Google Archive

After countless rumours, leaked screenshots, and what not, Google has officially unveiled Android 2.3, dubbed Gingerbread, today. Accompanying the release of this new Android version is the Nexus S, a Samsung-made successor to HTC's Nexus One, which delivers the pure Google experience - unlocked, without additional crap.

Google have agreed, for a yet-announced sum, to acquire Widevine, a DRM technology provider used widely in web-streaming and set-top solutions like netflix, LOVEFiLM and the DISH network. via Engadget

The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google has abused a dominant position in online search, in violation of European Union rules. The Commission will investigate whether Google has abused a dominant market position in online search by allegedly lowering the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services which are specialized in providing users with specific online content such as price comparisons (so-called vertical search services) and by according preferential placement to the results of its own vertical search services in order to shut out competing services.

"Google's Chrome Operating System launch has been delayed, and the platform won't be available to launch on netbooks for at least the 'next few months'. Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed as much to reporters in a Q&A session at the Web 2.0 Summit Nov. 15, adding that the platform continues to be targeted for devices with a keyboard. Though he didn't provide a reason for the delay, he certainly shredded the rumor that there would be netbooks based on Google's Chrome Operating System launching this month."

That is without a single shred of doubt the most awesome headline I ever got to put on OSNews. This headline is so awesome I don't even need to write anything else, because it would just detract from the awesomeness. Cue Johnny Guitar, with a lone wanderer riding his horse towards a Mojave sunset, after just having... Wait, where were we? Right. Yes, Google has sued the US Department of the Interior because its Request for Quotation regarding a messaging solution demanded the use of Microsoft software.

Google has confirmed on the official Android Developer Twitter account that the Android Market has surpassed the milestone of 100000 applications. In perspective, Steve Jobs said last week that the Apple App Store now contains over 300000 applications. Having said that, the Android Market has now arguably reached a point where the difference becomes almost immaterial in a practical sense, because even with only 100000 applications it is unlikely anyone will be short-changed for choice.

Google's big Android chief Andy Rubin has given an interview to PC Magazine, in which he touches on some interesting topics. Sadly, PC Magazine didn't ask about the patent situation and why Google is seemingly letting its OEMs fend for themselves, but there's still a lot of other interesting stuff in there.

A few months ago, Google open sourced the VP8 video codec as part of the WebM video project, to create a truly Free/free unencumbered video format for the web as an answer to the non-Free/free patent-encumbered H264 format. Today, Google launched a new image format for the web, WebP, which aims to significantly reduce the file size of photos and images on the web.

TechCrunch held a little in-promptu poll a few days ago, asking its readers why they chose to go with Android instead of something else. Most people stated they choose Android because of "openness". The author of the article calls this "a load of crap", arguing that because carriers can do with Android as they so desire, the reality now is that Android isn't open. Clearly, the author doesn't get openness.

Hold on to your security blanket, people, because Google is rolling out a pretty big change to its search engine. Not too long ago the internet was in a shock because Google rolled out a new feature that allowed you to pick a background image for the Google home page, just like Microsoft's Bing. Google went a lot further today, and has launched Google Instant, adding search-before-you-type results to the Google home page.

"Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer's microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don't spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, 'wouldn't it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?' Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail."

Rumours were abound that the first Google ChromeOS device would emerge towards the end of the year. Although this rumour turned out to be false, other snippets of news surrounding Google and the ChromeOS also emerged. One of these stories consists of rumours reported by TechCrunch, and two others are not rumours but simply confirmed facts.

If you only have one e-mail account with Google you may not realize how annoying it can be for those of us who have multiple accounts to have to constantly sign in and out of Google services to check e-mail or information. There are ways around it (extensions, Greasemonkey scripts, using separate browsers for each account, etc), but why shouldn't Google support multiple user logins? In fact, if screenshots posted on the Google Operating System blog are to be believed (and they have been in the past), Google is currently testing a new feature which will lets users easily switch between multiple accounts easily. The feature isn't available to the public yet, but we can't wait to test it out.

"While HTML5's video support enables us to bring most of the content and features of YouTube to computers and other devices that don't support Flash Player, it does not yet meet all of our needs," said YouTube programmer John Harding in a blog post Tuesday. "Today, Adobe Flash provides the best platform for YouTube's video distribution requirements, which is why our primary video player is built with it."