Posts tagged Google
OLED, Smart and 3D TVs prominent at CES 2012
Jan 11th
Samsung showcases its Super OLED TVs at CES 2012
by Elliott Chun
Leading up to this year’s show, industry insiders expected OLED to take the cake as a top news maker of CES after unveiling in big-screen formats. This is certainly true, with Korean electronics giants LG and Samsung strutting 55-inch OLED TVs and drawing plenty of crowds to fuel the fanfare. Read the rest of this entry »
Companies exposing Canadians’ personal information face no penalty
Dec 9th
By Brian Jackson
As social networking becomes more popular and online advertisers seek more effective ways to target their messages, our society is trying to cope with how to protect our privacy while sharing more details about ourselves than ever before via the Web.
If you doubt that the collection of personal details online is the top privacy concern, just look to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s work over the last several years. It has been preoccupied with Facebook, protecting children’s’ online privacy, fighting spam, and Google Streetview, just to name a few. Now we hear that commissioner Jennifer Stoddart will be turning a watchful eye towards companies engaging in online behavioural advertising.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
Appearing at a conference hosted by the Association of Canadian Advertisers, Stoddart said advertisers can’t use tracking technology that users are unaware of or unable to decline. If they do, they could face disciplinary measures such as an audit by the office, or being taken to Federal Court and publicly shamed. But we’ve heard this watchdog bark before, and rarely have we seen it bite.
Driving steady organic growth on a shoestring
Nov 23rd
By Francis Moran
Many startups with aspirations of grandeur have fallen prey to the temptation to call themselves a “leading provider of …”. But at Teamly, founder and CEO Scott Allison and his team appreciate that earning the label is a “big hairy audacious goal” which takes a lot of hard work and no shortage of hustling.
Teamly is a two-year-old startup which has brought to market an innovative productivity and project management tool which it delivers through a Software-as-a-Service (Saas) model. Or, as described in the company’s vision statement, “Teamly provides online teamwork software that helps businesses be more successful through more aligned and effective people.”
What Google’s Eric Schmidt thinks of other tech CEOs
Sep 7th
Eric Schmidt’s career in the IT industry began long before his leadership roles at Google Inc., he reminded a large crowd at Dreamforce, Salesforce.com’s annual conference, last week.
The current executive chairman at Google, Schmidt started his career with Sun Microsystems Inc. as a software manager in 1983, working his way through the ranks before taking on the CEO role at Novell Inc. But it wasn’t until he joined Google as chairman and CEO in 2001 that he really felt “a sense that everything was possible,” he told Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff in their on stage discussion.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
Privacy concerns with Google +
Sep 1st
By Tony Bradley
Back on Day 15 I examined Google+ privacy and found a couple things that seemed to be suspicious or give me some reason for concern.
I spoke with someone at Google, though, to clear up a few things about Google+ privacy, so for today’s 30 Days With Google+ post I want to clarify my understanding of Google+ privacy.
There are two main concerns I had regarding Google+ privacy–granting permissions in Google+ Games, and the broad scope of the terms of service (ToS) required just to use Google+. Read the rest of this entry »
Google+ the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of social networks
Jul 27th
By Edward N. Albro
When Google+ first launched, most people saw it, correctly, as a competitor to Facebook. But as you try Google’s social network, you realize that it has a lot in common with Twitter too. That versatility could be Google’s strength — but it could be its downfall too. Is Google+ trying to do too much?
Google+’s similarities to Facebook are obvious: You can use it to share updates, pictures and videos with family and friends. But Google+ can also be a lot like Twitter. Like Twitter (and unlike Facebook), absolute strangers can follow you without you following them or approving them (you can block people if you want). And while you can use Google+ to share personal news with people close to you, you can also use it to broadcast your thoughts on the news of the day to thousands of people you’ve never met.
Give Canada’s Privacy Commissioner the teeth it deserves
May 6th
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, called for her role as privacy watch dog to be given sharper teeth on Wednesday at Canada 3.0 in Stratford, Ont.
Stoddart is asking for the ability to issue stiff monetary penalties against companies that allow for customers’ data to slip through their fingers and into the hands of cyber-criminals. She’s also asking for the law to require the reporting of data breaches as soon as they occur.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor of ITBusiness.ca
The media tablet ecosystem race
Mar 26th
By Phil Newman
When the iPad was finally revealed in 2010, it took time for the market to know how to categorize the device; everyone settled on simply creating a new category.
One year on, the lead that Apple has is a replay of its iPod-iPhone momentum, but Google’s Android caught up quickly. This year will be a truly fascinating one of winners and losers. Not interested? You should be. Media tablets have re-written the rules.
iPad. You can do everything you want on one really. If you’re a high-end originator of Photoshop masterpieces or an individual with particularly fat fingers, you might not be so convinced, but if you try one for a reasonable period of time you’ll start to get frustrated with the boot-up time of your old laptop, the lack of software apps to enhance your entertainment or productivity and the whole battery-cable-charger-airport-connectivity thing. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Microsoft winning travel search war against Google?
Mar 6th
By Brennon Slattery
As Google continues to slog it out with the Justice Department over its pending acquisition of travel search company ITA Software, Microsoft continues to improve Bing’s travel functionality.
In doing so, Microsoft is sending a not-so-subtle message to Google: We’re winning the travel search battle.
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Souped up Bing latest Microsoft salvo in battle against Google
Last week Bing paired Autosuggest Flight Prices with its Price Predictor technology, giving users suggestions on whether to buy tickets now or wait for a better deal.
Not only is the autosuggest feature strikingly similar to Google Instant, the Price Predictor tool relies on airfare schedules and pricing collected by–guess who?–ITA Software.
Now Microsoft has officially chosen Kayak.com as its travel search partner, which stands to enhance Bing’s power in the travel search market. “When combined with Bing’s own tools and technologies such as Price Predictor, rate indicator, flexible search tools and Flight Answers, we are really doubling down on giving customers the tools to make faster, more informed travel decisions,” writes Krista Pappas, Bing’s Global Travel Industry Director.
Microsoft and Kayak, among many other travel-related Internet companies, are members of FairSearch.org, a coalition that opposes Google’s planned acquisition of ITA Software and asks the U.S. government to block it on the grounds that it will hurt competition and drive up prices.
Microsoft makes this alliance very clear-it appears at the bottom of its travel blog post, in bold.
There’s no word on when or if Google will wrap its hands around ITA Software, so the battle to gain prominence in online travel searches is nowhere near complete. However, based on Bing’s progress, Microsoft has a head start.
Brennon Slattery is a writer for PC World (US)
