Tag: Google

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Google køber stor del af Motorola

Vildt! Google tager åbenbart Microsofts partnerskap med Nokia alvorligt. Nu kommer der sikkert ikke nogen Windows Phone fra Motorola.

 

Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

8/15/2011 04:35:00 AM

Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.
Motorola has a history of over 80 years of innovation in communications technology and products, and in the development of intellectual property, which have helped drive the remarkable revolution in mobile computing we are all enjoying today. Its many industry milestones include the introduction of the world’s first portable cell phone nearly 30 years ago, and the StarTAC—the smallest and lightest phone on earth at time of launch. In 2007, Motorola was a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance that worked to make Android the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. I have loved my Motorola phones from the StarTAC era up to the current DROIDs.
In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we’re thrilled at the success they’ve achieved so far. We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth.
Motorola is also a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business. With the transition to Internet Protocol, we are excited to work together with Motorola and the industry to support our partners and cooperate with them to accelerate innovation in this space.
Motorola’s total commitment to Android in mobile devices is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere.
This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.
We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.
The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders.
I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.

Posted by Larry Page, CEO

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Larry Page i front for Google igen

google_logoEfter Eric Schmidt har forladt posten som CEO for Google er Larry Page nu blevet den nye Alpha han igen for søgegigangten. Umiddelbart lyder det ikke som verdens allerværste ide, Larry Page er trods alt en af grundlæaggerne af Google, men Computerworld har en lidt anden holdning.

Er han så den rigtige mand?
Det er nu et åbent spørgsmål, om Larry Page er den rigtige mand til opgaven, som selv sagt er enormt vigtig for selskabets fremtid i en meget omskiftlig og vildt konkurrencepræget verden.
Ja, han fik ideen sammen med makkeren Sergei Brin og ja, han var administrerende direktør, indtil selskabet for alvor skulle kommercialiseres.
Google har givet kigget over mod Apple, da selskabet skulle overveje sagerne.
Apples Steve Jobs har i den grad som iværksætter formået at vende tilbage efter en pause som topchef og drive sin virksomhed helt til tops.
På den anden side floppede Yahoos stifter, Jerry Yang, fælt med en række strategiske fejldisponeringer, da han vendte tilbage som administrerende direktør for Yahoo. Det kostede ham jobbet, hvilket du kan læse mere om her.
Larry Page er en dygtig idé-mand, men han har et ganske alvorligt problem, når det gælder ledelse af et af verdens mest eksponerede selskaber: Han er genert.
Ikke ligefrem sprudlende
Larry Page er således kendt for til møder at sidde med blikket slået ned på sin Android-telefon, ligesom han ikke er godt tilpas med at holde taler eller peptalks, have fastlagt skema for dagen eller holde møder med presse, analytikere eller myndigheder.
Det er alle sammen ting, som det er absolut nødvendigt at mestre, hvis man skal lede et gigant-selskab som Google.

Hertil kommer, at Larry Page har ry for at lide af det klassiske udvikler-/it-mand-syndrom: Han har svært ved at håndtere noget, der ikke kan måles.

Kilde: Dan Jensen @ Computerworld

 

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Microsoft good, Google bad?

microsoft_vs_googleI går faldt jeg over en artikel af Rob Enderle, hvor han sammenligner Google og Microsoft. Eller rettere, han sammenligner de to virksomheders status I dag, sammenlignet med hvordan det så ud for et år siden.

Hans udgangspunkt er egentlig at Microsoft er begyndt at ramme plet igen, imodsætning til Google, som gentagne gange det seneste år er løbet ind I alvorlige problemer.

Microsoft is likely to top the list of the most improved companies for 2011. Indeed, 2009 ended a decade of disappointing personal technology products from Redmond – particularly Windows Vista -  which left many of us wondering if MS could do anything right.

However, 2010 kicked off with Windows 7, IE9 (beta), Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Kinnect, along with some very positive financial results.

To be sure, for much of last decade Microsoft was considered the personification of Evil, and for much of last year, Google effortlessly took their place after seeming to promise when they started that they would avoid doing evil things.

Let’s talk a bit about how Microsoft and Google traded places last year, well more than traded places; Google passed Microsoft like a jet plane and not in a good way. We’ll focus on Microsoft’s improvements today

Kilde: Rob Enderle @ TG Daily

Umiddelbart kunne man godt fristes til at give Rob ret I hans betragtning, og der er I hvert fald ingen tvivl om at Windows 7 er et rocker styresystem, som I den grad har rettet op alle de fejl der var med Vista. Derudover er det ret interessant at se hvordan Google er ved at blive så store g tunge, at de I højere grad minder om Microsoft end en super moderne webcenrisk virksomhed, der er I stand til at levere software opdateringer hurtigere end man kan sige beta teser.

Endvidere ser det ud til at Google stå overfor en hel række sagsanlæg, som d med garanti aldrig havde forestillet sig ville dukke op. På mange måder virker det som Googe nu skal igennem den mølle Microsoft var igennem med antitrust sagsanlæg etc.

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Bing og Google i slåskamp

bing-logo Search er et af de helt store segmenter indenfor IT branchen, og i sær Google har på imponerende vis været i stand til at skabe en profitabel forretning på baggrund af deres søgemaskine. Ikke overraskende fulgte Microsoft i Googles fodspor, og forsøgte i første gang med Live search, som absolut ikke var noget hit. I stedet for at give op har MIcrosoft flyttet Satya Nardella fra Dynamics over til Search, hvor han har været en af de ledende personer i forhold til lanceringne af Bing.

I modsætning til Live Search har Bing faktisk skrabet markedsandele til sig, og diverse bloggere er da heller udelukkende negative overfor Bing. Derudover har Google på det seneste kopieret en række af Bings look and feel samt features, hvilket kunne indikere at søge giganten tager Bing seriøst. Samtidig har Microsofts søgeaftale med Yahoo været en torn i øjet på Google, som også selv var på jagt efter Yahoos brugere.

New York Times har en meget spændende artikel om kampen mellem Bing og Google.

Bing and Google in a Race for Search Features

Edwin Perello discovered that Bing, the Microsoft search engine, could find addresses in his rural Indiana town when Google could not. Laura Michelson, an administrative assistant in San Francisco, was lured by Bing’s flight fare tracker. Paul Callan, a photography buff in Chicago, fell for Bing’s vivid background images.

Like most Americans, they still use Google as their main search tool. But more often, they find themselves navigating to Microsoft’s year-old Bing for certain tasks, and sometimes they stay a while.

“I was a Google user before, but the more I used Bing the more I liked it,” Mr. Callan said. “It’s more like muscle memory takes me to Google.”

Continue at source

Kilde: Claire Cain Miller & Ashlee Vance @ New York Times

Bing er desværre ikke lanceret i Danmark endnu, selvom man godt kunne tro det hvis man kigger på Bing.com. Så vidt jeg er orienteret, så er det stadigvæk Live search der benyttes, selvom det er Bings UI der vises. Hvornår Bing for alvor kommer til Danmark vides ikke.

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Mere Google ballade

WiFi data collection: An update

5/14/2010 01:44:00 PM

Update June 9, 2010: 
When we announced three weeks ago that we had mistakenly included code in our software that collected samples of payload data from WiFi networks, we said we would ask a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked, and what data it gathered. That report, by the security consulting firm Stroz Friedberg, is now complete and was sent to the interested data protection authorities today. In short, it confirms that Google did indeed collect and store payload data from unencrypted WiFi networks, but not from networks that were encrypted. You can read the reporthere. We are continuing to work with the relevant authorities to respond to their questions and concerns.
Update May 17, 2010:

On Friday May 14 the Irish Data Protection Authority asked us to delete the payload data we collected in error in Ireland. We can confirm that all data identified as being from Ireland was deleted over the weekend in the presence of an independent third party. We are reaching out to Data Protection Authorities in the other relevant countries about how to dispose of the remaining data as quickly as possible.

You can read the letter from the independent third party, confirming deletion, here.  Continue @ Source

Kilde: Official Google Blog

Nuff said. Mere senere.

 

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Google Street View: Mere ballade

Dette er efterhånden en gammel historie, men jeg synes alligevel at jeg vill ekommentere den inden den går helt i glemmebogen.

Google today said it will stop collecting Wi-Fi network data from its Street View cars, after an investigation from the German Data Protection Authority (DPA) found the search company was also collecting personal data about user behavior on these public hotspots.

Google’s Street View cars weren’t only taking 360-degree images of our streets for use on Google Maps, but they were also pulling publicly broadcast SSID and MAC information from Wi-Fi hotspots.

"It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products," Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research said today.

"So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake," Eustace said. "In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software–although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data."

Kilde: Tim Conneally @ Betanews.com

Evil Google Det kommer vel egentlig ikke som den helt store overraskelse, at Google på denne måde leger Big Brother, når man tænker på hvor villig virksomheden er til at benytte teknologier, som går lige til grænsen i forhold til brugernes private oplysninger.

I virkeligheden er det ret sørgeligt, at en virksomhed, som i den grad forsøger at profilere sig som værende moralens vogter gentagne gange kommer i fedtefadet på grund af dubiøse handlinger. Der kan efterhånden ikke herske nogen tvivl om at Goggle, ligesom alle andre store virksomheder, ønsker at dominere hele den sfære i hvilken de bevæger sig. Forhåbentlig begyder myndihederne snart at kigge søgegiganten efter i sømmene.

 

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Apple vs. Google Round 1

sbn_DIVORCE.jpg Det fede ved at være i IT branchen er alle de syrede mennesker man kan løbe ind i. På mange måder er der lidt celebrity over nogel af de helt store høvdinger såsom Bill Gates, Larry Ellison osv. Derfor er det også ren papparazzi guf, når New York Times har en artikel om hvordan Apple og Google er ved at blive uvenner. Dette uvenskab har enda et lille personligt twist, da Steve Jobs og Eric Schmidt åbenbart er personlige venner… eller rettere, de var personlige venner.

I takt med at iPhone og Android støder på hinanden ude i markedet ser det ud som om Steve Jobs bliver mere og mere knotten over at der er nogen der laver et produkt, der minder om hans eget. Det er som denne historie er set før.

Gad vide om Apple snart køber Yahoo! for at konkurrer med Google på search? Det ville da være helt perfekt med en god gammeldags slåskamp, som ikke involverer Microsoft for en gangs skyld.

 

Apple’s Spat With Google Is Getting Personal

IT looked like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Three years ago, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, jogged onto a San Francisco stage to shake hands with Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, to help him unveil a transformational wonder gadget — the iPhone — before throngs of journalists and adoring fans at the annual MacWorld Expo.

Google and Apple had worked together to bring Google’s search and mapping services to the iPhone, the executives told the audience, and Mr. Schmidt joked that the collaboration was so close that the two men should simply merge their companies and call them “AppleGoo.”

“Steve, my congratulations to you,” Mr. Schmidt told his corporate ally. “This product is going to be hot.” Mr. Jobs acknowledged the compliment with an ear-to-ear smile.

Today, such warmth is in short supply. Mr. Jobs, Mr. Schmidt and their companies are now engaged in a gritty battle royale over the future and shape of mobile computing and cellphones, with implications that are reverberating across the digital landscape.

In the last six months, Apple and Google have jousted over acquisitions, patents, directors, advisers and iPhone applications. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt have taken shots at each other’s companies in the media and in private exchanges with employees.

Kilde: Brad Stone & Manuel Helft @ New York Times

 

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Google Buzz

Google Buzz is the newest Google product that exists. It can easily be summed up by saying it’s the same as Twitter — but integrated with your Gmail inbox, and a couple extra built-in features that you can see in this video.

The question isn’t whether Google’s feature is good or not, but rather if it’s going to take off quickly? Twitter has become pretty much the status quo as far as real-time updates go. Even if it’s connected to Gmail and is pre-populated with your friends out of the box, it’s not going to be easy for Google to compete with Twitter.

Kilde: Garett Rogers @ ZDnet

hot-red-google-logo Google er netop begyndt at rulle sin sociale service Buzz ud til Gmail brugere. I bund og grund er Buzz en aggregator, som samler ens kontaktpersoners sociale strems i Gmail. Denne type integration imellem webmail og sociale services er allerede set i Windows Live, som introducerede en lignende service i forbindelse med Wave 3.

Jeg er ikke den store Gmail bruger længere, men en af de ting jeg godt kunne lide ved Gmail var, at den ikke var integreret med en masse services. Den rene mail komponent var efter min mening en af de gode ting ved Gmail, men det er ved at være slut nu.

Jeg har ikke selv fået adgang til Buzz, så jeg ved ikke om det bliver en rodet affære, men umiddelbart ser servicen relativt interessant ud. Jeg tvivler dog lidt på at jeg vender tilbage til Gmail for alvor.

 

 

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Big Brother is watching you

The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans’ online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a “wake-up call.” Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a “collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners.”

Kilde: Ellen Nakashima @ The Washington Post

google_logo Google har efterhånden et noget blakket ry når det kommer til privacy policy, og jeg har da også selv haft mine betænkeligheder, blandt andet i forhold til Google Street View. Alligevel kom det som noget af en overraskelse, da jeg læste ovenstående artikel i The Washington Post, fordi det forekommer mig noget rabiat selv for Google.

Egentlig giver en sådan aftale imellem NSA og Google god mening, når man tænker på terrorisme, cybersecurity etc. men for mig bliver det problematisk, hvis en privat virksomhed, som jeg vælger at betro med mine personlige oplysninger, har en aftale med et nationalt sikkerheds organ, som ikke er klart defineret i forhold til hvad den rent faktisk går ud på. Kan aftalen betyde at NSA kan se om jeg har brugt Google til at søge efter oplysninger om sprængstoffer?

Mig bekendt har der endu ikke været nogle sager i offentligheden, hvor Google rent faktisk har udeleveret private data fra brugerne, så indtil andet er bevist kan man nok ikke med god samvittighed kritisere Google. Men Googles “Do No Evil” mantra er begyndt at lyde ret hult.

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Børsen: “Google Street View er systematisk lovbrud”

Langt de fleste danskere kan nu finde billeder af deres private hjem på internettjenesten Google Street View.
Men i en række tilfælde optræder personer på privat grund på billederne, og det er en overtrædelse af straffelovens paragraf 264a, der forbyder fotografering af personer på privat grund.
"Det er som udgangspunkt ulovligt at fotografere folk, der befinder sig på privat grund. Og det gør det ikke mere lovligt, at Google tilbyder at fjerne uønskede billeder. Man kan dårligt forestille sig en mere systematisk overtrædelse af paragraf 264a," siger mediejurist Oluf Jørgensen fra Danmarks Journalisthøjskole til JydskeVestkysten.

Kilde: Børsen

google_logo Google har længe været kendt for at gå lige til grænsen når det drejer sig om privacy på nettet. Det er ikke overraskende, når man tænker på at virksomheden lever af at indexere data. Indtil nu har mine problemer med Google været af relativt akademisk karakter, men efter Street View er blevet frigivet i Danmark må jeg indrømme at jeg føler min privatsfære gået lidt for nær.

Jeg kunne i virkeligheden være ligeglad, da jeg bor i en udørk, hvor Googles fotobiler alligevel aldrig kommer forbi, men efter at have læst artiklen i Børsen, og set nogle af de billeder der er frigivet mener jeg egentlig at Google praksis er ret forkastelig.

Nu har Google jo et mantra der siger “Do No Evil”, hvilket også er fint og idealistisk, men jeg mener at man i den forbindelse skal huske på at Google er en privat virksomhed, som kun har et eksistensformål, og det er at tjene penge. Sådan er verden nu engang skruet sammen, og det er så derfor vi har regler til at regulerer virksomheders adfærd. Åbenbart er der sket et brud på de regler, så detbliver interessant at se om Google får de danske myndigheder på nakken.

Eller også er vi vidner til et nyt Evil Empire, der kan føre staffen videre efter Microsoft har opgivet ævret?

 

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