Google’s search results in Europe could soon look a bit different if a number of new reports about the company’s settlement with the European Union’s competition commission are correct. After a three-year investigation into its potentially anti-competitive practices, Google submitted its proposal for an agreement with the EU last week, but the details remained under wraps. → Read More
Facebook had its big coming-out party for mobile on Wednesday, and its Home launcher will soon start shipping exclusively on an HTC device. This is the social network’s first crack at being the default experience on any device. Until now, using Facebook has been a completely optional and background experience, meaning you’d have to visit its website or download one of its apps. After… → Read More
As I watched the Google antitrust hearings last Wednesday, with its gotcha moments and Senators pontificating about the dangers Google poses to society, it struck me that what I was watching was theater. And not just any theater, but monopoly theater. I am borrowing from the concept of security theater: “a term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved… → Read More
How many of you were unsettled to see your favorite childhood game turn to debit cards? When Monopoly went electronic, it lost a substantial amount of fun, but at least there was still bargaining and negotiating to be had — the most fun part of the game. Well now, that’s all gone with a new version set to come out this fall. → Read More
Does the Internet tend towards natural monoplies? Columbia Law professor Tim Wu makes a strong argument that it does in an Op-Ed in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal. While there is plenty of diversity on the Internet and few barriers to setting up shop, he points out that category after category is dominated by a single firm: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, and eBay.
If you… → Read More
In your face, parents all over the world. After pleading with your children to quit rotting their brains with non-stop video game playing, your suggestion of playing a board game instead has backfired on you with the Nintendo edition of Monopoly. → Read More
Time Warner Cable’s plan to charge based on the amount of bandwidth that their customers use has not gone unnoticed. In fact, a congressional representative from New York (one of the of the first areas scheduled for the new fee structure) has started fighting it. → Read More
Well, that’s a misleading title. They have a game of Monopoly, I should say. You can now download an iPod version of the world’s most beloved capitalism simulator. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth it when you don’t have the physical money, houses and so on. You also don’t get to choose what “Free Parking” does if it’s hard-coded into the… → Read More
So that’s how they do business over in Germany. Vodafone has issue a “restraining order” against T-Mobile for offering exclusive phones that other carriers cannot have. Vodafone isn’t generally opposed to T-Mobile’s exclusivity contract with Apple, but wants to have these new sales practices examined, the spokesman said. The restraining order doesn’t aim at a… → Read More
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