Yesterday, a group of advertising trade associations, prodded by Google, declared they were adopting seven self-regulating privacy principles to protect consumers from themselves. Exactly a year ago Google and Microsoft genuflected to government inquiries with promises of improved privacy protection for Web users from advertisers. Read more
While most observers find Google Voice to be an interesting consumer technology, at least one virtual PBX vendor is working to make the freebie service into a business-class offering. Today, OnState Communications announced that its cloud-based virtual call center and PBX fully support Google Voice. What's more, its product will bring presence to Google Voice. Read more
Last week, Google released an Android SDK that allows code to run natively on Android devices. Until this SDK, code could only run on a sandboxed version of Java known as the Dalvik virtual machine. Although Google Senior Software Engineer, David Turner, warned in his blog that native Android apps would have many limitations, this isn't scaring off Mozilla, reports CNet. Read more
One of the more interesting phenomena created by the Internet is citizen journalism. And no where is it more apparent than on YouTube where anyone can upload a video documenting just about anything. To that end, Google has launched a site called YouTube Reporter' Center which hopes to train average citizens on how to report the news. Read more
Google is a sneeze away from launching its anticipated Google Voice service beyond the customers it inherited when it acquired GrandCentral in 2007. Invitations are being sent to users who requested them starting today, the Official Google Blog announced. But the one big question on everyone's mind is when will it offer number portability? No word yet on that. Read more
Google's Android is poised to give established players Microsoft and Apple a run for their money, given the kind of creativity handset makers are putting into their Android phones. The HTC Hero is a good example, emphasizing, as it does, a user's ability to customize the look and feel of the phone and search. Read more
Google's implementation of Java for Android is odd, says Java creator James Gosling, and done without ensuring Android implementations are compatible with one another.
According to an interview with Gosling published by eWeek Europe, Gosling describes Google's approach as: Read more
Earlier this week, Google issued a patch for a critical vulnerability for Google Chrome. The patch fixed a buffer overflow vulnerability that could allow an attacker to run code. The fixed version is Google Chrome 2.0.172.33, and it has been released to both the Stable and Beta channels. Read more
Google Tuesday said it wants to build a faster Web, and is willing to go so far as to revise, or even replace, foundational protocols like TCP/IP and HTML. Google's official blog said that such protocols were created "when broadband and rich interactive web apps were in their infancy." Read more
On Friday, China ordered Google to halt some search features that it said violated China's laws to filter pornographic and vulgar content. But analysts say that this is really China slapping Google because of protests made by U.S. companies over the Chinese pornography censorship program called Green Dam-Youth Escort, reports the English-version China Daily website. Read more
When T-mobile announced that its second Android phone would be shipping in August, it also released a few interesting statistics between the its Android phone market and the iPhone. For instance, 1 million G1 phones were sold in the first six months after introducing it. By the time Android reaches the two-year mark, it could be nearly as popular as the iPhone. Read more
T-Mobile announced today that its next Android phone, dubbed the myTouch, will be available in August for $199 with a two-year contract. It will differentiate itself from its sister Android phone, the G1, also made by HTC, in that it will have a virtual keyboard, not a physical one. When T-Mobile released its original Android phone, the G1, it included a physical keyboard for texting fiends who find a touchscreen keyboard difficult to work on. Read more
Will Android topple Microsoft from the smartbook market or won't it? Depends on the interests of the parties you talk to. Executives at chip maker Nvidia are siding with Microsoft.
Mike Rayfield, general manager for Nvidia's mobile business unit, says that Nvidia thinks Windows CE for ARM-based smartbooks will be better, offering a more mature, easier-to-use interface, according to a story in Computerworld. Read more
Today, Google announced a host of new features for Google Books, its site that makes the entire contents of books available for online search. The new-and-improved Google Books adds several new features for working with the electronic books that Google has showcased online. This despite the fact that last week, the Department of Justice said it would be taking a closer look at the underlying $125 million deal that makes Google Books possible.
The new features include: Read more
Augmented reality. If you haven't heard this term yet, you soon will. It is the next must-have feature for the smartphone. Yesterday, Netherlands-based SPRXmobile launched a new "augmented reality" browser, dubbed Layar, for Android phones. The service is now available in the Netherlands, with plans to bring it to other phones (notably the iPhone) and other markets like the U.S. later this year. Read more
If 37 of the world's Internet security experts are right, the world would be a lot safer from identity theft if only Google encrypted Gmail by default. The HTTPS protocol is currently an option for users, one that these experts say is hard for the average, non-technical person to find and activate. Read more
In its effort to index the world -- or at least cyberspace -- Google is rumored to be working on a microblogging search engine. Although live search is not Google's forte, that isn't stopping it from creating a MicroBlogSearch tool. So say the folks that write the unaffiliated Google Operating System blog, who caught a hint of the new tool in Google's localization service tool.
The blog describes the new search service: Read more
With Google, the "i's" apparently have it. Google has beefed up its iGoogle interface for the iPhone and for Android devices, too. iGoogle is the search giant's customizable home page. The version available for the iPhone now offers several new features and, Google claims it is faster, too, mostly thanks to improved navigation.
The new iGoogle page offers a tabbed view and supports more gadgets, though if those gadgets require Flash, you are still out of luck, as the mobile browser doesn't support it. Read more
Here's a nifty list of Google technology user groups courtesy of the Google Code Blog. With these groups, you can gather with like minded Googlites and gab over the fancy new widgets you are developing. Or maybe you can find someone to enter the Chrome Logo contest with you. (Google today announced a call for videos that feature people using whacky materials to replicate the Google Chrome icon. Google will showcase the best submissions.) Read more
Google has issued three patches for various versions of Chrome this week. On Tuesday, Google fixed two bugs in Chrome version 2, one with a severity rating of "high" and the other with a rating of "medium." Read more
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