Best Kept Google Secrets!!!

There are some things you should know about google

1) A Google programmer accidentally blocked off every website in the Google index for an hour!
Google has programmers whose job is to block websites with malware. They do their work by entering dangerous websites into a registry for Google to block. The computer than warns users of the dangers of accessing such a site, and won’t let them on the site.
Basically, once a website is on Google’s malware registry, no one will ever see the site again. The problem came when one of programmers entered just a slash into the registry (/). As you will notice, every website address contains slashes because they are pretty much the punctuation of web addresses.
Since the slash was on the registry every website in the Google index was blocked including Google websites. It was a horrible mistake that, in effect, stopped the Internet for working for 55 minutes until programmers fixed the error. Google quickly admitted their mistake and apologized for the error.
Few remembered it after that sad, Internet-free morning in 2009. It does show, however, how huge a problem the slightest error can make. It only takes a small detail to completely derail the Internet!

2) Google maps uses anonymous cell phone data to give its live traffic feeds.
If you’ve ever used the mobile Google Maps application to navigate your way through an unfamiliar place, then you’ve probably also unknowingly returned Google the favour. When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous pieces of data describing how fast you’re moving, back to Google.
A collection of different people’s speeds from across thousands of phones moving through city at a given times, gives a pretty accurate picture of live traffic conditions. Google Mobile’s privacy policy includes an entire list of private information that Google is allowed to gather; your phone number, your carrier, basic usage stats about your device, etc. Google claims that it uses this information to create practical solutions and create a better user experience.

3) Google has developed a driverless car!
This new technology sounds as if it is right out of a science fiction movie, and that’s because it’s not far off. Over the past several years Google engineers and scientists have been working tirelessly at Stanford Laboratories to develop a technology that will change the way we live in the upcoming decades: the Google Car.
This car is completely driverless. It combines information from Goggle Street View with artificial intelligence software that communicates with a sensor on top of the car, which in turn speaks to the wheels and steering wheel to drive the car without any human interference. So far the car has clocked over 175,000 miles and had zero accidents.

4) There’s a fake town on Google Maps!
The town is called Argleton and was located south of a town called Ormskirk in England. The supposed location of Argleton is an abandoned field west of the A59 motorway. The town was removed from google maps in 2010, but it still lives on in the minds of the internet and even has its own wikipedia page!
Nobody is quite sure how the town came to be on the map. One explanation is that it’s a paper town, a fake place added to maps to make counterfeits easier to spot.
Another example of a paper town would be Agloe, New York. This town was created by a map company but was made real by a man who founded the Agloe General store in its supposed location, therefore bringing it into existence.
Google, however, sticks by the explanation that an error was made when creating the map. They are still not sure how it came to be in their databases.
The mystery of Argleton caused a stir in the local community when it first showed up. One man even walked to the field where it was supposed to be, just to see if it really did exist!

Contact details:
Facebook: Ita Ukemeabasi
Twitter: @ukemeabasi_ita
Please leave a comment

Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.