Google's home page sports a colorful -- but mysterious -- new interactive logo this morning. The logo, apparently visible only to browsers in the United States and Britain, shows the word 'Google' made up colorful circles that scatter around your screen when you mouse over them. It's neat, but what is it doing there? Usually Google's custom logos are tied to holidays or historical events in a way that is fairly obvious, and, when users are confused, clicking on the logo triggers a search explaining it. This time, however, clicking on the logo does nothing. There is already a lot...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Candy from strangers, Kool-Aid from Jim Jones...…ice cream from Google.ConsumerWatchdog.org has launched a viral video against Internet tracking, by lampooning Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt. Schmidt stars as the creepy ice cream salesman offering free "ice cream" (and full body scans) to unsuspecting children. "They should know there's no such thing as free ice cream!" snickers Schmidt. Ironically, the video is being broadcast on Google's own YouTube and on the Jumbotron in New York's Times Square. Video, "Don't be Evil?" at YouTube, 9/2/2010Read more about the ad campaign on CNet.
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
It was all touched off by a classic bit of know-nothing blogosphere silliness: A prominent Silicon Valley blogger claimed that Microsoft's mobile business was "fatally flawed" because—get this—the software giant actually charges handset makers a small per-unit fee for its Windows Phone software. "That game is over for good," he-who-shall-remain-nameless claimed. As proof, he cited Google giving away its Android software—one reason why Android is "rapidly taking over the smartphone world." Meanwhile, Microsoft is charging about $15 per unit. How in the world will Redmond ever compete? How, indeed. As is typical of such insular, one-sided arguments, it conveniently leaves...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Starting next July, eBay (EBAY) will no longer let Google (GOOG) provide transaction checkout services on eBay Web sites. It won’t allow any checkout service except its own PayPal-featured service. EBay’s instituting the new policy “to give eBay buyers a consistent, speedy checkout experience and to ensure support for fast-growing sales via mobile platforms...,” Todd Lutwak, eBay’s vice president of the seller experience, wrote in a little-noticed blog post last week. “It’s certainly an attempt to get more revenue through PayPal and direct people to PayPal,” said Beth Robertson, director of payments research for Javelin Strategy & Research.
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Google and The Associated Press have agreed to a new deal after years of wrangling over alleged misuse of AP's content. As part of the pact, Google has said it will help AP better understand how its content is being used across the Web and what stories are gaining widest distribution.The deal could help AP modify its story selection based on what's popular. "AP and Google will work together in a number of new areas, such as ways to improve discovery and distribution of news," the news organization said ..... News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has argued in recent months...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
A curious thing has been happening on Google Maps -- the Lincoln Memorial is being misplaced in favor of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, which is a good half a mile south of the more famous memorial. According to the Geographic Travels blog, this "misplacement" has been happening for about two days now. Typing "Lincoln Memorial" into the regular Google search bar brings up a number of listings related to the Lincoln Memorial, yet shows a map of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. (Click on the image to see the map that's being served up.) Is this a Google Maps...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Red State reports that Google might be giving bogus results about maps and directions to Glenn Beck’s rally. "A reader emails that if you search Google today, on the eve of Glenn Beck’s rally, a search for Lincoln Memorial turns up, instead, the wrong address. And not just any wrong address either; it takes you to the FDR Memorial. Curious." I have to say, and this may not be popular, but I question Glenn Beck and his motives. Don’t yell at me. I don’t disagree with his message or the research he’s done. I just don’t like this whole cult...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
My pastor challenged me to prove Obama is allowing federal funding for abortions. Recall he signed an executive order not allowing such. I told him this has been violated. Please post some links proving him wrong. Thanks
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
It locks up. It locks up Blogger, too. It did it when I was composing this despatch, and I had to recreate it. What a waste of my time! Furthermore, it takes forever to load, as if it's scanning every byte of my computer for stuff it can parse with my email and put together into some sort of profile of me that it can sell to someone. I'm over that. I'm also over this obesity shit. I see people who literally *wobble* around, wearing this "oh, feel sorry for ME!" look on their faces. When I was a kid,...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
You would think they would learn but Socialists don't see any other way other than to tax, tax and tax some more: [VIDEO AT SITE] The Governor of Utah's (the state in which all these businesses are fleeing to) motto is "keep government off your back and out of your wallet." Now that is how you run a state, and a country. Unfortunately our President is the exact opposite and is helping to speed up the exodus of business from our shores to overseas. Good article via Dan Riehl: For the second year in a row, a corporate relocation expert...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Microsoft is touting the fact that it's had about 300,000 downloads of its development tools for the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile OS, which is expected to hit store shelves in the form of mobile devices in October. That's an impressive number -- until you compare it to the SDK downloads for the Android SDK over a comparable period. About three months after its November 2007 release, the original Android SDK had about 750,000 downloads. Of course, the number of SDK downloads doesn't necessarily correlate with the number of apps that actually become available. In its first three months after...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Google Android began with the greatest of intentions — freedom, openness, and quality software for all. However, freedom always comes with price, and often results in unintended consequences. With Android, one of the most important of those unintended consequences is now becoming clear as Google gets increasingly pragmatic about the smartphone market and less and less tied to its original ideals. Here’s the dirty little secret about Android: After all the work Apple did to get AT&T to relinquish device control for the iPhone and all the great efforts Google made to get the FCC and the U.S. telecoms to...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
In the past week or so, just about every technology company out there has announced or has been rumored to be carrying a Google (GOOG) Android-based tablet. Here's a list I've compiled below: HTC is using Israeli-based N-Trig to build their Android tablet for shipment in time for holiday shoppers according to TheMarker. The timing may be tied to a dubious rumor but N-trig is separately working with HTC on multi-touch tablets and HTC is one of the leading suppliers of Android devices in the world. Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG's mobile-devices unit told the WSJ, that...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu Linux, says Oracle's move is "going to be a significant setback for their relationship with the broader open source community." Before it was purchased by Oracle, Sun Microsystems enjoyed a strong relationship with the open source community, particularly for its Java programming language, which the company evolved over time to adapt to an open source framework. But last week Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) surprised the open source community with a patent infringement suit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), over the search giant's use of Java in Android, its open source mobile operating system. Datamation reports on...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook. "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal. In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites. The 55-year-old also predicted that in...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
SAN FRANCISCO--If Adobe Systems had its druthers, Google Android would turn into the Microsoft Windows of the 21st century. If there was any doubt that Adobe's mobile strategy is now tied to the long-term success of Android, it was removed by a day-long presentation by Adobe executives and managers about how Adobe is adapting its technologies to Android. Dubbed the "Android Summit," the series of presentations to the press emphasized how core Adobe technologies such as Flash and AIR are being optimized for Android on phones, tablets, and eventually televisions when Google TV is released. Perhaps unsurprisingly, left unsaid during...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Candidate Barack Obama told America that he believed in an open and "neutral" Internet -- one where the owners of the wires didn't get to pick and choose which applications would run on the network. Soon after Julius Genachowski was appointed as President Barack Obama's choice to head the Federal Communications Commission, he outlined a clear and ambitious plan to turn that commitment into a reality. But now Verizon and Google have struck a deal for a legislative template that would allow Verizon to be the gatekeeper for services running over its Internet Protocol pipe, and Google to be the...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Keep in mind that the two-page Googlezon proposal, which you can read here, isn't law, though both companies have requested that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) turn it into a formal regulation. Even if it isn't law, though, Googlezon has stated it will follow the proposal's principles. And mostly those principles are harbingers of a dystopian media future.
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Google and Verizon suggest treating fixed line services differently to wireless and some specialised content. This would allow net providers to give priority to certain online traffic. Protesters outside the famed Googleplex said this would create a "pay-to-play" service and urged Google to live up to its famous motto "don't be evil". "Companies like Google have benefited from a free and open internet and their plan will destroy that," said James Rucker ... Google and Verizon made their announcement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended closed-door talks with service providers and internet companies to find a consensus on the...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Two Silicon Valley heavyweights are about to reenact the Java wars: this time, in a court room. Oracle issued a press release late Thursday saying it has filed suit against Google for infringing on copyrights and patents related to Java, which Oracle acquired along with Sun Microsystems earlier this year. The terse release claimed Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property." A copy of the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says that "Android (including without limitation the Dalvik VM and the Android software development kit) and devices...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s Internet Explorer has staged a comeback in the browser war, reversing a trend of declining market share by posting two consecutive months of usage share gains against chief rivals Firefox and Chrome. For several months, Microsoft had been losing ground in the browser category. According to Web metrics firm Net Applications, Internet Explorer’s usage share numbers had been falling steadily for some time now; in September, IE had 65.71 percent of usage share last September, according to Net Applications, and had fallen all the way to 59.75 percent in May. But in both June and July, Microsoft’s browser...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Police raid Google Korea on suspicion of communication law violation SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's police said Tuesday its investigators raided the office of Google Korea in Seoul on suspicion that the local unit of Google Inc., operator of the world's largest Web search service, has illegally collected individuals' personal information for its map service. The National Police Agency (NPA) said that its cyber crime investigation team was looking into allegations that Google Korea has violated the communications and privacy law in making Street View, a Google map service that features a panoramic view of streets. A group...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Google and Verizon have hammered out a joint proposal for the FCC and internet industry in the hopes of ending the roiling network neutrality debate. It won't. "Crafting a compromise proposal has not been an easy process, and we have certainly had our differences along the way," wrote Google director of public policy Alan Davidson and Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications Tom Tauke in a joint statement outlining the goals of the "suggested legislative framework." "But what has kept us moving forward is our mutual interest in a healthy and growing Internet that can continue...
Published on Wednesday 8th of September 2010 10:44:04 AM
Share this!