Inside Google

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

Margot Williams

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

Margot Williams

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…

Google’s Buzz outs White House aide, former Googler

John M. Simpson

You might call it poetic justice.  Remember the more than justifiable flap that ensued when Google launched
its Buzz social networking service as part of Gmail?  People quickly
saw that the people they most frequently emailed were displayed publicly
on their profile.

Google is committed to openness — for everybody else

John M. Simpson

Google
continues to demonstrate that when comes to a commitment to openness and transparency the Internet
giant is really talking about holding others to that standard,
certainly not itself.

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

Margot Williams

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?

As Google’s lobbyists’ efforts soar, they claim to speak for you

John M. Simpson

It’s not surprising that Google wants clout in Washington and is willing to spend big bucks to ensure that its corporate voice is heard.  What surprised me, though, is the…

Google, like Slick Willie Sutton, goes where the money is

John M. Simpson

Google is crowing about a decision from the European Court of Justice Tuesday that says it has
the legal right to continue exploiting other people’s good names in its
quest to pile up more cash.

Google does the right thing in China, but not necessarily for the right reason

John M. Simpson

Google
stopped self-censoring its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, on Monday and
redirected that site’s visitors to Google.com.hk, its site based in Hong Kong.
As part of the move Google starting making search results on the Hong
Kong site available in simplified Chinese characters, which are used in the
People’s Republic of China.

What is Google hiding?

John M. Simpson

Thousands of pages of documents were unsealed in U.S. Court in New York Thursday in the $1 billion copyright infringement suit filed against YouTube and …

Press Release

Signs Google is worried about AdMob deal

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

Internet giant Google appears to be concerned that its proposed $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob is…