Google has launched Google+ Pages, which is Google+ Version of Facebook Pages. To create a Google+ Page, just visit this URL, plus.google.com/pages/create.

I wish Google+ has support for nicer URLs like what they did in Facebook for both pages and profiles URL. No freaking way anybody is going to remember the ID of your profile or page.

Without a doubt, I have jumped onto the bandwagon and created a Google+ Page for lesterchan.net!

lesterchan.net on Google+: https://plus.google.com/117234432788649963306
lesterchan.net on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesterchan.net

People + pages, better together

Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too.

For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.

For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you’ll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.

Official Blog Post: Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about

YouTube Singapore is now official! YouTube makes its official debut in Singapore and it’s aim is to help Singaporeans find their favorite content and spread Singaporean content across the globe.

Its initial partners include music collection society COMPASS, leading sports rights agency World Sport Group, music distributor Valleyarm / Music Services Asia, and production companies Interactive SG, Oak Media, and Refinery Media.

The YouTube Partner Program opens in Singapore, allowing local video creators to earn income from their work on YouTube through sharing advertising revenue.

The official YouTube account for YouTube Singapore is youtube.com/SingaporeYT!

Official: YouTube Singapore

Wow, Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility for USD$12.5 billion! This comes as a surprise for me! Looks like future Google’s Nexus Phone will be made by Motorola. Next, Microsoft will acquire Nokia for USD$27 billion or less.

Press release as follows:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA and LIBERTYVILLE, IL – AUGUST 15, 2011 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and the approval of Motorola Mobility’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

Press Release: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility
Source: Official Google Blog: Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Interesting project by Google, it reminds me of Facebook with Friend’s List. No idea how different is it from Facebook till I tried it. But I love the Circle UI, quite a new and interesting concept.

Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day.

Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.

In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.

We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project

+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most

Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food – wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers

+Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything

Healthy obsessions inspire sharing, and we’ve all got one (or two, or three…). Maybe it’s muscle cars, or comic books, or fashion, but the attraction is always the same: it comes up in conversation, we immediately jump in, and we share back and forth with other fans. Often for hours. The trick is getting things started, and getting over that initial hump. Fortunately, the web is the ultimate icebreaker.

+Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face

Whether it’s inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out. And why not? It’s how we unwind, recharge, and spend unscheduled time with old and new friends alike. Hanging out is deceptively simple though, and the nuance gets lost online.

+Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle

These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it’s always with you, it’s always online, and it’s how we stay close with our closest friends. We didn’t want “just” a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ we focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal.

+Huddle

Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone’s on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they’re not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what’s going on, right this second.

Check out the Official Blog Post: Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web for more detailed information.

Engadget: Google+ invite received, we go hands-on
Official Site: Google+

If you are into computer engineering, this video is for you. Watch the full video (52:41). It is definitely worth your time!

Snippet

Every work day Facebook is safely updated with hundreds of changes including bug fixes, new features, and product improvements. Given hundreds of engineers, thousands of changes every week and hundreds of millions of users we have worldwide, this task seems like it should be impossible. In this tech talk, Chuck Rossi will dig into the tools and processes built by our Release Engineering team that make it possible to push daily updates to the site.

Summary

• They cut from trunk to RC on Sunday 6pm
• Tuesday 4pm is where they push it live
• They uses SVN for their central repo and git for development
• They do releases every weekday
  • Monday – Small daily pushes
  • Tuesday – Release push
  • Wednesday – Larger daily push
  • Thursday – Regular daily push
  • Friday – Careful daily push (mentioned that developers always slack on a Friday aka Friday you are most likely drunk)
• Facebook has slow traffic on Friday, but lots of traffic on Sat/Sun
• Facebook has 500 core engineers divided into 15 teams
• All users who works in Facebook does testing. When employees within the company type “http://facebook.com” they will be redirected to “http://latest.facebook.com“. Latest is defined as the merge between current Facebook production and what is going up on Tuesday
• Facebook does bug filing via email as well. If you send an email to a pre-defined address, it will be tracked by the bug tracker
• There is a Facebook Bugs Groups which all employee is a member (Similar to ours)
• Facebook.com is not a sandbox, strictly no testing on production
• Only 3 core release engineers
• 60 engineers on standby when a release takes place
• 3 phrases of pushing
  • A1: http://inyour.facebook.com aka staging, last chance to check what you are pushing. Looks good, moving on to A2
  • A2: Small % of machines, a couple of 1000 machines
  • A3: All
• Every developer, either develop against mock datasource or production database. Yes, you heard me right- Production DB. (And they have an army of DB admins to take care of that)
• Staging a.k.a. inyour.facebook.com and latest.facebook.com point to production database
• Facebook has oncall engineers for different teams with regards of different aspect of the website like Like Button, Feeds, Search, etc
• Automated infrastructure
  • IRC bots
    • They communicate via IRC about 300 to 500 people and 3 release engineers
    • They don’t talk to people, rather they ask people to talk to bots
      • Are we pushing today?
      • Can I get revision been merged?
      • When is my revision going out?
    • All this questions above can be answered by bots
      • /msg request_bot rt
  • Test automation
    • Test engineering team
    • Test console
      • Unit Test
      • Water Test
  • Shadow branch
    • Shadowing the production branch + changes that is requested
  • Error tracking
    • Per PHP error
    • Stack trace
    • SVN Blame
    • 1 button file as bug to the person and to the person who reviewed the code
    • How often the error occurs (like Google Analytics but for errors)
  • Gatekeeper
    • Console to change who can see the feature
    • Conditional statements within the code itself
    • Able to filter via Employees, US East Coast, US West Coast, Datacenter, Age, IP White/Black List. Able to bump to show only to 1% public then slowly increasing
  • Push Karma
    • General request page
    • How many files, LOC is being changed, risk ratings
    • Abstraction of discussions, call for changes are all being pulled
    • Magic Push Karma
      • Everyone starts with 4 stars
      • From there you go down
      • Private shaming
  • Perflab
    • Every SVN checkin is being plotted to a graph
      • Difference between production trunk and production+release trunk
      • Eg: A fix is make in trunk but did not get to release
  • HipHop
    • Everyone hates PHP, it is crappy and slow
    • They compiled PHP
    • Transformation Process
      • Parser -> Static Analyzer -> Pre-Optimizer -> Type Interface Engine -> Post Optimizer -> Code Generator -> G++
      • 1 GB binary is Facebook.com. Static, web resources, everything
      • Takes 8 to 10 minutes to build
      • faster by compiling PHP
  • BitTorrent
    • 1GB of binary file push to thousands and thousands of servers using torrent
    • Push 1GB of binary to all servers within 15 minutes
• Tools alone won’t save you, you need the right company, right people and right culture
• From Q&A
  • Robust backup and recovery system just in case someone did something stupid
  • Must be backward compatible, they might be a chance a few hundred machines does not have the new code in
  • While pushing to A3, automated test are still being run on A1 and A2 to detect potential problem
  • You write your test for your code
• phabricator – Phabricator is the Open Source release of Facebook’s internal tools for code review, repository browsing and change management. It contains two major applications: Differential, a code review tool, and Diffusion, a repository browser
• HipHop – HipHop for PHP transforms PHP source code into highly optimized C++. It was developed by Facebook and was released as open source in early 2010

Video: Push: Tech Talk – May 26, 2011 [HQ]
Facebook: Facebook Engineering