The Omnipotent Google

Search Engines: How They're Reshaping Your Brain

Atlantic Monthly  |  Jun 11, 08 10:42 AM CDT

(Newser) - Although he’s thrilled with all the time he saves using the Internet for research and awed by the vast intellectual opportunities available to every web surfer, Nicholas Carr is a bit disconcerted that he no longer has the patience for reading books or long articles. With his netizen mind fidgeting and losing the thread after a few pages, Carr wonders in the Atlantic : What is the net doing to our brains? More »

'Lifestreaming' Challenges Traditional Social Networking

Financial Times (UK)  |  Jun 10, 08 4:47 PM CDT

(Newser) - A new kind of open social networking is gaining a foothold with online leaders. “Lifestreaming” services like FriendFeed—launched in February by ex-Google employees—let users bring online social activities from various sources together in one feed. Leader FriendFeed is logging 150,000 visitors a month, but the big players won’t cede ground without a fight, one VC told the Financial Times . More »

Making Web More Social Has Google, Facebook Less So

Washington Post  |  Jun 3, 08 3:35 PM CDT

(Newser) - Though Facebook cited privacy concerns in pulling the plug on a partnership with Google aimed at making the Web more social, dollar signs are more likely behind its withdrawal from Friend Connect, the Washington Post reports. "What Facebook is after really is control over their users," one analyst says of the threat to the company's advertising hold. More »

Who's Afraid of Google Health?

Atlantic Monthly  |  May 23, 08 11:51 AM CDT

(Newser) - Google's new health record-sharing service has privacy advocates' hearts racing. But the benefits outweigh the risks, both in costs and potential lives saved, James Gibney argues in the Atlantic. Ready access to personal health records could prevent medical errors like incorrectly prescribed meds while saving billions in related  costs. More »

Google Guru Prods FCC Over Wi-Fi

Wall Street Journal  |  May 23, 08 11:46 AM CDT

(Newser) - Google co-founder Larry Page urged Congress and the FCC this week to open up access to unused television airwaves to broaden the reach of wireless Internet. Page asserted that the unused waves, called "white space," would increase Wi-Fi range in rural areas and help provide Internet capability to the entire country, reports the Wall Street Journal . More »

Google Readies Defense of Yahoo Ad Deal

New York Times  |  May 22, 08 9:35 AM CDT

(Newser) - An advertising deal between Google and Yahoo is certain to stir the Justice Department’s antitrust division into action, no matter what the two do to address concerns, experts anticipating a partnership between the two Internet leaders tell the New York Times . Google says a deal would simply be a supply matter, with parallels in other industries. More »

Google Launches Online Health Records Service

New York Times  |  May 20, 08 12:51 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google has launched google.com/health, the latest in a field of online personal health services that allow consumers to send records to doctors and clinics and to schedule their care. Early tests indicate that patients are excited to use the portal—and unconcerned about putting personal information in the hands of a large tech company, the New York Times reports. More »

Ballmer's Competitive Streak Drove Yahoo Bid

Associated Press  |  May 4, 08 7:36 PM CDT

(Newser) - Microsoft's Yahoo bid put CEO Steve Ballmer to the test: How much would he pay to fulfill his promise to "(expletive) kill Google"? Forty-seven billion bucks was too high, but many say he'll try again—and may have a tough time convincing investors it's all cool calculation. Microsoft still lags behind Google in search advertising, and that makes Ballmer steam, the AP reports. More »

Post-Microsoft, What's a Yahoo to Do?

New York Times  |  May 4, 08 5:24 PM CDT

(Newser) - High-fives broke out at Yahoo yesterday after Microsoft revoked its buyout bid, but founder Jerry Yang and colleagues may want to hold off on celebrations, the New York Times reports. Analysts expect the stock to tank tomorrow, shareholders are mulling legal action, key workers may walk, and an alliance with Google could prove disastrous. More »

Google Book Scans Go Slow at Research Libraries

Associated Press  |  Apr 25, 08 6:30 PM CDT

(Newser) - In its ongoing effort to digitize the world's 50-100 million books for online book searching, Google is funding scanning efforts for rare volumes at leading libraries. The AP observed one such digitizing—the oldest Bible with Arabic type, scanned manually at 600 pages per day—which, to protect the work, can't use Google's standard, and much speedier, process. More »

Google Accused of 'Gaming' FCC Auction

PC World  |  Apr 16, 08 3:31 PM CDT

(Newser) - Republican lawmakers are charging that Google manipulated an FCC bandwidth auction to get a free ride on the airwaves, PC World reports. The internet giant is accused of bidding purely to bump up the price to a level where rules trigger open access—and then walking away, leaving Verizon to win the auction. The auction of 700MHz spectrums raised less than had been expected. More »

Google Buys DoubleClick After EU Signs Off

Associated Press  |  Mar 11, 08 4:25 PM CDT

(Newser) - Google acquired ad tracker DoubleClick today after EU regulators approved the $3.1 billion deal, the AP reports. Antitrust officials dismissed concerns about competition, saying Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL also provide “credible” online ad services. The ruling ducked questions of how private data will be handled, an issue that riles privacy advocates on both sides of the pond. More »

Fewer Clicks Are Better Clicks: Google

MarketWatch  |  Mar 11, 08 1:52 AM CDT

(Newser) - Google's share price took a big hit after quarterly results released last week showed the number of paid-for-clicks on advertising flattening out, but the company says the fall is actually good news, MarketWatch reports. Google bosses say the drop is all part of their plan to improve the quality of service by reducing the number of unintentional clicks. More »

Gmail Spam Doubles, Duping Junk Blocker

PC World  |  Mar 10, 08 7:09 PM CDT

(Newser) - Spammers doubled junk mail from Gmail accounts last month and all but iced a touted spam-blocker, PC World reports. Gmail junk rose from 1.3% to 2.6% of all spam in February, overwhelming the company's CAPTCHA programs with spam from multiple accounts. "It's only a matter of time before (CAPTCHAs) are comprehensively defeated," one analyst said. More »

US Bases Block Google Camera Crews

Associated Press  |  Mar 7, 08 4:07 AM CST

(Newser) - Google camera teams have been banned from US military installations after panoramic views of the inside of a Texas base ended up on the internet, the AP reports. The street-level images show "where all the guards are, how the barriers go up and down, how to get in and out of buildings," said a general worried about the security implications. A message sent to all Defense Department facilities has ordered officials not to allow Google Earth crews to photograph them. More »

Google Health Will Be Ad-Free

Associated Press  |  Mar 1, 08 10:02 AM CST

(Newser) - The newest member of the Google family, Google Health, will not have advertising, CEO Eric Schmidt said this week, but will earn its keep from the traffic it draws to the company’s search engine. The new service stores health records, allowing users to share test results, prescriptions and other information with multiple medical providers; it's currently being tested at the Cleveland Clinic, and isn't open to the public yet . More »

Tech Giants Behave Like Nations

ABC News  |  Feb 29, 08 4:45 PM CST

(Newser) - A comparison of two of this week’s big tech news stories, the end of an eBay boycott and Google’s announcement of the construction of a new trans-Pacific fiber optic cable, show how the tech giants have moved beyond old corporate paradigms, writes Michael Malone for ABC News. With business models that involve unprecedented consumer participation, these companies behave increasingly like sovereign nations. More »

Google Sites App Again Targets Microsoft Office

New York Times  |  Feb 28, 08 11:43 AM CST

(Newser) - Google hopes to make another dent in Microsoft’s productivity empire with a new application: Google Sites. The program lets workgroups create multimedia web content, and rivals Microsoft’s $1-billion-a-year SharePoint, the New York Times reports. It joins Google apps for email, word processing, and more in an assault on MS Office—and unlike Office, Google’s programs are free. More »

Google Not Clicking with Inves