Ben Charny

Verizon Communications has eliminated a discount on Internet phone services it once offered to its broadband customers. The discounts end and price cuts announced May 3 suggest Verizon is trying to jump-start interest in the feature and starting to market it more aggressively, said Lynda Starr, a senior analyst at Frost & Sullivan. At Verizon, […]

Google can’t seem to get a break in China. First it’s criticized for cutting a deal with the Chinese government to censor some sites. Now there are 3,200 or so people signing a petition suggesting a new name for the Google portal. Apparently, Guge, the name Google’s given the search engine, isn’t cool enough. One […]

Google has scheduled its first-ever Code Jam competition in Europe, as it further courts software developers located on the Continent. Code Jam registration is now underway. The dueling actually starts May 23, when contestants must answer a litany of questions in a certain amount of time. Winners will take home about $38,000 in prize money. […]

High-profile employees at Microsoft and Yahoo say rival Google’s complaints to authorities about a supposed unfair Microsoft practice is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. These are relatively new voices to the debate, which has been raging over the last few days in the blogosphere and elsewhere. The rhetorical salvos result from […]

High-profile employees at Microsoft and Yahoo say rival Googles complaints to authorities about a supposed unfair Microsoft practice is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. These are relatively new voices to the debate, raging in the blogosphere and elsewhere, that have the potential to further shape the outcome of the Google complaints […]

When all else fails, ask your dad. Dan Charny, the author’s father, is no dope. He got a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and since then has been a lot of other things. Old dog, new trick: at 84 years old, he’s Internet-savvy. So he seems the perfect foil for an […]

As hard as Yahoo execs try to dispel the notion, it seems only natural to think Yahoo’s new technology news and reviews Web site targets CNET Networks, Ziff Davis Media and the other incumbent Internet purveyors of technology news. While there’s a case to be made, it seems Yahoo’s latest is also a big strike […]

Visto, a wireless e-mail software maker, says it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Research In Motion, the makers of BlackBerry devices. Visto says it thinks the case at hand is bolstered by its recent victory in a federal court in eastern Texas, where a jury awarded it $3.6 million in damages to be […]

Would it be too farfetched to suggest Google had something to do with “The Da Vinci Code”-like game embedded in a recent British judge’s ruling? To catch up some people, a seemingly random series of italic letters in a ruling by British Justice Peter Smith was actually the justice’s homage to the best-selling book. The […]

The global nature of the Internet is such that major Web destinations, like Yahoo or Google, have long ago added language translators. Now Yahoo is extending that capability even further into its search engines, with Yahoo Babel Fish, which was unveiled this week. Dejà vu? Yahoo describes this as an updated version of pioneering Web […]

Google has introduced a new feature for adding three-dimensional images to online satellite maps. Here’s how it works: Google Sketchup, which is free to download, creates three-dimensional images to add to Google Earth satellite maps. The images can be stored, put on public view or shared at an online locker Google calls 3D Warehouse. Say […]

Regardless of how hard Google tries to explain its side, objections continue to surface about it and partner EarthLink’s plans to build a wireless network in San Francisco. Google and EarthLink plan to build a wireless network based on Wi-Fi, a wireless technology contained in most laptops. The two companies would offer free but ad-supported […]