Google News & Articles

Google has received significant public reprimand for their "a little more Google for everyone" Google+ powered Search Plus Your World. Twitter was outraged. Facebook was disappointed. Microsoft was...wait, why isn’t Microsoft saying anything?

With all the news of Facebook's IPO this week, Google's still-fledgling social service marched over another user milestone as the improvements and other changes in the Google ecosystem keep on coming.

Be it an act of desperation, a shedding of excess baggage, or the ire of an activist new leader, Yahoo unloaded some weight this week. In an effort to start the new year off fresh, the company announced its retirement of ten mobile apps with the promise to replace the well with something, supposedly, even better. Believe it when we see it? 

A shot was heard 'round the world this week, as Microsoft, Google, AOL, Yahoo!, and Facebook teamed to lead the fight against email spam scandals. It's news even the least savvy of Internet consumers can understand. Finally, justice for all! Or at least a step in the right direction.

Twitter is eyeing an international expansion, and with this, the company wants to overcome regulatory and political hurdles, particularly from governments that practice online restrictions. As such, in light of the ideal that "the Tweets must flow," Twitter will be imposing a selective country-based censorship, to ensure that Tweets do flow, albeit with some limitation.

For the sellers of smartphones and their stockholders, the numbers in this week's financial reports were all important. For us users, however, we'd just like a phone that works and has some neat features. But those crazy numbers will have some interesting effects on what we be seeing in 2012.

So say Google's critics about a company which, lets face it, is only 14 years old. We know what they're like; trying to grow up quickly, but really still a kid at heart. And that pretty much sums up the company's week as it keeps trying to please users while trying to obey the grown-ups.

Being true to its settlement agreement with the FTC in March of last year, Google pre-announced yesterday a comprehensive update that consolidates some 60 privacy policy documents, plus a refresh of its terms of service agreement. Both are to begin March 1, but are available now for review online.

This policy shift is generating buzz online over concerns of privacy, search anonymity and control over just what information gets shared.

Internet security company Dasient announced in a blog post that it had been acquired by Twitter.

Google plans to open source Google Sky Map and close down Social Graph API, the Needlebase data management platform, amongst other projects. Dave Girouard, VP of Product Management at Google, announced the product updates in a blog post last week.

Today, parts of the Internet have gone dark in protest of proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., many sites are showing their solidarity by blacking out their sites and redirecting users to sign online petitions or encouraging them to contact their congressperson to voice their concerns.

The numbers are in and the fall 2011 launch of Apple's 4S iPhone mid-life upgrade proved to be enough to propel the iOS platform to near parity with Android's dominant marketshare. Both Nielsen Research and NPD Group announced recently that the world's two most popular smartphone operating systems are within just a few points of each other, with RIM, Windows and all others in the proverbial dust.   

While some saw its CES offering as lacking in shiny new stuff and general awesomeness, Microsoft (and its partners) have big things planned for this year. What can we expect from Redmond, and who could benefit or feel threatened? 

Google is on the rack this week for ignoring Twitter from its "plus Your World" expanded search feature and over-focusing on its own Google+. We look at the ramifications of that, a ruckus in Africa and see what else happened in the wide world of the company this week.

Google announced several new features to its search service yesterday that leverage information from your Google+ social identity to deliver what it hopes will be more personalized and contextually accurate results. Google is calling it Search plus Your World: vocal opponents are calling it bull cheating.