Google Archive

Google launched their new Gmail Priority Inbox today. The service helps push the important emails to the top. So I wondered, what if Gmail Priority Inbox worked like the new Digg version 4 currently works?

Blogging service Zemanta has announced a new integration with Google’s Blogger blogging platform. Previously Blogger users had to install a browser plugin to use Zemanta. This new integration will allow any Blogger user to activate the Zemanta widget — the user can then use Zemanta without any browser installations.

After the content creator writes a few lines of content, Zemanta’s service will automatically show recommendations for both links and images.

If you are new to the Zemanta service, checkout our interview with the founders to learn more about how Zemanta works and their business model.

If you have ever wanted to check out the apparently awesome Google cafeteria at their NYC HQ, there’s an upcoming event you might want to attend. Google staffing has announced an open house on June 29th at their headquarters office in Chelsea.

From the announcement, “We are excited to open our doors to you and share a bit about what keeps us busy here in New York, and specifically, highlight how Front End Engineering and Engineers are impacting some of our most exciting projects. The evening will include presentations from four of our key New York Engineering leaders on products being developed locally as well as the opportunities available at Google.”

The speakers include:

• Tim Dierks, Software Engineer
• Fuzzy Khosrowshahi, Director, Software Engineering
• David Nagle, Director, Software Engineering
• Elizabeth Hamon Reid, Director, Engineering

If you want to attend, complete the registration form.

Swiss blogger and sometimes CN contributor Corsin Camichel noted this morning that Google Maps Navigation is now available in a variety of countries in Europe. The country list includes: France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. Corsin has more plus photos from the Google Maps Navigation on his HTC Desire Android phone.

Last week Bing announced that their Bing Maps with turn-by-turn directions was available on a variety of handsets. I downloaded the application but it took so long to load on my Samsung Ace that I could have easily walked to my desired destination in a shorter amount of time. I can’t really blame Bing…my device has GPS built-in but in 3 years I’ve only been able to get it to work twice.

Let’s hope the navigation is better than what’s shown in Corsin’s test photos from his handset. As you can see below, Google suggests you drive right into the heavy bush and their navigation might involve taking a ferry.

NYC will host the third annual Internet Week next week. There about 150 events across the city in a wide variety of content types and parties.

If you are a developer, one event worth registering for is the Chrome Extensions Hackathon. The event will be held at the Google offices in NYC on June 10th. If you are interested in building extensions for Chrome, this is the place to be. The last Google Hackathon in NYC was centered around maps and I found it to be extremely useful as you get to speak with Google developers one-on-one for help and advice. Google Developer Programs Engineer Arne Roomann-Kurrik will be flying in from the valley to lead the event.

Register here for the event (it’s free) – make sure to register soon as space is limited.

Little known fact about me…I once won a Ms. Pac-Man competition in New Jersey as a young child. I love the Pac-Man franchise and hope to have the money one day to buy the arcade versions of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. My favorite is Ms. Pac Man – mainly because of the variety of boards and how lovely Ms. Pac-Man is.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google has created the first interactive “doodle” of their logo. You need to use “a modern” browser like Firefox or Chrome to play. Simply visit Google, click “insert coin” and get your chompin’ on.

If Twitter created this version of Pac-Man, they would give some players extra power pellets and a “multiplier” option which would clone Pac-Man – because it’s important who gets on the leaderboard.

You can also grab Pac-Man games for iGoogle and the iPhone.

Get your Wakka Wakka on! Come back and post your high scores!

The Google I/O conference starts in under an hour — you can watch the conference online on YouTube. Our men on the street, Sorgey and Brem have just sent in 10 of the announcements that will be made during the Google I/O conference. If you aren’t a fan of spoilers, you might want to look away now.

1. Android phones will no longer allow multitasking – we are hearing that Google realized how big the iPhone is and figures if they do it, we should too.
2. All Android apps must be in Flash going forward – developers of current apps will have 10 days to update their apps to the latest Flash standard or risk deactivation of their mobile devices.
3. Beginning with Android software version 2.2, all apps must be open-sourced. No apps that aren’t available as open source will be accepted.
4. Google search spiders will now look for the presence of the Facebook Like button – if they find it on your site or blog (apparently one page counts for the full site) – you will be dinged 1 pagerank level.
5. Google Maps will add a “me” icon. If you have an Android phone, your friends will be able to watch you move around the map. If you enter a zone of no coverage, the map will “snap to” your location once you get into an available access location. Who needs checkins when we have a map with faces moving around in real-time?
6. Google Buzz will be merged with Yahoo Buzz and AT&T Buzz to form Optimus Buzz – no idea what the feature set will look like at this point
7. Google Finance will be enhanced to predict the next time one of these huge stock drops will be coming so we can all get P&G and Accenture shares for a penny each.
8. Google will remove Twitter entries from their “real-time” search
9. All developers will receive a free Nexus One once the store closes- but the developers will need to figure out unique complex math equations to get to the form to receive the free Nexus One
10. You can use your Google account to sync with the new Windows Phone and Windows Mobile 7.

If you hear of any other announcements coming out of the conference, please leave them in the comments. You can use an alternate “handle” to protect your identity.