With the new Google Public Policy Blog, transparency’s the name of the game; Googlers will explain the company’s position on issues that could affect us all.
Google Maps Takes On Public Transit Info
If you ride some form of public transportation – be it subways, trains, or buses – you may know about Google Transit, which helps users “[c]reate your own transit trip, complete with itineraries and maps.” That service worked just fine (within a few areas), but the search engine company now plans to incorporate much more information into Google Maps and Google Earth.
Global Terrorism Database Made Public
It isn’t an accident; the world’s largest database of terrorism attacks has been made available for researchers of all types.
Blinkx To Go Public
The idea of a “Google killer” has lost most of its meaning – challenger after challenger came along, assumed that title, and proceeded to fail miserably. Google Video may face a real threat in the form of Blinkx, however – the Autonomy corporation has announced plans to demerge that video search engine.
RIAA: eCommerce Public Enemy #1
With the future of industries such as online radio and peer-to-peer networking hanging in the balance, the pendulum of power is shifting from the hands of the suits at the RIAA into the hands of the public. Those who feel they have been wronged by the organization are collectively beginning to fight back.
Public Affairs via Web 2.0
Everyone who owns a forum, a blog, a bulletin board or otherwise knows that to accept user content is to monitor what that user content. Does it makes sense for the web site, is the content that the user supplies something that fits in, makes sense, and is appropriate.
We have heard about all the spamming that happens in these systems, but a larger question posed by CIO today is:
When Good Companies Go Public
This is what happens when good companies go public: the principles that made them good, even necessary, to the point of inspiring a romantic loyalty among their customers, are whittled away at until only those principles which are profitable remain. If it’s true that Google is reconsidering its view of Network Neutrality, let it be said that this is the reason why.
Google says it’s not true, by the way, but we’ll get to that later. This is an exploration of what could happen, a seemingly very likely ethical pickle the search company could find itself in down the road.
FTC Goes To The Public On Net Neutrality
What was pretty much a non-issue less than a year ago has the Federal Trade Commission scratching its head and asking for guidance – finally. The FTC announced it would be hosting a public workshop on “Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy” in Washington, DC in February.
Google Lags In Public Research
Earlier this week, John Battelle took a look at “the practice of academic publishing in the field of search,” and more specifically, at how many papers were submitted by each of the major search companies at a recent conference. The results: it seems as if Google doesn’t play well with others, at least as far as research papers are concerned.
Google Opens Up About Public Domain Books
Google blocks access for users outside the U.S. to public domain books, much to the dismay of some. To make matters worse, the reasons behind this policy were something of a mystery – until now. A post on the Inside Google Book Search blog explained the company’s thinking.