Wavii, the natural language technology startup, has updated its home page, and its previously-monochromatic logo, to officially confirm that it has been acquired by Google — a deal that we noted earlier this week was “north of $30 million.” And to set speculation running about what might be coming next, Wavii CEO Adrian Aoun confirmed that it will be shutting down its service so that it can use… → Read More
Google’s ambitious Glass display is still a ways off from its public release, but it looks like those newly-minted Glass Explorers now have something else to do besides taking first-person photos. The New York Times just pulled back the curtain on its own Glass-friendly app today, which makes it the first installable third-party app available for the ambitious headset (Path was technically the… → Read More
Google really cares about the web being faster. In 2010 it led a group of contributors in releasing a module for Apache web servers called PageSpeed. Today, the same group has released a version for Nginx, an alternative to Apache, which is also open source and used by massively trafficked sites like Netflix, Hulu, Pinterest, Airbnb, WordPress.com, Zynga, Zappos and GitHub. In alpha testing… → Read More
Datalogix’s offline purchase data is the not-so-secret weapon giant publishers use to target their ads, and measure if they boost consumer spending. Businesses like Facebook are becoming dependent on this ROI data, allowing Datalogix to raise a $25 million Series B. Since its based in Denver you don’t hear a lot about Datalogix, but the 250 employee startup is crucial to the future of advertising. → Read More
If you regularly need to open Microsoft Office documents in the browser, Google now offers you a new Chrome extension that renders Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in the browser. Currently, these documents open in a Drive-based viewer, but after you install the new Chrome Office Viewer (which is officially still in beta), these documents will open directly in the browser. Until now, this… → Read More
As more developers are receiving their pair of Google Glass, the tinkering with the device is heating up. One developer found a very interesting easter egg within Glass itself, which introduces you to the entire Glass team. The steps to reproduce it are fairly simple: Settings -> Device info -> View licenses -> Tap the touchpad 9 times -> Tap Meet Team Here’s a video demo… → Read More
Google keeps integrating Google+ deeper into all of its products and today it’s Drive’s turn. When you open a file in Drive, you will now see the Google+ profile pictures of other viewers at the top of the document. Hovering over them brings up their Google+ card with their cover image and which Google+ circle you currently have them in. This, Google says, will make it easier to see… → Read More
The European Commission today asked Google’s competitors and others working in the Internet industry in the region for feedback on proposals made by Google to settle its years-long antitrust investigation. Swiftly, ICOMP, one of the chief lobbying organizations fighting against the search giant, has already issued a preliminary response: Google’s commitments may be “too little, too late.” → Read More
Martin Sorrell, the CEO of WPP, today laid out a stark picture of how significant a role digital is playing for the advertising giant. Speaking at the FT Digital Media Conference in London today, he said that digital now accounts for 34% of WPP’s revenues, amounting to some $72 billion, rising “from zero to over one-third in about ten years, the age of Google,” he said. → Read More
Back in 2010, Google launched Instant Preview to provide users with a quick way to get a graphic preview of a webpage before you click on the actual link. Now, as first spotted by Alex Chitu from the Google Operating System blog, it looks like Google is thinking about removing this feature and replacing it with a new drop-down menu. Update: a Google spokesperson just responded to our… → Read More
Search advertising became such a popular and lucrative juggernaut because it offered businesses the ability to reach and persuade people with true purchase intent. But now keyword targeting is available on Twitter and Facebook, which could loosen Google’s stranglehold on ads that convince us what to buy. → Read More
Earlier this week, Google launched its new Google+-powered commenting system for Blogger, but it’s not clear when the company plans to release it for the rest of the web. Now, however, intrepid developer Brandon Holtsclaw has managed to bring the Google+ commenting system to any WordPress blog. While Google’s code for the new commenting system isn’t optimized for WordPress or… → Read More
Foursquare today launched redesigned venue pages to focus on its Explore and Discover functionality, bringing them more in line with its homepage. The changes, which come two weeks after the company raised another round of funding and released an updated iOS app, are designed to capitalize on the traffic that Foursquare gets from Google, which has doubled the site’s traffic over the past… → Read More
Google+ is finding its way into every Google product, and AdWords is no exception. Starting today, AdWords advertisers can easily highlight their Google+ follower counts in their enhanced campaigns. On average, Google says, ads with these follower counts have “a 5-10% higher click-through rate” than regular ads. The company, it seems, tested these new ads with the help of a number of… → Read More
Just in time for Earth Day, Google just launched version 7.1 of Google Earth Pro, the professional version of Google’s desktop-based mapping tool. The new version adds a number of map-making and advanced printing tools that will make it easier for businesses to create legends and scales for their maps and to add titles to them. The new Viewshed tool now also allows users to identify and… → Read More
Google is bringing its Public Alerts system online in Canada today, after previously launching it in the U.S. and expanding it to Japan last month. The launch couldn’t be more timely, as Canada is currently experiencing high waters and flood problems in areas just experiencing the spring thaw, including northern Ontario’s popular Muskoka region cottage country. → Read More
Biomimicry is an engineering field that takes cues from nature to help solve and address human problems, and Google today launched a new website at its Google Green initiative that highlights some of the ways nature’s engineers can inspire and guide human behavior. The site uses gorgeous National Geographic images along with brief descriptions of how the natural antecedent relates to the human… → Read More
Google Now is one of the best things to happen to Android in a while, and now new code discovered in a sample page taken from Google itself suggests it could arrive on the desktop, not just via Chrome but through the Google homepage itself. Code snippets include provisions for letting auser set their home and work location, “Discover Google now” and change their current location, all in support… → Read More
Google Glass is getting closer and closer to becoming a shipping product. It’s already making its way out to early “Explorer” program pre-launch testers, and we’ll almost definitely see a lot more from Glass at Google I/O in mid-May. Drew already got his lucky mitts on an Explorer set, and provided some useful insight about how it operates, and how it might be useful as someone goes about their… → Read More
Last week, Google finally released the developer guides and other necessary documents that will allow developers to write apps for Glass. In some respects, the so-called Mirror API may have been a disappointment to developers who were expecting to run full-blown augmented-reality apps, but even in its current form, it will allow developers to create new experiences for their new and existing apps… → Read More
This week on the TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast we talk about Google Glass, the Galaxy S4, and the magic of Ubuntu laptops. This time we’re joined by Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, Greg Kumparak, and a pair of underwear that vibrates in Australia. Enjoy! → Read More
Last week, a study by German antivirus testing company AV-Test claimed that Microsoft’s Bing delivered “five times as many websites containing malware as Google.” Unsurprisingly, Microsoft does not agree with these findings and today, the company released a full rebuttal of AV-Test’s study. The researchers, Bing argues, used its API to execute queries instead of performing… → Read More
Google has long had an interest in renewable energy and has now invested more than $1 billion of its own money in alternative energy projects. However, as the company notes in a blog post and white paper today, it’s not always easy for companies that want to buy renewable energy to do so, given that most utilities don’t yet offer a renewable power option yet. In its white paper, Google… → Read More
Today, Google quietly ushered in a new application built on top of its nonprofit arm, Google.org. The app is called One Today, and it’s currently invite only for Android users at this time. The aim is to get people to donate $1 to different organizations, while getting the complete information about how your donation will be used up front. This is a huge stumbling block for nonprofits… → Read More
During today’s Google Q1 2013 earnings call, CEO Larry Page gave us a rundown on exactly what the company has been up to in this quarter, as well as some insight into how he’s currently running the company. Page took over from Eric Schmidt in early 2011, and since then has started bringing all of the company’s services together, under the umbrella of helping people get access to… → Read More
Google’s last two earnings releases were made even more notable than usual because of the unexpected events that preceded them, but today’s release of the company’s fiscal Q1 2013 financials was as almost as straightforward as it used to be.
For this past quarter, the search giant reported revenues of $14 billion (that’s up 31% from Q1 2012), non-GAAP earnings of $11.58 per share, and… → Read More
Google today announced that bloggers on its Blogger publishing platform can now enable a new Google+-powered commenting system for their sites. This means Blogger users can now use Google+ as a commenting platform for their blogs and comments from Google+ will automatically appear on their blogs, too. Google has already enabled this new system on all of its official blogs. This new commenting… → Read More
As we shared yesterday, the process to actually pay for the Glass Explorer Edition was quite simple. The next step in the process is picking up your device at either the Mountain View, Los Angeles or New York City Google Campus. Of course, you can opt to have them shipped to you if you’re not in one of those areas, but what’s the fun in that? I picked up my Google Glass today in… → Read More
Chrome will soon warn users when they are about to download software that could try to change how the browser handles extensions. Specifically, this extension to the company’s Safe Browsing system looks for binaries that could allow potentially malicious extensions to be installed in the browser without the user’s knowledge. This new feature will roll out within the next few days. Last… → Read More
Nexus tablet device sales remain a bit nebulous, since Google doesn’t give out specific numbers around them. But industry watchers, and Benedict Evans in particular, often try to pierce the veil to find out where the Nexus brand stands compared to the rest of the industry when it comes to sales. The Nexus 10, it seems, probably pales in comparison to most. → Read More
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