According to NPR:
Google is putting up $30 million dollars to sponsor a new contest. To win the grand prize, you have to put a privately funded robotic rover on the moon.

You can get bonus prizes if your rover discovers ice or takes photos of human artifacts, like equipment left by the Apollo astronauts.

Peter Diamandis runs the X PRIZE Foundation. It tries to spur the development of new technology by putting up big cash prizes.

A few years ago, it offered the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for the first privately funded spaceflight. SpaceShipOne, a white vehicle painted with blue stars, made two brief trips to space and back — and won the prize.

"And after that, we were looking to see where do we go next," Diamandis says. "And in the space realm, what was clear to us was, really were two objectives: One is an orbital X PRIZE and the second was a lunar X PRIZE."

Diamandis decided to first aim for the moon and he got Google to put up the prize money.

"To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a team has to build, design, launch and then soft-land on the moon a robotic rover, and then be able to rove — to maneuver around — for about a half a kilometer, 500 meters," Diamandis explains.

There are other requirements, too. Like, the rover has to do a mooncast, sending back images to Earth.

There's a $20 million grand prize. Second prize is worth $5 million, and there's $5 million in bonus prizes for things like getting your rover to survive a frigid lunar night.

But if you want to go for it, you'd better act fast — Diamandis says it all has to happen before Dec. 31, 2014.

"I have very little doubt that it will happen," he says. "I think that we will have a winner within four years."

Executives at Google seem to agree.

"We're optimistic that we will have a lunar landing by the time this prize is done," says Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, in a video prepared for Thursday's announcement at Wired Magazine's NextFest held in Los Angeles.

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Labels: Google

Text message your search query to 466453 ('GOOGLE' on most devices) and they will text message back results.

New! Personalized SMS saves you time by saving your location. They will automatically save your most frequently used location for future queries. You can also text 'set location' followed by a city & state or zip to save a new location.

Requirements: Text messaging-enabled mobile device with a text messaging plan. This service is free from Google but charges from your carrier for usage may apply.


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Labels: Google

This past Wednesday, Google unveiled a new "universal search" function that integrates text, photos, video, news, scanned books and blogs in a single list of results. The search engine will automatically check Google Video's archive and allow users to click on a "watch video' link that will embed the video right on the search results page.


Other video sites publishing clips or full-length versions also appear. Several companies have been working to improve video search on the net, but none with Google's pedigree or market share.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

Labels: Google

Google is using its popular online mapping service to draw attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. In a joint effort with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Google has updated its Google Earth application (free download here) with high resolution satellite images and special icons to draw attention to destroyed villages, displaced people and refugee camps.

Google Earth allows users to focus on satellite images and maps of most of the world.

When users scan over the Darfur region, where the United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of carnage, Google Inc hopes to attract their gaze with icons. The icons represent destroyed villages with flames and refugee camps with tents. When users zoom in to a level of magnification that keeps most of Darfur on a computer screen, much of the region appears to be on fire.

Google Earth works with Mac OS X 10.3.9+, Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Linux. Please visit HelpDarfurNow.org if you would like to raise awareness or make a donation to help the victims of Darfur.

BeSocial: digg it | via news.com.au | methodshop

Labels: Google

A year’s worth of search speaks to our collective consciousness, and 2006 is no exception. To compile these year-end lists and graphs, Google compared frequent queries this year against 2005 to see what sorts of things were top of mind.

Google.com - Top Searches in 2006
1. bebo
2. myspace
3. world cup
4. metacafe
5. radioblog
6. wikipedia
7. video
8. rebelde
9. mininova
10. wiki

Google News - Top Searches in 2006
1. paris hilton
2. orlando bloom
3. cancer
4. podcasting
5. hurricane katrina
6. bankruptcy
7. martina hingis
8. autism
9. 2006 nfl draft
10. celebrity big brother 2006

Labels: Google, Search

"Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page each saw his net worth jump $875 million yesterday — to a whopping $6.5 billion apiece — after Google, the most popular online search engine, reported blowout results.

Google's already skyrocketing share price surged another 15 percent yesterday to close at $172.43 in Nasdaq trading. Earlier in the day, the stock jumped as much as 21 percent.

The stock has more than doubled since August, when the company first sold shares at $85 through an unusual auction-style IPO.

In just three short months, Page and Brin, who each own about 38 million shares, have seen the value of their individual stakes rise by about $3 billion, to more than $6.5 billion." [Via newyorkpost.com]

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Labels: Google, News