Iran plans to sue Google over leaving the Persian Gulf nameless on its Maps service

It seems that Google’s woes over its decision to leave the Persian Gulf nameless on Google Maps are far from over, with Iran saying it will sue the tech company as a result, AP reports.
After the move stirred up quite a bit of controversy among Iranian Internet users, the Iranian government was quick to call out Google for its decision, accusing the company of fabricating lies, adding that the move would not do much to engender trust among its users and “diminish the corporation’s credibility.”
Speaking to the BBC, Google’s stance was to stay out of the matter, claiming that it’s not the only unnamed item on the maps.
Clearly not convinced with the justification, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast stated that Google was liable to “serious damages”, and speaking to Iranian news agency Mehr, he added that Iran has made it clear that they are more than willing to take the matter to court.
The topic has proved to be a highly controversial and politicized one, with Gulf and Arab states choosing to refer to the body of water as the Arabian Gulf, while Iranians insist on standing by the historical Persian Gulf.
Google may have chosen to bury its head on the sand on this one, as a way of simply staying out of the argument, but the stance may have brought the tech company more trouble than it bargained for.
Google is no stranger to controversy in Iran, having its products periodically blocked, and most recently Gmail is among the many foreign email services which have beenblacklisted for correspondence with Iranian 

Read more »

Google commissions 6 developers to hack on its Hangouts API for 2 weeks

After releasing an update to its Hangouts API, the Google+ team is quite eager to see what developers are planning to do with it. They’re so eager, in fact, that they are actually commissioning 6 developers, “from agencies like The Barbarian Group to independent developers like Eyebeam alum Aaron Meyers teamed up with OKFocus” to experiment with the API for 2 weeks, while sharing their thoughts and discoveries along the way.
This, of course, isn’t your typical hackathon; usually they aren’t paying gigs for just a few participants. But still, this event does look like it will capture a bit of the raw hackathon spirit, as it solely revolves around the idea of hacking something rough yet awesome together in a short amount of time.
If you’re curious about what can be built with the newly updated API, which now allows “the ability to respond to facial movements in real-time inside an app”, you can head to the Google+ Developers page, and get all the details as they happen. According to Google+ Developer Advocate Jonathan Beri, Google is also interested in seeing what other developers are working on outside the hackathon, and you can share your projects with the hashtag #hangoutshackathon.
Overall, it looks like this will be a compelling way to get 3rd party devs interested in working with Google’s Hangouts API, while giving a handful of pros a chance to kickstart interest.

Read more »

No more +1′s on YouTube, now you’ll have to share your feelings on Google+

Google has been integrating its social layer Google+ into all of its products lately. Gmail and YouTube have gotten the social treatment, but the latter made a bit of a tweak today.
Here’s what the YouTube team had to say on its Google+ page:

Starting today, we’re updating the way you can share with your Google+ circles from YouTube. Just click ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ as usual, and you’ll see the new Google+ Share link, as well as other popular service

The new sharing options, being kicked off with a “like” or “share” as YouTube states, lets you post to Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Interestingly, what’s missing is the +1 button that used to add items to your Google+ profile as things you find interesting, not necessarily shareable for your stream. Here’s what that used to look like, according to YouTube’s help section:

By toggling the +1 on and off, you could share it….without really sharing it. What that means is you could +1 something without it going into your stream as an embedded video that people can comment on and reshare.
The +1 appears to be on the phasing out process as Google is trying to ignite more actual content sharing within streams, which of course gets way more engagement than a simple +1.
Here’s what the share button looks like now:

Google+ users in this announcement post are also asking the question “Hey where did the +1 go?”. Much like Facebook’s “Like” button, Google’s +1 is a lightweight interaction that factors into what content its algorithms show you as suggested content.
The new Google+ share button, which you’ll find here on TNW, is also phasing out the notion of a +1.

Read more »

Interested in the solar eclipse on May 20th? Check out this Google Map from NASA

You only have one shot to catch the solar eclipse on May 20th, or you’ll have to wait until next year. Thanks to technology, and some help from NASA, you can now get the heads up on the exact path of the upcoming Instagram-worthy event.
The organization has posted a really cool map that tracks the entire solar eclipse, so that you can plan on where to be and when to be:

This map shows the path of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2012 May 20. The northern and southern path limits are blue and the central line is red. The yellow lines crossing the path indicate the position of maximum eclipse at 10-minute intervals.

Choose the Large Map check box to produce a bigger map (for users with large monitors and fast internet connections). For more information, seeGoogle Eclipse Map Instructions.

If you’re a space and geography nerd like I am, seeing ridiculous amounts of data packed into a pretty map like this is your dream.
Be sure to head on over to NASA’s site to see the map in its full interactive glory.

Read more »