Have you ever wondered what happens when you die? More specifically, what happens to all your old Google Docs?
Well, fellow internet users, wonder no more. As of today, Google is giving users the opportunity to “plan their digital afterlife,” with a new feature called Inactive Account Manager, according to their Public Policy Read More
Last winter, BuzzFeed got a pony. Well, technically it was a miniature horse named Mystic, and she came by for a visit one morning—a surprise treat for hitting a web-traffic goal. Sure, a cash bonus might have been more practical, but a little pony with pink ribbons in her mane and a tiny gold party hat that stuck up like a unicorn’s horn? So much cooler. And judging by the photos that employees quickly posted on Facebook and Twitter, Mystic’s visit was basically the best day ever. At least until the time she visited with a piglet and a tiny bandana-
wearing goat. Or the time Grumpy Cat—the famous cranky-looking feline—stopped by.
It was enough to make even a Google employee jealous. Not that Google’s New York offices don’t have their own enviably cool visitors—Stephen Colbert, Lang Lang and Toni Morrison, to name just a few. Employees also get razor scooters. And pool tables. And arcade games. And subsidized massages. And free gourmet meals. And a full-service, full-size dessert truck permanently parked on the eighth floor.
These days, visitors to a New York office are as likely to stumble into a game of Ping-Pong as they are to find suited workers shuffling through a grim landscape of carpet tile and cubicles. Thrillist has a kegerator; building-mate Foursquare has shuffleboard and a beer of the week. Etsy’s Dumbo headquarters blends homemade coziness and high-end design so masterfully it could make an Urban Outfitters executive weep. Read More
Ori Allon, the charmed entrepreneur who has already sold one company to Google and another to Twitter, has been feverishly working on his third—Urban Compass. So far, Mr. Allon and founder Robert Reffkin won’t even say what Urban Compass does. But that air of mystery hasn’t slowed the company’s growth—they have raised $8 million from an impressive group of seed funders including Goldman Sachs, AmEx CEO Ken Chenault and Thrive Capital*. The start-up now has 18 employees and counting.
One of those 18 offers a clue to what Urban Compass will actually involve, and our guess is real estate. As first reported by The Real Deal, Gordon Golub, who was an Executive Vice President at Citi Habitats, left after 18 years to join Mr. Allon and Mr. Reffkin. Read More
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Google Analytics has done a fine job creating a series of humorous television spots–apparently targeted at British businesses–that shows what a Google Search would look like in real life. That is, if real life was a supermarket full of David Brent-type incompetents and a bureaucracy reminiscent of the one from Brazil. Read More
As several Twitter users have noted, many people don’t seem sure who’s running for President. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg’s office has teamed with Google to create Hurricane Sandy: NYC. It’s a handy “crisis” map that links to the latest N.Y.C. Emergency Management alerts, various city-related Twitter accounts and advisories about Hurricane Sandy from the National Hurricane Center.
Residents may be particularly interested in the map’s color-coded evacuation zones–currently Zone A is under a mandatory evacuation order.
Here are Google’s tips on how to best use the map: Read More
It wasn’t all politicos and power brokers at the ribbon cutting for the FDR Four Freedoms Park gathered at the tip of Roosevelt Island earlier this week. Cornell had a strong showing, too, since their new tech campus will be the park’s neighbor to the north within a few years. Cornell president and jockey David Skorton was there, and so was Eric Schmidt, the Google executive chairman who is serving on a three-man advisory panel for the campus.
Wearing a natty tweed blazer and jaunty blue scarf, Mr. Schmidt was wandering just south of the sloping lawn, near the massive bust of the 32nd president that is a centerpiece of the park, when The Observer caught up with him. “I would say first it’s probably the most beautiful new public structures in America today, it’s so visually arresting,” Mr. Schmidt said. He thought is was a stunning space both to look at and to look out from. Read More
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Opinion has been split over the new Google Glass glasses, which are surely some type of CIA/Jason Bourne/Total Recall prototype that someone accidentally leaked the schematics for over Gmail. Right? These things cannot be designed for regular citizens, especially since they make no sense.
But they’re not quite as ugly as people are making them out to be, and when Diane von Furstenburg decided to do a quick mini-doc about her Fashion Week show, putting these recording glasses on all her models was actually a genius idea. (Maybe?!) (We don’t know!) (You tell us.) (Video after the jump.) Read More
In its progressive/penny-pinching efforts to be a tech-forward transit agency, the MTA has outsourced much of its app development to outside firms and open-source programmers. Among the innovations out there, this meant the MTA’s official trip planner was integrated with Google Maps, as has been the case since 2008. The future is now!
This is good, because the MTA is often broken down and under repair in reality, so digitally would mean even more problems. But that is also where the interfaces did not connect: There was no integration between the Google Map routes and the MTA Service Alerts that warned straphangers about construction- and emergency-related service changes. That changes today. Read More
Former Huffington Post technical director Cindy Jeffers has been named CEO an CTO of Salon, the company announced today. Salon founder David Talbot had been serving as interim CEO after digital media entrepreneur Richard Gingras departed in July last year to become head of news products for Google. Read More
