Google

Openads, which offers free software that helps Web sites manage their online ad campaigns, recently received $5 million in initial funding, led by Index Ventures, according to a Reuters article.

Openads is seen as possibly treading on Google turf, competing with ad serving firm DoubleClick, which Google is hoping to acquire. Openads also could butt up against Google's popular AdSense pay-per-click ad network, Radar Research analyst Marissa Gluck told Reuters.

The difference is that Openads serves up ads for Web sites that install the ads themselves and then relies on ad networks to supply advertisers, while Google hosts the … Read more

The puns just abound on this one. This is a shot of two spas outside of building 40 at the Google campus in Mountain View, California. The Jacoogle? The Goocuzzy?

Correction: I'm told these are endless pools, which spray jets at swimmers so they can do laps like a salmon. But it's still an unusual perk, and a great way to scope out the back hair of your fellow employees.

Whatever you want to call it, it's just one of the many perks offered by the search giant, although, as the picture shows, no one is actually … Read more

When Google recently charged that Microsoft was engaging in anticompetitive behavior because its Windows Vista operating system doesn't accommodate Google's Desktop Search software, the U.S. government rejected the complaint. But at least one state lawmaker is willing to investigate Google's allegations: Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, said Monday that he was taking Google's allegations seriously and would continue to look into the matter. Several other state attorneys general are also participating; Blumenthal's office did not put out a formal statement, but confirmed that the attorney general was working on such an investigation.

"… Read more

Google is hosting a party at the eBay Live customer event in Boston on Thursday night for eBay sellers who are angry that eBay has forbidden merchants from offering Google Checkout as an online payment option.

The "Let Freedom Ring" Google party will be held in the Old South Meeting House in Boston, which was a key meeting place for participants in the American Revolution.

eBay and its PayPal unit added Google Checkout to its banned transaction provider list last summer, claiming that the service, which was launched in June 2006, did not have a proven track record … Read more

Google is changing its Google Ads marketing services to allow advertisers to see on which Web sites their ads appear, something many of them have been clamoring for. Not only will advertisers be able to make sure their ads are appearing on sites that are appropriate, but they also will be to get performance metrics for each site. So a company that sells electronic test equipment can make sure its ads appear on sites targeted at manufacturers of electronics, potential customers, and not on sites that, for example, offer tests for electronics students, said Brian Axe, director of product management … Read more

In what looks to be brewing into a mutual smear campaign, London-based Privacy International has ranked Google among the worst top Internet sites for privacy protection, and Google is reportedly taking the watchdog group to task.

Privacy International isn't scheduled to officially release its report ranking privacy performance of the top sites until 7 p.m. EDT Saturday. But the Associated Press and other media outlets, who apparently got sneak previews, are reporting that Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade, a category reserved for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy." (NOTE: … Read more

People will bet on anything these days. Along with betting on who will win in football games and horse races, a site called Bodog.com is offering risk takers a chance to wager on which company will be the next bought by Google. The best odds, at 3 to 1, are on Facebook. There are 7-to-1 odds that it will be Associated Press and the same odds on CNET Networks, parent company of CNET News.com. So far, the loser in terms of odds is Automattic, which created blogging software WordPress. It has odds of 12 to 1.

People can … Read more

On this week's Security Bites podcast, I asked Robert Hansen, aka RSnake, the security researcher who disclosed the man-in-the-middle attack on the Google Desktop last week, what readers can do to avoid becoming a victim.

Hansen said: "They could turn off the integration between Google Desktop and the Web. Or they could wait for a patch to come out, which I'm sure there will be. Or my favorite answer is to uninstall the Google Desktop entirely.

"I'm not exactly quick to tell people to stop using applications, but Google Desktop's had, like I said (… Read more

Twelve Midwest universities are joining Google's book scanning and digitizing project, nearly doubling the number of universities participating. The group has agreed to allow Google to digitize up to 10 million bound volumes. The universities in the group are: University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The contract between Google and the schools, which are in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, is for six years with an option to renew.

The … Read more