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Google admonished its users to be more careful with passwords in a blog post on Thursday, but two security experts say that tech giant should spend more time pressuring developers and companies to do more to help their customers.

Google's tips encompass password basics: use a different password for each important service; make your password hard to guess; keep your password somewhere safe; and set a recovery option.

"For the general consumer, I think it's a fantastic start," said Alex Salazar, CEO of Stormpath, an authentication service for developers. But, he said, "everything they said … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Instagram is not a photography company.

That message, which might shock some of the 100 million-plus people who have uploaded more than 5 billion photos to Instagram, is what co-founder Kevin Systrom made clear during a discussion tonight among him and co-founder Mike Krieger and Digg founder and Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose.

The discussion, part of the Commonwealth Club's Inforum series, was an opportunity for hundreds of Instagram fans to hear first-hand a bit of the history -- and perhaps some of the future -- of the popular photo-sharing app. Even if that's not … Read more

Ever wondered how many calories are in a burrito? How about grams of fat in a donut? Or, carbs in a potato?

All of these food and nutrition stats, and more, can now be found on Google Search. The Web giant announced Thursday that it was introducing detailed nutrition information for more than 1,000 fruits, vegetables, meats, and meals in both its desktop and mobile search.

"From the basics of potatoes and carrots to more complex dishes like burritos and chow mein, you can simply ask, 'How much protein is in a banana?' or 'How many calories are … Read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is throwing in its two cents in the ongoing legal battle between Oracle and Google over whether APIs should or shouldn't be copyrightable.

Gathering together 32 computer scientists and tech industry leaders, the Internet advocacy organization submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday. The brief is signed by tech leaders like MS-DOS author Tim Paterson and ARPANET developer Larry Roberts.

EFF and the brief's signatories are trying to convince the court that APIs should not be copyrightable because they are critical to spurring innovation … Read more

Google Music All Access, the company's streaming music service, will come to Apple iOS sometime this summer, according to a Google executive.

Speaking at the D11 conference, Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai said All Access is due for iOS in "a couple weeks."

A Google representative confirmed that, but hedged on the timeline, saying only, "Google Play All Access is coming to iOS this summer."

"[T]he teams are working like crazy to do it," said Pichai.

The service launched a few weeks ago at Google I/O 2013, the company's … Read more

KANSAS CITY -- Google is in it to win it when it comes to building fiber broadband networks. Despite speculation to the contrary, Google sees its Google Fiber broadband business as a moneymaker, and not just an overpriced test network.

And it's very likely that the company will continue expanding the service into other cities willing to partner to keep costs down.

Speaking at the Fiber-to-the-Home Council meeting here late Wednesday, Milo Medin, vice president of access services for Google, told an audience of city planners, engineers, and city mayors that Google is not just building a testbed for … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Stealth startup Atheer came out of the shadows at the D: All Things Digital conference here, unveiling its wearable 3D augmented reality platform that works on top of Android and potentially other mobile operating systems.

Atheer's technology employs stereoscopic glasses and a 3D camera to track hand movements to manipulate virtual objects in real space, similar in concept to the portrayals of gesture control in movies like "Minority Report" and "Avatar."

"We are the first mobile 3D platform delivering the human interface. We are taking the touch experience on … Read more

NEW YORK--Google wants to play a bigger part in your life.

That's the message the company was likely conveying with its model home here in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Google took over a building on Thursday to show off its many newer services and hardware, including Google Now, Hangouts, and Google Glass.

Google Now is a big initiative and appears to be the glue that ties many of its products together. Google Now on Android, which is called Google Search on iOS, uses your device's GPS, e-mail, calendar, and other personal information to deliver relevant and … Read more