The Omnipotent Google

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September 2008
- 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 »
August 2008
- 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 »
July 2008
- 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
  
  New York Times | Jul 5, 08 2:51 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - So much for Google the good. The search giant announced 2 months ago a plan to raise in-house day care prices by 75%—to about $57,000 a year for parents with two kids. Some workers wept when the news broke in secret focus group meetings. Now the company that Fortune has twice called the "best to work for" faces parents bent on taking their kids elsewhere. More »
- Feds Probing Google-Yahoo Deal
  
  Washington Post | Jul 2, 08 9:24 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Google’s agreement to provide Yahoo with advertising for some of its searches in the US and Canada has prompted the Justice Department to launch a formal antitrust investigation into the deal, the Washington Post reports. "They don't do it without having identified significant issues," one lawyer said of the action, which goes beyond the voluntary review the search giant expected. More »
June 2008
- Ad Execs Feel Besieged by Google & Co.
  
  New York Times | Jun 23, 08 3:22 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Advertisers are spooked at net giants like Google and Microsoft throwing their weight around in the world of online advertising, the New York Times reports. With its ad deal with Yahoo drawing fire at conference in Cannes, Google “clearly wants to replace the advertising industry in its totality," says the former CEO of a big New York agency. More »
- Amazon Kept Laughing After Dot-Com Bust
  
  Economist | Jun 20, 08 4:45 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon emerged from the dot-com bust as a mighty triumvirate, but only Amazon has kept its mojo in the decade's latter stages, the Economist reports. Yahoo, the oldest of the lot at 14, shooed away Microsoft, surrendered part of its business to Google, and failed to stay current. It survives, “but on the web’s equivalent of life support." More »
- Tech Firms to Fix Monster They Created
  
  New York Times | Jun 14, 08 11:25 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Google, Microsoft, Intel, and IBM are partnering are on a new initiative to help workers distracted by emails and instant messages improve their productivity, the New York Times reports. The Information Overload Research Group, a nonprofit launching next month, will devise cultural and technological solutions to reduce the digital deluge that’s costing firms $650 billion a year in productivity. More »
- Yahoo Strikes Deal With Google on Search Ads
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jun 12, 08 8:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Yahoo struck a deal today with Google to dis