Steve Bryant

Google released an update to Google Earth recently (build 4.0.2416 (beta)), and it contains a bevy of historical maps: — World Globe 1790— North America 1733— United States 1833— Lewis and Clark 1814— New York 1836— Buenos Aires 1892 and several more. These maps are great for browsing and comparing current locations to older ones. […]

In the near future, mobile phones should be free if the user accepts targeted advertising, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said this weekend. “Your mobile phone should be free,” Schmidt told Reuters. “It just makes sense that subsidies should increase” as advertising rises on mobile phones. * Schmidt’s comments imply that Google sees a high adoption […]

Google released a few new features to Gmail overnight. If you’re a Gmail user, please refer to this post as “Captain Obvious States the McObvious.” If you’re not a Gmail user or you don’t ever check your e-mail (sloth is a deadly sin, detective Mills), then here’s a list of said features: — Drop Shadows […]

Copyright claims against YouTube could compel Google to change its business practices and potentially lose revenue, the company said in an SEC filing yesterday. “Our planned acquisition of YouTube may also subject us to additional copyright claims upon the closing of the transaction,” the quarterly report said. “Adverse results in these lawsuits may include awards […]

In a sign that quality control problems at Google persist, the Google Video team sent an e-mail to about 50,000 recipients yesterday that may have contained a virus. The e-mail was sent to a discussion list focused on its Google Video blog. “On Tuesday evening, three posts were made to the Google Video Blog-group that […]

So the rumors were true. Google is offering free Google Checkout processing for the holidays, from today until December 31. The offer stands for all Checkout users, regardless of whether you use AdWords. New users who sign up for Checkout are eligible as well. Checkout, which was released in June, has met with adoption problems. […]

Update: See this threadwatch post for more grousing about price gouging. It’s a well-known phenomenon, at least among search engine optimizers and marketers, that Google is constantly making changes to its ad-serving algorithms in an attempt to combat fraud and to make their advertising system more efficient for their customers. Now, I’m not an SEO, […]

In the Internet’s second era of rapid adoption and growth, Google isn’t betting on the user. It’s betting on all the users, and using their collective activity to better understand how to serve ads. Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco yesterday and explained how Google’s acquisition […]

A startup run by former AltaVista CEO Jim Barnett is betting that its cost-per-action advertising system can outperform Google’s pay-per-click method. The news coming out of the Web 2.0 conference today so far concerns the launch of Turn, former AltaVista CEO Jim Barnett’s new advertising network that will charge advertisers only when Web surfers perform […]

Google has moved to dismiss a class action click fraud lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in August, saying the plaintiff is required by his AdWords contract to file suit in California. Google Watch was the first to break the story that Samuel Lassoff, a personal injury attorney and amateur Web site operator, filed suit against the […]