Read about it on the Google Code Blog. Check out the drop shadows possible too. This is gonna make the web more faster, I believe. They are stored on Google’s servers, so your bandwidth is spared Here’s a quick video tip from Tutplus about the Google Font API

Check it out here; http://www.google.com/buzz

After you login into your gmail account your should see the Buzz icon on your left hand side menu.

Yes, that’s right, it’s VeRRY with 2 ‘R’ s, to emphasise ‘Indianness’!

Started by Vikram Nandwani, these are a set of cartoons, illustrations, sketches, wall art & murals which are available as Limited Edition Digital Prints, signed by Vikram in the following sizes: 10″x10″, 20″x20″ & 40″x40″.

They truly reflect everything ‘Indian’. My favourite one from the Verry Indian collection is the Ambassador.

The Google OS will be called as the Google Chrome Operating System

The official news on the Google blog is here;

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

The possibilities are endless, I guess this would really be the Web3.0, but not really just Web, but Web + Mobile + God know what else is coming our way.

TED Fellows Program Accepting Applications for 100 TEDIndia Fellows

MYSORE, India — Organizers of the TED Conference today announced they would begin the search for 100 TEDIndia Fellows to participate in the TEDIndia Conference in Mysore, India, following upon the successful TED Fellows program launch at TED2009 this past February in Long Beach, California. The TEDIndia Fellows program will accept applications for fellowships from April 20, 2009 through June 15, 2009.

The TEDIndia Fellows program is a part of the larger TED Fellows Program, a new international fellowship program designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world. This year, organizers will select 100 promising individuals from around the world to attend the very first TEDIndia Conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 20 individuals from a pool of the TED, TEDGlobal, and TEDIndia Fellows to participate in an extended three-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to six consecutive conferences. The principal goal of the program is to empower the Fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

Benefits of the Fellowship include conference admission, round-trip transportation, housing and all meals. Fellows will also participate in a two-day pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com, elite skills-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities and surprise extras.

The TEDIndia Fellows program will have international representation with a distinctly South Asian majority, with approximately 75% of the Fellows representing the South Asian region, and 25% representing other regions of the world. South Asia is defined as including the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. For the global pool, applications will also be sought from the other five target regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration to the applicants from other countries.

The program seeks remarkable thinkers and doers who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage, moral imagination and the potential to increase positive change in their respective fields. The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits. Applicants are generally between 21-40 years of age, though anyone over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be fluent in English; though moderate fluency will be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

The program was inspired by the TEDAfrica 2007 conference in Arusha, Tanzania, in which 100 fellows participated in a first-of-its kind gathering that featured trailblazing, entrepreneurial individuals vested in creating change on the continent. The TEDAfrica fellows brought with them new perspectives, enormous energy, enthusiasm and ovation-generating talks. Propelled by their energy, TED decided to develop the full-scale TED Fellows program, which debuted at TED2009 in Long Beach, California.

“TED2009 was a transformative experience for me, and several of my peers,” said Pragnya Alekal, TED2009 Fellow and now TEDIndia Fellows Coordinator. “For the first time, we were in a supportive community of enthusiastic innovators, all working to make the world better. And after only two months, so many new collaborative ventures and initiatives have come out of it.

“I want to share TED with other people; I want more South Asians to experience what we Fellows experienced. I would like the world to know about the genius brewing in this part of the world, and I look forward to them meeting their counterparts from around the world. I believe this will be an important launch pad for everything that is good for the future of India, South Asia, and the world.”

For more information about how individuals may apply for a TEDIndia Fellowship, please visit http://www.ted.com/fellows/apply. TED Fellows may apply or be nominated by another individual. To nominate a candidate, email the full name of the candidate and their contact information to fellows@ted.com.

About TED

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The diverse audience — CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists — is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Nandan Nilekani, Bill Gates, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ashraf Ghani, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Bono, Sir Richard Branson, andStephen Hawking.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an international conference, TEDGlobal July 21-24, 2009 in Oxford, UK; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize. TED2010, “What the World Needs Now,” will be held February 9-13, 2010, inLong Beach, California, with a simulcast event in Palm Springs, California.

CONTACT: Laura Galloway for TED, +1-213-948-3100 or +1-212-260-3708, laura@gallowaymediagroup.com

The dates for Ted India have been announced:
4th to 7th November 2009

Venue is the Infosys Campus in Mysore.

What’s TED?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design, an annual conference that defines its mission as “ideas worth spreading”.

Links:
Wikipedia;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TED_(conference)

Official site: http://www.ted.com/

TED India: http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia/

The Official Ted YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TEDtalksDirector

One of my favourite video is this one by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran,

Case in point is the latest algo change, with regards to Branding. Aaron as usual has an analysis here; http://www.seobook.com/google-branding

So, it took the big G, ten years to deduce that for the search query ‘airlines’, Continental, US Airways & United should be on top:) . Well, since politics has been in highlight for this year so far, Google has come out with this ‘politically correct algo change’! No one can argue that it’s incorrect to have these brands on top of SERPS, right?

So, why the “SEO is Dead” rant? It comes from webmasters who have been affected by any recent change in algo, OR are no longer able to make ‘easy money’, OR are not able to please their clients, etc, etc.

A ‘politically correct’ answer is: Till the time, search engines are operational, SEO will be alive too!

Hey, Google even has an official Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide now.

A more realistic answer to the “SEO is Dead” rant, is that things have just begun to get complex:) We have SMO – Social Media Optimization & within SMO, we are just beginning to see the following;
FBO => FaceBook Optimization [sic],
TWO/TTO/TMO [wtf] => Twitter Optimization…LOL.,
LIO is underway => LinkedIn Optimization,
SLO however, did not take off, or still exists..=> SecondLife Optimization!!

So, which ‘O’, do you want to specialize in?

More on the recent ‘Branding algo change’, next week, hopefully.

BTW, i felt like writing this post because, i read this article in Economic Times, Pune edition of 20th February 2009. Sorry for the poor quality scan.

2 days of intense sessions. scheduled for 28th Feb & 1st March. All the credit goes to The Knowledge Foundation for organising this 2nd SearchCamp, first was in Oct 2007. The admire the TKF guys, for the dedication & the energy they put in to make this event possible. A thoughtful feature this time is Careers in Search, which will give college students an idea on how this industry works & what they can expect from it.

Don’t miss these pages;

Friends of SearchCamp

Careers in Search

Speakers

Accommodation

Venue: Trinity, Taj Residency, Bangalore.
Date: 20th January 2009
Official Website: http://www.nokiadevcon.in

If you have been itching to do something on mobile apps, this would be the place to be. With 3G coming to India soon and the already existing millions of mobile subscribers, mobile apps are hot. Serial entrepreneurs & tech industry gurus, all are betting big on mobile applications.

I guess, it would be wise to hear from entrepreneurs who already have a head start in this business. The speaker’s page is here;
http://www.nokiadevcon.in/speakers.html I recall meeting one of the speakers in 2004 & he had a working prototype back then! Right from govt officials, guys from Forum Nokia, operators, mobile game developers, everyone from the telecom industry would be attending, so, I guess it would be a good opportunity to network & keep abreast with the latest in mobile technology. Presentations on Java, Symbian, Web 2.0 etc. are scheduled and interaction with industry these experts too.

The different sessions are Mobile VAS Industry, Mobile Technology Evolution, Technology Showcase, Developer Evangelization & more details are on the sessions page here; http://www.nokiadevcon.in/session.html

This Nokia Developer Conference is bought to you by Forum Nokia, and according to their own words

“The objective of the conference is to inspire and fuel the dreams of developers to create killer mobile applications through support and collaboration.” and also “The Conference will provide the developers a forum, where best minds in the industry will meet and discuss the evolution of the Mobile VAS industry and what the future holds.”

I just read that there are great prizes for mobile application developers at the Nokia Bangalore Conference on the Forum here:
http://www.nokiadevcon.in/forum/index.php

Cya there.