Google has acquired ReCaptcha, one of those companies behind the distorted text boxes at the bottom of many Web site sign-in pages.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Google plans to use ReCaptcha's technology both as a security measure within certain Google sites and to make its massive book-scanning project a little smarter, the company said in a blog post. ReCaptcha is an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, and puts a twist on the traditional captcha: a string of letters in squiggly text meant to confuse spam bots and other nonhuman Web … Read more

Google announced Tuesday that the Donuts are ready.

Those smartphone developers waiting for the next version of Android, code-named Donut, will not have to wait any longer now that the Android 1.6 software development kit is available for download. As expected, Donut is not a major release of Android but adds a few goodies that developers might want to consider.

For example, Android can now run on CDMA phones used by the likes of Verizon and Sprint, adding more potential partners to the Android world. The latest release also adds a text-to-speech API (application programming interface) for developers to … Read more

An independent search engine bug bash gave high marks to Google's bug testers and found that while Bing is buggy, it's also doing a lot of things right.

A company called uTest solicited 1,100 software developers and set them loose on the four major search engines of the day: Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Google's new Caffeine update. Google had the fewest number of bugs and the least severe bugs among the competition, while Bing amassed the most bugs yet still scored well in the accuracy of its results.

uTest solicits bug testers with cash rewards for … Read more

Google announced Tuesday that the third stable release of Chrome is ready for the world, a little over a year after its debut.

Chrome releases evolve from developer previews to beta releases to stable ones, and the third version of Google's Web browser has now earned that coveted status. It's about 25 percent faster than the Chrome 2.0 stable version, and the new version (click here for download) also comes with a few tweaks.

Google redesigned the New Tab page with a click-and-drag mentality, added icons to the Omnibox to distinguish between searches, sites, and bookmarks when … Read more

Google is set to launch a public version of the ad exchange developed by its DoubleClick unit, according to a report.

The exchange, which has been open on an invitation-only basis to certain partners, will make its formal debut in two weeks as part of the Advertising Week festivities in New York, according to Clickz. The idea is somewhat like a swap meet for display ads, allowing publishers to offer excess ad inventory they can't sell to advertisers looking for a bargain.

Google's dominance of the search engine advertising market has been fueled by text ads. In 2008, … Read more

Google is testing a service that will let newshounds read Web pages of magazines and newspapers like they were flipping through an old-fashioned paper copy.

Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, plans to demonstrate Google Fast Flip later on Monday at TechCrunch50. It's a Google Labs project that expands the presence of publishers on Google News, organizing and displaying authorized screen grabs of news stories--not snippets--within the Google News site.

For example, readers will be able to scroll through a series of screen grabs bearing the publisher's logo that display stories on the weekend's NFL games … Read more

Google is adding two new products to its data liberation effort, hoping to draw wider attention to the concept that users should be able to take their data wherever they go.

The company formally announced the Data Liberation Front Monday, although the group has been around for at least two years. A cheeky play on the Judean People's Front from the Monty Python classic "Life of Brian" (although, technically, Brian joined the People's Front of Judea), the DLF is the group within Google that is charged with finding ways to make it easier for users of … Read more

The long road toward Microsoft and Yahoo's search deal could be set to get a little longer, or fall off a cliff.

Both companies have long expected the U.S. Department of Justice to scrutinize the deal to install Microsoft as the exclusive search provider for Yahoo's Web pages, which would also see Yahoo end its time as a search company. Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed Friday that the Justice Department has asked the two companies for more information about their deal, which is a step beyond taking a mere interest in the proceedings.

In this case, the Justice … Read more

Microsoft is getting ready to launch the next iteration of Bing, according to some wayward tweets.

Mary-Jo Foley at our sister site ZDNet spotted a few eager Twitter users spilling the beans on Bing 2.0 following Microsoft's annual company meeting, where employees were apparently given a preview of some new features that will be rolled out over the coming weeks. Some attendees had the changes coming next week, while others thought it would be more of a gradual rollout, but expect changes to Bing shortly.

What might be coming? One attendee said "imagine seeing maps plus pics … Read more