Google has launched its cloud storage service this week which allows you to create, share, collaborate and keep all your stuffs on the cloud.

Available on PCs, Macs and Android devices and later on, iPhones and iPads, what gives Google Drive the edge over other cloud storage services such as Dropbox or Skydrive is its seamless integration with Google products, including Chrome OS too.

You can attach photos from Google Drive to posts in Google+ and emails in Gmail. There will be no limitations to the file size you can attach.

Google Drive comes with 5GB of free storage that is upgradable to a whopping 1TB. Google Drive is also giving Gmail users 10GB of storage, a large increase compared to the current 7.5GB.

It’s not available immediately though, as with most Google products, you’re going to have to register first and wait for Google to activate your account. Check out the video below.

Google is going head-on against Flipboard with Currents, an app for both Android and iOS.

Google Currents creates a swipeable, graphics-intensive magazine like reading experience in tablet and phone friendly formats. Some content partners include AllThingsD, PBS, Huffington Post and Fast Company, as well public Google+ feeds and RSS. You can even import your Google Reader subscriptions. The content is cached for offline viewing and integrated with with Google+ for quick and easy sharing.

For publishers, Google is providing self-service tools for customizing how content is displayed in the app. They can be downloaded in Android Market and iTunes App Store for free.

Too bad, Google Currents is only launched in US for now. It will be a while before international users get to enjoy the magazine like reading experience.

The mania over Harry Potter books and movies has been phenomenal. Fans just love this magical adventure, as proven by the blockbuster success of the latest and last episode of Harry Potter movie.

Google has made a shrewd venture by teaming up with J.K Rowling latest project, Pottermore – an online reading platform that allows you to read Harry Potter books with interactive features and interesting tidbits about the author.

Harry Potter books are now available through Google eBooks too. From around October, all 7 Harry Potter books will make their way to Google eBooks for more than 80 eReaders.

The books will also be available on Google Books and Google’s iOS and Android applications. Google also announced its exclusive rights to be the payment platform for purchases made on Pottermore. That is one up over Paypal.

I have a good collection of Harry Potter books but still getting the digital versions. Da*n, the Harry Potter magic is addictive..

Gold farming is serious business. In case you don’t know, gold farming is the gathering of in-game items and credits in exchange for real world money. There is a huge market for these valuable items which allow players to progress in online games quickly.

In China alone, almost GBP 1.2 billion online currencies were traded in 2008. The practice of third world countries exploiting people for gold farming is already frowned upon but now prisons in China have also got into the act.

According to one account, he and his fellow inmates were forced to farm gold for around 12-hoursa a day in which the money from the trading would go directly to the coffers of prison officials.

While playing video games is definitely better than back-breaking labor, the mental stress is enormous as physical punishment await if virtual gold quotas are not met.

Well, if you are really addicted to computer games, you can consider doing time in a China prison and “graduate” as a professional player when your sentence is over.

[Guardian]

If you have an online business, writing a blog can help you immensely. You can extol the virtues of your services or products, describe your business mission and show your customer service by responding in real time to problems. If you aren’t good at writing, you can hire a blogger or copywriter to sell your products and services.

As search engines love fresh content, you will see improved traffic to your business with the blog. But while content is king, attracting mind-boggling traffic and profits requires more effort – a search engine optimization strategy is needed.

Ranking first on the search engines can really propel your popularity and profits into the stratosphere. But it is tough to trump your competitors without some professional help, especially if keywords competition is intense.

There are lots of SEO companies available, each using different methods. Engaging a reliable company requires research as some are just hype or scams. You don’t want to be blacklisted for black hat techniques or waste your money because the company fails to deliver.

The SEO company must be able to show examples of their previous work to prove their search engine optimization methods really work. If the SEO company has testimonials from large corporations, it is usually a good choice. Also remember, to compare the result before and after using their service.

Globe Runner is a top Dallas SEO firm which has many satisfied clients. The company takes a holistic approach by combining search engine optimization with other online marketing channels as well as using measurable campaign results to track your success.

They do not just focus on driving traffic but converting that traffic into profits. By understanding what clients need instead of offering standard SEO packages, Globe Runner is more of your business partner than a SEO consultant.

Besides SEO, they also provide custom graphic design, blogs implementation, logo development, content management system, etc. Its success is aligned with clients, hence they offer affordable prices to build long term relationship with customers.

Search engine optimization is a worthwhile investment as the website will enjoy long-term effects. When a website has been successfully optimized, it continues to get visitors even when the SEO campaign has stopped.

However, search engine optimization takes time before you see any effect. A business must wait for at least a month before it sees organic search traffic from search engines. Meanwhile, if you desire instant traffic, PPC campaign can be used instead.

This method is a bit expensive, and the effect wears off once you stop the campaign. GlobeRunner also provides PPC campaign management to help businesses get the most out of every dollars spent.

If you are interested to leverage the power of search to build profitable business, visit the SEO company in Dallas to find out more.

The like button on Facebook is so very useful…anything we see to our fancy, including advertisement at the sidebar of Facebook, can be liked and recommended to our friends.

Now Google is implementing a similar feature with +1. Instead of “liking” a post, you can +1 on search results to share and improve the search engine rankings.

Your contacts and friends will soon see a a plus to search result or webpage and if they’re looking for something similar, they will be given that recommendation.

“Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages. That’s why we recently started to include more information from people you know—stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites—in Google search results.” — Google.

The service will be available soon but you first create a public Google profile for it to work. If you’re shy about revealing all your +1 info, just keep it private or restrict to your friends.

[Pocket-lint, Google]

Those with multiple personas on the net can rejoice  with Hotmail latest offering – creation of disposable e-mail addresses.

Hotmail Aliases let you create multiple, “disposable” e-mail accounts that all filter back to your primary one. This is already available on Yahoo, but you have to pay extra for Plus service. On Gmail, you can create unique addresses but they are extensions to your existing handle.

At Hotmail, you’re free to create anything you want. On the plus side, there is no need for people to create so many accounts and end up linking them together anyway.

However, our inbox could be overwhelmed with spam we have to do a lot more blocking of email addresses. There could also be more flaming (possibly the same few trolls) on social networks and forums.

[CNET]

Technology is such a joy and.. burden at times.

Google just made the lives of secretaries a tad more stressful with its new Gmail delegation function. Now bosses can “invite” you or other employees who are Gmail account holders to access his email and review, organize and reply to whatever junk inside.

But I am not complaining as I like the convenience. For example if you have a shared family email, you can toggle between your primary gmail and family account instead of signing out every so often to check and reply to incoming mails. It saves time and increases productivity.

You can also restore contacts which were previously deleted within a 30 day period. Yes, we all have hasty moments like severing ties with a friend after nasty quarrels. Well, you can give your relationships a second chance by letting friends back in your contact list after you cool down.

[Gmail Blog]

Mozilla has released the first beta of its Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo. The browser is based on the Firefox 4 core and should be released in the same time frame as the big brother. The mobile browser includes Firefox Sync, a cloud feature that enables users to sync browsing history, passwords, form-fill data and bookmarks, as well as open tabs.”

Android news site Androinica also mentions the release, and provides a small tutorial on installing beta apps for Android.

Microsoft launched their Internet Explorer 9 Beta (IE9) last week but before you exclaim, “not again, another version of Internet Explorer,” there are new offerings lined up in this latest web browser.

IE9 has gone the minimalist route (much like Google’s Chrome) with lots of empty space and lack of navigational buttons and tool bars. Gone is the signature Microsoft status bar at the bottom.

Microsoft adopts an understated look because they “wanted to take the attention off the browser” and put more emphasis on websites over the browser itself.

Calling IE9 “a window to the world wide web”, Microsoft wants us to believe that tomorrow’s cutting edge innovation won’t be browser based, but rather, web based.

The emergence of HTML 5 has opened up new possibilities. Just imagine a world without Flash, bothersome plugins and updates hampering your web surfing session.

IE9 also features full hardware acceleration for graphics rendering, meaning that your CPU can spend less resources processing a webpage – leaving rendering work to the GPU on your graphics card instead. That means less chances of your browser crashing.

There is also a rather abstract notion of converting the web into apps being introduced by Microsoft.

You can visit one of of the 70 partner websites on Microsoft’s IE9 showcase website with IE9 to get an idea.