Bloomberg provides more evidence of a coming antitrust investigation of Google by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or Justice Department. We’ve now been hearing these kinds of statements and suggestions — from various “unnamed sources” and “people with knowledge of the matter” — for months. The Bloomberg article says that the ITA-acquisition decision could […]
Today marks the peaceful transfer of power between Eric Schmidt and Larry Page (pictured in his official Google photo at right). Page is now the CEO and Schimdt the Executive Chairman. We don’t know if Schmidt will be nominated for the post of US Commerce Secretary (as rumored) and have to leave Google. But Page […]
This morning I read the CNN story that said Google was finally going to incorporate facial recognition technology into its Goggles app or another mobile application. I then wrote an opinion piece that argued Google was courting a major privacy backlash, despite seeming to have privacy controls worked out in the article. Thereafter I was […]
Contrary to what I reported earlier based on a seemingly very credible CNN report, Google is not planning to release a version of its mobile app Goggles with face recognition technology. Google has had the capability for several years but so far refrained from putting it out in the world other than on Picasa. I […]
In the past Microsoft has been accused of orchestrating third party legal complaints against Google like some behind-the-scenes Cardinal Richelieu or puppet master. But now Redmond has come out of the shadows and joined the list of companies that have filed formal complaints against Google in Europe. “Microsoft is filing a formal complaint with the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It […]
Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It launches today as part of Google’s search engine, allowing you to “+1” the search results and ads that you like. And in a few months, it’ll be arriving at a web site near […]
As you read earlier the US Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation of Google over the company’s supposedly “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout of its Buzz social network.” My view after talking to people at Google following the Buzz launch is that Google was not intentionally seeking to deceive users. Rather it was overzealous […]
Google has agreed to have independent privacy audits over the next 20 years, to settle an FTC investigation into wrong doing over its Google Buzz product. The FTC has release a statement where Google agreed to allow independent audits of how Google handles privacy controls. After Google Buzz launched there was a lot of concern […]
The big tech news of yesterday was the announced $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA by AT&T. In less than 24 hours almost every potential angle has already been covered at length. Both AT&T’s and Deutsche Telekom’s boards have already approved the deal. So now it’s on to the regulatory drama. If approved by US […]
Google’s perhaps inevitable encounter with a formal anti-trust inquiry in the US took a step closer yesterday. Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl, a vocal Google critic and the head of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, indicated that Google would be the subject of scrutiny by his committee in the 112th Congress. […]
Politico is reporting, as have other outlets, that Google and the Justice Department (DOJ) are now negotiating intensely in the waning days of its investigation into the anti-trust implications of Google’s potential acquisition of travel software company ITA. According to the Politico article: The Justice Department has made it clear to Google that it’s willing […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Set To Advertise During Golden Globe Awards Microsoft is set to run a pair of television ads during Sunday’s broadcast of the Golden Globe awards, according to the Seattle PI. […]
The head of Google’s search spam fighting team, Matt Cutts, is in Washington DC this week, doing an “educational tour” to explain to US Federal Trade Commission members and congressional staffers that his company’s search results don’t require government regulation. The Washington Post covers his visit, including a presentation today at Google’s Washington DC offices, […]
Will celebrity “influencers” like Kim Kardashian or Chelsea Handler soon have to disclose when they’re being paid to promote a product or service on Twitter? This past weekend The Guardian reported that the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) “has begun a crackdown on Twitter users and bloggers using their online presence to endorse products […]
DuckDuckGo, a small search engine that’s largely flown under the public radar, has started the new year by taking a public shot at Google on the issue of search privacy. The company has launched DontTrack.us, an illustrated guide showing how Google tracks its users … and how DuckDuckGo doesn’t. The site: shows how a search […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Confirmed: Yahoo Closing Buzz, Traffic APIs – Maybe Delicious & AltaVista News is traveling fast about a leaked slide from a Yahoo “all hands” meeting earlier this week that listed several […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Improves Image Search With Tabs & Page Preview As Greg covered earlier, Bing announced a ton of new features today. One of those features is an improved image search. The […]
Microsoft has long and openly been involved in opposing some of Google’s high-profile deals and acquisitions. It helped scuttle the proposed Google-Yahoo search deal that paved the way for its own deal with Yahoo. It unsuccessfully opposed the DoubleClick and AdMob acquisitions. It also owns Ciao, one of the complainants that helped launch the recent […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Q&A: Google’s Sengupta On The Chrome OS Cr-48 Laptop Yesterday, after writing my review of the Google Chrome OS Cr-48 notebook, I had a chance to catch up with Google product […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Improves Copyright Protection Anyone who has found that their content has been stolen (or scraped) online faces the decision of either letting it go (and using best practices that help […]
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has given its approval to a partnership that allows Yahoo Japan to use Google search results. According to Reuters, Japan’s FTC has promised to monitor the alliance for possible violations of the country’s anti-monopoly laws. Yahoo Japan, which is controlled by Softbank with Yahoo Inc. as a minor owner, announced in […]
Much of the attention and online discussion around the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) just-released privacy report focuses on the concept of a “Do Not Track” mechanism, similar to the “Do Not Call” list now in place. The recommendation is that any such capability operate at the browser level and communicate to publishers and their […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing For Android Now Available To Everyone Bing for Android was previously only available on selected Verizon Android handsets. Now, according to Microsoft, it’s available to everyone with an Android handset, […]
It seems not a week goes by without news of a new investigation into Google’s Street View service, or into Google’s collection of personal data via unencrypted WiFi networks that occurred over three years as Street View vehicles drove the world’s streets. It seems like one country opens an investigation just as another country ends […]
Although the FTC ended its investigation into Google’s collection of personal data via unsecured WiFi networks, Google’s not necessarily in the clear with the Obama administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is looking into whether Google broke the law when its Street View cars collected personal data between 2007 and May, 2010. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Foursquare’s Crowley Can Feel Foursquare Fatique, Has Plans To Fix It Feeling Foursquare fatigue and perhaps wondering what’s the point of checking in at times? Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley sometimes feels […]
In a six-page letter to House Oversight Committee leaders, a watchdog group has called on the government to do a “thorough investigation” of both Google’s WiFi data collection and the FTC’s recent decision to end its investigation without penalizing Google. In a blog post announcing the letter (PDF download), Ken Boehm, chairman of the National […]
Google has just changed the labeling on its paid search ads from “sponsored links” to “ads.” Described by Google as being in a “limited trial” there was no further explanation behind the change. Harvard Business School’s Ben Edelman is ambivalent about the change. While it more clearly identifies what the links are, the word “ads” […]
No stranger to lawsuits and regulatory complaints, Google is dealing with a trio of new claims and contentions. Ad reseller partners in China are suing Google for lost commissions and other damages tied to Google’s recent pullout of that market. According to an article in Shanghai Daily: Seven former advertising resellers for Google China in […]
Calling Google’s collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks “very troubling,” a US congressman says CEO Eric Schmidt may be called to answer questions when the new Congress convenes next year. Representative Joe Barton made the comments on C-SPAN’s The Communicators program today. Although Google has repeatedly said the data collection was inadvertent, Barton […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Going Places? Bing Maps Optimizes Your Trips Bing has added a new tool to its Bing Maps App Gallery — a tool that aims to optimize road trips when you have […]
Satisfied with Google’s recent emphasis on improving user privacy practices, the FTC has ended its investigation into Google’s collection of personal data earlier this year via its Street View photography service. The commission is not penalizing Google for what happened. In a letter to Google attorneys dated October 27, 2010, David Vladeck of the FTC’s […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Canada’s Yellow Pages Group Acquires Enquiro Canada’s Yellow Pages Group has acquired the well-known search marketing agency Enquiro and folded it into a new entity known as Mediative. As explained in […]
On the heels of a formal privacy complaint by former FTC employee Chris Soghoian targeting Google’s embedding of search queries in page URLs, a new class action lawsuit takes aim at the same thing. It seeks monetary damages and an injunction against Google’s alleged sharing of searches with third parties. Google Said To Share User […]
The Wall Street Journal reports the largest online retailer in Japan, Rakuten has asked the Japan Fair Trade Commission to review the Yahoo-Google deal from a few months back. A Rakuten spokesperson said: The tie-up between the two firms would result in Google monopolizing information, which could hinder the development and growth of not only […]
Most of you have seen the recent and now semi-infamous quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about how Google goes right “up to” what it considers a taboo boundary — “the creepy line” — but not beyond: “There is what I call the creepy line,” he said at an event at the Newseum. “The Google […]
While advertising on social media makes sense for advertisers, the owners of ‘free’ sites like Twitter and Facebook still need to make money. Ad banners have been the answer for many social media sites for a long time. However, banner blindness has created a large problem for advertisers since they are paying for impressions, but […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Instant And The Power Of Suggestion It’s going to be a long time (weeks or months) until anyone has a complete understanding of how Google Instant will change search and […]
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 […]