Google is this a target SCAM on Gmail ?

Rec’d this in my email today – it came in as a calendar event Invitation – it would appear to be a SCAM but with Google closing services it makes me wonder ? Clearly my gmail account is not anon !

[Invitation] DEAR ACCOUNT USER @ Sat 17 Jan 21:00 – 22:00

Andrew Peters, you are invited to

DEAR ACCOUNT USER

Sat 17 Jan 21:00 – 22:00
(Time zone: Singapore)

Calendar: Andrew Peters

Owner/Creator: verificationcustomer.link00@gmail.com

THIS Email is from Gmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every
Gmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions
due to the anonymous registration of Gmail accounts so we are shutting
down some Gmail accounts and your account was among those to be
deleted.We are sending you this email so that you can verify and
let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still
interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your
User name,password,date of birth and your country information would be
needed to verify your account.
Due to the congestion in all Gmail users and removal of all unused
Gmail Accounts, Gmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You
will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information
below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be
suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* User name:

* Password:
* Date of Birth:

* Country Or Territory:

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not
be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention
to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences. Warning!!!
Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks
of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently

google not immune to financial fallout – itsReal

The most colourful and envied company today seems to not be immune to the financial fallout that the economy has placed the world in – or are they ?

If projects aren’t working you need t0 take a position to move on – is this all they are doing – are they just being smart ?

Yesterday Google announced plans to cut 100 jobs. Cuts include recruitment staff, as well as the redundancy of three engineering offices and the shutdown of a handful of projects.

Services most affected by the cutbacks include Dodgeball, a mobile social network (to be discontinued entirely); messaging site Jaiku, where further development will cease; Google Video, which in a few months will no longer accept uploads; and Notebook, a web bookmarking service, which will stop accepting new users.

Details of how these and other services will be affected are on TechCrunch.

Offices in Texas, Norway and Sweden will also be impacted. Back at the Googleplex in California, HR will suffer the brunt of cutbacks, says the Guardian.

At the time of its 2004 debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Google employed about 3000 people. Its current labor force totals around 20,000, not including 4300 interns, contractors and temps. Last week it was revealed that the search and ad giant laid off a “substantial number” of the latter.

Website:	google.com
Location:	Mountain View, California, United States
Founded:	September 7, 1998
IPO:	August 19, 2004

Google primarily provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of tools and platforms including its more popular… Learn More

Google Mail Goggles: Are You Sure You Want to Send That? – ReadWriteWeb

Coogle Care – Saving us from embarrassment or maybe loss of job !

Google has improved any number of the Web activities in which we engage during the day. But what about those activities that occur late at night? Like firing off that email at 3 AM on Sunday morning after a night out?

If Jon Perlow has his way, Google may be able to save you from that moment of regret, too.

Google Mail Goggles: Are You Sure You Want to Send That? – ReadWriteWeb

Google Chrome – Sexist Bannaza for Google, Madonna not included – itsReal

What appears to be an accidental announcement about CHROME a week earlier than expected has turned into a Bannazza for GOOGLE and judging from the massive immediate response to APLINK – itsReal then the accident about the new google browser must have been pre-meditated…the response on my blog is as if MADONNA actually was live … hmm in 3D on my blog …

Google boards 3D Web JET with Lively – itsReal

But it isn’t mac ready ! – Still Google’s entry into the 3D web landscape has been anticipated for quite awhile – browser based 3D rooms are however along way from true immersive virtual worlds like Twinity

Lively Promo Video

Media Release : Rivers Run Red Now Developing 3D Web Spaces Built on New Google Technology

Renowned Design and Development Company Launches Its First Customized 3D Space on the Web Using Lively by Google

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rivers Run Red, the immersive spaces company™, today announced it is developing customized 3D spaces built in Lively, a new product by Google^TM. Rivers Run Red also has a new design team in place to keep up with the anticipated high level of demand for companies/brands looking to incorporate Lively by Google as part of their digital strategies. Rivers Run Red is a participant in the Preferred Developer Program for Lively by Google.

Lively by Google is a product that lets people create and share persistent, virtual spaces on the web. As a lightweight application fully integrated with the web, Lively rooms can be embedded on websites and blogs all over the web with just a snippet of code. Lively users can also stream their own content, such as videos and photos, directly into their rooms.

“In the last five years, we have encountered high demand from companies looking to provide 3D experiences for their communities on the web,” said Justin Bovington, CEO of Rivers Run Red. “Lively by Google is a promising solution for web-based 3D environments and will only help to make the prospect of the 3D Web a reality.”

Rivers Run Red created its first 3D space in Lively, called ‘Avalon,’ which serves as a demo area for visitors to explore how Lively can help turn their content into a destination. To view the room on Lively, please visit: http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-7255981103276414777

NEW Search Engine: SearchMe is in beta Launch – it has IVR – itsReal

Seems Google may have a strong Competitor coming called SearchMe – search is based on Visual and looks to be a whole heap of FUN – but dial up connections (yes there are still millions of them) won’t be able to use searchme – but then again it has IVR – Instant Visual Recognition – very cool and worth upgrading to a decent connection speed….

Watch the demo’s

On the Searchme Site and then sign up for a beat account

My Mate Allen reminded me SearchMe is coming – thanks mate

Storm gatecrashes Google founder’s wedding – itsReal

How to win VIP friends… get very very very RICH…….. It is not clear if the 600 guests – which reportedly included Bono, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and various tech luminaries – were able to fly home before the storm hit.

Google co-founder Larry Page and girlfriend Lucy Southworth on the Google private jet. Inset left shows storms brewing in the British Virgin Islands, courtesy Valleywag.com, and, right, the heart of the storm above Necker Island.

A rare subtropical storm has gatecrashed the lavish wedding of Google’s billionaire co-founder Larry Page to PhD student Lucy Southworth, bringing with it 65km/hour winds and 15cm of rain.

Rain and winds battered the wedding party during the official reception on Sunday, but by late Monday night the low pressure system developed into a rare post-season subtropical storm, the US National Hurricane Centre said in a warning.

It is not clear if the 600 guests – which reportedly included Bono, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and various tech luminaries – were able to fly home before the storm hit.

more here: SMH

Google Maps Gets Wiki With It – itsReal

source: mashable.com

Google maps has updated its My Maps tool to incorporate some wiki-like functionality. Collaborative mapping, if you will. For those custom maps that you make for yourself, you can know get all your friends to help you. Similar to a shared Google document, you can invite friends with an access link to the map. They’ll then be able to edit the map. They’ll need to use the gmail address that you sent it to, so this private sharing function is limited to Google users. There is a public map editing tool, however, which launches your map for all to see, and all to edit.

Do maps need wikis, though? Considering the amount of love geeks out there have for their maps, mapping tools, map mashups, geo-tagging, and real time activity shown on a map, of course maps need wikis. It’s only natural. Everything is being wikified these days. Music collaboration, slide show collaboration, website collaboration, office work collaboration, podcasting collaboration, book collaboration… and now maps too. Try it on for size with Google’s new terrain layer.

Google’s Android Launches $10M Developer Contest – itsReal

In the year 2525…

With the release of its SDK yesterday, Android, Google’s new open source mobile operating system, has announced a developer challenge with $10 million in awards.

The 50 most promising mobile apps built for the platform will each receive $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.

The Android open source OS represents Google’s virgin foray into the mobile sector. Mere hours after the release of its SDK, it became “one of the most downloaded items ever” on the Google developer site, according to Barry Schnitt of Google.

Source: MarketingVOX

Facebook’s Cruel Intentions – Beacon equals NO opt out – itsReal

It seems facebook is adopting the google approach, all this while i very happily use Google gmail and yes along with it comes ads, I don’t mind at all becuase occassionly somthing interesting pops out at me… however those that are concerned about privacy (hahah in facebook) might be concerned over Beacon…

 

“Facebook’s business profiles are much more exclusive than MySpace’s, which have been an attractive marketing platform for many small and local businesses. Facebook executives have said that only “real businesses” will be allowed to have profile pages on their site.”

 ..However Om Malik laments below…

Facebook’s Cruel Intentions

 

Source n Written by Om Malik
Friday, November 9, 2007 at 4:30 PM PT | 4 comments

It has been 48 hours since I asked Facebook to clarify the point about whether a user’s data is still being passed to them from their web partners even after the user chooses to opt out of Beacon.

I’ve since given it a lot of thought and decided that I was not being judgmental in my previous post. Here, after all, is what Mark Zuckerberg told Portfolio.

• “The ads are going to feel like content to a lot of people.”
• “There is no opting out of advertising.”

Scary, isn’t it?