We are straddled, in the desire to know more than we should, by this new opportunity to spy on others — Google Buzz is a click away. Could we be looking at the new frontier of social networking?

That leads to the question: is there any white space for Google to invade? Google has given no signs of Facebook connectivity, and no plans have been announced. This matters because there are almost 400 million Facebook users.

If Google refuses to integrate any Facebook interoperability features, they’re making a pretty stiff argument. They want you to log out of your Facebook account and miss all your friends’ status updates, some of which were made through Twitter, to use the Buzz to access another set of status updates. continue reading…

It is no secret that the Chinese government is walking on thin ice when it comes to Internet security and data privacy, but no one was bold enough to pull the plug on it. At least not before Google Inc. decided to take a stand.

Actually, the search engine giant did not just take a stand, it threatened to walk out of the country despite its Internet-intensive market.

California-based Google said in a statement that it discovered highly-synchronized attack on its infrastructure originating from China. The attack, it said, resulted to intellectual property theft for the firm. continue reading…

Has the all-mighty online giant finally blinked after facing off with news magnate Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.?

Google will now limit their free Google news to five articles per day before requiring readers to subscribe. With Google’s First Click Free program, content providers like newspapers can present a subscription screen to users who frequently visit their online versions via Google News.

Google Senior Business Product Manager Josh Cohen said, “The user’s first click to the content is free, but when a user clicks on additional links on the site, the publisher can show a payment or registration request.” continue reading…

If you want to boost your online stardom, joining a reality TV show or having an untimely death are surefire ways to make waves on Google and Bing.

Citing Google’s annual “Zeitgeist,” which looks closely at the site’s most popular search trends, BBC News said death does to Stephen Gately what it did for Michael Jackson: it skyrocketed his popularity.

Following Gately’s untimely passing last October, the former member of the Irish boy group Boyzone, became the fastest rising search topic on Google’s UK site in 2009. continue reading…

Image from IAB

Online advertising has always been a mixed proposition but the global recession hasn’t helped it one bit. Thankfully, it seems like the worst for them is over.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, online advertising revenues in the US seem to be stabilizing after a rough year. Third quarter figures show that US online advertising was up by $5.5 billion or 1.7 percent from the second quarter of 2009. continue reading…

How would you feel if you could own a piece of online real estate called Facebook?

Crazy? Well, you should start thinking about it as reports revealed that the fastest-growing social networking company is now a step closer to offer its shares to the public.

According to reports, Facebook adopted a dual-class stock structure, a setup that gives more weight on the voting powers of certain shareholders in case the Palo Alto, California-based company decides to go public.
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When Michelle Obama comes to mind, people usually think of class, elegance, and beauty. So last week many were wondering why were they staring at her picture resembling a simian.

If you’re following the American first lady online, chances are you saw her picture as an ape, which appeared as the top search result in popular search engine site Google.  The image was posted on a blog called Hot Girls, a site hosted by the Google-owned Blogger.

Under fire for the racially offensive picture, Google, the most popular website today according to Alexa Internet, removed the picture, banned Hot Girls and apologized for one of its biggest hiccup. continue reading…

Image from AdMob

Don’t look now but iPhone is looming large on the horizon of Internet mobile platforms. But aiming to give some serious competition to the Apple product is Google’s Android.

The future of Internet mobile is becoming interesting if the data from mobile clearinghouse AdMob is any indication. According to their October mobile metrics report, iPhone/iPod Touch and Android phones took up 75 percent of mobile Web traffic in the US.

This data, based on mobile ad requests, was up from 65 percent the previous month. continue reading…

Remember that item about News Corp magnate Rupert Murdoch and his plan to take on the Internet head-to-head? Well, it seems like there’s one way he can do so: get another search engine to pay for exclusive dibs on the News Corp material.

Reports indicate that Murdoch, in response to search engines “stealing” content from his news properties, is planning to block Google and search engines like it from gaining access to the content. This plan includes making the websites of his newspaper empire—including the Wall Street Journal, The Australian, the New York Post and The Times of London—invisible to Google. continue reading…

Photo credit: Tom Ford

As the Internet grows more rapidly than the laws sanctioning it, people are learning to watch what they say online the hard way– through lawsuits.

People, even tech-challenged ones, are using the Internet, particularly social networks, to express their views about anything and everything under the sun. While this should be an upside, it’s also costing some people millions of bucks.

One example is musician and actress Courtney Love, who got sued in March by fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir for her allegedly libelous tweets. continue reading…