News reports out of Israel say Facebook is in talks to acquire traffic-information service Waze for as much as $1 billion, but Google will be making a big mistake if it doesn’t try to top that offer. Read more »
The long-running fight over Google’s decision to scan the world’s library books took a new twist on Wednesday as an appeals court pushed the parties over copyright law’s “fair use” doctrine. Read more at paidContent »
Startup founder Chad Whitacre caused a fuss recently when he suggested that a reporter do an “open interview” that would be available to everyone — but why is that approach seen as such a threat by some media outlets? Read more at paidContent »
Google is helping third-party iOS app makers send their users to Chrome instead of the default Safari browser. It’s yet another step in the company finding ways to reach its users on Apple’s own platform. Read more »
Nicole Wong, a top lawyer with a reputation for standing up for liberty and free expression while at Google and Twitter, is headed to the White House. Read more »
Even as Apple has decoupled its iPhone partnership with Google for everything except search, the web company has still found a way to reach its users who have iPhones and iPads. Read more »
Metaswitch is bringing the cloud model to telcos by open sourcing it’s new IMS core software that runs on commodity hardware. IT’s a good first step for the telcos but they must go further. Read more »
Given the documented ability of mobile apps, search, and social networking to lift sales, it makes forehead-smacking sense for retailers to shift their focus away from sales lost to showrooming into harnessing the shopper’s in-store wireless experience for themselves and their brands. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Is a Nexus 11 tablet coming later this month? Leaked information suggests it could happen. LG’s new Optimus G Pro is here and first impressions are very positive, while a free app turns the Wii Fit Balance Board into a smart scale. Read more »
There’s no question the kind of data collection Google has to do in the background to power its Google Now service can be a little intrusive — perhaps too intrusive for some. But it also makes the results extremely useful. Read more »
Google has long been pushing for more offline and even native-like apps for Chrome OS and the Chrome browser. Now it’s taking the next step: Highlighting these Packaged Apps in the Chrome Web Store. Read more »
Guess who’s getting a gigabit network now? Residents of Omaha, Neb. woke this morning to news they are getting a fiber-to-the-home network. From CenturyLink. Read more »
Until the Chromebook Pixel, Chrome OS laptops were relegated to use older, slow Intel chips. Looks like that’s changing as new Chrome OS code has numerous references to Intel’s fourth-gen Core chip, which should greatly boost Chromebook battery life. Read more »
Leap2 has a new mobile search app that’s pretty useful as well as a $1.6 million first round of funding. The Kansas City, Mo. startup combines web searching and social in a compelling package. Read more »
After doing something similar in Belgium, Google is using its seawater-cooled data center in Hamina, southeastern Finland, as a way to solidify its presence among local startups. Read more »
Artificial intelligence expert and Google Director of Research was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences last week. He’s well known for a 2009 paper titled “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data.” Read more »
Google may be up-sizing its tablet line in a few weeks: A reported Samsung road-map shows a Nexus 11 tablet with two potential firsts. This could be a Nexus with memory expansion and also use an octa-core Samsung Exynos chip. Read more »
Accurate timing has grown more important in distributed systems, not just for mobile networks, but also for tracking data between data centers. Our love of digital junk is pushing storage to the edge. Read more »
Smartphones are part of a revolution that is connecting and giving a voice to people for the first time. Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, warned on Friday that the revolution has a dark side too. Read more »
Should news outlets in China engage in occasional self-censorship for the greater good of reaching readers and projecting influence? Read more »
You can finally buy an HP Slate 7 in the U.S. for $169.99, but will you? I think it’s a tough sell for HP when the Nexus 7 is priced just $30 more and has a better screen. Read more »
The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced an industry pilot of the long-range broadband and M2M technology later this year, in order to make sure everything works properly ahead of a likely national deployment next year. Read more »
Google continues to make it easier for developers to improve the Android app experience on tablets. When submitting apps to Google Play, a new optimization tip tool alerts developers when they’re missing out on tablet support. Read more »
Google has published new numbers that show how governments around the world are asking to remove more content from services like YouTube than ever before. Read more »
The European Commission has formally revealed the concessions Google is offering to make in order to settle an antitrust investigation over its search practices. Interested parties have a month to comment. Read more »
We’ve hear rumors of Google Chrome tablets in the past but they’ve never panned out. Google, in fact, denied working on one. The most recent Chrome OS build gives strong hints that point to the contrary, however. Read more »
Facebook confirmed a data center in Altoona, Iowa, the same day Google said it would also expand its data center operations in the state. As Facebook pushes transparency, it’s also pushing the notoriously secretive Google. Read more »
As the stakes rise for Twitter when it comes to the security and monetary risks surrounding tweets, it’s time for the company to consider stepping up its security practices to keep accounts safer from hacks. Read more »
A startup called SRCH2 launched on Tuesday with the promise of delivering instant search faster and more accurately than than any other enterprise search product. Read more »
Google’s published a blog post last week about “bad apples” in the ad industry. The meaning of the post is now clear: it was intended to rein in shady software, but also to send a message to other advertisers to clean up their act. Read more at paidContent »
Produced by the obscure Spanish outfit Geeksphone, the Keon and Peak are the first devices to ship bearing Mozilla’s HTML5-centric operating system. Prices start at $119 before taxes. Read more »
As the web giants, co-lo providers and cloud companies add millions of square feet of data center space we need to start getting more sophisticated in how we view these rooms full of servers. Read more »
Khosla Ventures, Eric Schmidt, Marc Benioff and Scott Banister pony up for Series A round as Jessica Jackley and Bob Kerrey join board of startup that matches college grads with backers. Read more »
The fine relates to Google’s accidental scraping of personal data, using the company’s Street View cars, from people’s open Wi-Fi access points back in 2010. Read more »
Instead of being jealous of towns getting Google Fiber, municipalities should look not to Google, but to local businesses that might want broadband badly enough to help play the same role. Read more »
Feedly has faced two outages since adding millions of users in the wake of the announcement that Google will retire its Google Reader service. Now Feedly is accelerating its monetization plans. Read more »
Platform companies from Apple to OpenTable take a commission from developers or merchants. But figuring out how much to take has huge repercussions on the business explains Benchmark’s Bill Gurley. Read more »
Google continues to quickly iterate its Chrome OS platform, with the latest developer build showing a much improved Files app. And it is an app; something called a Packaged App that can have more functionality than a web app. Read more »
Google spent $1.2 billion on property and equipment in the first quarter of 2013, nearly doubling last year’s first quarter. Read more »
Google posted reports that came close to analyst expectations. CEO Larry Page talked up the Google’s more exotic products and dismissed questions about resource allocation and the impact of Facebook’s Home screen on mobile. Read more »
