KAMEIR

Google now lets users crunch public data with the data visualization tools it acquired when it bought Trendalyzer from the Gapminder Foundation (see my March 2006 entry ‘Qualitative Data Analysis‘). The ‘Public Data Explorer‘ is a new solution in Google Labs that lets users create interactive charts using data sets from the World Bank, the U.S. Census Bureau, California Department of Education and 13 other agencies. The GUI – in typical Google fashion – is rudimentary. And there does not seem to be too much data in there yet. Still I could have used that for my presentation on cultural differences last month.

Last night (02/11/2010) the German American Chamber of Commerce, the  San Diego French American Chamber of Commerce, the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce, and the Danish-American Chamber of Commerce of Southern California joined together at the Westgate Hotel for the 1st European-American Business Mixer.
You can find a copy of my short presentation at yesterdays event – a subjective comparison of the US and Germany – here.

Big Brother German?! With amazement I discovered that Germany – of all countries! – censors Google results. That makes it one of only two other nations – the other being China and France – to restrict access to search engine results. Under German law, hate speech and Holocaust denial are illegal. Violent or sex-related sites such as YouPorn and BME that the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien deems harmful to youth are also censored. Google has complied with these laws by not including sites containing such material in its search results (Google does however list the number of excluded results at the bottom of the search result page).

Google announced that the company is buying Gizmo5, the San Diego VoIP company founded by my friend Michael Robertson. Since its inception as Grandcentral, the service has offered a wide range of features for managing your phone calls, with one exception: calls passing through Google Voice have to be directed to another phone number if you actually wanted to answer them. This gap can bow be closed through Gizmo Project.

As currently implemented, Google Voice in conjunction with Gizmo allows to place unlimited free calls to the United States and Canada (and low rates into other countries), but requires two separate accounts. Launch the Gizmo software on your Mac to log into your Gizmo account, then start browser to log into Google Voice; calls placed in Google Voice can be redirected to ring your Gizmo account before connecting to the person you’re calling.

Let’s hope Google gets the interface right this time.

Google has announced that it has purchased one of the largest advertising networks in the mobile industry, Admob, for $750 million worth of Google shares. Google is set to purchase more companies over the next few months as it revs up its acquisition engine. SMART MOVE!