Steve Bryant

Reuters has a story today about Brazillian authorities filing for permission to sue Google, alleging the company is withholding user info required for a criminal investigation. Brazilian authorities want Google to turn over info from Orkut, the G Poppa’s social networking site, which Brazil believes is being used for organized crime and child pornography. The […]

It’s been almost three weeks since AOL’s research team released keyword search data for 658,000 users onto the Internet. Unlike other recent data breaches, in this case AOL employees voluntarily released the data, unwittingly circumventing their company’s privacy policies and security controls. So it’s no wonder of profundity that the breach concerns privacy advocates and […]

Hosted application provider Salesforce.com has purchased start-up Kieden Corp., which helps customers track sales leads generated with Google AdWords: “The software works by identifying which keywords attracted Web surfers to click on a particular Google advertisement, then request product information. It attaches that data to a file that Salesforce software uses to track leads throughout […]

Publishers who want to make their books searchable online but aren’t comfortable with Google Book Search now have another option. Publisher HarperCollins and Austin, Texas-based LibreDigital announced today a hosted service called LibreDigital Warehouse that will give publishers and booksellers the ability to deliver searchable book content on their own Web sites. Like Google Book […]

Google began testing video ads with partner Viacom today. The initial test, which will include up to 150 AdSense members selected by Google, will use channels of video content provided by MTV Networks and will last four weeks. The testers received instructions on how to implement a JavaScript object that embeds a Flash player in […]

Google Checkout continues to struggle through early growing pains. According to two surveys by analyst company Piper Jaffray, 81 percent of online retailers say they won’t implement Google Checkout. The reason: Retailers don’t want to cede customer ownership to Google. And 10 percent of companies surveyed said that Google Checkout would provide Google with too […]

Google’s search share dropped a full percentage point in July to 43.7% from 44.7%, according to comScore. This drop marks the first time in a full calendar year that Google’s share of all search engine queries has fallen. According to comScore, Google’s competitors picked up the slack, splitting the percentage point evenly. Yahoo’s share was […]

Google plans to open an office in Cairo, Egypt, in November to concentrate on its Arabic services, according to Arabian Computer News. The office will be Google’s first in the Middle East and will be directed by Sherif Iskander, regional head of Google Middle East and North Africa. Google’s Cairo office marks another phase in […]

Just noticed that Hitwise posted data showing that Google Video, the link to which was recently added to the Google home page, has now surpassed Yahoo Video in terms of page views. What’s even more interesting is that the Google audience tends to be older than that of reigning video champ YouTube, meaning that Google’s […]

Today we’re running the first in a continuing series of conversations about everybody’s favorite tech brouhaha, Google vs. Microsoft. Every Friday, I’ll pit my wits against veteran Microsoft journalist Mary Jo Foley as we discuss competition between the two companies. The friendly fights begin Friday mornings, when one of us posts a note, and then […]

LAS VEGAS, NV — Fisticuffs erupted at the 5th Annual Official Star Trek Convention when Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page could not settle a dispute over who got “the rad Star Trek booth” in their bedroom on the company’s private jet. The argument is the latest in a series of tiffs between the […]

Google, fresh from its $90 million settlement, is being sued for click fraud in another class action lawsuit, this one filed in Pennsylvania federal district court, Google Watch has learned. The proposed class action — the third this year — was filed on behalf of several hundred Pennsylvania and New Jersey residents, and accuses Google […]