Google Space

Next time you’re at the airport, scan the waiting area and see what people are doing. You’ll be shocked by the number who are doing absolutely nothing -- other than staring glassy-eyed at other people who are doing absolutely nothing. Naturally, these people had rushed in a mad frenzy an hour prior in order to get to the airport on time, only to sit and stare.

This observation is what spawned Google Space.



Read the full article here at the Google Blog

Public transit via Google

Latest launch in Google’s offerings is Google Transit – With it, commuters will be able to easily access public transit schedules, routes, and plan trips using their local public transportation options. This first release covers only the Portland, Oregon metro area, but Google is working to expand the coverage very soon

Goolge chose to launch with the Portland metro area for a couple of reasons. Tri-Met, Portland's transit authority, is a technological leader in public transportation. The team at Tri-Met is a group of tremendously passionate people dedicated to serving their community. And Tri-Met has a wealth of data readily available that they were eager to share with Google for this project. This combination of great people and great data made Tri-Met the ideal partner.

Blogger for Word

This is really cool … I did this post by creating an offline document in MS Word, and then published it to this blog here using Blogger for Word – it is so convenient.

Acumen Visits Google

The Google Foundation supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of global poverty in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. Here is the first of the series where Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund visits Google

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/acumen-visits-google.html

Google is the best !!! ... Take the test yourself

Blind Study Finds Google Really Does Offer Best Results

http://www.webmasterbrain.com/seo-news/seo-tools-news/blind-study-finds-google-really-does-offer-best-results/

A Search Engine Experiment reveals that Google returns the most relevant results


Take the blind test yourself

A Night @ Geoffrey's

Date: Friday, 2^nd December
Venue: Geoffrey's Pub, Royal Orchid, Bangalore
Time: 9 PM till sometime after midnight
Occassion: Birthday Party of our VP

The much beloved VP of our company (not mentioning the names here) was in town and to celebrate his birthday (that falls on 3^rd) we headed to Geoffrey's Pub. There was a mammoth bottle of Belvedere Vodka to welcome us at the center of the bar

Not getting a seat immediately, we started with the drinks while still waiting and after some time settled in one corner.

Theme of the evening was "Punjabi" and all the gifts were according to that. Even the non-punjabi folks picked a punjabi surname to sign the card ;-)

The evening progressed with innumerable rounds of tequila shots, rum & coke, john daniels (yes, it is jack, but how does it matter when you have known him as long as I have) and what not ...

Towards the end, we were all in a very inebriated state. Here is what it was like

And these glasses tell the story very well

As the clock struck midnight, the birthday bumps followed along with heart felt birthday wishes. I have to censor out the exact wishes ;-)

The real shocker was the bill (or cheque, as some call it) ... We were all floored to see that we had devoured 58 tequila shots, among many many other drinks and ran up a tab of over Rs 37,000 ... Phew! For the host, that translated to just about $ 800, but it still was a lot.

Nevertheless, it was a nigt to remember

Who's next? Mr Prime Minister?

On World AIDS Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the National Convention on HIV/AIDS for Youth Leaders of Political Parties and said "... Shed inhibitions, start talking openly about safe sex ..."

What are you doing Mister Prime Minister? Talk about "SEX"?? Don't you know that we live in a country of hypocrites where talking about Sex is not allowed. You are next in line ... They will soon have hundreds of cases against you for talking openly about a taboo topic. Have you forgotten the name of Khushboo, who a few days ago had expressed her opinion on the same topic and almost ended up behind bars? No, this is not done sir!

Well, sarcasm apart, it is good to see that Mr Manmohan Singh spoke openly about the much avoided topic in our counrty (ironically, the same country that gave Kamasutra to the whole world!). I really wish Khushboo was also as lucky and had not faced the plight she had to.

T-Shirt cover letter

This is very interesting - how a college grad bagged the much coveted job at Google becuase of her favourite T and the cover letter.

The best part of the story: "... Don't underestimate the power of your favorite T-shirt, and don't neglect your email while on vacation. Either one may hold the key to your future ..."

What fun it was at Yugantar's Birthday Party ....we all danced our hearts out (if this makes any sense)