Official Google Australia Blog: Your new map of Australia

Better maps for Australia - hopefully Google Navigation follows soon

Keep the map improvements coming. I do hope this is connected with Google Navigation, as user feedback would be essential.

Telstra uses misleading AdSense ads to try to cash in on iPhone hype

Telstra has obviously paid big dollars for the keyword "iphone" on the Australian Google site, nothing wrong there, except the ads are misleading (and in breach of Google AdSense policy).

There is also nothing new about competitors buying ads for keywords covering rival or even just related products. In this case Tesltra is placing an ad for Next G Network Prepaid - they report some features of their plan and display a URL of www.telstra.com.au/Iphone. Now it is not unusual that the exact URL in an ad is not the URL that you land on, however in this case the URL is not even valid. This is a breach of AdSense policy, and it is so clearly created to deceive you, which possibly is a breach of Australian Trade Practices Act.

"In the ACCC's view everyone involved in the preparation and broadcasting or publication of misleading or deceptive advertising is in potential breach of the Trade Practice Act 1974".


Google Policy:

Display URL must be accurate.

• Your display URL must accurately reflect the URL of the website you're advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so users will know which site they'll be taken to when they click on your ad.
• If your actual destination URL link is too long to use as your display URL, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field.

Example:
Destination URL: http://www.shoesforsale.com/ladiesshoes/highheels.html
Display URL: www.shoesforsale.com

• The display URL field cannot be used as another line of ad text.
• Your display URL must include the domain extension, for example: .com.au, .net.au, or .org.au

Re:Tear Down This Wall!

I totally agree with Dave Uhlir's post that the presence industry is just waiting to really take off, once the major players realise that the fighting over many small pies is stupid and it is better to make one big pie.

Singling out Microsoft with their lack of support for XMPP is however unfair. What about Google's support for SIP/SIMPLE? Ever since the launh of Google Talk they have teased us with "SIP support coming soon", along with another pet peeve "we look forward to supporting MAC and Linux".

Joost - Streaming Video with Hype

Joost is video streaming done well, very well. Joost is also viral marketing done well, very well. Because I can only see it to be evolutionary and not a revolutionary step towards IPTV. There are no real "new" features, no new paradigm.

Also whilst we don't need another Youtube with user created content, which Joost has clearly said it will not be, I hope we will see it open enough to allow independent creators be able to publish their stuff. As a start what would be great is a Top Video Podcast channel that had the most popular video podcasts from one of the podcast directories.

Gizmocall.com - Skype Killer 2.0

It has now been close to two weeks since Michael Robertson announced the launch of GizmoCall.com, his latest attempt at a Skype killer. The service allows the making of a free voip call using just a browser via a Flash plugin.

My experience has been awful to the point of unusable, over several calls. This surprised me as I have been using both the Gizmoproject softphone and a SIP handset logged into GizmoProject over several months with no issues.

The danger of course is that GizmoCall will destroy any reputation that the GizmoProject has built and maybe even taint SIP as unreliable and poor quality VOIP, at least in the mind of the masses.

Maybe what we need for mass adoption is a Google buyout of SIPphone.com (the company behind GizmoProject), as Google seems incapable of launching their own SIP service.

Warning: Google Maps Australia will get you lost!

Recently Google announced the enhancement of Google Maps Australia by enabling business search and what they describe as "driving directions".

In a move I find surprising, the map data they are using is terrible inaccurate, to the point that it is useless, as no sane person would (should) rely on it.

In a simple task of navigating a few suburbs, (North Epping to Pennant Hills in Sydney's North West) Google Maps Australia selected a route that included a large shortcut that saves kilometres of travel by suggesting that you navigate several hundred metres through bushland followed by no less than two non-through roads, all in less than 10km.

The accurate shortest route is this one

Google Maps Australia has this disclaimer:
These directions are for planning purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the map results.

How about reality may differ from map results?

All this is a shame as their Google Maps for Mobile is otherwise a killer mobile app. (By the way where is Google Talk for Mobile?)

openSUSE on PS3

Over on the openSUSE wiki there are moves to get openSUSE running on the PlayStation 3. Progress is a bit limited so far, and volunteers (ideally with hardware) are welcome to join in. If you don't know how to compile a Linux kernel, it is probably a bit early for you to join in. If you want to take part you should also join the opensuse-ppc mailing list.