Google sues US in software battle

Google is suing the US government, saying it was unfairly excluded from a $58m deal to revamp e-mail systems at the Department of the Interior.

In a lawsuit filed with the US Court of Federal Claims, Google says the terms of the five-year contract rule out its products and favour rival Microsoft.

The search giant wants to offer its Google Apps software for the contract.

But Google says it was told that only Microsoft's business software could be used - a move it called "arbitrary".

The Department of the Interior, which employs about 88,000 people, declined to comment on Google's legal action.

Security fears

Google says in its lawsuit that it was told there would be "full and open competition" for the contract, but that the bid specified that only the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal could be used.

This is a special version of Microsoft's suite of business tools that was designed for the US federal government.

Google has its own special version of its software designed to address government security concerns, Google Apps for Government.

However, the firm says it was told its product did not comply with the department's security requirements.

Google says the decision was "arbitrary and capricious", as well as being "unduly restrictive of competition" and against US law.

It calls for an open contracting process, which it says "could save US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and result in better services".

Google: Hey, We've Got Places Too

Don't forget, prospective Facebook Places users, Google offers similar features to the Facebook's new location-sharing service with Google Maps for Mobile. Just one day after Facebook announced Places, Google announced in a blog post that more than 100 million people a month are now using Google Maps on their mobile phones.

Although the search giant never mentions Facebook by name, it's awfully strange timing to send out a reminder about Google Maps for Mobile right after Facebook launched Places.


What to Do With Google Maps for Mobile

Regardless of the timing, there's no doubt you can use Google Maps for Mobile to do a lot more than you can with Facebook Places. You can use My Location to get your bearings when visiting a new city or neighborhood. Google Latitude lets you broadcast your location to your friends, and Place Pages can help you find hours of operation, reviews and other information about nearby restaurants, shops and landmarks. You can also use Google Maps on your mobile device to get voice-guided directions.


Google Feeling the Pressure?

There's no doubt Google Maps is a useful service, and with more than 100 million users every month it's clearly popular. But now Facebook is attempting to popularize location-sharing among its 500 million users in a way that services like Google Latitude, Foursquare, or Gowalla could never do. So perhaps it's wise to remind users of all the great things you can do with Google Maps for Mobile just in case Facebook Places (powered by Microsoft's Bing Maps) starts to include other features that could compete with Google Maps.

Then again, maybe it's complete chance that Google Maps for Mobile just happened to reach 100 million users per month at the same time Facebook got into the location game. Just like the time Google and Bing just happened to strike real-time search deals in the

Google Patches Security Holes in Chrome Browser

Google on Thursday released a new version of its Chrome browser that patches nine security vulnerabilities, including two critical threats.

Version 5.0.375.127, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, comes roughly three weeks after a security patch that fixed five Chrome flaws. Google usually updates Chrome every 2 to 4 weeks.

Software vulnerability tracker Secunia rates the latest Chrome update as "highly critical," its second-highest ranking after "extremely critical."

One Chrome flaw has an "unknown impact," while others "can be exploited by malicious people to conduct spoofing attacks and compromise a user's system," according to post on Secunia's site.

In addition to the two critical flaws, Chrome 5.0.375.127 patches seven less-serious threats, including one medium and six high-level vulnerabilities. The two most-serious, critical issues include a crash on system shutdown due to a notifications bug, and memory corruption with the file dialog, according to Google.

Chrome, known for its speed and security, has gained market share over the past year, much at the expense of Mozilla Firefox. Microsoft Internet Explorer has recently reversed its declining position and is also gaining share globally, according to Net Applications statistics.

Google to add Like.com to its pockets for $100 million

The latest company to be blessed with a Google acquisition is Like.com, an intriguing website specializing in "visual search," a technology Google has been toying with for years.

Google has its own visual search engine incorporated into Android - users can take a picture of a monument, landmark, or ever a person and receive results based on its extensive combing on images on the Internet. It is a technology that Google has been interested in for a while, but has had trouble finding ways to incorporate it.
Enter Like.com. It's a visual search-powered e-commerce site. Largely focused on apparel items, it tries to identify products for users based on the color and design of the items they're searching for. For example, if users really like that sequined gown, Like.com will be able to provide other items that are similar in design, color, etc.

Tech Crunch broke the story that Google is looking to buy the unique online store and all the back-end technology that comes with it. Combined with all of its existing search strength, Google could bring this into something really powerful.

Like.com reportedly grosses around $50 million per year so a $100 million price tag is a reasonable investment. It's a slight step away from the social networking/gaming scene that Google has been so focused on lately, but it does ensure that it can stay on top of the latest search technology in addition to going off on all of these side projects (like social gaming) as well.

Neither Google nor Like.com has yet confirmed the potential acquisition.

Google's Biggest Bombs and Bungles

Sure, Google Wave is the latest casualty, but the search behemoth has terminated a number of services over the years.

The untimely passing of Google Wave may be the most high-profile termination of a Google service which began with great expectations. (At least on Google’s part: Seems like a high percentage of the people who were supposed to love Wave were skeptical from the get go.) But Google has terminated a lot of services over the years–and Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land took Wave’s demise as an opportunity to remember some of them.

Danny didn’t mention my favorite Google dud, though. Google Web Accelerator, which went live in 2005, was a piece of Windows software designed to speed up Internet access by pre-fetching cached versions of popular pages. It had a nasty bug which caused it to sometimes show one person a cached version of another person’s account at sites such as message forums. It also had trouble displaying YouTube videos.

Accelerator was never popular, and Google axed it in 2008. But even though you can’t download it anymore, Google has left up the pages explaining the service and touting its benefits. Which is cool. If, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, launching products that fail is an essential learning experience, it makes sense to document them rather than to pretend they never existed.

Oracle sues Google over Android

Oracle Corp sued Google Inc, alleging patent and copyright infringement in the development of the popular Android smartphone software.

The suit, filed on Thursday in California federal court, claims that Google "knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property" in developing Android, Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies."

Oracle acquired Java through its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year. Analysts said the suit against Google could signal that Oracle intends to be more aggressive in seeking licensees for Java, a technology that is used in many types of Internet-based products.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison has said he views the Java software as a key asset, pointing to its use in a variety of electronic devices, from PCs to DVD players.

"Sun's corporate philosophy was obviously very different from Oracle's in terms of enforcing the Java patents," said Edward Reines, an IP litigator at Weil Gotshall who is involved in separate patent litigation against Oracle.

A Google spokesman said he could not comment on the lawsuit as the company had not had a chance to review it yet.

Analysts say Google's Android operating system uses portions of Java technology.

About 200,000 smartphones and other devices based on the Android operating system are sold each day, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said at an August 4 conference.

The case is Oracle of America Inc v Google Inc, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California .

Google, Verizon propose net neutrality rules

Google and U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon have jointly proposed rules they say will preserve internet neutrality in the United States, although the companies' suggestions won't apply to wireless services.

The two companies on Monday announced seven principles for U.S. regulators to use when crafting so-called net neutrality rules.

The suggestions include the prohibition of wired broadband providers from discriminating between different kinds of internet traffic, a rule that would also prevent charging content providers extra fees for prioritized traffic.

The other proposed rules include requiring internet service providers to be transparent in how they manage and monitor internet traffic and a clarification of laws that would allow the Federal Communications Commission to impose penalties of up to $2 million US for net neutrality transgressions.

Protecting consumers a goal
The new rules would not initially apply to the wireless internet in order to preserve the incentives for service providers to continue investing in what is a relatively new technology, the companies said.

"In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement," wrote Google and Verizon executives on the search company's blog.

"In addition, the Government Accountability Office would be required to report to Congress annually on developments in the wireless broadband marketplace, and whether or not current policies are working to protect consumers."

The net neutrality rule suggestions are similar to those implemented in Canada by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last year. The CRTC's rules, however, are stricter in that they apply to wireless internet services as well as wired.

U.S. regulators last week halted talks between parties to come up with a compromise for net neutrality rules after reports surfaced that the various parties involved were trying to cut back-room deals without input from consumers.

The FCC said that while the talks were productive, they had not resulted in a framework that would "preserve the openness and freedom of the internet."

The FCC is expected to draft its own set of rules.

The rules suggested by Google and Verizon, however, stand in contrast to the fears raised by newspaper reports and consumer groups last week. The New York Times reported that Google and Verizon were working on a deal that would allow content providers such as Google to pay ISPs such as Verizon for faster delivery of their content, an option expressly prohibited in the companies' suggestions.

Regulator's authority challenged
Net neutrality gained poignancy in the United States in 2007 when cable provider Comcast began blocking peer-to-peer traffic, a commonly used system for sharing files online.

The FCC imposed sanctions against the company, but Comcast challenged the regulator's authority in court. Authorities have been struggling with the issue since.

In Canada, a similar situation arose in 2007 when Bell Canada began slowing peer-to-peer traffic.

The dispute between Bell and its wholesale customers resulted in the CRTC issuing net neutrality rules that prohibit discriminatory practices, but allow network management as a last resort to combat congestion.

Germany to keep close eye on Google "Street View"

(Reuters) - The German government said on Wednesday it will scrutinize Google's promise to respect privacy requests by letting people opt out of its "Street View" mapping system and that it would be ready to intervene if necessary.

In a country wary of surveillance due to the Nazis' Gestapo and East Germany's Stasi secret police, the response to Street View has been overwhelmingly negative even though Germans got assurances they can have images of their homes kept out.

Google's announcement on Tuesday that it would allow Germans to stay out of Street View failed to allay fears that privacy would be compromised by the navigation system.

"We'll take a very close look at how effectively this works in practice and we'll see from there," a spokeswoman for Consumer Minister Ilse Aigner told a government news conference.

Google has come under fire for the short time period provided to register their objections -- by September 15.

"This four-week deadline is not right," said Ulrich Ropertz, spokesman for the DMB German association of tenants. "It's like you're stuck forever if you don't object right away."

More than 10,000 Germans have already formally requested their homes be deleted from Street View. Criticism from civil rights watchdogs will likely push that figure higher.

TANTAMOUNT TO SPYING?

"The Stasi would be green with envy if they could have collected this kind of data," wrote the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "What in the past was called 'state snooping' is now called 'Google View'."

Government officials said tenants will be able to keep their dwellings out of the panoramic street-level still photographs taken from Google vehicles with cameras rising about three meters (10 feet) high.

The government may also join the ranks of those requesting some buildings -- such as military installations -- be left out of Street View, government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said.

"Each minister can decide what to do," he said.

Google plans to add Germany's 20 largest cities to Street View by the end of 2010, joining 23 countries already included. Google said human faces and license plates would be blurred.

Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner in Hamburg, said he was alarmed by the plans by the world's No. 1 search engine, which calls Google Street View a helpful tool.

"I've got my doubts whether Google is really interested in a simple and user-friendly way for people to register their objections," Caspar told daily Die Welt. "They're not, for instance, going to set up a telephone hotline for questions."

Launched in 2007, Street View allows users to see street scenes on Google Maps and take virtual "walks" on computers.

Critics say the tool invites abuse. They argue thieves can search for targets, security firms could use the data for sales pitches, job seekers might find their homes scrutinized by employers, and banks could inspect the homes of loan applicants.

Google ran into trouble in Germany in May after authorities found out that Street View vehicles were collecting private data sent over unencrypted WiFi networks. Google called it a mistake.

Google Acquires Social App Developer Slide

Slide offers Facebook and MySpace applications that allows users to build virtual communities centered on entertainment.

Google has acquired Slide, a maker of entertainment applications for online social networks that lets users create and distribute virtual goods.
Google announced the acquisition Friday, but did not release financial details. The company was also mum on product plans.

The announcement indicates that Google may be interested in some type of social network centered on games. Slide offers applications on Facebook and MySpace that people can use to build virtual communities centered on entertainment. Slide applications lets people send virtual gifts to friends, care for online pets and create their own virtual goods.
David Glazer, engineering director at Google, pointed out on the company's blog that Google has already built some social elements in products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube.

"As the Slide team joins Google, we'll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the Web," Glazer said.

U.S. Internet users spend more of their online computing time visiting social networking sites and blogs than checking email, a recent study by Nielsen found. Games are the second most popular online sector.

Among the most popular online games makers are Electronic Arts, Blizzard Entertainment and Zynga. The latter's community-based games Mafia Wars, Farmville and Cafe World dominate Facebook, attracting 235 million users a month in May.

Outside of the U.S., Japan is a big market for social games. Zynga on Thursday acquired Unoh, a Japanese developer of social games, for an undisclosed amount. Unoh has developed a number of hits, such as Machitsuku, Band Yarouo, and Kaizoku Chronicle.

Google jumps off its Wave of the future

Only a little over a year ago, Google launched its Wave feature amid declarations that it would revolutionize the way groups of people could collaborate on documents. The company even suggested that Wave could replace e-mail.

But Wave has crashed: Google said Wednesday that its development has been halted. The Internet search giant said it would keep the service online until about the end of the year.

Google Wave rode a cyclone of publicity when it launched in May 2009. The feature lets users send digital correspondences, called waves, that could be edited by anyone in a designated group on the fly. Early adopters were tickled by the idea of seeing friends' messages show up instantly after each keystroke.

All of that technical magic took a toll on Google's servers, which hosted each wave and every edit that happened within those documents.

To manage growth, the company required potential users to get an invitation from someone using Wave. The invites proved to be so popular that they were selling for $50 on eBay.

But when users finally got on the service, they generally found that only a few of their acquaintances also had access. That limited its utility as a collaborative tool.

Wave also was plagued by technical problems, and some users complained that its complicated interface was confusing.

Google intended to release Wave, a pet project of Google Maps inventors and brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen, as open source for other companies to install on their own servers.

While packed with features, Wave couldn't communicate with traditional e-mail addresses, though its founders had promised that feature for some time.

Google appears to have lost patience with the project.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president of operations, said in a statement. "Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science."

— Mark Milian, Tribune Newspapers

Google Wave failure may help Google Me succeed

As Google Wave is tossed aside, analysts say Google has learned important social networking lessons

Lessons learned from the demise of Google Wave -- Google threw in the towel on its first social networking offering this week -- could provide the company's engineers with a chance to come up with a far more viable service, analysts say.

Google announced on Wednesday that it is killing off its collaboration and communication tool about a year after the Google Wave service was launched.

In a blog post yesterday, Urs Hoelzle, Google senior vice president for operations, acknowledged that the social networking service was unable to gain any traction with users.

While Google Wave will be just another failed product by the end of the year, pieces of it will live on in other Google projects, the company said.

And that leads some industry watchers to wonder if Google is cutting bait so its developers can dust themselves off, use some lessons learned and some of Google Wave's most interesting features to begin work on new social networking product.

"This is typical Google-like behavior. They aren't shy about killing projects that don't hit their expectations," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "I don't think that users really got it when it came to Wave. But this was a good learning experience for Google. They now know they need to bring a more fully baked product to the market. They also have to clearly articulate why users should jump on board. I don't think this is Google's last run at social networking. There are rumors about a new product -- Google Me -- that looks to be their next shot at this market."

Talk started circulating around the Internet about Google Me late in June. While Google hasn't confirmed any of the widespread speculation, the reports of efforts to build a Facebook-killer persist.

Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, agreed that if Google can learn from the failure of Google Wave, the company will have a better shot at building and launching a successful social networking service the second time around.

"Social networking is absolutely harder than it looks," added Enderle. "It's not a technical problem as much as a social problem. It's trying to solve a people problem and engineers, by their nature, suck at solving people problems. Google is going to have to address behavioral and social skills to build another service."

Both Enderle and Olds believe that Google is working on another social networking service ... a Facebook-like offering that's more attractive to consumers -- and less about collaboration.

"Why not? Facebook is making itself an easy target," added Enderle. "I think Google will go down this path and it's probably closer to what Google should be doing anyway. It's a Web property. The social networking aspect of the Web is more closely related to search than almost any other successful thing out there."

Olds noted that a new Google social network better have a lot of notable contrasts with Google Wave.

"Social networking is a tough racket," said Olds. "If they come out with a new service, it will have to have a feature-packed tool that is easy to use, secure, and be highly scalable. And then they'll need to attract swarms of users quickly to gain enough momentum to get it off the ground. It isn't easy to pull off. If it were, we'd see a lot more competitors taking a run at Facebook."