Inside Google

What happens when you Google ‘caveman’?

Google co-founder Larry Page’s recent purchase of an 187-foot, $45 million yacht is a classic case of “conspicuous consumption.” The term, coined by economist Thorstein Veblen, refers to “the waste of money and/or resources by people to display a higher status than others.”

Does Greed Corrupt Google Search Quality?

Three rants about the decline for Google search quality highlight a phenomenon the better minds of Mountain View can’t afford to ignore, says culture blogger Anil Dash. Or can they?

Can Google do business ethically in China?

The Wikileaks documents released in the past few days revive that question, first posed in 2006 when the search engine entered the world’s largest market, by revealing some of the hardball tactics that Beijing’s communists are using to bring Mountain View’s capitalists to heel.

Google unlikely to win GOP’s love

Google’s efforts to ingratiate itself with Republicans in the Congress with campaign contributions may not prevent the new House majority from making “trouble” for the search engine, according to a Capitol Hill weekly. “Saddled with the perception that it is a darling of the Obama administration, Google may have it tough with Republicans,” says The Hill. Google’s abandonment of net neutrality in favor of a more laissez faire approach favored by Verizon and other telecommunication companies eager to create a two-tiered Internet has gained the Internet giant no favor from Republicans. Instead, House Republicans are focusing on Google’s Achilles Heel: privacy.

Web founder chides Google on net neutrality

“The World Wide Web is in danger,” says Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who invented the ubiquitous http://www protocol—and part of the threat comes from Mountain View. “Some of [the Web’s] most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles,” he writes in a piece entitled “Long Live the Web” appearing in the most recent issue of Scientific American.

Press Release

LIVE BLOG: The Monopoly Question

“What is Google doing wrong?” Virginia-based consultant and blogger Scott Cleland asked the Consumer Watchdog conference today. “They’re a nice company and competition is just one click away.” It is a common enough question which Cleland answered himself with a metaphor that poker players will appreciate. “Google deals itself Aces that are hidden in its […]

LIVE BLOG: Do Not Track, The Browser Solution

In the first session of CW conference on online consumer protection, panelist Chris Soghoian, a privacy technologist, identified one key to the success of “Do Not Track” legislation: a browser-based solution. “Remember almost all browsers are supported by ad networks,” Soghoian reminded the audience at the National Press Club. “Internet Explorer was created by Microsoft […]

Google gets blurred in Germany

There are fears, oft-discounted but still harbored by at least one Israeli intelligence official, that terrorists might use Google Street View to plan terrorist attacks. If so, Google’s offices in Munich are safer today, because they are blurred in Google Street View, according to CNET’s Technically Incorrect.

FBI at the backdoor to the Internet

The Obama administration is advancing plans for strengthening the federal government’s ability to monitor the Internet.