Jaikumar Vijayan

European Union lawmakers are considering a proposal that would let news publishers and copyright owners in member states hit companies like Google with fees for using their content in anchoring search results and delivering other services. The proposal is one among many covering the rights of content publishers in the digital age contained in a […]

Google is making it easier for Android users to search for information stored in applications that are installed on their devices via a new “In Apps” search mode. In Apps, which Google announced this week, currently works only with a fairly limited set of applications like Gmail, YouTube and Spotify. It functions much like Google’s […]

Google has officially adopted the United States and European Union’s Privacy Shield framework governing the transfer of personal data from the EU to the United States during the course of international commerce. The company this week submitted certification to the U.S. Department of Commerce confirming its commitment to applying Privacy Shield requirements when handling and […]

Users of Google’s Nexus devices will soon have the option of enabling their smartphones or tablets to automatically use free open WiFi hotspots where available to supplement their regular cellular service. The company on Friday said that it has begun rolling out Google’s WiFi Assistant to Nexus users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, […]

Reports this week that Alphabet CEO Larry Page wants Google’s Fiber operation to be scaled down substantially because of its disappointing performance so far appear to be somewhat at odds with recent comments and developments related to the broadband service. In an Aug. 25 report, The Information said that Page had recently ordered Google Fiber’s […]

Google wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a patent infringement dispute involving its Chrome browser. In a petition filed earlier this month, the company asked the Supreme Court to consider whether an appeals court’s view on how claims made in a patent application should be interpreted is in fact valid. The case […]

Starting Jan. 10, 2017, Google will penalize websites that serve up intrusive interstitials, or pop-up ads, to users searching for content on mobile devices. Websites and web pages that use such pop-ups will rank lower in Google’s mobile search results after that date, the company announced this week. The move is designed to make it […]

Google has begun rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat, the newest version of its mobile operating system. In keeping with the usual schedule for such rollouts, Google’s family of Nexus devices will receive the new OS in the next few days and weeks. Owners of Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Pixel C and […]

Google will end support for Chrome applications on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms over the next two years. Starting in early 2018, users of packaged and hosted Chrome apps will no longer be able to run them on these platforms. Google will, however, continue to support all types of Chrome apps on Chrome OS for […]

Google’s cloud platform group this week announced general availability of Cloud Bigtable, a fully managed database service capable of handling petabyte- scale workloads. The announcement was one of three from the Cloud Platform Group this week. Google this week also announced general availability of its Cloud Datastore managed NoSQL database service and talked up its […]