Google unveiled new features for its signature search tools Monday, including an ability to search by sight, a mobile translator and a real-time search of more than 1 billion new social media pages created every day. Google executives showed off the upgrades at an annual company event called Searchology.
The search engine giant said it was working to tie its search service more closely to cellphones. It showed off a new search option called Google Goggles that allows users to submit pictures rather than key words as queries, which would allow for identification of images taken via cellphones. "It is our goal to be able to identify any image," said Google's vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra. "It represents our earliest efforts in the field of computer vision. You can take a picture of an item, use that picture of whatever you take as the query." Gundotra said the company has the capability of integrating facial recognition into the technology but was delaying the implementation while it considered the privacy implications.
"For this product, we made the decision not to do facial recognition," Gundotra said. "We still want to work on the issues of user opt-in and control. We have the technology to do the underlying face recognition, but we decided to delay that until safeguards are in place."
Future search results would feature the company's "near me now" technology that will prioritize location-based items, he said. Gundotra also showed off the search engine's ability to translate a spoken phrase from English to Spanish using a mobile phone. The translator feature will become available early next year and Google will rapidly expand the number of languages it can use, Gundotra said.
"Our goal at Google is nothing less than being able to support all the major languages of the world," he said. The real time search technology is a product of partnerships announced Monday with Facebook and MySpace. Google already had an agreement with microblogging site Twitter, and said that the new search would be rolled out worldwide in the coming days.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
BJP fully responsible for Babri mosque demolition: P. Chidambaram
BJP fully responsible for Babri mosque demolition: P. Chidambaram
Amid acrimony in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the Sangh Parivar responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj's contention that there was no conspiracy behind the incident.
In his reply to the debate on the Liberhan Commission report, Chidambaram said every single promise by the BJP leaders and then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh to protect the mosque was broken.
Amid continuous slogan-shouting by the BJP-led opposition, Chidambaram admitted that the P.V. Narasimha Rao government had erred but said that it was an error of political judgement as the former prime minister believed the 'false' promises of the BJP leaders. 'The Congress party paid the price of its political judgement,' he said.
Extensively quoting from the report, the minister said there was evidence that the Babri mosque was pulled down as a pre-planned act. 'The plan was conceived by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It controlled every aspect of the Ayodhya movement.'
'The promise to protect Babri masjid was one big lie. The then Uttar Pradesh chief minister lied to the centre and the Supreme Court,' he said.
The minister said that kar sevaks carried hammers and iron rods and the mosque was demolished by pulling it down from inside and not from the top
He said that the BJP had not expressed regret over the
demolition and its policies continue to be 'divisive'.
While the minister was replying, Samajwadi Party members raised slogans that both Congress and BJP were responsible for the demolition.
Chidambaram, who spoke for almost an hour amid unabated slogan shouting, restrained his colleagues from reacting after a paper ball was lobbed towards him. As slogans like 'Down, down Chidambaram' and 'Jai, Jai Atal' rent the air, the minister did not give up, and was repeatedly cheered by his party colleagues through thumping of tables.
The minister, who was barely audible due to slogan shouting, said the idea of 'inclusive India' represented by the Congress and other secular parties had been preferred by the people of India in 2004 and 2009 elections and 'divisive politics' of the BJP had been rejected.
The uproar in the house started before the minister's reply after P.C. Chacko, who was presiding over the proceedings, asked the members, who had not got the opportunity to speak, to lay their speeches on the table of the house.
The opposition members protested at this. The house had earlier witnessed noisy scenes and two adjournments over derogatory remarks by Congress MP Beni Prasad Verma against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders indicted in the report.
Congress leader and Minority Affairs minister Salman Khurshid later said that the Home Ministry will take the necessary action on the Liberhan report.
Amid acrimony in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the Sangh Parivar responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj's contention that there was no conspiracy behind the incident.
In his reply to the debate on the Liberhan Commission report, Chidambaram said every single promise by the BJP leaders and then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh to protect the mosque was broken.
Amid continuous slogan-shouting by the BJP-led opposition, Chidambaram admitted that the P.V. Narasimha Rao government had erred but said that it was an error of political judgement as the former prime minister believed the 'false' promises of the BJP leaders. 'The Congress party paid the price of its political judgement,' he said.
Extensively quoting from the report, the minister said there was evidence that the Babri mosque was pulled down as a pre-planned act. 'The plan was conceived by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It controlled every aspect of the Ayodhya movement.'
'The promise to protect Babri masjid was one big lie. The then Uttar Pradesh chief minister lied to the centre and the Supreme Court,' he said.
The minister said that kar sevaks carried hammers and iron rods and the mosque was demolished by pulling it down from inside and not from the top
He said that the BJP had not expressed regret over the
demolition and its policies continue to be 'divisive'.
While the minister was replying, Samajwadi Party members raised slogans that both Congress and BJP were responsible for the demolition.
Chidambaram, who spoke for almost an hour amid unabated slogan shouting, restrained his colleagues from reacting after a paper ball was lobbed towards him. As slogans like 'Down, down Chidambaram' and 'Jai, Jai Atal' rent the air, the minister did not give up, and was repeatedly cheered by his party colleagues through thumping of tables.
The minister, who was barely audible due to slogan shouting, said the idea of 'inclusive India' represented by the Congress and other secular parties had been preferred by the people of India in 2004 and 2009 elections and 'divisive politics' of the BJP had been rejected.
The uproar in the house started before the minister's reply after P.C. Chacko, who was presiding over the proceedings, asked the members, who had not got the opportunity to speak, to lay their speeches on the table of the house.
The opposition members protested at this. The house had earlier witnessed noisy scenes and two adjournments over derogatory remarks by Congress MP Beni Prasad Verma against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders indicted in the report.
Congress leader and Minority Affairs minister Salman Khurshid later said that the Home Ministry will take the necessary action on the Liberhan report.
Rahul Gandhi violated security norms? Probe ordered
Rahul Gandhi violated security norms? Probe ordered
The DGCA on Tuesday decided to probe the landing of the helicopter carrying Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in allegedly poor visibility conditions in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district on Monday evening.
Official sources told PTI that the statements of the two pilots of the helicopter and the district magistrate of Sitapur will be recorded in a couple of days.
Rahul earlier in the day sought to stave off a controversy that he had forced the pilot to land his helicopter in poor visibility conditions in Sitapur.
'I am a pilot and I am absolutely aware of the dangers of flying in low visibility conditions. I will be the last person to do it,' he told a press conference in Lucknow.
Sitapur district magistrate Sanjay Kumar said the copter landed after sunset in poor visibility.
Meanwhile, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh sent a letter to the Central Home Ministry, complaining that Rahul violated security norms during
his visits to the state.
'The state government has made it clear to the Centre that if Mr Rahul Gandhi continued to bypass and violate laid down security rules, then the Centre must not hold the state responsible in case there was any mishap,' Mayawati's trusted aide and state's Additional Cabinet Secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Contradicting the Congress leader's claim that he always believed in strictly adhering to all security norms, he said, 'Since Mr Rahul Gandhi is covered by SPG there are certain norms which need to be observed, but it was a matter of deep concern for the state government that he has repeatedly violated these norms and rules.'
According to Pandey, the state government had raised its concern with the Centre for the first time when the Congress General Secretary visited Kanpur in October 2008.
The state government has also objected to Gandhi's waving out to people in Etah and shaking hands with the crowds outside the security ring.
The DGCA on Tuesday decided to probe the landing of the helicopter carrying Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in allegedly poor visibility conditions in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district on Monday evening.
Official sources told PTI that the statements of the two pilots of the helicopter and the district magistrate of Sitapur will be recorded in a couple of days.
Rahul earlier in the day sought to stave off a controversy that he had forced the pilot to land his helicopter in poor visibility conditions in Sitapur.
'I am a pilot and I am absolutely aware of the dangers of flying in low visibility conditions. I will be the last person to do it,' he told a press conference in Lucknow.
Sitapur district magistrate Sanjay Kumar said the copter landed after sunset in poor visibility.
Meanwhile, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh sent a letter to the Central Home Ministry, complaining that Rahul violated security norms during
his visits to the state.
'The state government has made it clear to the Centre that if Mr Rahul Gandhi continued to bypass and violate laid down security rules, then the Centre must not hold the state responsible in case there was any mishap,' Mayawati's trusted aide and state's Additional Cabinet Secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Contradicting the Congress leader's claim that he always believed in strictly adhering to all security norms, he said, 'Since Mr Rahul Gandhi is covered by SPG there are certain norms which need to be observed, but it was a matter of deep concern for the state government that he has repeatedly violated these norms and rules.'
According to Pandey, the state government had raised its concern with the Centre for the first time when the Congress General Secretary visited Kanpur in October 2008.
The state government has also objected to Gandhi's waving out to people in Etah and shaking hands with the crowds outside the security ring.
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