Your PC can contribute with Google ComputeWritten by Jakob Jelling
Have you heard of SETI Project? SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and project is operated by University of California at Berkeley. SETI monitors and processes radio signals from space, looking for possible signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. SETI uses proprietary software to distribute computer processing power among all connected PCs participating in SETI project so that radio signals can be processed faster and more efficiently. SETI effectively creates one big supercomputer from thousands of connected PCs across their network. Now users of Google Toolbar can contribute to scientific research in much same way, through Google Compute.Google has teamed with Folding@home for their first project. This research organization is non-profit and based at Stanford University. They use participants' combined computing power to analyze genetic structure of proteins for medical research. Once installed to Google Toolbar, Google Compute can be disabled easily at any time. While enabled, it will use your computer's otherwise idle time to process computing work assigned to it automatically from Folding@home, then automatically transfer results back to Folding@home when complete.
| | Google Catalogs - Old fashioned mail order meets high tech searchWritten by Jakob Jelling
In addition to Google's Froogle shopping service (still in beta), which features a searchable database of online merchants, Google is also beta-testing their Google Catalog service. Google Catalogs provides a searchable central repository of hundreds of mail-order catalogs. The service includes full scanned contents of catalogs, not just a photo and subscription information. And these aren't database entries, but real high-quality images of catalog images themselves. When you are browsing Google Catalog search results, you will see user interface controls at top and bottom of each page. These are reminiscent of Acrobat and many other browser plug-in controls or common Windows print preview controls, and you can page through each catalog, zoom in/out, switch between one, two, and thumbnail views, jump to a specific page, and search within current catalog. As with other Google searches, an advanced search feature is also available.
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