Hank Green, with the help of Potter know-it-all Melissa Anelli, made a Google search story, closely resembling the Google Super Bowl ad, based on the Harry Potter series.

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Let’s face it, Google is turning into Facebook: a company that will make anything popular, disregarding what their users want. Google does video. And photos. And email. And music. And blogging. And health records. And browsers. And operating systems. And social networking. And, now, broadband.

Google shouldn’t give a damn about being a social network, or any third party device for that matter. What they should care about is being the best damn search engine around. It was what the site started as, why it got discovered, and why people come back to it. It’s the best damn search engine around, and, quite frankly, all this other bullshit they’re making to “stay in the game” is useless.

Sure, a lot of it is useful; I couldn’t live without Gmail, Google Maps or YouTube, and both are major forces in the digital world. But Super Bowl ads? “Reinventing email”? Thanks, but pass. I could care less about Buzz. It’s no different than any other Twitter clone out there. Which is why it being a product of Google bothers me: If Google, the most popular search engine, and the most visited website in the world, is going to release a product, it should be revolutionary, interesting, or game-changing in some way, not just pointless.

So, when Google Buzz fails, don’t be surprised. And when you sit around, wondering what ever happened to the little search engine that could, don’t be surprised, either. You have to know when too much is too much, and, right now, it looks like Google doesn’t.

Google’s Nexus One may be a fantastic phone, but one of its “features” is just ####### pointless. Chris Matyszczyk reports for CNET:

It will, dare I utter the word when referring to a product from the newly emancipated Google, censor you. You see, the pungently polite people at Reuters were playing with their Nexus One when they noticed something about its built-in voice-to-text feature. Every time they said something naughty into the phone, the naughty word came out as “####”, and not just “f—.” It even censored the “S” part of BS.

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If you type, “Buddhism is” or “Christianity is,” Google will quickly show you suggestions for what it thinks you might be trying to type. In the former query’s case, the Google guesses “not a religion,” “wrong,” “not what you think.” Christianity gets tougher treatment with the suggestions “bullshit” and “not a religion.”

But the query “Islam is”? Not a thing comes to mind for Google to suggest. (Search results are still there, of course.)

It’s enough to get some to conclude Google is censoring itself, perhaps as a result of complaints for suggestions that one guesses are just as flattering as those for other faiths. (via Wired)

Google Analytics Question

I’ve just set up Google Analytics for my site, and I need to know something quick.

Which domain should I install it for? (as in shaneblog.com, or shaneblog.tumblr.com) Should I install for both?

"Google’s Chrome browser overtook Apple’s Safari in the final month of 2009 to become the 3rd place browser behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. Web metrics provider Net Applications has released its full month of December stats, confirming that Chrome (Chrome) had 4.63% of the browser market that month, versus 4.46% for Apple’s Safari."

Mashable

From the same folks at Whirled Interactive who brought us the excellently funny “Pulp Wave Fiction” comes another intelligent use of Google Wave as a video production medium — this time it’s used to encapsulate the year in news and social media.

In “Waving Goodbye to 2009,” we see a Google Wave rendition of the year’s most memorable moments. From the Obama inauguration to the Iran elections, from Susan Boyle to Kanye West, the video highlights the best — and worst — moments of 2009. (via Mashable)

Ryan Kelley:

How to Try the New Google Search

The rumors about Google’s redesign are true, and you can try it for yourself with a very simple method. Click through to see how.

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Accurate.

“The Google Logo Designer Is Having Marital Problems” by David Young