The Goggles of Google, Google Glass and Google Plus, Oh My!

We all know that the Goggles of Google is Google Glass but do we know who the leaders of Google+ are? It seems like I've been binge-surfing Google and G+ recently, and particularly working on my account on the latter these past few days. Well, I have always found G+ to be a more time-consuming social media platform than its more popular counterparts, but I have always thought of it as being indubitably more elaborate and perhaps even more intelligent. I have, nonetheless, never quite immersed myself in that world of Google Plus therefore I cannot give detailed accounts on its intricate design. (Ha, I could never actually really do that as I am a writer and not a computer scientist).

 

But I digress, what I really wanted to write about was the news about Google+ that I happened to read by actually having followed +Bradley Horowitz on G+. (My, little wonder G+ is not popular, it does take me forever just to find the plus sign on the top of my keyboard. It is the least used value, I am sure. on any keyboard wherever it is situated).

This is what I like about modern technology and the digital world. Merely owing to the simple fact that I had followed someone and was browsing my stream, I was able to know in advance the soon-to-be-announced mainstream media news announcement. It is a fascinating little wonder in today's globalized world to be, though even just a "millistep" - no such word, I know - ahead of the big strides and leaps of the popular news outlets by knowing the big news before the general public.  I am repeating myself. Very well, so in their quick roundup Reuters tells us that "Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) Bradley Horowitz will run the company's Photo and Streams products, in a move that indicates the company may be reorganizing its Google+ social networking site.

Horowitz, vice president of product management since 2008, announced the move in a Google+ post late on Sunday." http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-google-managementchanges-idUSKBN0LY0WH20150302

 

Exciting news, I am certain, for the business world out there but I will be quite frank, I never really knew who was in charge of Google + before Horowitz BUT I am content to know that there will be changes and I hope these changes will concern both old and new users to G+ or, to use Shakespeare's  timeworn phrase I also used in a comment: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

I also hope that Google Plus will be more attractive for users though I can hardly imagine how separating the stream and photos will make it more simple. I cannot imagine yet how it will all work so we will have to wait to see.

Davos: The Old and New; Eric Schmidt and Emma Watson

Despite the fact that most news headlines say "The Internet will Disappear" according to Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman was in fact elaborating on the fact that the internet will dramatically change from its current primitive state to becoming something of a technologically advanced seamless part of our lives Chris Matyszczyk CNet article here

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2525914/thumbs/o-ERIC-SCHMIDT-570.jpg?5

Mashable explains that Eric Schmidt didn't predict the end of the internet, he instead said that “there will be so many IP addresses, so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it". These statements were made by Google's Eric Schmidt on a panel titled "The Future of the Digital Economy." at the World Economic Forum at Davos. He also said: "It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room. A highly personalized, highly interactive and very, very interesting world emerges."

In "The Business Insider" Jim Edwards tells us that, according to Schmidt, Google's dominance as one of the main companies on the world wide web may also have to give way to new platforms, like the smaller tech businesses for apps in the mobile world. "On the question  of dominance, you now see so many strong tech platforms coming through and you're seeing a reordering, and a future reordering, of the leaders because of the rise of the app on the smartphone."

It seems the virtual world and the real world will be evolving into the one world of the future.

In the meantime, Emma Watson also made an appearance at Davos by addressing the leaders and continuing her "HeforShe" campaign for women's rights and gender equality. She was named Feminist Celebrity of 2014. For more details and photos see this Daily Mail article
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2923317/This-bring-end-inequalities-girls-women-face-globally-Emma-Watson-addresses-leaders-World-Economic-Forum-new-Women-campaign.html

The Fairy Robot

A miniscule masterpiece, which is reminiscent of something Leonardo da Vinci could have drawn, the four-winged robot that resembles a jellyfish and a little fairy, was created by Leif Ristroph and his colleagues at New York University. Weighing a mere 2 grams, the tiny mechanical creature needs no sensors and little effort to fly unlike robots designed after birds and insects, explains the New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24638-fourwinged-robot-flies-like-a-jellyfish.html#.UrMb_Z8o6Ag

Time says it could "usher in a new generation of smaller, cheaper drones".
http://science.time.com/2013/11/26/a-flying-robot-jellyfish-now-exists/

Here is the YouTube video, which I first saw when Clive Thompson, writer for Wired and author of "Smarter than you Think", posted it on his Twitter (worth following for cool updates @pomeranian99. He agreed that it was really "quite charming in flight!" http://twitter.com/pomeranian99/status/40518878255279308

                      

At any rate, it truly looks like a little fairy robot!

Virtually Everywhere

Technology, space, time and everything in between...countless opinions either in favour of this digitalized world or against it but the question of whether it is one of the most fascinating phenomenons of our time must indubitably have an affirmative reply. Just as much as the online world kept me in awe as can be read in my posts in 2009 so does it keep me amazed now.

We do not need to move in the physical space in order to be present at any event. Par example, the Large Hadron Collider exhibition at the Science Museum in London was easily accessible via live-stream, courtesy of The Guardian where we could enjoy the company of both Professor Higgs in the morning and Stephen Hawking in the afternoon. http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2013/nov/12/stephen-hawking-large-hadron-collider-live-stream-video?CMP=twt_gu

We could also view a cool photo of them both on @sciencemuseum's Twitter page: http://twitter.com/sciencemuseum/status/400675840775565312

But if the value and beauty of women in science were topics of interest to us we were able to hop over to Brussels and take a look at the inauguration of the "Science needs Women" photo exhibition held at the European Parliament http://twitter.com/4womeninscience/status/400400078516801536 or to travel to Moscow, Russia to see the nominees for L'Oreal's Women in Science awards http://twitter.com/4womeninscience/status/400307121771642880

All this on November 12, 2013, in one day!

Also the National Science Foundation was live-tweeting from the Gender Summit in Washington on the following day  http://twitter.com/NSF/status/400660834919018496

So thanks to our digital presence it is this facile today to be virtually anywhere and everywhere.