Google Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it will build up to 1 million square feet of offices at NASA Ames Research Center and collaborate with the space agency on research surrounding topics such as supercomputing that could benefit everything from moon launches to online searches.

The new partnership will involve R&D on biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology, as well as supercomputing. The news article notes some of the mutual benefits: "Google stands to gain from learning about NASA's supercomputers, which could come in handy as the Mountain View search engine compiles even bigger indexes of information and video. NASA leaders cited the benefits of getting access to Google's search expertise to pick out nuggets of information from the volumes of data streaming back from satellites and human space launches."

"Google and NASA share a common desire to bring the universe of information to people around the world," said Eric Schmidt, in a statement. "Imagine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it."

Great, no?

Google and NASA the two big bosses of technology which according to me are taking this world too high, are going to collaborate on technology.
The BBC reports that Google will be assisting NASA with new technology from a campus facility in the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field." From the article: "As part of the venture, Google will develop one million square feet of real estate at the Nasa Ames research centre. The centre, built in 1939, has been at the heart of the US space program for many years, conducting research into the Apollo moon missions between 1963 and 1972. Nasa recently unveiled plans to make another moon landing by 2020. Examples of areas of potential collaboration include the development of new types of remote sensors and improving analysis of engineering problems." More details available from the official press release and MSNBC.

Google has released Firefox search toolbar (Version 1.0.20050923) after two months in beta. One interesting addition is Google Suggest, which guesses what you're typing and offers useful suggestions in real time.
Also, the PageRank meter is horizontal instead of vertical one. Its now easier to predict the exact pagerank of a page.

According to Yahoo! news, Google Inc. will stop boasting on its home page about the number of Web pages it has stored in its index, even as the online search engine leader continues a crusade to prove it scans substantially more material than its rivals.

When Google started the practice in mid-2000, the index spanned 1 billion pages; as of Monday afternoon, Google's home page said the search index contained 8.17 billion pages.

That figure qualified it as the largest in the industry until last month, when nemesis Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) revealed its database included 20.8 billion documents and images. Unlike Google, Yahoo never listed that figure on its home page, disclosing it only in a Web posting by one of its executives.

Seven years ago, Google first opened its door in Menlo Park, California. The door came with a remote control -- because it was a garage door. Yes, it was started in a garage. But, now its a different story.
On this day, in 1998, Google was born. Seven years later, and it has not only become the most popular search engine on the internet, but it has also become an integral part of many people's online life. From Google search to Google mail, Google Earth to Google Moon. It has even made its way into language as a common word.It is quite undeniable. Google is an amazing achievement. Happy birthday Google, and here's to many many more!

Flexbeta writes that Google is looking to hire a full time project manager for GoogleTV in Mountain View, CA. The candidate must posses experience developing/launching products in one or more of the following areas: interactive TV, set-top-boxes, personal video recorders, video-on-demand, IP TV or cable TV technologies. Google recently announced their interest in the text messaging market by releasing GoogleTalk; this came to no surprise to many that were already hearing rumors month's before GoogleTalk was released. Google is also working on providing free WiFi service to some regions of the San Francisco bay area. Google is without a doubt expanding their operations beyond the search engine market which makes the possibility of GoogleTV realistic.

Google has finally released a long overdue Blog Search. I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this feature for about a year now and am glad that it is finally here. Why do we need a blog search? Simple. Blogs are a quick way to get a feel for what people are thinking on any topic. Just type in your term and whammo! You get blog entry after blog entry from people like you and me spouting their opinions. Try it for yourself. Search for "ipod nano", the newest iPod, and see what people are saying. You'll get 17,840 blog entries of people talking about it.

Google is not the first engine to have a blog search. Before Google there were others who blazed the trail:

* Technorati (20,319 posts about ipod nano)
* Feedster (88,341 results)
* Daypop (834 results)
* Bloogz (140 results)
* BlogDigger (2,852)
* IceRocket (14,637)

I'm still not sure which blog search service is the best. I suspect I'll probably bounce between my previous favorites, Technorati (good, but often slow) and IceRocket, and I'll throw Google into the mix.