google

Google was the big loser in a recent bidding auction for the 700 MHz spectrum, which is being abandoned by television networks as the entire industry moves to digital format under Congressional order. Now, Google is trying to get the Federal ... Communications Commission (FCC) to allow mobile devices to use what is called the 'white space' that exists between TV channels. (Source: slate.com ) While the regulatory board is reportedly intrigued by Google's proposal, many doubts remain. White space is used as a barrier between television channels to prevent signals from one broadcast interfering ... (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)

Hulu Hulu finally opens its beta to everyone today. Watch the newest television series and movies on the web without fearing the feds breathing down your neck. It's all free, it's all legit. http://www.hulu.com/ Google Labs Google's technology ... playground. Showcases a few of their favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can improve them. Play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them. http://labs.google.com/ (view more)

Over the last several years, Google has been slowly sucking up advertising dollars that might normally be spent on television. Now, the six largest cable companies want to stop that. To do so, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox ... Communications, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks are planning a joint venture to allow advertisers to purchase interactive and custom ads across their cable systems. Collectively, the companies will invest about $150 million in the project. (Source: nytimes.com ) The announcement of the cable company's "Project Canoe" comes only a week after ... (view more)

Search site Ask.com -- formerly Ask Jeeves -- is to ditch 8% of its workforce and re-evaluate its strategy. It seems the site will be revamped from a general search site to one aimed specifically at married women, with an emphasis on lifestyle ... issues. New CEO Jim Safka says research found 65% of the site's users are female, compared with 48% across all search engines. The site is particularly popular with women in their late 30s living in the Midwest and Southeast. (Source: reuters.com ) Ask is currently the fifth biggest search engine, but has a mere 4.5% market share, far behind Google's 58 ... (view more)

Last week, Google announced that it had signed a deal with several telecoms to fund an undersea high-bandwidth fiber optic cable between the United States and Japan. The global consortium calls itself "Unity," and includes: Bharti Airtel, Global ... Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel in addition to Google. (Source: google.com) The continent-connecting cable will span 10,000 km, will cost $300 million USD, and is expected to increase web traffic between the United States and Asia by 20 percent. NEC corporation and Tyco Telecommunications were chosen to build and install the cable, which ... (view more)

In October of last year, Microsoft launched HealthVault, a free online, encrypted storage area where individuals could manage their own medical record. Now, Google has tabled their own health storage offering called (surprisingly) Google Health. The ... battle for your medical record has begun. Both Google Health and Microsoft's HealthVault provide a secure place to store and maintain health data. The data that can be stored varies but will generally include records of vital statistics (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, height, weight, etc.), patient family history, and disease or problem-related ... (view more)

Google has added one more method of advertising, as it continues to seek new sources of ad revenue. The question is whether the new technique -- AdSense for Video -- will fare any better than the previous concepts. The newly-minted AdSense for Video ... will provider advertisers a means to overlay video or text ads on a video viewer. The ads will be dynamic, rotating every 20 seconds and will be matched with the content of the video or web page being viewed. (Source: nytimes.com ) The assumption is that the rapidly growing interest in online video and Google's ownership of YouTube justifies the ... (view more)

Google Experimental Search Google is always experimenting with new features aimed at improving the search experience. Take one for a spin. http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html Belvedere Keep your desktop or any other folder on your hard ... drive organized and under control with Belvedere, an automated Windows file management tool. Use Belvedere's friendly interface to create advanced rules to move, copy, delete, rename, or open files based on their name, extension, size, creation date, and more. Sets up rules for taking actions on files based on the name of a file, its extension, size, ... (view more)