Magkakaroon ng bagong hitsura ang Orkut–ang pantapat ng Google sa Friendster, Facebook, at MySpace. Dapat sumali na kayo at i-add ako.

Sa pinabagong entry sa Orkut blog, ganito ang isinulat ng software engineer na si Eduardo Cordeiro:

When you think Google, you picture primary colors; when you think orkut, you see blue. And though we’re updating out look, we’re staying true to blue. We’ve added some rounded corners and new icons that make orkut look a little more sleek and modern. Check out a screen shot of the new homepage.

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Sabi ko kay Aileen kahapon, baka mas bagay ang “Bahala na” sa halip na “Sinusuwerte ako” sa pangalawang button sa Google Pilipinas homepage.

Ganito ang paliwanag ng Google tungkol sa “I’m Feeling Lucky”:

Google has a function, “I’m Feeling Lucky” that presents a particular translation challenge. The function takes the user immediately to the first result for a search — so, a user selects “I’m Feeling Lucky” when they are willing to take a chance that Google’s first result will be what they are looking for. The phrase in English has a specific tone — daring, confident, and playful. This has been a hard phrase for people to translate. If you can’t come up with a way to translate this phrase while preserving its tone just leave it in English.

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Looks like this isn’t a breaking news, but I decided to to write about it anyway.

When Google Checkout–Google’s payment processor–was first offered to Internet users, it was available only to those with a United States billing address. I was able to register using my Citibank Visa and an imaginary US address, which I fixed as soon as I was able to login.

Since I was able to register, I became a Checkout member member with a saling-pusa (tag along) status because I was using a Philippine issued credit card and a Philippine billing address. I tried ordering books and CDs from various sites–including Buy.com–and was surprised to find out that my Google Chekout account was actually working. There’s a twist, however, because while Checkout processed my order, I was told that the store does not ship to the Philippines. (more…

I was amused by Google co-partner Sergey Brin’s reply when asked by reporters why his partner, Larry Page, did not attend Allen & Co.’s annual mogul retreat (I have no idea what that event is as I still have to google it):

“He wasn’t feeling well, so I came. We’re interchangeable.”