Don't get TOO excited yet. The Inquirer spills a lot of rumors, and its credibility is somewhat less because of that. That said, it's not always wrong, and there are some valid reasons why Google might be interested in Valve. Although, you'd think with Android about to launch and Chrome just launched, they might be a little...Read more...
Remember when AOL was king of the Web portals and when it had over 30 million members? That was a good six or so years ago. The expression Web portal is now considered passé and AOL claims only slightly more than 8 million members today. But with a number of significant changes taking place on AOL.com, AOL hopes to regain some of its lost...Read more...
The security vulnerabilities already discovered in Chrome appear to have been patched by Google. Of course, Google (much like Apple) hasn't provided any release notes, so discovering what's been fixed isn't that easy. Google said, in a group post: We're planning to do release notes. 149.29 is a security update and we released it as fast as...Read more...
Opera is much-loved, but it's more of a cult browser. Its users swear by it, but it's never been able to make inroads into browser market share. And the star of the week, Google's Chrome, which stole the headlines away from IE8, has already topped Opera in market share. According to NetApplications, which has been tracking Chrome usage hourly,...Read more...
There is little doubt that Internet access for many of us has transmogrified from the realm of useful tool to downright obsession. In fact, about a month ago we reported on a study that showed that 46 percent of U.S. e-mail users claim to be addicted to e-mail. Now a new study coming out of the U.K. gives a name to the malady we suffer when...Read more...
There have been rumors of a Google-developed browser circulating for a few years now, and it appears that rumor is about to become fact. The Wall Street Journal posted a news story today confirming that a launch of Google's open-source web browser, now known as Google Chrome, is imminent..."Google Inc. confirmed that it plans to launch its...Read more...
Google's been chomping at the bit over "white space," which is unused spectrum that resides next to broadcast TV spectrum, for some time now. On Monday it, announced the launch of Free the Airwaves, a site promoting the unlicensed use of "white space" spectrum. While definitely not altruistic, it certainly sells itself as such, saying its...Read more...
Google buys things. Lots of things. The companies that get purchased by Google are usually pretty excited about the prospect. Google's offices have the unstructured vibe that startup entrepreneurs love, and of course everybody likes money -- Google certainly has that. But it's starting to dawn on the startup businesses that Google might buy...Read more...
... but they're still not a monopoly, at least if you ask the company. On Monday researchers at market research firm Hitwise released their monthly search share report, and their data indicates that Google has now topped 70% in terms of search market share.Google reached a new milestone and accounted for 70.77 percent of all U.S. searches....Read more...
Google, the owners YouTube, have purchased web startup Omnisio, a small company that allows users to easily stitch together videos and mash bits of text over the whole thing. It has the potential to make YouTube videos even worse, or oh-so-much better, depending on your point of view. As you probably guessed, we’re big fans of anything that...Read more...
Cuil, the alternative search engine, has been out for a day now, and the general consensus is that it measures up somewhere between not-very-good and epic fail. But it's hard to recall any sort of Public Relations campaign that worked out as well as the feeding frenzy we saw in the media for what turned out to be a 404 page for a good portion...Read more...
Microsoft and Yahoo aren't the only companies looking to compete with Google in the search business. In fact, this morning a new startup called Cuil opened its virtual doors for the world to start using its search engine. So, on this morning we ask, how is Cuil different from all other search engines? The site claims: "Cuil (pronounced COOL)...Read more...
Much to the chagrin of teachers and librarians, Wikipedia has become a primary source of research and information for many seeking answers to questions with just a few quick key presses and mouse clicks. Since its debut in 2001, Wikipedia has outgrown other objective informational sites, such as About.com and Encyclopedia Britannica Online...Read more...
Google is calling it a beta, but we're calling it a breath of fresh air (depending on where you live, of course, your air might a bit more fresh than the air we breathe here in New York City). Today, Google has added walking directions to its popular Google Maps page. Whenever you use Google Maps for directions, if the destination is within...Read more...
Okay, we get it: Google wants to be everywhere--even on your iPhone. For ultra chic techliciousness, Google and the iPhone together, it's a perfect match--like chocolate and peanut butter. But sometimes Google misses the mark, and that's exactly what it's done with its newly released Google Talk for the iPhone. "We've just released in the...Read more...
Google has been ordered to turn over their logs of user activity on their YouTube site to Viacom. Viacom is suing Google over copyright infringement, and wishes to see how many YouTube users actually look at Viacom copyrighted material on the video service, then compare it to the amount of traffic any given non-copyrighted video might garner,...Read more...
It appears the everyone's new favorite borg-like monolith corporation is taking it on the chin once again for overly aggressive go-to-market strategies. This time allegations have surfaced about how Google treats its technology partners, specifically with respect to IP infringement. Apparently Chicago-based company LimitNone is...Read more...
Update: The news story below was originally posted on Friday, June 13. It is a brief summary of a longer news article written by Cade Metz of The Register. After our article posted we were contacted by Technology Consultant George Ou, who was briefly referenced in our news story. Ou felt that Metz's coverage--and therefore our coverage as...Read more...
As the old expression goes, I don't know what Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang is smoking, but I want some. Yesterday Yahoo! announced that they had finally really absolutely unequivocally indubitably without question stopped talking to Microsoft about a takeover by, or joint venture with the Redmond giant, and that they had signed a deal with Google...Read more...
When checking out the specs on the Voodoo Envy 133 earlier, we were pretty annoyed by the Flash intro to the revamped VoodooPC site. That's precisely the reason for a feature such as this. Search for a site, and - if the site has a Skip Intro link on it - results will have a "Skip intro," which enables users to skip the Flash intro, directly...Read more...
Google Sites, the group Website tool that was originally available only to "companies and organizations that wanted to use the service on their own domains," can now be utilized by even non-business users--and you don't even need to host it on your own domain anymore: "Now we've made it easy for anyone to set up a website to share all types...Read more...
We're hoping to dive in to Google Trends occasionally here at HotHardware and offer you up a bit of the story behind all the top searches folks are plugging in online. We'll highlight a few of the interesting search terms and take stock of what's shakin' in the world's busiest search engine. Surprise, surprise....Read more...