If successful, case could make Google liable for content of entire worldwide web

Google is being sued by a UK businessman who claims the search engine directed people to 'deeply offensive and commercially damaging' material about his comapnies on the internet.

The case, brought by Brian Retkin, 48, is the first of its kind in this country that seeks to make search engines responsible for the content of the internet.

Read more: computing.co.uk 

Labels: lawsuit, search, Web

A Brazilian judge has ruled in favor of YouTube, Globo Comunicações e Participações, and Internet Group do Brasil (iG) this week in a case involving Brazilian model Daniella Cicarelli and a sex video. Cicarelli and her boyfriend, Tato Malzoni, had sued YouTube after a video of the couple having sex on a public beach in Brazil appeared on the site. The pair argued that YouTube was violating their privacy. Judge Gustavo Santini Teodoro ruled that the couple's privacy claims were unfounded and ordered Cicarelli to pay fees to each of the defendants.

So first, she ordered pizza...

The story starts with the Spanish paparazzi videotaping Cicarelli and Malzoni having sex on a beach in August of 2006. The video was subsequently leaked to several media sources and was eventually shown on the Spanish TV show Dolce Vita. One thing led to another, and the sexcapade eventually landed on YouTube, where its popularity was rivaled by other uploads of the same video. Such is the pattern for many things video these days.

Read more: Ars Technica 

Labels: sex, supermodel, video, youtube

Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It’s a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats and web pages that you’ve viewed. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

Google Desktop doesn’t just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web with Sidebar, a new desktop feature that shows you your new email, weather and stock information, personalized news and RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to).

Requires glibc 2.3.2+, gtk+ 2.2.0+

Download: Google Desktop for Linux 

Labels: computer, Desktop, Linux, Sidebar, Web

Vegetarian giant to eat more data, weigh less

Google is getting its ducks in a row for its push into medical information. The advertising broker has rounded up a herd of healthcare policy-types to advise it on medical matters.

The new Health Advisory Council will be chaired by University of California, San Francisco professor Dean Ornish, who runs non-profit organisation The Preventive Medicine Research Institute, but is best known for veggie diet bestseller Eat More, Weigh Less. US health insurers love his ideas, and offer discounts to blobby clients who agree to sign up to them.

Read more: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: Doctor, health, medical, medicine, Vegetarian

Hard Times with Ingram Micro

Is there no end to this company's ambitions? Google has signed up Ingram Micro, the world's biggest IT wholesaler, to distribute its hardware search appliance box in the US.

Distributors are useful for credit, delivery and product returns. They are used to making next to no money and love new products where the margins flow freely and the vendor marketing budgets are generous.

Does Google fit the bill? As the world's most efficient advertising network, it has little need to turn to others to make market on its behalf. But its name is not yet synonymous with enterprise search - Autonomy and FAST are contenders too.

Read more: channelregister.co.uk 

Labels: computer, hardware, Ingram Micro, IT, PC

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips.

Picasa also makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can email, print photos at home, and make gift CDs. And with the new Web Albums feature, you can upload your photos to the web with just one click. You can even download your friends’ photos directly back to Picasa on your own computer. It’s never been so easy to share photos online. Now with Picasa Web Albums!

Download: Picasa 2.7.0 Build 36.60 

Labels: album, photos, picasa, pictures, Software

At an event in Google's New York offices on Tuesday, the company unveiled a new initiative to make its Google Earth geography software a more accessible tool for nonprofit organizations.

"We're now officially launching a program called Google Earth Outreach," said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps. "Google is stepping up and validating this as a bona fide program that will be staffed in our group."

Google Earth Outreach is now live, and several downloadable layers from the program's inaugural partners--the Global Heritage Fund, Earthwatch and Fair Trade Certified--are now available online.

Full article: webware.com 

Labels: Earth, geography, Maps, nonprofit, Software

Google has rolled out a new e-mail migration tool for prospective business customers looking to switch their e-mail management tasks over to Google Apps. The new self-service mail migration tools enable system admins to copy existing mail from an IMAP server over to GMail.

The tools are available only for Google Apps Premier and Education Editions, individuals looking to migrate from an IMAP set up to GMail will still have to make the move by hand.

Full story: wired.com 

Labels: apps, business, mail, tools

After all the hoopla over Google's antitrust complaint against Microsoft, today's court hearing was absolutely anticlimactic.

The feds and the state attorneys general had disagreed on whether Google's complaint was significant, but in the end they all accepted Microsoft's offer to modify Vista and be sure PC makers can preload them with Google's hard-drive search tool.

As expected, the judge basically said she doesn't want to reopen the case against Microsoft and favors the compromise. Google and the states are still making threatening noises and some details have to be worked out, but this episode is over.

Read more: seattletimes.com 

Labels: antitrust, Judge, microsoft, Vista

Privacy rules too precise

SEARCH ENGINE outfit Google is set to close its Gmail operation in Germany over a spat about privacy.

According to Spiegel, Google has chucked its toys from its pram over the German Bundestag's new Internet surveillance law.

Peter Fleischer, Google's German privacy representative says the new law is a severe blow against privacy.

Read more: theinquirer.net 

Labels: Germany, Gmail, mail

Less than a week after Terry Semel stepped down as chief executive of Yahoo, Wenda Harris-Millard, chief sales officer in the U.S., has left the company.

In a statement on Sunday, Yahoo Inc. said that its veteran domestic sales officer has resigned, forcing the company to merge the two main parts of its US advertising business under one sales executive, David Karnstedt.

Karnstedt, currently senior vice president of Yahoo's Search sales business, would lead the newly merged sales teams as head of North American sales.

Read more: themoneytimes.com 

Labels: advertisements, business, sales, Yahoo

But AdWords ain't all that, tat house snipes

After their bust up over a spolier party earlier this month, eBay and Google are back in bed together, albeit with less cash changing hands.

eBay got huffy when the search strumpet, which is going after PayPal's online payments dominance with its cheaper Checkout system, tried to pimp itself at a party on the fringes of a partner event in Boston. eBay summarily withdrew its advertising, which had made it Google's best punter.

In a rare public defeat, Google flinched, and canned the party.

Read more: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: advertisements, advertisers, ADWords, eBay

Adobe announced this morning that it has extended its Adobe Premiere Express service to two other online video services: YouTube and MTV.com. The free, Flash-based "video remixer" will allow users of the world's most popular video sharing site to splice their videos together with music, transitions, and other effects without requiring them to have special software on their computers. Similarly, MTV.com is holding a contest wherein users can "mix" new versions of Kelly Clarkson's video "Never Again" with the Premiere Express tool.

Adobe first launched Premiere Express in a partnership with PhotoBucket last February. The editor's drag-and-drop interface made it easy for PhotoBucket's users to create "remixes" of their videos and photos hosted on the site. They could then save them out as Flash movies, which are embeddable on any type of web page. PhotoBucket and Adobe billed it as an easy-to-use, no-experience-required solution for users to add multimedia elements to their personal photos and videos.

Full article: arstechnica.com 

Labels: Adobe, MTV, remixer, tool, youtube

The world's top Internet search engine Google is looking to launch YouTube in South Korea later this year to capitalise on the fast-growing user created content market here, a report said Friday.

YouTube, which was bought by Google last year, is the world's most popular online video-sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.

Read more: theage.com.au 

Labels: South Korea, video, youtube

The iPhone looks like it won’t support Flash but will still allow users to watch YouTube video clips thanks to a dedicated viewer that supports the newly H.264 encoded YouTube video format.

Just as the Apple TV is now YouTube compatible thanks to the H.264 format that YouTube’s video collection is being re-encoded with, so too is the iPhone able to display YouTube’s H.264 videos thanks to a special player iPhone users will see when visiting YouTube’s site.

Read more: itwire.com.au 

Labels: iPhone, phone, video, youtube

YouTube is set to overtake the BBC as the most popular entertainment website in the UK, if current trends continue.


According to statistics from internet monitoring company Hitwise, the BBC could find itself toppled from the number one spot – a position it has held for the past two years – by the video-sharing site.

Read more: webuser.co.uk 

Labels: BBC, entertainment, video, youtube

SO JERRY YANG is no longer just the chief Yahoo, whatever that means. Terry Semel has vacated Yahoo's CEO office and Jerry Yang has set up shop there. At the same time, Sue Decker has stepped into the president's role. While Terry Semel's departure didn't come as a great surprise to anyone in the search space, Jerry Yang's appointment as CEO did raise a few eyebrows. In retrospect, the move seems to make a lot of sense but in the numerous conversations I've had on this topic in the last few weeks, no one mentioned Yang's name as Yahoo's possible savior. With this move will come the inevitable speculation about how this will bolster Yahoo's chances of competing against Google. Just last week I was interviewed by Bloomberg TV and was asked about that very topic. At that time I mentioned that the biggest difference between the two was the lack of corporate focus at Yahoo and the fact that focus, at least on the search side, has never been an issue for Google.

Full article: mediapost.com 

Labels: Jerry Yang, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Yahoo

Google takes action against Windows Vista's in-built search tool

Microsoft has succumbed to pressure from competition authorities to make it easier for Vista users to override its built-in desktop search tool.

Search rival Google had alleged Microsoft's Vista operating system disadvantages other search software by making it difficult for users to use non-Microsoft desktop-search software.

Google claimed in a white paper sent to both the Department of Justice and the US attorneys general that Microsoft's desktop search tool is almost impossible to turn off and affects a computer's performance when running a non-Microsoft search tool.

Read more: channelweb.co.uk 

Labels: microsoft, search, Vista, Windows

RechargeIT is a Google.org initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.

By demonstrating the technology using our own fleet and supporting others through grants and investments, together we will drive toward a plug-in revolution.

Learn more: RechargeIT.org 

Labels: car, CO2, electric, hybrid, technology

Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, has acknowledged that providing applications and other services to business customers will be an important strategy for maintaining growth of the company.

Speaking at a press event in Paris on Tuesday, Schmidt responded to a question on how Google intends to maintain its phenomenal growth rates when the stream of ad revenues from old media to new media, which has sustained the company so far, begins to plateau. "Small businesses and universities are likely to become a significant business for Google as [they] use our leverage in terms of sales and infrastructure," he said.

Full article: zdnetasia.com 

Labels: business, enterprise, Eric Schmidt, Media

A litigation electromagnet

Popular video sharing site YouTube managed to avoid getting into big trouble in its early days. Perhaps due in part to the concept's newness at the time, various entities simply didn't seem interested in dealing with YouTube. But Google's acquisition of the company changed all that. It was as though a switch was flipped: Google's deep pockets and YouTube's increasing popularity meant that not only were more videos of everything imaginable being uploaded, but taking action against the service might actually show some results.

And so YouTube became a massive lawsuit electromagnet, attracting legal challenges from across the country and around the world. Google has maintained that most complaints should fall under the DMCA's Safe Harbor provision—meaning that a web site operator cannot be held liable for infringing material posted by one of its users as long as it complies with removing copyrighted material upon request.

That argument hasn't stopped everyone, however, from trying to hold Google and YouTube accountable for the content it hosts. In what follows, we look at the legal landscape so far and what the implications of the lawsuits might be for YouTube and sites like it.

Full article: arstechnica.com 

Labels: Copyright, lawsuit, youtube

YouTube will launch nine country specific versions of YouTube today.

YouTube local versions will be available for Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K, complete with relative country specific domains such as youtube.fr and youtube.jp.

The new sites include fully translated site content and will eventually deliver country specific popular content.

Read more: techcrunch.com 

Labels: international, languages, local, youtube

Google’s ‘RechargeIT’ initiative transforms hybrid cars into mostly electrically powered vehicles that barely use the fuel tank to double the fuel economy of regular hybrids, pump energy back into the grid and reduce emissions while providing US $10m to speed up progress.

With Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, already an investor in Silicon Valley’s ‘Tesla Motors’ electric car company, along with Google’s recent moves to work on energy efficient technology with Intel, Google is positioning itself to make as big a difference to the world of renewable energies as it has in search and online advertising.

Full article: ITWire.com.au/ 

Labels: electric, power, Sergey Brin, solar, Tesla

SAN FRANCISCO: Jerry Yang, who started Yahoo as a Stanford University student 12 years ago and has returned as chief executive after a six-year absence, said Tuesday that he was gearing up for a long fight with Google.

"I'm ready to dig in and make sure we can take Yahoo to the next level," said Yang, 38. "I'm absolutely not interim. We want someone for the long haul."

Yang replaced Terry Semel, the former Warner Bros. executive, who presided as Yahoo lost its lead in Internet advertising to Google and as shares fell 35 percent last year.

Full story: International Herald Tribune 

Labels: chief, executive, Jerry Yang, Yahoo

With its empire expanding, the search giant can have an unprecedented breadth of knowledge about you. Can we trust it with so much data?

From search to e-mail, from calendars to spreadsheets and text documents, more and more of what PC users read and create flows through one firm: Google.

Google's pending purchase of online advertising giant DoubleClick (the deal awaited Federal Trade Commission approval as we went to press) will give it access to yet more information: the Web browsing histories collected by millions of DoubleClick cookies. Combine that data with what Google already knows through its homegrown services--Google Apps, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Desktop, and many others--and the company has the potential to know more about you than any one entity ever has.

Full article: washingtonpost.com 

Labels: apps, data, docs, DoubleClick, giant, mail, Maps, search

Google today called on the US government to allow greater numbers of migrant workers into the country as part of a wider push by the company into the area of politics.

The ability to attract highly skilled migrants into the technology industry was one of a number of issues, including privacy, child online safety and copyright protection, that were "fundamental to the future of the internet", the search company said, adding that it planned to take a greater role in influencing public policy in these and other areas.

Full story: timesonline.co.uk 

Labels: migrants, technology, us

Google Video has been transformed into a video search service that provides links to hosted and offsite video content. The new Google Video service can index media from YouTube as well as an assortment of YouTube rivals, including Metacafe, MySpace, BBC, and Yahoo Video. Previews are available next to search results that are hosted on YouTube or Google Video and thumbnail snapshots are available for content hosted by other providers. Much like Google image search, a frame with relevant Google-provided functionality appears at the top of the window when the user clicks through a search result.

Full article: arstechnica.com 

Labels: MySpace, video, Yahoo

At the beginning of 2005, I was Google's lone public policy guy. Today, there's a bigger – and growing - team of us scattered around the world, working on issues like privacy, child online safety, copyright and trademark protection, content regulation, reform of the patent system, and broadband policy. These issues are fundamental to the future of the Internet (and of the individuals it empowers), and are increasingly prominent on the agendas of policymakers worldwide.

We're seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way. Yes, we're a multinational corporation that argues for our positions before officials, legislators, and opinion leaders. At the same time, we want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we're saying and why, and to help us refine and improve our policy positions and advocacy strategies. With input and ideas from our users, we'll surely do a better job of fighting for our common interests.

This blog is part of the dialogue we're hoping to foster.

Read more: Google Public Policy Blog 

Labels: blogs, policy, political, public

 

Labels: Father's Day

WASHINGTON - Young people can make a difference in politics, Sen. Barack Obama says in a new campaign video, by speaking up about "the things that are making you passionate."

Elsewhere on YouTube, a very scantily clad young woman is doing exactly that - in an unauthorized music video about her "Crush on Obama" that features her pole-dancing in a subway car and wearing a pair of "Obama" shorts that barely contain her enthusiasm for politics.

Word of the new music video was spreading swiftly on the Internet Thursday, and, with more than 55,000 views after less than a day, it was on its way to becoming one of the site's most popular clips.

Read more: hispanicbusiness.com 

Labels: Obama, video, youtube

Google Inc. is gathering some of its top executives in Paris next week for an international press conference and speculation is rife that announcements will include a local version of YouTube for European countries.

France 24, a French public TV channel, confirmed Friday that it has been in talks with Google, suggesting the search giant may be lining up local content for its video-sharing service. Google's YouTube events calendar pegs Tuesday -- the day of the press conference -- for an unspecified "Paris launch."

A Google spokeswoman in France declined to comment on the France 24 talks or speculation about local versions of YouTube.

Full article: itworld.com 

Labels: Europe, France24, youtube

Google Web Accelerator works with your browser to help web pages show up in a snap.

Google Web Accelerator is…

· Designed for Broadband - Web pages load even more quickly on DSL and cable connections

· Easy to use - Simply install and enjoy faster web browsing in seconds

System Requirements
Operating System: Windows Vista/XP/2000 SP3+
Browser: IE 5.5+ or Firefox 1.0+

Download: Google Web Accelerator 0.2.93.115 Beta 

Labels: accelerator, Internet, Web

The two dot-com titans are bickering again.

The love-hate relationship between eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has turned acrimonious again. The latest spat is a simultaneous slap that finds eBay pulling its stateside contextual marketing spots from Google's paid search program just as Google made plans to crash tonight's launch of eBay Live with a media-magnetizing protest.

These emotional moves aren't petty. This could be the end of what was once a beautiful relationship, with Dear John letters scribbled in blood, tears, and grain alcohol.

Read more: msnbc.msn.com 

Labels: contextual, eBay, marketing

Intel and Google Join with Dell, EDS, EPA, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, PG&E, World Wildlife Fund and Others to Launch Climate Savers Computing Initiative

Broad effort organized to drive energy-efficient computing; goal to save $5.5 billion in energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 12, 2007 – Intel Corporation and Google* joined with Dell*, EDS*, the Environmental Protection Agency*, HP*, IBM*, Lenovo*, Microsoft*, Pacific Gas and Electric*, World Wildlife Fund*, and more than a dozen additional organizations today announcing their intent to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The goal of the new broad-based environmental effort is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

"Today, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power," said Urs Holzle, senior vice president, Operations, Google Inc. "The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year -- and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs.

Read more: intel.com 

Labels: Dell, energy, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, microsoft

It is commonly believed that Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion because the wildly popular video-sharing site represented a great way for the search giant to expand into video advertising.

It turns out the site could bring an even bigger benefit to the Mountain View company: It may provide a way for Google to easily and legally amass the world's biggest database of film and video - a database it could use to refine ways to search that kind of material.

Google confirmed Tuesday it would begin testing a system that would allow copyright holders to automatically remove unauthorized content from YouTube. Disney, Time Warner and some unidentified content owners will be participating, which will start next month.

"What we are trying to do is get this to work for YouTube's entire library," said spokesman Ricardo Reyes.

Full article: mercurynews.com 

Labels: Copyright, database, system, video, youtube

Google has agreed to change its policy on retaining server logs after inquiries from Europe's Article 29 Working Group. That group, which represents data privacy officers from many European countries, asked Google for more information about its privacy policies, and Norway wasn't keen on Google's plans, either. Google has responded by dropping the amount of time it hangs onto personalized logs to 18 months.

Read more: arstechnica.com 

Labels: Europe, files, privacy

Internet video site YouTube is to test a new video fingerprinting technology to address copyright concerns.

The software will identify unique attributes in video clips and could be used to prevent copyrighted clips from being uploaded without permission.

YouTube executive Chris Maxcy told news agency Reuters that the tool would be tested in a month's time.

Full article: BBC News 

Labels: Copyright, Software, video, youtube

Advertisers get peek under the hood

Google is offering advertisers more information on where their adverts are appearing and how they are performing.

The Placement Performance report shows where the adverts have appeared, what the different click-through rates are, and how much they are costing.

Read more: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: advertisers, ADWords

Beijing - Leading Chinese internet portal Sina Corp said on Monday it has reached an agreement with Google Inc to cooperate in the areas of searching and advertising.

Under a strategic partnership agreement, Google's search service will be embedded in Sina's search box, Sina said in a news release.

"This partnership leverages the strong offerings of two internet powerhouses to provide internet users in China (with) a better overall experience," Sina's chief executive officer Charles Chao said in a statement.

Full article: news24.com 

Labels: China, partnership, Sina

Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes offered this statement today in response to my inquiry about the company's objections to Windows Vista's desktop search tool.

"Microsoft's current approach with Vista desktop search violates the consent decree and and limits consumer choice. The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index."

Reyes declined to comment further.

Read more: seattlepi.com 

Labels: antitrust, search, Vista, Windows

Opinion: An integration between the two platforms would help them take on their common competitor: Microsoft

As this year's WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) approaches, Apple fans are furiously speculating on what kind of news will be dropped on us in San Francisco. We already know about the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard preview, and no doubt Apple CEO Steve Jobs will have something to say about the iPhone. But from what I know about the players and the IT landscape, I think Jobs has another "just one more thing" up his sleeve.

I've been looking at what Apple and its partners need to do to fill gaps in their product line-up. At the moment, I think the Macintosh platform's biggest weakness is its reliance on Microsoft Office for productivity software. Microsoft has always built solid products for Mac -- but they were always just a bit behind or somehow incompatible with their Windows equivalents. Entourage does 90 percent of what Outlook does, but it lacks features right where it hurts: In enterprise settings. Word for Mac doesn't have the same Macro or OOXML support as the PC version. PowerPoint files are still not 100 percent compatible between platforms.

Basically, Apple and its customers get the short end of the Microsoft stick.

Full article: infoworld.com 

Labels: apps, integration, Macintosh, microsoft

Fred Vogelstein of Wired speculates on a possible announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week of a strategic alliance between Apple and Google. It’s not unlikely. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on Apple’s board for a reason, and I don’t think that he got the seat because he and Steve Jobs share their iTunes playlists.

Google likes to makes strategic alliances, but not of great significance so far. The company has collaboration with Sun, without much to show, and this week announced a relationship with salesforce.com that leverages AdWords.

What could Google do with Apple, or more correctly, what does Steve want from Google?

Read more: blogs.zdnet.com 

Labels: Apple, applications, Macintosh

Google Toolbar is a popular browser add-on for Internet Explorer that makes it possible to quickly perform Google Web searches, prevent annoying pop-up ads from appearing, and fill in Web forms with one simple click.

Take the power of Google with you anywhere on the Web

· Add buttons to the Toolbar to search your favorite sites.
· Bookmark frequently visited pages and access them from anywhere
· Search smarter with instant suggestions as you type in the search box
· Share web pages with friends via blog, email, or SMS

More Features
· Block annoying pop-ups
· Fill out web forms with one click
· Translate pages into English instantly
· Check your spelling in webmail messages

System requirements:
· Windows Vista/2000/XP
· Internet Explorer 6.0+

Download: Google Toolbar 4.0.1602.1060 

Labels: pop-ups, search, spelling, Toolbar, translate

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has had a good time recently nipping at the heels of what many consider its largest enemy -- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). While I'm not agreeing that Microsoft is in Google's direct cross-hairs more than other companies, the area of customer security and privacy is one area where both companies have taken potshots at one another recently. Google has taken criticism for the immense privacy breaches it apparently is making available to the world, while Microsoft's Windows operating system and other software constantly have security issues, from malware to spyware.

Read more: bloggingstocks.com 

Labels: malware, microsoft, spyware, Windows

Google Maps this. Google Maps that. The service has been in the news again and again over the past few weeks, and it would be enough to make you sick - except that most of what’s happening is pretty cool. The latest development - a partnership between Google Maps and JetBlue Airways - meets the same standard.

Unfortunately, “pretty cool” is not “revolutionary” - the partnership, as it stands at the moment, will only bring about flight tracking. “We’re constantly looking for ways to enhance our customers’ in-flight experience,” explained Brett Muney, a manager of product development for JetBlue, in an official statement. “With the addition of Google’s advanced mapping technology, our customers can enjoy a seat with a view - tracking their flight’s altitude, speed and location on the way to their destination.”

Read more: webpronews.com 

Labels: Flight, JetBlue, Maps, partnership

Google's oft-articulated plan is to provide third-party developers with the tools they need to make the Web useful. That's because the more useful the Web is, the more money Google can make in advertising.

One of the best ways to make the Web more useful is to make it faster. So today, Google bought start-up PeakStream for its Platform to help developers take advantage of advances in chip technology.

"We believe the PeakStream team's broad technical expertise can help build products and features that will benefit our users," a Google spokesperson told internetnews.com. "We look forward to providing them with additional resources as they continue developing high-performance applications for modern multi-core systems."

The spokesperson refused to comment beyond the statement, and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Full article: internetnews.com 

Labels: developers, PeakStream, platform

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Big Ten Conference schools will digitize select collections in each of the university's libraries - up to 10 million volumes - as part of Google Inc.'s book-scanning project.

The partnership will speed up a digitization process that might have taken hundreds of years, school officials said in announcing the agreement Wednesday. It will result in a shared digital repository that faculty, students and the public can access quickly on Google.

The agreement covers Google and the 12 schools on the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the academic arm of the Big Ten Conference. The schools on the committee include the 10 Big Ten schools affiliated through athletics - Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin - plus the University of Chicago.

Full article: ohio.com 

Labels: books, collection, school

Not all publicity is good publicity

Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft have passed up the chance to take part in a web conference on internet freedom being hosted by human rights group Amnesty International this evening.

The event is being held to discuss how free debate is being quashed by oppressive regimes. The three tech giants could have made a crucial contribution to the debate over whether isolation or inclusion is the best way to help people living under such regimes, as all have been criticised recently for bowing to oppressive practices.

Full story: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: conference, freedom, Internet, microsoft, Yahoo

Although the five major online search engines have improved search safety, four percent of all search results link to dangerous websites, according to a report from McAfee's SiteAdvisor. Searches on Yahoo are the most risky, AOL the safest, the "The State of Search Engine Safety" report indicates.

With the exception of Yahoo, the percentage of risky sponsored links on all major search engines has improved, dropping from more than eight percent last year to about seven percent this year, according to the report. Google, in particular, has "taken small steps" to improve the safety of the sponsored links on its landing pages, said Mark Maxwell, a senior vice president with SiteAdvisor.

Full article: scmagazine.com 

Labels: AOL, Ask, McAfee, MSN, SiteAdvisor, Yahoo

Third parties get paws on search technology

Yahoo is making its Panama search engine technology available to third parties.

Under the new Yahoo Search Marketing Commercial API Programme, companies can sign up with three options: Basic, Advanced and Elite.

Basic is aimed at small start-ups and agencies, and provides the software API as well as technical support in building applications.

Read more: vnunet.com 

Labels: panama, search, technology, Yahoo

While America prefers Yahoo!

A survey of internet usage across Europe reveals that Google is the region's most popular website in every country except Sweden and Norway.

The average European spent 24.1 hours online during the month of April. Most visited sites were Google, Microsoft, then Yahoo!. Russia's most visited sites were YANDEX.ru, MAIL.ru, and Rambler Media. Surfers in the US prefer Yahoo!, Time Warner Network, and Google.

Although Yahoo! only made the top three in three countries out of 16, it is still the third most popular site across Europe.

Read more: theregister.co.uk 

Labels: Europe, microsoft, Web, Yahoo

Google and Salesforce.com are expected to today launch a combined website that is designed to allow the online customer relationship management software maker to act as a reseller for Google's AdWords.

For Salesforce.com, the alliance expands its efforts to tie its hosted CRM software with Google AdWords, following its acquisition of privately held Kieden last year. Salesforce.com will expand beyond allowing its customers to launch Google AdWords from a Salesforce.com application to one in which it will act as a reseller of the Google AdWords platform.

The two companies jointly developed Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords and plan to jointly market the offering, said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of marketing for Salesforce.com.

Full article: silicon.com 

Labels: ADWords, crm, Salesforce

Google Toolbar is a popular browser add-on that makes it possible to quickly perform Google Web searches, prevent annoying pop-up ads from appearing, and fill in Web forms with one simple click.

Now you can make your Toolbar as unique as you are. You can add buttons and bookmarks; share web pages with friends; get instant search suggestions; and enjoy the web form filler and spellchecker.

Features

· Enhanced Search Box
· Google Safe Browsing
· Subscribe to Feed
· Send with Gmail
· Custom Layouts
· SpellCheck
· AutoFill
· Custom buttons
· Google Account Sign-in

· Google Docs & Spreadsheets
With the Google Docs & Spreadsheets feature enabled in the Google Toolbar, you can open most popular file types right in your browser.

· Bookmark frequently visited pages and access them from anywhere

· Add buttons to the Toolbar to search your favorite sites.

· Send To
You can use your Google Toolbar to share web pages via email, text message (SMS), or blog.

System requirements:
· Windows XP/2000 SP3+, Mac OS X 10.2+, or Linux
· Firefox 1.5+

Download: Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.0.20070525w 

Labels: beta, Firefox, Toolbar

June 4, 2007 · When Google announced in 2004 that it would digitize every book in the world, responses ranged from skepticism to outrage, as the publishing industry worried the project would hurt sales. But some publishers say Book Search has turned out to be a boon for them.

Read more: npr.org 

Labels: books, Publishers, search

It was bound to happen eventually - terrorists are allegedly using Google Earth and Google Maps to plan attacks.

Abdul Kadir, one of the men accused of plotting to blow up fuel pipelines, fuel tanks, and buildings at John F. Kennedy International Airport, instructed his cohorts to use Google's online mapping software to obtain more detailed images of the airport, court documents say.

Read more: The Sydney Morning Herald 

Labels: Earth, Mapplets, Maps

FRAMINGHAM (06/01/2007) - Mozilla Corp. is gung-ho on support for offline applications, but it's not committed to using the just-announced Google Gears technologies in the next Firefox, an executive of the open-source developer said Friday.

There's no question that Firefox 3.0, scheduled to launch later this year, will work with offline applications, said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's director or ecosystem development. What's up in the air is whether Firefox will use Gears' three application programming interfaces (APIs) to build its support, or whether the browser will rely on the work already done by paid and volunteer developers.

Read more: pcworld.ca 

Labels: browser, Firefox, Gears, Mozilla

Just one day after a security researcher showed how Google's Firefox toolbar could be exploited in an online attack, a similar flaw has been discovered in the Google Desktop.

On Thursday, Google hacker Robert Hansen posted proof of concept details showing how attackers could use Google Desktop to launch software that had already been installed on the victim's computer.

The attack is hard to pull off and could not necessarily be used to install unauthorized software on the victim's PC, but it does illustrate the kind of security issues that arise with Web-based applications, said Hansen, the CEO of Web security consultancy Sectheory.com, and a contributor to the Ha.ckers.org Web site.

Full story: networkworld.com 

Labels: attack, Desktop, flaws

Internet giant's engineers hunt for ways to help users find what they want

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- These days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere. It takes pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit books in India, charms its way onto Madison Avenue, picks fights with Hollywood and tries to undercut Microsoft's software dominance.

But at its core, Google remains a search engine. And its search pages, blue hyperlinks set against a white background, have made it the most visited, most profitable and arguably the most powerful company on the Internet.

Full article: seattlepi.com 

Labels: company, engine, Internet, search

Google Web Toolkit - Build AJAX apps in the Java language

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle incompatibilities between web browsers and platforms, and JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile.

GWT lets you avoid many of these headaches while offering your users the same dynamic, standards-compliant experience. You write your front end in the Java programming language, and the GWT compiler converts your Java classes to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

Download: Google Web Toolkit 1.4 

Labels: Ajax, javascript, Toolkit, Web

Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:

· Store and serve application resources locally
· Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
· Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

Google Gears (BETA) is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Download: Google Gears 0.1.47.0 Beta 

Labels: browser, Gears, javascript, Linux, Macintosh, Windows

LONDON EMI Music, Google and YouTube have established what the parties jointly described as a "milestone partnership" giving YouTube users access to audio and video content from the music giant.

Under terms of the new agreement, the U.K.-based EMI agreed to give YouTube users "unprecedented" access to authorized sound and video recordings from its roster, which includes David Bowie, Coldplay, The Decemberists, Fat Boy Slim, Gorillaz and Lily Allen, to name but a few.

Full article: adweek.com 

Labels: EMI, music, UK, video, youtube

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- With the passing of each fiscal quarter, it's increasingly clear Google's got a good thing going connecting the world to the fruits of Web developer labor. And it's not about to let up.

Today at its Google Developer Day event here, Google vice president Jeff Huber emphasized the search giant's plans to help developers "integrate, reach and build." In his keynote address, Huber brought out a series of company engineers to talk about the latest tools, Google Mashup Editor, Mapplets and Gears.

Full article: internetnews.com 

Labels: developers, Gears, Mapplets, Mashup

When Google announced its latest foray into an area of software in which Microsoft holds dominance, it was hard to miss the swipes aimed at Redmond. The search giant has decided that it will no longer confine itself to online-only technologies, but wants to live in the offline world and compete with Microsoft there as well.

Yesterday, at Google Developer Day 2007 in Sydney, Australia, Google announced Google Gears, an open-source program "for creating offline Web applications," according to Google's press release.

Read more: reddevnews.com 

Labels: docs, Gears, office, Spreadsheets

Google Experimental showcases our latest ideas for improving the search experience - for example, viewing search results on a timeline or a map, navigating results with keyboard shortcuts, or refining your search with left-/right-hand navigation.

Take a tour of these experiments, and tell us what you think by clicking "Send Feedback" from the page you're on.

Read more: Google Experimental 

Labels: experimental, feedback, labs, search

While Google's Street View photos are not real-time captures, they can include windows of houses or businesses, through which private details can be seen. In a New York Times article, for instance, Oakland, California resident Mary Kalin-Casey expressed dismay at seeing her cat in the living room window via Google's Street View.

Google, in addition to organizing the world's information, apparently also wants to allow you to photographically navigate any public space. Earlier this week, Google announced Street View for Google Maps. It's a new feature that enables users to view and navigate 360-degree, street-level imagery from several U.S. cities.

But the easy availability and potential misuse of the photos is raising privacy concerns from several corners.

Full article: cio-today.com 

Labels: city, Maps, photos, street, us

Stay on top of your investments with recent upgrades to Google Finance. View and download historical end-of-day prices for any US or Canadian company; download the latest performance, returns and transactions from your portfolio; stay on top of news from your favorite companies using feed applications like Google Reader; view events such as earnings calls and analyst meetings on company or portfolio pages.

Learn more: finance.google.com 

Labels: Canada, companies, finance, tools, transactions, us