The Google security team has enabled forward secrecy in its HTTPS services by default, so that captured messages can't be decrypted retroactively. Even though Gmail went to a secure HTTPS connection by default last year, encrypted files could still be captured in their unreadable form and broken years later, when computers are much faster.
Other HTTPS Google services include Docs and Google+, as well as SSL Web search. All these services are now forward secret when HTTPS is turned on. Initially, only Chrome and Firefox will use forward secrecy by default with Google services, because Internet Explorer doesn't support Google's combination of the RC4 authentication and ECDHE key exchange mechanisms. "We hope to support IE in the future," the security team says.
Google just announced another mass termination of old services, including the final closing of Google Wave, the Google Gears browser extension, the Friend Connect service that predated Google+ badges, a bookmark-sharing service called Bookmarks Lists, and the Timeline search view that was quietly shut off earlier this month.
The announcement also describes the fate of Knol, a collaborative knowledge database like Wikipedia that never made it far off the ground. Google has been working with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to relaunch the service as Annotum, which is powered by WordPress. In addition to these Web services, Google also announced the end of its RE<C renewable energy research program.
Google News now highlights +1'd articles from people in your Google+ circles in its Spotlight section. Friends' faces and Google+ profiles are displayed next to the link, just like in Google's social search results. Earlier this month, Google News added the same feature for authors, showing Google+ info under their headlines.
While today's new social features are limited to the Spotlight section, it adds another way in which Google News can personalize content for logged-in users using their social data. Google is rolling out these kinds of Google+ features across all its Web properties.
Advertising and data analysis firm Millennial Media issued its monthly mobile trends report this morning for October. It showed that the iPhone was the most used single device for the month with nearly 13% of all use across its network. While Android might dominate the ecosystem, the iPhone as a singular device is the most used smartphone on the market.
There is an epic battle taking place before our eyes, in our pockets and in our wallets. Smarthones have come to dominate consumer behavior and the headlines of media. What is the newest development with the iPhone? What are the newest and hottest Android devices this week? Can Microsoft make a dent in the mobile market? What kind of tricks does Amazon have up its sleeves? Does Facebook have a plan to tap into consumers' wallets through mobile devices?
Make no mistake, the pipeline between users' bank accounts through smart devices is what each one of these companies is looking to tap. Each one of these five major American technology companies is taking a different route to this one goal. Yet, each one of these companies is taking a different route to the same goal. Let's break down the roads that each one of these companies is taking in the quest to win the Mobile Platform Game of Thrones.
Google shipped a major redesign of its Google Search app today with a faster and more tablet-friendly interface for the iPad version. The launch page is now a spare, simple descendent of the iconic Google.com homepage for the post-PC era.
The search bar is front and center, collapsing to a top menu bar instantly when you put in your query. You can also access search history, Google Web apps, voice search and "Goggles" - image search using the iPad's camera - right underneath. The new Gmail app for iOS may be a dud, but this update to an already-great Google Search app makes it the best Google iOS app by a longshot.
Google gave Chromebooks a refresh for the holidays, introducing a new Samsung Series 5 notebook and dropping the price of Acer and Samsung Chromebooks to $299. The new Series 5 is sleek and black (and Wi-Fi only), an impressive-looking refresher for the ailing netbook category.
Google has also overhauled parts of the Chrome OS user interface. The login screen is now so fresh and so clean, and the new tab page now includes a shortcut to the file manager.
According to several reports, Flash for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be ready by the end of 2011. This will be the final release of mobile Flash as future versions of Android will support it. At this time that only means that Samsung Galaxy Nexus users do not get Flash and since that device (or Ice Cream Sandwich) is not yet widely released, Flash for new Android device users is not likely to be a problem.
The question becomes: does mobile Flash really matter? For Android in general, the answer is yes, Flash does matter. For Android 4.0? Maybe. It all depends on how many Android Gingerbread users get the ICS push within the next couple of months and how much they rely on Flash. Most Gingerbread devices will eventually see ICS updates. Yet, with HTML5 being pushed by developers, this is a fork that Android users will hardly notice.
Google+ circles have been rolled into chat across all Google sites, including Gmail, iGoogle, Orkut, the Google Talk client, and even third-party apps. Previously, Google Chat was based on email addresses and was a part of Gmail. When Google+ launched, it had the same email-based chat widget that Gmail has. Now, anyone in your circles who has circled you back will appear in chat.
The chat list still shows your most recent contacts, rather than your full list, and you can use the search box to find people who don't appear. According to Google+ support documents, the chat relationships you had before this update are preserved and take priority. For example, your existing block list still applies. The order of contacts might appear differently in different places, but this Google+-enabled chat now applies across the board.
Google developers announced some improvements to the WebP image format they're building as an alternative to JPEG, which has become a standard across the Web. Today's updates add transparency, which JPEG does not support, so WebP will take on the PNG format as well.
The first version used lossy compression, so users would sacrifice some quality in exchange for small files that load faster on webpages. Today's changes introduce "lossless" compression, meaning users get smaller files without losing image quality. However, only Opera and Google's Chrome browser support the format natively, so it's a long way from becoming a standard.
