Jaikumar Vijayan

In an event that held few surprises, Google on Sept. 29 announced widely expected updates to several of its hardware products and its Android mobile operating system. Among the product introductions were two new Nexus phones, the 5.2-inch Nexus 5X and the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P (pictured). The 6P represents Google’s new top-of-the-line Nexus Android-powered smartphone […]

Google is equipping some of its Street View cars with an air pollution-sensing platform from environmental sensor network company Aclima to measure air quality levels in various communities in California. Initially, Google will map air quality levels in communities in the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Central Valley regions. The three areas together account for […]

Google, already under growing scrutiny from business practice regulators in several countries, may be under fresh scrutiny at home as well. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice are said to be investigating complaints that the company is unfairly preventing rivals from installing their software on Google’s Android mobile operating system. […]

Google is working on improving the process by which administrators of hacked Websites can get their sites restored to good standing in search engine results. The company on Sept. 23 announced that it has begun beta testing the automated removal, or reversal, of certain actions that it takes on Websites that are identified as being […]

Big data analytics technologies such as Hadoop and Spark can help organizations extract business value from massive data sets, but they can be very complex to administer and to manage. Hoping to help reduce some of that complexity, Google Wednesday announced the launch of a new service dubbed Cloud Dataproc for customers of its cloud […]

Google has hired several senior executives from Oyster, an online book subscription service that this week announced plans to shut down its operations permanently. Among the executives who have already joined or will be joining Google from Oyster are CEO Eric Stromberg and company co-founders Andrew Brown and Willem Van Lancker, Recode reported Monday. The […]

With the number of paying organizations using Google Drive crossing the one million mark earlier this year, Google appears to be ramping up its efforts to bolster the cloud storage service’s security features. The cloud services giant introduced new features on Sept. 21 that are intended to give organizations more visibility and control over business […]

France’s chief data protection authority has rejected Google’s appeal of an order that requires the company to apply the European Union’s ‘right to be forgotten’ mandate to all of Google’s search domains worldwide. Google must either comply with the formal order or face potential sanctions, France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) said […]

Google, provider of the world’s largest email service, has once again aired its long-standing call for reform of the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, Richard Salgado, Google’s director for law enforcement and information security, described ECPA reform as critical to protecting email and […]

It looks like Google’s troubled Glass smart eyewear project is being revived under a new name and with a newly expanded team in charge. The Google Glass effort is now known as Project Aura inside Google and will focus on developing smart eyeglasses and other related wearable technology products, Business Insider reported Thursday. Project Aura […]

Google apparently wants its Fiber service not just to be the fastest Internet service in the market, but also the one with the best customer service and support. The company has launched a new Google Fiber Academy in the metro Atlanta area to train installers on how to deliver high-quality customer service when installing Fiber […]

Acting on a complaint filed earlier this year by Russian search engine firm Yandex, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) this week formally charged Google with violating the country’s fair competition laws. In a statement released Sept. 14, FAS said that an investigation of Yandex’s complaints shows that Google is abusing its dominant market position to […]