According to Google, well, according to anyone, the Web is huge. Except that Google know exactly how huge it is. You see, the have just released a post with some interesting metrics: apparently they have a trillion URLs in their database. Apparently they don’t index them all, some are considered spam, some are considered infinite (like the next button on a calendar), but they still claim to index the greatest number of pages; more than any other search engine.

Techcrunch have a pretty interesting post in response to this where they claim that this is all about to change. Not sure if Arlington is just messing with people, but it will be interesting to see what this is all about ..

• Specs of Facebook’s Profile Redesign – interesting read which will affect millions of users. I wonder how much user feedback goes into this process. After all, nobody like a platform they’re familiar with changing under their feet without warning, do they? And don’t forget the poor developers.
• Microsoft Brand Confusion Runs Deep – Very interesting post and a real problem from Microsoft. They have generated so many brands and nomenclature over the years that there is significant confusion amongst it’s user base. Microsoft always feels like a top-heavy organisation, with too many people pulling strings and not enough people delivering to the end user.
• Google Translate becomes the best online free translator – Google Translate now supports the translation between any of the following languages: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish (the new languages are shown in bold)

There was more, but those were the most interesting ones

P.S. that was my first link to Mahalo .. Jason will be so pleased ..

Each topic features blog posts from many of the best blogs out there to help you discover what’s going on. The posts are refreshed frequently to reflect breaking news, new opinions, and the latest from the Web. We’ve set out to help you find some great blog posts to read and we’ve organized them by easy to browse topics. We considered a number of factors to get the seed list of blogs including Technorati Authority, frequency of posting, use of relevant tags, links to related subject matter and general topicality.

I tried having a poke around, and my immediate reaction was mixed. It’s great having all the latest news pop up in front of you, but the posts scroll by too quickly for the casual reader. Also, the whole experience feels rather disjointed; though it’s nice to have the feeling that you’re being shown posts as soon as Technorati learns about them (which is not the case)

Blogosphere reactions are a bit mixed about this one. Most people seem to be welcoming the fact that Technorati is making changes, while others liken it to “moving deckchairs around on the Titanic“, some even going as far as calling the change “useless“. I, for one, welcome the change. It’s nice to see an organisation trying to improve it’s offerings, and I would like to see Technorati become more popular.

It’s an interesting idea in that the human vetting element does add a measure of quality to the process, but it also impedes the scalability of the entire process. It also opens up a number of questions as to how authenticity of commentors will be verified and whether the whole system is open to social engineering and manipulation. One thing is for sure, the PR world will be having an interesting day with this one, as it’s another channel they can use to get their clients in the spotlight.

There’s some interesting debate on Techmeme on what this means, with people picking out different points of interest. From the fact that comments will not have a link to the commentor’s website, to the impact this move has on jounalism to why the story was announced by techies (and there are some that are more cynical than most). This is definitely one to watch

ARGs are games that use a blend of a fictional word and the real world to to deliver an experience to the end-user. Different aspects of the game may be moulded around real-life events, including information delivered by websites, blogs, telephone, television and even newspapers. I remember one some time back relating to Nokia, but though I had scrathed the surface, I never got into them.

Perplex City was run my Mind Candy, an interactive entertainment company. They seem to specialise in ARGs as can be seen by one of the articles they have written: The Rise of ARGs and the pioneering work they have done around Perplex City. The interesting thing is that they have turned the ARG model into something that is financially viable, yet without compromising the spirit of the game. In this case, it involved the sale of puzzle cards, which, while not being indispensible to the game, provided the finacial input to pay for the prizes and staff to run the game. We should be seeing more of this in the future!

You might think it’s fun to participate in one of these, but I bet it’s even better fun (albeit hard work) organising one !

Even children are bothered by the increasing restrictions. One electronics show attendee told me his 12-year-old recently asked him, “Why do I have to buy my favorite game five times?” Because the company that made the game wants to profit from each device the user plays it on: Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, Game Boy or phone.

The main issue here is that asking the Hollywood’s permission to add a feature to a gadget stifles innovation and takes away liberties from users who have paid for the media they are using. Is this a trend that will grow? Time will tell…