TECH BUZZ – Mischievous geeks are manipulating Google Trends to make offensive words appear to be hot search trends. First the number one result was a swastika symbol. Then the words “fuck you google” flipped backwards to get past the spam filters. Some say the 4chan bulletin is causing the problem by picking offensive words and getting the whole community to search for them — thereby creating a self-fulfilling Google trend. Personally we would never do anything like that because we think sʞɔoɹ spuǝɹʇ ǝlƃooƃ.

The Best Links:

1. Google Trends Hacked Again!
2. Blogger On Google Trends Hack
3. Please Don’t Click This Link!!!
4. Google Trends Site (Trends In Real Time Plus The Occasional Hack)
5. Flip Text Here (How They Created The Flipped Text)
6. “Google Bombing” Is A Classic Hack Focused On Search Engine, Not Trends

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TECH BUZZ – Google launches its own version of Second Life (though it requires Windows Vista/XP). Unlike Second Life, there’s no one, unified world — you create your own rooms, which can be embedded on your blog or tumblelog or whatever your into calling it these days — so it can be lonely, just like real life.

The Best Links:

1. A Quick View of Lively
2. Lively — Welcome
3. Popular Rooms on Lively
4. Sucks To Be Second Life!
5. Google Moves Into the Virtual World Space

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TECH BUZZ – A judge orders Google to turn over its user histories to Viacom in their on-going lawsuit. Every record of every video ever watched — listed by username and IP address — is in Google’s 12 tera-byte file. We’ll finally get to know who’s been clicking on those YouTube porn hack videos.

The Best Links:

1. Google Is Ratting You Out to Viacom
2. Viacom Is Trying To Prove Their Videos Are More Popular Than User-Generated Stuff
3. Your YouTube Obsession Will Be Exposed
4. Viacom’s Use of the Info Will Be Restricted
5. Watch Out, Viacom Will Be Coming For You Next
6. “Porn could sink Youtube in Viacom case”

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TECH BUZZ – Imaginetouching Google Earth. It’s official: Google has pwned us, and there’s no going back.

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TECH BUZZ – Spotted the Indian tech city of Gurgaon (south of Dehli), Google has been woven into local fashion. It’s not clear what the search results printed on this sari are, but it could be a great extension of ego-Googling.

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The Best Links:

1. The Story of the Google Sari

BUSINESS BUZZ – Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlanes has a deal in the works to make a web series for Google. The series, 50 two-minute-long episodes, will run in the AdSense slot on various web sites. The mini-episodes will only play when clicked on, and Google will be charging a higher advertising rate than for the usual AdSense slots. Will the future of Google advertising be content?

The Best Links:

1. Google’s New Ad Strategy Hopefully Invovles Stewie!
2. They Still Know They Already Own YouTube, Right?
3. Why Would You Click if You Can Already Watch?
4. Google and Funny Guy Team Up to Make Potentially Annoying Ads

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CULTURE BUZZ – Google’s cameras catch ladies at work. Of course, there’s no real way to tell if these women are prostitutes or just bored women, hanging out on the street corner in Emeryville, CA, in mini-skirts in the middle of the day.

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The Best Links:

1. Spotted: Working girls?

SCIENCE BUZZ – Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, books a flight on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station. With a $5 million dollar deposit, or investment, Sergey reserved a seat on a future ride. Sergey considered purchasing the worlds largest diamond, or possibly Australia, but finally settled on the space ride. He was quoted as saying, “I was just burning my money in huge piles, but then poor people could see that from a ways off, and it became uncomfortable.”

The Best Links:

1. Google Co-Founder Books a Space Flight
2. Sergey Brin Makes Down Payment On Soyuz Space Flight

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TECH BUZZ – Google as a unix shell. Surf the true geek way; just type h to get a list of commands, and you’re off! You can do web search, Google blog search, wikipedia search, and more, all from the convenience of the command line.

The Best Links:

1. Goosh.org - the Unofficial Google Shell
2. “This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen in a good while.”

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TECH BUZZ – You can now customize your Google home page with skins designed by big name artists and designers. Google recruited 68 artists, designers and musicians to create the ‘Artist Themes’ including Dolce and Gabbana, Diane Von Fustenberg and Oscar de la Renta, Shepard Fairey, Philippe Starck, Todd Oldman, Jeff Koons, and Marc Ecko. It’s fun to switch it up but in most cases what works on a wrap dress doesn’t really work as a web design.

The Best Links:

1. Get Your Own iGoogle Artist Theme
2. “It’s Like Google, But With a Better Outfit”
3. “Google Gets Dressed “
4. A Great Way to Set the Tone for Your Day
5. “Let Dolce & Gabbana Design Your iGoogle Homepage”
6. iGoogle Artist Themes Astro Boy
7. “iGoogle Artist Themes Launched - Nigo/Philip Starck/Jeff Koons & More”
8. Dolce Gabbana iGoogle Artist Theme

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