Tag: google

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Science & Technology Video Clips

See Where the Internet Lives: A Tour of Google’s Data Centers

The majority of us aren’t concerned with the background processes that run when we use Gmail, watch a YouTube video, or do a Google search. The computational requirements for bringing these services to the 2.4 billion Internet users are pretty hefty but Google’s billion-dollar network of data centers are able to handle more than 3 billion daily search queries and to index 20 billion web pages a day.

Physical access to their data centers has only been reserved for a privileged few, but Google recently commissioned photographer Connie Zhou to take a few snaps of their high-tech facilities. In a segment called Where The Internet Lives, we get a virtual peek into colourful and highly organized collection of coolant pipes, server racks, and tape libraries. See the arty photos of Google’s data centers after the jump. There is even a street view clip that shows the inside the Lenoir data center in North Carolina.

Continue reading “See Where the Internet Lives: A Tour of Google’s Data Centers”
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Science & Technology

Google’s New Data Centre is Cool

Internet search giant Google has opened a new, cool data centre in Hamina, Finland. The site used to be a paper mill, but in 2009, Google purchased the 60-year-old pulp factory with a mind to construct a data centre that would significantly reduce its impact on the environment. Data centre servers are usually kept cool by blasting cold air at them, an inefficient process that requires vast amounts of power. Last year Google is reported to have used 2.26 terawatt hours of electricity, the same amount of electricity that would be used by 200,000 average American homes.

At the Hamina data centre, Google has used a renewable resource at the heart of its cooling system — seawater. There was existing seawater intake tunnel underneath the paper mill, and it was repurposed to provide cooling to massive banks of servers. The new water-to-water exchange system pumps in frigid water from the Gulf of Finland through the intake, and it travels through a myriad of pipes in the data centre to cool the components. That water is then piped to another building, where it is mixed with an incoming stream of sea water, so it is cooled before it is returned to the Gulf of Finland.

This new power-efficient data centre cost €200 million to build. Take a quick look into the inner workings.

[via Wall Street Journal]

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Arty Awesomeness Music Video Clips

It’s Time to Chromercise!

Google has made quite an effort with the April Fool’s Day gags this year. They have advertised positions for autocompleters and have shown you a day-in-the-life of one such passionate individual.

They have introduced a wholly new (and embarrassing) way to interact with Gmail, and have created an Android app to help you communicate with your pets. And they’ve even played a prank on typography snobs.

The most entertaining gag thus far has to be the one inspired by the eccentric fitness instructor, Richard Simmons. This exercise video is intended to help you remove flab and build muscle tone. For your fingers. Everybody, Chromercise!

If you have some across equally hilarious April Fool’s Day pranks, do let us know.

[via Wikipedia]

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Cautionary Tales Featured Video Clips

Google Zeitgeist: How the World Searched in 2010

Forgotten some of the highlights and lowlights of 2010? Fear not, the omnipotent Google has you covered. In Zeitgeist 2010: How the world searched, Google collated the billions of searches they processed into an interactive visualization where you can compare the popularity of some world events as seen by different countries in the world.

In addition to the visualization, Google also created a Zeitgeist 2010 video. From songs about bed intruders, double rainbows, and parping vuvuzelas to more grave concerns about politics, oil spills, and natural disasters Zeitgeist 2010 summarizes some of the major events and people that helped to shape 2010 into the year it turned out to be. Take a look below.

BONUS: Here are Google’s most strangest searches in the United States for 2010:

  1. can a horse have ocd?
  2. am i bipolar or overachiever?
  3. why are americans afraid of dragons?
  4. ninjas are better than pirates
  5. why is a raven like a writing desk?
  6. why does brian wilson dye his beard?
  7. should i marry him?
  8. i wish i could speak whale
  9. why couldn’t you stand on the sun’s surface?
  10. why does my baby grunt?

[via PS3ZA | Google]

Categories
Mindlessness

Did you Mean Battlesheep?

Do you remember a funny old ad for Berlitz where a hapless German coast guard station received a mayday message from a sinking boat? If not, I sink you will like it – refresh your memory here. I was reminded of that when I saw a set of recent ads for Google.

I’m quite used to seeing Google’s online ads (unless you’re a happy subscriber to Adblock Plus) but not any ads for the company itself, much less in print. An agency in Istanbul Turkey created a set of mildy amusing print ads that play on Google’s “Did you mean” search feature.

The funniest of these ads features a shaggy sheep plodding through a warzone, with the tagline “Did you mean? battleship”. Maybe this is some sort of Turkish-only thing because when I searched for battlesheep Google didn’t bother to suggest an alternative spelling, instead it returned 90,000+ results. Clearly the Internet finds the idea of weaponizing sheep to be so very awesome.

Have a look at the sheep in question and two more of the Turkish print ads.

Continue reading “Did you Mean Battlesheep?”
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Awesomeness Entertainment Useful/Useless Info Video Clips

Google’s Opt Out – Parody Video

Aah yes, The Onion. ONN never fails to make me chuckle, and this video is no exception.

Google has offered internet users the opportunity to “Opt Out” of their services, and live in completely privacy. In order to do so, however, you need to move to a remote village and your home will be destroyed.

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Flash Games

Play This: Guess-the-google

It’s almost the weekend, baby. If you can’t drink at the office, you might as well count down the hours by avoiding work as much as possible.

I’ve got just the time-waster for you. Guess-the-google is a guessing game where you are presented with a matrix of 20 images from Google. There is a single keyword that relates to these images and you need to guess that word as quick as you can. You can guess multiple times in the allotted 20 seconds. There are 10 rounds per game.

I scored 323. Today’s high score is 385.

Play Guess-the-google and let us know you scored.

[via Zoomdoggle]

Categories
Awesomeness Music Video Clips

Beatbox Supreme: Flutebox and Beardyman at Google

Monday is general malaise day for me. In between pretending to work and going out for lots of ciggies, it sometimes proves difficult to find anything interesting to post up on the blog. Thankfully someone else is on the ball, and PS3ZA member Dex, found this most awesome clip.

Nathan “Flutebox” Lee and Beardyman are two British men who take the art of beatboxing to a totally different level. This is a clip of their 18-minute performance at what seems to be the caferteria of the Google offices in London. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3kyNGVK-hI

Epic skillz neh?