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nerdfight
Google's 'War' With Microsoft is a Shell Game
The tech world is atwitter: Google just announced a new operating system, which will compete with Microsoft Windows. The only problem? It's not a new operating system, and it doesn't compete with Microsoft Windows. More » -
copyfight
Embedding a YouTube Video May Cost You a Bundle in ASCAP Bills
Fresh off a court victory against Google's YouTube, ASCAP tells us it is setting its sights on users of the video-sharing site. Welcome to the exciting world of copyright licensing, blogger; you may already owe gobs of money! More » -
launches
You Can Use GMail Now, It's Finally Ready
Google finally dropped the "beta" label from GMail. A bit hasty, no? The product launched just half a decade ago; its inventor left Google barely 18 months back. Why the rush to commit? More » -
youtube
Newspaper Argues the Internet is Even Killing the Internet
The Independent has a massive piece today on YouTube and how, despite having close to 350 million users worldwide per month, it's set to lose almost half a billion dollars this year. And it's all your fault, naturally. More » -
phones
Google Voice Is Cool, But Do You Need It?
You've read about the features, you saw the invites going out, but you might be wondering what, exactly, Google Voice could do for you. Here's our guide for the curious and uninvited on whether your phones need some Google juice. [Lifehacker] -
media wars
YouTube's Changing of the Guard
YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has quietly left his baby behind, moving to a different Google division. Fellow co-founder Chad Hurley might leave too, PaidContent writes. Now comes a more Hollywood future for the video-sharing site. More » -
flackery
It's Spy vs. Spy as Microsoft Mounts Whisper Campaign Against Google
It's one thing for little nonprofit groups like Consumer Watchdog to hound Google for how it handles privacy and competitors. Much trickier for the company: A large corporation like Microsoft, can afford to whisper in reporters' ears, individually. More » -
the internet
Michael Jackson Traffic Melts Entire Internet
Any doubts about Michael Jackson's megastardom should have ended after news of the singer's death tripped up Google and crashed AOL Instant Messenger, Wikipedia, TMZ and, of course, Twitter. A survey of the epic traffic: More » -
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disasters
How Google's Thirst for Power Might Bury San Francisco in Rubble
With its many servers, Google devours electricity. And with search queries growing by 50%, it's only getting hungrier. The solution? Drill a two-mile-deep hole in the Earth, extracting geothermal energy and possibly destroying San Francisco with a terrible earthquake. More » -
rumormonger
Layoffs Rumored at Mrs. Google's Genetics Company
Genetics company 23AndMe can purportedly help you predict your health in decades to come, but we're hearing the three-year-old company can't even forecast its own near-term needs: A tipster tells us the company laid off seven employees. More » -
advertising
Google Games Bite Newspapers
Desperate for online advertising, newspapers have learned to aggressively optimize their content for Google. The result: more traffic. Junky traffic. More » -
googleplex
Google Moves in with Founder's Wife's Company
Google's complicated relationship with its founder's wife just got more tangled. Anne Wojcicki's genetic-testing startup, 23andMe, not only took a second round of funding from the company — it's now cohabitating with the search giant. More » -
valleyspeak
Jargon from Hell Rides in on Google's Wave
The open secret about Google's forthcoming product "Wave" is that no one knows what the hell it does. Here's the tech gibberish the Guardian used to describe the software after talking to Google co-founder Sergey Brin: More » -
cubicle culture
Facebook Heckling Rampage By Kara Swisher
As co-host of the Wall Street Journal's $5,000/head D conference, reporter Kara Swisher demands best behavior from her guests. Invite her to your startup, though, and she'll taunt your chef, heckle bizdev and mock your taste. More » -
panic
Google's New Paranoia
Former Intel chief Andy Grove famously believed that "only the paranoid survive" in Silicon Valley business. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page seem intent to inject this spirit back into fat, dominant Google. They're even worrying about Bing. More » -
toogle many googlers
No Company Vacations for Googlers This Year
To feel like a big, happy family, Google used to take everyone on an annual ski trip. The company grew so big it switched last year to Disneyland. This year, though, the All-Google trip is dead. More » -
clips
Microsoft's Bing Puts Google and Yahoo on the Defensive
In the tech world, dominance can be lost with mere clicks, which in turn spring from mere thoughts. Perhaps that's why Google and Yahoo's CEOs are so quickly dismissing Microsoft's new search site, Bing. More » -
videuhoh
Yahoo CEO Can't Say 'Algorithmic'
Here's Carol Bartz on Fox Business Network, explaining what sets Yahoo apart from Google. For one, the internet company is not all fancy sciencepants and "algothorithic" or "algomorthmic" or whatever. Indeed, it doesn't even know that word. More » -
valleywag
Google Mentor Dead in Swimming Pool
Rajeev Motwani, a computer science professor who mentored Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford, was found dead in the pool of his Atherton, California home. He was 47. More » -
videuhoh
Whoops: Microsoft Touts Search Accuracy Using Mistake
How does Microsoft argue its search results are more correct than, say, Google's? With a commercial in which it accidentally claims the Breakfast Club was released a year later than it was. More » -
labor
Email Details Secret Google-Apple Deal on Employees
Silicon Valley businessmen fancy themselves unflinching hard-core capitalists. Yet they hate to compete for workers — and the New York Times found an email to prove it. More » -
labor
Were Valley Immigrants Traded Like Property? Feds Wonder
Tech giants have long sought more work visas, saying they enrich immigrants. But a reported Justice Department investigation raises the possibility Google, Apple and Yahoo, among others, colluded to hold down wages. More » -
software
'Page's Law' Is Google Founder's Next-Best Shot at Immortality
Speaking at Google's developer's conference in San Francisco today, Sergey Brin launched some fresh nomenclature into the jargony culture of computer programmers: "Page's Law." He was trying to make a point about the speed of Google's Web apps; instead he's done co-founder Larry Page a huge favor. More » -
apocalypse
The World According to Twitter
How distorted is Twitter's view of the world? That question is neatly answered by Topsy, a new search engine that's like Google, except sorted by the attention-deficit-disorder sufferers who live on Twitter. More » -
print is dead
Google's Newspaper That Wasn't
Eric Schmidt now says Google thought about buying a newspaper but rejected the idea as "crossing the line" between technology and content. The real message for newspaper hacks: You're just not profitable. Compared with, say, TV and movies. More » -
startups
Clinging to Dying Web 2.0 Dreams
Being a startup is way more fun than being a business. Which is why we see Twitter and Facebook in seeming economic denial this morning. Who wants to confront financial reality, like Google? More » -
publicity stunts
Wake Us When Wolfram Alpha Can Solve an Actual Problem
British physicist Stephen Wolfram today officially launched his new, massively-hyped search engine, Wolfram Alpha. Now for the inevitable letdown; and for the hard questions more journalists should have been asking weeks ago. More » -
rumormonger
Google's 'Darth Vader'
In flusher times, Google geeks set the agenda for company sales executives; distracting sidelines were encouraged. The recession — assisted by a new sales chief who apparently doesn't mind his diabolical reputation — foreclosed on such coddling. More » -
housekeeping
Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Dear Ryan:
As I head to NBC to run its Bay Area site, I'm leaving you one Silicon Valley gossip blog, used but in good condition. A few thoughts on how to keep it that way. More » -
print is dead
Google Planning to Rob Bloggers to Pay New York Times
Give the newspaper bosses this much: In their desperation to fix their dying businesses, they are going after logical targets. Google's rise has exactly nothing to do with their fall — but Google has money. More » -
Shut Up, Twitter
Why #googlefail Is Really a #twitterfail
An hour-long outage of some Google services this morning has turned into a full-fledged Twitter storm. What this really shows is a failure of Twitter to be meaningful and relevant to anything but Twitter. More » -
death of print
Will David Geffen Gay Up the New York Times?
Hello, Pink Lady! David Geffen, the wealthy friend of Dorothy, wants to buy the New York Times. Fantastic news for the paper's gay mafia. More » -
print is dead
How to Pry Money Out of Google
The New York Times and Washington Post are in informal talks about the online news business. The obvious subtext: The newspapers want Google to pay for their headlines. They're going about it all wrong. More » -
politics
Is Google Heading For an Antitrust Trainwreck?
Everyone has misunderstood why Google, from CEO Eric Schmidt on down, is cozying up to Barack Obama. It's not out of some likeminded geekiness. It's out of desperation and fear.
More » -
rumormonger
Could Apple Buy Twitter?
Facebook tried to buy Twitter. Google and Microsoft have been giving the red-hot Internet-messaging startup the eye. But we hear it's Apple that's closest to sealing a deal, possibly for as much as $700 million.
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antitrust
Uh Oh, Google's in More Antitrust Trouble!
Google's G1 is the biggest enemy of Apple's iPhone. And Apple is making a big push into the Web. So it's totally hunky-dory that Google and Apple share board members, right? Wrong, say antitrust cops. More » -
cubicle culture
Jeering Googlers Bring Entitled Coworkers In Line
Google is reportedly flooded with Yahoo résumés. We'd recommend an overtly modest approach to anyone who scores an interview: Google has lately been brutal in handling presumptuous, entitled transplants. More » -
failure
Yahoo Video: The $6 Billion Black Hole Implodes
A source at Google tells us YouTube has seen a rush of résumés from engineers at Yahoo's rival video site, after a wave of layoffs last week that devastated the team. Is Yahoo Video done? More » -
exits
Google's Still Got a Crush on Flickr, How Cute!
Yahoo has started its latest round of layoffs, which hit its pixel-cute photo-sharing site Flickr, a formerly sacrosanct fiefdom. We hear Google has its eyes on some of the Flickr employees Yahoo let slip. More » -
googleplex
Is Working at Google a Brain Malfunction?
Blogger Joe Clark, still fuming over the mathematical mistreatment of Google designer Doug Bowman, explains that Google is populated by people with cases of "extreme male brain."

























