Skype to be blocked in India?

As per reports in TOI intelligence agencies have asked the government to consider blocking Skype. Skype is a very popular IM and mainly known for its VoIP service. Using Skype one can call anyone across the globe for free on their PC or alternatively for a nominal charge can call anyone on a land line or mobile phone.

As per reports Skype has refused to share the encryption code that prevents Indian investigators from intercepting conversations of suspected terrorists.

Post 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, intelligence agencies have been working round the clock to plug loop holes if any. 26/11 experience exposed the fact that terrorists are increasingly using VoIP services to make calls. The shift to VoIP service was prompted by the growing ability of intelligence agencies to intercept mobile and other calls.

In this service, VoIP operators send their signals under a specific code which makes it difficult for others to decipher. Without knowing the encryption code its not possible for intelligence agencies to decipher the conversation. As per reports Skype has shared its encryption code with the US, China and other governments but is refusing to accept similar request from Indian authorities.

Considering national security into account blocking Skype seems to be the only logical step available. However, it may not be a cake walk coz such a step may draw flak from number of users who use this free service to communicate and interact with their families and friends based abroad.

Google Sidewiki: A tool to help and learn from other users

Over the years Google has been synonym for Innovation and that's exactly what they did last week by launching a new gadget for online users viz. Google Sidewiki

As Google puts it, Sidewiki is a tool using which users can help and learn from other users as they browse the web. You and me visit tens and hundreds of web pages everyday and so do many other users across the globe who look for the same piece of information. In the process we would have come across many websites and blogs to which a small bit of additional information would have helped others users too. Google Sidewiki has been built around this very concept. If you have something to share about a website just pull on your Sidewiki installed on your browser as a sidebar and put your comment. This comment would be visible to anyone who visits that website or any other website carrying the same information. For example, an entry on a speech by President Barack Obama will appear on all webpages that include the same quote.

It is important to note that the entries in Sidewiki are not arranged in order recency but in order of relevancy. To achieve the same Google ranks Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed.

Google Sidewiki is released as a feature of Google Toolbar (for Firefox and Internet Explorer) and will soon be out for Google Chrome too.

Google remembers Mahatma Gandhi

Google is known for changing its logo (Google Doodle)and most often it marks an event of historic significance. More recently their logo signified Google’s 11th birthday before which they celebrated Chinese philosopher Confucius’s birthday .

So after celebrating its own birthday and birthday of a Chinese philosopher it was time to remember the Indian great and celebrate 140th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of India. Mahatma's face appeared as 'G' for Google and 'G' for Gandhi on the logo with a backdrop of Khaki color.

About Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi born on 2nd October 1869 was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon Ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhiji is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi and in India also as Bapu . He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October is celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Google Wave Review

Following are 2 of the many reviews available online about Google Wave. There is a cool video too. Enjoy!!!

Google Wave crashes on beach of overhype
I just got my Google Wave invite. No, I’m already out, so I can’t send one to you, sorry.

But this service is way overhyped and as people start to use it they will realize it brings the worst of email and IM together: unproductivity. Click here to read more


Google Wave: Early Impressions
.....Just be aware this useful and potentially nifty tool will probably not, in fact, change life on the planet as we know it. And if by some chance it will, it’s going to change it in a bland and practical way. In short: perspective would be nice. Click here to read more

More Google Wave invitations expected before 31st October 2009?

Lets first try and understand how Gmail invitations evolved over the years.

Gmail
Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the software was available only internally as an email client for Google employees.

The project initially was known by the code name Caribou, a reference to a Dilbert comic strip about Project Caribou.

For Gmail, Google started a unique way to offer access to public viz. through invites. To cut down on spam in the early days, Google used viral marketing by allowing only existing users to invite new users.

* On 21st March 2004 Google invited about 1,000 employees, friends, and family members to become beta testers.
* On 25th April 2004 active users from the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the beta-testing.
* On 1st May 2004 one round of invitations was sent out to all active users which they could extend to their friends.
* On 1st June 2004 another three invitations were given to all active members.
* By mid-June 2004, the number of invitations had increased, with many users receiving between three and five daily.
* On 2nd February 2005 the invitation interface was changed to make it easier to give invitations by simply entering an e-mail address.
* On 3rd February 2005 some Gmail users were awarded 50 invitations and later it was increased to 100 invitations
* On 7th February 2007 - It was made public and anyone could vist gmail.com and register for their Gmail account without the need for any invite.

Google Wave
Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.

* On 28th May 2009 started allowing developers to send requests for sandbox account.
* By July 2009 Google Wave had over 6000 sandbox account.
* On 30th September 2009 Google Wave was extended to about 100,000 users. Each of these users can invite 8 more users which takes the total strength to about 800,000 users. However, these users who do not have a direct invite from Google will not be able to invite anyone else.

Now if we try and draw a parallel between Gmail and Wave invites, its quite probable that before end of October 2009 Google may grant additional invites to all the existing 800,000 users of Wave and such grants may be given every month.

Bid for your Google Wave invite

With Google supposedly have rolled out about 1,00,000 invites today to access Wave, many not so fortunate can try and bid to get an invite.

Currently on ebay.com we have a seller who has offered to sell his Google Wave invite the current bid for which stands at $157.50 with about 31 bids. There are still 2 days left for the bid however if you are crazy enough to quote a much higher price, the seller is ready to negotiate offline.



Though Terms & Conditions of Google Wave clearly prohibit users from selling or trading the services for any commercial gains only time will tell if such bids/ listings get retracted and cancelled by ebay.

Seems the Google Wave craze has already begun.

Can Twitter ride the Wave???

With Google Wave being launched today there is buzz around that it may be the next Twitter killer. Wave is a one stop package offering a combination of email, instant messaging, and many other collaborative features. It offers a cool drag and drop feature thereby allowing users to share a piece of information, photos, videos, etc among other users.

Most of the features we see in Twitter today viz. search engine, search trends etc are already available with Google and they are the masters of it. Since Wave is their own product chances are that Google may offer much better feature than twitter. Also, host of other features like games, sharing videos etc may just make the entire experience much more exciting than twitter.