In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook? Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page that you had to know the URL for …

An appeals court has reinstated a patent lawsuit filed against Google over a toolbar feature called AutoLink that provides links to online maps or books on Amazon.com, according to a Bloomberg News report. Wisconsin-based HyperPhrase Technologies sued Google in 2006 for patent infringement. The case was thrown out a …

A court in China has dismissed a trademark lawsuit filed against Google, according to a report on ChinaCourt.org that was translated into English and posted on Pacific Epoch. A Beijing company called Gu Ge Technology sued Google China earlier this year, claiming that its Chinese name, “Gu Ge” was …

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is breaking up with YouTube. On Thursday, Hilton said that he would stop posting videos on YouTube, according to story on TVWeek.com. Instead he plans to host video on his own site, Perezhilton.com. (Credit: PerezHilton.com) The feud began earlier this week after YouTube …

Google is using its YouTube video site as a forum for explaining its privacy practices to the millions of consumers who use its products every day. The company launched a Privacy Channel on YouTube about two months ago. The videos aren’t professionally produced; they are made by Google engineers, …

Federal Trade Commission regulators said Thursday that Google’s controversial $3.1 billion merger proposal with DoubleClick can proceed, despite earlier complaints raised by competitors and privacy advocates. FTC regulators have been reviewing the proposed merger for months for possible antitrust violations, after Google announced plans in April to acquire …

Jason Shellen, who was the founding product manager for Google Reader, is joining social network and blogging platform LiveJournal as vice president of product development. Shellen will be based in San Francisco in new offices LiveJournal will be opening in 2008, according to the company. He arrived at Google in …

A computer worm has been spreading on Google’s big-in-Brazil Orkut social network, according to a report on the Sounds from the Dungeon blog. The relatively harmless worm appears to use JavaScript and Flash code to create new scrapbook entries on profiles with a New Year’s message in Portuguese …

Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google will pay a combined $31.5 million to settle allegations they accepted money for illegal gambling ads, according to the Associated Press. All three companies said they stopped accepting ads for gambling years ago. The agreement settles an investigation launched in 2000 and conducted by the …

At a Capitol Hill hearing in September, Microsoft’s top lawyer skewered the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick as a sure path to an online advertising monopoly. “One company will become the overwhelming dominant gateway that connects the universe of online advertisers to the millions of websites that display …

Yahoo Maps users can now re-route a trip on the fly.(Credit: CNET Networks)Yahoo’s mapping service has been tweaked today to include a rerouting feature similar to the one Google’s had since June. The new addition lets you pick up and drag your directions at any point …

European lawmakers plan to hold a hearing next month to scrutinize the privacy implications of the proposed Google acquisition of online-ad firm DoubleClick, according to the Associated Press. The proposed $3.1 billion deal has provoked complaints that it would give Google an unprecedented amount of information about consumers’ online …

For those who have spent years wringing their hands over Microsoft’s desktop dominance, have no fear: competition is on its way. It’s called Google and it promises to dramatically shake up the computing market by shifting the battle to the Internet, as the New York Times insightfully writes….

Ask.com released its Top 10 list for Web search terms for 2007 on Friday and it was noteworthy as much for what made the list as for what didn’t. No. 1 is MySpace, followed in order by: Dictionary, Google, Themes, Area Codes, Cars, Weather, Games, Song Lyrics, and …

As if we hadn’t all already given up trying to extricate Google from our brains today they came out with sync for Google calendar and your Blackberry. It also supports Google Apps for your Domain. If this doesn’t kill MS Exchange I don’t know what will…and …

Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency’s review of Google’s proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband’s law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust. In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to …

Antitrust regulators with the Federal Trade Commission have received an extension to review the controversial $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick megamerger, according to sources. The FTC faced a Thursday deadline to either challenge the deal or allow it to go through. But the commission is now expected to stay quiet for …

With Google’s recent crackdown on Web sites the sell PageRank–which really means selling links–a new era has begun for backlink building. In Google’s eyes, links coming into a given Web site from external, quality sites increases that site’s PageRank, and therefore its standing in the search engine’…

Google has demonstrated experimental technologies to the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to pressure the agency to open up unused wireless spectrum between TV channels for broadband Internet use. Google, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and EarthLink formed the White Space Coalition earlier this year to lobby the FCC and Congress …

Google has optimized its applications for the iPhone so they are integrated into a single interface and operate faster. Now, if you go to Google’s home page on your iPhone you’ll see the Web search box and links to Gmail, Calendar and Reader up at the top of …

Google is planning to release an application programming interface for its Google Trends program, according to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. During the question and answer portion of a Webcast demonstration of Google Trends on Tuesday, Mayer said the company would eventually release …

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients. …

Google Android It’s been an interesting week for America’s second-largest cell phone carrier. First, Verizon Wireless announces it would support unlocked handsets and third-party applications on its CDMA network, and yesterday the company’s CEO said the carrier may support Google’s new Android platform. “We’re planning …

At this point resistance is futile so I just try my best to limit the amount of personal information Google knows about me. The updates to my Blackberry are actually pretty useful, eliminating the need for several clicks into Google properties I would likely go to anyway. I would beg for mercy but they would just slap an ad on my screams. On to the mobile apps…
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