The Omnipotent Google

Google Helps Curb Boozy Screeds

InformationWeek  |  Oct 7, 08 12:52 PM CDT

(Newser) - If you've ever, after a few drinks, sent an email you later regretted, Google's got a gadget for you, InformationWeek reports. Mail Goggles, a play on those beer goggles that make you see (and think) fuzzy, activates late night on weekends “to verify you're in the right state of mind,” the company explains, “making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send.” More »

Time Travel: Google Shows You the Web in 2001

TechCrunch  |  Oct 1, 08 2:52 PM CDT

(Newser) - To honor its 10th birthday, Google put up a search engine that reflects the web in 2001, TechCrunch reports. Other than the Yahoo-esque exclamation point in Google’s logo, the search engine has not changed that much since—but searches show the web, and the world, have: "iPod" brings up a defunct document-processing system, while "YouTube" yields zero links. More »

Google Keeps Up Battle for Open-Access Cells

CNET  |  Sep 27, 08 8:12 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google renewed its battle for open cell phone networks this week by filing for a new patent, CNET reports. The search giant filed to free smartphones from network-carrier agreements so users can tap into whatever connection is strongest and most affordable. But carriers mostly resist the notion, saying tight networks are needed to ensure quality and security. More »

Google Changes Policy, Accepts Anti-Abortion Ads

Times (UK)  |  Sep 17, 08 7:30 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google today changed its worldwide advertising policy to let anti-abortion groups buy space on its site, the London Times reports. Google previously banned pro-lifers from placing ads opposite abortion-related search terms, but a British group sued the company for violating activists’ free speech rights. Says one group member: The Christian Institute “is not a group of headbangers and would set out its position in a pretty factual, pretty sensible way.” More »

Yahoo's Next Move: Third-Party Content

San Francisco Chronicle  |  Sep 12, 08 12:04 PM CDT

(Newser) - After struggling through months of takeover battles and sagging stock prices, Yahoo says it’s working to become a web destination for users rather than simply a jumping-off point, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. It plans to add third-party content and newly developed applications on a new Yahoo home page, allowing users to access sites like Netflix without leaving. More »

Writer Fails in Doomed Bid to Escape Google for 24 Hours

Washington Post  |  Sep 7, 08 10:31 AM CDT

(Newser) - On the tenth anniversary of Google, Colbert Report writer Rob Dubbin attempts to avoid using the Internet behemoth for 24 hours—and finds its tentacles impossible to escape. He discovers "deeper" dependence than expected, "encompassing personal use" and the "nested dependencies of people and institutions surrounding me"—a "harrowing" discovery. "The blue 'G' found a way to surprise me around corners, grinning like some horrible fanged maw," he details in his diary. More »

Chrome Is 'Smart, Innovative'

Wall Street Journal  |  Sep 2, 08 7:00 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google's innovative new browser Chrome could unseat Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but the beta version lacks some important features, Walter Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal . Chrome introduces the "Omnibox," a combination search box and address bar, as well as tabs that operate as self-contained browsers. However, its spare design sacrifices common tools such as bookmark management and a progress bar. More »

Google to Launch Web Browser

Wall Street Journal  |  Sep 1, 08 4:36 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google will soon launch its own Web browser, called Chrome, aiming to make web surfing easier and faster, the Wall Street Journal reports. The announcement is the latest volley in the long battle between Microsoft and Google, which released the news by sending a comic book outlining Chrome's features to a blog that follows the company. More »

Google Cuts Back on Its Food Perks

Valleywag  |  Aug 25, 08 12:43 PM CDT

(Newser) - Life at the Googleplex just got a little less delicious. Google is cutting back on its famously generous food benefits, taking free dinners and free snacks off the menu, Valleywag reports. It’s a surprising change, since Google has milked its cafeteria for publicity, and recently told shareholders to expect more perks for employees, not fewer. More »

Google Readies for Spectrum Showdown

San Jose Mercury News  |  Aug 19, 08 9:49 AM CDT

(Newser) - Google has launched an aggressive campaign to free up the soon-to-be-emptied "white spaces" of the TV spectrum for Internet devices and broadband access, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The spaces will open up when TV switches entirely to digital in February. Google and other tech giants are hotly disputing use of the spaces with broadcasters. More »

Ex-Google Employees Launch Search Rival

New York Times  |  Jul 28, 08 12:37 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google might want to watch its back—a husband-and-wife team that helped build some of its most important code are getting the search game, the New York Times reports. Anna Patterson and Tom Costello think Cuil—pronounced “cool”—will rival the industry leader. “I think it will be better,” says Costello. “But there is no question that the public has to decide.” More »

Author Shares a Bit of 'Knol' on Google

CNET  |  Jul 27, 08 3:37 PM CDT

(Newser) - Now that Google has launched its "Knol" option to Wikipedia that allows people to pen articles on topics, CNET writer Elinor Mills takes a stab at being one of the site's experts. Google's offering has a key difference to Wikipedia: the writer of a Knol entry has near total control over his or her article. More »

Internet Hits 1 Trillion Sites

PC World  |  Jul 26, 08 7:05 AM CDT

(Newser) - The internet now hosts a staggering 1 trillion unique web sites, according to Google researchers. The million million sites—over 150 for everybody on the planet—are growing by billions of pages a day, PC World reports. Google doesn't index all those pages, but plots them on  a complex graph. A theoretical human researcher trying to check a different internet site each second would finish up around the year 3696. More »

Google Unveils Wikipedia Rival

CNET  |  Jul 24, 08 4:30 AM CDT

(Newser) - Could Wikipedia's assassin be lurking behind a Knol? Google opened up its online encyclopedia with articles—or "units of knowledge" Google calls "Knols"—to the public today, featuring major differences from its well-established rival. The  pieces are written by experts and their names are highlighted, in marked contrast to the anonymous writers of Wikipedia, CNET reports. Google writers, if they choose to, will get a cut of advertising revenue. More »

Google's Walking Map Gives True Step-By-Step Directions

Wired  |  Jul 23, 08 3:45 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google unveiled a new feature to its Maps site yesterday, Wired reports: walking directions. Users can now plot true step-by-step directions, taking into account one-way streets and a growing database of pedestrian pathways. The walking option will appear for distances less than 6.2 miles. More »

Sparks Fly as Yahoo, Microsoft Take to Hill

Los Angeles Times  |  Jul 16, 08 11:08 AM CDT

(Newser) - Congressional hearings on Yahoo's proposed ad deal with Google got a little heated yesterday, with a Microsoft lawyer testifying that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang recently admitted, in a private meeting, that the pact would reduce competition, the Los Angeles Times reports. Yahoo’s general counsel said he recalled no such remarks at the meeting, and a spokesman later swatted the charge aside. More »

It's Google's Turn on the Hot Seat

Seattle Times  |  Jul 14, 08 2:10 PM CDT

(Newser) - You have to forgive Microsoft if it indulges in some schadenfreude today, writes Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times. Archrival Google is facing a peril that’s all too familiar in Redmond. Steve Ballmer can sit back tomorrow as Google’s top execs go before the Senate subcommittee on antitrust, secure in the knowledge that he helped put them there. More »

FTC Rejects Call for Internet Privacy Law

Wall Street Journal  |  Jul 9, 08 5:23 PM CDT

(Newser) - An federal official testifying at a Senate hearing today shot down calls for a federal law to regulate websites that track users' data for advertising purposes. The FTC doesn't think it's necessary to place a rule on the books—one that could quickly become obsolete—and instead encouraged "meaningful, enforceable self regulation," reports the Wall Street Journal . More »

Parents Not Ga Ga Over Google Day Care