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When it comes to Apple's iOS versus Google's Android, there aren't many fence sitters. Roger McNamee, an investor who's been analyzing the output of Silicon Valley for 30 years, thinks Android is the "equivalent of having a motor scooter at the Indianapolis 500."

McNamee, who began his career by turning out big returns at T. Rowe Price Science and Technology Fund, and then started Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm, and venture capital firm Elevation Partners, is troubled by what Google has done to encourage Android's "profitless prosperity."

"I … Read more

Windows 8 users hoping for native Gmail and Calendar apps could have a long wait in store. But a report that circulated around the Web today saying Google had definitively "ruled them out" is wrong.

In an interview with British tech publication V3, Google Apps product manager Clay Bavor did say his team's products wouldn't come to the platform anytime soon.

"We have no plans to build out Windows apps," he said. "We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are, but they are not on Windows … Read more

There's a certain beauty to the Festivus pole. It's tall. It's undecorated. It's made from aluminum, a material with a high strength-to-weight ratio. It doesn't have the maintenance needs of a Christmas tree and its plain, unfussy look thoroughly captures the spirit of Festivus. Though Festivus isn't celebrated until December 23, Google is already getting in on the holiday action.

When you google the word "Festivus," you get all the expected search results. There's a link to Wikipedia. There's a link to a place to buy Festivus poles. And, hello... what's this, Google? There's a virtual Festivus pole over on the left side of the screen. Scroll down and you reach the base.… Read more

Search for porn using Google Image Search today and you might not find much.

The company rolled out a change to its image search algorithm overnight that makes it tougher to stumble across adult pictures, whether or not you're searching for them.

Here's how a Google representative explains the change:

"We are not censoring any adult content, and want to show users exactly what they are looking for -- but we aim not to show sexually-explicit results unless a user is specifically searching for them. We use algorithms to select the most relevant results for a given … Read more

Days after Australian police warned motorists not to rely on Apple Maps, lest they end up stranded in punishing heat, authorities issued a similar warning about Google Maps.

Police in Colac, a town west of Melbourne, say Google Maps has created "a significant safety issue for tourists [and] locals" along the Great Ocean Road by suggesting they drive down a one-way road not built for heavy traffic, according to a police sergeant quoted by ABC News.

Tour buses using Wild Dog Road are in danger of being driven off the road, Sgt. Nick Buenen told ABC.

The warning … Read more

Google has pulled the plug on its shopping search engine in China, three months after it did the same with its music download service in the country.

The U.S. Web giant said the service will close as of today. Google said it made the decision to better optimize resources, according to a blog post.

The shopping search service in China, which launched in 2008, was intended to be a bridge between consumers and retailers, but the level of impact did not meet the company's expectations, Google said. The company will instead focus on mobile advertising with AdMob, mobile … Read more

Facebook has offered up the most popular trends across its service in 2012, as well as a new feature that lets users check out their last year.

Facebook's 2012 Trends, which the social network compiles by analyzing the most popular topics across its service this year, doesn't offer up many surprises. This year's top event on Facebook was the U.S. presidential election, followed by Super Bowl XLVI and Whitney Houston's death. Superstorm Sandy and the London Olympics rounded out the top five.

"We Are Young" by Fun was this year's top song, … Read more

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that Android's war with iOS is just about over -- and that his team won.

Speaking to Bloomberg in an interview published this morning, Schmidt said Android's ongoing market-share battle with Apple's iOS "is of the scale of 20 years ago -- Microsoft versus Apple." He went on to say that in his opinion, "we're winning that war pretty clearly now."

It might be difficult to argue with Schmidt's point. Research firm IDC reported last month that during the third quarter, Android shipments accounted for 75 percent of the worldwide market. … Read more

The death of Whitney Houston in February led to Google's top search for 2012.

Looking at the world's most popular searches for the year, Google's Zeitgeist 2012 uncovered a variety of people, events, and even a couple of tech products.

In second place behind Houston was music video phenom Gangnam Style. Hurricane Sandy took third place, followed by the iPad 3, Diablo 3, Kate Middleton, the 2012 Olympics, Amanda Todd, Michael Clarke Duncan, and BBB12.

The list also drilled down to the top searches among specific categories, including people, movies, TV shows, and consumer electronics.

The iPad … Read more