Michael Hickins

Google has introduced a new search tool, Google Public Data, that allows users to plumb the depths of tough-to-navigate government sites like the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This will make it a lot easier for reporters to dig out useful public data and for anyone to settle arguments on a fact-based […]

Google online video destination site YouTube scored a solo Web date with “La Femme Nikita” director Luc Besson, premiering the director’s new 90-minute environmental documentary film, “Home.” The official Google blog noted that Home will “exclusively be available online on YouTube for English, French, Spanish and German-speaking countries beginning June 5 — just in time […]

Microsoft had a bad day on Thursday, announcing the first year-over-year quarterly decline in its history, but at least, said CFO Chris Liddell, things are very bright on the netbook front. “Our attach rate is over 90 percent,” he said. Well, that’s just fine, Chris, but sometimes the past isn’t prologue, it’s just the past. […]

Google is mapping outbreaks of the swine flu, one of the many ways that the company is organizing all the world’s information. Google already has a well-known service that tracks searches for flu symptoms that helps public health officials predict where outbreaks of the normal influenza virus will occur. At last count, the swine flu […]

Think Google can’t possibly earn itself an even bigger portion of the search pie? Think again. Google is giving users yet another compelling reason to get a Google account, this time promising to make searches on their own names more relevant. Talk about an exercise in narcissism, but for once, when a company tells you […]

While Google Health suffered a public relations snafu through no fault of its own last week, Microsoft scored a major public relations coup today, April 21, when the Mayo Clinic announced it will create a personal electronic health record repository using HealthVault technology rather than Google Health. Earlier in April, Microsoft also announced a partnership […]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn’t mince words about Android during last Thursday’s conference call, saying, “It looks like Android is going to have a very, very strong year.” He particularly stressed the success Android is having among handset makers and netbook vendors, and intimated that Google is often surprised about new announcements because “Android … […]

Google chiefs Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin got themselves a new voice for the executive suite, a fact that was either glossed over or misinterpreted during yesterday’s earnings call. But Omid Kordestani is hardly a new face on campus. Google announced that Kordestani was moving from his position as senior vice president of […]

Google’s first-quarter sales and earnings figures are almost a backstory to a more important potential trend–the company’s modest (6.2 percent) revenue growth might mean that e-commerce business might be about to rebound, as online retailers make heavy use of search to drive business their way. New York Times reporter Miguel Helft noted: “Analysts are looking […]

Google and Apple seem headed on a collision course with their respective telephony products, leading to sentiment that Google CEO Eric Schmidt should resign his seat on Apple’s board. The crux of the biscuit is Android, the Google-sponsored smartphone operating system sold to phone manufacturers as an alternative to the iPhone. Now that Android may […]

Google’s dominance in Web search is growing and may grow even more thanks to a change in underlying technology it uses to present search results. So much for Steve Ballmer’s ambitions for Microsoft. Google had a 63.7 percent share of the 14.3 billion U.S. searches in March, up 0.4 percentage points from February, and above […]

SAAS is on its way to becoming the rule rather than the exception for application delivery. The software-as-a-service model still has some barriers to break, but analysts, vendors and customers agree that it’s come a lot further than anyone expected it to even five years ago. And more barriers are likely to be broken before […]