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06 Feb 2012 10:33

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Tech, World: Google, Facebook forced to block content by Indian high court

  • last month Facing legal complaints that their sites “create enmity, hatred, and communal violence” and “will corrupt minds,” Facebook and Google told an Indian court that they could not block content, and that it would be difficult to pre-screen. The complaint was filed by a journalist, Vinay Rai, who has been on a crusade over this issue.
  • this month Facing an order from the Delhi High Court to block said content from their services, Google and Facebook say they’ve already removed objectionable content, and Facebook has submitted a compliance report to the court on Monday, but not without joining Yahoo and Microsoft in having misgivings on the case. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


31 Jan 2012 00:23

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Politics: Obama’s “Hangout” session: The president’s taking resumes (seriously)

  • I meant what I said: if you send me your husband’s resume, I’d be interested in finding out exactly what’s happening right there.
  • President Barack Obama • Speaking to a “caller” during his Google+ Hangout today. When Jennifer Wedel mentioned her husband’s lack of employment (he’s a semiconductor engineer), Obama took note. She said that, according to industry reports, her husband “should be able to find something right away.” Five people got to “Hangout” with Obama on Monday, and were offered the chance to ask the president questions about his recent State of the Union address, while other questions were pulled from YouTube videos selected by viewers and Google staff. This social experiment went well considering what new technology was being used. Did you watch? What did you think? source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


30 Jan 2012 15:50

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Tech: How old does Google think you are? Because, um, they might be wrong

  • Google thinks I’m a senior citizen. Based on the websites you visit and the stuff you search for, Google infers your interests, age and gender, in order to show you more relavent ads (digression: It does this, in part, by having partner websites place a cookie on your computer; more on that here). Anyway, head on over to Google’s Ad Preferences page, and you can see what Google has inferred about you. It’s often less than accurate; for example, Google believes that I am a male above the age of 65. They got the gender right, but overshot my age by roughly 40 years (I guess I have drastically out-of-date tastes). With Google’s recent decision to allow all of its services to share users’ info with one another, it’d be nice if they had some idea of who we actually are. Or perhaps it’s better to remain shrouded in mystery? — Seth @ SFB
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink


23 Jan 2012 23:37

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Tech: New bookmarklet turns Google’s unofficial motto against itself

  • “Don’t Be Evil” tool cuts back on Google’s self-promotion: Remember Google’s new social search feature? It features results from your friends — and Google+ accounts — before other results, even if the other social sources are more popular than the Google+ account. The new “Don’t Be Evil” extension “looks at the three places where Google only shows Google+ results and then automatically googles Google to see if Google finds a result more relevant than Google+,” according to Focus On the User. Would you install this? source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


23 Jan 2012 11:23

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Tech: YouTube’s quickly growing — both in terms of uploads and videos streamed

  • 4 billion videos streamed on YouTube every single day (whoa)
  • 60 hours amount of video uploaded to YouTube every single minute
  • 3 billion number of videos the company monetizes each week source
  • » A quickly growing tally: With Google’s quickly-growing advertising prowess, the company is constantly looking for new ways to monetize content. And with YouTube, it offers a lot of opportunities to build upon the $5 billion in revenue it makes each year from graphical ads (many of which run alongside YouTube videos). The level of uploads and views is quickly growing, too: A year ago, the company had 48 hours of video uploaded per minute back in May, and the level of overall video views jumped by 25 percent from eight months ago.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


20 Dec 2011 14:56

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Biz: Apple scores court victory against HTC, Android in patent case

  • A bad day for HTC smartphones: While it didn’t represent everything Apple had sought to secure through the legal process, today’s court ruling against HTC struck a blow, and moved along Apple’s bid to prove Google’s Android operating system copied the iPhone. This was, you may remember, a rather intense preoccupation on the part of the late Steve Jobs — the ruling held that some of Android’s data collection software was, in fact, an infringement of Apple’s patent rights, and will cause some HTC phone models to be blocked from sale in the United States starting next year. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink


20 Dec 2011 00:53

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Tech: Clothing with a twist: Smartphones could gain a couple wearable friends

  • Years ago, researchers envisioned these tiny computers transmitting information to the Internet. It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it happened. It’s called the smartphone.
  • Yael Maguire, a visiting scientist at M.I.T. and Harvard • On the advancement of phone technologies in more wearable directions. Secret projects led by Google and Apple could allow users to carry around lightweight, connected devices that fit in with what you’re already wearing — think a bracelet-style iPod with the ability to talk to Siri whenever you want.  All of this is possible thanks to the invention of the smartphone, which is kind of a wearable computer already. We bet these toys will work perfectly with mock turtlenecks.  source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


 

11 Dec 2011 21:30

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Tech: Google’s top execs have a surplus of planes hanging around

  • 8 private jets split up between three top executives, or 2.6 per person source
  • » Say whaaaaaaaaaaaa? The news on this one broke in a somewhat sneaky way — the San Jose Mercury News reported that the executives had offered to pay $33 million to finish restoration of a historic air hangar at Moffett Field, which is a stone’s throw from Google’s Mountain View headquarters. It came out, as a result of this news, that the company has eight jets at its disposal between Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. Google doesn’t own them, mind you; H211, a separate company that has no formal relationship with Google, operates them. Still, though … you gotta wonder why they need eight jets. If they want, they could give one to us.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


06 Dec 2011 11:23

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Tech: Verizon blocks Google Wallet on “security” concerns

  • Read: Google’s product is competing with our product. Google Wallet has drawn a lot of attention in recent months for its end-to-end reinvention of the paying experience — one that, if it takes off, could make carrying around credit cards a thing of the past. However… the first phone on Verizon’s network that could support the technology behind Google Wallet, the Galaxy Nexus, has the software disabled. The company says they’ve blocked it in an effort to provide “the best security and user experience.” However… Verizon is working with AT&T and T-Mobile on a competing service, Isis, which has yet to launch. Perhaps that’s it? Yeah, we think so. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


03 Dec 2011 18:00

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Tech: Could Mozilla’s Firefox lose its biggest funding source: Google?

  • growth Over the years, Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser grew from nothing to provide a solid secondary option to Microsoft’s once-dominant Internet Explorer. It funded itself in large part from a multi-year deal it made with Google to make their search the default, allowing Mozilla to grow quickly.
  • hindrance However, since they made the last deal in 2008, a strange thing started happening — Google created a browser of its own, Chrome, that quickly ate its own share of the market. It’s now tied with or ahead of Firefox. So … will Google renew the deal with Mozilla? Do they need to? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


 
 
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