Common Paradox Tech Blog

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/google-social-search-beta/&service=bit.ly">Google has kept Social Search pretty much hidden from the general public, choosing to make it an opt-in Google Labs feature. Today, however, Google is pushing the feature to href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/search-is-getting-more-social.html" target="_blank">beta status and turning it on for all signed-in English Googlers.

You may recall that Google Social Search is a standard search results page add-on that displays href="http://mashable.com/2009/10/26/social-search-launch/">socially relevant content from people in your online social circle, as determined by your Google Profile.

With the beta release, Google’s also integrating social search into Google Image searches, which means you can scroll down to view pictures matching your query that contacts from your circle — friends and friends of friends — have shared online.

With the beta release Google is also introducing new UI elements to tie the social search experience together. So two additional links will appear next to the “Results from your social circle” heading, with “My social circle” and “My social content” taking you to pages that display your social circle in address book format and the content for your own results, respectively. The experience seems focused on information over design, so don’t expect any frills here.

We think the beta rollout to all English searchers is more significant than the initial labs feature, as it exposes the contextual search results to a mainstream search audience. While it’s officially a beta product today, the Google Social Search rollout will occur over the next few days. If you don’t have Social Search already, you can expect to start seeing the social results fairly soon.

For a demonstration of Google Social Search check out the video below:

Reviews: href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/336661-Google" target="_blank">Google

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/google/">Google, href="http://mashable.com/tag/search/">Search, href="http://mashable.com/tag/social-search/">social search

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schleprock63 writes “The Ohio state supreme court has decided that a cell phone found on a suspect cannot be searched without a warrant. The majority based this decision on a federal case that deemed a cell phone not to be a ‘closed container,’ and therefore not searchable without a warrant. The argument of the majority contended that a cell phone does not contain physical objects and therefore is not a container. One dissenting judge argued that a cell phone is a container that simply contains data. He argued that the other judges were ‘needlessly theorizing’ about the contents of a cell phone. He compared the data contained within an address book that would be searchable.” The article notes that this was apparently the first time the question has come up before any state supreme court.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Release date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Nuance’s Dragon Dictation for iPhone raised some privacy concerns upon launch due to the server-side nature of its transcription and the apparent transmission of users’ contact list to Nuance’s servers. Addressing at least some of these concerns, Nuance has posted the following statement:

Some people have expressed concern about what the new Dragon Dictation [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Nuance Responds to Dragon Dictation for iPhone Privacy Concerns

Angstro, a 2008 TechCrunch50 startup, launched with a product that socialized the content on the web by tapping into your social graph. At the Real-Time CrunchUp today the startup is launching Knx.to, a real-time search engine capability and API that looks up most recent social information about any of your friends, from their LinkedIn profile to their Flickr account to their Facebook profile.

In order to understand Knx.to’s virtue, it’s best to see the technology implemented in an application. Ribbit Mobile, a Google Voice competitor and cloud-based VoIP telephony service, recently launched with the capability of integrating any calls to a contact with your social networks, which was powered by Knx.to.

“LOST MY PHONE!!! GIVE ME YOUR DIGITS!”

Sound familiar? For years, many people who have recently lost their phones have turned to Facebook to reunite with their friends. But rather than use the site’s integrated phone directory (which is probably more comprehensive than you think) they take a different approach: a new Facebook group declaring that their address book is gone for good. These groups often wind up with over a dozen phone numbers from friends who leave their numbers on the group’s wall. Turns out, that’s often a bad idea — in some cases it’s incredibly easy for spammers to harvest these phone numbers from Facebook. All it takes is a little Google trickery.

Earlier today we received a tip showing just how easy this ‘hack’ was to execute, yielding many thousands (perhaps even millions) of phone numbers. I quickly alerted Facebook to the issue, hoping that they might do something to somehow fix it before I wrote anything. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen — Facebook’s view is that users shouldn’t be using these groups (at least not public ones) to share their phone numbers. And Google has cached many of these numbers, so it’s unlikely they could do much anyway.

I’ve had a nagging frustration in my otherwise perfect relationship with Google Voice. The service systematically replaces my friend’s phone numbers with their Google Voice numbers when they call, even when they aren’t calling from Google Voice. Not only has this led to a lot of confusing and time wasting “how did you get my Google Voice phone number?” conversations, it is a clear violation of Google’s own privacy policy.

Here’s how this works: Let’s say you signed up for Google Voice sometime in the past. The main benefit of Google Voice is that it forwards calls to your other phones – the whole “one number for life” thing. So you probably told Google Voice a few of your other phone numbers – home, work, mobile, etc. And then perhaps you stopped using the service after testing it.

Now if you call my Google Voice number from any of those real phone numbers that you told Google about, the caller ID and archived information on Google Voice (missed and received calls, voicemails) says your Google Voice number, not the number you are calling from.

That creates confusion. If I have your mobile number stored in my phone, it doesn’t recognize the Google Voice caller ID and I tend to ignore the call. Then I read the transcribed voicemail and realize it’s someone I know. I check my address book and the number isn’t right, though. I add the new number and maybe delete the old one, thinking you’ve changed phones. It’s a mess.

Inbound text messages have the same problem. And if I return the text message and you don’t have the feature turned on to your real mobile phone, you won’t get them.

It’s a big night for Bump Technologies, the mobile software startup that recently landed a round of funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company makes mobile apps that let users share their contact information (and other data) simply by tapping their phones together. Up until now the app has been available for the iPhone only, where it’s developed quite a following, and tonight it’s launching on Android as well. The iPhone is getting some love too, as Bump’s 1.2 update was just approved by Apple (you can grab it here).

The updated iPhone app includes a ‘Friend Compare’ feature that looks at the address book and Facebook profiles of you and the person you’re bumping with to see if you have any mutual friends, which can be a good way to break the ice if you’re meeting someone for the first time.

I’m a big Facebook user, and I’m guessing many of you are as well, given the interest in our Facebook for iPhone posts. Well, I was able to spend a little time with the Droid in a Verizon store on launch day, and while I wouldn’t call this a full-blown comparison, it is a quick [...]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Facebook App: An iPhone vs. Droid Quick Comparison

You’ve had it. Maybe with AT&T. Maybe with Apple’s crushing, dictatorial grip strangling the App Store. Whatever the reason, you’re going to Android: Land of freedom, carriers not named AT&T, and the great Google. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s All in the Google Cloud

Android phones don’t sync with your computer. That’s because they don’t have to: Your contacts, calendar and mail are all kept up in the great Googleyplex. Unfortunately, Google’s Contacts manager, while it’s gotten better, is kinda crappy, and all of your Contacts are beamed down to your phone from there.

So even after you get the actual contacts you wanna talk to exported to Google Contacts, one problem is that all of your Google contacts, like everybody you email, show up on your phone. What you have to do is either sort your contacts into different groups and tell the phone’s Contacts app to show only the groups you only wanna see, or to only show you people with phone numbers. If you wanna sync your contacts, so you have a master copy on your computer and can manage them from there, that problem takes a bit of legwork—at least on Windows.

If you’re on a Mac, it’s easy to keep your Contacts synced—just tell Address Book to sync with Google. On Windows, you’ll need a third-party app, like GO contact. That way, you can manage your contacts on your desktop, and have a local copy that’s always synced up with what Google’s got.

Calendars are easier: Google’s got an app for that.

Exchange support varies from version to version: Android 2.0 has it, previous vanilla versions of Android don’t, but carriers like Sprint and hardware makers like HTC have been rolling their own Exchange solution into Android. Check the box, in other words.

The Gmail App Is Amazing

If your primary email account is Gmail, that’s almost reason enough to go Android. Not only is Gmail pushed to your phone, the Gmail app is an absolutely perfect rendition of the Gmail experience for the small screen. Threaded conversations (hurray), full label support, starring, archiving and a true Gmail look-and-feel. It’s even better in Android 2.0, which finally includes support for using multiple Google accounts with the Gmail app, and a few interface tweaks to make it easier to use.

For your non-Google accounts, there’s a separate email app that’s a pretty standard IMAP/POP mobile email app. Not amazing, not bad.

For That Matter, All of the Google Apps Are Amazing

You might be switching to Android for political reasons, or just to get away from AT&T, but what’s gonna make switching actually work is that all of the Google services are fantastic, and often, more powerful than their iPhone counterparts.

Google Talk is the non-Gmail killer app for me, and highlights just how badly the iPhone needs a native messaging app—it’s like BlackBerry Messenger, but for Google. (Or mobile AIM, but less shitty.) Keep in mind, anyone signed in to Gmail on a desktop browser can be reached through Google Talk if they’ve authorized it, so you’ve probably got more “buddies” than you might realize.

Latitude is actually built into the Maps app; Google Voice integrates seamlessly; and Google actually frequently releases updates them the Android Marketplace. Oh, and did I mention Google Navigation? Yeah.

What Google hasn’t gotten around to yet is integrating Google Docs, but the web version with Android’s HTML5-superpowered browser is pretty good.

Not Being on AT&T Is Just as Liberating As You’d Hoped

I’ve never had full bars on any Android phone—on T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon—and not been able to do something online. End of story.

Multitasking Is All It’s Cracked Up to Be, Mostly

“Hey look, someone @replied me on Twitter!” Pull down the window shade, check it out, go back to browsing this month’s custard calendar. “Oh hey, an email.” Down comes the window shade, I reply, and then instantly return to drooling more over pumpkin-pie custard, before flipping to Google Talk to tell my friend when we’re going to slaughter zombies in Left 4 Dead 2 demo. All in 10 seconds, while listening to Pandora radio.

The drop down window shade is pure genius, and what makes the cacophony of background notifications from all the apps you’ve got running work. See, you don’t actually close apps in Android like on the iPhone. You just switch between them, and the OS takes care of closing apps you haven’t used in a while in the background. (Unless inside of an app, you explicitly tell it to shutdown, like Twidroid.) Anything a background app wants to tell you goes into the notification windowshade. Sure, there’s a bit of lag switching back to the browser and then scrolling is choppy for a second on some phones, but it’s a small price to pay. And bigger batteries in more recent hardware, like the Droid, are enough to make it through the day.

Android Takes More Work

Every version of Android gets a little smoother, a little more user-friendly, but stock versions are pretty barebones. Want to read a PDF attached to an email? You need an app. Visual voicemail? Gotta download it unless your carrier preinstalls one. Want a notepad? Find it on the Market. HTC takes care a lot of these little humps with their custom builds—which includes a PDF viewer out of the box, for example—and generally speaking, there’s an app for the basic holes that need to be filled in, but get ready to do a little bit of legwork.

It’s Not Quite as Secure

The lock screen is a series of swipes—not an actual passcode—and there’s no remote wipe out of the box. Granted, with the iPhone you need a MobileMe plan to get remote wipe, but you don’t have to look for an app to install, like SMobile Security Shield.

It’s also less secure in the app department, at least on paper: Under Android, you can opt to install unverified programs through the settings menu. This may be a good thing to you—even your reason for switching—but it carries obvious extra risks.

The Android Marketplace Isn’t as Nice as the App Store (Yet)

The only place to look for apps and install them is directly on your phone, through the Android Marketplace. With Android 1.6, the Marketplace did get a lot nicer to browse, with a new interface and actual app screenshots, but categories are still too broad, and you still can’t do any of this on your desktop, where you have a much bigger screen. Updating apps? You’ve gotta do them one at a time, which is annoying.

The App Situation Is Getting Better, But Isn’t There Yet

So here’s the thing. The app ecosystem on Android has absolutely exploded, so it’s much, much better place to be than it was six months ago, much less a year ago. In fact, for a lot of your everyday iPhone apps, there’s now an Android counterpart or equivalent: Facebook, Pandora, Slacker, Remember the Milk, Foursquare, Shazam, Flixster, etc. The problem is, they’re universally not as polished or full-featured. Facebook’s missing messaging and events entirely; Twidroid, the best Twitter app, is hideous compared to any of the top 5 iPhone Twitter apps; Photoshop’s lacks some of the effects it has on the iPhone.

Gaming is probably the single biggest thing you’ll miss. There are games, yes. Some of them good. There aren’t as many and they’re not as fantastic. There’s nothing Star Defense caliber. Or Sim City. (Oops.) Partly, this is simply a numbers issue: Android’s not as big as the iPhone yet. But the other aspect is that there’s a serious storage limitation for apps—just 256MB in some phones—which seriously cramps what some games can do, as well as how many apps you can install on you phone. Apps will get better, the app economy will get better, this is true. But for now, be ready for some limitations and possibly, disappointments.

Music and Video? Just Buy a Zune HD

Kidding. Sort of. Getting music and video onto your Android phone is a purely drag and drop operation—there’s no official Google sync application to organize and get your 10 gigs of music onto your phone. There is an Amazon MP3 store, and it’s okay. There are third-party solutions, like DoubleTwist or Windows Media Player. But once you get the music on there, the music player itself kinda blows. It’s ugly and just not very nice to use. On the upside, it plays Ogg Vorbis, open source fans.

Movie watchers are in even worse shape with Android. Your best bet is to avoid the native player that’s sort of hidden and to actually use a third party app, Meridian. Or just get a Zune HD for your music and video, and you’ll be much happier.

I think that covers the basics guys. Yeah, Android’s not as polished or smooth, but you know what? It’s actually quite livable over here. If there’s something else you wanna know—or want to share—about switching, drop it into the comments.