What really is under the hood of one of the widely used Search Engine on the Internet? Ever wondered how much energy does an average Google search consumes?

Whenever a search is initiated, nearly 0.3 watt-hours of electricity is used, which is roughly equal to a 60 watt light bulb switched on for 20 seconds.

Google delivers billions of search queries every day, has over 200 million smartphone users, and houses millions of businesses in the cloud. To support this and much more of its upcoming services, Google generates 260 million watts of energy, which is equivalent to the power used in 350,000 homes.

Google’s Data Center:

Most of the energy is used to power up the data centers spread across the globe. These data centers are custom build by Google. For example, Google now houses a new data center in Finland which uses a seawater cooling system to reduce the electricity cost.

This is a 273 million dollar data center located in Finland. The data center hosts 900,000 to one million servers — which is about 3 percent of the world’s server.

Google tries to run their offices and data centers on renewable energy, but when unavailable, they go with carbon offset to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emission.

Google Using Renewable Energy:

As mentioned in the video, Google buys clean energy through a Power Purchase Agreement that delivers energy and power from sources like wind farms.

Google also finances projects dealing specifically with renewable energy, as this will benefit not only their own products but also help improve at least a part of the world.

You can read the original blog post here How Google Uses Energy.

Google Font Directory shelters a diverse array of fonts that site owners can deploy on their WordPress blogs. The fonts are fresh, easy to install, and optimized for a better readability experience.

Served with visual richness, the Google web fonts are high-quality open source fonts compatible with any modern browsers. This is the best part: because these fonts are stored on Google’s server, there’s no need for you — or your readers — to install fonts on the computer.

Google fonts are designed for the web, and Google has made it significantly easier by hosting the fonts on the cloud. Mac or Windows, Google fonts doesn’t rely on the Operating System. Even installing of fonts on WordPress sites is a breeze.

Before we jump into various ways to install Google fonts on your blog, let’s list out the browsers compatible with Google web fonts:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Internet Explorer

There are two ways to go about adding Google Web fonts on your WordPress blog. The first method, a manual process, includes adding a couple lines of HTML on your blog.

Installing Google Fonts Manually

To take advantage of the Google Fonts API, this is all you have to do: browse through the fonts catalog, pick a font, and add the code on your site.

For example, for font Tangerine, this code goes straight into the header.php file.

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

And this code goes into the style sheet file — usually named style.css.

body { font-family: 'Tangerine', serif; }

My only beef with this procedure is the difficulty in changing the fonts, although it’s not really a tedious process. You can, however, use a WordPress plugin to enable Google fonts on your blog.

Google Fonts Plugin

WP Google Fonts is a WordPress plugin available for free. As soon as you have this plugin installed on your WordPress blog, you can change fonts on the fly.

All you have to do is to choose the font from the neat drop down menu, select the elements you want the changes to be reflected to, and add custom CSS (optional).

All the latest Google web fonts are accessible through this plugin. It does simplify the process of adding fonts on your site. So, go ahead and download the plugin from here.

You can read the original blog post here Easily Add Google Web Fonts on WordPress Blog.

The Google I/O Conference kicks off today as thousands of developers will converge on the Google campus in the two-day event held at San Francisco, California. If you couldn’t make it to the Google I/O event, then do not worry as you can still watch the conference live online, and for free.

Unlike Apple (ahem!), Google will live stream the Google I/O Developer Conference 2011 sessions on their webpage, which can be accessed at http://google.com/io.

What to Expect From Google I/O?

Apart from Android OS and Chrome talks, we can expect Google to announce the YouTube Movie Rental — a movie rental service to compete against Netflix and Amazon Prime. Also, another widely expected product to be unleashed today is the new Google music service aimed at Android smartphones. This Google music service has been hyped for some time now, and we will soon know if it lives up to our expectations, or follows the path of Google buzz.

The two-day event will focus everything on Google, and one can expect hours of sessions on Android and Chrome: Honeycomb highlights, Android developer tools, HTML5, Mobile Web Development are just a few sessions out of the hundreds at Google I/O. And get used to some of the sessions which might get a little boring, especially when Google reveals the statistical numbers.

Last but not the least, Google will be giving an opportunity to raise your Google-related questions during the event, and these questions will be answered by the members of Google Product Team in real-time.

You can read the original blog post here Watch Google I/O Live Developer Conference 2011.

Back when I was in school, I was a good student. I was involved in extracurricular activities, I was badged as the “brightest” student in the class and, in all seriousness, everyone liked me for my down-to-earth nature. I realized I could do anything, but then, I also realized that doing everything doesn’t mean you will always succeed.

Life after school was even more enjoyable, I made a few great friends in college. However, it was one friend, Vikram, who staked my thoughts to a new level. He was, unquestionably, the real Tony Robbins for me. He knew exactly where I was standing in this realm of life, and for reasons I can’t seem to recall, he demanded me to delve into the internet world.

I learned two important things here: not to venture into everything all at once, and to focus on one thing at a time.

My new time killer: Blogging.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what blogging was all about. However, it did take me a while to get my first domain name. After purchasing blogote.com in 2008, blogging started off with a bang — blogging was my new hobby — and whenever I had some time to kill, I stitched my opinions together, and published a couple of articles every week on this blog.

After a couple of months, blogging really began to kick off, and some popular sites linked to this blog which sparked my interest towards blogging to a greater extent. In 2009, a local newspaper interviewed me for my “achievements” in blogging. Traffic saw newer heights in 2011 as we were almost touching one million page views per month and, not to forget, revenue from this blog was good enough to keep me away from taking up day job.

The Panda update

I was on top of the line and very much contented with the performance of this blog, so much that I couldn’t ask for more. When everything was on track, Google decided to tweak the search algorithm and introduced an obnoxious update called the “Panda update.”

The Panda update was implemented to weed out spammy/scraper sites from the search engine, thereby delivering relevant results and enriching users experience while Googling.

Panda… I hate you!

It was in the month of February when Panda rolled out in US, the loss in traffic was unnoticeable. However, in the month of April, Panda began to show off its true color and this blog lost a significant amount of visitors. I am not whistling in the dark and making assumptions out of thin air; the stats should speak the truth:

Traffic of this blog slumped by almost 60%. Due to the loss in traffic, this blog recorded the all-time lowest revenue in the year 2011. This came in as a shocker — at first, it was unexpected, and now I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Thanks for the Panda update Google, this blog is back to square one.

Hear us, Google!

This Panda update has broken the search engine. For example, this week I wrote an article on the ongoing issue with Sony’s PlayStation Network, copying the first paragraph and searching on Google reveals this result:

See? — Scraper sites are sitting on the first place while this blog has been ranked lower at 7th position. Ridiculous!

Google should have ranked quality sites on top, but thanks to the Panda update, scraper sites are enjoying this fruitful position. As funny as it may sound, even the head of Google’s Web Spam Team, Matt Cutts, is a victim of this update:

While Matt Cutts may not care for the loss of traffic, but the message is clear: the Panda update is flawed.

Last but not the least…

Google, I have always tried to do something out of the ordinary. Every article written in this blog is unique, plus we are in Google News — you approved this blog in News for its quality of articles, right? I like what you have done for me; however after looking at this week’s stats, I feel pathetic, and you know why.

It is not that I am the only one spitting nails over the Google Panda Update, but a majority of bloggers are facing a slump in their traffic as well. So all we ask for is another update in your search algorithm, or better yet, bring back the old Google. This Panda, for now, sucks!

You can read the original blog post here Google Panda Update: Google’s Obnoxious Attempt to Remove Web Spam.

According to the latest news put forth by the Google Adsense team, blogs and websites that automatically scrape off content snippet from different websites will be weeded out of the Adsense program. This crucial step has been initiated to ensure control over the content quality on the web and to reduce the stuffed search results.

Autoblogs and duplicated content websites have been around for some time now, and to be on the safer side, these sites are compelled to remove the Adsense code; otherwise the ban hammer would be swung hard on your Adsense account.

The ban from the Adsense program has been initiated for numerous reasons. Firstly, advertisers lose money by advertising through Adwords on autoblogs. And the second reasoning is the duplicate content generation, which is against the webmasters quality guidelines. The web has been cluttered with fake blogs pulling off feeds and plagiarized content with the intent to profit. So, by banning their Adsense account, such autoblogs and websites will grind to a halt.

Either way, autoblogs and duplicate content websites are going to be nailed on the wall. Of course there are exceptions, but simply scraping off content from websites is going to keep your Adsense account in the danger zone. So, autobloggers will be better off by shutting down the website, or removing the Adsense code from their autoblogs network.

Also, of late, there has been counterfeiting outfit in the local news and manipulation of search results. Most of these autoblog news sites serve no purpose, and perhaps will be banished from the search results. However, even legitimate news aggregator that pulls information may be worried sick because of this announcement.

Given the fact that Google is the biggest player on the internet, Google will be able to identity the legitimate websites from that of the duplicated and automated content generating websites. They may weed out auto content sites from search results and end their venture with the Adsense program forever!

You can read the original blog post here Running Adsense With Autoblogs? Google Officially Bans Auto Content Generating Blogs.

Google has finally unveiled its much-anticipated operating system, Chrome OS, at a press conference in San Francisco, on December 7th. Expected to battle head-to-head with Apple’s industry-shaping iOS (that powers a limited number of Apple-specific devices in the guise of the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone), Chrome OS will adopt the one-software-fits-all ideology of Google’s Android system.

It is expected to be commercially available in about six months, and is based entirely on Linux, with an interface that strikingly resembles the popular and fast Chrome browser (which is bound to lead many to confusion over the two similarly-named, slightly-different-yet-the-same products from Google).

Where Apple has decided on pushing the native app approach through its online store, the App Store, Google’s announcement of its web app store marketplace focuses on propounding its efforts into cloud computing and web applications. This fundamental difference is a stage set for yet another great Silicon Valley showdown of two titans of the computing world. Google has also announced its new online store to be launching with 500 web apps.

Now, where Apple’s apps can only be used on a compatible iOS device, Google’s web apps, built solely with popular web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, can essentially be run on any system through the Chrome browser.

So, in essence, this whole fanfare of the “Chrome OS” is actually just a glorified version of the Chrome browser (now already on v10 after a very short spell in the cyber world). But the introduction of Chrome OS does indeed push the possibilities of web apps playing a larger role in our daily computing lives.

Think of it as a grand showcase of all the “new web” has to offer — Chrome OS and its web app strategy has the potential to show to the wider world, in the same way Apple did with mobile apps, the power of web applications; that the web is more than just for checking Facebook and emails — now, you can write your student paper at school, and return to it on your own PC when at home, all thanks to the always-there nature of the Cloud.

So what do you make of Google’s Chrome OS? Let us know in the comments section below.

You can read the original blog post here Chrome OS vs iOS: You Decide.

Internet search giant Google has taken a new leap forward in being able to offer a new level of home entertainment to users that desire to take complete advantage of their television sets.

The all new Google TV system is the latest technological breakthrough that has made satellite television a thing of the past. Unlike its competitors, Google TV offers users a complete solution of viewing that comes packed with Android, Chrome as well as Flash.

Internet TV that was first seen to be pioneered with Opera has now taken a toll as Google’s all new campaign has made heads turn in a way that no one ever imagined. Sony Internet TV also showcased its features along with Logitech but certainly seems to be no match for Google. Google Inc. is now trying to do what no other company has ever thought out – installing a complete PC into television sets.

Features of Google TV

Currently, the base model for Google TV runs on a core Android OS with an Intel CE4100 Media Processor. It supports a 1.2GHz Atom CPU that shows significant results in being able to capture and decode 1080p video and images. Evidently, the Android OS on the TV will be nowhere close to the ones running on mobile phones and tablet PCs as it requires a much more advanced platform.

A number of TV apps can be seen installed onto the OS catering to a wide selection of media sources and social networks. Users should be able to watch their preferred channels while at the same time be able to multitask running background applications and connecting via networks such as FaceBook and Twitter.

For now, talks are on for Google’s ability to incorporate a thorough working model of their marketplace with specified apps. While no word on how long the development of the Google TV may take has been stated, rumors claim it to be released by Easter 2011.

What Google intend to do is clearly overpower the current competitors in the market and this has been evident of the fact that they are introducing Chrome along with Flash to their systems. This means that users will have complete control over the flexibility of the internet as well as the ability to do a lot more than they could ever imagine. As of now, default apps on Google TV include NetFlix, CNBC Real Time and NBA Game Time. The coming months should however see significant advances being made.

You can read the original blog post here Lowdown on the New Google TV.

When the Adobe team hit our college last year, I remember the demonstration of an eBook that could be easily flipped-through with the left and right buttons. This was, as they said, only possible through the Adobe technology.

But it seems like, with the advent of HTML5, things have changed a LOT. Not only are the Adobe folks forced to back their words, but this HTML5 awesomeness is the much talked technology that is, in the near future, going to replace Adobe Flash platform.

20 Things I Learned: HTML5 eBook

The creative team at Google takes a stab at answering some of the common questions through it’s interactive eBook called “20 Things I learned”. This e-book is built using the revised markup language: the HTML5.

It’s not just the eBook cover that looks striking, but the well illustrated and well written guide covering basics on browser, internet, modern Web and security is pretty handy as well. Anyone looking for a straightforward start on the internet will find this book helpful.

Whether or not the HTML5 succeeds in putting a full stop on the Flash platform — Google is doing its bit in bringing out this powerful technology on the internet.

Click here to visit 20 Things I Learned website.

You can read the original blog post here Google’s Interactive eBook: 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web [HTML5].

Google voice was recently integrated into Gmail with much fanfare but it looks like things are starting to go a bit pear shaped. Though this is not a general consensus yet, various users have complained of poor service over the past week on Google Voice. So what’s going on here?

Users say that some of the inbound calls are muted on one end, which means that callers can hear them, but they cannot. Making outgoing calls too has become quite difficult and many attempts are being required to get through. And perhaps to make matters more difficult, calls to Google PR to ask for help are failing too!

If you are receiving normal service on Google Voice don’t start scratching your head, because as mentioned earlier this is not a mass problem yet. But how things have developed in the last three months, it could well be.

If you remember correctly, Google Voice was an invitation only service (like the Gmail of old) until June. In June Google decided to open the gates for all and sundry, and user count surged drastically when that happened. And then last week, Voice was integrated with Gmail, which allowed users to make and receive calls from the mail window.

Amazingly 1 million calls were made from Gmail in 24 hours, according to official Gmail stats. But perhaps this was a surge that brought the setup to its knees. Or is it just a coincidence that the thus far excellent Voice service is suddenly stumbling? Only Google has an answer to that.

But if industry insiders are to be believed, this is not a minor surge related issue. Gmail and Google Voice internal systems are supposedly in conflict and so they are not working well. And Google has no proper backend to handle a service of this scale and bound to grow even bigger.

It may be easy to slate Google based on these reports, but let’s not forget that until more users come up with their version or Google comes up with a statement, nothing can be ascertained completely. Moreover, the new Gmail Voice service still in beta and issues like this may occur.

You can read the original blog post here Google Voice Poor Service: is it Stuttering?.

Just some time after Skyhook sued Google on account of business interference and patent infringement, the accusations have started to fly. Skyhook has just claimed that Google ordered Motorola to stop shipping the Droid X because the smartphone had Skyhook’s XPS positioning system instead of Google’s Location Services.

According to Skyhook, Motorola has forced to comply with Google’s demands and drop Skyhook from the Droid X completely. But that was not the end of Google’s alleged atrocities, because they then forced ‘another unnamed company’ to exclude the XPS positioning system.

In all likelihood, this company is Samsung, because all Galaxy S phones have Wi-Fi turned off by default, which is not the case with other Android devices. This should some a shocker to you, particularly if you have been extolling the openness of the Android platform and Google’s transparent policies.

But perhaps what comes a bigger shock is the fact that Skyhook is also claiming that the so-called ‘openness’ is an elaborate ruse by Google. There is something called the Compliance Definition Document, which Google interprets in any way it wants, and acts as the judge, jury and executioner at the same time.

Google has supposedly ordered every Android project in the pipeline to use only Google Location Services, thus pushing Skyhook out of many deals and causing huge losses for the location services company.

Now this is a huge barrage of allegations that Google has to contend with, and surely, Google have a pretty strong reply on the cards already.  But, without questioning Google’s integrity even once, you have every right to wonder why the company has never stated clearly the requirements for devices to get access to the Android Market and apps like Gmail.

Google has been pressed quite hard for a clear explanation, but to no avail. And it is not as if Google does not tell lies either, if the false promises of Exchange integration and Google ‘Experience Phones’ without carrier and handset limitations are remembered. So, is Google actually keeping competitors from doing legit business by flexing its muscles with the Android platform? For answers keep watching this space!

You can read the original blog post here Skyhook Sues Google Over Location Patents: Latest on Skyhook Vs. Google..