Posts Tagged ‘google’

Google Inc has bought Aardvark, a free question-and-answer Web service.

Aardvark co-founder Damon Horowitz confirmed the purchase Thursday. He would not disclose financial details.

Aardvark was formed in 2007 by Horowitz and three others, two of whom are former Google employees. It lets users ask questions online that are routed to friends and friends of friends. The goal is to get relevant answers on any topic as quickly as possible. Users can ask questions through Aardvark’s Web site, Twitter, over Google Chat or via e-mail. Aardvark had more than 90,000 users as of last October.

Buying Aardvark is the latest effort by Google to own more services, and capture more of people’s online time, rather than just linking to other sites.

The transaction returns Google to the question-and-answer field. In 2006, it abandoned Google Answers, a 4-year-old service through which users would pay anywhere from $2 to $200 to get answers to questions from hired researchers.

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Justice Department questions Google if they are violating antitrust in regards of digitalizing world’s books into a database that is online.

This settlement between Google, Association of American Publishers, and the Authors Guild was made back in October. A fund of over one-hundred million would pay out the authors. Back in 2005, publishers and authors sued Google’s book scanning project, which had dealt with copyrighted books, and public domain.

Some say that Google has the right to monopoly the books for online access since the deal was done.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice was called by a nonprofit group, to investigate Google and their plans to scan these books to the online database. Google was planning on scanning books that are copyrighted, but the person that holds the rights, can’t be found. They are known as “Orphan” books.

John Simpson, an advocate for the nonprofit group had sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney General, wanting the government to intervene with this settlement between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers stating that the settlement needed to be relooked at to see if it took the consumers interest or not. Simpson also stated in his letter that this settlement, that was done, protects Google, but there is no protection for others. Simpson describes it as a barrier for other competitors to join in on the digital book process.

The digitized book business has become competitive and on the rise in the market. Back in March Sony had announced it eBook domain free for readers.

With the legal people chatting with Google and the other businesses involved, we shall see soon what the investigation will bring forth.

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Google has begun to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, the browser identified as the weak link in a cyber attack on the search engine.

The firm said from 1 March some of its services, such as Google Docs, would not work “properly” with the browser.

It recommended individuals and firms upgrade “as soon as possible”.

Google threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market following the “sophisticated and targeted” attacks, which it said originated in China.

Hackers used a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser to target the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

‘Key functionality’

Following Google’s revelations, the French and German governments advised their citizens to switch to a different browser until the hole had been closed.

Microsoft reacted by quickly updating the browser, nearly three weeks ahead of its regular security update.

However, Google has now said it is going to phase out support for the browser “starting with Google Docs and Google Sites”.

It said that as a result, some “key functionality” of the applications would not work when used with IE6.

Google Docs is the firm’s answer to products such as Microsoft Office, whilst Google Sites allows people to create web pages.

“The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice,” wrote Google’s Rajen Sheth in a blog post.

“Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively.”

Threat downplayed

Around 20% of web users still use the nine-year old browser, including many UK government departments.

But many developers want to see the browser phased out as soon as possible.

The online campaign ie6nomore, supported by more than 70 web firms, says that because the browser does not support modern web standards it restricts what developers can do and is “holding the web back”.

Microsoft has said that it will support the browser until 2014.

Microsoft has released a fix for Internet Explorer and recommended that customers install the update as soon as possible or update to the latest version of the web browser for “improved security”.

Microsoft normally issues patches monthly but the high-profile nature of the attacks led it to act more quickly.

Market share

The UK government played down the threat and said there was “no evidence that moving from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure”.

However, Microsoft took the unusual step of patching the hole nearly three weeks ahead of its regular security update.

The new patch is available via the Microsoft Update site and will also be fed out to those who have their machines set to update automatically. All versions of Internet Explorer will receive the update.

Microsoft has admitted that it has known about the vulnerability “since early September” 2009 and had planned to patch it in February.

The bad publicity has allowed rivals such as Firefox to gain market share.

According to web analytics company StatCounter, Firefox is now a close second to Internet Explorer (IE) in Europe, with 40% of the market compared to Microsoft’s 45% share.

In some markets, including Germany and Austria, Firefox has overtaken IE, the firm said.

Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox, has just released the latest version (3.6) of the open-source browser.

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Amazon has urged a New York court to reject a deal that would allow Google to build a vast digital library.

The online retailer says that if Google is given exclusive rights to scan books for use on the internet, it is “likely to lead to a monopoly”.

Interested groups and authors have until 28 January to file objections to the project to a US court.

Google says the project will “unlock access to millions of books” and give authors new ways to distribute books.

Google Books aims to scan millions of books worldwide and make them available – and searchable – online.

It was first launched in 2004 but was put on hold a year later when the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers sued over “massive copyright infringement”.

As a result, in 2008 Google agreed to pay $125m (£77m) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation.

A decision on whether the deal could go through was originally scheduled for early October.

‘Split opinion’

But, the presiding Judge sent the deal back to the drawing board after criticism and objections from around the world.

Groups have until 28 January to file objections to the revised settlement to a US court, which will decide whether to approve it. Authors have the same deadline to opt-out of the project.

A fairness hearing has then been set for 18 February.

In the run up to the deadline, industry and authors have once again started mounting pressure on Google.

If approved by the court, this settlement stands to unlock access to millions of books in the US while giving authors and publishers new ways to distribute their work Google spokesperson

Fantasy writer Ursula K Le Guin has asked for the US to be excluded from the project.

In an open letter to Judge Denny Chin, who will preside over the hearing, Ms Le Guin expresses concern about the “opt-out” clause in the settlement, which she says “disguises an assault on authors’ rights”.

It means that unless authors in certain countries specifically do not give their permission, their books will be scanned and eventually sold in digital form by Google Books, who will share a percentage of the revenue.

“Google, like any other publisher or entity, should be required to obtain permission from the owner to purchase or use copyrighted material, item by item,” she wrote.

Her letter has been signed by 365 other authors also concerned about the plan.

In addition, Ms Le Guin says that the National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America are against the proposed settlement.

However not all authors oppose Google’s proposals. Amy Tan, Simon Winchester and the heir of John Steinbeck are among those who support the move.

“If approved by the court, this settlement stands to unlock access to millions of books in the US while giving authors and publishers new ways to distribute their work,” said a Google spokesperson.

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