Inside Google

Google’s Schmidt passes the buck on privacy

With the classic timing of those who want to downplay bad news, Google responded late Friday afternoon to a letter of complaint issued by ten countries last month about the misfired rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application when Google exposed Gmail users’ personal e-mail contacts to the online world without user consent.

Librarians shout out for privacy revolution

Librarians are calling for Americans to take charge of their privacy rights in a digital age during Choose Privacy Week May 2-8 at http://www.privacyrevolution.org/.

Gathering your WiFi data – Google’s business plan

Government data protection authorities in Germany and the UK are questioning the collection of information on individual WiFI networks by Google’s Street View cars traversing their local streets.

Cute Stuff on Small Screens for Big Bucks?

Google just bought its first Israeli startup, LabPixies. The company was an early developer of widgets (web gadgets) like games (Flood-It), calendars and to-do lists for iGoogle personalized home pages.

GSA for GSA

In a serendipitous synchronicity, the Google Search Appliance (GSA) has debuted as the new search engine on the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) web site.

Recently a box popped up on an obscure GSA web page titled “Transparency” which reveals that Google has taken over the search spot at the agency.

Buzz Saw: Privacy Czars Blast Google

In a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the “unprecedented” coalition of privacy czars from Europe, Canada and Israel described the surprise conversion of Google’s private email service to a public social networking service without informing users as a violation of “the fundamental principle that individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information.”

April Fool! Parodies on Google or is the joke on us?

Google’s April Fool joke this year – renaming its search site “Topeka” – was a self-congratulatory disappointment compared with some of the funny self-parodies of previous years, for instance, here or here. The mayor of Topeka in March announced a month-long renaming of Kansas’ capital city to “Google, KS” as part of the city’s bid […]

Trust the Census; worry about Google

Census Day – April 1 – got me thinking about the data the Census Bureau compiles about me.  Google’s partnership with the bureau got me thinking about who has the most data and who poses…

Will Google’s PowerMeter give power to the people or spy on them?

Sometime soon, my refrigerator could be spying on my late night ice cream binges. Right now it’s just a large frost-free appliance that doesn’t talk back. But when it starts to network on the Smart Grid via a meter and Google’s PowerMeter application, will Google be analyzing my high-cholesterol snacks?