Google

Well, it was going to happen eventually, but it seems that space tourism isn't really that far away after all. News agencies are reporting that Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently put a down payment on one such trip with an outfit called Space ... Adventures. BBC news reports that Brin paid a $5 million down payment to reserve his seat on a flight that will take him and one other passenger to the International Space Station in 2011. Said Brin, "I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space ... (view more)

Google Earth is coming to your web browser. Last week, at the Google I/O conference, the company unveiled the new browser plug-in and Application Programming Interface (API) that can turn a Google Map on any web page into a 3D Google Earth ... application. (Source: google.com) In a blog post, Paul Rademacher, the Google Earth plug-in Technical Lead said that with the Google Earth plug-in you can "control the camera; create lines, markers, and polygons; import 3D models from the web and overlay them anywhere on the planet. In fact, you can even overlay your content over different planets, stars, ... (view more)

Google recently made a preview release of its Friend Connect service available, which allows websites to add social networking features to its pages. Registration, invitations, members galleries, message posting, reviews and 3rd party applications ... based on Google's Open Social platform can all be added. (Source: google.com) The search giant has designed Friend Connect to interact with most of the major social networks, but is currently available on limited websites, such as singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson's. The Michaelson site uses the iLike application that allows fans to interact and ... (view more)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that his company's top priority this year is to make the YouTube video-sharing site a more profitable enterprise through the introduction of new advertising strategies. In an interview that aired on CNBC on ... Wednesday, Schmidt said, "I don't think we've quite figured out the perfect solution of how to make money, and we're working on that. That's our highest priority this year." Google Inc.'s acquisition of YouTube in 2006 represented a $1.65 billion investment in the video-sharing site but internal earnings reports demonstrate that the purchase has yet to ... (view more)

Is "racial profiling" the best way to compete with Google? It would seem that InterActive Corp (Nasdaq: IACI), the owner of Ask.com, thinks so. The company has introduced a new search engine site called Rushmoredrive.com to provide more relevant ... search information for the African-American searcher. The new search engine was created using behavioral targeting techniques. Researchers analyzed the results of the most popular search terms used in geographic areas that have large black populations. The site then catalogues the 'click-throughs' from those results to determine the sites of most ... (view more)

Google has given 10,000 developers free access to its servers to test and run new applications. The Google App Engine is a service by which developers can write their own applications; in effect, online programs. It's the same system Google uses for ... its own online services, including a calendar and a photo gallery. It's considered a challenge to similar services from Amazon, which rents out server space. Servers are the computers that physically store and run online programs and web pages. Many individuals and small firms find it cheaper to rent server space rather than buy and maintain their ... (view more)

Google is the web's most powerful entity. That much is not in doubt. The search engine's popularity dwarfs competitors Yahoo or Ask.com, and no one knows it more than retailers. A number of companies are now a bit worried Google is inching up on ... their territory, offering a service that steers consumers away from official retail web sites for an alternate page established by the search titan itself. It works like this. A web user enters the typical, one-in-a-gazillion search on Google. Nothing new there. However, once the results are listed, a second box created by Google points those shoppers ... (view more)

Google recently announced that it has completed negotiations before European anti-trust commissioners, and is finally able to close its $3.1 billion deal to acquire DoubleClick. The new addition to the Google brand will bring a greater concentration ... of advertising power within one corporation. However, anti-trust hearings in the US and Europe felt that the companies could merge because they occupied different parts of the advertising search market (Google is the dominant online supplier of text-relevant ads, while DoubleClick is a large advertiser for banner ads). (Source: nytimes.com ) ... (view more)

Google Inc. has sent out email notifications on January 24, informing its business partners of a change in the way the company deals with advertising-generated revenues. The new policy is aimed at tackling the prevalent practice of 'domain tasting', ... which critics believe hurts legitimate domain ownership. The practice of domain tasting takes advantage of the Add Grace Period (AGP), which is the allocation of a 5 day grace period during which time registrants can cancel their request for a domain at no cost. Several online businesses have been set up to take advantage of this loop hole, which ... (view more)

Along comes Jimmy Wales with a $4 million (not billion) investment from Bessemer Ventures, an investment from Amazon of an undisclosed amount, and some private money from a handful of angel investors that include Marc Andreesen (cofounder of ... Netscape), Josh Kopelman (Half.com), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), and Ron Conway (an early investor in Google, PayPal and Ask Jeeves). And while no one knows the exact amount of funding that Jimmy has received, it's probably safe to guess that, altogether, it's less than $100 million. In a relatively short span of technology history, Google has achieved revenues ... (view more)