Google search and search engine spam
January brought a spate of stories about Google's search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that a...
Google shuffle: why Schmidt had to be pushed from the top
After slipups with search, Street View and Android, it's clear that Google needs tighter control at the top - and Eric Schmidt is not the man for the job — Eric Schmidt's departure after nearly 10 y...
Facebook Raises $1.5 Billion At $50 Billion Valuation
Facebook has officially announced that it has just raised $1.5 billion in funding at a $50 billion valuation, according to a release issued today (we've embedded the release below). — As stated in t...
Android source code, Java, and copyright infringement: what's going on?
So it's been a fun day of armchair code forensics and legal analysis on the web after Florian Mueller published a piece this morning alleging Google directly copied somewhere between 37 and 44 Java so...
Blocking the Skype Toolbar in Firefox
The Skype Toolbar for Firefox is an extension that detects phone numbers in web pages, and re-renders them as a clickable button that can be used to dial the number using the Skype desktop application...
You asked for it: XBMC for AppleTV2, iPad, iPhone4.
The XBMC team is proud to present our first ARM-based release, and it's a big one. Scott Davilla, with the help of Edgar (gimli) Hucek and Zeljko (amet) Ametovic and several other developers and test...
Take That, Cupertino! Toshiba Flashes Insults at Apple in Teaser Site for Its Android Tablet.
Toshiba is taking it straight to the iPad in a new Web site that teases the coming arrival of its Android tablet. — On the site, Toshiba touts the features its tablet has that the iPad lacks …
What a Stolen Credit Card Costs on the Digital Black Market
Cybercriminals have gotten so sophisticated recently that their operations are almost indistinguishable from the legit businesses they rip off. Here's a “menu” of services offered by cybercriminals, ...
AT&T offering free MicroCells to top 7.5 percent of customers ‘likely to experience poor in-building coverage’
We've known that AT&T has been test-marketing free 3G MicroCells to subscribers with particularly awful reception in certain parts of the country since the product launched last year …
Why Andreessen Horowitz Models Itself After A Hollywood Talent Agency
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have raised nearly a billion dollars in the 18 months since they founded their Silicon Valley venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz, even though they've never been venture...
HTML is the new HTML5
In 2009 we announced that the HTML5 specification at the WHATWG was progressing to Last Call. The plan at the time was to finish the specification this year and publish a snapshot of “HTML5” in 2012....
On Google, and evil
A few months ago, I was approached to write a movie about Google. The producer had rights to a book, but more importantly seemed to have access to significant people with connections in the company, ...
VCs roared back in 2010, investing the most money since 2007
Venture capitalists invested the most money last year since 2007, pumping $21.8 billion into 3,277 deals in 2010, according to a MoneyTree Report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Natio...
Ballmer to Hu: 90% of Microsoft customers in China using pirated software
Microsoft CEO raises concerns to Chinese president about intellectual property protection — While Chinese President Hu Jintao knew he'd face some tough questions when he came to the United States th...
Google's Android Market Rules Could Squeeze Amazon's Android App Store
Google's stance on prohibiting apps in Android Market from being mini-app stores led to the quick demise of Kongregate Arcade, a Flash game portal app that was pulled Wednessday less than a day after ...
Confirmed: iPad 3G launching soon in China
This morning the Apple iPad 3G was approved for sale in China by the Chinese government and now an Apple spokesperson has confirmed that Apple will be releasing a 3G version of their tablet into the C...
Microsoft moves its Chatter-like OfficeTalk toward commercialization
OfficeTalk — Microsoft's enterprise-focused microblogging technology — may soon find a home among the company's product teams and become a shipping product and/or service. — OfficeTalk, one of the p...
How should a White House Quora Work?
Summary: The White House is looking to build a web community to get its questions answered, sort of their own Quora, and they're trying to do it the right way. They're asking those who would particip...
PostUp Acquires UberTwitter, Renames Itself (Again) To UberMedia
Bill Gross is up to something. The CEO of PostUp, who previously founded (and sold) Overture, answers.com, and a number of other companies, has just acquired his second Twitter client in as many week...
Google Said to Grant $100 Million in Equity to CEO Eric Schmidt
Google Inc. is granting an equity award package of $100 million to Eric Schmidt, who will be succeeded as chief executive officer by co-founder Larry Page in April, according to a person familiar with...
Creator Of Million Dollar Homepage Makes Do Nothing For 2 Minutes
PopJam CEO Alex Tew, the guy behind the internet phenomenon Million Dollar Homepage, has now gone the opposite extreme. Along with developer Ben Dowling, he has created Do Nothing For 2 Minutes, a si...
Motorola Apologizes For PR Gaffe, Promises Better Bootloader Policy
Despite Motorola continually making some of the hottest Android handsets - and the pattern continues with the Atrix - some of the most passionate Android fans refuse to become customers because of a “...
The Crunchies Awards Livestream [Video]
It's the most wonderful time of the year! We're live at The Crunchies Awards at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once again we've partnered with fellow blogs VentureBeat and GigaOm to celeb...
iPad 2 will have the same cameras as the iPod touch
Oh, hello. We've done some digging in the latest SDK it looks like Apple's much rumored second-generation iPad will not feature some fancy 5 megapixel camera, but will instead shoot your flicks and t...
Can Employers Fire Over Facebook Gaffes?
Facebook gaffes that can cause trouble in the workplace aren't unique to drunken college students any more. As more companies—and their workers—tap into the world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, empl...
Apple adds Taiwan suppliers for iPhone 5, says paper
Apple has added Foxconn Electronics, Foxlink, Gold Circuit Electronics (GCE) and Epistar as component suppliers for the iPhone 5 smartphone, scheduled for launch during summer at the earliest, accordi...
Zero Day blogger Dancho Danchev: he's back
Boy, Dancho, you had us worried. — Our dear cybersecurity expert Dancho Danchev, who mysteriously disappeared back when the leaves were only begin to turn colors here in New York City, is back in th...