Clint Boulton

Google Oct. 1 refreshed its Car Home for Android application, decoupling it from the core operating system and providing custom shortcuts for users of the Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid smartphones. Apart from location accuracy, the hallmark of good GPS navigation products is their ability to let drivers drive without fussing over what buttons […]

Just hours after news surfaced that Facebook and Skype could be entering into a VOIP (voice over IP) partnership, industry watchers seized on the potential deal as flirtation that should evolve into an acquisition. AllThingsDigital reported Sept. 29 that Facebook and Skype are mulling an integration that would allow users of the world’s largest social […]

Google gave its Google URL Shortener history, analytics capabilities and its own home Sept. 30, enabling users to shorten URLs from the new goo.gl Website. URLs can be quite long and unwieldy, particularly for Twitter and other services where character space per post is limited. Hence, the rise of Bit.ly, TinyURL and other such services. […]

Google continued to refine its mobile ad technologies Sept. 29 with the introduction of a new hyperlocal advertising feature geared to help consumers in a pinch and businesses gain, well, more business. Hyperlocation means Google Mobile Ads will show users searching their mobile phones for a business service a locally relevant ad, marked with the […]

Google Sept. 30 said it has added imagery for its Street View technology across all seven continents, adding footage in Antarctica, Brazil and Ireland. Google Street View is a controversial feature of Google Maps that provides 360-degree panoramic images of streets and terrain all over the world. The idea is to make people feel as […]

Facebook Sept. 30 said its photo software will enable high-resolution images, a better viewer for browsing photos and a new photo upload tool for adding images in batches. Facebook in April purchased Divvyshot for the expertise of Sam Odio, who as the founder of that startup wrote software to let groups of people upload photos […]

Google took steps to alleviate a major pain point of its Android Market by expanding support for paid applications sales and purchases to additional countries. The search engine is now letting developers sell apps built for the Android operating system in 29 countries, up from just nine through Sept. 30. Android Market accepts credit and […]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wowed (and scared) the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt Sept. 28 when he talked about autonomous search and serendipity engines, but he also piqued curiosity by framing Google as open and Apple as closed. If you really think about it, Google’s open strategy can be limited by companies taking open-source platforms and […]

A Microsoft Office executive laughed off a new Google Gmail feature that lets users sort e-mail messages by date, claiming that Google should just hit the “like” button on Microsoft’s Facebook page instead of copying Office functionality. Google Sept. 29 introduced a toggle switch that lets its 180 million users choose to receive e-mail in […]

Google on Sept. 29 opened its Google Phone Gallery, a Website where users can compare three of nearly 40 Android phones side by side and navigate to purchase them from carriers. For the Google Phone Gallery, Google’s product search technology lets users slice and dice results by country (16 listed today), maker (Motorola, Samsung, HTC […]

One day after Google CEO Eric Schmidt touted autonomous search as a serendipity engine where information comes to users instead of tracking them down, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the future of media will be personalized. Schmidt’s and Sandberg’s points are that computers and the software that empower them are getting smart enough […]

Google chalked up a so-called blacklist of search terms people found banned when using the new Google Instant predictive search technology to an autocomplete system the company is continuing to refine. Publication 2600 compiled the list of words that won’t surface when users search for them using Google Instant, which renders results automatically on the […]