Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, is investing $10.25 million in two companies working on a new way to tap into the heat beneath the earth’s surface.

The companies are AltaRock Energy, which gets $6.25 million, and Porter Drilling, which gets $4 million. Additionally, the Geothermal Laboratory at Southern Methodist University, which is working on locating geothermal sources in North America, will receive a grant of about $490,000.

The money comes from Google’s RE C initiative, which seeks to develop renewable energy sources that are cheaper than electricity produced from coal.

Full article: csmonitor.com 

Labels: coal, electric, geothermal, technology

Yahoo has agreed a deal with Google which will see Yahoo use the search engine giant's advertising technology.

Under the agreement, Google ads will appear alongside some Yahoo search results in the US and Canada.

The announcement came after Yahoo said it had failed to persuade Microsoft to renew its bid to buy all of the internet company.

Recent talks concluded after Yahoo rejected a Microsoft proposal to buy just its online search business.

Full article: news.bbc.co.uk 

Labels: advertising, share, technology, Yahoo

Ecoogler is a search engine that uses Yahoo technology and helps reforesting trees and safeguard water resources in the Amazon region, which constitute today one fourth of the fresh water reserves of our planet.

By using Ecoogler you get same results and help the non-profit association Aquaverde founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2002.

This is possible with agreements with Yahoo and Aquaverde.

How it works?

For every search in Ecoogler, you contribute symbolically to reforest one leaf. For every 10.000 searches, Ecoogler and Aquaverde plant a tree in the Amazon.

Read more: ecoogler.com 

Labels: Ecoogler, Ecosystem, search, technology, Yahoo

University, Waltham license holder say they own technology

Northeastern University and a start-up company cofounded by an associate professor have filed a patent-infringement suit against Google Inc., claiming that database technology patented in 1997 was misappropriated by the world's most popular Internet search service.

"This particular patent has to do with the fundamental database architecture, which they use to serve up every single result they serve to you," said Michael Belanger, president of Jarg Corp. in Waltham. Jarg is a privately funded developer of advanced search technology. The company was cofounded by Northeastern associate professor Kenneth P. Baclawski and holds an exclusive license to the patent, which is owned by Northeastern.

Full story: boston.com 

Labels: lawsuit, lawyers, patent, technology, university

The Cookie Monster, whose gargantuan appetite simply cannot be assuaged no matter what it eats, having gobbled up much of the Internet is now about to get its teeth into telecoms. There is even the possibility that before too much longer there might even be such a things as a Google phone!

Over the weekend, the giant web company disclosed that it will be a bidder in the upcoming auction of a swathe of US wireless spectrum. Google says it is willing to bid at least US$6.4 billion as it seeks to become a mobile operator, but will do so only if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accepts and imposes a set of rules that would certainly be favourable to the search engine company but that have already been flatly rejected by other, established cell phone operators.

Full story: telecomtv.com 

Labels: phone, technology, telco, wi-fi, wireless

The Google Health Advisory Council aims to help the search engine firm better serve users seeking health-related information.

Google has created a health care advisory group of prominent medical and health care experts -- many with an interest in speeding up the use of technology in health care delivery, including online medical searches and sharing of health information.

Read more: informationweek.com 

Labels: advisory, health, medicine, technology

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 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

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

Almost all my experience with the investment community is from the research side, but I did once work on the propaganda side: investor relations [IR]. For a short time after the troubles began, I was ambushed into doing IR for the ill-fated shared-memory processing manufacturer Kendall Square Research.

And if you know the story of KSR, you know why I did IR only once and for a short time. So based on this meager IR experience, it was with wonderment that I noticed that Google (GOOG) was letting two engineering VPs loose at a Goldman Sachs conference.

By just being there, Alan Eustace and Jeff Huber answered my question posed on seekingalpha on March 7: Is Google a media play or an IT investment? (And with the pending DoubleClick acquisition, add to that question the possibility that it should be measured like a large advertising/communications agency).

Full article: seekingalpha.com 

Labels: applications, DoubleClick, market, technology