Google

Google has announced it will ask all users to reconfirm their preferred privacy settings on its social networking site 'Buzz'. It follows a controversial launch in which many believed, correctly or otherwise, that their privacy had been compromised. ... Buzz is Google's rival to Facebook and Twitter. It's integrated into Gmail and allows users to follow and reply to posts made by people they decide to follow on the service. The service also allows users to share information from other Google-owned services such as Google Reader (an RSS newsreader) and picture-sharing site Picasa. It was clearly ... (view more)

Google has unveiled several changes to its cloud-computing based office application service, Google Docs. Changes include the ability to collaborate on documents in real time and improvements to the spreadsheet editor. While Google Docs is a free ... service, and meant as a more basic edition of Google's paid Apps package, it is used by many business users -- particularly those on tight budgets. That explains today's launch of the Docs updates at Google headquarters, which was attended by chief information officers from 400 companies. Google Docs Allows for Collaborative Editing The big update ... (view more)

Google has upped the ante in its dispute against China by uncensoring its previously censored search results. Officially, Google has not breached Chinese rules which insist on search results being filtered to remove content officials class as ... objectionable; this includes political information and viewpoints the government wants to suppress. Instead, Google has set its Chinese home page (google.cn) to route directly to Google's search tool via the Hong Kong version of the site (google.com.hk). It looks inevitable that China will simply block access to that site altogether. The government has ... (view more)

Google has been considering pulling out of China for a few months now, saying it is no longer prepared to meet official demands to filter results its in line with Chinese government rules. The dispute heated up around the time Google was the victim ... of a substantial hacking attack , and while no link to the Chinese government has been proven, it's believed in some circles that the attack was an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of political opponents of the ruling Communist party. Officials Forewarn of Google Closure Chinese officials are now said to have contacted several major websites ... (view more)

Facebook has overtaken Google as the most visited website among United States users. It's the first time Google has lost the top spot since September 2007. The revelation comes from Hitwise, a web analysis firm that gathers data directly from ... Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in order to help advertisers get a better idea of how to reach particular markets. Because the data comes from ISPs, it's considered more accurate than some methods which only gather data from individual sites or users. According to the firm, last week Facebook accounted for 7.07% of all US website visits, compared with ... (view more)

Google is rumored to be testing a search tool for Dish Network-powered televisions. It would allow users to search both for programming on the satellite broadcasts and for online videos. According to the Wall Street Journal, the service is being ... tested with a small group of employees. Based on Android and designed for use with a plug-in keyboard, the service would work with Internet-enabled television sets. Those are becoming more popular with the advent of streaming versions of rental services such as Netflix and even Blockbuster. (Source: wsj.com ) The idea appears to be that the service ... (view more)

Google is among several firms testing a new device that could replace the need for receiving electricity through power cables. It coincides with the search giant getting a license to buy and sell power in bulk, most likely to get a cheaper supply of ... energy. The device, known as the Bloom Box, is produced by the relatively new firm Bloom Energy. It's roughly the size of a refrigerator and is filled with fuel cells which can create electricity through an emissions-less chemical process. The process hasn't been fully detailed (the company plans a public launch shortly) but it involves a ... (view more)

At least five cities have already said they are interested in taking up Google's offer to build broadband networks running at a staggering 1 Gigabit per second (1Gbps). The comments come as analysts try to figure out what Google gains from the ... scheme. The firm says it will help fund networks serving between 50,000 and 500,000 customers. Cities whose officials have already said they are looking into the proposals include Winston, North Carolina; Peachtree City, Georgia; San Francisco, California; and Greensboro, North Carolina. Officials in Ontario County, New York have also shown an interest ... (view more)

Google has made a formal and public apology to Chinese authors after including their works in its book search project without permission. It's a striking contrast to the way the firm responded to similar complaints in the United States and Europe. ... Google Book Search involves scanning books with optical character recognition so that the text can be searched. The firm argues that this is simply to make it easier for users to find information in books and that they are limited to seeing the relevant pages rather than it being a free way to read an entire book. The firm has consistently ... (view more)

Small Canadian companies are having big success against even bigger opponents of late. Just a week after a U.S. judge confirmed Toronto tech firm i4i's claim against Microsoft's use of XML technology in Word, an Oakville, Ontario company has won its ... domain name case against search giant Google. For those who've missed the news, Microsoft last week lost its appeal over an August decision that forced it to remove XML functions in its very popular Word, a big part of Microsoft Office. On the winning side was small Toronto-based i4i; the court decision means Microsoft must remove the conflicting ... (view more)