Googling Friday #16

Hello everybody and welcome to the first Googling Friday on 2011. It has been a couple of weeks so let’s see what is happening in the world of Google.

Google looking to launch digital newsstand

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how Google is looking to launch a digital newsstand for Android devices similar to Apple and Amazon but offering to take less of a percentage of sales than the other 2. If Google really wants to do this right they could utilize their new Bookstore app as the distribution point offering it to iOS devices as well and not just Android. It wouldn’t benefit Google to be a closed platform service when they are known for their openness, an advantage they have over Apple.

Google makes free calling to US and Canada via Gmail for all of 2011

Google announced that calls made to the US and Canada via Gmail will continue to be free in 2011...YAY!! I was hoping this would be the case and it gives them an advantage over rival Skype in this area. The best way to take advantage of this is to sign up for a Google Voice account as it gives you a dedicated phone number. Oh if your not using Google Voice by now, then you really should cause you won’t need a long distance plan on your landline if you are still even doing such a thing.

Google looking at mobile payment system

Imagine going to the grocery store and buying groceries and simply waving your mobile phone at the register to pay for everything. Well, that is what Google is looking to do. I admit this idea has both a great potential and a security issue concern. But I will be interested to see how it plays out and deployed.

Google Translate Review

For this week’s review, I wanted to tell you about Google Translate. Pure and simple, you type in words in the language you speak and it will translate how to say it in another. They even support Latin which as a Catholic I am very happy about.



Pretty cool huh? It’s an easy interface and as you can tell from the picture, it even has a listen button so you even know how to pronounce it. Google Translate supports over 50 languages (sorry but Aramaic is not one of them). It is a free web-based service so go give it a try and it also works in reverse, you can copy and paste in a foreign language and it will translate it for you. Pretty cool!

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Googling Friday. See you all next week!