News Topic - Google

Google blurs faces to protect privacy in French StreetView
Google has chosen to blur the faces of people caught on camera by the French edition of its StreetView service.
Network World  –  Jul 3, 2008 12:00 AM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Security

Microsoft Tries Annual Fee in New Office Bundle
A lower-cost, subscription-based Office bundle may be less of an effort to undermine Google Apps and more about promoting Microsoft's OneCare antivirus service.
InternetNews.com  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:58 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Internet

Google to Filter Child Porn on Orkut
Internet search company Google signed an agreement with Brazilian public prosecutors on Wednesday to help combat child pornography on its social networking site Orkut, an accord that the company believes is the first of its kind internationally.
PC Magazine  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:57 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Computer

Judge rules Google doesn't have to turn over code
A federal judge rules that Google doesn’t have to turn over source code for the search function in YouTube as part of an ongoing $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit.
MarketWatch.com  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:47 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Business

Internet: Investigators ramp up inquiry into Yahoo's ad link with Google
Officials suspect monopoly for companies which between them account for three in four online searches
The Guardian  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:37 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in World

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom
Google must turn over records of everyone who has watched YouTube videos to Viacom, which is suing the internet giant for copyright infringement. A rights group says the order violates the law and invades users' privacy.
Wired News  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:16 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Mobile phones: Open source calls the tune
An Irish company, 3G Doctor, is employing the until now redundant camera on the front of 3G phones to provide remote medical consultations, especially in country areas. A hospital in Da Nang City, Vietnam, has developed software to transform a mobile phone into a database of treatments and medical knowledge that can be looked at in an emergency. These are but two recent examples of the continuing astonishing advance of the mobile phone. And it is showing no sign of stopping, despite being the fastest-growing consumer product in history. According to Portio Research, during the period 2007 to 2012, the mobile subscriber base is expected to grow by another 1.8 billion, mainly in emerging economies such as China and India but also in the US, which is expected to add 65 million more subscribers. The ecosystem in which mobiles operate is also entering a new era. In fact, a revolution is taking place. The walled gardens that the operators built to try to recoup the £22bn they shelled out in the UK for licences are gradually disappearing, as are the ludicrously high data charges they try to extract from us when we download photos and videos. Potentially even more important is the fact that in the space of six months, a massive switch has been signalled towards using open-source software which anyone can take advantage of - including the legendary bedroom coder, who has so far been missing from the mobile revolution. With any luck it will pave the way for a surge of creativity. Symbian, which provides the operating system for most of the new generation of mobiles with web access, is being turned into a foundation to exploit open source rather than proprietary software. Although it was denied by the company, it was almost certainly a response to Google's proposed Android operating system for mobiles (also open source) with which Google hopes to establish a position on phones to rival its domination of the internet on computers. Whether this leads to any changes by the two main proprietary companies, Apple and Microsoft, remains to be seen. Apple's iPhone is still the trendiest phone on the planet. The iPhone has been getting most of the global publicity but it is Nokia that has been storming ahead - increasing its global market share to around 40%. To put it in perspective, Apple's target in its first whole year of 10m phones is only a third of the increase in Nokia's sales in only the first three months of this year. I have been reminded of Nokia's strengths by the arrival (on loan) of a prototype of the eagerly awaited N96 which hits the streets in a few weeks time. One of the sleekest Nokia has produced, it looks like the iPhone's baby sister but has a real keyboard that slides out, a 5.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and the best video camera I have encountered on a conventional mobile (plus endless other facilities including music, maps, GPS, TV, radio and N-Gage gaming facility). For the first time I would feel happy leaving my digital camera at home and using this instead. If Nokia irons out some of the problems that can charitably be put down to it being a prototype (such as moody battery charging and Wi-Fi) then it will have another hit on its hands, and I may be in the queue for one to replace my current phone as well. If there is one cloud on the horizon for mobiles it is the same as for computers: the danger that an explosion of demand caused by video downloads - especially the BBC's iPlayer, which seems to be straining the system to its limits - will slow the internet down so much as to dilute the experience. But apart from that, the mobile marches on. At this rate it won't be that long before everyone on the planet is potentially connected via the mobile internet. If global warming doesn't spoil the party, if course. vic.keegan@guardian.co.uk
The Guardian  –  Jul 2, 2008 11:12 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Judge says Google doesn't have to release search code:report
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. and its YouTube video sharing site do not have to release their search function computer code, a federal judge ruled, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday on its Web site. The ruling involves a billion-dollar copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by Viacom Inc. .Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
MarketWatch.com  –  Jul 2, 2008 10:30 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Business: Markets

Google-Yahoo Deal Faces Justice Department Review
When the deal was announced, Google and Yahoo said they had agreed to delay it for three months to allow the Department of Justice time to review the arrangement.
Information Week  –  Jul 2, 2008 9:30 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Internet

UPI NewsTrack Business
Major U.S. markets hit bear conditions ... Truck drivers protest fuel costs in London ... Probe begun on Yahoo! and Google deal ... Schlitz beer returns home to big sales ... News from United Press International.
United Press International  –  Jul 2, 2008 9:03 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Business