Tag Archives: larry-page

Google Doodle celebrates the search engine’s 23rd birthday

Google is marking its 23rd birthday on Monday with a new Doodle. The animated Doodle features a layered birthday cake with rainbow sprinkles and the number 23 written on the top. The search giant’s name, which is also covered in frosting and sprinkles, is floating above and the flickering green birthday candle stands in for …

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Brave takes on Google with privacy

Browser maker Brave has acquired a search engine project that prioritizes user privacy, a distinction it hopes will set it apart from Google, the undisputed leader in internet search.  On Wednesday, Brave said it had purchased Tailcat, which was developed by Cliqz, a privacy-minded subsidiary of Germany’s Hubert Burda Media. Tailcat, which Burda shuttered in 2020, was designed to show …

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Google was sued by the US government. Here’s what that means for you

The US Department of Justice has smacked Google with a massive antitrust lawsuit, a once-in-a-generation case that challenges the company’s dominance in search. It could eventually affect how everyday consumers use their phones. The DOJ said Tuesday that Google’s exclusionary practices hurt the market and, ultimately, consumers because those practices could deprive them of the innovation that competition brings. Google …

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If Google can make cars drive themselves, it should figure out diversity, CFO says

Google is committed to diversity and supports its employees in their protests, the company’s financial chief said Monday. Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google, said Monday during the Wall Street Journal D.Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., that she participated in this month’s walkouts with her financial team.  “Diversity overall makes an organization stronger,” she said. “People …

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Google’s CEO says it may never launch that censored search engine it made for China

Google has been experimenting with a censored search engine that would work in China, but it’s not sure if it will ever launch the service, CEO Sundar Pichai said Monday.  Pichai, speaking during the Wired25 conference at the SFJazz Center in San Francisco, said Google started the internal project — dubbed Project Dragonfly — to see what was possible in …

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Facebook and Twitter in DC: What the congressional hearings looked like up close

You know that feeling when something is important to you but other people just don’t care? That’s how some congressional lawmakers felt this week after Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and, notably, no one from Google testified for a combined eight hours before two committees. The hearings were kind of important, given that they focused on hot-button …

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Senators urge Google and Twitter to back Honest Ads Act too

Facebook last week said it would support efforts to regulate political ads. Now US senators are urging Alphabet and Twitter to do the same. The Honest Ads Act is a senate bill that would require tech companies to disclose how political ads were targeted and how much they cost. It’s sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and …

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Ex

Google’s announcement this week that it’s bringing Nest back under its wing has some former employees of the smart-thermostat maker saying the company never should’ve been spun off in the first place. Tony Fadell, co-founder and ex-CEO of Nest, said both companies’ efforts in connected gadgets were hurt when Google made Nest a separate business less than two years after …

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In the future we’ll all fly personal drones like this

Regular flying drones might be annoying, unsafe invaders of privacy, but what about a drone you can climb into and fly to the grocery store? The appropriately named PassengerDrone company, based in Switzerland, promises just that with its new two-seater manned aircraft. It flies without its passengers having to do anything beyond interact with a touchscreen. From the press release: …

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AK

What if you could take a consumer drone, douse it with growth serum, and make it big enough to fly around in? It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superdrone! That’s a brainstorm that seems to have occurred to a good number of people — including, now, the makers of the AK-47 assault rifle. Kalashnikov Concern, part of Russian defense …

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