Google

When it comes to the question of whether an IP address is personal or not, Google seems to swing both ways.

In February, Google software engineer Alma Whitten wrote Are IP addresses personal? on the Google Public Policy blog. In the posting she said "... in most cases, an IP address without additional information cannot [identify you]."

But someone commenting on the posting pointed out that Gmail goes out of its way to hide the IP address of the sender of a Gmail-originated message. The item User IP addresses from the Gmail help says:

"Protecting our users' privacy … Read more

Last week Google announced that they were protecting user privacy (their words not mine) by modifying IP addresses in their activity logs after 9 months. Fellow CNET blogger Chris Soghoian felt this was a sham because it ignored cookies, but it brings up an interesting point, just what does your IP address say about you? Or, in other words, does your IP address point to you?

In some ways, an IP address does identify you or else there would be no need for Google to "anonymize IP addresses" in order to "address regulatory concerns" (again, their … Read more

Google has finally made the Safari-friendly version of Gears available. Savvy Mac users could have downloaded and installed a rougher version of it as early as three weeks ago, however only Monday did the company announce a new version that's been readied for mass consumption.

Like its predecessor, the Mac version of Gears requires version 3.1.1 or higher of Safari, or version 1.5 or higher of Firefox, along with a machine running the most recent build of OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5.3 (Leopard). It offers the same offline-goodness as its Windows counterpart, … Read more

Correction 8:40 a.m. PDT Sept. 19: Google didn't disassemble Vista to employ the security feature described below. See this separate blog post for details.

During Google's launch of its Chrome Web browser, the company went out of its way to acknowledge the debt it owes two open-source projects, Firefox and WebKit. But Microsoft, an uncommon ally in the open-source realm, might also deserve a tip of the hat.

After some digging through the Chrome source code, Scott Hanselman, a senior programming manager for Microsoft, found that the browser uses an open-source Microsoft project called the Windows Template Library, … Read more

Google has released its new version 5.8 of its Google Desktop software for Windows, with a focus on speed.

The software indexes a computer's files so users can search their machines and provides a mechanism to house small applications called widgets, but Google heard gripes that Google Desktop was too big and slow. "We heard the message loud and clear and decided that the Google Desktop 5.8 for Windows release would be based entirely on performance," Jói Sigurðsson, Google Desktop tech lead, said in a blog post Monday.

Google said it … Read more

As open-source projects go, Google's new Cmockery project is about as sexy as a tractor. Google describes Cmockery as "a lightweight library to simplify and generalize the process of writing unit tests for C applications."

Cmockery is unlikely to set the world on fire, but does demonstrate Google's ongoing commitment to open source. It's nice to see big open-source projects like Gears at Google, but the small, lesser-known projects may actually provide clearer evidence of Google's intentions vis-a-vis open source than the big projects do.

Why? Because the small projects reflect the day-to-day mentality … Read more

Yahoo got through the Carl Icahn crisis, but now it's tackling perhaps a more formidable challenge: How to make good on a promise to develop a next-generation, socially networked user experience. CNET News' Stephen Shankland, who spent major quality time with Yahoo executives last week, offers his insight.

There's a developing whodunit, but this much is known: Russian hackers suspected of ties to organized crime have targeted a popular BusinessWeek site with malware--possibly putting visitors to the site at risk.

Since we're in the final stages of Major League Baseball's pennant race--not to mention the start … Read more

Updated 3:15 p.m. PDT with newspaper group opposing the deal.

Antitrust regulators in Europe are following in the footsteps of their U.S. counterparts and looking into a proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo, Reuters reported on Monday.

The European Competition Commission decided in mid-July to open a preliminary investigation into the deal's potential effects on competition in the European market, Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, told Reuters.

Under the agreement signed in June, Google will provide Yahoo with ads that will run on Yahoo's search site.

Meanwhile, sources say U.S. officials are debating … Read more

Don Reisinger joins the cast today for a rousing discussion that goes something like this: "Best Buy bought Napster." "Really?" "Yeah, I know, right? Weird." "Huh. Yeah. Wonder why they did that." "Dunno." It's a great show. You'll love it. (No, seriously! Don rants more than I do!)

Best Buy nabs Napster for $121 million http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10041431-93.html http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080915-best-buy-eyes-apple-microsoft-with-napster-purchase.html

In-flight Internet: Web sites, but not phone calls http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=353… Read more