How Google got its logo, Gmail gets video chat, Google Flu trends, howstuffworks on tv, Dell CMO fired, Yahoo Pop, Carpooling site fined,

On Tuesday, Google plans to launch a Web browser plug-in that will allow Gmail users to conduct video and voice chat sessions with other suitably equipped members of the Gmail tribe. The plug-in requires an Intel-based computer running Mac OS X or a computer running Windows XP or Vista, a Webcam, and/or a microphone. It works with browsers that support the current version of Gmail: Chrome, Firefox 2.0+, Internet Explorer 7.0, and Safari 3.0. There are no specific plans for a Linux-based plug-in at the moment.

Microsoft would share revenue with Verizon from ads shown in response to cellphone Web searches, with guaranteed payments to the carrier of approximately $550 million to $650 million over five years, or roughly twice what Google offered, these people said.

Google Flu Trends: A Glimpse into the Future of Google Health
When Google started looking more closely at anonymous aggregate searches for "flu symptoms" and the like, they discovered that - after cross-referencing that data against information from the Center for Disease Control - they had the ability to predict flu outbreaks by monitoring search patterns. And now, they've published their findings as Google Flu Trends.

Online money management service Wesabe and the UK newspaper giant The Telegraph have entered a partnership to offer co-branded tools on the Telegraph website. It's a daring move, we can't help but admire it. We can't help but wonder how users will feel about it too, though.

The AP Entertainment channel featured on the Virgin deck offers coverage of the music, film and TV industries along with celebrity news and gossip, while the "Can You Believe It?" site focuses on bizarre stories from around the world. The partnership includes an ad revenue-sharing agreement. The pair of new sites will also serve as gateways to AP's Mobile News Network, which drew more than 26 million page views in September.

We all know daily newspapers throughout the country are approaching extinction, due to increased operating costs and losses in circulation, ad money and staff. What we don't know is the TV angle of the story. Without newspapers, from where will local TV newscasts procure the news they report? Most local newscasts take much of their hard news from newspapers. The freshest news that local TV newscasts now provide are weather forecasts. In recent years, the hiring of aggressive reporters by local TV news departments has became optional, surpassed by the importance of looking good on camera. Thus, the decline of newspaper content is likely to mean a big decline in local TV news as well

Some of the crystal-ball gazing that took place tonight at the WTIA's annual predictions dinner. Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group, Mark Anderson of Strategic News Service, Ben Elowitz of Wetpaint and Kelly Smith of Curious Office Partners shared their insights on where they think the tech industry is headed in 2009.

Discovery is taking its Howstuffworks.com property to television, creating a new show based on the site. The new series, Howstuffworks, will follow the lengths people go through to extract ingredients from the earth, such as corn, salt, iron and water, and then the process of turning those raw materials into objects we see and use every day.

A commenter on the Tribble Agency blog wrote, "Casey's grand illusion of creating his own agency, while being a client, proved to be another of his hare brained schemes. His own ego put him in the same planet as Sorell. I'm sure it will all start to unravel as other WPP units have engaged directly with Dell to save the day."

They've launched Yahoo Pop, a new Spanish-language site that ranks the ten most popular searches by day, month and category and shows pictures associated with each search. The site is available for U.S. Hispanics, Mexico and Argentina.

The bus companies freaked and sued under an Ontario law that limits carpoolers to traveling only from home to work and back, riding with the same driver every day and paying only by the week, among other restrictions. This is despite the fact that the government has spent "billions" in carpooling lanes. Anyway, the court case was decided and PickupPal lost. They were fined CA$11,000 and forced to keep that despicable carpooling activity within the strict limits of the law:

Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo, shows the iterations that led to the instantly recognizable primary colors and Catull typeface that define the Google brand.

Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome. Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one million people as long ago as AD320. Users can zoom around the map to visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica.



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