google

Google Maps gets user-generated markers

This morning Google Maps has a handy new feature for users who want to give the free mapping service a little more precision. Users who are signed into Google Maps with their Google account can now edit where a marker appears on any location, be it a business or residential listing. The feature stemmed from some of the options found in Google's My Maps, which lets users create their own maps using specialized markers and road directions.

To curb potential abuse, users aren't able to edit the location of a business that has already verified its location via Google's Local Business Center. There's also an official review system that has to double check your edit if it's more than 200 meters away from the original location. If you come across a marker that's been moved, you can view its original location and you think is inaccurate, you can click a link to send it back to its original spot.

While you have to be signed in to make changes, other users can only see the first two letters of your name. Likewise, if any changes have been made you can track them in a history, which shows the original marker location, along with its new one, on a mini map.

Eventually the company hopes that this will let users with potentially mismarked residential listings rectify any confusion that results as a part of difficult to find entries--typically the kind of thing you find in tightly packed urban areas, or buildings with multiple entrances. Google has also put together an explanatory video, which I've embedded after the break.… Read more

Senators take more antitrust and privacy shots at Google

A letter from the top two ranking members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, Democrat Herb Kohl and Republican Orrin Hatch, seeks to chill Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick on antitrust grounds:

Antitrust regulators need to be wary to guard against the creation of a powerful Internet conglomerate able to extend its market power in one market into adjacent markets, to the detriment of competition and consumers.

This might not have seemed like much of a threat, even a year or two ago, but as the online world increasingly merges with the offline world, the threat becomes more palpable.

My primary concern with the deal isn't about advertising market share, but rather about privacy, as the senators also call out:… Read more

Google is becoming a computer systems company

I've previously speculated whether those running the mega-datacenters that deliver more and more of our applications--especially in the consumer space--might not also increasingly write their own platform software and construct their own hardware. In the general case, the jury is still out. And there are some counterexamples. For instance, Yahoo has largely shifted from running a FreeBSD variant that it supported internally to the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution.

But, however the general trend plays out, it's clear that Google is increasingly going its own way. It already extensively customizes Linux and other open-source software for its … Read more

Developer's pick: iPhone, Android, Zumobi

It's a good time for talented developers. Architects of Web and client-side apps have their choice of dazzling users on not one, but three cutting-edge mobile platforms. There's no shortage of opportunities to create custom Safari apps for the iPhone, and add them to our growing collection of iPhone apps, of course. Developers can also now download the Android SDK (for Mac or Windows) to start measuring and mixing an app for Google's new mobile platform. Inspired developers have a chance to earn a share of the $10 million in prizes offered in the Android Developer Challenge.… Read more

Lessons from Google and Red Hat for Facebook and open source

Something hit me the other day. Perhaps it was two years of education at the hands of Larry Lessig finally sinking in. Or perhaps it was my reading of Gene Simmons' commentary on those pesky kids who steal his music. Whatever the impetus, it finally all came together.

Twentieth century software business models focus on scarcity because they're founded upon 20th century conceptions of property (actually, their origin is a few centuries' older than that, but never mind).

Scarcity is the absolute wrong way to build a software business in the 21st century, with the rise of digitization. It is pointless and fruitless to insist that the digital world act like the physical or analog world, and build business models that conform to this false view. To thrive in the new software world, we need to embrace its changes rather than fight them.

Inspired by Glyn Moody, I wrote a few weeks ago that "in a digital world, the money is in analog." But the principle is actually much deeper than this.

To get at the principle, it's useful to look at the successful business models of a few 21st century pioneers, including Google and Red Hat:… Read more

The second coming of Larry Lessig

Years ago I remember when my then-professor, Larry Lessig, announced that he was hanging up the speaker's mic to concentrate on his research (and to give time back to his family). I pleaded that he would not abjure his freedom fighting. I asked who would take up the mantle in his absence?

Larry's answer was typical of him:

You.

By which he didn't mean "me" per se, but rather those who looked to him to help promote open source, net neutrality, etc. Tim Wu of Columbia Law School has taken up that charge. Tim studied under Larry at Harvard and has been particularly involved in opening up the wireless world to competition, innovation, and capitalism. (Yes, you read that right - it's one of those ironic offshoots of freedom. It tends to lead to greater financial opportunities.)

Businessweek recently profiled Tim and noted the following of his growing influence, from the Googleplex to Capitol Hill:… Read more

In praise of Google

I tend to be pretty hard on Google. I suppose it's a case of where much is given, much is expected. Regardless, as I was working yesterday it hit me just how much I use Google. It made me grateful that the company figured out a way to make gobs of cash so that its basic service - search - is free to use 24 hours each day, seven days each week.

How do you use Google? For me, I find myself using it constantly to find the following information:… Read more

Last.fm creates OpenSocial application for Ning

The launch of Google's OpenSocial platform earlier this month might have been more PR than anything, as many of the third-party partners implementing the new developer standard won't be releasing anything for months.

Instead, OpenSocial-related announcements have been rolling out slowly: one of the latest is that social music site Last.fm has created OpenSocial widgets designed for use on Ning, a site that allows any person or business to create a specialized social network. (According to Ning, more than 123,000 networks have been created so far.)

Ning network creators and members can now install the Last.… Read more

Don't expect Google to take on AT&T

Google is lining up financing to bid on wireless spectrum in the Federal Communication Commission's upcoming 700MHz auction, and it's already built a small high-speed wireless network at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., to test out what it could do with the spectrum, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Journal cited sources saying the company is planning on bidding in the auction, set to take place early next year. Google has obtained a test license from the FCC that it's using to test technology on a small wireless network on its campus, the article said. … Read more