Google organises the world’s information and makes it accessible to all. Information also comes in the shape of geographical data, local business listings and user generated maps, and for this reason Google would like to invite you to the Google Maps South Africa launch.

Google is now giving Capetonians the oppertunity to take part in the launch of Google Maps in South Africa, on Friday the 30th of October at UCT in Cape Town.

Speakers will include Jarda Bengl, Business Product Manager, Google.

The talk will cover Introduction to development with the Google Maps API.
They’ll show some examples of great implementations, then cover the basics of how to add a map to your site including Javascript techniques to create maps, place markers, handle clicks, geocode addresses, add driving directions and how to work with Street View.

Just note that basic knowledge of XHTML, CSS, XML and Javascript is required.

Everybody is welcome from Developers and Web Masters who are new to Google Maps API, Computer Science Students.

To ensure you place is booked for the Google Maps South Africa, Cape Town launch just leave a comment and I’ll send through the rsvp email address.

Leaf, the South African distributor of HTC phones has recalled 3000 Google Android phones from Service Provider MTN.

Quinton Leigh, the MD of Leaf, says that the handsets has been recalled to undergo updates to the latest Android Operating System and to provide them with easier access to Google’s Android Market, similliar to the Apple iStore to download applications.

The software update wil also includes support for Microsoft Exchange, making things a little bit easier if you are in the Corporate World.

The recall came after MTN decided that it would be allot easier to just recall all the phones than explaining to customers how to update themself. The HTC Dream, sold exclusively by MTN, should be back in stores by September the 16th, customers who have already purchased the phone can take it to any of Leaf’s branched to get it updated. Alternatively users can get hold of the firmware on Leaf’s website and flash the handsets themselfs.

Hey guys and gals, I just realised that I have a R700 google adword voucher that expires today and that I have no use for it.

So to stand a chance to win the voucher just leave a comment to this post and I will pick a winner by 5pm today.

So spread the news and you could stand a chance to win R700 worth of free google advertising.

Terms and Conditions for the voucher here.

UPDATE

Looks like I’m not the only one with this, check out http://www.webaddict.co.za/2009/08/31/try-google-adwords-free/ and your chances will be even bigger to win.

A few month back when Microsoft launched their brand new search engine Bing, the only thing I liked about the search engine was the images search options, something google images lacked.

Now a few month after Google announced their plans for search options on images, they rolled it out.

This new feature offers quick access to existing tools, including search by color and image type. Color search will find images that are only in color or only in black and white, or even images that contain a specific color, such as red, pink, or green. Type search is a great way to narrow down your results if you are looking for a specific kind of image, such as a photo, clip art, line drawing or face.

Google also revamped their size search. In addition to choosing from commonly searched-for sizes, now you can search for an exact image size or any image larger than a certain size. You can find images of practically any size, including 70 megapixels or more.

The new layout makes it faster and easier to combine and toggle between options. It also makes it easier for Google to add additional image search options in the future, so keep your eyes peeled. Just click “Show options…” in the blue bar on the search results page to try out any of these tools.

Earlier this year Google announced Google Latitude, a service that lets you and your friends share your locations with each other. You control who gets to see your location and where on the map you appear to others. Today, Google is releasing Google Latitude for iPhone and iPod touch, available in the Safari browser.

Visit google.com/latitude from your device to start using Latitude. Add a bookmark to your home screen to quickly launch Latitude. Just open Latitude in Safari and tap the + icon > Add to Home Screen > Add. For more details, check out the Google Mobile Blog.

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 20th, 1969. To celebrate this Google released Moon in Google Earth, which allows users to explore lunar images and lunar content all from the comfort of their own home.

Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer said: “Moon in Google Earth enables you to explore lunar imagery as well as informational content about the Apollo landing sites, panoramic images shot by the Apollo astronauts, narrated tours and much more. I believe that this educational tool is a critical step into the future, a way to both develop the dreams of young people globally, and inspire new audacious goals.”

Other extra-terestrial layers include Sky, Mars and even an Ocean layer to be launched in February 2010 with the release of Google Earth 5.0

Moon in Google Earth details all of the Apollo landing missions, and offers lunar surface panoramas in Google’s Street View format. So far, there have been no privacy complaints.

So want to have some fun with Google Images? Try the following.

1. Go to http://images.google.co.za
2. Search for any image you like
3. After search is complete enter the follow into you addressbar:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i<DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position=’absolute’; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval(‘A()’,5); void(0)

Press enter and enjoy the show.

Please not I have only tested this on FF not sure if it works on IE.

First Google took on the browser arena with their Chrome Browser and now they are ready to take on the Operating System arena with their new OS called Google Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year Google will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because Google is already talking to partners about the project, and they’ll soon be working with the open source community, Google wanted to share their vision now so everyone understands what they are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. Google is designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. As Google did for the Google Chrome browser, they are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.

Google still have a lot of work to do, and they’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.

Google Chrome OS seems to me like another entrant specificly for the netbook arena and I for one would like to see a better lightweight operating system than the current popular Limpus Lite. Not only do I think it will perform well but with a name like Chrome it should probably have the nice look of the Chrome browser.

Any person out there can se how cellphones are revolusionizing our daily lives. Take the average person out there, well I can almost say take any person out there, they own a cellphone with access to the internet and it doensn’t matter where they are they will always reach for their cellphone to seek information. As a result mobile applications have become more and more popular helping people find all sorts of things from music, chatting to checking bank balances.

Google saw the growth of the mobile application industry and announced their beta version of Adsense for Mobile Applications. After all advertisers are always looking for ways to reach potential customers when they are engadged with mobile applications.

Google AdSense for Mobile Applications allows developers to earn revenue by displaying text and image ads in their iPhone and Android applications. For Google’s beta launch, they’ve created a site where developers can learn more about the AdSense for Mobile Applications program, see answers to frequently asked questions and sign up to participate in our beta. Advertisers can also learn about the benefits of advertising in mobile applications.

Check out this short video of Google AdSense for Mobile Applications.

While our eyes was full of Bing, another search engine entered the market silently.

Collecta the brand new search engine went live on 18 June 2009 without any big bangs or heavy marketing. You are probably asking so what makes Collecta different than Google or Bing or Yahoo? Collecta is a search engine with a new take on searching, it searches the web in a way no other search engine does. Collecta is a real-time search engine, crawling the web as you enter the keywords and spitting out the results in real-time.

The web is alive with real-time information. So why search a stale archive? Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media, and Flickr, so we can show you results as they happen. Give it a try.