Google ads Amazon-style products to search results – in a big revenue grab

An interesting update by Google which seems directly targeted at Amazon. These new Product Ads from Google will compete with Amazon’s commission model, and may come down to who has the better search. With billions of dollars in revenue the stakes…   In the early days of Google, users would type in a query, we’d …

Sign up for Google Fiber get a free Nexus tablet, or super-cheap internet for $3.57/mo

Today may very well live in infamy as the day the cable companies died. Internet giant Google announced its new, groundbreaking Google Fiber, a broadband service that will bring breakneck 1Gbps internet speed to Kansas City — service far faster and far cheaper than that offered by traditional cable companies. How fast is Google’s 1Gbps …

Foursquare launches promoted updates – now all social networks have ads in your news feed

It’s official, all the social networking sites have started adding “promoted” tweets/posts/places to your news feed. It’s no surprise considering that Twitter, with its “promoted tweets,” recently said it has a “truckload of money in the bank”.   Today Foursquare is launching its version of search ads, Promoted Updates. Promoted Updates operate like Google’s promoted listings or Twitter’s …

R&D spending by the big three in smartphones – Nokia, Google, Apple

A fascinating graphic and the article it is pulled from.     Nokia led the wireless revolution in the 1990s and set its sights on ushering the world into the era of smartphones. Now that the smartphone era has arrived, the company is racing to roll out competitive products as its stock price collapses and …

Google adds educational Street Views – Antarctica with exploration outposts, penguins, and more

One of the focuses of this special addition to Google Maps is to teach users about the history of Antarctic exploration and the people who first set up shop in this bleak environment. Here’s what Google’s technical program manager for Street View Alex Starns wrote in a blog post: In the winter of 1913, a British …

Did Yahoo! hire Marissa Mayer to bring back Yahoo Search?

This is an interesting take on the hire of Marissa Mayer, considering that all the past CEO’s have gone as far away from search as they can. As you may have heard, Marissa Mayer is now CEO of Yahoo, ready to turn it into a leaner, fitter, more successful firm. It’s a great move for Yahoo, and …

Google Maps adds bike routes for Europe, Australia – take a trip through the Swedish countryside!

Back in 2010 we added biking directions for users of Google Maps in the US and Canada. Helping cyclists navigate the bike trails throughout those countries proved hugely popular, so we’re wheelie excited to announce that starting today, we’ve also added extensive biking data to Google Maps for Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, …

Google Maps update – bicycle legend now shows bike lanes, shared lanes, and bike-friendly roads

If you’re looking for new ways to get around for fun or to work, or might be trying to live a greener lifestyle in 2012, why not try biking? In March 2010 we introduced biking directions and since then Google Maps has been sharing biking directions with cyclists across the U.S and Canada. Since no bike path is the …

The skydiving keynote of Project Glass at Google I/O

    More on Project Glass: Google Glass launches for US-based I/O attendees $1500 and shipping early 2013 More Google Glass details: experimenting with connectivity options, control possible via voice   // Thx – Matt Anderson

Universal Music Catalog – just a few years away

With the announcement of Amazon’s new Cloud Player iPhone app, the Universal Music Catalog is one step closer. For years I have dreamed of this Star Trek-like device, where I can find any song I want and listen to it, from anywhere. Preferably this will be an app on a device I already own (smartphone), …