Google

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II joined the Web 2.0 generation on Thursday when she uploaded a clip to YouTube for the first time.

The monarch took the leap into the wired world as she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were shown around Google's London headquarters, which are located down the road from Buckingham Palace. Editors' note: This story was originally published on Silicon.com as a photo gallery. Click here to see all the images.)

Joining the ranks of teenage narcissists worldwide, the queen posted her YouTube video, a 1968 reception for British Olympians, to the … Read more

Update 10:05 a.m. PDT: Adds Yahoo director Carl Icahn's comments from a CNBC report on Wednesday and more information..

Update 10:42 a.m. PDT: Adds Microsoft statement downplaying Ballmer's remarks.

Here we go again...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is still paying attention to Yahoo and noted in a keynote presentation Thursday at the Gartner ITXpo in Orlando, Fla., that it would still make sense for the software giant to acquire the Internet search pioneer, at the right price.

Said Ballmer:

Magnify360, a company specializing in advertising conversion optimization, announced on Thursday that it has launched Google Cost Optimizer for those that want to maximize the performance of their Google AdWords campaigns.

According to the company, Google Cost Optimizer synchronizes with its clients' AdWords accounts in real time and responds to bid, keyword, and campaign changes without a hitch. By doing so, the tool lets Magnify360's clients gain return-on-investment information in real time on metrics such as cost per click, revenue per click, conversation rate, and overall return on investment.

"In order for businesses to survive this recession, marketing … Read more

Google made two announcements Thursday that further advance the company's goal of becoming a power player in television advertising in addition to the Web.

First, the company announced that Harris, which manufactures communications equipment for business and government clients, will be integrating Google's advertising platform into the products it sells to media and communication companies. This means that Harris clients can use Google's service to manage ad inventory, which Mark Piesenan, director of strategic partnerships for Google TV ads, said will "offer media companies the opportunity to leverage (Google's) automated online marketplace, providing a new … Read more

The world was up in arms when it was discovered that Apple's iPhone comes with a "kill switch" that "allows Apple to remotely delete malicious or inappropriate applications stored on the device." That terrible, proprietary, all-controlling Apple!

Well, as it turns out, Google's open-source Android comes with a similar feature, as reported by Computerworld:

In the Android Market terms of service, Google expressly says that it might remotely remove an application from user phones. "Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement...in such an instance, Google retains the right … Read more

No doubt, it's been a doozy of a year for Jerry Yang & co.

Yahoo could have been sold for $33 per share to Microsoft back in the spring; now it's trading at less than $12. Internet advertising may be in for a rough patch, along with the rest of the economy. And morale at the Internet pioneer, well, just isn't what it used to be.

With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to create a handy list for Yahoo watchers to keep in mind as Yahoo struggles to right its ship in the … Read more

This YouTube video was shot in Stockwell, London. (So were several innocent passers-by.)

But that's not what makes it just a teeny bit suspicious.

It features Devin Harris, the point guard of the New Jersey Nets, who happened to be in London last week on a promotional tour. (Part of which included the onerous task of playing the Miami Heat in a game that mattered not at all.)

Out of a seeming nowhere appears Englishman Stuart Tanner. He looks frightfully underdressed for the task at hand. His sweater and jeans are out of place next to Harris's Nets … Read more

Google released a developer-oriented update to its Chrome Web browser on Wednesday that fixes some crashes and video playback issues.

Chrome is still in beta testing, and for those who have an even higher tolerance for rough-around-the-edges software, Google also offers developer versions. Chrome 0.3.154.3 is the latter; see our earlier post on how to subscribe to the Chrome Dev channel.

"Release 154.0 (the most recent publicly released Chrome developer build) had a few browser crashes, including a crash on startup on tablet PCs running Windows Vista. We fixed the new crashes, and 154.3 … Read more

It's been a little more than a year since Google Android was announced and rumors of a little device called the HTC Dream started to leak onto the Web. We think it's fair to say that the Dream stirred up as much anticipation and hype as the Apple iPhone, not only because it would be the first smartphone to run Google's mobile platform but also because of the potential to overtake Apple's darling. (Hey, like it or not, the iPhone set a new bar for handset design and convergence, and serves as a sort of benchmark … Read more