Google

Google to settle FTC antitrust probe tomorrow, report says

Google is expected to settle the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's long-running antitrust investigation tomorrow by agreeing to voluntarily change some of its business practices, Bloomberg reports.

The FTC has been investigating a wide range of Google's business practices, focusing mostly on the way Google displays search results, which critics say favor the company's own services over those of its competitors. The U.S. trade agency was also examining Google decisions on technology licensing, which some argue are anti-competitive.

The settlement of the trade agency's 20-month probe, the search giant has agreed to voluntarily change the … Read more

Congress speaks, tech investors party -- like it's 2013

Well, it took long enough.

But after finally clinching a (literally) last-minute deal to break a weeks-long deadlock over the so-called fiscal cliff, tech investors had a field day on the first day of trading for 2013.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index closed up more than 3 percent on the day, led by the usual roster of big names with Google finishing at $723.25, up 2.24 percent and Apple gaining almost 3 percent to close at $548.07. Facebook, which for much of the spring and summer had been a neglected stock, continued its recent climb, finishing up … Read more

Google Maps parks inside 2014 Kia Sorento

Google Maps is coming to the Kia Sorento in the next few months.

The automaker announced today that the 2014 Kia Sorento, which is slated to hit the road in the first quarter of this year, will come with Google Maps integration, offering full mapping and driving directions from the search giant. In addition, points of interest will be made available from both Google Maps and Google Places.

Google Maps integration is possible via Kia's second-generation UVO telematics system built into Sorento, a midsize crossover SUV. In addition to incorporating Google Maps and Places information, UVO allows people to … Read more

Google Glass development charges ahead

It's been six months since Google unveiled its Google Glass project, and it appears the tech giant is still hard at work ironing out the kinks to get the product ready for consumption.

In an interview with IEEE Spectrum published today, the head of the Google Glass project, Babak Parviz, said his team is continuing to try out new ideas and that both the software and hardware development is coming along.

"We constantly try out new ideas of how this platform can be used," Parviz told IEEE Spectrum. "We're also trying to make the platform … Read more

How Google turned employees into philanthropists in 2012

Pop quiz: How did Google get its employees to donate nearly 800,000 meals to charity this holiday season?

The answer, it turns out, was a quiz.

The company distributed a 10-question quiz to as many of its 30,000 employees as it could reach, designed to educate them about world hunger issues. The quiz came with an appealing hook: Google gave every employee who completed the quiz $10 to donate to a hunger charity of their choosing.

The quiz was a hit: more than 6,000 people took it. Google offices in 41 countries participated. In Mountain View alone, … Read more

TwitPic snared by Google's malware detector

Google's Web site malware checker identified TwitPic as a security threat today, a classification that has the popular photo site baffled.

Instead of the usual archiving and sharing tools they are used to, users attempting to visit TwitPic today are being greeted by a message informing them that the site has been blocked because "visiting it now is very likely to infect your computer with malware."

TwitPic denied on Twitter that it was a malware threat and said it was trying to contact Google to resolve the issue:

Working to fix the google chrome malware notice when … Read more

Type 'sell' into Google Finance and take a bite out of Apple

Update, 5:40 p.m. PT: Google says the situation isn't deliberate. See the note at the end of this story.

Fiscal cliff or not, Google Finance seems to have developed a sense of humor.

A Reddit reader noticed earlier today that if you type "sell" into the search field at Google Finance, the site serves up Apple's presently somewhat sullen stock chart.

Ouch. Is this some sort of nasty Christmastime Easter egg/lump of coal? That's what some in the blogosphere are currently trying to figure out -- Google watcher, Search Engine Land proprietor, … Read more

Google's new VP9 video technology reaches public view

VP9, the successor to Google's VP8 video compression technology at the center of a techno-political controversy, has made its first appearance outside Google's walls.

Google has built VP9 support into Chrome, though only in an early-stage version of the browser for developers. In another change, it also added support for the new Opus audio compression technology that's got the potential to improve voice communications and music streaming on the Internet.

VP9 and Opus are codecs, technology used to encode streams of data into compressed form then decode them later, enabling efficient use of limited network or storage … Read more

Social media: Five predictions for 2013

When you think of social media these days, you probably think primarily of Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps Instagram. But while those services have massive -- and growing -- user bases, they're of course not the only games in town.

The world of social media is filled with other services, and millions of people get a daily fix without ever going near Facebook or Twitter. There are big general networks like Tagged, and plenty of smaller, purpose-built ones like Path or celebrity-focused ones like Lady Gaga's Little Monsters. There's even a revamped MySpace.

So what does 2013 … Read more