google

Nowadays, it's hard to imagine visiting a search engine other than Google. For years -- the number somewhat irrelevant -- Google has been the "find machine" of choice, directing users to easy-to-navigate lists of the best and also most relevant ... sites in the query range. For this writer, the last prominent search engine used prior to Google was probably Alta Vista...and that was a very, very long time ago (long before Y2K). However, now many insiders consider Ask.com to be a serious challenger to Google's popularity, and although there's a long way to go, the company is making serious strides ... (view more)

"It looks and feels like Gmail on the desktop." That's the proclamation made by Google product manager Tony Hsieh on the company's new Gmail mobile phone application. Hsieh compares the new mobile Gmail so favorably to its desktop cousin because ... it's a standalone application that doesn't operate through a browser. It can run on any cell phone with Java service. As a result, the new service "promises computer-like response times for viewing email," according to Reuters. (Source: pcmag.com ) Google lists the following features for its mobile service on Gmail's login page: It has the same Gmail ... (view more)

Google Wants You to Stop Using "Google" as a Verb. Trademarks such as Kleenex, Xerox, and Band-Aid have all fallen victim to the public's genericization of their brand names -- and despite the company's protest, Google is encountering the same fate. ... The company's extreme popularity and undisputed success as a web search engine has led many people to link Google's brand name with the process of Web searching -- "googling". (Source: cleavlandleader.com) This year, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has added "googling" to their plethora of English verbs. The online version of the Merriam-Webster ... (view more)

Late last week, comScore Networks revealed the September 2006 ranking of the globe's top fifteen Web properties. ComScore ranks the Web properties based on the number of unique visitors that visit the site. (Source: comscore.com ) Microsoft, Yahoo, ... and Google: The Frontrunners The results are in: Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google were the top three most visited websites in September -- and all three giants of technology came in close together. Microsoft led the pack with approximately 505 million unique visitors to its site; Yahoo came in second with about 481 million unique visitors; and Google ... (view more)

The newest kid on Google's block, YouTube.com, has been listening to recent concerns that many of the videos uploaded to the site are in violation of established copyrights. A few months before Google purchased the video sharing site , Dallas ... Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went on record in claiming that YouTube would eventually be "sued into oblivion" for "breaking the law" by illegally hosting copyrighted material. A Japanese entertainment company -- The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) -- recently discovered almost 30,000 TV shows, music videos, and movies ... (view more)

Google executives must be thrilled: in a recent interview with MSNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo, U.S. President George W. Bush revealed that he is one of Google's many loyal users. During the October 24th interview, Bartiromo asked Bush: "I'm curious, ... have you ever googled anybody? Do you use Google?" Google Earth: Yes The President said that he used the search giant occasionally and specifically pointed out that he enjoys using Google Earth to look at his ranch in Crawford Texas. Bush said that, "One of the things I've used on the Google is to pull up maps. It's very interesting to see -- I've ... (view more)

Attention, Marijuana Harvesters: If you are using your fields to grow pot, the cops may use utilize Internet technology to nab you. Dean Brown, a Wisconsin man found that out the hard way when the Racine County Sheriff's Department used the mapping ... software Google Earth to locate his marijuana fields in nearby Mount Pleasant. Ironically, Brown made it easy for the police -- by wearing the location as a necklace. He had a GPS unit around his neck, which police used to discover the coordinates of the drug field. From there, Racine's finest plugged the coordinates into Google Earth and were able ... (view more)

Hoping to set an example of environmental responsibility for American corporations, Google Inc. is converting its California-based headquarters to run partly on solar power. Google's solar power project was announced during a solar energy conference ... in Silicon Valley last week. Largest Corporate Solar Power Endeavor Being hailed as the largest solar power endeavour by a U.S. corporation, Google is planning on installing over 9,200 solar panels on its Mountain View campus by next spring. The installed solar panels will deliver 1.6 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power ... (view more)

Search giant Google continues to wow investors and investment professionals alike as the company's value continues to grow by leaps and bounds. As of last Friday, October 20, 2006, Google Inc's stock price surged to a nine-month high. That day on ... the NASDAQ stock market, the company's shares closed at $459.67 US per share -- an increase of $33.61 US per share or 7.9 percent. The increase created over $10 billion US in shareholder wealth, which brought the 8-year-old Google's total market value to $143 billion US. (Source: mercurynews.com ) $600 for Google Stock? Industry analysts are ... (view more)

Announced last week, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) is the newest post-secondary institution to join Google's controversial library project -- a venture that strives to provide user access to various library collections and digital ... reference materials. The project, dubbed Google Book Search, utilizes the same technology as the company's main search engine and allows users to wade through millions of publications by searching for a particular phrase or topic. Google's project was launched last year with five renowned libraries participating: Harvard University, Stanford University, ... (view more)