Google has introduced a new Gmail feature that lets people use it offline.This was made possible by Google Gears, a browser plugin that is integrated into Google’s Chrome browser. The Gears plugin allows for downloading a local cache of email. As long as a person is connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When the connection goes down, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network.

While offline, a person can read messages, star and label them, and any message sent while offline will be placed in the outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.”

Additionally, if a person is in an unreliable or slow connection area, they can choose to use ‘flaky connection mode’, which relies on the local cache but still synchronizes your mail with the server.

Offline Gmail has been part of Google’s plans for  ever since the company introduced Google Gears back in October 2007. Google is opening up offline Gmail to everyone who uses Gmail in U.S. or UK English. Google is looking for feedback from users so it can improve any bugs in the service.

The search engine Ask.com is relying on people’s concerns of online threats to attract more traffic to its website. To allow web users a higher degree of assurance, Ask has signed a deal that will combine its search engine with Symantec’s Norton security software. The latest test version of Norton 360, to be released out Tuesday, will rate the security threat posed by websites found on searches done using the new toolbar. Financial details about the agreement aren’t being disclosed.

Oakland-based Ask has been endeavoring to increase its market share in the profitable Internet search market for several years. But it hasn’t had much success despite introducing new products that have won positive reviews and been advertised heavily. Through December, Ask remained in fourth place in the U.S. search market with a market share of roughly 4%, according to the Internet metrics firm comScore Inc. Google dominated the market with a share of about 63%, followed by Yahoo Inc. at 17% and Microsoft Corp. at 11%.

Last year, Yahoo joined forces with Symantec rival McAfee Inc. to offer security alerts in its search results. Google also has its own version of malware alert but the troubleshooting isn’t always accurate, as Google recently experienced when for about an hour on Saturday an incorrect update of suspicious sites caused even legitimate sites to become flagged.

Google is tightening the belt in an effort to make back the $1.65 billion it spent in November 2006 for YouTube.

The company’s revenue strategy is to have commercial ads as part of the search, based on categories that users choose. Advertisers will offer contextual ads that will appear based on a certain order, according to their bidding amount.

It is yet unclear how YouTube’s millions of viewers will react to the addition of ads to the website.

This step is taking place while the advertising world is being affected by the recent economic downturn. Many companies have cut down their advertising budgets due to declining revenues.

Google’s stock itself has fallen below $300 for the first time in 3 years to $291. This is significantly lower than the company’s peak price of $718 in early 2008.

Google is bringing ancient Rome to modern-day life by opening a detailed virtual tour of the city, for history and tech buffs alike to explore.

The Ancient Rome offering is brought to us via the popular Google Earth software, and allows users to view ancient Rome as it is thought to looked in 320 AD, complete with over 6,500 buildings that stood at the time. Some even offer interior views.

As with regular Google Earth cities, users have the ability to zoom in and out, enjoying the city at a variety of levels. Google also provides informational blurbs for users to read in regards to a variety of the structures.

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time thing for Google, of if they will continue to build more online ancient cities in the coming months. Personally, I’d be interested in seeing an ancient Chinese city.

Due to the growth of emails, instant messaging, and cell phones, multiple surveys have described that work productivity has been negatively affected. It may appear ironic but some of the corporations responsible for the above technologies are now trying to find the solution.

The big technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Google, and IBM have created a non-profit group, the Overload Research Group, to examine the problem and come up with cultural and technological solutions to help workers.

Based on many employers, comprehensive solutions are needed for the reduction digital interruptions. For instance, RescueTime, a company which researches computer habits, discovered that a typical IT worker who sits at the computer all day, checks his email 50 times, uses instant messaging 77 times, and visits 40 websites. The study of 40,000 people used a tracking software installed on their computers.

The research company Basex estimated the business cost to be more than $650 billion annually in productivity lost due to unneeded interruptions. Much of the cost originates from the time it requires people to focus again.

There are basic software tools currently being developed to reduce distractions. Google recently developed “E-Mail Addict” which allows a workers to cut themselves off of their email for 15 minutes. However, users can cheat simply by hitting the escape button.

Intel initiated 2 studies last year with 300 engineers and other employees from a microchip design group to examine this problem. The first study looked at employees who were encouraged not to use digital as well as in-person contact for 4 hours on Tuesday mornings. Laminated cards that said ‘quiet time’ were posted in the workplace to remind the workers of this. After a few weeks, employees found the conditions too strict, but it did have an impact. Almost 75% of participants supported extending this approach for the all employees.

In the second study, named “zero e-mail Fridays,” employees were encouraged to use face-to-face but not digital communication for that day. 30% of employees favored this approach, and 60% recommended that it would be used throughout the company.

The ad sharing deal that has been discussed between Google and Yahoo could be ending. The talks between the 2 companies and the US Department of Justice have stalled, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The proposed deal, first raised in June, had faced criticism from the advertising industry, which feared Google having too much control over the Internet ad market.
Google controls as much as 60% of the market and Yahoo 20%. Microsoft is at about 10%.

The deal would permit Yahoo to display ads from Google and then take a portion of the revenue. Notably, the deal would offer Yahoo an insight into which of the searches brings in more money.

Contrary to the newspaper’s report, the 2 companies are insisting that the talks are going on.

The deal is especially important for Yahoo since it recently laid off about 1500 employees, which comprise 10% of its workforce. This news came on top of the profit report of a 64% drop in the third quarter.

If the stall in the talks is true, Yahoo and Microsoft might renew their buyout negotiations that were stopped a few months ago.

Google has recently announced a $10 million project for the most beneficial, world changing ideas, which subsequently generated 150,000 online submissions.

The deadline for the project was Monday and now Google employees are going through the suggestions written in 25 languages, to choose the 100 semifinalists by January 27th. The funding for the winning ideas will start in May.

Project 10^100(pronounced “10 to the 100th”), was launched on September 24 to help celebrate Google’s 10th anniversary. The purpose behind the project is to solicit beneficial ideas and for Google to fund them. The ideas could cover important issues involving topics such as food and shelter, building communities, improving education and health, supporting clean energy development, etc’.

For example, a submitted invention was the Hippo Water Roller which is a barrel shaped vessel, with a capacity of 24 gallons, which can be rolled as a wheelbarrow. This would greatly assist villagers in remote location in hauling large amounts of fresh water.

The project10tothe100.com website had received more than 2.5 million unique visitors and the introductory video was watched more than a million times.

Eventually, from the top 20 ideas, up to five winners would be announced.

Although Sergey Brin is the Russian entrepreneur who helped start Google, he’s having a tough time convincing his former country men to approve a business deal with Google. The deal, valued at $140 million, was rejected by The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).

Google was attempting to buy the Russian Internet advertising gian Zao Begun, currently partially owned by Rambler Media. Zao currently serves 143,000 Russian language sites. The proposed acquisition would enable Google to expand its advertising reach into Europe’s fastest growing Internet market.

Rambler is Google’s primary competitor  in Russia’s Internet market. Rambler wants to incorporate Google’s AdSense ads in its own services, to take advantage of Russia’s 27% annual growth rate of the online community. Additionally, Rambler was actually planning to entirely buy out the entire company from Finama Bannatyne and only then sell it to Google.

ComScore, a web statistics service, is estimating that only 14% of the 142 million Russians are online. As a result, rejection by FAS is a big hurdle for Google’s attempts at an eastern expansion.

Google has officially unleashed their Android source code for the world to see! They unabashedly proclaim that “this is probably the largest repository of open source code that has been released at any one time” – with the code being a very large 2.1GB, that could certainly be true.

In case you were wondering (and out of the loop), the iPhone is a closed-book kind if gadget, with Apple taking a completely opposite approach from Google. In fact, this is the only instance where a mobile’s complete OS code has been released. Geeks are certainly rejoicing.

The code is all-inclusive from the Linux built OS to the Java applications, which include a web browser, email, and instant messaging clients. The Android website provides further details and instructions.

Google is currently appealing 2 court decisions that could prohibit it, as well as other search engines in Germany, from displaying images in its search results.

Last month, the Hamburg district court had ruled in favor of 2 men who claimed that search engines pull pictures from their websites, which would infringe on their copyrights.

The plaintiffs, Michael Bernhard, who is a photographer, and Thomas Horn, the owner of rights to several comic strip frames called ‘Psykoman’ wish to enforce Google to gain permission before displaying copyrighted images.

Google asserted that previous court decisions agreed with the company’s rights to display thumbnail images from websites. Also, web designers could use software to prevent images from being displayed by search engines.

Since the company doesn’t profit from Google images, but the websites that receive traffic from Google have a chance to, Google saw it is within its right to display the images. At this point, an appeal is in the works.

It will be interesting to see if the appeal is denied and how it affects image search in other countries.