Company plans cuts in contract workforce, tightens perks as it refocuses
Wall Street Journal 3 hours, 21 minutes ago
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Times are tough even at Google, forcing the company to refocus on its core business, the search advertising that generates 97% of its revenue, reports the Wall Street Journal. CEO Eric Schmidt says the company has begun to trim not only some of its legendary employee perks, but unprofitable products and experimental projects.
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OPINION
Columnist worries about being so tied to giant, but everything just works so well
New York Times Nov 24, 08 10:28 AM CST
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Despite near-total lack of marketing, Google finds its way into Web lovers’ hearts with an irresistible bundle of applications. “Having grown up in the vapor trail of the ’60s, I learned to be wary of large, centralized organizations,” David Carr writes in the New York Times . “And yet Google, a huge enterprise with a market value of $80 billion, is my ever-present wingman.”
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Price wars sure to kill off some struggling e-tailers
New York Times Nov 20, 08 10:46 AM CST
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Online retailers’ response to their first dreary holiday season is a price war so fierce many won’t see the new year. Web shoppers are trained to search for deals, and 75% say they would leave a site that doesn't offer free shipping, the New York Times reports. Fine for Amazon.com, but many small boutiques can’t absorb those costs.
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Adviser thinks Obama should open power grids, fund innovation
InformationWeek Nov 19, 08 2:35 PM CST
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks the government needs to fund a massive reinvention of America’s energy infrastructure, opening up the grid to startups and funding innovation, Information Week reports. It’s crucial “that small startups with funny names get founded and funded in the new regime,” said the adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. “That’s where the wealth will be created.”
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The next Yahoo CEO will have to take the Web portal in a new direction to sate Wall Street
Wall Street Journal Nov 19, 08 9:52 AM CST
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Yahoo’s successor to CEO Jerry Yang could come from outside the Internet industry, as long as he has a strong operations background and the decisiveness to break the company’s culture of indecision, reports the Wall Street Journal . But even before hiring a CEO, the company needs to decide whether it wants to remain independent or go with a partner, reports the New York Times .
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ANALYSIS
Analysts see 'beginning of the end for Yahoo' as CEO steps down
BusinessWeek Nov 18, 08 9:54 AM CST
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Investors are hoping Jerry Yang’s departure will lead to renewed talks with Microsoft, BusinessWeek reports. “This is probably the beginning of the end for Yahoo,” said one. “Microsoft will probably come back with an offer.” Microsoft has repeatedly denied interest in reviving a deal, but Yang’s departure “clears the path,” one analyst said. “Yahoo can free up its strategic alternatives.”
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Pushed by parent, Google, the company adopts a new strategy: Google's
San Francisco Chronicle Nov 13, 08 8:08 AM CST
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YouTube yesterday unveiled its latest plan for making money: an auction-based ad system that puts sponsored video clips alongside search results. The video-sharing site's system mimics that of its parent company, Google, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The company—which ranks second only to Google in searches—is hoping it can finally monetize its enormous popularity.
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Users can surf city streets of 320 AD
BBC Nov 13, 08 7:07 AM CST
(Newser)
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Google Earth is providing users the opportunity to surf the streets of Ancient Rome via a 3D virtual reconstruction of the city as it was in the 4th century. Users can "enter" the Forum, stand in the sands of the Colosseum, or swoop over any of 6,700 buildings of old Rome, reports the BBC.
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Software giant outbids Google as competition goes mobile
Wall Street Journal Nov 12, 08 4:01 PM CST
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Insiders say Verizon Wireless is likely to pick Microsoft as the default search provider for its mobile phones, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Verizon had also been in talks with Google to provide the service, but Microsoft’s guarantee of about $600 million in annual ad revenue—about twice as much as Google—seems to be a dealmaker.
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DeepDyve may reach 99% of web Google & Co don't
Wired Nov 12, 08 2:20 PM CST
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Technology designed to sequence the human genome is now being turned to an equally daunting task: probing the depths of the web. DeepDyve, a search engine developed by Human Genome Project researchers, can base its search on up to 25,000 characters, Wired reports, which researchers say allows it to return results from the 99% of the web not indexed by Google.
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Google becomes first of email's big 3 to integrate audio, video
San Jose Mercury News Nov 12, 08 5:39 AM CST
(Newser)
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Users of Google's Gmail service can now see and hear each other, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The company rolled out video and voice additions to the chat function in its Gmail interface yesterday, putting the world's third-biggest free email provider a step ahead of rivals Microsoft and Yahoo in the race to make email a more social—and profitable—application.
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Company teams
with CDC to improve warning system
ABC News Nov 11, 08 6:27 PM CST
(Newser)
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Google is teaming up with the CDC to track flu outbreaks around the nation and give people earlier warnings, ABC News reports. The new site (http://www.google.org/flutrends/) relies on the notion that people turn to the Web when they're sick by typing phrases such as "flu symptoms" into Google searches. By keeping track of such searches and mapping them, the system could beat official CDC warnings by up to two weeks.
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Could have service within 90 days
CNET Nov 8, 08 12:48 PM CST
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Full-length Hollywood movies will soon be streaming on YouTube, reports CNET. The site's parent company, Google, is in promising talks and could have offerings from at least one major studio online within a month. “It's going to happen,” said one executive with knowledge of the deal. “I would say you can expect to see it, if all goes well, sometime within the next 30 to 90 days.”
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Search giant proves unwilling to fight antitrust regulators over deal
CNET Nov 5, 08 1:40 PM CST
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Google canceled its search-advertising partnership with Yahoo rather than fight a Department of Justice lawsuit over antitrust concerns, CNET reports. The company gave up on the deal after Justice said it was not satisfied with the companies’ revisions to the deal and would sue to block it.
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