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Chinese court dismisses trademark suit against Google

A court in China has dismissed a trademark lawsuit filed against Google, according to a report on ChinaCourt.org that was translated into English and posted on Pacific Epoch.

A Beijing company called Gu Ge Technology sued Google China earlier this year, claiming that its Chinese name, "Gu Ge" was confusingly similar to its own name.

However, the Haidian People's Court in Beijing threw the suit out because Google China began using the name April 12, 2006, seven days before the other company registered its name.

New Mac owners: Start here!

So, you were one of the lucky people to receive a shiny new Mac for the holidays. We're all jealous! But if you're reading this, you've probably already spent some time getting set up and checking out all the cool features and programs that come with your Mac--and now you want more! Out of the box, your Mac is loaded with cool apps to get you started on stuff like uploading and organizing your digital images, creating a music library, making your own movies, and surfing the Web. (You're here, so it must have worked!)

While … Read more

Amazon and Google battle over snippets and blurbs?

Nick Carr has a funny, but potentially prescient, post on two apparently competing patents that Amazon ("blurbs") and Google ("snippets") were just granted.

What happens...when Google tries to snippetize a blurb? It could be the defining epistemological debate of out time.

At least it continues to call into question the US Patent and Trademark Office's ability to grok and process the myriad patent applications it receives. I mean, surely someone should have noticed the similarity between snippets and blurbs?

Or not. :-)

Matt Cutts on how you can help Googlebot "see" your Flash content.

Over the past year, there has been a lot of talk about the best way to handle Flash on your site. I previously covered quite a few aspects about this heavily-debated topic in Flash Alternatives Blessed by Google and in Progressive Enhancement is Good for SEO. In my previous interview with Maile Ohye, Google's support engineer I had asked her about Google's view on Flash. Maile confirmed that Google looks at the content within "noscript" tags, but she advised to be careful to mirror accurately the Flash-based content you include within the noscript tags or it … Read more

Google goes viral with privacy message on YouTube

Google is using its YouTube video site as a forum for explaining its privacy practices to the millions of consumers who use its products every day.

The company launched a Privacy Channel on YouTube about two months ago.

The videos aren't professionally produced; they are made by Google engineers, product managers, and Google public relations representatives using a handheld video camera, according to Victoria Grand, a manager of public affairs.

Googlers were wondering "how do we communicate with users about privacy and what is the best medium?" she says. "YouTube is a scalable platform that will … Read more

FTC: We won't block Google-DoubleClick merger

Federal Trade Commission regulators said Thursday that Google's controversial $3.1 billion merger proposal with DoubleClick can proceed, despite earlier complaints raised by competitors and privacy advocates.

FTC regulators have been reviewing the proposed merger for months for possible antitrust violations, after Google announced plans in April to acquire the online ad serving company.

"After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition" in the online advertising space, the commissioners wrote in their majority statement.

The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour issuing … Read more

Shave time off your Web searches by using operators

Nobody wants to spend time scrolling through thousands of search results to find the page that contains the information they're looking for. In fact, few people bother looking beyond the first page of 10 results, choosing instead to recraft their search phrase and try again. But with the help of a few search operators, you can increase substantially the chances that you'll find what you're looking for on your first search try. (Note: not all of these work in every search engine.)

Restating the Obvious Operators I'll wager you know all about using the plus sign (+) … Read more

Former Blogger Googler Shellen joins LiveJournal

Jason Shellen, who was the founding product manager for Google Reader, is joining social network and blogging platform LiveJournal as vice president of product development.

Shellen will be based in San Francisco in new offices LiveJournal will be opening in 2008, according to the company. He arrived at Google in 2003 as part of the acquisition of Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger, and left Google in August.

Report: Google's Orkut fights off worm attack

Update Dec. 20 with Google comment

A computer worm has been spreading on Google's big-in-Brazil Orkut social network, according to a report on the Sounds from the Dungeon blog.

The relatively harmless worm appears to use JavaScript and Flash code to create new scrapbook entries on profiles with a New Year's message in Portuguese before propagating to the victim's friends.

It may have infected as many as 400,000 users, according to a post on a blog called "c0d3w12."

According to the Packet Storm security site, a vulnerability affecting Orkut was discovered November 8 and … Read more