Google Archive

Last week, when Microsoft's attempt at buying Yahoo stranded, Steve Ballmer specifically mentioned Google, and how a possible deal between Google and Yahoo would limit choice and competition in the marketplace. Google explained yesterday how it would fend off possible antritrust concerns following an ad-sharing deal with Yahoo. In addtion, Google noted the irony in Microsoft's complaints.

The various Google Summer of Code slots have been awarded to the participating projects. As most of you will know, the Summer of Code is all about enticing programmers to contribute to open source projects. Students submit their ideas to mentor organisations (these mentors are approved by Google first), and after selecting the ideas the mentors like the most, the programmers work to complete their task. If they succeed, Google will grant them a stipend. Google selected 174 mentor organisations for this year's Summer of Code. Read on for a selection of interesting applications that have been approved.

"Google invited developers to its London office for one of three workshops - the others being in Munich and Tel Aviv to spread the word and teach developers how to write for their new OS. Here's what they told us. The mantra for Android is that it's 'a complete and modern embedded OS, with a cutting edge mobile user experience, a world class software stack for building apps and open platform for developers users and industry'."

"The software development kit for Google's Linux-based Android mobile phone operating system has been out in the wild for a over a month now, plenty of time for developers to form opinions of the platform and assess the capabilities of the API. The verdict from seasoned mobile software programmers is somewhat mixed; some are even expressing serious frustration."

Google has finally released Android, the opensource platform that will be used by the Open Handset Alliance. The platform is based in the Linux kernel, freetype, sqlite, webkit, a 2D/3D subsystem and other pieces, but the application framework is built in Java using a embedded-optimized VM called Dalvik. The SDK is available for Linux, Mac and Win and it includes an emulator. Video here. Update: The WebKit browser failed to render the desktop version of OSNews, so now we feed it our mobile one.

Google has released a statement regarding the decision not to fast-track Microsoft's OOXML for certification. "Google welcomes the ISO decision to not approve the fast track of Office Open XML proposed standard DIS 29500 (ECMA 376). Our engineers conducted an independent analysis of the OOXML specification and found several areas of concern, which we communicated both to the ISO and to the public."

"Google's first mobile phone reportedly will run a Linux operating system on a Texas Instruments "Edge" chipset, and will likely ship to T-Mobile and Orange customers in the Spring of 2008. "GPhone" call minutes and text messages will apparently be funded by mobile advertising, according to reports." The report found at the popular embedded systems Linux news site LinuxDevices.

Google has developed a prototype cell phone that could reach markets within a year, and plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story of The Wall Street Journal. More info here and here.

Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users. In a report released Saturday, London-based Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade. The category is reserved for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy."

Google announced today the availability of a new open-source browser plug-in, Google Gears, that promises developers the ability to create applications that work within a browser - even without Internet connectivity.

"Accepted student applications for Google Summer of Code have been announced! We accepted over 900 student applicants from a pool of nearly 6,200 applications. All the mentoring organizations that will participate in Google Summer of Code 2007 are listed. You can learn more about the accepted students and their projects by visiting each organization's 'about' page."

Google has chosen the mentoring organizations that will be participating in Google Summer of Code 2007. Most of the usual suspects made the list, as well as a few newcomers, including Haiku. Google is now accepting student applications.

"Google Summer of Code 2007 is on! Last year, Google funded over 600 students in 93 countries to work with 100 open source groups. We're extremely happy to announce that we'll be holding Google Summer of Code again this year. We look forward to helping new contributors join the community and write more code."

Google has quietly axed the web services API to its eponymous search engine. The stealth move was made without any announcement, but visitors to the page now receive a blunt message, backdated to 5 December, advising them that the SOAP API is no longer supported.