Google

As if we hadn't all already given up trying to extricate Google from our brains, the company came out Wednesday with sync for Google calendar and your BlackBerry.

It also supports Google Apps for your Domain.

If Google Sync for BlackBerry doesn't kill MS Exchange, I don't know what will. And really, Exchange should be dead already.

You probably need this BlackBerry Calendar Patch to make everything go right.

Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency's review of Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband's law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust.

In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to work at the law firm, called Jones Day, according to a complaint about the matter sent to the FTC on Wednesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Majoras' husband, John M. Majoras, is an equity partner with Jones Day and is in charge of … Read more

If you measure interest in operating systems based on search, Linux hit its peak in 2004 and has been on a downward slide ever since, according to Google Trends. The same is true of Windows, though the trend (as seen below) is less pronounced. The Mac? Well, let's just say that people can't seem to get enough.

But what happens if we measure interest based on press mentions? While all three operating systems seem to have increased their "mindshare" over the past four years, Windows has outpaced Linux and Mac OS, and by quite a margin:… Read more

Antitrust regulators with the Federal Trade Commission have received an extension to review the controversial $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick megamerger, according to sources.

The FTC faced a Thursday deadline to either challenge the deal or allow it to go through. But the commission is now expected to stay quiet for at least several more days as it continues to study the impact of the proposed merger on competition and consumers. A decision Thursday is unlikely.

Google complied with the FTC's second request for information on the merger on November 14. Once a company complies with a "second request,&… Read more

This post has been updated with information about Bebo's implementation of Facebook's code.

And now, for something we didn't see coming: Facebook has announced that the architecture for its developer platform will be made available to other social-networking sites, potentially rendering moot the criticism that its strategy is too "closed"--and potentially dealing a huge blow to Google's yet-to-launch OpenSocial initiative.

Facebook senior platform manager Ami Vora posted a blog entry Wednesday with the announcement. "(We) want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform … Read more

Most presidential hopefuls who show up at the so-called Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., praise their hosts and marvel at the company's search technology.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat and presidential long shot, took a different approach this week, saying during his visit Monday that the company should pull the plug on its China search engine at Google.cn. I'm sure it went over about as well as Barack Obama's enthusiastic endorsement of more aggressive antitrust enforcement during his visit to the 'plex--not exactly an applause line for employees of a company undergoing serious antitrust scrutiny in … Read more

Updated at 11:58 a.m. PST Wednesday: added response from Google and links to two more letters.

A top Republican in the House of Representatives is demanding that Google answer a barrage of questions about privacy, some of which are related to the company's proposed purchase of the DoubleClick advertising firm.

Rep. Joe Barton, who has positioned himself as a privacy advocate and previously criticized the merger last month, complained in a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt that the company had initially agreed to let his aides visit the so-called Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. but then … Read more

Google has demonstrated experimental technologies to the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to pressure the agency to open up unused wireless spectrum between TV channels for broadband Internet use.

Google, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and EarthLink formed the White Space Coalition earlier this year to lobby the FCC and Congress to open up the empty and unused channels in the broadcast TV bands, called "white space." They believe this unlicensed spectrum could be used as a wireless broadband pipe into homes, serving as an alternative to cable and DSL.

But TV broadcasters oppose the move, arguing that unlicensed … Read more