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Yahoo, China and Podcasts

Yahoo has introduced a search engine for Podcasts. One of the featured Podcasts, ranked third from top today, is for people wanting to learn Chinese. No doubt it will help users find content such as this imaginative use of podcasting by Li Li in China. That is usually recommended as the best way to learn a language though not via a Podcast.

Googlefight

Put in two keywords and see which one scores the most at Googlefight.

Google UnEarths

An interesting article on a Google Earth user unearthing a Roman Villa at the BBC today.

Google and Wifi

Red Herring writes up the news that Google website has downloadable application to make access to Google more secure over Wifi. Google's FAQ site is here. Presumably useful for GMail users.

China and Search Engines

Chinese Internet users apparently favour Baidu over Google. PDF here.

Loose Google Talk

The LA Times has reported Google plans to launch an IM service, with voice capabilities, tomorrow. What would be interesting is the first of the IM crowd to actually match Skype and switch minutes back into the PSTN.  Yahoo's new service didn't offer anything new and no compelling reason to switch. Will Google's service add something new or do something better in their inimitable way?

If you can't wait until the launch try here to connect.

Google and PI

Google is cryptically raising cash. The Search Engine Company is issuing an additional 14,159,265 shares. Add a leading 3 and the numbers are 3.14159265, or Pi - the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. Or the most direct route to buying Skype or, more likely, setting up their own backbone network. Google exchanges traffic directly with over 30 telco networks. Their service is so compelling the carriers line up to peer but they are probably paying transit to at least a couple of carriers.  Control of their own network would reduce these charges and enable Google to move into more bandwidth hungry services using video and so forth.

A9

Amazon's A9, discussed here before, has a very cool new feature which allows users to see 360 degree street level photographs of locations on maps. You can try it here but just for United States locations at the moment.

Google Earth

Google Earth  looks like fun and there are some great 3D images here.

Google maps

Interesting what Google maps picks up.