koobe def: » Google

Google blocked in China

Wayne — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:46:47 +0000

Some Google services, including Gmail, are believed to have been blocked in China for a couple of hours on June 24, cited by some local sources. People couln’t receive or send their emails from Gmail, a popular email service in China. This action seems to be the sequel of the recent blame of the pornography search results in Google Search by the Chinese government. Google was also ordered to remove foreign search results from its service in China (Google.cn).

Youtube, as well as Twitter, have been censored in China since earlier this year.

Google Books adds new features

Wayne — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:09:06 +0000

These new features include: embeds and links, better search within each book, thumbnail view, contents drop-down menu, plain text mode, page turn button and animation, and improved book overview page. For details, you can refer to the official blog.

The new thumbnail cover preview of Google Books

Google to sell ebooks

Wayne — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:06:51 +0000

Google announced earlier this month that it will enter the ebook market very soon. How soon is it? Could possibly by the end of this year. This new service is quite different from its present book searching service, or “Google Books“. The competitors include Amazon, as well as some other online ebook stores. However, it is still not clear if Google will provide free contents with certain advertisements, just like in some other Google services (for example Gmail). According to the New York Times, Google will largely act as a filter to millions of fictions, non-fictions, and reference titles. Also, unlike Amazon, Google probably will not make a new ebook reading device.