Privacy Advocates Fiercely Furrow Brows at Google

Google  will consolidate about 60 of its privacy policies across its products in March, creating one overarching policy and leaving only about another 10 unchanged for legal and other reasons.

The company is also changing its terms of service (TOS). It may combine information on Google account holders across all the company’s services the account holder uses.

This will provide a…

Google+ swells to 50 million users

It sure seems easy to build a strong social network when you’re a company like Google.

The online giant has already managed to encourage 50 million people to sign up for its own Facebook rival, Google Plus.

Online analytics enthusiast Paul Allen has come up with the figure. Google hasn’t announced publicly that it has reached the milestone number of users,…

Google filters news with “stand-out” content tag



In yet another attempt to filter the news, Google has announced a new HTML tagging system which it hopes will prioritize original features and cut out copy-cat churn from search results.

“Every day, news organizations and journalists around the world dedicate significant time and resources toward some of the most critical types of coverage: exceptional original reporting, deep investigative work,…

Schmidt dismisses search complaints as sour grapes

Google chairman Eric Schmidt yesterday defended the company’s practices to a Senate anti-trust panel, but admitted it was a near-monopoly.

When committee chairman Senator Herb Kohl asked Schmidt whether he felt that Google constituted a monopoly or had a particularly dominant power in the market, Schmidt replied: “I would agree, sir, that we’re in that area”.

Google argues that companies…

Google talks monopoly

It isn’t just outsiders slinging mud at Google over its size and status anymore, as even the company’s own chairman admitted the firm is “in the area” of having a monopoly on the market.

Answering questions thrown at him from Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl, Google’s Eric Schmidt was goaded into admitting the search engine giant was getting dangerously…

Google+ opens to the masses

Google’s popular social networking platform is now open to the masses – and does not require a specially sent invite to join.

Still, Google wants you to know that it is far from finished revamping and updating its nascent + service, as Mountain View continues to roll out new features in a steady cadence.

Google+ opens to the masses”For the past…

Can Google resurrect its TV platform?

Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility could potentially allow Mountain View to significantly expand its fading presence in the competitive set-top box market.

“Google’s acquisition pay off in the set-top box space, especially because the company’s own Google TV smart television products seemed headed to an early grave in the wake of a steep dive in…

Google snaps up another thousand patents

Google’s snaffled another big haul of patents, aiming to bolster Android against its recent legal assaults from Apple.

It’s bought 1,023 patents from IBM, covering everything from cleaning methods to file system management. They include patents relating to server architecture and databases, as well as a number of Java patents and some covering web search.

The US Patent & Trademark Office…

Google says users can opt out of location mapping

With European regulators still grumbling over Google’s privacy practices, the company is now to allow owners of residential Wifi routers to opt out of its controversial location-mapping system.

Up to now, Google’s been using publicly broadcast Wifi data from wireless access points to improve its location-based services.

By using signals from access points rather than GPS, says Google, smart phones are…

25% of US Web time is spent on social networks

15 minutes of every hour we spend online is devoted to social media, according to the latest research from Nielsen.

The firm found that Facebook was far and away the most popular social networking site, and thus the most popular site period. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

What may come as a surprise, though, is Tumblr. Nielsen…

Google reveals carbon footprint

In an effort to push cloud-based services, Google has revealed its power consumption figures for the first time.

The company says that the cloud can be much more energy-efficient than locally hosted services, by maximizing server utilization, using high-efficiency facilities and focusing on power usage efficiency.

According to Google, the average search query requires about 0.0003 kWh of energy, equivalent to about…