Much has been made of the fact that The Internship, the new buddy comedy starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, and the Googleplex, is basically an advertisement for Google. This is completely true. It seems every couple of minutes the movie is trotting another feature of life at Google. Nap pods and free food are lovingly Read More
If Mayor Bloomberg’s soda ban freaked you out, you’re going to drool over Google’s new search feature.
This morning, Google announced it’s going to start incorporating nutritional information into its search results. Apparently they’ve collected stats for over a thousand fruits, vegetables, meats and meals, and they’ll show up in a sidebar whenever you search a particular food. In other words, you’ll never be able to search “Nutella recipes” without feeling guilty again. Read More
The world is rapidly sorting itself into two camps: Glassholes, and people who want you to take that damn thing off your face. The latest concerned parties, according to the Wall Street Journal: the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus.
Imagine that: A bunch of politicians worried about a world where everyone wears a camera on his face, ready to snap a picture of any shenanigans by public figures.
Yesterday the group wrote an open letter to Larry Page, expressing their concerns: Read More
Guess the august lawmakers of the United Kingdom aren’t impressed by face computers, future cars and Star Trek inventions. Bloomberg News reports Google’s outpost in merry old England is under siege from Parliament, which wants to know why the search company is barely paying any U.K. taxes.
Google claims that the London operation mostly handles marketing, Read More
Google made no attempt to top last year’s I/O keynote, featuring skydivers. Instead, viewers were treated to a long, rambling meditation on progress from Google CEO Larry Page, who seemed none too keen on talking about Google Glass.
“Technology should do the hard work,” Mr. Page informed us all, “so that people can get on with doing the things that make them happiest in life.” He also suggested that, “being negative is not how we make progress.” Somehow we doubt that outlook inspires Mr. Page to let his underlings off lightly when they screw something up.
The closest thing to a skydiver was when Robert Scoble popped up at the front of the line for Q&A, announcing himself as ”one of the first glassholes.” “Robert, I didn’t appreciate the shower picture,” Mr. Page replied.
But there were a few big announcements. Read More
Good news if you’re a) still dodging rumors about the massive piles of cocaine you did in college and b) German. Bloomberg News says a German high court has ruled that Google is responsible for anything libelous that might pop up in autocomplete.
“The search additions affect the plaintiff’s privacy rights as they convey the statement that there is a relationship between the plaintiff and the negative words,” the court ruled.
This is going to add, like, 15 minutes of work for Berliners trying to screen cult leaders and shady apartment brokers. Read More
Googlers might follow the company’s mantra of “Do No Evil,” but that good will doesn’t always extend to its neighbors. Nearly 40 people attended an “anti-gentrification block party” in–where else!–San Francisco on Sunday to protest the plush shuttles from various tech companies, like Goog, that stop by the neighborhood to pick up brogrammers and bring them to the Valley. The neighbors allege that the buses are causing rents to skyrocket and the people who use them are dicks. Read More
We’re entering a new age of ubiquitous surveillance, when you can’t even embark on a wild night out in Brooklyn without worrying about some Glasshole uploading your embarrassing antics to YouTube. It’s enough to make you wonder whether maybe we ought to worry about what governments and corporations will do with the technical ability to Read More
Who’s afraid of a little ? Google, apparently, and the company’s squeamishness regarding dirty language is likely to render Glass borderline unusable for sailors and those of us who prefer our conversation extra salty.
Geek.com points out that the company’s voice translation technology (like most similar programs) censors curses. How prim! With smartphones or browsers you can just edit manually, but wearable tech isn’t so simple. Read More
It liiives! Digg says a beta version of its Reader replacement will debut in June. The timing makes sense, as Google plans to pull the plug on the original RSS product July 1. The clock is ticking, here. Read More
