Clint Boulton

Mozilla March 29 launched Firefox 4 for Android, claiming the mobile browser is up to three times as fast as the stock browser on Android, thanks to enhancements to its JavaScript engine. Available from Google’s Android Market and for Maemo devices, Firefox 4 for Android also includes such efficiencies as tabbed browsing, one-touch bookmarks and […]

Ever since Foundem, eJustice and Ciao filed antitrust complaints with the European Commission in Brussels that Google was affecting their ability to do business online, it had been rumored that Microsoft had been behind the complainants, supporting them. The speculation is now moot. In a move drenched in irony thick enough to choke on, Microsoft […]

Google March 30 took its next step in its evolution toward social search with the +1 button, which lets users share search results and ads that meet their approval. Rumored for months as Google’s big answer to Facebook’s social networking empire, +1 is best thought of as simply Google’s version of Facebook’s Like button. Google […]

Google is applying the Priority Inbox technology it built for Gmail to improve the relevancy of ads it serves in its messaging application. The search engine last August launched Priority Inbox, which automatically sorts incoming email. The software uses a ranking algorithm to analyze and designate each message as important, important and unread, starred items, […]

Google March 29 officially launched Android Market In-app Billing to let developers publish applications that incorporate ways for consumers to purchase goods from within the apps. Previously, developers who submitted apps to the Android Market would take their 70 percent cut of the app sale and perhaps make money from mobile advertising. In-application billing lets […]

Salesforce.com March 30 agreed to purchase Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, giving the enterprise application provider a credible social media management tool. Radian6 analysis widgets and reporting tools help businesses monitor and filter social media conversations generated on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media Websites. The idea […]

Google March 30 said it settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers with its Google Buzz social application. Under the settlement, Google must get users’ consent before sharing their information with third parties if Google changes privacy promises it made after collecting users’ information. […]

And the winner for Google’s ultra-high-speed broadband pageant is… Kansas City. Google March 30 said Kansas City beat out almost 1,100 cities clamoring to be the guinea pig for Google’s proposed broadband test, which will bring Internet access speeds of 1G bps to thousands of homes in the city. The search engine inked a development […]

In the bubbling niche of enterprise social software, the idea that Jive Software will go public soon is as poorly a kept secret as the same rumors about Facebook and LinkedIn. LinkedIn has filed for an IPO. Facebook said it could go public in 2012. Jive Software, the still-independent market leader in social business software […]

Google’s Android operating system will steal Nokia’s title as top smartphone operating system in 2011, grabbing a 39. 5 percent market share for the year, according to market-researcher IDC. Nokia’s Symbian OS will drop to second place with a 21 percent share. Research in Motion’s Blackberry platform will command a 15 percent share, followed by […]

It’s getting increasingly harder for Google to claim it is friend to the long tail of Website publishers indexed on its search engine. Nicholas Carr, the pundit who has argued that Google is making us stupid, has another go at Google in his blog. Carr argued that Google’s new Recipe View search refinement favors high-profile […]

Amazon.com March 29 launched a Web-based music locker that is decidedly friendly toward Google’s Android operating system while ignoring Apple’s iOS. The digital music locker, which lets users store music in Amazon’s bank of servers and stream over the Web on any PC, Mac, Android phone or Android tablet, comprises Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud […]