Steve Bryant

Users viewing AdSense ads in Internet Explorer 6 or 7 over the last few days were prompted to install third-party software, according to forum posts on WebmasterWorld. The applications included QuickTime, Acrobat, Flash and Windows Media Player. The problem was first brought to Google’s attention on August 11 and was addressed August 15. According to […]

China.com recently announced that it’s partnering with Google on search engine technology, branding and advertising. China.com is an online gaming and Internet service with about 30 million registered users. China.com’s parent company, CDC, operates in software, business services, mobile services and applications, Internet, and media. It’s possible, given Google’s emphasis on the mobile marketplace and […]

Call me a mullet-coifed curmudgeon (and you have), but even the most forgiving soul should cringe upon reading the San Jose Merc’s florid coverage of Google’s Wi-Fi launch in Mountain View. To wit, the lede: “Google’s benevolence becomes reality today.“ Benevolence? Benevolence? Benevolence is an unbiased kindness doled out by nuns, Indian spiritual leaders and […]

Google will announce later today (update: has announced) several upgrades to Google Talk. The upgrades, which come on near the product’s one-year anniversary, include: File transfer – The “top requested” feature of GTalk users. You can share any type of file, several at a time if you want, including photos, of course. According to a […]

Looking for perspective? Ask an octogenarian. At 84, my grandmother has survived one world war, one economic depression and my grandfather. Grandad was so frugal he ate the marrow out of chicken bones and chewed one-half a stick of Wrigley’s at a time. For eight hours. So Granny, she learned to cut coupons. She reads […]

Just catching up on my notes from SES last week. I’ve often heard people complaining–especially marketing people–that Google’s online applications look different from each other, like they’re not part of the same suite. But one thing that CEO Eric Schmidt (Schmitty? Tall, dark and starchy? Eric-a-palooza?) said during a press briefing was that Google intentionally […]

Google, they say, is everywhere. Maps, e-mail, calendars, video. But one lucrative market the search and advertising giant has so far failed to enter is video games. How lucrative? The entire games market, including console gaming, PC and online, was worth about $7 billion in 2005, according to the Entertainment Software Association. What’s more, some […]

You peeps gotta relax. So yeah, Google’s lawyers sent letters to media companies saying hey, Google isn’t really a verb. But Google had to send those letters as part of its responsibility to its own brand. It’s just establishing a precedent in case its trademark faces a real legal challenge. By sending the letters, it […]

When Google’s video player debuted earlier this year, a lot of people were very upset and confused that the software incorporated digital rights management. Head Geek and primo sci-fi author Cory Doctorow was particularly taken aback, wondering why Hollywood was suddenly more important than users. And Techdirt’s Mike Masnick said Google probably implemented DRM to […]

Google warned investors on Wednesday that a rise in spending on its data centers and other infrastructure, plus a rise in cash compensation to its employees, may crimp its finances. In its quarterly 10-Q report (pictured left), Google said spending on data centers will rise, a point that Google execs have been repeating over the […]

SES Conference, San Jose — Google CEO Eric Schmidt said today that the company is discussing ways in which to reveal more data about click fraud to their advertisers. Schmidt maintained that Google has the click fraud problem under control, and that the rate of incidents is not increasing. But, he said, the company is […]

SES Conference, San Jose — Google CEO Eric Schmidt employed a Donald Rumsfeld-esque form of verbal ninjitsu today when he said click fraud metrics are difficult to understand because “It’s hard to know because you don’t know what you don’t know.” Schmidt also took advantage of the SES keynote to educate the audience on metrics […]