Ben Charny

My word! Internet giant Google Inc. stands accused of an etiquette breach. The hubbub this week is over recent changes to Google Base, Googles free feature for searching content contributed by its registered users. Google Base caters to average Joes that want to get rid of an old TV, lets say, but it also gets […]

Sometime last week, search giant Google Inc. did something that seems rather innocuous to Google Base, its free feature for searching classified ads, event notices and other content contributed by Googles registered users. But like just about anything Google does, simple upgrades seem to have profound impacts and contain big hints of Googles next big […]

Google Inc.s instant message and Internet phone feature, Google Talk, has been hit by patent infringement allegations. Rates Technology Inc. based in Hauppauge, N.Y., filed suit against Google in a New York federal court in October, alleging that Google Talk illegally uses its technology for billing people for phone calls made over Internet connections. Google […]

Self-help Web site HowStuffWorks said Thursday it plans to significantly expand its online reference material by slicing and dicing books into versions meant for an Internet audience. With new funding from rebel financier Carl Icahn, the HowStuffWorks Web site is now digitizing the entire library of Publications International Ltd., a 35-year-old publisher of books concerning […]

Michele Neylon was once very happy with Urchin Software Corp., which provides a service to analyze Web site traffic. But ever since search giant Google Inc. bought Urchin in March, hes changed his tune. His problem is with Googles customer service. “If you choose to deal with Urchin in the Google era, you will not […]

A new Internet search engine surfacing this week promises to share its advertising revenue with the Web sites that show up in its search results. People use search engines mainly to find a few useful Web sites, yet these content providers dont see a penny of the billions of dollars in ad revenues search engines […]

A significant instant messaging project between Google Inc. and America Online is now underway. Google and AOL plan to let their respective instant messaging features communicate. This way, someone using Google Talk could chat with an AIM user, and vice versa. The integration pact was announced Tuesday as part of a larger deal. As previously […]

Google Inc.: 1, Microsoft Corp.: 0. The two tech behemoths have had their first significant head-to-head battle, and Google has emerged a winner. In doing so, many feel something much bigger has happened after the first of what will surely be a significant number of duels. Google may have supplanted Microsoft as the dominant technology […]

Online retailers are not known for rapid fire, high-profile business moves. But that has not been the case lately. In the last few months, two leading companies have made major acquisitions, and two others began the process of raising capital, signaling that investing sprees may continue in 2006. Why so much activity in a market […]

In an apparent blow to Microsoft Corp., search giant Google Inc. is expected this week to announce its won a five-year-long extension of an important advertising deal with America Online Inc. According to various published accounts, AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc., has agreed to use Googles advertising technology for another five years. […]