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Wanted: Writers for D.C. tech lobby group, secrecy mandatory

Mel King is a Boston-area community organizer locally famous for a housing sit-in, an almost-successful mayoral campaign, and the South End Technology Center, which provides low-cost computer training.

King, born in 1928, has long been a critic of telecommunications companies and an advocate of strict Net neutrality laws. He participated in an activists' "technology convening" in 2006 that fretted "companies who own the 'pipes' will control who gets on and what they can say." He joined a pro-Net neutrality coalition that opposed federal legislation backed by broadband providers.

Yet King placed his name on an opinion article … Read more

Google Reader gets more social networky

Please welcome blogger Bob Walsh to Webware. Walsh has worked as a reporter for UPI, as a software developer, and now consults with start-ups and independent software vendors. He also writes at 47hats.com. --Rafe Needleman

Users of Google's RSS reader got a new social networking feature today: the capability to selectively pick and choose who of your Gmail/Gtalk friends get first crack at the items you want to share.

Back in May, Google turned on the capability for users to share RSS picks with all their Google contacts from GReader, but it was an all-or-nothing choice. The … Read more

The Digital Home 28: It's about making customers happy

In this week's episode of the Digital Home podcast, Don talks about Hulu and asks why it's so hard for companies to make customers happy. After that, he interviews Soundcast Systems and finishes the day off with a call for help with his video show. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 28 … Read more

Google Android almost here?

The Register is reporting that Google's Android should see ship with its first (T-Mobile) phone within five weeks, and that the phone will require that buyers sign up for a Google Gmail account. Shades of Microsoft and its Passport service.

First things first, however. Google is still struggling with an unhappy crew of Android developers, its primary crime being a lack of transparency.

As it readies its long-anticipated open mobile OS for public release, Google is behaving in a way that threatens to permanently taint its relationship with many Android developers. The company's actions--including restricting access to key development tools and allegedly treading on open source principles--have created, if not a full-fledged revolt, at least a sense of disappointment and disillusionment among many in the tightly knit Android development community.

This, however, is not a difficult problem to solve. Google doesn't necessarily need to invite the world to contribute to Android...yet. Though it's not the traditional open-source way, it does make sense for Google to try to exercise some quality control with access to its Android SDK to ensure high-quality applications out of the gate.… Read more

Are Google's StreetView drivers humans or robots?

Bill's friend, the one with whom he was going on a motorbike holiday in Tasmania, suddenly died. Bill, being upset and Australian, went out and got drunk.

A cab dropped him off back at his house. But he collapsed before he could get to his front door.

So along came a friendly Google StreetView camera car. The Australian version of the service was to be launched August 4. So the Googler had a lot of filming to do.

He shot the prostrate Bill who was lying on his back, his feet sticking out into the road.

This was a … Read more

Google's Android phone to go on sale in September?

T-Mobile USA could put the new HTC Android phone on sale for select customers as early as the middle of September, according to the blog TmoNews.

The news comes as other rumors circulate that Android phones could be delayed into 2009. But TmoNews says it has a reliable source that says the Android device made by smartphone manufacturer HTC will go on sale through T-Mobile USA on September 17.

The price tag will be $399 full retail or about $150 for a subsized phone with a two-year contract. The site also said that only existing T-Mobile customers will be able … Read more

YouTube wants you to link your Google account

Users visiting YouTube's homepage today will likely see a message asking them to link their YouTube account with their Google account. Automatically detecting that you have a Google account, YouTube says, "It looks like you have a Google account. Would you like to link your YouTube and Google accounts?" When you walk through the process, YouTube promises that you will be able to, "Import your Google contacts into YouTube for messaging or sharing videos," and that linking your account will make sure that you are, "...ready as we bring more Google services to YouTube.&… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 786: Do these cookies make my Google look fat?

Congress learns all about cookies (not the delicious kind...but maybe the del.icio.us kind), Gmail goes down, and Google proves to be a terrible communicator. Also, the Amazon Kindle may take off after all (har har), and Twitter baffles us completely regarding its follow/follower spam prevention thing. In sum, it's a Tuesday, but it feels like a Monday.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 786

Google apologizes for Gmail outage http://www.crn.com/software/210002714

PC World: Google Apps hit by prolonged Gmail access problem http://www.pcworld.com/article/149524/

Android may be … Read more

Google goes down, Twitter stays up, pigs fly

This was one of those rare events in the calendar: Google's Gmail went down for the count while Twitter, everyone's regular punching bag, was full of chatterers who couldn't stop blabbing about the outage.

As my colleague Dan Farber recently reminded everyone in these pages, sometimes it does rain on the cloud. That's just the nature of cloud computing, which is still in its relative infancy. Truth be told, considering the load being shouldered, I'm more surprised that systems aren't breaking more often than they do.

For more, check out the video interview I … Read more

Hitwise provides more proof of Google's search dominance

Don't call Google's search business a monopoly, the company's executives have reminded us.

Unfortunately, we're running out of other ways to describe it. Researchers at Hitwise released new data Monday indicating that Google in July topped a 70 percent share of U.S. Web searches (70.77 percent to be exact). That's up 10 percent from the same month a year ago and 2 percent from the previous month. Yahoo search was second at 18.65 percent, MSN search was third at 5.36 percent, and Ask.com came in fourth at 3.53 percent. … Read more