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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a trade organization which represents the interests of U.S. recording industry distributors, says that Google isn't doing enough to prevent copyright infringement and piracy. In a recent report, ... the RIAA claims that Google has done very little to prevent people from pirating music -- despite the fact that the search giant promised to focus significant attention on discouraging piracy roughly six months ago. RIAA: Promises Remain Unfulfilled And while RIAA lawyer Steven M. Marks says that the RIAA does "recognize and appreciate that Google ... (view more)

A Harvard professor says the ads Google delivers on Internet web pages encourage racial stereotyping. But she adds that this could be related to social prejudices and may not be due to racism on the part of Google. Latanya Sweeney has investigated ... racism extensively. Her previous findings suggested that people with 'black' names were less likely to get a job interview than those with 'white' names, even when submitting an identical resume. More recently Sweeney examined the Google advertisements appearing alongside the company's search results. She also investigated Reuters' own search tool, ... (view more)

Google has, for the first time ever, detailed exactly what it does when a government agency or court demands to see a user's personal data. That data includes the terms someone has used for an online search and the content of Gmail messages. Google ... says that it's reporting on this issue in an attempt to show that it aims to protect privacy wherever possible. The search giant has for several years produced statistics about how many requests for personal data it gets in each country and what percentage of those requests it complies with. This publication is an attempt to draw attention to the ... (view more)

After spending more than a year investigating allegations that Google favored its own products when producing search results, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided against imposing any serious punishment on the search giant. In response, ... Google is both celebrating the decision and also using the FTC report for its own benefit. The FTC decision is in line with earlier reports that suggested government officials simply didn't have much proof of any wrongdoing by Google. In what appears to be an agreed-upon outcome, Google has promised that for the next five years it will make it easier ... (view more)

Insiders say it now looks as though Google will not be punished for allegedly favoring its own web sites when compiling its search engine results pages. Rival firms are already complaining such an outcome would allow Google to retain an unfairly-won ... advantage over them. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been looking into a series of allegations that Google abused its dominance of the Internet search market by unfairly favoring its own websites when compiling its search results. However, observers say the punishment the FTC could inflict on Google is unclear, even if the regulatory agency ... (view more)

Insider reports suggest the US government may decide against taking Google to court over allegations it fixed its search results for its own benefit. Officials are reportedly concerned they don't have evidence to suggest such practices actually ... harmed any web users. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been carrying out a preliminary investigation to determine whether or not Google has broken any rules. If the FTC does find Google violated federal law, it must then determine what the government can do. Investigation Focuses on Smartphone, Search Markets The investigation covers several ... (view more)

Windows 8 is less than three weeks away but as of last week there were just two thousand applications in Microsoft's Windows Store, the company's new digital media distribution system that's similar to app stores from Google and Apple. However, with ... the clock ticking down Microsoft is working furiously to improve its Windows Store offerings. First off, the company recently announced how apps will be updated. "The Store tile will notify you when updates are available, and you can open it and click the updates link in the top right corner to see the list and install the ones you want," noted ... (view more)

Microsoft has launched a new advertising campaign designed to draw web searchers away from Google and towards the Redmond, Washington-based firm's own Bing search engine. Dubbed "Bing It On," the campaign gives users the ability to find out which ... search service they like better: Google or Bing. Microsoft started the campaign with the new website " bingiton.com ". The site asks visitors to enter five search terms. When they do, it presents them with the top results from both Bing and Google, side-by-side. The user is then asked to pick which results page they prefer. Microsoft Unveils Search ... (view more)

Google has announced it will punish websites accused of piracy by moving them lower in its search results rankings. However, there are some questions flying around the Internet about whether Google's own YouTube video site will get special ... treatment. The changes include a minor tweak to the way Google decides how high or low specific sites should appear in a search results list. The search giant says its automated system considers more than 200 factors, but doesn't say how much emphasis it gives to each one. The new ranking method takes effect this week. Afterwards, search results will ... (view more)

Google has announced it will finally close its original video hosting service, Google Video, and will keep both YouTube and its video search site running. The decision, along with the closure of four other services, is part of Google's ongoing ... program to ditch ideas that didn't work out. The search giant says it has abandoned more than thirty programs since fall, 2011. Google Video was first unveiled in 2005. It was originally designed to host videos for users who didn't have their own web servers or couldn't cope with the traffic, if a lot of people watched their clips. After buying the ... (view more)