Google

Yahoo Maps gets drag-and-drop rerouting, enhanced business listings

Yahoo's mapping service has been tweaked today to include a rerouting feature similar to the one Google's had since June. The new addition lets you pick up and drag your directions at any point to get the service to reroute according to the guidelines you give it. Once you've made changes, the service will pop up with a small comparison to show you how many miles have been added (or taken away) and how the change affects the time on your original commute recommendation.

Rerouting is a handy feature, and if you've given Google's implementation … Read more

Predictions for 2008: Sharepoint will disappoint, Google will seek omnipotence

CMS Watch makes 12 predictions for 2008, two of which stand out based on things I've covered on this blog. The first has to do with Sharepoint, that lightweight Microsoft portal and content repository that seeks to lock enterprises once and for all into Microsoft. CMS Watch predicts a backlash:

The backlash will be two-fold. First larger enterprises will exhibit major compliance and litigation discovery issues across numerous unmanaged and unaccountable SharePoint locations. You will also see a backlash against sizable development costs and times to build maintainable applications in the MOSS environment. With the more complex SharePoint projects struggling to launch, customers are realizing a disconnect between Redmond's heavy promotion and the realities of a product that is significantly less out-of-the-box than most expect.

But we expect this from Microsoft and eventually from its customers. The more frightening prediction concerns Google, the data-hungry "do no evil" company that CMS Watch predicts will find new ways to pull users into its cloud:… Read more

Europeans to hold hearings on Google-DoubleClick and privacy

Update Dec. 18 with exact date of hearing

Update 1:10 p.m. PT with Google comment

European lawmakers plan to hold a hearing next month to scrutinize the privacy implications of the proposed Google acquisition of online-ad firm DoubleClick, according to the Associated Press.

The proposed $3.1 billion deal has provoked complaints that it would give Google an unprecedented amount of information about consumers' online activities, with a view into not only what people search for, but exactly where on the Internet they go and what ads they click on.

The hearing will be held either Jan. 21, … Read more

The looming battle between old economy (Microsoft) and new economy (Google)

For those who have spent years wringing their hands over Microsoft's desktop dominance, have no fear: competition is on its way. It's called Google, and it promises to dramatically shake up the computing market by shifting the battle to the Internet, as an article in The New York Times insightfully states.

We should have seen this coming. The cause of Microsoft's weakness is its overreliance on its strengths, a classic "innovator's dilemma." In other words, Microsoft's fetish for the desktop metaphor threatens to leave it with dominance of yesterday's kingdom just as … Read more

Ask.com's Top 10 has Google, but no Britney

Ask.com released its Top 10 list for Web search terms for 2007 on Friday and it was noteworthy as much for what made the list as for what didn't.

No. 1 is MySpace, followed in order by: Dictionary, Google, Themes, Area Codes, Cars, Weather, Games, Song Lyrics, and Movies.

Yes, Google is in the third spot. Now, why would anyone go to Ask.com and type in "google"? Weird!

The irony was not lost on Ask.com spokesman Nicholas Graham, who also insisted to this incredulous reporter that adult or sex terms were not among the … Read more

Google Sync for BlackBerry arrives

As if we hadn't all already given up trying to extricate Google from our brains, the company came out Wednesday with sync for Google calendar and your BlackBerry.

It also supports Google Apps for your Domain.

If Google Sync for BlackBerry doesn't kill MS Exchange, I don't know what will. And really, Exchange should be dead already.

You probably need this BlackBerry Calendar Patch to make everything go right.

Groups ask FTC chair to recuse in Google-DoubleClick review

Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency's review of Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband's law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust.

In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to work at the law firm, called Jones Day, according to a complaint about the matter sent to the FTC on Wednesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Majoras' husband, John M. Majoras, is an equity partner with Jones Day and is in charge of … Read more

Sources: FTC extends Google-DoubleClick review

Antitrust regulators with the Federal Trade Commission have received an extension to review the controversial $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick megamerger, according to sources.

The FTC faced a Thursday deadline to either challenge the deal or allow it to go through. But the commission is now expected to stay quiet for at least several more days as it continues to study the impact of the proposed merger on competition and consumers. A decision Thursday is unlikely.

Google complied with the FTC's second request for information on the merger on November 14. Once a company complies with a "second request,&… Read more

Say bye-bye to link buys

With Google's recent crackdown on Web sites the sell PageRank--which really means selling links--a new era has begun for backlink building. In Google's eyes, links coming into a given Web site from external, quality sites increases that site's PageRank, and therefore its standing in the search engine's eyes. Until recently, there were many sites that had quality in Google's eyes (in other words, they had great PageRank) and also sold links. Anyone could get a piece of that good PR for a price.

Google is now actively lowering the PageRank of sites that deal in … Read more