Todd R. Weiss

Google Images search in the past meant perusing through page after page of online images as users sought just the right photo or illustration for a project. However, that process could be getting easier and faster now that Google has redesigned the images to appear on a multi-image panel that can be reviewed more quickly, […]

Google since 2009 has seen a more than 70 percent increase in requests from governments worldwide for information about its users and their possible criminal activities, according to Google’s latest biannual “Transparency Report” on such requests. For the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2012, Google received 21,389 government requests for information about 33,634 users, including […]

Google is seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission to build an intriguing yet vaguely worded experimental wireless network around its California-based headquarters. The FCC application was discovered Jan. 22 by Steven J. Crowley, an electrical engineer from Washington D.C., who routinely checks FCC applications as part of his work for clients. After finding the […]

Google Maps was the most popular mobile app in the United States in early 2012, but by the end of the year, it fell to second place behind Facebook’s mobile app, due largely to Google Maps being dropped from Apple’s iOS 6 operating system in September. That’s the word from digital analytics firm comScore, which […]

Google is moving its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) over to the GitHub collaborative development environment to make it easier for software developers to contribute and continue the evolution of GCP. Julia Ferraioli, developer advocate for the Google Compute Engine, announced the transition in a Jan. 22 post on the Google Developers Blog. “Today, we’re announcing […]

Google co-founder Sergey Brin took a pair of Google Glasses for a ride on a New York subway train Jan. 21, and the appearance of Brin and the still-in-development invention caught the attention of a “hardware hacker” who recognized him and posted a photo of the sighting on Twitter. “Yeeeah … I just had a […]

Amazon is making it easier for software developers to sell extra features and services to consumers through their software apps by tying the transactions in with Amazon’s established and trusted e-commerce infrastructure. The move, which was announced Jan. 22, is aimed at helping developers to reach more customers and make more money from their apps […]

Google Maps are certainly not just for finding your way to a distant location on your next road trip. All over the world, software developers are building intriguing new Google Maps applications and Websites using the Maps API and Google’s Street View images to portray lots of unorthodox thinking. The Website Google Maps Mania, an […]

Google Docs users have known since last fall that they’d soon no longer be able to export files to older Microsoft Office formats. Now the drop-dead deadline of Jan. 31 is fast approaching, and Google Docs wants to remind users of the coming changes. The changes were announced Sept. 25, 2012, with an original planned […]

Facebook Messenger now allows iPhone users to make calls to other iPhone users for free via WiFi, as the company continues to provide its users with new ways to reach out to their friends. The new feature was launched Jan. 16 without any fanfare or announcement, according to a report by The Verge. The new […]

Google is donating $3.7 million to two organizations that are working to make government data more open, available and transparent to citizens in the United States and around the world. Google.org has awarded $2.1 million to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, and $1.6 million to mySociety, a U.K.-based group, according to a Jan. 16 post […]

Google is planning two special “hackathon” events to showcase its Google Glass eyeglass-mounted computers and gain input from developers who want to improve them and make them more usable. The Google hackathon events were unveiled in an email sent by Google to developers who attended the Google I/O Conference in July 2012, where the “smart […]