Google

Is the FBI poking around your e-mail? Randall C. Ashby II used his Google Mail (Gmail) account to distribute hate speech -- and that was all the feds needed to investigate him. On May 22nd, 2006, Ashby signed up for Gmail and sent a threatening ... message to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP immediately forwarded the offensive letter to the FBI. Here's a transcript of Ashby's e-mail: Warning: The following quote contains disturbing content! "You are no match for our numbers and our power. We will come out of the night and rise from the dirt to ... (view more)

Google has just unveiled Accessible Web Search , a search engine for the visually-challenged. Here's how it works: Regular Google sorts search results primarily by how relevancy, but Accessible Search takes it a step further by also listing pages ... will that will be easy for the blind to navigate. To meet Google's Accessible Web Search criteria, a web Site has to be "visually simple." That means it should contain few images, work well even if those images are turned off, and can be navigated primarily with a keyboard. (Source: google.com ) Before Google Accessible Web Search, searching the ... (view more)

Citing security threats to the consumer, eBay has banned its buyers and sellers from using the recently launched Google "Checkout". Largely considered to be a future threat to eBay's PayPal service, Google Checkout is considered by Paypal as an ... "official payment service not permitted." Like bounced checks bitterly taped to the counter in an old convenience store, this move my PayPal is seen by many as a cheap way for eBay to prevent the growth of a major competitor. (Source: zdnet.com ) Reminder: What is Google Checkout? Google Checkout was recently released as a rather simple " ... (view more)

After weeks of speculation, Google has finally introduced "Google Checkout", its first foray into the world of online payment systems. Although Google refused to confirm such rumors, it has today gone ahead with a program that is most comparable ... with Microsoft's "Passport" service. Both systems use a single login name to allow users a payment method with a host of participating online vendors. The greatest difference between Google's Checkout and Microsoft's Passport are the time and, obviously, the company. In recent months, Microsoft has scaled back its Passport service considerably. ... (view more)

A new message is now appearing on Google's video Web site: "You can now watch selected videos for free -- thanks to our sponsors. These videos usually sell from $0.99 to $14.99." That's good news for net addicts with a few hours to kill. The service ... features full-length movies, documentaries, sports, cartoons, talk shows, and professional wrestling matches. (Source: Google.com ) You won't find Casablanca, the Super Bowl, or WrestleMania -- but there should be something among Google's sponsored videos to tickle your fancy. Besides, as the old saying goes, "free is free." You're probably ... (view more)

In early June, Google launched its free online spreadsheet program to beta testers. Some say the release of the web-based spreadsheet is a sign of Google's increased exploration into the sector of office software that is currently dominated by ... Microsoft. (Source: macWorld.com ) The spreadsheet service is available to public now that Google has purchased web-based word processing application, "Writely," which delivers an online simulation of a word processor. How it Works Deemed as the "The Web Word Processor", Writely allows users to import Microsoft Word documents along with ... (view more)

Taking advantage of its dominant standing in the search engine world, Google is now setting its sights on the online payment market. Rumors abound that Google will announce today its intent to openly take on Paypal, the Internet credit medium that ... has been a hot payment option for -- and major benefactor of -- the popularity of eBay. Sources reveal that Google's first foray into online payments may resemble a simple Internet "wallet", something as simple as a network account (a service already adopted by Yahoo, which allows consumers to store their billing information via the web). However, ... (view more)

Dell has recently been in negotiations with Google to form a partnership which would combine technologies from both companies in a mutually beneficial way. The deal will bundle Google software onto brand new Dell PCs, widening Google's ... ever-increasing dominance in the search engine market. The Google/Dell bundle has been reported to include "desktop software, which integrates a number of personal computing applications, a Google tool bar and a co-branded Internet home page." Four months ago, it was reported that Google was considering to pay Dell up to one billion dollars over a ... (view more)

Google has unveiled its new toolbar for Internet Explorer, called Google Toolbar 4, and it is *loaded* with lots of cool and useful features. One of the best new features is called "Custom Buttons." With Custom Buttons, you can add buttons to your ... toolbar that will let you visit and search your favorite websites and keep up with interesting feeds. The Google Button Gallery has many buttons for popular sites, but you can also easily create your own. The new Enhanced Search Box of Toolbar 4 uses what appears to be the Google Suggest feature to suggest popular searches. This makes searching that ... (view more)