 14 ways for Google to love your site, and you’ll see what I mean:
Have you heard about the new Reddit called, Google Poems?
It’s amazing.
Here’s the premises:
I was searching for some cool uses of Google Maps for a client, recently, and I found this one which is very cool indeed.
Without wanting to give away too much – it uses the data from Google Maps to give you a very entertaining and local experience that’s fun. All of it for an insurance firm.
Take a look at this:
A Christian farmer from the UK has planted a maze with some of John 14:6, when Jesus answers to Thomas’s question, “How can we know the way,” with “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
It’s planted out of ‘thousands’ of willow trees that if laid out end to end would be over a mile! It’s not really a true maze, as you can walk about openly in it, but is still very cool! Continue Reading…
I love the idea of several Christian-oriented nerds discussing in a very informal setting tech of some sort that may be beneficial for churches, bloggers, missionaries, and any other kind of ministry out there. To do this well, we are going to have hangouts every other Saturday (or so) at 10AM EST that will be On Air for all to see live and then we will be posting the YouTube video on ChurchMag.
Our next hangout will be February 2nd at 10AM EST.
Google has one of the largest buildings in the world and known for being one of the best places to work because of the salaries and work environment. At the same time, they have bought several other businesses like Motorla for $12.5 billion dollars.
So what does Google’s income and expenses even look like? Do they actually make that much money by just being a search engine site?
Here are some numbers to prove their worth.
Copyright 2013 · ChurchMag
