Google

In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook?

Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page that you had to know the URL for to see.

Last week, Google tweaked Google Reader so that your shared items are automatically made available to your Google Talk contacts.

But, as anyone who uses instant messaging knows, not all of your IM contacts are friends. Many are acquaintances or people you barely know and with whom you … Read more

An appeals court has reinstated a patent lawsuit filed against Google over a toolbar feature called AutoLink that provides links to online maps or books on Amazon.com, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Wisconsin-based HyperPhrase Technologies sued Google in 2006 for patent infringement. The case was thrown out a year ago by a district court judge, but this week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit in Washington said the lower court judge had erred in interpreting some of the patents and sent the case back.

However, the appeals court agreed with the lower court ruling … Read more

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.

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

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. :-)

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is breaking up with YouTube.

On Thursday, Hilton said that he would stop posting videos on YouTube, according to a story on TVWeek.com. Instead, he plans to host video on his own site, Perezhilton.com.

The feud began earlier this week after YouTube pulled one of Hilton's videos because the site had received complaints from copyright holders. On Thursday, YouTube reinstated Hilton's video posting privileges, but the gossip maven told TVWeek that he is still miffed.

"I don't have any more incentive to make any more videos on YouTube," he … Read more

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 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

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

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.