Google

Has someone found Google's kryptonite? Dozens of small start-up companies were on hand at a recent high-tech convention with each looking to impress a crowd of influential representatives interested in securing the services of one lucky company. ... Also milling about were consumers looking to grab a sneak peak at the latest technological craze. Of all the entrepreneurs in attendance, one particular company made the most impact in the form of a verbal announcement that sounded more like a promise than an aspiration. The company pledged that they now held the secret to defeating Google at their ... (view more)

Google has released the newest component of Google Docs: a presentation component that carries a typical simplistic moniker, Google "Presentations". Like Google Documents and Spreadsheets, users can email and upload documents to edit online. Unlike ... Documents, however, Presentations can only handle documents created in PowerPoint. Further, uploads must be smaller than 10MB. Google has certainly overtaken Microsoft on the aspect of search. Does Presentations have the potential to offer Google similar success? In a nutshell, no. Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman, a frequent PowerPoint user, tested ... (view more)

After being crowned the king of search, Google has set its sights a bit higher -- literally. In what it calls the 'global private race to the moon,' Google will be sponsoring the Google Lunar X PRIZE, an award given to a team who can land a craft on ... the moon. (Source: abc.net ) The X PRIZE Foundation's first project, the Ansari X PRIZE, had competitors racing to build a spacecraft able to reach low earth orbit. This time, participants will be reaching for the moon. Specifically, the winner must be the first to soft land a spacecraft on the moon which will roam for a minimum of 500 meters and ... (view more)

Could Google Earth's privacy-invading tendencies save your life? Maybe one day, but right now the Internet search leader is on the lookout for missing people. Renowned aviator Steve Fossett is currently on the search list. The pilot disappeared over ... the Nevada desert after taking off in a small plane early last week. Two days later Google became involved in the case when his friend, British billionaire Richard Branson, proposed that Fossett be located through the company's satellite mapping service. Branson said "I'm talking with friends at Google about seeing whether we can look at satellite ... (view more)

Google Apps may be a bad career choice for architects. The communication and collaboration tools, released less than a year ago, can be described as a no-frills version of Microsoft Office that sells for a lower price. Unfortunately, a research and ... consulting firm, the Burton Group, has found that those who have high expectations for the program may face career-limiting consequences. The group's report confirms that Google Apps is only useful in a limited set of circumstances. Small businesses should only rely on it as a basic tool rather than an important suite for collaboration. It can also ... (view more)

Google is taking advertising to new levels by partnering up with popular television icons and inventors. Soon Google's AdSense network will feature online videos from Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the animated TV show "Family Guy," as well as ... Raven Symone, who stars in the show "That's So Raven." The company supporting the projects, Media Rights Capital, financed last year's Brad Pitt flick, "Babel." It sounds entertaining, but if you fear change then these ads might not impress you. What's more, if you were hoping to spend time on Google with the Griffins, think again. MacFarlane will ... (view more)

Although it seems like Google has been receiving buckets of praise while rival Yahoo has been struggling in their game of catch up, the tables may be turning. Yahoo recently beat out Google for bragging rights in customer satisfaction, receiving a ... rating of 79 by the University of Michigan's American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Although Google scored a respectable 78 on the 100-point scale, the two companies' changes in scores from the previous quarter is more telling than the raw scores themselves. Last time, Google received a score of 82, meaning that the company's tally decreased 4 ... (view more)

Google has unveiled a new feature for its popular Google News: comments. The new addition, now in beta, is sparking talks of the ethical implications of journalism and how Google is "stepping it up a notch" on that front. As Google software ... engineers Dan Meredith and Andy Golding explained on the official Google blog, adding comments may equate to adding integrity. "As always, Google News will direct readers to the professionally-written articles and news sources our algorithms have determined are relevant for a topic...But we're hoping that by adding this feature, we can help ... (view more)

The European Union's executive branch has approved a grant of 120 million euros (about $166 million US) to help fund the German government's next-generation Internet search engine, code-named Theseus. (Source: arstechnica.com ) The grant will be ... distributed among different companies, including SAP AG and Siemens AG, as they begin research on the Theseus project. The project aims to develop "new search technologies for the next generation Internet," including "semantic technologies which try to recognize the meaning of content and place it in its proper context." Semantic technologies are ... (view more)

In a move that will surely please many privacy campaigners, Google has changed its cookie policy dramatically. How so? Instead of having cookies expire in the year 2038, they will expire two years after the page has last been viewed. (Source: ... betanews.com ) The announcement comes shortly after the search engine giant revealed that it will erase search logs after 18 months, a reduction from the previously uncapped time limit. The cookie reduction announcement came via an official Google blog entitled "Cookies: Expiring Sooner to Improve Privacy." In the post, Global Privacy Counsel Peter ... (view more)