Google Say They Don’t Know How To Make Money From YouTube

Google still unsure how to make money with YouTube website.

YouTube is a popular video sharing website which was acquired by Google for US$1.65 billion in 2006. Now Google says they don’t know how to make money from YouTube. From the article:

A whole new industry’ could be created around video advertising on the web, Google said, but it’s not sure how. Google has said that it is still unsure how to make money from YouTube, the enormously popular video-sharing website it owns, but hopes to be able to do so soon.

Google Knol – Another Wikipedia Like Service

Knol has been described as a rival to Wikipedia. It is an online wiki like publishing platform from Google. It will be used to create user-generated articles on various topics. It was announced on December 13, 2007:

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors’ names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors — but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word “knol” as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we’ll do the rest.

Google  Knol  - Another Wikipedia Like Service
(Fig 01: Google Knol Sample Mock-up page)

I guess Google will put ads on the content and they will be getting a share of the profits. Also users will be allowed to rate, edit or comment on the articles. The site is in private beta.

=> Read more: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge

How to: Enable IMAP support in GMAIL

I hate POP3 as I routinely check my e-mail using multiple computers / devices such as mobile / pda etc.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), lets you download messages from Gmail’s servers onto your computer so you can access your mail with a program like Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple Mail, even when you aren’t connected to the Internet.

IMAP creates a constant connection between mail clients (desktop and/or mobile) and Gmail. Unlike POP, IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client(s). This means when you log in to Gmail using a web browser, actions you perform on email clients and mobile devices (ex: putting mail in a ‘work’ folder) will instantly and automatically appear in Gmail (ex: it will already have a ‘work’ label on that email).

In addition, IMAP provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices. If you check your email at work, on your mobile phone, and again at home, IMAP ensures that new mail is accessible from any device at any given time.

Finally, IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through its two-way syncing capabilities between your mail clients and your web Gmail.

If you’re trying to decide between using POP and using IMAP with your Gmail account, Google recommend IMAP.

How do I enable GMAIL IMAP?

To enable IMAP in your Gmail account:

  1. Log in to your Gmail account.
  2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
  3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  4. Select Enable IMAP.

How to: Enable IMAP support in GMAIL

Configure IMAP client

See this help section for more information.

Google Job Interview Questions

Google is not just # 1 search engine but a good place for work. While browsing internet I came across Tihomir’s blog. He has posted list of 17 questions faced by his friend at Google job interview:

A friend of mine had an interview a couple weeks ago with Google Inc. He provided me a list of just some of the questions he was asked. I’ve added a few more from others I have talked to who had interviews with the internet giant, Google, as well. See if you can answer them. Many are open ended with several right answers, therefore I did not provide the answers.

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

2. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

3. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

Read rest of the all question

Gmail and Yahoo webmail hacked

Robert Graham, the CEO of errata security, surprised attendees by hijacking a Gmail session on camera and reading the victim’s email. He went even further by demonstrating the attack to us in person, taking over another journalist’s Gmail account and then sending us sheep-loving emails.

Now you know why it’s dangerous to check your web emails in public hotspot or through open wi-fi connections. You can try https session and only use secure wifi connection to avoid problems.

From the article:

The attack is actually quite simple. First Graham needs to be able to sniff data packets and in our case the open Wi-Fi network at the convention fulfilled that requirement. He then ran Ferret to copy all the cookies flying through the air. Finally, Graham cloned those cookies into his browser – in easy point-and-click fashion – with a home-grown tool called Hamster.

The attack can hijack sessions in almost any cookie-based web application and Graham has tested it successfully against popular webmail programs like Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. He stressed that since the program just uses cookies, he only needs an IP address and usernames and passwords aren’t required.

Point and click Gmail hacking at Black Hat

Free POP3 server for personal use

My friend recently asked me a question:

Where can you find a free POP3 server?

POP3 has made earlier versions of the protocol obsolete. Generally you will not find a free POP3 server. Usually your ISP or webhosting company provides IMAP or POP3 access.

But where can get a free POP server?

You can use Google’s GMAIL service which provides a free POP3 service. You can download email using POP3 and send email using Googles SMTP server. According to Google:

POP, or Post Office Protocol, lets you download messages from Gmail’s servers onto your computer so you can access your mail with a program like Microsoft Outlook Express or Netscape Mail, even when you aren’t connected to the Internet.

POP access is free for all Gmail users and we have no plans to charge for it in the future.

Learn more about accessing your Gmail messages with POP

Download of the day: Google Desktop for Mac OS X

This is one of the must have app for my Mac Mini :D

Google Desktop is a desktop search application that gives you easy access to information on your Mac and from the web. Desktop makes searching your own email, files, music, photos, and more as easy as searching the web with Google.

Features

  • Fast and easy search for your Mac computer like Google.com for the web :D
  • Search your gmail and web history
  • Google Desktop automatically indexes and allows you to search the full text of all files stored on computer
  • You can launch applications and files with just a few keystrokes

Google Desktop for Mac OS X

Download URL

=> Google Desktop for Mac OS X

Gmail, Yahoo mail and rediffmail offering unlimited email INBOX storage

First it was rediffmail to offer unlimited storage. Next it was Yahoo’s turn.

Google announced today that soon customers of their Gmail service will have their storage size increased to “infinity plus one.” The announcement comes shortly after Yahoo’s announcement that their Yahoo mail customers would be given unlimited storage.

Yahoo announced that:

As Yahoo! Mail approaches its 10-year anniversary, I’m the lucky one who gets to announce that we will begin offering everyone unlimited email storage starting in May 2007

I rate service as follows:
=> My own personal mail server
=> Gmail
=> Yahoo
=> Rediffmail