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You may not always need to download any mail attachment; just view and check if everything is in place. The “view” feature helps you to do this tak. In case of compressed mail attachments, however, you are required to download them whether you want or not. Thanks to Google, now you can use Google Docs Viewer to preview compressed file types ZIP and RAR as well. With the new “view” button, you can now view all the contents within your browser.
After you have clicked on view button, the ZIP/RAR file is opened in a new tab where you get to see the contents of the file. When you hover over the list you can activate a menu by clicking Actions. You’ll be able to View items supported by Google Docs Viewer and Print (PDF) those that we offer PDF support. Save to Google Docs and Download appear for all files.

The new feature is also available on mobile versions of Google Docs. For each viewable file (including embedded ZIP or RAR archives) there is a link to view. The Google Docs Viewer now supports over 15 different file types such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, .XPS and .ZIP and .RAR.
Google says on its official blog that the new feature works for archives inside archive files too. This means, if you have a ZIP file inside a RAR file or vice versa, you can still preview them. All you need to do is click on that file to get access to that contents of the archive.



source: ThinkDigit
It looks like the dual-core Sony Ericsson phone we've all been expected is almost ready, with multiple leaks of a device called the Xperia Duo, with a massive 4.5-inch screen and a 1.4GHz dual-core processor.

For now, the identity of the chipset is a hotly debated topic, with some believing it to be an overclocked Qualcomm MSM8260 1.2GHz dual-core processor (the same as that in the HTC Sensation), and others an unheard of NovaThor A9500 chipset, a 1.4GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor with a Mali-400 GPU.
Other specifications revealed about the device include a qHD (960x540) resolution for the 4.5-inch screen, powered by theBravia Mobile imaging engine, a 12MP camera, and a 2,500 mAh battery. For now, nothing is official, and things are certain to change before launch. We’ll keep you apprised of any developments. For now, we presume it will be running Gingerbread, and will arrive sometime after September.


While AMD has been relatively quiet in the recent past about the growing prowess and adoption of its laptop graphics technologies, it has now decided to snatch some of the much publicise recent glory of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580M GPU, by releasing the AMD Radeon HD 6990M as contender for the crown of the world’s fastest mobile graphics card. Claiming 25% better performance than the previous top-end HD 6970M offering, the HD 6990M is based on the same Northern Islands family’s Barts core as the 6970M, but with more stream processors, and faster clocks.

The AMD Radeon HD 6990M is already out in markets, starting with gaming laptops like the Alienware M18x (seen below), which offers it in single of CrossFire configurations.
Yes Barts, and not the full-fledged Cayman architecture of the desktop HD 6990 GPU. Specifications of the HD 6990M GPU include a core clock speed of 715MHz, 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 3.6GHz memory clock speed, a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 115.2GB/s, 32 ROPs, 56 texture units, and 1120 stream processors. The core clock of the card can be overclocked up to 740Mhz. The most noticeable difference between the GTX 580M and HD 6990M, apart from CUDA and PhysX, will have to be the lack of a switchable graphics solution like Nvidia Optimus for the AMD Radeon HD 6990M. This could have a serious impact on battery life, figures of which were notably omitted from the introductory announcement.
 


 ROG Special Features
1) Extreme Engine Digi+: Considering this being an ROG board, overclocking the processor to its limits is a given. This requires the board to have a very strong power management system. Extreme Engine Digi+ is a mixture of hardware and software design elements which enable quicker heat dissipation, better electronic conduction to keep the system stable while under load. In the BIOS under Extreme Tweaker there is a menu for Extreme Engine Digi+ to tweak PWM voltage and CPU PWM frequency among other things.
2) ROG Connect: This is a feature that was seen in older ROG boards which allows you to tweak parameters with the help of an ROG Connect utility. You basically connect your notebook to the main system with a USB cable and you can check the POST code as your system is booting up, monitor temperatures, voltages and fan speeds, and even tweak settings on the fly. In short you can overclock in real time, using a Windows Utility.  
3) ROG iDirect: Dont want to use wires to tweak or monitor the system performance? Thanks to Bluetooth v3.0 support, you can use tweak parameters using your iPhone or iPad. Honestly we feel hardcore enthusiasts won't bother with these functions, it is still an innovative feature which allows you to wirelessly overclock your system!
4) ASUS Thunderbolt Combo card: This is a first we are seeing on any high end board. The ASUS Thunderbolt is a combo card which houses a 2.1 channel XONAR sound card along with the Killer E2100 Network Processing Unit (NPU). The E2100 NPU claims to reduce the lag experienced while playing games over a LAN network.
Performance
Considering this is an extreme high end feature rich board, we did not have any comparable board to test this against. We did run through our gamut of tests and also indulged in some basic overclocking, as not overclocking the board would have been blasphemous.
We tested the board with an Intel Core i7 980X processor and an AMD HD6850 card. As expected it aced the tests. On stock settings (Memory - 1333MHz and CPU - 3.3 GHz) PC Mark Vantage gave an overall score of 10300, Cinebench R10 rendering gave a multi-core score of 22842 marks, Video encoding (100 MB VOB to DIVX) took 22 secs whereas Crysis Warhead (1680x1050, med) gave 63 FPS. We overclocked the memory using the XMP profile 1 (Memory - 2000MHz) and the processor to 4.1 GHz - on air. The system ran fine without any blue screens, giving a 15 percent increase in benchmarks.
Verdict
This is the most feature-rich board we have seen to date. It comes with all the bells, whistles and fog horns and much more to satisfy overclockers. The build quality is top notch, on-board troubleshooting options are great, the add-on Thunderbolt combo card is a good addition and serving the dual purpose, the ROG Connect takes overclocking to a different level, etc. At Rs. 39,500 it comes at a price which is enough to configure a decent multimedia rig. But then, this board is meant for a select niche audience.
Specifications

CPU Socket: LGA1366
CPU Supported: Core i7 Extreme Edition / Core i7 Processor
Chipset: Intel X58 / ICH10R
System Bus: Upto 6400MT/s
Memory: 6 DIMM slots, support upto 48GB of DDR3 RAM
Expansion Slots: 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (support x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 and x8/x8/x8/x8 configurations); 2 x PCIe x1
Thunderbolt LAN/Audio card
Audio Chipset: SupremeFX X-Fi 2 Built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Form Factor: Extended ATX Form Factor
Back Panel I/O Ports:
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
2 x External SATA ports
1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s)
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 (Blue)
7 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 port also for ROG Connect)
8 -Channel Audio I/O
1 x Clr CMOS switch
2 x Wi-Fi antenna jacks
1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
Ratings
Features: 9.0
Performance:8.5
Build Quality:9.0
Value for money:6.5
Overall:8.5
Price: Rs. 39,500
Test Scores Log Sheet
BrandASUS 
Model No.Rampage III Extreme Black Edition 
Processor Frequency3.3 GHz (stock)4.1 GHz (OC)
Memory Frequency1333 MHz (stock)2000 MHz (OC)
Performance  
PC Mark Vantage (Overall)1030011624
CINEBENCH R10  
CPU (All cores)2219426624
WinRAR 3.9 (Multi threaded)35033615
100 MB file Video Encoding (VOB-DivX 7) (sec)22.121.85
File Transfer (MB/s) 4GB file  
Sequential56.0160.41
Assorted54.6154.21
USB 3.0  
Sequential Write67.1468.14
Sequential Read69.5470.11
Assorted Write29.3529.53
Assorted Read32.1433.21
Game  
Crysis Warhead (1280x1024, med)6667
Crysis warhead (1680x1050, med)6368
Resident Evil 5 (1280x1024, med)138148
Resident Evil 5 (1680x1050, med)115120

Contact
ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd
Phone:             1800 209 0365      
Email: reachus@asus.com
Website: www.asus.in



 
ASUS's Republic of Gamers series of boards are quite a rage amongst the enthusiast gamer community as a majority of its features are overkill for most users. The last time we tested an ROG board was quite a while back. Then came the barrage of the Sandy Bridge boards (the mini ITX form factor as well as ATX) followed by AMD's Brazos boards housing the AMD E350 APUs. In the midst of these entry level and mid range boards when we suddenly got a confirmation from ASUSthat they would be sending us their Rampage III Black Edition board, we were delighted at the prospect of using the fastest Intel processor on the planet and running it through its paces after a long time. That the board was an enthusiasts wet dream was the icing on the proverbial cake.
Having tested ROG boards from the previous generations, we were expecting a similar packaging with the maroon coloured box housing the board. But what we got instead was a thick black box highlighting the logo and the product name. Like all the other high end boards, this box also has the gatefold design, where the front facing flap of the box opens up to reveal the motherboard behind the transparent plastic package. The features of this X58 board are highlighted all around the packaging.
The Board
The board comes a beautiful matte black finish with top of the line components such as solid state caps, sturdy heatsinks, dedicated buttons for Start and Reset, etc. The heat sinks look quite attractive thanks to the minute extrusions on them. The northbridge heatsink comes in a two tone (black / maroon) colour and houses a ROG button that glows red when the motherboard is working, adding a dash of glowing red to the proceedings.
The layout of the board is quite good, with enough space between the four PCIe slots for a 3-way SLI or CrossFireX. There are two PCIe x1 slots as well.
We will not go into explaining each component of the motherboard, as most of pretty much standard components. We will focus on some interesting features as under.
1) Dedicated Start and Reset buttons: This is a desirable feature for enthusiasts as it means no longer having to short two pins for these purposes.
2) Debug LED: This is located just above the Start and Reset buttons and helps you debug your motherboard issues based on the value it is displaying. Very handy tool as it expedites troubleshooting.
3) PCIe x16 Lane switches: Just beside the Reset button you will come across four switches, which are mapped to each PCIe x16 slot. So you can switch a PCIe x16 slot On or Off. This is particularly useful to troubleshoot faulty graphics card in a multi-GPU setup. You can only keep one PCIe slot on to see if the card is working or not based on whether, you can see the monitor working
4) Bluetooth v3.0 and WiFi adapter: The board has an in-built WiFi adapter and a Bluetooth v3.0 support. This is found on the back IO plate and the board comes with two extendable antennas. You can use the onboard Bluetooth to overclock the board via the iROG connect feature.
5) ROG Connect: The back IO plate has an ROG connect button which can be used alongwith the ROG connect utility on your laptop to monitor and tweak your system remotely.
6) SATA 3 and USB 3.0 support: This X58 board comes with full support for SATA 6 Gbps with the help of the Marvell 9182 controller and USB 3.0 support thanks to the NEC
BIOS: Extreme Tweaker
Being an X58 board, the ASUS R3B has stuck with the normal text based BIOS. It was a good to see the familiar BIOS after going through a horde of motherboards having the UEFI BIOS. The BIOS follows the all black colour in its user interface. It is neatly divided into Extreme Tweaker, Main, Advanced, Power, Boot, Tools and Exit. The Extreme Tweaker tab is the most important and the most exhaustive tab amongst all as it has a variety of options to tweak your settings.

We had mentioned that the board has a lot of features, but we were quite impressed with the sheer variety in the BIOS for overclockers. You can overclock by selecting either Manual, XMP profile or CPU level Up presets (from the Ai Overclock Tuner) to overclock easily if you do not want to go tweaking manually. Based on the processor, the CPU level Up will give you an option to select between two preset frequencies, after which the other settings are accordingly adjusted to run your system stable. To get more details on the CPU settings, you can enter the CPU Configuration option. For the purpose of overclocking, we had kept the Turbo Boost off. As you go further down in the list of options, you will get things like Extreme Over Voltage (OV) and Extreme OC and there are CPU voltage adjustment options.
Further down there is an setting called ASUS OC Profile which allows you to set upto 8 OC presets and select whichever one you want at ease.
Click next post to read on about the ASUS Rampage III's ROG Special Features, our verdict, and more...


Generally, CPU cooling hardware doesn’t conjure up a lot of excitement. However, what just walked out of the door at the Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California is sure to create a lot of excitement. Along with the extra efficient cooling comes the promise of faster processing speed for laptops and desktops!
Researcher Jeff Koplow has designed this heat sink, which is the fan in itself. The Sandia Cooler, also known as the “Air Bearing Heat Exchanger”, is designed in such a away that the metal blades sit right above the heat source. This new heat sink design cuts through the warm air in such a way that air turbulence is produced, helping with the dissipation.

Traditionally, CPU heat sink designs featured a metal heat sink and a fan to push out the heat generated by the CPU. However, that design wasn’t very efficient since a layer of dead air would cling on to the heat sink. This layer was essentially some part of the warm air, and in a perfect scenario, needed to be cleared out. Power limitations (of the fan) and the basic design of the heat sinks made cooling less efficient as more and more ‘dead air’ blocked the path of the cooler air.
The heat moves away quicker, and allows the cooler air to have a better effect since the “dead air” problem has been completely dealt with. Also, the design creates airflow in such a way that dust gets pushed away from the heat sink, rather than getting sucked into it. Dust accumulation is one of the problems caused by the design of current heat sinks.
The Sandia Cooler, if implemented in desktop PCs and Laptops, will allow for the use of much faster processors, while running cooler at the same time.


There's good news for public transport commuters in Chennai and Hyderabad - they can now use Google Maps' transit feature for figuring out their bus routes. The facility is available on Google's online and mobile versions of Google Maps. Of late Google has been expanding its public transportation information service for the Indian cities and it is likely that more cities will get displayed on the transit section.
The commuters can also use the transit feature to plan a trip in their city using the public transport. To begin, the users need to go to maps.google.com and search for directions for the destination. The maps will then display route and driving directions for that destination point. The users, however, will get two options – one displaying route/directions for private vehicles, the second one showing routes for public transport such as local rail and bus.
The information displayed under the section called “public transport” is the new updated feature. Under this section, information such as bus route numbers and estimate time for the journey is displayed. It also suggests points from where one can board the bus/train.


Google says on its blog, "The launch of the local bus information service in Chennai and Hyderabad will not just help millions of commuters and visitors in the metros to explore public transportation options as they search for directions or locations, but also encourage alternatives to driving. This information is available both on Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile, enabling users to access the service even while on the move."
The public transit service is presently available for cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The Internet company has entered a deal with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), for public transport information; while in Mumbai, it displays BEST bus routes and local trains. For Ahmedabad, Google has partnered with Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS).
Google provides public transport information for more than 447 cities across the world.


Barrelfish is a research operating system being developed by researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland in collaboration withMicrosoft Research. Barrelfish is designed for the computers of tomorrow, following the current trends of an increasing number of cores.
Current generation operating systems have been adapted to take advantage of the increasing core count, and are now more multi-tasking enabled and aware, but as the number of cores steadily goes on increasing, a time will come when simply adapting current OSs will no longer be feasible.
There is still time, as a MIT researchers have shown Linux to be feasible even with as many as 48 cores, however when the cores go significantly beyond that, new kinds of operating systems will be needed. And Barrelfish is one.
Barrelfish is designed for not only an increasing number of cores, but also the diversity in computing platforms that is available now. Software such as Firefox, Opera, games like Angry Birds etc are available on both PCs and tablet / mobile devices. While most personal computers have x86-compatible hardware (Intel and AMD processors), most mobile platforms have ARM processors. Even on the same hardware, whether it be a desktop or a mobile, the architecture of the GPU differs greatly from that of the CPU. Our computing environments are already becoming more heterogeneous, and applications are being written with components that run on the CPU, and other components that run on the GPU.
Barrelfish is a "multikernel" OS, a completely new model in which instead of running a single kernel which runs on all cores, each core runs a separate instance of the kernel, whether it is an ARM processor, an x86 processor, a co-processor or even a GPU. Each of these kernels is a microkernel, meaning that it has only the bare minimum code needed to run on a core. The different kernels can pass messages to each other, and generally do not even need to know what architecture the kernels are running on.
Future computers could then have multiple different cores, each optimized to handle a particular kind of data, and the multikernel model would sort the rest out.
Currently Barrelfish is just a research OS intended to explore a new paradigm of operating system architectures, and had little practical application. The Barrelfish website itself does run on Barrelfish though.
Barrelfish has been released under the MIT Open Source licence, and is now available in amercurial repository.


If you listened closely enough to Facebook’s rollout of video chat with Skype to the press you would quickly surmise the subtext to the powwow. The theme: Social networking is becoming about quality experiences and being a platform. In other words, the user land grab was so five years ago. Therefore, Google+ is so five years ago.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked offthe unveiling of the Skype partnership with a bit of a lecture on social networking. Social networking is at a crossroads in its evolution. “There’s a clear arc, where the world generally believes it is going to be everywhere,” said Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg showed some nifty slides on how Facebook was enabling connections between its 750 million users.
At some point, everyone on the planet will be connected to a social network. The trend over the next five years will be about building on top of this social network, according to Zuckerberg. Best in class music, gaming, search and communication services will be built on top of social infrastructure. These services will be inherently social.
Notice what Zuckerberg did here. First, he notes the land grab is over. Subtext: Just give up Google. Then, he talks services on top of a social graph. Exhibit A: Zynga. Exhibit B: Skype. And then he downplays 750 million users as a hedge just in case Facebook growth slows and Google+ makes some headway. Note that Facebook growth is already slowing in developed markets.
The general theme is that Facebook rivals will be stuck in the amassing users stage. While rivals are trying to grab users, Facebook will be onto the next big thing: Being a social app platform.
It’s a worthwhile strategy for Facebook, but there are a few flaws to the premise. For starters, Google has billions of users and Google+ is the real deal. I’ve been on Google+ for roughly a week and it’s the most credible social effort from the company by far. I never understood Wave and was turned off by Google Buzz in minutes. Google+ is actually keeping me interested and the mobile integration with Android is stellar. Granted, some of this may be Google+’s approach to friends—it’s easy to categorize them into various Circles. For someone who has a mess of a Facebook account and no patience to fix it, Google+ represents a handy do-over.
What’s unclear is whether it’s really game over in Facebook’s favor. Google’s angle into Google+ is Gmail. You see your account and there’s a little box of notifications. That integration keeps you on Google properties longer—probably the real goal anyway. Google photos and other properties are also nicely integrated with the search giant’s social service. When Google+ opens to the public it will grab a lot of users. Here’s what Google has to work with to bolster Google+ according to comScore data:
  • 222 million unique visitors to Gmail globally;
  • A 38 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers—another 28.9 million people—via Android, which is integrated with Google+;
  • 180 million unique visitors a month to Google properties in the U.S.
  • Toss in users of services like the soon-to-be-renamed Picasa and Blogger and Google+ integration abounds.
Add it up and Google can go through the social land grab phase very quickly. The company won’t land 750 million users overnight, but 150 million won’t be all that surprising. The big question is whether Google+ retains active users and bolsters sharing on its network. The interface is there, but others have noted that it’s unclear whether folks will simply jump from Facebook.
Zuckerberg’s job: Give customers a reason to stick with Facebook over the long haul. Over the next five years, Facebook has to continue to acquire users, give them social applications that delight and increase usage as a platform. Google is already a platform in many areas, but has to connect the social dots. If Facebook can box in Google it will have a nice head start on the next five years. Consider Facebook’s strategy to be a nice mix of offense and defense.



This is the way Google always wanted social networking to work, and this time the company may have pulled it off.
Google’s previous social attempts have been unmitigated train wrecks, if we’re being completely honest. Open Social failed because Google couldn’t get Facebook and other social networks to buy into the idea of a shared social identity. Google Wave missed the target by not being useful enough to attract any users. Google Buzz freaked people out by naively overstepping its bounds on privacy.
So, when Google unveiled its latest social experiment last week — called Google+ — I was extremely skeptical. Still, Facebook is so malignant in terms of privacy and such a mess to use and configure that I was more than happy to give Google+ a try. I just expected that it would be a speed-dating relationship like most of my product reviews and destined to last no more than a few weeks at the most.
Damn, was I wrong. After almost a week, I fully expect this Google+ thing to turn into a long-term relationship. I mean, we’re not buying matching workout suits or anything yet, but this is definitely more than just a crush on the hot, new thing.
To start, Google+ is what Google calls a “field trial” — a fancy way to say that it’s still in beta. For now, it is open mostly to technology industry insiders and the press. Google reasoned that since reporters were going to be writing about Plus anyway, they might as well let them kick the tires. Wise move.
Vic Gundotra, Google’s SVP of Social and the head guy in charge of Plus, said, ”We chose the initial seed very carefully. We wanted a lot of diversity, so we have people that represent over 42 of the world’s languages… We’re trying to really test the product, make sure that we meet people’s privacy expectations, that the systems are working, [and] that we can scale. We’ll slowly grow that initial seed as we’re ready.”
The other Google executive running the Plus project, Bradley Horowitz, added, ”Field trial is the right term. That’s not a euphemism. There’s a lot of rough edges in there and a lot of learning we have to do. The feedback we got in the first 24 hours is tremendous.”
Even with its rough edges and without the masses of humanity having access to Google+, the core experience is pretty powerful, and it’s easy to see where Google is going with this.
As I wrote over the weekend while diving into Google+, the most attractive part is how easy it is to find, add, and organize your friends (I cited that as the main reason you won’t hate Google+). The friend issue is the heart of all social networks, although it’s so obvious that it’s often overlooked. In fact, Twitter still isn’t very good at it, Facebook is a little better, but both of them now look like neophytes compared to the way Google+ does it.
The friend feature on Google+ is called “Circles,” and it turns out to be an intuitive mashup of friending (from Facebook) and following (from Twitter). Circles are basically sets of friends that you can drag and drop into groups, mirroring your existing social circles — Family & Friends, Colleagues, Local Techies, etc. — rather than just the one big lump of friends you have on Facebook that can result in moments of “worlds colliding,” since you have to share all of your updates with all of your friends. On Google+, you can selectively send updates to different circles, and you can quickly click between the news streams of your different circles.
You can also make circles for people you don’t necessarily know but are interested in following their updates (e.g. Tech Journalists, Famous Engineers, Web Celebrities, etc.). This is where Google+ echoes Twitter, because people don’t have to follow you back in order for you to add them to one of your Circles. At that point, you’ll see all of their public updates, and most of these folks make the majority of their updates public in order to be seen by more people (it’s the whole social media narcissism meme, and it has already transplanted itself on Google Plus).
The real killer feature to Circles in Google+ is how easy it is to find and add friends. Everywhere you see a user’s name or avatar you can simply mouse over it, click “Add to Circles,” and then select which circle to add them to. On Twitter, it took me about three years to find about 200 really interesting people (mostly in technology and the media) worth following. It took me less than three days to find that many on Google Plus. Of course, most of them are the same people, so Google+ has the advantage of speed by letting us quickly re-coagulate our existing social graph on the new service.
I’m not predicting Google+ will replace Facebook and/or Twitter. This will definitely not be a zero sum game. Facebook has the most to lose from Google Plus, but it’s going to be years before Aunt Jenny and your plumber show up on Google+ the way they recently showed up on Facebook (and it’s possible they never will). All three of these social networks — Facebook, Google+, and Twitter — will still be going strong three years from now. People will gravitate to them for different reasons. They’ll go to Twitter for news and to cyber-stalk celebrities. They’ll go to Facebook for private networking, water cooler chats, and games.
So, where will that leave Google+?
I’m glad you asked, because that’s the real point here (sorry to bury the lede). To start, Google+ is mostly going to be made up of digital influencers — technology executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals, as well as social media mavens and technophiles in the press. Don’t underestimate the power of this broad group. It’s the same group that has catapulted Twitter and Foursquare into mainstream consciousness in recent years. A large percentage of this group is already in the “initial seed” of Google+ users, and they are the ones who have been raving about it for the past week. Look for a lot of them to decrease (but not eliminate) their Facebook usage and spend more time on Google Plus.
However, once you get past the technorati, then the story is going to get really interesting, because in the long run, Google+ is going to be less of a destination and more like the connective social tissue of the Web. I’m talking about social networking moving beyond a walled garden like Facebook or even a controlled ecosystem like Twitter.
Pieces of Google+ are likely to be decentralized with tentacles extending across the Web, the mobile Web, and various computer, smartphone, and tablet platforms. In some ways, Facebook and Twitter have started doing this already. They’ve put share buttons and boxes on external sites. They’ve launched client apps for multiple platforms. Facebook has even allowed sites to use the Facebook platform as their engine for user comments. However, the ultimate goal for Facebook and Twitter is to drive users back to their sites where they can be monetized.
Google has a different goal. It needs all of this social data about what people like, how they are socially related, what content they share the most, what context they share it in, and more in order to power its search engine and better organize the world’s information. That means Google’s social motivations have little to do with driving people back to plus.google.com. It’s ultimately about enhancing search and not allowing Facebook to hoard so much of the world’s social data.
That’s why Google has already submitted it’s iOS app to the Apple App Store. That’s why it is already talking about opening up Google+ Hangouts (group video chat) to other video services and clients. It’s why Google is putting little +1s all across the Web and in its search results (even though they aren’t very well connected to Google+ yet). In order to satisfy its appetite for social data, Google ultimately needs Google+ to be ubiquitous across virtually all platforms — both in terms of accessing the service from devices but even more so in terms of micro-connections to the service from third-party apps and sites.
Think of +1 integrated into mobile content apps, Q&A sites, blog comments, product reviews, music services like Pandora, etc. Now, imagine reading a product review, giving it +1, and then instantly seeing what all of the people in your “Tech Pros” circle have posted about that product — all without leaving the site you’re on. That’s where I see Google going with this, and that’s where this could permanently change social networking on the Web into a much more integrated experience. And if Google+ succeeds, it would likely force Facebook and Twitter to move in a similar direction.
Nevertheless, one big question here is how far will Google go with the open strategy? Can it avoid the temptation of giving Google+ pre-eminence to its internal platforms, such as Android, Chrome browser, Chrome OS, Gmail, and others? Will it build great apps and functionality for other platforms as well? For example, will it build a client for Windows Phone 7, even though Microsoft is its biggest rival in search? Will it work with Apple to make FaceTime (which has also promised open standards) compatible with Google+ Hangouts? Those are the kinds of litmus tests I’m going to be watching for.
Still, “Google+” is the perfect name for this, because it’s ultimately an add-on and a force-multiplier to the existing Google experience, especially its search engine but also to the broader Web in general. Google+ will be a social layer on top of the existing Web. At least that’s the vision. This time, Google might just pull it off.
source : zdnet

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