google

Sun, Google ink multiyear deal

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Sun Microsystems and Google on Tuesday announced a multiyear partnership and software distribution deal.

Under terms of the widely expected announcement, the companies will cooperate to make it easier for consumers to acquire Sun's Java runtime, Google's Toolbar and the OpenOffice.org desktop suite.

Sun will include Google's Toolbar as a downloadable option to consumer versions of its Java runtime environment. In addition, the companies will explore future opportunities to "promote and enhance Sun technologies" such as Java and the OpenOffice.org suite.

"Working with Google will make our technologies available … Read more

Google buys Android

Google has reportedly snapped up the mobile start-up Android, based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Typical of Google's acquisition strategy, the search giant quietly bought the wireless start-up in July for an undisclosed sum, according to a report published Wednesday in BusinessWeek Online. Google acknowledged the transaction in the report.

Android operated quietly itself. Little is published on the company's Web site, or in the press. But it's the next generation operation of Andy Rubin, who previously founded mobile-device maker Danger. Android reportedly makes software, or operating systems, for wireless devices that are location-sensitive or personalized for the … Read more

Microsoft, Google reps speaking at LinuxWorld

The usual line-up of speakers at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo will see some variation next week with speakers from Linux foe Microsoft and Linux user Google.

Bill Hilf, Microsoft's director of platform technology strategy, will discuss "managing Linux in a mixed environment." Chris DiBona, Google's open-source programs manager, will speak in a panel on the state of open-source software.

Microsoft and Google representatives also will make an appearance at the twice-annual show's geek quiz, the Golden Penguin Bowl, show organizers said.

Amazon, like Google, gets transcendental

In e-commerce, transcendental numbers are all the rage.

Google, which prides itself on its Ph.D. population, started things off with a novel use of "e," a fundamental mathematical constant that's the base of natural logarithm calculations. Google priced its initial public offering such that it would raise $2,718,281,828--the product of e and $1 billion.

Perhaps trying to grab a little nerd cachet of its own, Amazon.com is promoting its A9 search engine by using pi, a circle's circumference divided by its diameter. Frequent users of A9 get a discount of pi/… Read more

Google Maps, meet Craigslist real estate

An enterprising programmer has combined Google Maps with Craigslist's real estate listings to create a tool that lets people find housing simply by looking at a map.

Paul Rademacher, animation tools technical leader at DreamWorks Animation, created a service that skims real estate listings from Craigslist--an increasingly popular free classified ad site. Each house or apartment's location is then overlaid onto a map drawn by Google's new mapping service.

Each listing is shown as a pushpin, and clicking on the pushpin pops up a small window with the price and sometimes a thumbnail image of the … Read more

Google: Today the Web, tomorrow the world!

It's time to stop calling Google an Internet search company--recent moves make it clear that its ambitions extend well beyond indexing and organizing billions of Web pages.

The information powerhouse is scanning libraries of books into a giant database and tagging reams of digitized video clips for easy recall. It can crawl your whole PC hard drive with a desktop search tool. It owns satellite photography warehouse Keyhole.

The world, not the Net, is its real quarry, although it will have to shoehorn much of the world into digital form before it can work its magic.

That promises to … Read more