Alphabet (the umbrella corp that owns Google and DeepMind) just launched Isomorphic Labs (IL). According to the new company’s blog, it’s “reimagining the entire drug discovery process from first principles with an AI-first approach.” In other words: The CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, is going to run a drug-discovery spinoff. Up front:This seems like a really good thing. DeepMind’sAlphaFold 2has supposedly revolutionized how researchers study protein structures. And Hassabis is obviously pretty good at running a lab....

Over two years after itcloseda previous product catalog search service, Google has todayannouncedthe launch of an iPad app calledGoogle Catalogs. The app lets you browse the catalogs of brands like Macy’s, Pottery Barn and Urban Outfitters. The app even lets you buy online right from the app by following a link through to the retailer’s web store, or find a nearby store to purchase it from. Features include the ability zoom in to see products up close, explore photo albums and videos of products; create a collage of your favorite catalog pages and products and view collages created by others....

Google’s recently launched competitor to Yelp,Places With Hotpot, has todayarrivedon the iPhone. Google Places With Hotpot allows you to search for locations nearby based on a number of categories like restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, ATMs and tourist attractions. As with services like Yelp, you’re able to see top-rated locations nearby, rating and reviewing directly from your phone. The new iPhone app works exactly the same way to the Android app whichlaunchedin November....

We interviewed Google,when it first launched its notorious “+1” button at the end of March. Since then Google has been testing out the +1 button in its search results, allowing the power of social to raise the rating of search responses. Today,Google announcedthe +1 Button for the entire web, effectively acting as Google’s version of theFacebook‘Like’ button. As a result, you will start seeing +1s appear on sites across the Internet....

Afterlaunchingits store for e-books in the USA exactly ten months ago, Google hasannouncedthat today it hasarrived in the UK. With “hundreds of thousands” of titles available to buy, UK publishers including Hachette, Random House and Penguin have been signed up. Over 2 million free public domain titles are also available. Google will be working with other UK retailers including Gardeners’ Hive and Blackwell’s to broaden the reach of its e-books....