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Google released Go 1.1 Monday, promising faster software for programmers who use the language.

"We have made optimizations in the compiler and linker, garbage collector, goroutine scheduler, map implementation, and parts of the standard library," said Andrew Gerrand in a blog post. "It is likely that your Go code will run noticeably faster when built with Go 1.1."

Google made the announcement just before the Google I/O show in San Francisco. The company plans to detail Go at the developer-oriented conference, including a session on writing Go programs on Google App Engine, a … Read more

Google's Fiber web is growing a little bigger in the Midwest.

The Gladstone, Mo., city council on Monday approved expansion of the Web giant's speedy Internet and video service into the Kansas City suburb, Google announced Monday.

Already available in Kansas City, the first location to get the high-speed Internet service, Google Fiber's expansion plans have been picking up speed in recent months. The Gladstone decision comes a little more than a week after Shawnee, Kan. -- another city located near Kansas City -- voted to bring Google Fiber to its residents. Google also plans to install … Read more

Google's search engine is powerful, but not all-knowing. Every month Google processes 100 billion queries, and typically returns results with microsecond speed. However, on a fairly regular basis, Google's search engine has to think a bit harder to render a result. On a daily basis, 15 percent of queries submitted -- 500 million -- have never been seen before by Google's search engine, and that has continued for the nearly 15 years the company has existed, according to John Wiley, the lead designer for Google Search.

With a 1976 release, Atari's Breakout was right at the frontier of video game history -- and, it would seem, Apple's. The task of designing a prototype board with as few chips as possible fell to Steve Jobs, with an extra $100 for every chip less, and Jobs delegated it to his pal Steve Wozniak, who completed the board with just 42 chips in only four days.

Jobs, the sneaky cur, kept the bonus to himself, paying Wozniak a pittance. Atari couldn't even use the board, and ended up going with a different design that had about 100 chips.

Anyway, as interesting as all that is, you want to play Breakout on Google Image search, right? Head on over to Google and do an image search for "Atari Breakout" (or just click the hyperlink). … Read more

Last year, Google I/O -- Google's annual event for the developer community -- treated us to skydiving, arena-cycling Google Glass wearers, and a whole crazy landscape of wearable tech. This year, Glass is finally in the hands of thousands of developers, tech journalists, and other early adopters, but as we head back to another Google I/O, there's a lot about Glass that's yet to be discovered.

The present of Google Glass is intriguing, embryonic, and very bare-bones. Here's what I hope we see in the near future, starting this week.

Apps, apps, apps There … Read more

If you didn't get a chance to pay $1,500 for a pair of Google Glass frames, check out the view on the Glass Sim simulator.

Mutual Mobile, a company that focuses on helping its clients build mobile products, created the simulator so that developers -- and anyone else who is curious about Google's wearable tech -- can create mock-ups of app interfaces on Glass. The simulator lets users upload images and video, and enter text to portray the view of someone wearing Glass.

There aren't a lot of apps for Glass yet, so the Glass Sim … Read more

Google's media streaming ball, the Nexus Q, won't be getting an update or a re-debut at this year's annual Google I/O, according to a new report.

Citing sources, All Things D says the $299 spherical device, which was first shown off at last year's I/O and scrapped just a month later, will be absent from the proceedings. That's despite a pledge from Google last year to reintroduce the product after retooling it.

Google did not respond to a request for comment. We will update this story if we get a response.

The Nexus … Read more

Google I/O 2013 kicks off this week, and you've probably got a few questions. What are the next Nexus phone and tablet going to be? Why should we care about Google Now? Is Google+ an atonement -- or punishment -- for Google Wave?

CNET's Eric Franklin, Stephen Shankland, and myself spitballed what we think is coming next from the Googleplex, and why.

The Google+ Hangout lasted around thirty minutes on CNET's Google+ page, and we talked about everything from a Google Watch to hardware to Google+.

Missed it? Don't worry, you can watch the whole … Read more