Michael Hickins

Google just released an application for the G1 smartphone from HTC that helps sight-impaired people dial their phones. It turns out, of course, that the app is also popular among sighted people. I guess that proves the old saw that sometimes you can do well by doing good. But I don’t think that was foremost […]

HP is testing Android as an operating system for its forthcoming line of netbooks, according to several published reports. Far from being a welcome sign of relief in an otherwise dry period for Google, this is yet more evidence that Android is being taken very seriously by people in the industry. Yes, the HTC Touch […]

The utility company for Snohomish County District 1, Snohomish PUD No. 1, knows the value of power since it supplies electricity for 300,000 residences and businesses, including Boeing. But just because the utility produces electricity doesn’t mean it gets the power for free, so Snohomish PUD No. 1 found itself in the same situation as […]

Google’s new venture fund will finance just about any kind of project its board likes, although, as the Washington Post points out, it doesn’t own the domain name for googleventures.com–yet. Indeed, Google is likely to get its hands on that URL, even though it doesn’t seem like the domain is being squatted by a troll: […]

Google is close to striking a deal for an enterprise-level Gmail implementation with Prudential for 40,000 seats, unseating IBM’s Lotus Notes in the process. This would be a huge win for Google, not least because of draconian risk and security policies in place at the financial services giant. Every piece of e-mail sent by a […]

If Google doesn’t straighten out its act in a hurry, it may lose the enterprise crowd for good. Google Docs has three potentially crippling security breaches, according to a report from Techrunch, that put recent Gmail availability issues into proper perspective. That’s because if this is true and goes on for much longer, there won’t […]

Google is one of several angel investors with a stake in Pixazza, a startup making technology that is supposed to allow publishers of e-commerce Websites and other sites to display information about the contents of an image. But if you set aside DoubleClick and Postini, which were hardly startups when Google picked them up to […]

Now what, Steve? Google just introduced a pair of significant changes to its search product, something Steve Ballmer recently said it couldn’t do because it’s got too darn much market share. As I suggested in my earlier post on Ballmer’s comments, its leader’s complacency explains why Microsoft has been allowed to float in a bath […]

Microsoft is closing its adCenter analytics beta. The adCenter community blog is trying to put on a brave face, but this has to be considered a gigantic failure and a huge win for Google and Omniture. “The insights you’ve contributed through your feedback and your use of the tool have served an invaluable purpose in […]

Google has been assailed in the U.K. for its Street View service because some people have complained that their privacy has been violated. As a result: “Scores of pictures, including one of a man exiting a Soho sex shop and another of a man being sick on the pavement outside a pub, were removed from […]