Christopher Dawson explores the mystery behind the hottest and fastest growing tech company in the world. Google spoilers inside.
Chris Dawson is a freelance writer, consultant, and policy advocate with 20 years of experience in education, technology, and the intersection of the two.
The last couple days have been quite hard for Google as their stock has dropped significantly. This stems from their anticipated Q4 financial report -- based on Yahoo's less than stellar performance -- and a subpoena which asked Google (and other search engines) to share information with the government to monitor how much pornography is being viewed by children.
The United States government has asked some popular search engines to hand over one million random web addresses and search queries performed in a one week period. Companies like AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have all agreed to the request, but Google is putting up a fight.
One of the annoyances some found with Gmail has finally been resolved, or at least will be very shortly. Their "What's New" page now includes a blurb about a new "feature" slated to make an appearance -- a delete button.
Google has purchased dMarc Broadcasting -- a privately held radio advertising firm -- was purchased by Google for $102 million with extra payments which could reach up to $1.14 billion.
Recently, I performed an informal survey to find out just how popular Google and the services they provide actually are. Obviously, for me Google has changed the way I work and play because I know about -- and how to use -- their many services.
After being live for only a very short time, Google Analytics shut the doors on new users who wanted an account. While registrations were closed, the signup form prompted users to enter an email address where Google could notify them when signups were being accepted.
After announcing some additions to the Google Video service at CES, Google has finally followed through on at least part of their plan. You are now able to download videos from Google and watch them on Google Video Player.
So Google Video Player wasn't a myth -- it was one of the features in the Google Pack, but it appears as though Google Video Player was suddenly removed. I managed to download a copy myself, but it's useless until Google launches their video store or the ability to download videos.
People can be blinded by the buzz around the possibility of a Google PC. With this (quite interesting) information circulating, it is easy to ignore other products and services which makes it easier for Google to be stealthy in areas which they might not want attention drawn.
One of my very observant readers noticed an overlay on videos that says "Buy this video to view the full seconds". I tried it myself and got the same results with this video by allowing it to play through to the end.