Inside Google

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Google OKs critical ads after Consumer Watchdog’s letter to CEO Eric Schmidt

Posted by John M. Simpson

Google has now decided to run ads from Consumer Watchdog critical of the Internet giant’s privacy practices and aimed to promote a satirical animated video of CEO Eric Schmidt. Thursday Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court and I wrote Schmidt arguing that the company had a moral obligation to display advertising from critics.

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Our letter to Eric Schmidt: Google shouldn’t care more about its own privacy than ours

Posted by Jamie Court

Google’s mission may be to open the world to information, but it is refusing to let our consumer group buy a search advertisement promoting wildly popular online animation that takes CEO Eric Schmidt to task over his statements about privacy issues. It seems the search giant cares a lot more about its own corporate privacy, than it does about its users’ privacy.

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Google as Pentagon contractor

Posted by Margot Williams

Google’s emergence as a major defense contractor was underscored last week when the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency tweaked its Aug. 20 announcement of a sole-source contract to the search giant for visualization services.

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Congressman Boucher’s ties to Google may explain comments

Posted by John M. Simpson

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va, chairman of the Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee took a potshot at us this week. Folks at Consumer Watchdog have thick skins so we don’t really mind at all. I just figure you should have the context for the representative’s remarks.

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Google Builds Street Cred w/Chef Jose Andres

Posted by Carmen Balber

I ventured into the DC Googleplex last night for one of the company’s “Google D.C. Talks” and no one challenged me at the door. It looks like Consumer Watchdog isn’t on a no-entry list after our latest investigation into Google’s Wi-Spy wiretapping activities. No one was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get in either, as they usually ask visitors to do.

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Google’s travel plans prompt dominance concerns

Posted by Margot Williams

Google’s purchase of a leading travel software company last week has competitors worried and antitrust regulators on alert.

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Top trustbuster says DOJ watching search industry

Posted by John M. Simpson

The U.S. Justice Department is paying close attention to the Internet search industry now dominated by Internet giant, Google, according to Assistant Attorney General Christine. Varney, the nation’s top trustbuster, gave the keynote speech last week to the American Antitrust Institute’s 11th Annual Convention in Washington, DC. I was there and took the opportunity to ask her what government policy should be if online search naturally tends to become a monopoly.

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Will Google Music take on Apple’s iTunes?

Posted by Margot Williams

The story that Google is going into the music business, first floated by Tech Crunch last fall, has returned with CNet’s Greg Sandoval citing “multiple music industry sources” saying the launch could come this fall.

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Standing up to Google’s heavy-handed pressure

Posted by John M. Simpson

I was in Washington, DC, last week to attend EPIC’s Champion of Freedom Awards Dinner. One honoree in particular prompted the cross-country trip: The Rose Foundation and how it stood up to Internet giant Google.

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A graphic display of what Google knows

Posted by John M. Simpson

Every wonder how much information Google has gathered? Scott Cleland, publisher of the Website GoogleMonitor.com, has pulled together a snappy one-page graphic, “Google’s ‘Total Information Awareness’ Power,” that answers the question.

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With $26.5 billion to invest, Google’s investment team sets up shop

Posted by Margot Williams

Google has opened its own trading desk to manage its $26.5 billion in cash and short-term investments, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.  Heading the team is company treasurer Brent Callinicos, who joined Google from Microsoft in 2007.  Under Callinicos, Google has built a “state of the art” cash management system, with technology that allows traders to [...]

Consumer Watchdog’s Jamie Court and John M. Simpson introduce Inside Google

John M. Simpson

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GSA for GSA

Posted by Margot Williams

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.