DigitMemo.com

The next evolution of labels

Back in the Paleolithic Era, the world was a very different kind of place. People were hunter-gatherers, lived in caves, and kept all their email in folders*. You can’t really blame them. Between tracking woolly mammoths, fashioning crude stone tools, and auditioning for commercials, having a highly tuned system for organizing email wasn’t their highest priority.

But people changed. We moved out of caves and into skyscrapers. We hunt for bargains at the corner grocery. And we play video games simulating ourselves playing video games.

Click for more on Coloured Labels Now Available on Gmail »

The new Google Maps with MyLocation service allows users without GPS-enabled phones to figure out their location by using nearby cell-phone towers

Google launched a location service for mobile users on Wednesday that doesn’t rely on GPS.

Google Maps with My Location, currently in beta, locates users who don’t have GPS-enabled phones based on their location to nearby cell towers. The result isn’t as accurate as GPS but works for people who lack the positioning technology in their phones.

Click for more on Google service uses cell towers to locate users »

Google’s Goal: Get Rid of Coal

Google has set its sights on decreasing global dependency on coal Tuesday with the announcement of a new project intended to produce affordable renewable energy.

The effort, dubbed “RE<C”, will initially focus its efforts on solar thermal power, wind power technologies and enhanced geothermal systems. Specifically, Google wants to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy that is cheaper than coal, said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder.

“We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades,” Page said during a Tuesday conference call. One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco, he said.

Solar power is “currently substantially more expensive than coal, depending on the type,” Page said. “It’s an ambitious goal to get it cheaper than coal, but it’s attainable.”