Google posts

By now, everyone in the tech world and beyond has heard about Google’s data collection from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in Germany. What you may not have known, however, is that Google has been collecting detailed user data since day one. Why? Essentially, as market research, which is then used to enhance their services. While the improvements that come as a result of Google’s data collection may benefit us all, it does come at a cost. Do you really want Google to have databases full of information regarding your online habits? Though Google does anonymize the data that they receive, it doesn’t…

Privacy has been the buzzword all over the Techi web lately. Facebook has been stomping all over it and then promising to do better, and now Google has made a huge improvement to securing personal data. In order to take advantage of the new feature, all you have to do is type “https://www.google.com” in your address bar rather than “http://www.google.com”, and instantly all of your searches will take place with secure socket layer (SSL) encryption in place. Instead of rehashing how this is an improvement over Google’s regular search, we’ll quote them here: SSL encrypts the communication channel…

In April, the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into the acquisition of AdMob by internet search giant Google due to the potential monopoly that this would have given Google on the mobile advertising market. That investigation concluded in Google’s favor today, in large part due to Apple’s launch of its own iAd network. The ownership of AdMob will allow Google to compete with Apple on the iPhone mobile platform, and allow Google to serve advertisements on their own Android OS without the need to develop an in-house application. After a five to nothing vote in favor of the deal,…

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Pac-Man today, Google has converted its company logo over the search bar into a fully playable version of the game allowing players to weave around the corridors made by the company name. Google’s logo changes have been nothing new over the past 10 years, with the company changing it’s doodles for holidays and special occasions regularly. Up until now the only interactive logo was posted last Halloween allowing users to click to see more candy, but with this new Pac-Man doodle they have taken their interactivity to a new level. When the team found out that…

Surely by now you’ve heard of that Google Street View debacle, wherein those crazy cameramobiles were ‘unintentionally’ grabbing data from unprotected wi-fi hotspots? Sure you have. Anyway, unintentionally or not, several owners of said unprotected hotspots are now banding together to slam Google with a class action lawsuit to the tune of ten thousand dollars per offending instance. Ow. The lawsuit detailed that “when Google created its data collection systems on its Google Street View vehicles, it included wireless packet sniffers that, in addition to collecting the user’s unique or…

With the goal of complete and total domination in mind, internet Goliath Google has set its sights on nearly every form of interactive media imaginable. What started as a research project by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in ’96 later became the most widely used search engine in the world, and went on to expand into countless online markets. Let’s face it: Google does, well, everything. From e-mail to social networking, Google will stop at nothing to control each industry that they enter. Funded almost entirely by advertisers, the farther their reach, the more cash in the bank. Google, however, is…

The hits just keep coming from Google I/O in San Francisco today – Google TV, Android 2.2, an iTunes competitor – it’s been an impressive day thus far. And while moments ago, I was content to sit on my ass here at home and do little more than muse and smile, I suddenly find myself cranky I hadn’t bothered to check out the event in person. Why? Google just gave everyone at I/O a free EVO 4G. It’s alright, don’t tear up. I feel the same: a crushing weight of sadness, as I sit here looking at my LG 8100 with no 6 key and a slightly broken screen. And MiniSD? Who the hell uses that? In any case, ‘don’t be evil’ truly seems…

Google has released 18 free fonts for the web in an attempt to leave the boring old fonts behind and move into the future of downloadable text-styles. In a Google I/O conference on Wednesday, the company released 18 freely usable fonts and an open-source tool, Google Font API, designed to smooth over browser issues in displaying these downloaded fonts. “With the Google Font API, using these fonts on your web page is almost as easy as using the standard set of so-called “web-safe” fonts that come installed on most computers,” said Ralph Levien and David Kuettel of the Google Font API team in a blog…

Google just dropped the bomb we were all expecting: Google TV is about to lay some pipe right into our eyes by apparently revolutionizing television. Google TV is that set-top dealie you’ve been hearing about with Intel and Sony, a platform to “to bring the entire Web to the television set … to take the best of what TV offers these days and the best of what the Web offers and combine them.” While previous attempts at combining the internet with television have been like trying to mate pandas, it looks like Google TV might just be a winner – and I emphasize ‘might’ only because you have to agree, the…

Google has had a fantastic week for it’s I/O Conference. Google Wave went live, WebM open source video was announced and Google Online Storage was released to the world, amongst many other exciting updates. The latest news from I/O is that Android 3.0 is in the works for the fourth quarter of 2010. Codenamed “Gingerbread”, the next big update to Google’s mobile OS is expected to include support for WebM and VP8, Google’s latest video codecs. Updates to the mobile OS have followed an alphabetical theme, inspired by delicious treats; Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo and now Gingerbread. Right now…