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YouTube is offering people a way to blur faces in submitted video. The new tool is designed for human-rights activists and others who may want to protect people in a video.
Simply blur faces using the tool before submitting it. It will appear among the "Additional features" under editing enhancements when it's available late Wednesday.
Google Inc., which owns YouTube, is warning that blurring faces by itself may not guarantee anonymity. Background scenery or a license plate might give away someone's identity, as might a recognizable voice. The software also might miss a face or two, though people will have a chance to review the blurring before submitting it.

YouTube says the feature "allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not."

Google announced to shut down the highly-controversial social networking product Google Buzz, along with several other services in the coming weeks, Xinhua reported.
Google on its official blog, Google announced the death penalty to its code search engine, Buzz, Jaiku which let users send updates to friends, the Google personalised homepage feature iGoogle, and the University Research Program for Google Search.
The shut-downs came as part of Google's housecleaning effort announced in early September, in which the company said it will shut down a number of products and merging others into existing products as features.
"Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today's announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome," said Google in the blog post.
Google Buzz, a social networking and messaging tool integrated into Gmail service, has been widely criticised for privacy concerns and held back the search giant from expanding its businesses to the social networking space.
After Buzz, Google launched Google+ in June, which has been receiving a good response and passed the 40 million user mark, the company's chief executive officer Larry Page said.

Google+ has announced a new rule that requires users to use their real names, otherwise their profile would be deleted.

Saurabh Sharma, product manager of the social networking team, announced the new rule in a video shared on YouTube and on Google+, which tells that if a person is not using his/her real name, the profile will be removed after four days given to clean up the act.

The company said it tried to make connecting with people on the Web more like connecting with people in the real world, so those signing up for the service are need to use the name they go by in the real world, the Daily Mail reports.

"If we find that your profile name does not adhere to our policy, we'll give you a 4-day grace period to fix your profile name before we take further action," the newspaper quoted Sharma, as saying.

"Taking action means your account is closed although you will be allowed to 'take all your content with you, even after your profile is suspended. Visit Google+ Takeout for more details," he added.

The new regulations were billed as an 'update to how the company handles potential violations of its common name policy.'

Google+ Inc's new social-networking service may grow to claim 22 per cent of online US adults in a year, passing Twitter Inc and LinkedIn Corp. to be the second- most-used social site after Facebook Inc, a survey found.

Google+ has signed up 13 per cent of US adults and will add 9 percent over the next year, according to the survey from Bloomberg/YouGov. In the same period, Facebook will lose about 2 percentage points of US adults to keep 69 per cent of that population, while Twitter and LinkedIn continue to grow their portion of users.

Started in late June, Google+ is growing faster than Facebook and MySpace Inc. did in their early days. The service, which lets people connect with and manage groups of friends on a website, gained about 25 million users worldwide in less than a month, estimates market researcher ComScore Inc Facebook has more than 750 million active users.

"Google+ is tracing a path similar to Facebook's initial growth -- building excitement in a core group of early adopters," said Michael Nardis, head of YouGov investment products, in a statement about the survey.

Katie Watson, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California- based Google, declined to comment. Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Facebook, and Matt Graves, a spokesman for Twitter, also declined to comment.

Google has updated its popular browser Google Chrome to work better on recently announced Apple's Mac OS X Lion.

The new Chrome 14.0.835.0 version will support Lion's multitouch gestures. With the new Chrome, users can avail two-finger swipe gestures for forward and backward navigation on OS X Lion.

The new version also adds support for a new communication protocol for Web Sockets, a high-speed communication mechanism between browsers and Web servers.

In the new version for Mac, Native Client has been disabled for official releases of OS X 10.6.7 and earlier using a 64-bit kernel.

Google said that PDF viewing has been broken in this release, but a fix will be release for this later in the week. The existing copies of the Chrome's dev build will be updated automatically, others have to download dev edition from Google's website.

Google has begun warning some users of its popular Internet search service that their computers may be infected with a virus.

Routine maintenance on one of the technology giant's data centers revealed unusual traffic from computers infected with a form of malicious software, according to Google security engineer Damian Menscher.

The traffic was sent to Google through intermediary computer servers referred to as "proxies," Menscher said.

Google began delivering warning notices along with search results to computers that appear infected with the virus.

"We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections," Menscher said in a blog post.

"We hope to use the knowledge we've gathered to assist as many people as possible."
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Google Inc will shut down a website that offered public access to experimental products, the latest step by the company to refocus resources under Chief Executive Larry Page.

Google said it will "wind down" Google Labs, ending many of the projects offered on the site, in a move to "prioritize its product efforts," the company said on its corporate blog.

Google said that many of the products and technology from Google Labs would be incorporated into some of the company's other products, which range from the world's No. 1 search engine to its popular Android smartphone operating system.

Google Labs functions as a central hub for the various projects created by Google employees, who are allowed to spend up to 20 percent of their time working on side-projects. Google Labs products were available as prototypes that users could try out and provide feedback on, while Google made ongoing changes and adjustments.

Among the products listed as "alumni" of Google Labs on the Labs website are Google Maps, Google Alerts and Google Transit.

Google has started rolling out a new photo service, dubbed Photovine. The service -- currently available on an invite-only basis -- allows users to share photos online.

Though few details are available about the new service, an FAQ and brief demonstration video suggests that the service will allow users to share photos based on specific themes.

Google reportedly said in a statement that Photovine is a photo-sharing service built by a few folks at Slide. The company acquired Slide in 2010.

PhotoVine comes close on the heeels of Google launching its social network Google +. It remains to be seen if and when the company integrates the two services.

Google Inc is readying business-focused features for the Google+ social-networking site, potentially opening up new competition with Facebook Inc's company pages and sites such as LinkedIn Corp.

The business tools are expected to be available later this year, said Christian Oestlien, a product manager at Mountain View, California-based Google.

"Right now we're very much focused on optimising for the consumer experience, but we have a great team of engineers building a similarly optimised business experience for Google+," Oestlien said on a YouTube video.

Google+ was unveiled June 28, marking a fresh attempt to compete with Facebook. The service has similar features as Facebook, with streaming updates of photos, messages, comments and other content from selected groups of friends.

Google has set up a test version for businesses, Oestlien said. It will link up with existing Google services, such as its AdWords advertising system for Internet searches.

"It'll include things like rich analytics and the ability to connect that identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis like AdWords," he said.

Google has struggled to handle demand for Google+, which for now is an invitation-only service. Oestlien recommended that businesses not create Google+ accounts with the current consumer version.

Image via CrunchBase
 Google Inc has temporarily shut down a search engine feature that allows users to find real-time updates from Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and other social networking sites.

A message posted early Monday on Twitter by the team behind Google Realtime says the search feature has been temporarily disabled while Google explores how to incorporate its recently launched Google+ project into the feature. The tweet tells readers to "stay tuned."

The company envisions including Google+ information along with other Realtime data from a variety of sources, said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman.

Google+ is the search giant's latest stab at entering the social networking segment of the Internet. The project was unveiled last week and lets users share things with small groups of people.

Google announced that it is pulling the plugs on free Health and PowerMeter services that haven't won legions of users.

"We're going to retire two products that didn't catch on the way we would have hoped, but did serve as influential models," Google Health senior product manager Aaron Brown and Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl said in a blog post.

"While they didn't scale as we had hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it?s traditionally been difficult," they said.

A PowerMeter service for tracking home electricity use will shut down on September 16.

Google Health service for storing and selectively sharing personal medical records online will "retire" on January 1 but users will be able to download their information through the following year.

"Both were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home," Brown and Weihl said.

Google Health launched in early 2008 and PowerMeter software made its debut in late 2009.

Figures released on Tuesday by industry tracker comScore credited Google with being the first online operation to attract more than a billion visitors in a single month.
Slightly more than a billion people went to Google websites in May in what comScore billed as an unprecedented turn-out on the Internet.
Microsoft websites were closing in on the milestone with about 900,000 "unique visitors" for the month, according to comScore.
Facebook had the third most visited Web addresses, but topped other online venues in terms of how long people lingered after they arrived. ComScore extrapolated the findings from a sampling of two million Internet users.

Making Google search requests on many officeand home computers soon won't require a keyboard.
A feature announced Tuesday will allow people to speak their search requests while sitting in front of their desktop computers just as theyalready can on smartphones running on Google Inc.'s Android software.
The spoken-request option will be available only on Google's Chrome browser. It will be activated by clicking on a microphone icon inside Google's search box. Chrome users will get the new feature within the next few days.
Google also unveiled a way to get results by dragging digital images into its search box.
The technological tricks are thelatest Google innovations aimed at making it quicker and easier to search.

Now that Google has given it a permanent home, whenever your fingers get itchy you can strum the Google Les Paul interactive guitar doodle.
The popular Google doodle was put up in celebration of the 96th birthday of the country and jazz guitarist, songwriter and inventor Les Paul. This doodle has been receiving special treatment from Google. It first got a day's extension for its presence on the Google home page and now has got a URL of its own: http://www.google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html
While most Google doodles, after the are put off from the home page find a resting place in the Google logos collection. The Les Paul doodle is only the third Google doodle to have a separate enclosure in Google's online library, where it can be experienced in its full interactive form. The first was the PacMan doodle (google.com/pacman/) from May 21, 2010 and the other is the Robert Bunsen doodle (google.com/logos/bunsen.html) from May 31, 2011.
The Google doodle in honour of Les Paul is playable by hovering the cursor over the doodle and even by the computer keyboard. Users could also record the their own 30-second track.
The doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas, CSS, Flash and tools like the Google Font API, goo.gl and App Engine. Google engineers Kristopher Hom and Joey Hurst and doodle team lead Ryan Germick helped put together the innovative doodle.

Google is phasing out support for some Internet browsers from later this year.
Users of Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3 and Firefox 3.5 and all previous versions will lose some functions from Aug 1.

The features that will gradually stop working include access to Gmail, Google Calender, Google Talk and Google Docs.

The company warned that if users fail to upgrade, then these services will eventually stop working altogether, the Daily Mail reports.

They added that they are urging users to upgrade because of insecurities in the old browsers which could leave them prone to attack.

The announcement was made in a blog by Google's vice president (engineering) Venkat Panchapakesan, who said the move was also influenced by engineers who want to make use of the latest browser technology

Panchapakesan said on the blog: "These new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds."

"Older browsers just don't have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience."

Google Chrome users may also be affected by the move - but only if they have chosen to turn off the automatic update feature

Microsoft has also used several methods to attempt to get its users to upgrade. These include placing the software inside their monthly automatic updates.

Google India Wednesday launched Google Global Market Finder -- a free online tool designed to help Indian companies expand their business and reach out to potential customers in the international market.
The tool will be available as part of Google Ads for Global Advertisers.

The tool was launched at a special event held by Google which was attended by representatives of numerous small and medium business (SMBs) enterprises.

Sridhar Seshadri, Head Online Sales, Google India, said they have seen tremendous success with the adoption of the AdWords platform by Indian SMBs in the last two years in the domestic market.

"With this launch, we want to reach out and help all advertisers, especially SMBs, by giving them access to information about markets that have shown demand for their products. Since the tool determines demand based on how often the product is searched online in a particular geography, it is quite accurate in its assessment of demand," said Seshadri.
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Google is now rolling out the +1 recommended button all across third party sites and the Google properties, just a day after social networking site Twitter launched its Follow button for the third party websites. This +1 recommended button was actually introduced in the month of March for Google advertisements and search results.

Google reported on its blog that they are releasing the +1 buttons to entire WWW. The search engine even added that it had already partnered with some sites in which +1 buttons will appear in near future. Google is further introducing buttons on its sites like Blogger, Product Search, YouTube and Android Market.

Google +1 Button
Google said that with just one click, the users will be able to recommend that news article, raincoat or sci fi movie to their contacts, friends and others. But how is this button useful? The users searching for some particular article on the search engine can now be able to see what their contacts or friends have liked thereby making it simple for them to choose the best from the lot.

Google has in fact launched this facility for some sites. The service is basically supposed to alter the way in which one searches the articles and other things on Google like a cooking recipe. While some may believe that this is a great service offered, there are others who do not find anything good in it. Either way, it is the welcome addition that will save huge time and efforts of users who will get more relevant search results than ever before.

Global Internet search engine Google Thursday announced plans to offer street view of Indian cities on its maps platform.

“We are launching the street view project from Bangalore as it is the IT capital of India where IT-savvy users will be able to leverage the benefits of the facility optimally,” Google India product head Vinay Goel told reporters here at a preview of its latest product.

As a user-friendly feature of Google Maps, the US-based global IT major has already uploaded street view of about 100 cities in 27 countries world over with a host of information for the benefit of users seeking specific details.

“Inspired by the success of the project in other cities, we will collect images of Bangalore streets by driving across the city in cars and trikes (three-wheeler rickshaws) that will have high resolution cameras mounted atop,” Goel said.

To be made available on www.google.co.in/streetview in the coming months, the novel feature will enable users to virtually explore and navigate a neighbourhood through a panoramic view of its streets on their desktops or mobile handsets.

“The users will also be able to access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps or by dragging the orange 'pegman' icon on the left side of the map onto a blue highlighted street,” Goel pointed out.

Images of faces, addresses of houses or offices and number plates of cars will be blurred to safeguard privacy. Detailed imagery of public or private properties and specific locations will also be blurred on request by the concerned or the affected party.

“Street view will also be useful for urban development planners, law enforcement agencies, house-hunters, travellers and diverse users looking for specific information on shops, offices, restaurants, hotels, etc, in a particular street, area or locality,” Goel said.
The feature will enable businesses to upload their details on the imagery map for free by using the tools on the street view site.   

“Street view is designed to comply with all local laws, including those related to security and privacy issues in India,” Goel added. Google India's development centre in this tech hub has been actively involved in the global street view project for developing application interface, associated tools and solutions for trouble-shooting.

Internet giant Google is all set to launch a new range of devices, which include light bulbs and dishwashers with wireless technology to communicate with computers and phones, it was reported in London.
According to media person reports, Google now wants to integrate with users' entire homes through the devices that will be launched by the end of the year. Besides light bulbs and dishwashers, the devices include thermostats and "almost anything electrical".

The devices will have wireless technology that will permit these devices to communicate with tablets, computers and phones.

The new initiative was announced at a software developers' conference in San Francisco. Google said the objective was to let a range of devices "discover, connect and communicate" with each other.

It gave a string of demonstrations using the Android operating system. They showed a tablet that could switch lights on and off and also forward music from the internet to a hi-fi device, the media report said.

The company, which offers about 200,000 differents apps, noted that that 400,000 Android devices are being activiated every day.

YouTube has started publishing a chart that tracks top music videos at the popular Google-owned website.

A YouTube 100 chart online at youtube.com/music will be updated weekly based on the popularity of videos whether works are amateur or professional, according to YouTube product manager Chris LaRosa.

"On the Floor" by singer Jennifer Lopez was atop the inaugural list followed by "Judas" by pop queen Lady Gaga and "E.T." by musician Katy Perry.

"Not only does the YouTube 100 give props when fans make original videos for popular songs, it also captures YouTube's one-of-a-kind musical diversity," LaRosa said.

"YouTube users get into music as fans and original musicians, and our new chart gives the community a better way to find the most engaging music on YouTube."