google

I finally got access to Google Docs offline, the launch of which I covered yesterday. I understand why Google is pitching it as a safety net for a flaky online connection, as opposed to an honest-to-goodness offline application. As we noted yesterday, you cannot yet create a new document when offline. And something we weren't told: when working offline, you can't insert a picture into a file nor review its revision history.

Furthermore, offline edit reconciliation isn't quite what I was told it would be. I fired up a shared Docs file, pulled the Ethernet plug on … Read more

Updated 5 p.m. PDT with more information and context.

Google Chief Information Officer Douglas Merrill is leaving Google to become president of EMI's digital unit, according to sources.

A Google spokesman confirmed that Merrill is leaving but said he could not confirm the other information. A spokeperson for EMI Music Group declined to comment.

A separate source familiar with the matter said Merrill will be starting at EMI later this month and that the position was created specially for him. He is staying in California, the source says. EMI, the fourth-largest record label, is based in London.

The … Read more

The window for U.S. companies to submit their H-1B visa applications for next year opens today and ends on Monday. And Google's not very happy about the details.

Neither are Microsoft and other tech companies. They want the government to increase the number of visas that companies can get to hire foreign workers. More than 150,000 applications are expected to be submitted this year, more than double the annual limit of 65,000.

Most large technology companies point to hundreds of job listings that they can't fill because of the lack of qualified U.S. candidates, … Read more

What would you do if you won the lottery? Would you continue to slog away at your job assembling cars, bagging groceries, or writing code? If you joined Google before it went public or even in the aftermath, it was like winning the lottery. Douglas Merrill is leaving to join EMI Digital as president after more than four years at Google, prior to the August 19, 2004, public offering.

As vice president of all internal engineering and worldwide support, Merrill will walk away with a fortune. What do you do after more than four years of incredibly intense and rewarding … Read more

Google does April Fools’: ‘Custom time’ and a Mars trip http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9907571-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Microsoft, Yahoo agree on buyout price http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/01/14FE-april-fool-microsoft-yahoo_1.html

April Fools Day Spam Invades Google http://www.searchenginejournal.com/april-fools-joke-spam-invades-google-news/6637/

No foolin’–Storm worm is back http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9906880-57.html?tag=nefd.only

Windows: A Monopoly Shakes http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/windows_a_monopoly_shakes.html

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Analyst: Apple's U.S. consumer market share now 21 percent http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/01/analyst-apples-us-consumer-market-share-now-21-percent/… Read more

The word of the day is "prank." Unless maybe you're one of the ones who got taken in hook, line, and sinker, in which case it's "doh!"

If you haven't already noticed, today is April Fools' Day, but you probably have, since most pranksters seem to get an early start. No single April 1 hoax may have the heft of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds stunt the night before Halloween in 1938, and there aren't usually chores involved like the ritual post-Halloween clean-up of splattered egg whites, but nothing comes close … Read more

Happy April Fools' Day!

As expected, Google's Gmail rolled out a fake "custom time" feature, which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again. The new feature "utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality," Google wrote.

"I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email," a fake testimonial on the Custom Time site read. "Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. Everyone sort … Read more

Technology companies run into trouble from time to time. Today it's Yahoo, Dell , and Motorola. Tomorrow it could be Google, Cisco Systems, or Apple.

Lest we forget, it wasn't that long ago that Apple flat-lined for an entire decade before ousting Gil Amelio in favor of ex-chief Steve Jobs. Jobs restructured the company by first cutting Newton and other unprofitable products, then introducing exciting new core products like iMac, and finally branching out into consumer devices like iPod and iPhone.

But that's nothing new. It happens to most companies, sooner or later.… Read more

Q&A For a man staring down Microsoft, Google, and Apple, Symbian's Nigel Clifford doesn't have the deer-in-the-headlights look as much as you might expect.

Perhaps because, at the moment, those three juggernauts are staring up at Symbian. Clifford, CEO of the company since 2005, has a dominant share of the market for smartphone operating systems and a strong backer in Nokia, the world's largest handset maker.

Still, Symbian is sitting on top of the market at a time when it appears destined for change. Apple's entry into the market has galvanized the American consumer, … Read more