7 Days in News (29-02-2012)

1. Helping you find what’s in the mind’s eye with improved related searches 
Today we’re making it easier for you to hone in on that perfect image or explore your topic visually with an update to related search links. Related search links have been around for awhile—they’re the row of blue links running across the top of your image search results—but today we’re making them more visual to help you find exactly what you’re looking for or just have fun exploring.

For example, when planning a trip to Greece, I may not know what places are worth a visit, so I search for [greece] on Image Search. Now, with more visual search links, I can hover over the links on the top of the results, like [santorini greece], and see a panel pop up with images of Santorini. Without having to type more words into the search box or clicking through, I can quickly glance at the pictures of Santorini. If I decide to click through, I find new links for further refined or related searches, such as [oia santorini greece] or [santorini greece sunset]. Now I’m sold, I want to see more Santorini images.

You’ll start to see these links whenever you search for images as we roll this change out globally over the next few weeks.

2. Adobe Flash v11.2 and Above Will Only Be Available For Chrome Browser on Linux
Adobe announced that the Flash player for Linux will only be available for Google Chrome browser on Linux and has announced their plans to abandon future updates of Flash player for Linux. From the blog post:

• For Flash Player releases after 11.2, the Flash Player browser plugin for Linux will only be available via the "Pepper" API as part of the Google Chrome browser distribution and will no longer be available as a direct download from Adobe. Adobe will continue to provide security updates to non-Pepper distributions of Flash Player 11.2 on Linux for five years from its release.One can safely assume that Adobe wants to kill Flash on Linux for all other browsers except Google Chrome.

3. Collaborate and edit anywhere with the updated Google Docs for Android 
As I was sitting on the ferry commuting to Google’s Sydney office this morning, two thoughts occurred to me. First, Australia is beautiful. If you’ve never been here, you really should visit. And second, it’s amazing how productive I can be with just my Android phone and an Internet connection. I was responding to email, reading news articles and editing documents—just like I do at the office. Only the view was better!

We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android. We've brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You'll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.

We also updated the interface to make it easier to work with your documents on the go. For example, you can pinch to zoom and focus on a specific paragraph or see the whole document at a glance. We also added rich text formatting so you can do things like create a quick bullet list, add color to your documents, or just bold something important. Watch the new Google Docs app in action:

If you want to hear about the latest Docs news or send us feedback on the new app, visit Google Docs on Google+.

4. Samsung's Next Galaxy Swings Into View
Samsung's Galaxy S III Android smartphone will hit shelves with a super-fast processor, a ceramic case and 4G LTE compatibility, according to a recent report. The Android smartphone will run on Ice Cream Sandwich and come with a 1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, the report states. The phone's 4.8-inch full HD screen will feature 1080p resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio display. The Galaxy S III's cameras will include an 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera.

5 .Mountain Lion Messages: A Few Crossed Wires, Lots of Potential
The new Messages app for the upcoming release of OS X Mountain Lion -- that's right, it's "OS X" without the old "Mac" in front of it now -- is in beta and available for download. Unlike some companies, Apple tends not to release beta software, but it occasionally does. Of course, it took me all of six seconds to decide to give it a whirl. Messages will basically replace iChat, the application that lets you chat via multiple chat protocols, along with video chat. While Messages neatly takes the place of iChat, your iChat settings and services continue to work.

6. Ubuntu's Bold Mobile Gambit
There's no denying the magnitude of Linux's impact on the world of personal computing so far, but you know something has changed when headlines like these begin appearing: "Ubuntu for Android: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of computing" read one. "Ubuntu for Android shows us the future of computing" read another. Indeed, after Canonical's Tuesday debut of Ubuntu for Android, it soon became clear that the news had struck some kind of chord with observers far and wide, prompting nothing less than a large-scale reconsideration of the current state of computing.

7. Why the World Is Desperately Seeking Linux Talent
Well, it's been another wild week here in the Linux blogosphere, with the news announcements coming so fast there's scarcely been time for a cape-wearing champion of FOSS to catch her breath. There's been particular excitement around Ubuntu for Android, of course, but that's a topic for another day. Today, it's time to give another important item the attention it deserves. Specifically, "Linux talent in high demand" was the headline atop a recent release from The Linux Foundation, and its news was nothing if not exciting.