Google +1

Google's +1 button to add content recommendations

Google is preparing a new +1 feature that will present users with other content recommendations when they hover over the +1 button with their mouse.

This could help deliver increased clicks for Web site as users will be presented with more content options similar to the content they just viewed. As an example, a visitor to Google's Chrome Web Store clicking the +1 on the Gmail app would see suggestions for apps like Offline Google Mail, Google Calendar, and Picasa:

"To keep these recommendations more relevant and on-topic, they will always refer to pages on the same domain … Read more

Universities to bring 1Gbps broadband to local communities

A group of 29 universities in the U.S. is banding together to bring ultra-high-speed broadband access to the communities surrounding their campuses in an effort to attract start-ups and spur innovation.

The project, called Gig.U, was announced today and aims to build world-class broadband infrastructure to attract high-tech start-ups to areas close to universities. Some of the sectors the project directors hope to target are health care, energy, and telecommunications.

Several of the universities participating in the program, including Arizona State University, Duke University, and University of Michigan, are not in a major metropolitan areas. And others, such … Read more

Google launches +1, a new social step

Google, having failed to out-Facebook Facebook and to out-Twitter Twitter with Buzz, began a more modest attempt today to build social-networking features into its Web presence: the +1 button.

The +1 button lets people recommend Web sites to those in their social circle. Web site operators now can add +1 buttons to their own sites; Google and partners such as The Washington Post, O'Reilly, and Best Buy already are adding the feature, Google +1 programmer Evan Gilbert said in a blog post.

"With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article, or favorite sci-fi movie to … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1480: WHO: cell phones as cancer-causing as coffee (Podcast)

The World Health Organization semi-confirms what we've all suspected for years: it's probably not a good thing that mobile phones cause the cells in your brain to wiggle and change. Also, Lodsys continues its patent trolling unfettered by matters of conscience or threatening letters from Apple, and the PBS hackers turn their attention to Sony, as if Sony didn't have enough problems, already. --Molly

Buzz Out Loud 1438: Microsoft and the crushing anvils of irony (Podcast)

Microsoft tries to poke the European antitrust bear and point them in the direction of Google--ok, guys. Just, you know, beware of karma. Also, Google cracks down on the Android chaos (and hopefully the crapware, too), the +1 button points to, yet again, the all-consuming importance of recommendations, and Samsung did not--I repeat, did NOT--install keylogger software on its laptops. Plus, introducing our new app, Smart Fart. (Sigh.) --Molly

Google's '+1' experiment looks Delicious

Google today launched an experiment called "+1," a small button alongside links in search results that it says users can click "to give something your public stamp of approval, so friends, contacts, and others can find the best stuff when they search."

In other words, it's the company's answer to Facebook's ubiquitous Like button. It'll keep a log of your favorite discoveries on Google, and (almost more importantly) use that to customize what sorts of ads you see. It's also a way for the company to get a better gauge on … Read more