We’ve all seen barcode, the old boring lines which is readable by an optical scanner. Japanese have come up with a new and uniquely looking barcode.

Here are some super cool, uniquely looking barcode.

What is a barcode?

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows certain data on certain products. Originally, barcodes represented data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1 dimensional) barcodes or symbologies. They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed 2D (2 dimensional) matrix codes or symbologies. Although 2D systems use symbols other than bars, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well. Barcodes can be read by optical scanners called barcode readers, or scanned from an image by special software.

There is now an extension for Google chrome to check the page rank of a website easily. I’ve been using this extension for quite some time now and it’s really helpful to find out more about anysite site.

Note: You need to be using the beta version of Chrome (4.0+) in order to install extensions.

TO install the page rank extensions, you need to:
#1. Go to – https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/mmhofljhcphkbkjmhaiagmbajikkfnep
#2. Click on Install using your Google chrome browser

What’s new with this page rank display extension?
When you click the extension icon it will bring up a popup/overlay with links to several things interesting when analyzing a site:
* Google indexed pages
* Bing external links
* Yahoo! links in
* Alexa info

As well as some general links:
* Google Analytics
* Google Webmaster Tools

This post is a part of our How-to guide to Google, subscribe to our feed to get instant updates!!

We hope all of our Google Watch friends are having a great December and a wonderful 2009. Enjoy this month’s update on Google products and
services, and we’ll see you in 2010.

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POWER TIP

Real-time search results

Now you can access comprehensive real-time search results from blogs,
social networks, news and the web. When relevant real-time information
is available, a new universal search feature will appear with a live
stream of the freshest web content. Clicking on the “Latest Results”
link will take you to a filtered full page of results. You can also
filter to see only short-form “Updates” from Twitter, FriendFeed,
Indenti.ca, Jaiku and TWiT Army. We also announced new agreements with
Facebook and MySpace, and are working to incorporate public content
from those services in the feature. You can also see what’s happening
on the web by checking out the new Hot Topics on Google Trends.
http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/trends

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Google Chrome for Mac and Linux, and extensions on Windows and Linux
betas

You can now use Google Chrome on Mac and Linux, in beta. In addition,
if you’re on the beta version of Google Chrome on Windows or Linux,
you can now try out any of 1000+ extensions to add more features and
functionality to the browser.
www.google.com/chrome
chrome.google.com/extensions

Google Goggles

Google Goggles is a new visual search application for Android phones.
Now you can search the web by taking a picture, instead of typing in
words. Shoot a photo of a landmark, sign, logo, book cover or work of
art to get matching search results for your image. For business
information, just point your phone at a store, and Goggles will show
you the name of the business, using the phone’s GPS and compass.
http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles

Living Story

The Living Stories prototype is an experimental new way to consume
news, which we have developed over the last few months in partnership
with the New York Times and the Washington Post. It unifies coverage
of an ongoing story on a single dynamic web page, making it easier for
you to follow the latest updates, review background information and
keep track of the latest changes as the subject evolves over time. You
can read full articles, browse multimedia and filter stories in
different ways — all in one place.
http://livingstories.googlelabs.com

Gift ideas from Google Product Search

To help you with your holiday shopping, we’ve put together a list of
some of the most popular products on Google Product Search. Whether
you’re looking for the latest game or gadget or a stocking-stuffer for
the family pet, we’ve got ideas for all budgets.
www.google.com/holidaygifts09

Buy Picasa storage and get a free Eye-Fi card

For a limited time, when you buy 200 GB of Google paid storage for
$50, you’ll get a free 4GB Eye-Fi card (a $95 value). An Eye-Fi card
makes it easy to upload photos directly from your camera to Picasa Web
Albums or to your computer (no cables required). Google paid storage
is overflow space shared between Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, in
addition to your free quota.
www.picasa.google.com/eyefi

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MISCELLANY

We celebrate a variety of end-year traditions around here. The first
is our Year-End Zeitgeist, a collection of search trends over 2009
that offers a glimpse at the collective consciousness. We’ve compiled
our Zeitgeist since 2001 — this year you can explore what was on the
minds of citizens all over the globe, in dozens of languages. We’re
also watching NORAD track Santa in Google Earth, a tradition since
2004 (when Google Earth was still Keyhole!). And finally, if you visit
the Google homepage from Dec. 21-25, we hope each day’s doodle brings
you a little holiday cheer.
http://www.google.com/zeitgeist2009
http://www.noradsanta.org/
http://goo.gl/gam1

—
The Google Watch Blog offers frequent updates and insights about Google technology and products, and the company at large. Happy Holidays!!! Catch you in 2010 :)

Godaddy is back with an amazing offer this Black Friday. Usually the price of domains is $10, but this black friday its half the normal price. Get all the best domains at just $5 – .com, .net, .org, etc.

Use the Coupon code:
cjcBLACK10

This offer is valid from 26th to 29th November!

Happy Shopping!!

Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is usually observed on November 11. However, if it occurs on a Sunday then the following Monday is designated for holiday leave, and if it occurs Saturday then either Saturday or Friday may be so designated. It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

The holiday is commonly printed as Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day in calendars and advertisements. While these spellings are grammatically acceptable, the United States government has declared that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling.

Microsoft rivalry with Google has just got bigger with the news of Google Chrome OS. The search giant Google is ready to take on Microsoft (again) with its new operating system. The company showed off its Google Chrome OS, saying that the lower-end PCs which will be included in Netbooks in the second half of 2010.

In the past few years we have witnessed a steadily escalating high-stakes war between the two technology giants, as Google’s dominance of the Internet’s lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.

Google has already hurt Microsoft by luring away some of its top employees and developing an online suite of computer programs that provide an alternative to Microsoft’s top-selling word processing, spreadsheet and calendar applications. With Chrome OS, Google attempts to kiss goodbye Microsoft Corporation’s long-running control over people’s desktop.

Here’s looking further into the all-new Google OS.

• Google Chrome OS is a lightweight, open source operating system that will be available on Netbooks initially. Google announced that the open-sourcing code of Chrome OS is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions (Which mean more security threats).

• Google said just like Android Smartphone software, it is giving away the software for free with the idea that improving the Web experience will ultimately benefit its Internet search advertising business, which generated roughly $22 billion in revenue in 2008.
  Also, Google is not asking Netbook makers for any share in the revenue.

• Google-crafted Chrome OS will be tailored exclusively for applications hosted as services in the Internet “cloud.” This means that every application on Chrome OS will be a Web application. This according to Google will improve speed and security, as users won’t be installing applications to their systems.

  According to Google all data in Chrome will automatically be hosted in the cloud, or on external servers, but also cached on the computer’s internal hardware to boost performance. This means users won’t lose their data in case their Netbook is stolen or its hard disk gets crashed.

• Chrome OS will run on either x86 or ARM processors. But hardware manufacturers will have to use solid-state drives as Google OS won’t support hard drives.

• Google hinted that users could expect Chrome OS Netbooks to have slightly larger keyboards and screens than the existing models. The company has tied up with a few Netbook manufacturers including HP, Acer and Asus.

• Chrome OS can pull data from devices such as digital cameras and will support printing. In its presentation to the media, Google showed how users can store favorite applications, like Google’s Gmail service, as fixed tabs in the browser and watch videos and listen to music within panels that scroll up from the bottom of the screen.

• Google Chrome OS will work on three simple laws — Speed, Simplicity and Security. According to Google, Chrome OS-based Netbooks will be able to boot in 7 seconds, and run Web apps within another 3 seconds, unlike most other Operating Systems which take 45 seconds on an average to boot up.

• The user interface is minimal and most of the user experience takes place on the Web. Just like Chrome browser, Google is completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. According to Google users Chrome OS will automatically keep software up to date and secure.

• Chrome OS resembles a Web browser than the traditional looking computer OS like Microsoft Windows. But analysts feel that the differences between conventional PCs and Chrome OS netbooks might give consumers jitters.

• Chrome OS lacks compatibility with traditional software and has limited offline capabilities. Another limitation is Google won’t support hard drives so users will have to buy Chrome OS-based Netbooks.

Though Google promises to explore offline capabilities and support some offline storage, however, this seems to be a distant dream. According to Gartner analyst Ray Valdes, if users view it from the conventional perspective, then it falls short.

If you thought that Chrome OS and Android are part of the same project, you got it wrong. Android was designed to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to Netbooks, while Chrome OS is designed specifically to power computers ranging from Netbooks to full-size desktop systems. However, both do overlap on certain areas. Google Chrome OS will be available by the end 2010 on Netbooks. What are your opinions on the new upcoming Google Chrome OS?

Go: A systems programming language, expressive, concurrent, garbage-collected. The search giant released Go, an open-source development language that believes will combine performance with speed, and one that the company probably hopes will reshape the development and software industries in its favor.

Go is based on the C programming family, one of the most widely used programming language trees in the world. However, the twist is that incorporates elements of Python (a preferred development language within Google) and the Pascal/Modula/Oberon family to make faster and more dynamic programs.

Here is a video presentation:

GO google is all I can say now!

Google announced the acquisition of AdMob. Google will pay $ 750 million for the startup (about € 500 million). Google hopes that admob is a better tool to develop mobile advertising.

AdMob has served more than 125 billion mobile ads (according to the counter on its homepage) across a variety of platforms including iPhone and Android. Clearly, this is a space that’s red hot right now, and while Google already has launched a number of products into it, this deal greatly accelerates the effort.

Google wants to give by both advertisers and publishers with new opportunities and strengthen their own know-how. The Vice President of Product Susan, writes in the announcement that mobile advertising has great potential and still be young. AdMob has shown that one can achieve considerable success in advertising.