New company will use unique scheme to dramatically cut costs, deliver high speed internet to remote locations

While over 80 percent of Americans are online, broadband adoption is growing slower than expected. The problem stems from the fiber optics business. Buoyed by high demand and exuberance, fiber optic companies laid down high speed cables across the oceans to support the data demands of hungry 3G and cable internet networks.

After these cables were laid the demand slacked off predictably, leaving the fiber optic companies with little revenue and high debts. Many were bought up by larger companies and consolidated. In the aftermath, over 3 billion people were left without access to high speed networks and new installations reduced to a crawl. The only alternative was geosatellite, which costs a whopping $4,000 USD per megabit per month.

Read more: dailytech.com 

Labels: Internet, satellite, startup

Boston (dbTechno) - Google is getting ready to unveil a new tool that will allow them to measure Internet usage.

The report comes out of The Wall Street Journal, which stated that Google will announce the new tool as early as Tuesday morning.

The idea behind the new tool is to help out advertisers in a big way.

Read more: dbtechno.com 

Labels: freeware, Internet, tool

Hearing the call of duty to fix the online ad business, Schmidt comments on publisher fears and a broad array of issues

We're not your enemy, we're your friend -- that's the message Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said media companies should take home about Google. In an in-depth interview with Ken Auletta, The New Yorker's media reporter, Schmidt portrayed that by "fixing" the advertising system and bringing offline advertising online, Google is bringing advertising into the twenty first century and is doing what it takes to save advertising.

Schmidt reaffirmed his claim that Google wasn't out to just make money, but was trying to promote a greater good. He states that concerning publisher's problems with advertising, "It's a huge moral imperative to help here."

Full article: dailytech.com 

Labels: Eric Schmidt, Internet, Media

According to a post on the Official Google Blog, the search company is "pleased to let you know that Google search is also available over IPv6."

So far, big Internet destinations that have enabled IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol, have been far and few between. This changed two months ago, as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), inventors of IPv6, prepared for a night without IPv4. Hours before the IETF was scheduled to turn off the current version of the protocol that powers the Internet, Google made its search service available under ipv6.google.com. As I noted in the article two months ago, the new IPv6 incarnation of Google's homepage is a good showcase, but links for mail and maps pointing to non-IPv6 servers. And the fact that ipv6.google.com is only accessible over IPv6 rather than over both versions of IP make hard to start using this version of the site.

Full story: arstechnica.com 

Labels: Internet, IPv6, protocol

Online apps go offline

Google is introducing new code to allow Google Docs to be used offline.

Users will be offered offline access to docs.google.com over the coming weeks allowing them to work on documents when web access is unavailable.

On reconnecting to the internet any changes will be automatically synchronised, the company said in a statement.

Read more: vnunet.com 

Labels: apps, docs, Gears, Internet, offline

The DNS admins had plenty to do at Google this week, with a lot of domain names being moved to Google's servers.

What do techicage, logiquate, and macroslash all have in common, besides a .com suffix? They are all Google domains, entered nice and neatly on their name servers, according to Resource Shelf.

Industry observers tracking Google's moves in the mobile phone space, particularly with regards to its Android software, will find so many Android domains that it looks like a Star Trek convention hacked Google's DNS boxes.

Full story: webpronews.com 

Labels: DNS, Domains, Internet, Web

Google’s mobile ambitions have by now been widely articulated in the media, and after my initial post, I spent some time on the phone with various people discussing whether or not it made any financial sense for Google to be chasing the wireless dream. Many of the folks I chatted with expressed reservations about Google actually building a network, and felt that the company is using a big stick to get U.S. carriers to get a move on.

The FCC, for instance, has offered Google (GOOG) some measured encouragement in the hopes that the firm’s involvement in the wireless auctions would help push the prices up past the $10 billion mark. Google is, after all, obligated to make at least a minimum bid of $4.6 billion since the FCC agreed to their “Open Access” requirements for the C Block.

Read more: gigaom.com 

Labels: Internet, mobile, wireless

Google and IBM, expanding an effort that began at the University of Washington, will launch an initiative to help computer science students and researchers learn a form of programming increasingly significant in the Internet age.

The companies are dedicating a data center of several hundred computers for universities to use to teach "Internet-scale" programming -- the development of software applications that can harness thousands of processors to deal with massive amounts of data.

Well-known examples of Internet-scale applications include Wikipedia, Facebook and search engines, such as the one for which Google is famous. Such programs are also needed for commercial and research projects that use huge data sets.

Full article: seattlepi.com 

Labels: data, IBM, Internet, Programming, research

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 0.2.93.116 Beta 

Labels: accelerator, Internet, Web

Newspapers could see a drop in traffic redirected to their websites from Google News after a redesign of the site that will mean newswire stories carried by other publishers no longer show up in search findings.

Agreements between Google and four news agencies will also allow Google News to carry full stories on its own site for the first time, rather than its current practice of carrying a headline and a few snippets of text but sending readers to publishers' sites for the full story.

Full story: msnbc.msn.com 

Labels: agencies, Internet, news, stories, Web

The search engine says that companies should not be expected to police the web

Internet companies such as Google should not be responsible for censoring content, one of the web's founding fathers has said.

Vint Cerf, who is credited with inventing one of the internet's key protocols and now holds the position of chief internet evangelist at Google, said companies should comply with existing laws and take down illegal content when requested to do so, but should not actively seek out breaches.

Full article: timesonline.co.uk 

Labels: censorship, Internet, police, policy, search, Web

One of the founding fathers of the internet has predicted the end of traditional television.

Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher in America, said that television was approaching its "iPod moment".

In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading most of favourite programmes onto their computers.

Read more: telegraph.co.uk 

Labels: Internet, TV, video

While looking through the latest quarterly results from Microsoft and Google last week, it struck me that Google's companywide revenues had, for the first time, exceeded the sales in Microsoft's Client division, the unit that makes Windows for PCs. That's no small feat, and I decided to explore the competitive and symbolic implications in this week's Software Notebook, in Monday's newspaper.

As detailed in the story, there are all sorts of qualifiers that come into play when making that comparison. It's definitely not an apples-to-apple kind of thing. But the financial milestone underscores Google's revenue growth and illustrates why Microsoft has been trying to further diversify its business, in areas including Internet search and online advertising.

Read more: seattlepi.com 

Labels: Internet, iPod, microsoft, PC, Windows

Yet Internet giant demands FCC meet open-access conditions

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Internet-search engine Google Inc. on Friday said it's prepared to bid at least $4.6 billion for wireless licenses in an approaching federal auction if the U.S. government sets the rules to favor open access for all comers.

The Federal Communications Commission plans to sell valuable wireless licenses in the 700 megahertz range by early next year in an auction sure to raise billions of dollars. Big wireless-phone companies and other bidders want the spectrum to offer speedier mobile-Internet connections and other new services.

Read more: marketwatch.com 

Labels: airwaves, Internet, licenses, wireless

"Openness" means a service provider won't be able to dictate which devices and services can be used on the network in the way cellular carriers currently do with their networks.

Providers of Internet telephony services seem to have won a battle in the war against conventional wired and wireless telephone service this week when FCC chairman Kevin Martin called for "openness" in draft rules for the upcoming auction of radio spectrum in the 700 MHz band.

Companies like Google and eBay's Skype applauded the move. Google called Martin's new public stance a "favorable development". eBay's CEO supported Martin, too. Google and eBay and other technology companies are increasingly facing off against entrenched telecom firms like AT&T and Verizon Communications(VZ).

The auction, which won't take place for several months, is shaping up as a major battlefield between IP technology firms and traditional telephone companies. And the draft rules still need to win votes from a majority of the commission before the auction can take place.

Full article: informationweek.com 

Labels: devices, Internet, Network, Skype, wireless

Website popularity has long been measured by the number of individual pages loaded by surfers. However, with the adoption of Ajax, which refreshes content without reloading entire pages, and the growing popularity of streaming video, companies need to find a more accurate yardstick for advertisers to use in deciding where to put their dollars. To that end, Nielsen//NetRatings, an Internet media and market research company, announced today it will put less emphasis on page views in favor of total time spent on a site.

Read more: techspot.com 

Labels: Internet, Nielsen, rankings, Web

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

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

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

If Google really wants to put its 'Do No Evil' mentality out there, they should lead by example and buy Internet radio service Pandora.

While Pandora is wildly popular, it runs the risk of being forced to shutdown entirely (it's already down in much of Europe and Asia) if the recent RIAA ruling goes into effect that drastically ups the royalty rates they will have to pay for the music they play.

Pandora simply doesn't have the funds to pay the increased rates and still maintain a viable business - but Google certainly does.

Full story: parislemon.com 

Labels: Internet, pandora, radio