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What Google should learn from Bing's images

I was focusing my attentions on deep World Cup meditation when I heard my phone ring and a scream. Yes, it was a friend of mine appalled at the sight of images beneath the type on Google home page.

"How could they do this?" she screamed. "Do they have no idea? "

Might I point out that my friend has some taste? She dresses like Audrey Hepburn. A kind of Audrey Hipburn, to be precise. And you should see her floral designs. Even if she does steal most of the flowers from roadsides and other people's … Read more

Google.com now ready for custom photos

Google is ready to start letting users customize its famously spartan home page with photos of their own.

The company announced Wednesday afternoon that over the next few days, U.S. visitors to Google.com will be able to drag photos from their computer or a Picasa library onto the home page, giving it a unique background. Users outside the U.S. will get the feature a little bit later as Google gradually rolls it out around the world, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience and the keeper of the Google Look, in a blog post.… Read more

Google offered Viacom $592 million for content

Not long after Google acquired YouTube, the search engine offered nearly $600 million in guaranteed revenue if Viacom--the parent company of MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures--licensed its TV shows and films to YouTube, records show.

News of Google's offer was revealed in documents released on Friday by a Manhattan federal court and reviewed by CNET. In March 2007, Viacom filed a copyright lawsuit against Google and YouTube and it has become one of the most watched legal disputes in the tech sector.

In a deposition given by Google co-founder Larry Page on October 1, 2009, a Viacom … Read more

The next five years of the X Prize

At a gala charity event Saturday night featuring "Avatar" director James Cameron, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and a who's who of tech industry luminaries, the X Prize Foundation laid out its vision for the next five years.

Already in 2004, the foundation has paid out $10 million in prize money for the winner of the Ansari X Prize, which in 2004 went to the first non-governmental team to launch a vehicle into space twice in two weeks. The prize winners were Burt Rutan and the Paul Allen-backed team that built SpaceShipOne.

The foundation offers … Read more

The 404 578: Where we believe the children are the future (podcast)

Wilson's powers to predict the future must be waning because he didn't warn us about the illness keeping him bedridden during today's episode of The 404 Podcast. The universe seems to work itself out, however, because CNET News reporter Caroline McCarthy is back from her sojourn to San Francisco, and hopefully on a semi-permanent basis this time!

She joins us this morning to discuss a couple social networking stories on her CNET News blog, The Social, including Twitter's "auto-follow" bug, Facebook automatically adding profile pages, and McDonalds teaming up with Facebook!

If you could force anyone on Twitter to follow you, who would you choose? A recent bug in the Twitter platform turned that wish into a fantasy yesterday when it was discovered that members could add any follower to their account simply by tweeting "accept" and the "@" symbol with a corresponding user name. As a result, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Evan Williams both found themselves following the mundane details of random hackers around the world, although Caroline tested the bug herself with Mr. Kutcher's account with success as well.

Fortunately, an update posted on the Twitter status blog reports that engineers are working diligently to remove the bug and set the Earth back on its axis.

Facebook is also moving forward with its location-based technology platform, starting with a partnership with McDonald's that lets fast food patrons check-in at any of the golden arches restaurants. The app also posts exactly which menu items you order so your friends will know exactly how much you hate your body.

The female presence on The 404 is seriously lacking, so we're taking this rare opportunity to get Caroline's perspective on six gender stereotypes that science proves are true. Most of them smell like bull, but there seems to be some truth in the idea that women apparently can't navigate directions.

Now before you start sending in hate mail, we should mention that these are all statements do not reflect the personal beliefs of the hosts of The 404 or CNET or CBS or anyone but Cracked, who wrote the article. In it they cite one study that found boys carry an innate ability to see a third dimension which contributes to increase spatial ability compared to girls by a radio of 4:1.

In a supposedly unrelated story, Caroline tells us she failed her first time at the DMV on her driver's test, although she claims that it had more to do with her lack of practice than her gender...apparently this list of stereotypes isn't the only thing that smells of bull!

We love having Caroline on the show, but she won't come back unless you call 1-866-404-CNET and beg her to do so! You can also e-mail us at the404(at)cnet(dot)com and we'll forward your grovel to her, so get to work! With any hope, Wilson will be out for the rest of the week so we can have her back again!

Just kidding Wilson, get well soon!

EPISODE 578 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Yahoo stabs at Google in new video

Yahoo has always seemed like such a nice place. The sort of place where, if you happened upon it by chance, the inhabitants would sit you down, give you a cup of tea and a cookie, and ask you what brought you to its parts. They'd even ask you how to pronounce your name.

So how odd and strangely refreshing to see Yahoo roll up a little ball of competitive spit and blow it in the direction of Google.

In a new video described by public-relations firm DKC as "possible creative for Yahoo's upcoming campaign," Yahoo … Read more

Google gives search results pages a makeover

Starting Wednesday, Google users will see something very different on search results pages as the world's leading Internet search company trots out one of its most significant redesigns in years.

Google search result pages will get a lot more colorful as Google formally introduces a redesign it has been testing for several years. It's not a huge surprise since Google has been actively testing the design with users for several months, and testing for this particular revision dates back even further, said John Wiley, senior user experience designer for Google.

With the new look, Google is emphasizing the … Read more

Count your PDFs

Traction Software's Rapid PDF Count is a simple tool that can save you time and frustration by showing you how many pages are in a PDF document with a click. It also counts words and characters, displays the number of files and the size of each, and more.

This efficient tool opens with a nag screen in the trial version. The main interface is small and sparse but cleanly laid out, with a file menu and a spreadsheet-like file display. You can drag the count headings to reposition them, an essential feature, we feel. The Setup menu calls up … Read more

Google intros Place Pages for Android, iPhone

A useful feature that Google rolled out for the Web last September has just made its way to U.S. Android phones and iPhones.

You might have noticed Place Pages as a newish type of search result that pops up on Google.com, often as the first nonsponsored listing. Connected to Google Maps (and Local search results), a Place Page gathers together key information about a location: the Web site, map, phone number, link to directions, and user reviews.

The mobile version, accessed through Google.com, similarly puts useful info for local businesses at your fingertips. "Local" is … Read more

Facebookipedia? Here come 'Community Pages'

It might not seem like much, but a Monday announcement from Facebook to unveil its new "Community Pages" feature is one of the boldest steps that the social-networking site has taken toward, well, consuming your life.

"Community Pages" take the concept of a Facebook "fan page" and apply them to concepts, places, and ideas, rather than brands. An announcement at the top of Facebook's prototype community page for "cooking" explains that it aims to be "the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic," and sources quite a bit … Read more