Google Archive

My colleague Thom wrote an excellent evaluation of the European antitrust investigation of Google yesterday. I agree with much of what Thom says in his article, including the statements that the investigation isn't surprising and that it's fishy that the complaining companies have ties to Microsoft. What I don't agree with is the offhanded comment that Google has "pretty much a monopoly in search." There was a lively discussion on this point in the comments, but I thought that rather than join the fray there, I'd exercise my monopoly power and put my thoughts into an editorial.

Well, this was pretty much inevitable. With Google having pretty much a monopoly in search, it's not surprising to see authorities putting the company under a microscope, and this is exactly what the European Commission is doing. The EC has launched a fact-finding antitrust probe into Google. However, looking at where the probe originates from, some might have a sense of "ah!". Update: more bad news for Google.

The Mom of all internet companies, Google, has announced today that it will effectively become an internet service provider. The company is planning on building a number of ultra high-speed broadband networks in select locations in the United States, serving anywhere between 50000 and 500000 users.

"Google updated its Chrome browser's developer's builds to version 5 for Windows and Mac today, the first time any version of Chrome has reached that milestone. Google was expected to push version 5 out to the public before the end of the month. Unlike the more recent versions of developer's build 4.x, the developer's builds of Chrome 5.x seems to be starting off to a rough start."

The whole Google attack thing is far from over. We already have an item on page 2 about how the attack may not have originated from within China at all, but there's more. Bill Gates has weighed in on the issue, and there are reports indicating that Google may not leave China at all.

Finally! Google has released version 4.0 of Chrome for Windows, bringing the much-anticipated extensions framework out of beta and into the stable channel. Currently, more than 1500 extensions are already available. Version 4.0 carries more features than just extensions, though.

Only a few days ago, we discussed the most popular YouTube feature request: HTML5 video support. Apparently, a lot of people want a version of YouTube that doesn't depend on Flash (me being one of them), and now Google has honoured their request with the HTML5 YouTube beta. Sadly, video quality needs a lot of work, and in spite of the original feature request, it's using h264 instead of Theora.

"The Google/China story has enough legs to qualify as a 'centipede' at this point. After saying that it would no longer censor Chinese search results and that it was ready to pull out of China, Google also admitted to being the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack that went after more than 30 companies. The immediate aftermath of the announcement was a media feeding frenzy - and that was before the Chinese government's various departments even began reacting to the news. Now that they have, it's clear that Google and China are on a collision course, and that the US government is ready to get involved on Google's side. If you've had difficulty keeping up with the story, have no fear: here's a roundup of the news you need to know."

The United States will issue a formal diplomatic note to China expressing concern about cyber attacks that hit Google and dozens of other companies, and that researchers say originated in that country. "We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday. "It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it."

So, I was about to go to bed when major news regarding Google and China hit my browser. Google has stated on its blog that after a number of attacks upon Google's servers, and attempted cracking of GMail accounts from Chinese human rights activists, the company is thinking of ceasing its operations in China. Google will, in any case, cease censoring search results on Google.cn.

Ah, and there we have it: another chapter in the discussion between open and closed when it comes to application stores. A phishing application, masquerading as a banking application from First Tech Credit Union, made its way onto the Android Market. It was removed quickly, but the damage is done.

InfoWorld's Galen Gruman writes that the main potential game-changing attribute of the Nexus One - that Google is selling the device direct - does nothing to move the industry past carrier lock-in. "At first, I wanted to credit Google for making a tentative step in the direction of smartphone freedom. But that step is so tentative and ineffectual that frankly I think it's a cynical fig leaf covering the usual practices," Gruman writes. At issue is a political battle regarding walled gardens in the U.S. cellular market, a fight that will take years to result in any true consumer freedom. "The only way we'll ever get the ability to choose a smartphone and carrier independently is for the platform providers that count - Apple, Google, and RIM - to first develop only multiband 'world' smartphones and then refuse to sell their devices (or in Google's case, use its Android license to forbid the sale of devices) to carriers that block or interfere with device portability."

"Google's much-anticipated new phone, the HTC-designed Nexus One, could make its debut next week. Google has scheduled a press event for Tuesday, January 5 at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. Though the company hasn't mentioned Nexus One, the invitation mentions Android, Google's mobile operating system for phones, and the company is widely expected to show the device that has had smartphone industry watchers buzzing for weeks."

Like I said in the below item, it's a slow news day. This was further evidenced today by a story about the Google Chrome OS Netbook specifications, which, according to IBTimes, were leaked - to them, obviously. Together with the iPhone/NYC thing, this story gripped the internet and blogosphere today.