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550 Facebookers Per Second Vie for New URLs

Members claimed vanity addresses at more than 550 a second

(Newser) - Facebook’s offer of personalized URLs drew 500,000 members in 15 minutes after midnight today, Bloomberg reports. “We saw higher than usual traffic,” said a spokesman. “Planning allowed us to handle that traffic well.” The feature, designed to make Google searches easier, allows the site’...

Va. Primary Upset Shows 'Google Blasting' Works
Va. Primary Upset Shows 'Google Blasting' Works
ANALYSIS

Va. Primary Upset Shows 'Google Blasting' Works

(Newser) - Creigh Deeds owes a debt to Google after his surprising come-from-behind win in this week's Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary. Starting the day before the election, Derek Thompson writes for the Atlantic, Deeds’ campaign employed “Google Blasting, an eleventh-hour strategy to blanket Google-affiliated webpages in an area with a single...

Google Dumps Disney Trip to Save Bucks

Employees' annual outing canceled after round of job cuts

(Newser) - There may be some tears and tantrums at Google's normally happy headquarters this week, the Telegraph reports. The company, rated one of the world's best to work for thanks to its generous perks, has canceled the annual company-wide trip to Disneyland. Insiders say executives decided the trip was too extravagant...

Feds Step Up Antitrust Probe of Google Books Deal

Antitrust investigation focuses on Google's settlement with publishers

(Newser) - Justice Department investigators have intensified their probe into a deal Google made with publishers last year to put millions of books online, the Wall Street Journal reports. Publishers have been formally asked to provide information relating to the deal, which critics charge violates antitrust laws by giving Google an effective...

Microsoft Blows It With Bizarre Bing Ads

Blame Google for the collapse of global financial architecture

(Newser) - Microsoft is thrashing Google in new TV spots for its "decision engine" Bing—understandably, since from Microsoft's perspective their rival is single-handedly responsible for the global financial crisis. "While everyone was searching, there was bailing," says an announcer, as images of fleeting Internet memes give way...

Google Mentor Dead in Freak Swimming Accident

(Newser) - A Stanford computer science professor who mentored Google's founders has drowned in his swimming pool, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Rajeev Motwani, 47, who could not swim, drowned at his Atherton, Calif., home, leaving a wife, two daughters, and many admirers in Silicon Valley. “It's a rare combination...

EU Going After Microsoft, Again
 EU Going After Microsoft, Again 

EU Going After Microsoft, Again

(Newser) - European Union regulators are taking yet another shot at Microsoft, and this time they’re hoping to do more than fine the software giant, the Wall Street Journal reports. Their latest strategy: forcing Microsoft to bundle alternative web browsers with Windows, thereby diluting Internet Explorer’s inherent advantage. They may...

Microsoft's New Search Engine: Bing

'Decision engine' gives users more control over results

(Newser) - Microsoft wants “Bing” to replace “Google” as your verb of choice for Internet search, PC World reports, with CEO Steve Ballmer unveiling the search engine today at a conference in California. Bing—already available for a test run—will be fully rolled out by Wednesday. The runner-up name...

Time Warner Set to Spin Off AOL by Year's End

Division to go public by year's end

(Newser) - Time Warner plans to to shed its AOL division by the end of the year, the company said today, spinning it off into a publicly traded firm, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many predicted the move when Time Warner tapped Google ad exec Tim Armstrong as AOL’s CEO, and...

Terminator Nemesis Looks Familiar: It's Google

(Newser) - Could Google be SkyNet from the Terminator movies? Chris Dannen sees a resemblance, he writes for Fast Company. Heck, Google might be worse; SkyNet didn’t take over until 2029, but Google managed it by 2009. “Sure, one uses a giant Web crawler to index pages,” Dannen allows,...

Take Me Off Google Street View: McCartney

Ex-Beatle's home removed after complaint

(Newser) - Add Paul McCartney to the list of people who are freaked out by Google Street View. The Internet giant removed the former Beatle’s multimillion-dollar London abode after his security team complained, the Sun reports. “He was unsettled when he heard Google users could get a 360-degree view of...

Google Earth Helps Amateur Spies Map North Korea

Annotated map exposes graves, nuke facilities—and swimming pools

(Newser) - Spying on North Korea would seem to be a job for intelligence services, but one PhD student at George Mason University has exposed many of the secrets of the insular regime from his home computer. Piecing together clues from news reports, photos, and eyewitnesses, Curtis Melvin and colleagues have annotated...

Porn Spammers Hit YouTube
 Porn Spammers Hit YouTube 

Porn Spammers Hit YouTube

(Newser) - YouTube removed hundreds of pornographic videos posted to the site today in a coordinated attack, the BBC reports. The offending files, uploaded under names such as the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana, started innocently enough before turning graphic. “I'm 12 years old and what is this?” went a comment...

Google Drops Plans to Save Struggling Papers

CEO says company won't cross the line into creating content

(Newser) - Google has decided against  throwing struggling newspapers a lifeline through acquisition or by using its charitable arm to help them gain non-profit status, CEO Eric Schmidt tells the Financial Times. Schmidt said the company considered the idea, but decided that Google didn't want to cross the line between technology and...

Google Turns to Algorithm to Retain Employees

(Newser) - Google is dealing with the departures of several prized employees the way it deals with nearly everything: with an algorithm. The search giant has a mathematical formula it says will identify which employees are at risk of jumping ship, the Wall Street Journal reports. The formula has already spotted employees...

'Google Killer' Search Site Clever, but Not Killer

WolframAlpha analyzes existing data to answer questions

(Newser) - The search engine some are calling a “Google Killer” launched Friday, and tech critics see potential—though the science-heavy searcher is no replacement for Google, notes Mike Harvey in the Times of London.
  • WolframAlpha “takes serious scientific data and produces answers that simply don't exist as easily or
...

Google Suffers Global Hiccup
 Google Suffers Global Hiccup

Google Suffers Global Hiccup

For 2 hours, most services were unavailable

(Newser) - Google was down for nearly 2 hours earlier today in a mysterious and widespread outage, PC World reports. Services from the home search page to Gmail, YouTube, Maps, and News were unavailable to users in the US and as far away as China. The glitch—quickly dubbed #googlefail on Twitter—...

Google, Times Brainstorm New Advertising Models

(Newser) - Google won’t buy the New York Times, but the companies are discussing novel ways the search giant can help the newspaper stay afloat, the Business Insider reports. Sources say one idea is for Google to split advertising revenue it takes from sites hosting Times content with the paper. Another,...

Real-Time Search vs. Google: Both Win
Real-Time Search vs. Google: Both Win
Tech Review

Real-Time Search vs. Google: Both Win

(Newser) - Real-time search is all the rage these days. But which engine is best, and how does the flavor of the month stack up against plain ol’ Google? MG Siegler of TechCrunch set out to find out, searching a batch of engines for a recent occurrence: the damage the space shuttle...

Google's Radio Ad Conquest Falls Flat

Automated advertising plan not music to industry's ears

(Newser) - Google has hit a stumbling block in its quest for world domination: A bid to “conquer radio” with its advertising program didn’t go as planned, and the firm is dropping the effort at the end of the month, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Internet giant bet its...

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