google

Three consumer advocate organizations have filed a joint complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting that the Google/DoubleClick merger be stopped. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the ... US Public Interest Research Group submitted the complaint on April 20th. The complaint asserts that "neither Google or DoubleClick have taken adequate steps to safeguard the personal data that is collected." The 11 page document goes on to ask the FTC to halt the merger until the "unfair and deceptive trade practices" are changed. (Source: ... (view more)

In the beginning, there was Yahoo, Lycos, and even a little search engine 'that could,' called AltaVista. While each offered varying abilities in crawling the web, none could quite match the rise of Google. And although its roots were only modest, ... Google's impressive search capabilities quickly rocketed it to the top of the web, with the power to control the rise and fall of companies vying for space in the Internet community. Now, less than a year after buying YouTube, Google is flexing its muscle again, buying advertising firm DoubleClick for an astounding $3.1 billion. The sheer value of ... (view more)

Google Inc. has been dealt a heavy blow in the form of a US $1 billion copyright lawsuit issued by major media corporation, Viacom Inc. The lawsuit specifically targets the unauthorized content found on YouTube.com. The website was purchased by ... Google last November for $1.76 billion. Viacom, whose subsidiaries include MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, continuously lashed out against the popular video-sharing site for its lack of enforcement when dealing with copyright issues. The lawsuit signals an escalation in long-standing tensions between Viacom and Google and also marks the biggest ... (view more)

If you were getting bored with the lack of juicy gossip in the tech world, don't worry: there's a new Google rumor making waves. Ex-entrepreneur and technology buff Simeon Simeonov has posted a blog giving his two cents on what he thinks is Google's ... next move: the Google Phone. He purports that Andy Rubin, former founder of the company Danger, is working with a group of 100 Google staff members to develop the phone. (Source: theinquirer.net ) Simeonov also points out that Google has been slowly acquiring mobile-centric companies. Reqwireless, Inc., which produces mobile applications, and Skia ... (view more)

Recently, Microsoft publicly attacked rival company Google Inc., criticizing them in regards to their carefree approach when dealing with copyright issues. Microsoft's harsh comments came shortly after Google signaled their intent to move into new ... media markets in an effort to further expand their corporate influence. Microsoft argued that Google's latest venture would come at the expense of those who hold copyrights on many books, videos and software. In a statement addressed to several media correspondents, Microsoft representative Thomas Rubin went so far as to imply that Google is acting ... (view more)

Massively popular search engine Google has been diversifying its interests as of late. Previously known only for its ability to transfer the user to the most relevant websites in a query, Google expanded into the interactive mainstream last year by ... purchasing YouTube.com for more than a billion dollars. And if that wasn't enough to show the might of the almighty Goo, the company recently released its own "gadget" web tools, designed to offer Internet services similar to Vista's operating system helpers. Now, it appears major tech company IBM wants to use Google's tools for business use. ... (view more)

Alas, Gmail's day has come! Google has finally decided to nix the "by invitation only" requirement and allow anyone interested in Gmail to sign up for a free account. Google has been phasing out the invitation restriction geographically, beginning ... last week with Europe. This past Wednesday, North America, South America, and Asia all gained restriction-free access to Gmail. (Source: news.com ) Although the nearly three-year-old service is still in beta mode -- signaling that Gmail is still a work in progress -- lifting the invitation restriction is a big step for Google. Keith Coleman, Product ... (view more)

Do a quick search for Google here at Infopackets, and you'll be amazed at all of the different ventures the company is involved in. And, even though the buzz is currently centered on Windows Vista, Google has managed to keep itself strongly in the ... news. The latest: it appears that the search engine giant is looking to branch out into a new frontier -- video game and television advertising. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is looking to purchase Adscape Media, Inc. -- a company that puts advertising into video games. It could be a response to Microsoft's purchase of Massive Inc ... (view more)

Pranskers beware. Google has made what it says is a "pretty small" change to the way it indexes websites for its search results in an attempt to prevent 'Googlebombing.' (Source: betanews.com ) Googlebombing (also known as linkbombing) is a prank ... where many people link the same keyword to a specific website in order for that website to appear at the top of search results. For example, a search for "miserable failure" would return a website on George W. Bush. (Source: citizen-times.com ) Although there are less than 100 well-known googlebombs, Google has decided to remove these bombs using an ... (view more)

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is in the process of finalizing a deal with search engine powerhouse Google. The conditions of the agreement will make BBC programming available on the online video site YouTube.com. The deal will once ... again exemplify the site's growth in global popularity as it continues to add international content to its service. A spokesperson for the BBC recently confirmed that the publicly funded broadcasting corporation had spoken with Google. The extent of the conversations have not yet been reported, but several sources have confirmed that many different ... (view more)