On this day, cities around the world, including Paris, Sydney, London, Cairo, New York, Los Angeles and Cape Town, will join together to demonstrate their commitment to energy conservation and sustainability.

Here’s how you can participate:

• All you have to do to Vote Earth is turn your lights out for one hour tonight, Saturday, March 28 from 8:30pm to 9:30pm local time, in your city. Your light switch is your vote!
• Set your computer’s power management and save up to $60 on your electricity bill and nearly half a ton of C02 over the next twelve months. Climate Savers Computing Initiative provides instructions on how you can save electricity all year long through efficient computing.
• Join Earth Connect and share your opinions about climate change through blogs, e-mails, and Twitter. The goal is to gather one billion words to present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
• If you are affiliated with a college, help your university reduce its environmental impact by adopting green computing practices. Pledge to Power Down for the Planet and create a video to teach others about the importance of energy efficient computing in the fight against climate change.

Earth Hour is about more than dimming lights for sixty minutes; it’s about making a commitment to reduce energy consumption throughout the year.

As Google’s business grows, we want to make sure we minimize our impact on the Earth’s climate through responsible environmental practices every hour, every day.

Source: Google Earth Hour 2009

I am fond of Gmail’s chat feature. I feed my AIM account through it, and can pretty much tackle all of my instant messaging needs from within Gmail itself rather than opening another application for chatting. I am not a regular user of iGoogle, but I can see the utility in its newest feature.

Chat can be added as another widget to the iGoogle home page via the settings menu. Google says that it works identically to the regular Gmail chat feature. All settings for Gmail chat will apply to the iGoogle version.

Google also says that Gmail users will be able to chat with anyone they wish — Gmail user or not — by inviting them to be a chat buddy. Once they accept, they’ll appear in the user’s buddy list. They will have to sign up for an iGoogle account, however. The chat feature also can be hidden from view if you’re the type who’s easily distracted, and users can sign out of chat without signing out of iGoogle if they prefer not to be bothered.

Apparently Google had been testing this feature out internally and with a small set of users. Today, chatting from within iGoogle is being offered to a much larger group of users.

Of course, it’s a trial version of the service. Google’s Rhett Robinson writes:

“It’s worth noting that this feature may have some kinks, so we ask for your patience as we work through them. Here at Google, it’s common practice for us to involve our users as early possible so we can make sure we get it right. We’ll also be rolling this feature out slowly, so if you don’t see it on your iGoogle page and you simply can’t wait to check it out, feel free to opt in by going to www.google.com/ig/v2invite.”

Right now, iGoogle chat will only work in English for users in the United States, but Google says it will support other languages and countries in the near future.

I can understand Google’s point of view on the matter. The Android Dev 1 — as it’s called in Android circles — is fully unlocked in the sense that its users can access the root file structure of everything on the device. This means any software and any application on the phone is totally exposed and vulnerable to being stolen.

By blocking the unlocked Android Dev 1 phones from accessing the premium applications, Google is protecting those companies that are offering products for sale from possible theft.

It should also be easy to understand the developers’ point a view. Here they are, the premium users of the Android platform, and they are blocked from some of the best applications available to the device.

Android Authority’s Michael Oryl writes:

“If I had gone out and paid $400 for this unlocked device, I know that I’d be pissed off about this limitation.”

No kidding Michael.

I have to wonder if Google attempted to find a happy medium before instituting this policy. Surely there could be a way to get the developers access to these applications with some sort of guarantee for the publishers of those apps that they won’t be ripped off.

Until a compromise of some sort is worked out, Android Dev 1 owners will get the short end of the stick.

Gmail has long used a labeling system for managing emails rather than folders, which are used in email programs such as Microsoft Exchange. The labels let users organize their emails, which have a little more flexibility than folders in that emails can have multiple different labels at the same time.

Google admits:

“it’s not always obvious how to use labels, especially for people who are new to Gmail and used to using folders, and it hasn’t helped that some common tasks have been more complicated than they should be.”

Today, that changes. Google has revamped the buttons and menus along the top of the Gmail inbox. The new buttons allow you to hit the “Move to” button, which will label and archive an email in a single step, rather than the two steps it used to take. There is a separate button for labels, which are now supported with auto-complete. Start typing the first few letters of a label, and list of suggested labels will appear from which you can select the one you want.

Lastly, Google is adding new keyboard shortcuts to support these new functions. Use “v” for “Move to” and “l” (lowercase L) for “Labels.” You have to have the keyboard shortcuts turned on in order for them to work.

So there you have it, more features for Gmail that should make labeling and archiving just a little bit easier.

I’ve never used this product, but the idea is great. According to Google:

Google Earth Enterprise lets customers build globes with their own data that can be accessed with the same fast, easy-to-use technology as Google Earth. Previously, Google Earth Enterprise customers could only access their private Google Earth globes when connected to the network. Sometimes, when working in the field, limited or no network connectivity prevented our customers from accessing the full potential of the geospatial data.

The portable version of Google Earth Enterprise allows organizations to distribute geospatial data to their employees where bandwidth is limited or unavailable — such as emergency workers responding to a disaster. Customers can deploy the portable solution for a single individual, or for a multiperson team.

This version is also appropriate for situations when users are away from their desks and need to access an organization’s geospatial data. Data collected in the field can also be transferred to the primary system when network connectivity is available.

I can imagine many uses of this product on the enterprise level. Think about your field force workers, or emergency response teams. For those who travel regular routes, or need to take down survey data or need access to other geospecific information, having remote access to this tool can be highly beneficial.

Google says that the software is loaded on a customer-supplied USB drive or a large partition on a user’s laptop using VMware. In this case, mobile means accessible via a laptop, and not a mobile phone. Google didn’t say that Google Earth Enterprise will be available on any mobile platforms, but that would be the pinnacle of mobility.

The consumer version of Google Earth is available for the Apple iPhone.

Google engineers Jonathan Terleski, Michael Lancaster, and Brett Lider have published a blog post with the details:

To enable Tasks, go to Settings, click the Labs tab (or just click here if you’re signed in). Select “Enable” next to “Tasks” and then click “Save Changes” at the bottom. Then, after Gmail refreshes, on the left under the “Contacts” link, you’ll see a “Tasks” link. Just click it to get started.

Adding a new task is just a matter of clicking inside an empty part of one’s list, typing, and hitting return. E-mail messages can also be converted to Tasks using the menu More Actions/Add To Tasks.

Google has been throwing new features at Gmail with abandon recently. In June, it opened Gmail Labs. In October, it launched seven features for Gmail: Gmail Gadgets, emoticons for messages, Gmail for mobile version 2.0, Canned Responses, contact manager improvements, advanced IMAP controls, and Mail Goggles. Last month, Gmail got Themes, Video and Voice Chat, and stickers.

Frankly, I wish they’d slow down a little. Every time I open Gmail, there’s something new to learn about.

The Wall Street Journal posted an extended story today on what Google is doing to curtail costs in light of the current economic climate. The laundry list is very long. It includes:

• Running ads in services it previously provided ad-free.
• Shifting engineers from pet projects to those that are more likely to succeed.
• Cutting back the number of hours its cafeterias are open.
• No more afternoon tea for Google’s NYC office.
• Killing off services that aren’t succeeding.
• Office closures.
• Merging overlapping services into one unit.
• Slowing down the rate of hiring new staff.
• Reducing current staff levels by up to 10,000 people.
• Delaying the production of new data facilities.

What I think is most significant is the way Google is going to manage its engineers. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told The Journal that it is shifting its engineering and sales resources to areas and projects that show promise, and reducing the number of engineers working on projects with less promise.

This represents a pretty big change in Google’s thinking. It has always offered Google employees the opportunity to work on projects and services that they wanted to for 20 percent of their time. Google didn’t say that it was taking away that 20 percent, but it is going to manage it differently.

SearchMash has already been killed off by Google, and Lively will be shut down at the end of this month. Other services on the brink of elimination include Google Notebook (which I use and happen to like) and Google Audio Indexing. If there are any other services that Google might pull the plug on, they haven’t yet been named.

In all, Google is taking the economy seriously and making the appropriate shifts in its business practices to meet these uncertain times.

I find Google Desktop to be very useful in Windows. The fact that a Gmail gadget hasn’t been available before now has been rather baffling. Thank goodness Google finally listened to the pleas of the masses and added one.

Google says:

“You’ll see that it covers the basics such as reading, searching, and sending messages. You can star messages, use the same keyboard shortcuts, and we didn’t forget about contact auto-complete. It doesn’t take up much space in your sidebar or desktop, and you can also resize it to show as few or as many messages as you’d like.”

Right now the Gmail gadget currently works with the latest release of Google Desktop for Windows. Support for Macs and Linux isn’t available yet. I haven’t have a chance to download it yet, but Google is excited that people check it out and provide some feedback.

Chrome users can expect an automatic update soon.

Version 0.3.154.9 fixes a security issue that allowed address spoofing in pop-up windows:

“The window’s address bar could be manipulated to show a different address than the actual origin of the content,”

- Mark Larson
Google Chrome program manager
Source: blog post

Version 0.3.154.9 also enables laptop touchpad scrolling, improves plug-in and proxy performance and reliability, fixes a PDF crash generated by closing a tab, and eliminates the storage of data from secure sites.

The updated Chrome also has benefited from some housekeeping and interface changes. The menu commands “New incognito window” and “New window” now always open new windows, privacy protected and normal, respectively. The spell checker now works on text input fields and allows users to add words to the spell check dictionary, and file downloading has been changed to make it more secure.

Chrome is currently a distant fourth in terms of market share. According to Net Applications, the global browser market-share breakdown, as of October 30, is as follows:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer (71.52%)
• Mozilla Firefox (19.46%)
• Apple Safari (6.65%)
• Google Chrome (0.78%)
• Opera (0.69%)

Chrome is currently available for Windows XP and Vista; Google plans to release a Mac version in the near future.

Today, The New York Times is reporting that a company controlled by the top three Googlers recently bought a Dornier Alpha Fighter Jet. The company, H211 LLC, is controlled by Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt, and it is responsible for managing a fleet of private aircraft for the three men.

The company already manages a Boeing 757, a Boeing 767, and two Gulfstream V’s. These four aircraft, plus the new fighter jet, all have landing rights at Moffett Field, which is a located near Google’s main offices.

According to a Google spokesperson, the Alpha Jet is being outfitted with scientific instruments for NASA missions, including instruments that the other planes could not carry.

The Times says that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is “an avid pilot.”

The Dornier Alpha Fighter Jet is made by Dornier in Germany and Dassault-Breguet of France.