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Awwwk-ward: Google Chrome pay-for-post promo misfires

A Google effort to promote its Chrome browser misfired with the appearance of some blog posts that fly in the face of Google's own attempts to discourage low-quality Web content.

The campaign, spotted yesterday by Aaron Wall at SEOBook, is apparent in several blog posts from late December bearing the label, "This post is sponsored by Google Chrome." But there appears to be some backtracking now that the campaign is under scrutiny, and Google itself is disclaiming responsibility while trying to prevent anything similar from happening again.

The theme of the posts is evident in their titles: &… Read more

Share your Google Blogger content through Google+

Those of you who use Google Blogger can now share your latest blogs with your Google+ followers.

Linking your blog to your Google+ account will display a Google+ share box after you post your latest content, according to Google's blog. Already prefilled with the necessary details, the box contains a a teaser of your blog that you can then share with your Google+ circles.

To take advantage of this new feature, you'll need to use your public Google+ profile as the identity for your blogs, which you can do on the Google Blogger Web site. You can then … Read more

How to get started with Google Currents

Now you can read your favorite online materials while you're offline.

First, you'll want to grab a copy of the app. You can get Google Currents for Android, or Google Currents for iPhone.

Step 1: Open the app and select the Google account you'd like to sync with Currents, or add a new account.

After browsing through the tutorial slides, you'll have access to the app. Now you can start customizing the app to your liking.

Step 2: On the Library tab you'll notice that Google has added some magazine-style content for you … Read more

WordPress.com to let bloggers earn money through ads

WordPress.com bloggers will now be able to earn a few bucks on their posts courtesy of advertising.

The popular blogging site is kicking off a new feature called WordAds, according to a blog posted earlier today by WordPress.com ads lead Jon Burke. Partnering with Federated Media, WordPress.com will display advertisements on qualifying blogs, letting their owners earn some cash from each ad.

WordPress, which Burke said signs up 50,000 new blogs every day, had apparently received requests over the years to allow advertising on the blogs created by its users, but resisted the temptation because of … Read more

Google Music debuts, with downloads and sharing (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component at the end of this post. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. Or you can read the edited transcription below. And to get the key points from today's announcement, in which Google opened up its music service to all users and debuted music downloads and Google+ music sharing, you can check out a summary story here. In addition, there's video of the Google Music event, Greg Sandoval's analysis of what Google has accomplished, and Jessica Dolcourt's Google Music-themed interview with Busta Rhymes.

Google is holding a music-themed extravaganza Wednesday, and we'll be there live to bring you the news.

The event is expected to bring the launch of Google's online music download store, the latest such digital storefront from the search giant. Google already operates a digital store for books, as well as for software applications on both its Android and Chrome platforms.

Alongside the formal launch of that service, Google is expected to unveil deals with most of the big record companies to sell digital music downloads from those catalogs. Purchased tracks can then be accessed from both the Web and on mobile devices, including those running Google's Android operating system. Social features could let users share purchased tracks with their friends via Google+. … Read more

Two new money-making platforms for social content creators

"If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." That simple comment by Andrew Lewis on a MetaFilter post in 2010 did a great job, I think, of capturing some of the subconscious discomfort users accumulate as they put more and more of their lives on social networks like Facebook. But two new social products on display at the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this week, Chime.in and Mightybell, turn the equation around a bit, allowing social network contributors to take some of their content and turn … Read more

Sassy Siri even performs musical duets

Everyone's talking to the iPhone 4S' personal assistant Siri and posting their favorite exchanges. From witty banter to borderline insults, Siri has us fascinated.

Musician Jonathan Mann, for example, managed to sing a hilarious duet with Siri, which is posted below. Mann uses some of the most popular questions people have been asking Siri, like "will you marry me?" and "what is the meaning of life?"

You'll have to watch the video to see Siri's snarky answers. … Read more

Apple's iPhone event plus Buzz Out Loud: Join us Tuesday (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET writers Josh Lowensohn, Scott Stein, and Declan McCullagh. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here. To get the key points from today's announcement, you can check out our summary of what got announced, in our story here and see a complete list of … Read more

Create personalized news feeds with ChannelCaster

ChannelCaster for Android lets users create and publish personalized "channels" that aggregate news from thousands of supported news sources. In addition to all of the expected big-name publications and blogs, ChannelCaster can pull feeds from Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter. Its design is clean and visually appealing with its sharp, vibrant thumbnails, and its navigation is incredibly simple with only three main tabs along the top of the app.

The Favorites tab is really the heart of the ChannelCaster experience. This is where you save your most frequently visited channels, and presumably where you'll spend most of … Read more