A renewed wish for open document standards

The subject of open document standards grows in importance not only for the technically- minded, but for anyone who uses a computer to work on editable documents. Across the board, standards are crucial. They ensure that the devices and technology you use today will continue to work tomorrow, that your DVDs will play in your player, that your calls will go through to any network, and that your documents will be accessible from whichever system you choose today and in the future.Google supports open document standards and the Open Document Format - ODF, the recognized international standard (ISO 26300). ODF is supported and implemented across the globe, and its communal creation and iteration has helped ensure the transparency, consistency and interoperability necessary in a workable standard.Currently, the technology industry is evaluating a proposed ISO standard for document formats. Given the importance of a workable standard, Microsoft's submission of Office Open XML (OOXML ) as an additional international standard has caught the attention of many. In September 2007, the original request to ISO was defeated. After further technical analysis of the specification along with all the additional data available on OOXML, Google believes OOXML would be an insufficient and unnecessary standard, designed purely around the needs of Microsoft Office.We join the ODF Alliance and many other experts in our belief that OOXML doesn't meet the criteria required for a globally-accepted standard. (An overview of our findings and sample technical issues unresolved are posted here.)As ISO Member bodies around the world work on possible revisions of their vote previously submitted, the deadline of March 30th approaches fast. I invite you to pay close attention, and heed the call of many for unification of OOXML into ODF. A document standards decision may not matter to you today, but as someone who relies on constant access to editable documents, spreadsheets and presentations, it may matter immensely in the near future

Google Earth vs. Microsoft Sky…

Microsoft To Announce WorldWide Telescope On February 27

A source close to Microsoft says the company will launch new desktop software called WorldWide Telescope on February 27 at the TED Conference in Monterey, California. Our guess is that this is what Robert Scoble was talking about last week when he said he saw a new Microsoft project that brought him to tears.

The service will be accessed through a downloadable application - Windows only for now is what we hear. Users will be able to pan around the nighttime sky and zoom as far in to any one area as the data will allow. Microsoft is said to be tapping the Hubble telescope as well as ten or so earth bound telescopes around the world for data. When you find an area you like, you can switch to a number of different views, such as infrared and non-visible light.

Dan Farber posted his own educated guess that the project might be WorldWide Telescope, based on the fact that Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay were involved, and he’s right. Last year Fay gave a presentation called “”The WorldWide Telescope, bringing the Universe to a PC near you.” In 1993, Wong started a project called “John Dobson’s Universe,” a virtual sky tour on a CD-ROM, narrated by John Dobson. The two began working together at Microsoft in 2005.

From what we hear, WorldWide Telescope will be significantly better than Google Sky, which launched last August as part of Google Earth, and the open source Stellarium (which is hugely better than Google Sky already). The key is the user interface, which is seamless as you move around the sky and zoom in and out. Much of the Photosynth technology is said to have been used for the project. And the sheer amount of data Microsoft is accessing, said to be measured in the terabits, gives that great user interface something to show off.

Global marketing challenge now underway

It's well known that online advertising is becoming increasingly important to the marketing mix. Now we're giving 21,000 students the chance to experiment and gain hands on experience of this medium -- and to empower small local businesses to harness the power of the web to attract more customers. In a vast global academic competition, business students from 466 universities in 61 countries will participate in the Google Online Marketing Challenge.The competition offers student groups $200 vouchers to spend on Google AdWords™ advertising so that they can work with a local business they choose to devise effective online marketing campaigns. The teams will outline a strategy, run the campaign, assess their results, and recommend ideas to further develop the businesses' online marketing.Students will have three weeks to mastermind their strategy, and will pit their marketing minds against thousands of others worldwide. During this period, the various teams will submit two competition reports: one before they begin the Challenge, and one after the campaign has ended. An international panel of professors will judge the entries, and will choose winners based on the success of the campaigns and the quality of the reports.

Google Android phones make debut

The first mobile phones to be loaded with Google's Android software for mobile phones have gone on show.
About a dozen companies such as ARM, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm showed off prototype handsets at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The free software system was launched in November 2007 and is being developed by an alliance of more than 30 companies including Google. The first Android-enabled phone is expected to go on sale later this year.
One firm showing off a prototype phone was the UK processor designer ARM. "It's really a demonstration vehicle rather than a full phone," Ian Drew of ARM told BBC News.
However, he said the wireless phone did show off several applications. "What we are demonstrating on the Android platform is maps, browser, camera applications, multimedia, e-mail, and calendar - basically everything you'd expect on a mobile phone."
Open world
The Google Android platform is based on open source Linux software that allows developers access to the underlying code.


This allows programmers much greater flexibility to build applications and features tailored to individual phones. Other companies also showed off Android prototypes such as Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC and ST Microelectronics. Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has also said it hopes to have a phone based on Android by early next year. Android was not the only Linux platform making waves in Barcelona. The Mobile Linux foundation said that 18 phones from seven different firms would be demonstrated at 3GSM using its Limo software.LG and Samsung were amongst handset manufacturers showing off Limo devices.

orkut going more social

Starting this month, we're enabling developers to make their social applications available to orkut users. We'll start ramping up to more than 50 million people over the next few weeks.To prepare for this growth, we're now accepting social applications. For a while now, developers have been able to write, test, and play with applications on orkut. Later this month, however, we're going to start rolling them out to orkut users. OpenSocial developers can submit their completed applications (deadline: Feb. 15).To help developers ready their applications, we're offering engineering support and training. We've scheduled orkut hackathons on Feb. 14-15 from 10 am-6 pm at the Googleplex in Mountain View and via videoconference in New York. For more information or to RSVP, please email hackathon.rsvp@gmail.com. If you can't attend, we hope to see you in the OpenSocial forums or on chat (irc://irc.freenode.net/opensocial).

Survey says: love at first ping

In the spirit of Hallmark and chocolate roses, we recently took a special interest in Valentine's worthy tidbits about how Gmail has helped spur romance -- as it did for Jordan Burleson, who told us:
"Gmail is the new Cupid. Gmail's green chat light meant 'go' for love in my life. My girlfriend and I used ... it for projects and homework at first, but then for flirting, pinning down a location for a first date, emoticon hearts and more."In other cases, email has helped maintain long distance relationships, like that of long-time Gmail user Meagan Coleman:
"My husband and I met in 2004. He's from Macedonia and I'm from the USA...Since we met, Gmail has been archiving our long-distance relationship from the beginning! It's very sweet to be able to read those messages that we wrote to each other 3 years ago."Curious about how common emailing love letters really is -- and to learn more about how people use email to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers -- we recently worked with Nielsen Online to conduct a national survey examining how people think about and use webmail.* The survey affirmed that email is an increasingly important part of our most intimate and personal interactions, and that younger people are leading the charge: they are more likely to use email for everything from sending love letters to ending relationships.Love is in the inbox
1 in 3 survey respondents noted having emailed a love letter
Young people indicated they were less averse to showing their affections over email than older adults: only 14% of 18-24 year olds considered email love letters bad behavior, compared to 43% of respondents over the age of 55
Men were more likely than women to have asked someone out via email (26% versus 16%)
While 31% of 18-24 year olds thought asking someone out on a date via email was poor form, 42% of respondents aged 55+ felt the same wayBreaking up is hard to do; some get help from email
1 in 3 male respondents considered "break-up emails" neutral to good email etiquette, whereas only 1 in 7 female respondents agreed
8% of men and 6% of women said they had broken up with someone over email Whether you're sending hearts this year or breaking them, we hope you have a happy Valentine's Day.* The online survey, commissioned by Google, was conducted by Nielsen Online from September 24th to October 15th, 2007, with a sample of 1,713 webmail users over the age of 18. "Webmail user" was defined as someone who uses AOL Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail

Share the love with iGoogle

From time to time, people share stories with us that are too good to keep to ourselves. Here's one that an iGoogle user named Heather recently shared about how Gadget Maker helps her connect with her boyfriend Christopher.

"My boyfriend lives in Memphis and I live in Manhattan. We've each created a custom gadget for each other that we update every morning. Generally it's a compliment, or song lyrics, or something related to an inside joke. It takes us 2 minutes to update every morning and helps us to stay connected in a small way every day. We also both have a countdown gadget on our homepage, which counts down the days until our next visit with each other. Thank you for helping 'keep the magic alive' with my boyfriend, even if he's not here in person!"
As Valentine's Day approaches, we wish Heather and Christopher the best. May their countdown go extra-fast this week. Heather shared one of her gadgets with us:

If you're part of our gadget developer community, perhaps hearing about interesting and unique ways people are using gadgets will help spark some creative ideas. But whether you are HTML-savvy or not, and you want to show your sweetie how much you care, it's very easy to be able to create gadgets. Just visit the Google Gadget Center or Gadget Maker and give it a try.

Google search on Nokia phones

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, we announced a partnership with Nokia that will bring Google search to millions of Nokia phones. There's more detail on the Google Mobile Blog.

Profile: The Google founders

The founders of the Google internet search engine - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - are the type of young men most parents would dream of their daughters bringing home.
And far from simply because they will both be billionaires following a stock market flotation of Google.
Instead, most mums and dads would also be drawn to the facts that both men are very clean cut in appearance, undeniably hard working and intelligent, and seem, well, just "nice".
They are your text book, well presented, quietly well behaved "boys next door" from a smart middle class American suburb.
Only a lot richer.

A hard day at the office for Google's staffYet far from living an extravagant lifestyle, complete with yachts and private jets like fellow software leader Oracle boss Larry Ellison, Mr Page, 31, and Mr Brin, 30, are both reported to continue to live modest, unassuming lifestyles.
They don't even have sports cars, and instead are said to each drive a Toyota Prius, a plain-looking but rather environmentally friendly saloon that is half electric-powered, and growing in popularity among green-minded Americans.
Mr Brin's father even claimed recently that his son still rents a modest two bedroom apartment.
Garage industry
Mr Page and Mr Brin just happen to be geniuses with computers and, by extension, the founders of the world's most popular internet search engine.

Google is the undisputed world number one internet search engine
Today both barely in their thirties, the two first met at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, where they were doing doctorates in computer sciences.
Apparently, they did not immediately hit it off, but they became friends while developing a new system of internet search engine from their college dormitory.
Initially called BackRub, they created a software system whereby the search engine would list results according to the popularity of the pages, after realising that more times than not the most popular result would also be the most useful.
So after changing its name to Google they dropped out of college (although Mr Brin is officially still on leave) and the rest, as they say, is history.
Pulling together $1m from family, friends and other investors, on 7 September 1998 Google was commercially launched from a friend's garage.
Growth was quick.
Initially, Google got 10,000 queries per day compared with 200 million today.
Family influences
Both Mr Page and Mr Brin come from an academic and computer science or mathematical background.

The Google founders both drive a Toyota Prius - a very "green" car
Larry - or Lawrence - Page was born and raised in Michigan, the son of Carl Page, a pioneer in computer science and artificial intelligence.
Page Senior earned a doctoral degree in computer science in 1965, back when the subject was still in its infancy, and went on to become a computer science professor at Michigan State University.
His wife, and Larry Page's mother, also worked in computers, teaching computer programming.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Larry Page says he fell in love with computers at the tender age of six.
Mr Brin is a Muscovite by birth, the son of a Soviet mathematician economist.
His family, who are Jewish, emigrated to the US in 1979 to escape persecution, and Mr Brin went on to get a degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland, before enrolling at Stanford University as a postgraduate.
Hippy mantra
Google today has its headquarters at Mountain View in the heart of California's famous Silicon Valley, where certain quirks are in place to keep staff happy.

A member of the Google team plays a tune
These include weekly games of roller-hockey in the car park, an on-site masseuse and a piano.
And each member of the team is given one day a week to spend on their own pet projects.
In a nod to the county's former hippy past, the company's head chef is said to have formerly worked for the rock band Grateful Dead.
There is also something very 1960s California about what Mr Page and Mr Brin say is their philosophy.
As Mr Page recently explained to ABC News: "We have a mantra: 'Don't be evil', which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone.
"So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing."
Nice boys, you see. Wealthy yes, and maybe a little quirky too, but still very nice.

Google's might drove the shock bid

Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo in what analysts regard as a response to the seemingly unstoppable rise of Google.
The emergence of Google has been staggering for observers and threatening for established players in every market it has entered.
Microsoft's response could level the playing field.
"This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus Microsoft," says Colin Gillis, analyst at stockbroker Canaccord Adams.
Broad growth

See Google's share price
Google's online mapping and internet-based phone calls to photo storage and news alerts - not to mention its unrelenting innovative streak - has enabled it to remain two steps ahead of its most bitter rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.
Consequently, Google is no longer a company taking pride in being simple and effective; rather it has ballooned and is now a multi-headed high tech beast eager and willing to not only get involved but increasingly take charge of every area online.
It is a strategy that could make Google vulnerable to attacks.
Some say the company is spreading itself thin by over-diversifying its product range.
Advert reliance

Larry Page and Sergey Brin - are the type of young men most parents would dream of their daughters bringing home.
Profile: The Google founders
More crucially, its source of income remains largely one-dimensional - and therefore potentially vulnerable.
During a Google search, "sponsored links", or adverts, appear on the rights. They have been placed by hundreds of thousands of companies, which have picked particular words as triggers for their ads to appear.
Every click on an advert brings revenue to Google; advertisers, in turn, know what they pay for, so everyone is happy.
Active founders
The Google model was initially hammered out by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, now both in their early 30s.
The two met at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, where they were doing doctorates in computer sciences, and became friends while developing a new system of internet search engine from their college dormitory.
Initially called BackRub, they created a software system whereby the search engine would list results according to the popularity of the pages, after realising that more times than not the most popular result would also be the most useful.
After changing its name to Google they dropped out of college and the rest, as they say, would by now be history - except the story continues.
Google now finds itself at the top of the tree, just as dinosaurs like IBM once did.
But Mr Page and Mr Brin know full well what the threats are, and they are ready to take on their opponents.

Google Apps Team Edition Released

Google has released a new version of Google Apps called “Team Edition” that, on first blush, doesn’t offer much that’s new. The same document, spreadsheet, instant messaging, calendaring, and start page functionality that we’ve come to expect from Google Apps is here. But now it’s easier for groups within established organizations (businesses, universities, etc.) to collaborate using Google Apps without getting their entire organization to buy into Google Apps (quite literally) first.
As can be seen in the video below (and screencasts do help a lot to explain this announcement), Google Apps Team Edition has been designed to make it easier for you to use Google Apps with people who share the same email address extension (@whatever).
This edition should be useful for Google in recruiting members of organizations who will in turn exert pressure on those organizations to adopt a premium version of Google Apps.

Look Out Topix - Google Launches Localized News Service

Topix has made a name by aggregating tens of thousands of local news sources and aggregating them online (they also like citizen journalists). It was only a matter of time before Google expanded their news product to compete more directly with Topix. That time has come - today Google added an option for customized local news to its Google News service.
The localization option is now available on news.google.com, but does not seem to have been rolled out to country specific news portals as yet. Using the service is as simple as entering your post/ zip code or location into the Local News option box that now appears automatically when you visit Google News.
The feature pulls news stories based on your location, and are presented as a sub-section on the main Google News page, and have a sidebar menu entry and dedicated page as well.
According to Google:
As always, results will be clustered with multiple sources on a story. The top stories for a given area will be at the top of your results. Our article rankings will also take into account a publication’s location so we can promote all the local sources for each story.
Google News attracts a far larger audience than Topix - 47 million/month v. just 6.2 million for Topix (Comscore, December 2007 worldwide audience), but until now they have not provided good local news coverage. Topix now has some serious competition.

OpenID Welcomes Microsoft, Google, Verisign and IBM

As anticipated by TechCrunch UK in early January, OpenID is welcoming some big new partners to the club - Microsoft, Google, Verisign and IBM (TechCrunch UK anticipated all but Microsoft).
Google has been dabbling with OpenID for some time with its Blogger platform (and Brad Fitzpatrick, the creator of OpenID, is now a Google employee).
Yahoo also announced support for OpenID earlier this month, which more than tripled the number of OpenID accounts to 350 million. 10,000 websites now accept OpenID accounts for login.
All of the newcomers, along with Yahoo, have joined OpenID’s corporate board and, we assume, will be making their user accounts OpenID-compatible. But it’s not clear that any of them are in a hurry to become a “relying party” (allowing users with third party OpenIDs to log in to their sites). OpenID looks like it’s going to be a winner, so big companies making their user accounts OpenID compatible is a good hedge. Everyone, of course, wants to be an ID issuer, since they get to “own” the user. Less attractive is allowing users from other sites to log into your services, so don’t expect that functionality to come for some time.

Search, Ads, Yahoo and Microsoft

While everyone comments about Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo, I think it's interesting to look back at the struggle to stop Google's domination in search and PPC ads.
Yahoo Inc. yesterday announced plans to buy Internet advertising firm Overture Services Inc. for $1.63 billion in stock and cash in a move designed to help the online giant exploit the growing market for sponsored search results. (...)Overture, formerly known as GoTo.com, pioneered the approach of letting advertisers bid for the right to place their links alongside search terms and paying only when users click through to their Web site. Overture, based in Pasadena, Calif., claims 88,000 advertisers and licenses its commercial results to Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN.com and other Web portals. Google has copied Overture's business model and claims 100,000 advertisers. (...)Overture sells sponsored search results to other portals besides Yahoo. Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com is one of Overture's top customers, and analysts consider it highly unlikely the Redmond, Wash., software giant will want to continue using Overture's ad network once rival Yahoo completes the takeover.
(Washington Post, July 15, 2003)
On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he regretted not spending more on in-house search research and development in the past, but said the company has addressed the oversight and plans to unveil its own search product within the next 12 months."Not only do I think Microsoft is capable of building extraordinary search technology, I believe Microsoft is hell-bent on developing that technology in Redmond (Wash.) without a material acquisition," said Rohan. "That is the Microsoft way."
(CNet, March 26, 2004)
Rashtchy estimated that the search industry will reach nearly $7 billion in revenue by 2007, growing at a compounded rate of 35% each year. Those kinds of numbers attract a lot of attention. In 2003, Yahoo!, which was outsourcing its search to Google, wanted in on the action and paid $1.63 billion to buy Overture. Last month Yahoo! dumped Google and now exclusively uses Overture, officially declaring war. Sleeping giant Microsoft, meanwhile, was rumored to have made an unsuccessful stab at acquiring Google, and is now using its nearly infinite resources to improve it own search engine.
(Forbes, April 26, 2004)
Keyword search is the largest component of U.S. online advertising, and Google derives virtually all of its ad revenues from this category. The growth in that segment speaks for itself. Based on data from PricewaterhouseCoopers/IAB Internet Advertising Reports, the overall keyword search category generated $81 million in revenues in 2000, representing only 1% of overall online ad sales. Jump ahead to 2003, and keyword search accounted for $2.5 billion in revenues -- a hefty 35% of the total U.S. online ad-sales pie.
(BusinessWeek, June 11, 2004)
As previously reported, Microsoft's Internet group is developing a pay-per-click ad-bidding system that pairs search results with sponsored text messages from advertisers. Yahoo's Overture Services currently supplies MSN with sponsored search links, which complement MSN-sold "featured sites." (...) With the product, Microsoft will move into the mother lode of a multibillion-dollar ad business dominated by Google and Yahoo. Search-engine marketing is expected to be worth as much as $5 billion this year, and nearly $9 billion annually within four years, according to Jupiter Research. Microsoft's piece of the pie is smaller than the shares enjoyed by market leaders Yahoo and Google, and the software giant is hungry for more. Google fields 35.1 percent of the searches online, followed by Yahoo at 31.8 percent and MSN at 16 percent, according to ComScore QSearch.
(ZDNet, March 16, 2005)
Microsoft is taking on the great Google Money Machine with an inhouse answer to Google Adwords.Step forward Microsoft adCenter, launched yesterday to pump out all-paid search traffic on MSN and other Microsoft online properties in the US. Microsoft’s adCenter replaces Yahoo!'s Overture as the paid-for search engine on MSN. The only surprise is how long it took Microsoft to make the switcheroo – predicted ever since Yahoo! bought Overture in 2003 – and confirmed this time last year by Microsoft at its annual MSN Strategic Account Summit.
(The Register, May 4, 2006)
The Internet search-advertising wars are getting hotter: Vowing to catch up to industry leader Google, Yahoo Monday will demonstrate an overhauled advertising system that promises to generate higher revenue and enlist more clients.On May 4, Microsoft unveiled its own search advertising program and said it would invest up to $6 billion in a bid to catch up with Google.Yet Google still easily dominates paid search ads — those little text ads that appear near search queries. The Internet powerhouse has made several enhancements to its search program as well.Google says it hasn't heard anything from Yahoo or MSN to make it worry."There's been nothing that's announced that makes me want to change what we do," says Richard Holden, director of production management for Google's paid search programs.
(USA Today, May 14, 2006)
Struggling to make a dent in rival Google Inc.'s dominance over online search, Yahoo Inc. reported a quarterly decline in profit Tuesday but managed to match already lowered expectations. (...) During a Tuesday conference call with analysts, Susan Decker, who was promoted to president when Semel was replaced by Yang, acknowledged Yahoo's past failings.She said the company had been slow to recognize emerging trends in online advertising and that Yahoo's management structure was overly complex, opening the door for more nimble competitors. (...)Yahoo commanded an 18.3% share of paid-search marketing spending in June, up from May's 17.8%, Rohan said, but June's percentage is still the third lowest at Yahoo since January 2006."Google continues to dominate spending with over 75% market share," he wrote. "Panama stabilized Yahoo's market share slide, but has not reversed it."Rohan said that even with Panama, advertisers see a better return on investment with Google, which boasts higher click-through rates at lower prices. "Yahoo's Panama was modestly successful but only temporarily halted Google's gains in marketshare," he said.
(Hollywood Reporter, July 18, 2007)
Despite the hopes of many and rumors that Yahoo would post "strong" earnings, Q4 2007 results were mixed, and net income was down from a year ago. In addition, CEO Jerry Yang said the company faced "headwinds" in 2008 and offered weak guidance but promised a return to growth in 2009. Investors were unhappy, and stock was down at one point 10 percent in after-hours trading (this morning it has recovered).Total revenue in Q4 was $1.83 billion, which represented 8 percent growth of the same period a year ago ($1.7 billion). Full year 2007 revenues for Yahoo were $6.97 billion. Simultaneously, Yahoo announced it would be cutting 1,000 jobs.
(Search Engine Land, January 30, 2008)

What's India searching for online?

In December 2007, for the first time in India, we released a list of most popular and fast rising searches, i.e. the Google Zeitgeist. But you don't need to wait till this December to know what was popular this year; we've just unveiled Google Trends and Google Hot Trends on Google India Labs, giving you a chance to find out what India is searching for on Google by the hour.What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to sports to political issues to the latest Bollywood gossip. Hot Trends aren't the search terms people look for most often; those are pretty predictable, like [weather] or [games]. Instead, the Hot Trends algorithm analyzes millions of searches to find those that show an unusual and fairly sudden increase in popularity. The outcome is the Hot Trends list. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day, so check back often.For example, the #1 Hot Trends result on January 9, 2008, was 'tata new car' because of the auto expo going on then. The associated web results and associated news search results give you more context and insight into why people were searching for 'tata new car'. You can see these results by changing the date range on the top left hand corner of the Hot Trends page. As you can see, 'tata new car' has a Hot Trend status of 'spicy' -- a measure of its popularity.Together with Hot Trends, we also launched Google Trends for India. You can view search patterns and interest in their favorite topics. You can compare the popularity of multiple queries (e.g. different Bollywood stars) and see which cities and states search for them the most.Looking ahead to what 'Valentines Day' might mean to us, keep checking out Hot Trends and Trends for insights into the mind of India

Google 'planning total storage'

Web giant Google is planning a massive online storage facility to encompass all users' files, it is reported.
The plans were allegedly revealed accidentally after a blogger spotted notes in a slideshow presentation wrongly published on Google's site.
The GDrive, previously the subject of chatroom rumour, would offer a mirror of users' hard drives, Reuters said.
Google declined to comment on the reports but said the slide notes had now been deleted.
In the notes, chief executive Eric Schmidt reportedly said Google's aim was to "store 100%" of users' information.
The notes said: "With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including e-mails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc; and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc)."
No announcement
"We deleted the slide notes because they were not intended for publication," Google spokeswoman Lynn Fox said.
"We are constantly working on new ways to enhance our products and services for users, but have nothing to announce at this time."
Under the alleged scheme, if users suffered a crash and lost files, Google's own computers would have kept a back-up.
The plan for total online storage could meet difficulties with bandwidth constraints for some users.
The search giant recently decided to offer an optional facility that stores a copy of the text-based sections of each user's data on Google's own computers.

Google to hit Ebay-the online auction legend

Google is no longer just a search engine. The latest project in its portfolio of services is an online payments system which aims to compete with auction giant eBay.
The service, known as Google Checkout, is just one of a series of online products launched by the California based company.
However, none of the new ventures launched over the past four years have established themslves as a market leader, reported online magazine Business Week.

Google 'improves' mobile search

Google has launched a new search service for mobile phones, promising "faster" and "more relevant results".
The facility gathers regular and mobile web results, news, images and local listings, meaning people no longer have to specify a type of search.
An improved "local search experience" is based on Google's belief that mobile search is more often used to find area information such as cinema listings.
The service is now available in the UK, France, Germany and Canada.
It has been available in the US since March last year.
Local view
Google believes mobile services have huge potential and have set up engineering groups in North America and the UK to develop new applications.
Last year, the firm launched an operating system for mobile phones called Android, which it hopes will challenge existing platforms such as Window's Mobile and Symbian.
The new search functions are part of that drive.
People using Google on mobiles previously had to specify a search type in advance, or afterwards choose between different indexes such as local results, images or websites.
Mobile search is more about seeking than browsing
Google spokesmanThe internet search giant now aims to provide the most relevant results from across the range of information sources.
"The big thing that people will notice is that they just get the results they want, without them having to think ahead of time what sort of information they are looking for," a spokesman said.
"You don't have to click through so many pages on that tiny little screen and on those tiny little buttons."
He added: "Mobile search is more about seeking than browsing.
"If you are looking to buy a digital camera then you are not going to do all the research for it on your mobile phone - it's not practical.
"But if you are looking for a restaurant and you are out and about, it's as easy to access the number and address on your phone as it is to call a directory service."
The new mobile search will also remember a user's recent search locations, so that subsequent searches for things like weather or restaurants will be geared to that area.
Google is also experimenting with new features for its online search engine, including offering results in the form of a timeline or map.

YouTube Users can also earn money with fun

YouTuber earns cash YouTube users in the UK will be given the chance to make money from the videos they post on the site.
The project is already up and running in the US and is now being extended to other countries, starting in the UK.
In the US some contributors are already earning thousands of dollars each month from their films, according to the video-sharing site.
The amount that is earned will depend on the number and popularity of the videos, it said.
Creating stars
Those signing up to the YouTube Partner Programme, as it is called, will be offered a share of the revenue generated from advertisements that run next to their video.
YouTube is not disclosing the exact details of the scheme, but does say that those making "several thousand dollars a month" are regularly producing videos with over one million views.
"The more videos you have and the more popular your stuff is, the more money you are going to make," said a spokesman for the site.

One of singer Tay Zonday's videos had 14m hilts
The first wave of US partners - including singer/songwriter Tay Zonday, wordsmith hotforwords and comedians apauledtv and peteandbrian - have already become responsible for a significant percentage of YouTube's total traffic, according to the site.
Tay Zonday's song "Chocolate Rain" has enjoyed 14m clicks to date, spawned over 1,000 response videos and seen him flown to Canada and Germany to mark YouTube's local launches in those territories.
Drinks brand Dr Pepper have based a product around it and made Tay the star of a glossy ad to promote it.
In the UK, among those waiting to sign up is GiR2007, a computer scientist whose most popular video 'Pancakes' has generated 2.5m clicks to date.
While Nerimon is already a YouTube star on the back of his so-called 5-fact Vlog Tag game which swept YouTube late last year.
The game involves users sharing five facts about themselves in a video and alerting five other members to the post. Those five members then make a video and so on.
Nerimon now has a 10,000 strong gang of followers.
Growing business
British member Jimmy0010 has more modest fan base.
But the Midlands-based blogger takes it as a compliment that YouTube values his channel enough to have adverts.

Nerimon kick-started a popular YouTube game
"It's just an added incentive really for me to push myself and make videos to my best ability, he said.
"Obviously it's a fantastic hobby, but having people offer me money helps me make them a bit better."
Increasingly social networks and user-generated content sites are offering people a chance to make money for the content they create.
"As people are spending more time on such sites they are increasingly thinking about how to monetise it," said Alex Burmaster, analyst with research firm Nielsen Online.
"It is at a small level at the moment but if you are putting something on YouTube that is generating traffic for them perhaps it is only fair that you get a cut of it," he said.
However he suspects the first YouTube millionaire is still a long way off.
"It is very hard to generate a lot of income from it and it would have to something pretty amazing to make a lot of money," he said.
YouTube hopes to expand the Partner Programme to the rest of Europe soon.

Google adopts universal search in South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea - Google Inc. said Wednesday it has overhauled its Korean-language search engine to broaden its appeal in South Korea, one of the world's most wired countries and one of the few where Google isn't dominant.
Local search engines such as NHN Corp.'s Naver Web site lead the sector in South Korea. Some users say local sites are better adapted to factors specific to the market, with more visually complex sites and reliance on human interaction instead of software to get results.
Google has adopted universal search — a results-blending concept that has caught on at other top search engines — for its Korean-language services, said Lee Won-jin, managing director of Google Korea.
Universal search combines search-engine results from a broader array of potential sources, such as videos or pages of books from online libraries, as well as data created by the search engine itself.
"The interface change will distinguish us from other search engines in Korea, where growth potential is huge given its broad base of Internet users," Lee said at a news conference. "We're not setting any domestic market share target, but we expect the new services will help."
Click for related content
Google owns the universe — does anyone care?Google developing cell phone softwareGoogle expands into alternative energy
The Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet company adopted universal search for its English version last May as other Web-search engines also tried to integrate different types of information.
Rivals such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and IAC Interactive Corp.'s Ask.com search engine adopted the universal search concept late in 2007 with varying results.