Clint Boulton

Google’s 30th birthday celebration of perennial arcade favorite Pac-Man was so popular with fans of the venerable video game that the search engine has decided to make it a permanent addition to its Web service arsenal. Google May 21 published a mini version of Pac-Man, the popular game featuring an insatiable yellow dot that gobbles […]

Where Google is concerned, I’m never one to refrain from commenting on other reporters’ stories or perspectives. Every now and then I’ll come across a piece that begs for commentary. The New York Times’ Brad Stone published one such report, title: “Regulators Are Watching Google Over Antitrust Concerns.” Here is the thesis: “Almost a decade […]

Industry analysts are calling Google TV promising, but are guarded in their enthusiasm because the Internet-television graveyard is loaded with services from Microsoft’s WebTV in 1996 to Intel’s Viiv entertainment platform a decade later. Announced May 20 at Google I/O, Google TV marries Web surfing and channel surfing, much like existing services such as Apple […]

Google May 21 began adding SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption for its search engine, a direct response to the company’s accidental collection of users’ personal information in countries all over the world. The search engine May 16 admitted that its Street View cars that patrol city streets to record images had unknowingly collected users’ payload […]

Anyone holding onto any doubt that Google and Apple aren’t at war for the mobile Web can rid themselves of that illusion after Google I/O May 20. A senior Google executive took several verbal shots at Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs for being a closed, controlling unit that is cancerous in its lack of […]

The Federal Trade Commission unanimously agreed to close its investigation of Google’s agreement to purchase mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million, paving the way for Google and Apple to compete more fiercely in the mobile Web market. The FTC, which in recent weeks had been considering filing a lawsuit to block the deal, May […]

Google introduced Google TV at Google I/O May 20, capping months of speculation about the service. Here is the gist: Google TV marries Web and television programming access, allowing users to access Web content while watching TV, or switching back and forth seamlessly between the two. Android is the underlying operating system for the service, […]

Little is known yet about Google’s Chrome Web Store, but the move takes a page straight out of the playbook of today’s successful mobile application stores, including Apple’s iPhone App Store and Google’s own Android Market. Unveiled May 19 at Google I/O, Chrome Web Store is an application gallery meant to make it easier for […]

HTC, whose Android-based smartphones include the Hero, Nexus One, and the Droid Eris and Droid Incredible, has told blogs most phones launched this year will get an upgrade to Android 2.2 in the second half of the year. “As we get closer to readiness, we’ll reveal a full list, but for now have started with […]

Google TV, Android 2.2, Chrome Web Store Lead Googles Latest Ventures by Clint Boulton The Google I/O Crowd More than 5,000 developers showed up at Google’s third annual I/O show. Star of the Show: Google TV This year’s Google Wave, Google TV is a sweeping effort to marry Web surfing with television consumption. The service […]

Google launched an API for Google Latitude, the friend-finding service that lets users display their locations on Google Maps. The API, rolled out at Google I/O May 19, will let users use and reuse their Latitude location with any applications or services. Google has put in the yeoman’s work, adding controversial Location History and Location […]

Google May 19 launched its promised Google Buzz API at Google I/O, and a number of applications are already integrating with the service, including social apps Seesmic and Boxee. How do these apps integrate with Buzz? Seesmic and Buzz users can now manage Buzz in their browser through Seesmic Web, through a beta version of […]