Google making extraordinary counteroffers to stop flow of employees to Facebook

Facebook is in what’s called a recruiting sweet spot right now. Out of control growth in users and revenue and a nearly certain IPO run in the near future. That’s when employee growth expands at the greatest rate for a company as it grows from hundreds to thousands and then tens of thousands of employees. And with low priced private stock as currency, companies in that position can generally get anyone they want.

Yahoo of course does more than its fair share of feeding the beast, but they’re everyone’s favorite recruiting pool right now. But plenty of Googler’s are heading to Facebook, too – LinkedIn is tracking 118 of them to date. Full story: Google Making Extraordinary Counteroffers To Stop Flow Of Employees To Facebook

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Google, Verizon reveal worrying pact to end the internet as we know it

The new wave of collaboration between mobile communications company Verizon and search giant Google has sparked an equally large wave of worry from within the internet world itself. The new pact, which has been coined as the 'pact to end the internet as we know it' by the press and net insiders has a number of big players in the industry fearful of the change it could bring.

Despite the "Don't Be Evil" slogan which Google employees frequently parade around, there is nothing altruistic about the company's most recent dealmaking with Verizon. The proposal has been perceived by many to allow massive corporate takeovers of the internet.

An issue known worldwide as 'net neutrality' is at the centre of the deal. Should the deal between the two companies go ahead, it could radically alter the even playing field seen at present on the internet. It is net neutrality, argues Craig Aaron - managing editor for Free Press, that makes sure the next Google, in a garage somewhere, will have just as good a chance as any corporate behemoth to gain an audience and thrive online.

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Town authorities use Google Earth to find illegal pools

Turns out that Google Earth, the wonderful software developed by search company Google, can be useful for more than just looking at one's own house from above.

A small town on New York's Long Island has been using the program to look for pools that it has not permitted in the back yards of unsuspecting citizens.

Violators, a New York television station was told, had to get a permit or scrap their beloved pool. "The technology is going so far ahead of what people think is possible, and there is too little discussion about community norms," a spokeswomen for the program said.

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Times article reveals mammoth ambitions of FarmVille developers

The developers who brought you annoying Facebook games (like Mafia Wars and FarmVille) were the subject of a New York Times profile this morning which reveals the true extent of the group's ambitions. The article, which is entitled "Will Zynga Become the Google of Games?", was the product of a conversation between Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and the Times' Miguel Helft. [Read it here]

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Google Gears Up to Take on Facebook, Twitter

Google is preparinganother attempt to crack the social networkingworld owned by Facebook, and to a lesser extent, Twitter.

Why is Google traveling down this path once again? Aren't the failures of Orkut, Buzz, Wave, etc. enough for Google to realize that it just doesn't understand social networking? Maybe, but Google can't afford to watch the web become social without it. 

As Google researcher Paul Adams explains in a huge deck of slides getting passed around on the web, people buying things are more inclined to trust their friends than strangers—or search ads.

Do you think Facebook or Google is more trustworthy if you're thinking about buying the new Prince CD? What about a new toaster? Or a new golf club? Today, it's probably Google, but soon enough you could be asking Facebook friends what to buy. It's this threat that should (and probably does) scare the pants off Google's executives.

Adams revealed some of these threats in his presentation—a great read in the context of him presenting these results to Google execs who are plotting "Google Me."

A couple things to keep in mind: This presentation isn't new. And it's not necessarily indicative of how Google feels. The company has hundreds of researchers. Still, we think this is instructive for people wondering why Google wants to get in the social network business. [Republished from www.businessinsider.com]

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China, you've changed man...you used to be cool

In something of a turning point in Google-China relations since the search giant started redirecting users to its Hong Kong site, Google has decided to stop redirecting its huge Chinese audience to the uncensored Hong Kong website as it seeks to renew the license it holds to operate on the Chinese internet.

For the last three months, reports the New York Times, Google has found a clever way of bypassing the ethical and legal problems it has faced in Mainland China over its Government's internet and media censorship laws - to which the US company objects.

The company says that it has resubmitted an application for renewal of the license it still holds to operate in mainland China, and will be seeking a different approach to Chinese censorship.

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Will Google fight back with so-called "Facebook killer"?

In something of an internet born rumor, news over the launch of a new Facebook search product have sparked speculation that internet search market leader Google may fight back and encroach on Facebook's territory in social networking with what has been dubbed the 'Facebook killer'.

Google, a posterchild of the internet 2.0 era, has been around since the dot-com bubble. It survived the burst, and now it hopes to make it well into what is becoming known as 'Web 3.0' - the next generation in the evolution of the internet.

Facebook, which was only launched in 2004 by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg (pictured), has already taken the number two spot on Alexa's list of the world's top trafficked websites, and looks to be the likely suitor to Google's crown.

When it was recently announced that Facebook would launch an "Open Graph Search" feature, tech industry watchers speculated upon a Google retaliation - which may include the fabled 'Facebook killer'.

Google's forays into the dark world of social networking, now dominated by Zuckerberg and his goons, have thus far been unsuccessful, and it would seem that resistance is futile against the huge growth of the company - which is said to have revenues approaching one billion dollars.

However, Google isn't giving up without a fight. The company still remains the number one search engine, despite formidable competition from bigger companies such as Microsoft.

This isn't to say that everything Google does has been a runaway success, however. The company's other ventures have been only marginal successes, and the company has thus far struggled to separate its revenue model from the old search ads the company displays alongside results.

YouTube, a 2006 YouTube purchase, has been - despite its unrivaled popularity and dominance within online video - a financial nightmare for the company. The video sharing site has yet to turn a profit.

Could this be the beginning of Facebook's reign as the top internet brand? Maybe. But one thing is for sure: one side is surely about to meet its programmer.

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The internet's newest superstar: introducing 'horseboy' from Google Streetview

Well, there have been a number of interesting snaps from the Google Streetview car over the few years that the company has been creating the product, but this is perhaps the most unusual yet. A man dressed in otherwise normal clothing has been nicknamed by the press 'Horseboy', because of a distinctive horse mask that the man appears to be wearing on his head. 

The search is on, reports the Daily Mail, to resolve the mystery surrounding the man. Only in Scotland. 

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Australian MP talks of 'creepy' Google

In addition to saying that Google had committed the "single greatest breach in the history of privacy", the Australian communications minister went further, saying that the search giant was 'creepy'.

The MP says that he wants to have an internet filter put in place, which some may say is even creepier.

Google has been under fire as of late with regard to its streetview feature, which, it was revealed, accidentally collected data about private WiFi networks during development.

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Rupert Murdoch sets out to block Google

Rupert Murdoch, the powerful media mogul who claimed just over a year ago that he would block search engines like Google, who send news websites mountains of traffic every week, from indexing their content.

Murdoch, who owns the Times and the Sunday Times in London, has been looking to introduce pay-walls on all of his newspapers' websites, as the Wall Street Journal has done and the New York Times plans to this year.

The Times' website will not allow Google or other search engines to index the content, and will instead only allow them to index their home pages.

Plans include a two pound-a-week charge for users who wish to read the paper. This charge, we are told, will auto-renew, unlike a daily fee.

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People spent 4.8 million hours playing Google's Pac-Man game

In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the iconic video game, Pac-Man, Google, the internet giant, replaced its iconic logo with an interactive 'doodle' that, as it turns out, consumed around 4.8 million hours of users' time.

Although this does negate one of Google's principles - to get users off their homepage as quickly as possible - it was a fairly clever way of doing it, spawning a social networking frenzy on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

So much so that the words 'Pacman' and 'Google' were trending topics for much of the logo's dominance of one of the most valuable pieces of real-estate on the internet.

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Google changes homepage in recognition of Pac-Man

Google has long had a tradition of celebrating certain holidays and events with special versions of its logo it calls 'doodles'. The doodles, which appear on Google's iconic homepage (www.google.com), have become iconic in their own right, and a symbol of Google's eclectic corporate culture.

Today, in recognition of the 30th Anniversary of the game, Pac-Man, Google has introduced its first ever interactive doodle, along with sound and moving objects.

In addition to the one-day logo change, the Google Doodle team have also replaced the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button below the search box with one that reads "insert coin".

To see the doodle for yourself here.

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With Google TV, search giant hopes to dominate your living rooms, too

Google, the internet search company, today announced that it will be seeking to not only dominate the market in internet search, but also your living rooms.

The company has introduced Google TV, an entertainment hub and set top box for your living room television.

In doing this, Google has firmly planted the internet in the living rooms of the world.

The new product, which includes its own built-in web browser will seek to compete with existing products, like Apple Inc's Apple TV, which allows customers to easily rent and watch music and movies from their TV, as well as access Apple's iTunes Store.




It has not yet been announced when Google TV will become available for purchase.

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"Doodle for Google" voting opens

You may not have heard of any of them, but these may very well be the graphic designers of the future. Thousands of children have submitted entries into the "Doodle for Google" competition.

The contest is one where schoolchildren from around America can submit their own versions of Google's iconic logo.

The winner will have their 'doodle' featured on the Google homepage for a day.

To see the entries, and vote for your favorite, see the website.

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Google concedes defeat on bid to sell phones online only

Search giant, Google is calling it quits with regard to its effort to sell the Nexus One, the company's new branded phone, in an online format only.

The company has announced that it will close its online store and will instead move the phone to more traditional electronics retailing.

Consumers, according to the Associated Press, are still having trouble buying such expensive electronics without any hands-on experience whatsoever.

The result is that initial sales of the Nexus One have become increasingly slow, and are nowhere near what Google had hoped they would be.

These sales are particularly important if Google wishes to fulfill its wishes of its Android software becoming a truly viable competitor to Apple Inc.'s iPhone - which launched in 2007 to much fanfare.

According to the AP:

"As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others," Andy Rubin, a Google executive overseeing the Nexus One, wrote in a Friday blog post.

Rubin said Google will stop selling the Nexus One in its Web store as soon as it lines up other U.S. retailers to carry the device.

Google hasn't disclosed how many Nexus One units it has sold so far. 

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Is Google snooping on your WiFi?

Google, the internet search and cloud computing company, has today announced that it will no longer collect information on personal and commercial wireless internet networks after it 'mistakenly' gathered such information as part of its StreetView service.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

"Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short," Alan Eustace, a Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post.

Concerns over the data collection were highlighted in the media last week, with reporting over the growing concerns expressed by two Australian privacy groups, the Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Google has stated numerous times that it holds the privacy of its users as a concern of paramount importance, and that it takes all measures to ensure that people's private information is kept from prying or unwanted eyes.

"We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it," he said.

"Given the concerns raised, we have decided that it's best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely," he added. Eustace said personal wireless data was mistakenly collected only from unsecured, or non-password-protected WiFi networks, and "we never used that data in any Google products."  

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