google

Google on data security: You can trust us, really

Google described on Tuesday how it secures the mountains of data that it handles every day, saying that it has highly automated processes and employs the best and brightest in Web security.

On the Official Google Blog, Douglas Merrill, a vice president of engineering, spelled out the company's philosophy, processes, and technology that the company employs for security.

He said that the company is developing its own security software, particularly to address areas such as large-scale computing and automation.

Google's processes are set up so that sensitive personal information can only be viewed by exception, Merrill said.

"… Read more

Google's drop in paid clicks: Part of the grand plan

After ComScore reported a recent decline in Google's paid clicks, the Net ratings service followed up, noting evidence that the drop was due to "Google's own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings and, therefore, the opportunity for paid clicks to occur."

The reduction in listings, ComScore noted, was "offset by paid revenue per click."

On Monday, at a Bear Stearns media conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce in North America, offered essentially the same view on the matter.

As … Read more

Google: Model citizen of community development?

John Mark Walker, Hyperic's community lead, has an interesting take on whether Google deserves to be loved or loathed for its open-source community outreach.

John Mark is in the former camp and, increasingly, so am I. Google is the Teflon open-source company, contributing selectively and strategically...and winning kudos across the board.

Self-interested Google? Absolutely. But then, how many companies do you know that aren't self-interested contributors to open source? Walker notes:

I didn't say they were altruistic, but rather that they knew what they were doing with respect to community development. They invest in communities, many … Read more

How Google's counterculture changes everything

In the world of online services and editorial content, a term known as "stickiness" becomes the rallying cry of Webmasters and marketers alike. In essence, these people are fearful that if they lose visitors on the site, they'll never get them back. But for some reason, Google doesn't feel that way. In fact, it's more than happy to send you out in the wild.

Why is that? Why has Google always been a company that has single-handedly taken the tried and true mentality of Web site owners for years and turned it upside down. On top of that, why has the company been able to succeed if conventional wisdom suggests that should never happen?

Maybe because the old idea of keeping people on the site isn't necessarily the best way to go. Perhaps users want to use a service that acts as a means to an end instead of a vehicle of infinite knowledge. Maybe users are sick and tired of sticky services and want nothing more than to bounce around the Web in search of the very best content no matter where it is.… Read more

Zoho adds HR application to its Web suite

While Google receives lots of attention for its suite of Web applications, and Microsoft waits on the sidelines, Zoho continues to add new components to its Web suite.

The latest addition to the suite, which already includes modules for everything from documents and spreadsheets to CRM and wikis, is Zoho People, a human resource management application.

Zoho People, currently in beta, includes the usual HR functions for administrators and employees, with modules for organization, recruitment, forms, and checklists (work flow). In addition, Zoho Creator has been integrated within Zoho People, allowing users to customize the application.

Zoho People joins Zoho … Read more

Microsoft's self-inflicted handicaps

I woke up this morning to a great Techcrunch review of Microsoft's new/old strategies. For those who watch Microsoft on a regular basis, it's no surprise to hear that the company's dedication to its 20th-century businesses (more billions, please!) cripples its ability to move forward and catch up with the 21st Century.

Microsoft is a company with a lot of good people doing amazing things, but those people are like a horse that has been handicapped out of the race with the baggage of Microsoft old. They are putting up a good fight to be seen and listened to, but it's a hard ask. Microsoft is clearly a company that is changing, the only remaining question is will the whole organization transform into the new Microsoft quickly enough to survive the rapidly changing way companies and individuals interact with technology.

And so Steve Ballmer at Mix'08 was relegated to old jokes about Apple and panicky suggestions that Microsoft is the "little engine that could" against Google. It's not. At some point Microsoft will have to admit that its old model of install (Microsoft) once, control everywhere" is precisely why it isn't relevant in the 21st Century of software.

How do we know that Microsoft is struggling to catch up?… Read more

Google to penalize advertisers with slow-loading pages

Companies advertising on Google's AdWords system better fine-tune their ad landing pages.

In its automated auction system, Google will soon be looking at the length of time it takes to see an advertiser's landing page once an ad is clicked as a factor in determining ad position and minimum bid for keywords.

People are more likely to abandon landing pages that load slowly, Google explained in its Inside AdWords blog.

I want to emphasize that I agree with the Google statement that people abandon pages that load too slowly.

FCC auction nears conclusion, so what's next?

As bidding on the 700MHz spectrum auction starts to wind down, a group of business school students predicts it will be long time before consumers see any of the promised new services resulting from the auction.

The 700MHz auction, which is reissuing spectrum originally allocated for analog TV, has been touted as one of the most important spectrum auctions the Federal Communications Commission has ever conducted. Not only was it expected to raise a great deal of money for the government, but as the last bit of prime wireless spectrum that will be made available for a long time, many … Read more

Will Diggers dig a corporate overlord?

Update at 3:35 p.m. PST: Digg CEO Jay Adelson has posted a blog that seems to be saying talk of a Digg sale is much ado about nothing. My colleague Caroline McCarthy has written about what Adelson had to say on News.com's The Social.

Are we nearing the end of Digg independence?

Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch is reporting Friday that Google, Microsoft, and two media companies may be preparing to make an offer on Digg. Just how much Digg could fetch isn't quite clear: Arrington reports it's likely to be in the range … Read more