Steve Bryant

Browse through the most popular videos on YouTube and, between anime segments and wacky variety shows, you’re sure to find quite a few clips of Japanese origin. But Japanese media groups aren’t too happy about that.Two months ago YouTube removed 30,000 videos in its first mass removal in the site’s history. The removals came after […]

Google was one of several angel investors to contribute to a bridge funding round for Meraki, a Mountain View-based company that sells wireless routers.The exact amount of the investment is unknown, but the total round was under a million dollars, according to Katie Fehrenbacher at GigaOm.Google’s investment can be interpreted as part of their strategy […]

In 2005, Google became an Internet powerhouse. In 2006, the search giant made its global ambitions known, and applied its power to new markets, both online and off.OverviewWell it’s December, so it must be year in review time.Though Google ended 2005 with an ill-fated experiment selling ads in magazines, the search giant renewed its advertising […]

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed from Googler David Eun, in which the vice president for content partnerships argues that Google is a valuable ally — not a competitive “boogeyman” — for mainstream media companies.“Some are concerned that we’re going to become a threat to media companies — essentially by becoming a […]

YouTube’s deal with Verizon to allow access to a limited number of clips via mobile phones is a mixed bag for consumers. And while YouTube may get some credit for pressing forward with mobile plans, the terms of the deal actually run counter to YouTube’s and Google’s consumer-based ethos. The Verizon-YouTube plan is neither free, […]

Google plans to buy Mars, acquire NASA and index all the sheep in the universe.Those to-do items are all part of the the most entertaining part of Google’s offices: the whiteboard.Googlers have long held a tradition of mapping out plans, both real and imagined, on whiteboards on their office walls. Throughout the year Googlers doodle […]

‘Tis the season for giving, so Google’s philanthropic arm is now advertising open positions for people who want to give back to mother Earth. As Garrett Rogers notes, Google.org is hiring administrative assistants, grants administrators, program directors and team members for several environmental initiatives. As noted previously, Google.org is also working on an ultra-efficient hybrid […]

Yahoo has declined to provide Google with information that may help Google defend itself against a lawsuit filed by the Author’s Guild, according to documents filed in California district court today. [Correction: objections aren’t filed publicly. Yahoo served this objection to Google.]The response comes after Google’s October supboena to several companies — including Amazon, Yahoo, […]

Yahoo’s new newspaper partners are discussing ways to integrate Yahoo as their primary search provider.Yahoo CFO Sue Decker said today that they are currently discussing providing search services to the newspapers’ web sites, and that they should have something to announce in the next few months.Decker and executives from several publishers said there were multiple […]

Bring Nick Douglas back, please.Sure, the kid looked like a tiny version of Egon Spengler, but in Silicon Valley that’s practically centerfold material. And he was funny. But Nick Denton? Dude is way too serious.Denton, who founded and owns Valleywag and the rest of the Gawker Media weblog empire, announced on Monday he was temporarily […]