August 6th 2008
Search pundit Danny Sullivan often jokes that he remembers when “Google used to be a search engine.” They’ve become an advertising business, a cell-phone operating system maker, a blog platform, and now a venture capital firm. But at their core, Google is about search. And Knol, their “answer to Wikipedia,” creates a screaming conflict of […]
August 5th 2008
A Pittsburgh couple is suing Google on the grounds that their privacy was invaded by the dilettante search company during the capturing of street images to be incorporated in Google’s Street View software.The filed complaint can be seen here at The Smoking Gun. At issue is whether or not the “Google gander van” was in […]
August 3rd 2008
Bill Patry has decided to discontinue his popular copyright blog. He lists two reasons: The tendency of readers and the media to link his personal writing as a professional position. Patry is Google’s top copyright attorney (there, see? I’ve done it too). It’s easy to identify bloggers as whatever their current job is, especially if […]
July 29th 2008
This week I participated in a the wrap-up panel discussion at Boston stop of the Online Marketing Summit. My co-panelists were Blake Coyle, a sales exec from Google, Paul Hyland, Executive Producer, edweek.org, and Theresa Regli, Principal, CMS Watch. As usual, I’m injecting personal observations along with what happened. If you were there too, please […]
June 9th 2008
North Oaks, Minnesota, population 4,500, has sent Google Maps a big message: “Go away, and don’t come back.” You see, in North Oaks the roads are privately owned by the residents. So when the Googlemobile toured North Oaks and photographed people’s homes from the street, it was technically trespassing. That’s what the North Oaks City Council […]
June 2nd 2008
Viacom recently amended it $1 Billion lawsuit against YouTube (Google) for copyright infringement which it filed last year. Google claims that Viacom is trying to overturn precedent by making carriers and hosting providers liable for what their users post or transmit. Viacom claims it has found over 150,000 instances of copyright infringing material on YouTube, […]
April 21st 2008
Has Google finally stepped over the “Do No Evil” line? Over the past few months, Google has invested in two DNA-mapping companies: 23andMe (a company created by Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wife) and Navigenics, which maps genetic data and screens for anomalies. In theory, information of a predisposition towards a certain disease could be made […]
April 18th 2008
Currently, federal authorities can only collect DNA from convicted criminals. That may soon change, so that anyone arrested for a crime, or merely detained, can be forced to provide a DNA sample. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is fronting the legislation, which was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee recently. The argument is that the new […]
February 4th 2008
Effective February 11th, Google will stop monetizing all domains if they are less than five days old. This single move will force a dramatic reduction in the Internet scheme known as domain kiting. Industry experts attribute over 90% of all current domain registrations to kiting performed by a group of rogue registrants, so this is […]
October 14th 2007
Google’s motion is an attempt to scrape away the assorted claims made by American before any stick legally or in public opinion. This article summarizes the complaint, the response, and presents perspectives which may be useful in considering this case.
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