Webware

Update 3:25 p.m. PT: As of 3:10 p.m. Pacific Time, users from locations around the world are reporting the services are coming back online. Google's Apps Status Dashboard is still showing that Docs and Drawings are not working.

Update 3:35 p.m. PT: The status dashboard has been updated to reflect that all services are back online. Apparently, the word processing and drawing apps (Google Docs and Google Drawings) and the main document listing page (Docs List) were nonfunctional during the outage, but other files, in particular spreadsheets, were still available for people who … Read more

The team at Skype recently published an infographic that shows the vast usage numbers associated with its free calling services.

According to the infographic, based on daily stats gathered in July, Skype usage represents more than 255 billion minutes (or 4.25 billion hours) of calls annually, which is roughly four times more than the service saw in 2008.

Despite the tremendous growth in usage, Skype may have as many detractors as it does proponents. Its services have suffered from a number of hiccups over the last few years, including a serious bout of downtime in December 2010.

For many … Read more

Trust is tremendously valuable, but unfortunately supplies are running a bit short on the Internet right now.

We've all heard about Trojan horse malware that poses as software you might want to run, phishing scams that send fake e-mail purporting to be from your bank, and identity thieves who can siphon away your money. But an unpleasant new variety of faith-undermining behavior has shown up twice now in recent months: bogus versions of the digital certificates that enable encrypted communications on the Net.

How does a bogus certificate hit you where it hurts? Think of the Web sites you … Read more

After months of delay, Google this week will let people use Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar even when they're offline, a key feature for making the company's cloud-computing vision more practical.

The company is a powerful proponent of the Web-based services, but the practical reality is there are plenty of times when Google's vision falls victim to the practical limits of Internet access. For Google's services to fully compete with Microsoft Office, it must work even in Internet dead zones like subways, airplanes, and rural regions.

And Google knows it. It's been testing the … Read more

Very often, Google and I see things the same way. Just as often, though, Google's vision and my practical reality seem to be worlds apart.

Where we see eye to eye is in the effects the Internet is having on business and personal life. Where we don't is on a crucial stumbling block on the way: Internet access. The physical infrastructure and access fees are still holding back the promise of full-fledged cloud computing.

I base this pronouncement after spending more than a month moving from England to France, vacationing in France, working from Michigan, and fighting canceled … Read more

Google+ only roughly represents real life's full range of interactions, but Google's social network just got a little more subtle with the new ability to ignore people.

Previously, Google+ members could block others, but now you don't have to go nuclear if somebody is bugging you.

And because Google doesn't tell a person you've ignored them, Google+ now lets you be as socially dysfunctional as you were in eighth grade: ignored people still can tell if they're in one of your circles, seemingly indicating that you're following them when in practice you're … Read more

Verizon said today it acquired CloudSwitch, a company whose software eases the transition between using software that runs on a company's own servers and running it on a cloud-computing infrastructure.

The technology is helpful as companies try to strike the right balance between the two approaches to IT--sometimes in very short time frames when sudden spikes in computing demand occur. "With CloudSwitch, applications remain tightly integrated with enterprise data center tools and policies, and can be moved easily between different cloud environments and back into the data center based on the requirements of the business," Verizon said. … Read more

One of the first things I looked for in the Android app for using Google+ was an option to reshare posts with others. Today, Google delivered it.

And I'm not alone. Resharing was the top-requested feature for using Google's social network on mobile devices.

"The Google+ Android app update includes our No. 1 most requested mobile feature, resharing posts," said mobile product mamager Ben Eidelson in a YouTube video. The feature is in Google+ for Android 1.0.6.

To use it, users tap on a post, then tap on the three dots in the upper … Read more

On Friday, Google tangled with the wrong Google+ user with an unusual name: Violet Blue.

Blue is a high-profile writer--at least in sex and technology blogging circles--who's even given two talks at Google. And she detailed her weekend-long Google+ ordeal at our sister ZDNet site today. She kept her account once she proved she really is Violet Blue, but Google lost an ally for some of its services when she found she was "guilty until proven innocent."

Google wasn't so happy with the overall situation, either. In an interview with O'Reilly Media Chief Executive Tim O'Reilly … Read more