OK, maybe that was a bit of an overstatement, but with Google’s launch of video chat and Flu Trends we cannot help but rejoice. Judge us all you want for trusting Google to predict our personal health patterns. And, dear Google, how did you know that we wanted to make faces at our friend online as we sought a distraction from a yawn-fest of a lecture? (Related: Why type your friend a Facebook message, when you can give ‘em a better visual? Update: Wall post videos are possible as well).

We’ve dished the dirt on the our favorite and not-so-favorite Google goodies and have even regarded Google as beacon of morality. Now we sit and wonder what other of our personal needs Google has yet to fulfill: global peace, personal hygiene, mid-day snack attacks…

Tell us your opinion: What should Google come up with next?

Image Source: berbercarpet under Creative Commons
Official Google Blog [Web site]

The following is a simulated real conversation.

You: Hey best friend, would you like to have a couple of tequila shots with me on this fine Tuesday night?

Best Friend: No. I have a midterm tomorrow.

You: Please, it will be fun. I promise.

Best Friend: No.

You: OK, your loss. I’m going to go consume some alcohol now, and then I think I will attend to some official business, via Gmail. read more »

Gay or Straight, Say No to 8! You like it? We just came up with that right now. Proposition 8 is titled “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry Act.” Wow. It’s like the writer of this act didn’t believe in the cause him/herself. To soften the blow, the proposition is sometimes known affectionately as “The Californian Marriage Protection Act.” Is there something we missed? Whose marriage does this act protect?

Google just blogged about their stance against Prop. 8. Google argues:

” … we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.”

Touching. It almost doesn’t seem right for a company to take a stance on such a personal issue, but apparently this particular proposition hit a little too close to home. Just how close? We’re dying to know. In the meantime, we think Google should decorate their logo on their start page with rainbows and queer wedding cake toppers.

Image Source: whorange under Creative Commons
Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign [Google blog]

Do you prefer Google, Yahoo! or MSN (seriously, who uses MSN)? Google’s our de facto search device, but maybe we’ll have to reconsider after a rousing round of rap battle.

First up, MSN versus Google:

But wait! There are two more rounds.

read more »

Yesterday’s big news? Google Chrome, Google’s nifty new web browser, was released to much fanfare and hullaboo. We’ve yet to test-drive it ourselves, but the release has got bloggers, developers, and other denizens of the Internet in quite the tizzy. Time will tell if Chrome’s just a flash in the pan - AP thinks it “lacks polish”, InformationWeek’s verdict is that it “mostly glitters” - but in the meantime, check out its new features. read more »

Over at the law school, Nuts & Boalts predicts a California win for Barack Obama but a national majority for Hillary Clinton. Tonight we’ll see how close the blog’s predictions get, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be glued to our TV screens.

Wander away from your Facebook profile for a while, and you’ll see that Google has your back. Google’s new election gadget will track media reports of Super Tuesday numbers and continuously update the stats.

Wanna check the race on your computer instead of the boob tube? Behold, your new best friend (plus a super cool Twitter/Gmap morph):
read more »

Two UC Berkeley professors are helping the Google giant out in cosmic ways. To release its new Sky in Google Earth program, Google enlisted the help of Professor Geoffrey Marcy, who studies astronomy and finds planets outside our solar system.Marcy and his international team gave Google coordinates to more than 200 planets around almost 200 stars. Joshua Bloom, an assistant professor of astronomy, assisted with a newer part of the program: Now, Google Sky sends real-time updates on flashing objects in the real sky.Yay, they even have flashing stuff! That sounds like druggie heavens.Bloom showed Sky during his opening lecture for an introductory astro class, kinda like when your teacher asks you what you did for summer vacation, except this time he tells you what he did. As for the class’s reaction? NewsCenter doesn’t say. But Bloom may see a future written in the stars.Image Source: Chris Dick under Creative CommonsAstronomers eager to add to Sky in Google Earth [NewsCenter]

Just when we thought Facebook was getting too involved, Google, everyone’s favorite search engine that could, has decided to up the ante with its new “Street View” feature.

Is uber-stalkerishness a word?

You want something creepy, try looking up your house. Yes, see that? That’s your front door. And if you were outside at the wrong time, then yes, that would be you having a smoke on the porch.

When we zoomed out to a full sized map it showed that the stalker service currently only pertains to areas around New York City, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas and our own lovely city by the bay, San Francisco. According to Macworld, the feature will be expanding to more cities sometime soon. We appreciate it: If people in Ohio can look at our front door on the internet, we certainly expect the courtesy of being able to look at theirs. Although we’re not sure why we’d want to.

ZDNet picked up the scent after Google registered the domain name “googlestreetview.com” along with a number of variations. The general consensus of web buzz was that Google would be debuting some kind of new feature for the O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, with speakers and events about mapping and geospace (a.k.a. How Big Brother Will Be Watching You In 20 Years 101).

While the conveniences of this feature are fairly obvious (”No, Mom, I’m in the house with the red door. Just look it up online.”), we’ve got to say that it’s freaking us out quite a bit. Granted, it’s not like the maps are a live feed, but at some point we really have to ask what’s necessary and what’s just unnerving.

Google improves Map with street views, miniapps [Macworld]
Google Maps “Street View” to be launched at Where 2.0? [ZDNet]

Internet powerhouse and UC Berkeley-Mountain View-campus Google held a day of competition for 120 brainiacs this weekend. Positioned as a rivalry between Stanford and Cal, Google pitted teams of students from each campus against each other for the coveted price of a Wii. No one was required to hold their wee and water was kept to reasonable levels:

bq. “We’re kind of burning up,” said Berkeley junior Kevin Davis, “especially after running around to get all the Lego pieces.”

In one event, students were asked to build aesthetically pleasing yet structurally strong Lego bridges in limited time. For some, it was a success, but for others water did them in:

bq. “Our bridge fell under troubled water,” quipped Kayuon Beykpour, a Stanford freshman. “We had a good concept, but we didn’t have enough time.”

Standford won overall, but later privately admitted that they still suck.

College kids get a fast blast of Google culture [Mercury News]