A newly released year-long study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at US tech coverage in general and individual company coverage in particular and found some interesting things. Most of the technology coverage from June, 2009 to June 2010 was positive. However the single biggest story was about the dangers of texting while driving: "Nearly one-in-ten technology stories were about this subject, more than five times the coverage of either the U.S. plan for broadband access and six times the coverage devoted to the debate over net neutrality." Ac [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: General | Stats: General

With the Facebook movie's debut a week away, how about something to keep you entertained while you wait? A book. About that other major internet drama story, Google. The book? "Googled, The End Of The World As We Know It," by Ken Auletta. Googled came out at the end of last year, and I've been terribly remiss in not writing my review of it until now. It is a masterwork. Required reading for anyone trying to understand how disruptive the internet has been to businesses, and how Google has ridden that disruptive wave, as well as having churned it up. You want drama? Here's drama, about [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features: Analysis | Google: General | Stats: History | Top News

Google announced a new portal named Google New. Google New is the one stop shop to find all the latest Google product and services. Google New seems to aggregate all the Google blogs and shows the latest posts from them on this site. It provides a search box to search for Google products. It also displays a highlighted Google product, today's highlighted product is Google Instant. Google also has a directory of all their blogs, products, ads, developer tools and more at one location. Google New however isolates the latest Google releases. Check it out at google.com/newproducts. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: General | Google: Marketing

Earlier this year Google launched an innovative "Government Requests map," which showed how regularly governments around the world were asking Google to remove information or content from its index and services. Google won plaudits for the initiative, as well as criticism from some governments that the map allegedly made look like censoring regimes. Yesterday Google folded the Government Requests Map into a new two pronged "Transparency Report." The new "report" will feature the existing Government requests for content removal, which have been updated, and a traffic timeline. The lat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: General | Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Outside US

There's a funny and satirical 1989 British film called "How to Get Ahead in Advertising." The movie focuses on an ad executive, played by actor Richard E. Grant, who experiences an ethical and mid-life crisis. He develops a boil on his neck, which grows into a literal head (a kind of evil twin) and eventually takes over. That struck me as a kind of metaphor for Google today. Indeed, it would would appear there are now "two Googles." One is a socially conscious company that develops great products and stakes out bold, consumer-centric public positions. The other, Google's boil or "evil twin, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Dashboard | Google: General | Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Outside US | Legal: Privacy

After years of refusing the "portal" label, it seems that Google has finally had a change of mind. Google's new attitude is evident on its Our Philosophy - Ten things we know to be true page. As Eric Goldman points out, that page has changed: On June 3, 2004 (per archive.org), the page said "Google may be the only company in the world whose stated goal is to have users leave its website as quickly as possible." (emphasis added) On September 6, 2010, that same line now reads "We may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is to have people leave our homepage as quickly as [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: General

In what is becoming an annual ritual Google announces a dramatic acquisition, pundits speculate about the potentially market-changing impact and anti-trust investigators give it a long, hard look -- only to allow it in the end. Last year the transaction in question was AdMob; this year it's ITA software. Since the roughly $700 million deal was announced in July federal regulators and anti-trust authorities have been seeking information from Google and talking to online travel companies. (The review is being conducted by the US Justice Dept. in ITA; it was the FTC in the case of AdMob.) Sinc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Legal

Last week Google acquired Angstro. The site has been described as a way to discover and organize information about individuals across various professional networks. Here's how Angstro describes itself: Ångströ represents the ability to hone in on highly focused, relevant news across professional networks. Where search engines such as Google and other news aggregator services have immense infrastructures that return a huge array of random results, Ångströ analyses a wide breadth of information from multiple data sources to deliver very few, yet very intelligent results. The pundit consens [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Google: General | Google: Gmail | Google: Groups | Google: iGoogle | Google: Mobile | Google: Music | Google: OpenSocial | Google: Orkut | Google: Other | Google: Product Search | Google: Social Search

Deadline New York reports Google might make it to the movie screen. Deadline said Groundswell Productions and producer John Morris are attempting to acquire movie rights to the book "Googled: The End of the World As We Know it." The film will be about Google's co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, rise to riches and fame. London's Groundswell Productions said: It's about these two young guys who created a company that changed the world, and how the world in turn changed them. The heart of the movie is their wonderful edict, don't be evil. At a certain point in the evolution of a c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Other | Google: Parodies

This'll make a lot of us feel a lot dumber: Scientists have used Google to prove that Rubik's Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. So, that was about two years of my early 1980s life wasted. The UK's Daily Mail says that a Kent State University professor worked with a Google engineer and other researchers to show how silly the rest of us are for spending so long on that little, square toy: Using Google's supercomputers, a team of researchers have processed every one of the Rubik's Cube's 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different configurations to work what is the maximum number of moves ne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: General | Google: Other

Let's take "Google Me" seriously as a social networking site, successor to Orkut and overall Facebook challenger. As everyone by now knows Digg's Kevin Rose started a wave of coverage when he asserted over the weekend, in a Twitter post now removed, that Google was working on a Facebook competitor. Yesterday I asked Google for a comment and received a friendly but anonymous response: "We do not comment on rumor or speculation." Of course not. That almost certainly means that something is coming. I told several people yesterday that it was probably a beefed up version of Google Profil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: Accounts & Profiles | Google: General | Google: Mobile | Google: Orkut | Google: Q & A | Google: Web Search

The people running Facebook are an ambitious crew; they see Facebook as a successor to Google in many respects. In fact many of the executives used to work at Google, including CTO Bret Taylor, COO Sheryl Sandberg, Advertising VP David Fischer and Communications VP Elliot Schrage, among others. However as a search property Facebook has, in the past, been almost unusable and no threat to Google or any other search engine. In fact, it has been (so far) a missed opportunity for Facebook partner and investor Microsoft. But Microsoft's Bing is becoming more prominent on Facebook and the site its [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: Employees | Google: General | Top News

Bing's received plenty of praise for its home page that shows a different picture each day. How long until Google would copy it, some have wondered. Today, almost exactly a year since Bing launched, Google has rolled out its own feature that lets you put a picture on the Google home page. In a blog post today, Google announced anyone can upload a picture that will be shown on the Google home page. You'll only see your own picture, of course -- everyone else will see pictures they've selected, if they're using this option. You can also use pictures you've uploaded to Google's Picasa photo sh [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: General | Google: iGoogle | Top News

Google continues to bump up against frustrated government regulators around the globe who are convinced that the company is doing sneaky things and willfully violating domestic privacy laws. Yesterday European privacy officials continued to express disapproval and assert that Google's data retention policies violate its six month data retention rule. Today the NY Times covers Google's emerging tug-of-war over the private data inadvertently collected by Street View cars. Google is reportedly resisting turning over the data to German government privacy officials (ironically) on the grounds th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US

Google has released a report that shows its economic contributions to local economies in the US. Timed to coincide with National Small Business Week this is something of a "charm offensive" and effort to burnish Google's recently tarnished corporate image: Google's not just a search engine. We've also helped hundreds of businesses in every U.S. state to grow. Across the U.S., Google's search and advertising tools generated $54 billion of economic activity in 2009. Full of data, the report is interesting and desig [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: General

Last September Google launched "Internet Stats" in the UK. Now Google is "launching" it in the US or perhaps, more precisely, exposing it again. The site aims to be a repository for data points, organized by broad categories, market sectors and verticals. Data come from various sources, but mostly trade groups and market research firms cited in third party publications. It has an interesting, "random" quality but does contain some useful information on consumer trends, media consumption, device adoption and so on. Some of the more interesting information is contained within the "vertica [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: General | Google: Mobile | Google: Other

For the second year in a row, Google hired goats to mow their lawn. This is Google's way of reducing their carbon footprint. The 200 goats, according to Google, cost as much as a lawn service to bring in and would benefit the world by eliminating mower emissions, reducing noise pollution, restoring plant species and fertilizing while grazing. I assume the goats are not just about minimizing Google's carbon footprint. It is also a nice marketing and PR play for them. Here are some pictures: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: General | Google: Marketing | Google: Offices

A federal appeals court ruling this week may open the door for judges to increase their use of search engines during court cases. Monday's ruling authorized a judge's use of Google to "confirm an intuition about a matter of common knowledge," according to Reuters. The case in question was a criminal matter in which the defendant allegedly violated the terms of his release. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin used Google to confirm his intuition about some of the evidence -- the wearing of a yellow rain hat -- and eventually found the defendant guilty. The defendant appealed, citing Chin's search [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: General | Legal: General | Search & Society: General

The massive Pew State of the News Media report, which Matt wrote about briefly, alludes to findings (previously published) that only 19 percent of online news consumers would pay for content. That number is actually larger than some figures coming out of consumer surveys. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project's survey findings: Most people graze the Web for news rather than rely on primary sources. Only about a third (35%) can even identify a favorite news website. And of those that do, only 19% said they would continue to visit if that site put up a pay wall. Th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Outside US

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has re-engaged with China around its ability to continue operating its number two search engine in the country in an "unfiltered" way. The Chinese have given no public indications that they will permit this in the country, which is ruled by state control of speech and media. The WSJ reports: Google Inc. representatives are scheduled to resume discussions in coming days with Chinese officials about the fate of Google's China business, said people briefed on the matter . . . The schedule and the status of the talks, which are being picked up after [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Google: General | Google: Outside US