Hey, remember when Google signed everyone up for Buzz without asking and revealed their private contact lists? The company has now settled a class action lawsuit brought by seven Gmail users. The BBC says that 30% will go to the legal team, while each of those seven users will get $2,500. The rest will not be turned into Google stickers or free AdSense ads for you, but instead will be “shared among organisations that promote online privacy.” [More]
Consumer Group Launches Anti-Google Ad In Times Square, Keeps Google Analytics On Its Own Website
By 9.6.10
The group Consumer Watchdog is pushing hard for Congress to establish a “do not track” list for online consumers, which I’m all for. I’m not sure whether releasing a ridiculously unpleasant cartoon in Times Square is the right strategy, though–especially when you use the very service you’re warning people about. [More]
Erase Yourself From The Internet
By 8.31.10
Need to escape from a stalker or clean up your online identity before a potential or current employer finds out that you have a personality? Here’s instructions on how to delete yourself from the internet, everything from erasing your profile from Facebook to “unGoogling” yourself. [More]
Transfer Calls To Your Gmail Chat To Save Minutes
By 8.26.10
One cool way to use the new Google Voice integrated with Gmail is to transfer cellphone calls to your computer and save on minutes. [More]
Call Phones For Free Through Gmail
By 8.25.10
Gmail is rolling out a new service that will let you call phones in the US and Canada for free right from your email. [More]
Town Catches Pool Permit Dodgers With Google Earth
By 8.2.10
New technology often has unintended consequences. In the case of Google Earth, a popular program that combines various satellite and aerial images to create a navigable 3D globe, it’s being used by one town to catch unpermitted pool owners. [More]
Apple Says Droid X Also Has "Death Grip" Problem
By 7.26.10
Apple has added the Droid X to its list of phones that it claims also has the “death grip” antenna issue. Apple’s website depicts a hand holding the phone in a fairly normal one-handed grip, with the signal bars depleted. Below the image, Apple says: ” In weak signal areas, this grip may negatively affect signal strength.” PCMag, however, takes issue with Apple’s methodology… [More]
Run Android On A Windows Mobile Phone
By 7.9.10
Over at the How-To Geek they’ve figured out how to get the Android OS to run on a Windows Mobile phone, and now they are sharing the information with one and all. [More]
Google Store View Cameraman Spotted In The Wild
By 7.6.10
Reader Yankees368 was dining at Breeze NY when a Google employee tromped in and started taking pictures of the restaurant’s interior, including the food he was about to eat, for the Google Store View project. [More]
Google Voice Now Open To The Public
By 6.22.10
Gosh, it’s been almost 3 years since Google bought GrandCentral and transformed it into Google Voice, a service that lets you set up a phone number that can ring multiple phones. It’s been invite-only ever since, but today Google opened up registration to public. (U.S. only, sorry.) [More]
Google Really Wants To Sell You Music
By 6.22.10
Not content with being in the search engine, browser, advertising and operating systems business, it looks like the bean bag-loving people at Google have their hungry eyes set on the music industry. A new report claims the internet giant plans to launch its own music download service in the coming months. [More]
Google In Hot Water For Collecting Data From Your Wireless Networks
By 6.22.10
A group of attorneys general have decided to go ahead with a multi-state investigation of the Google Streets View project after it was revealed that the cars it uses to capture the images were also capturing data from people’s home and business wireless networks. The capturing was done in 30 countries and the government of France says that it included people’s passwords and email.
Google says they were capturing the data “inadvertently” and that the quality of the data was poor because the cars were moving. [More]
Are You Upset By Google's New Look?
By 6.10.10
If you go to Google.com now, instead of the stark white page you’ll have a colorful, full-screen photo as the background. While some see this as a welcome change of pace and many others just don’t care, there are a number of very vocal writers up in arms about the change. [More]
Woman Sues Google Maps After Getting Hit By Car
By 5.31.10
A woman from L.A. has filed a lawsuit against Internet leviathan Google, claiming that the walking directions she was given by its Google Maps site led her to walk down a Utah highway, where she was hit by a car. [More]
New Google Phone Whispers Targeted Ads In Your Ears
By 5.18.10
So this is how Google is going to make the Nexus One work: Advanced voice-recognition technnology will whisper targeted ads directly into your ears, reports The Onion. [More]
Google Closes Nexus One Online Store After 4 Months
By 5.15.10
Poor Google, it hasn’t been a very good week for you, has it? First we talked about how you accidentally tapped into WiFi info with your Street View cars, and now you’ve been forced to close your online Nexus One phone store after only four months. Does somebody need a hug? [More]
Google Street View Cars Accidentally Collected Web Site Info
By 5.15.10
Woopsies! Looks like Google’s super neat Street View cars have been going about collecting the wrong kind of information – namely, data about what Web sites people were using via open wireless Internet networks, CNN reports, [More]
Google Looks Into Expanding Into Online Travel Services
By 5.9.10
Google just loves being helpful – and being the go-to source for anything and everything you could ever wish or desire. Which is why it’s not surprising that new reports are saying Google is extending its long arm into the online travel business, and could be in talks to acquire fare-shopping developers ITA Software. [More]
