Google watch: news about Google's activities

EU antitrust regulators asked Google's rivals to give feedback on its concessions aimed at ending an investigation.

The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Apple did not violate a Google patent to make the popular iPhones.

Google's rivals to be asked to study its proposals for ending an EU antitrust investigation.

Google has asked its users to become "citizen cartographers" by adding cafes, restaurants, shops and sports centres to its maps.

Google has launched a tool that lets users decide what happens with their email, Google Plus and other accounts after they die.

A group led by Microsoft wants the European Commission to launch an anti-competition investigation into Google.

Google will launch a new version of its Nexus 7 tablet powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor around July, two sources said.

Google's new privacy policy is under legal attack from regulators in its largest European markets.

China's largest search engine Baidu is developing prototype digital eyewear similar to Google Glass, a Baidu spokesman said.

Google has picked 8,000 people in the US to test Google Glass, the company's new Internet-connected glasses.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Richard Branson have linked up with Google to find Britain's most innovative social entrepreneurs.

Google's Chrome and Android operating systems will remain separate products but could have more overlap.

Shipments of tablets running Google's Android will overtake the iPad this year for the first time, research house IDC predicted.

Google's Motorola Mobility unit is to shed another 1,200 jobs as the smartphone maker tries to return to profitability.

Internet platforms like Google cannot be forced to filter every video uploaded by users, an Italian court ruling said.

Google has donated 15,000 Raspberry Pi Model B computers to school children in the UK.

Google is developing a new UK headquarters which could be worth as much as £1bn when finished.

Facebook has unveiled a new search tool that allows people to find answers to questions about their network of friends.

Motorola Mobility has asked a trade panel to drop two key patents from an infringement complaint it filed against Microsoft.

US regulators have ended their investigation into Google and concluded that it had not manipulated its Web search results.

The end of a US probe into whether Google hurt rivals by manipulating Internet searches will not affect the EU's investigation.

Google's navigation tool has returned to the iPhone, months after Apple's home-grown mapping service flopped.

Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake Google's Android software in the United States.

Australia has released draft revisions to their tax laws, intended to prevent large firms such as Google from shifting their income to countries with lower rates of tax, such as Ireland and Holland.

A proposed $22.5m fine to penalise Google for alleged privacy breach is close to winning court approval.

Google has launched a service it hopes will lead to millions of people in the developing world having Internet access and Google's ads through basic mobile phones.

Google requested a public court proceeding conducted in secret in a lawsuit pitting its Motorola Mobility unit against Microsoft.

Google has unveiled a larger version of its Nexus tablet, and updated its mobile gadget and online content offerings.

Google's quarterly results have fallen well short of Wall Street's expectations.

European Union regulators want Google to make changes to its new privacy policy to protect the rights of its users.

Google Maps has added the first underwater panoramic images as it aims to provide the most comprehensive map of the world.

Google placed another big question mark over its plans for the set-top box (STB) business it acquired as part of Motorola Mobility (MMI) at IBC.

Google will cut 4,000 Motorola Mobility jobs as part of a restructuring plan, a Google spokeswoman has said.

Google will pay $22.5m to settle Apple Safari charges, the US Federal Trade Commission says.

Google has updated its voice-based search technology for Apple's iPhone in a bid to take on Siri.

A judge in the Google-Oracle patent case has ordered the companies to disclose the names of journalists on their payrolls.

Google announced on Tuesday that it had bought social marketing start-up Wildfire.

Google has unveiled its Google Fiber service in Kansas City, Missouri, which offers 1 gigabyte per second internet speeds and a TV service.

Google unveiled its first tablet computer this week in the hopes of replicating its smartphone success.

Google says it expects to launch a consumer version of its electronic eyewear in less than two years.

Google will soon unveil its own-brand tablet device, an Asus executive has confirmed.

Google will launch its interactive TV service in the UK next month.

Google said that China has approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings.

Google's self-driven cars will be appearing in Nevada after the state approved the country's first autonomous vehicle license.

Google infringed some of Oracle's copyrights on the Java programming language, a U.S. jury has found.

Google has been fined $25,000 for impeding a US investigation into its data collection for its Street View project.

Jury selection in a high-stakes dispute over smartphone technology between Oracle and Google has begun this week.

Google has unveiled concept designs for augmented reality glasses which can take photos, send emails and display directions.

European data protection agencies believe Google's new privacy policy is in breach of European law, the EU has said.

Microsoft and other firms have complained to the EU about Google+, sources have said.

Google and Facebook removed content from some Indian domain websites on Monday following a court warning.

EU regulators have written to Google calling on the company to halt the introduction of its new privacy policy.

European regulators will bring forward their antitrust investigation into Google to the end of March.

LG Electronics will unveil its first Google TV next week, it has announced.

Google's bid to take over Motorola Mobility has been delayed after EU regulators suspended a January 10 deadline for a decision.

Verizon Wireless has blocked Google's payments app Google Wallet on its latest smartphone Galaxy Nexus this month.

Google is pulling the plug on seven projects, the third so-called ‘spring cleaning’ announcement made since Google co-founder Larry Page took the reins in April.

Google has announced that from 1 January 2012, businesses that use its Google Maps API service will be charged when a new limit of 25,000 map hits per day is exceeded.

Asian handset makers may turn to Microsoft Windows instead of Google's operating system Android after the Google-Motorola deal.

Google has announced that it is to acquire handset maker Motorola Mobility in a $12.5 billion deal.

Google would pay Motorola $2.5bn if it walked away from the proposed $12.5bn acquisition deal, a source has said.

Facebook strengthened its support with games developers on the same day Google launched games on its new social network Google+.

Social media consultancy Intranet Future has launched what’s claimed to be the first UK training course focusing on Google’s recently-launched social media network Google+ has been launched. 

Google+ has attracted 25 million users, making it the fastest website to reach that audience size, comScore data shows.

Google is making its boldest move to take on Facebook after introducing a new social network site called Google+.

Google is being investigated in the US over whether it is using its dominance in the search advertising market to beat rivals.

Google plans to digitise a quarter of a million books from the British Library's collections in an ambitious books project.

Google has admitted it tried to team up with Facebook as it faced an increasingly competitive technology landscape.

Google is facing a lawsuit from PayPal and eBay who claim it stole trade secrets for its new mobile phone 'Wallet'.

Facebook has admitted hiring a PR firm to highlight supposed flaws in Google's privacy practices.

Facebook and Google are separately considering a tie-up with Skype, according to anonymous sources.

Google has bid $900 million for patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks, in an initial "stalking horse" asset sale agreement.

Microsoft has complained to the European Union about Google which it says impedes internet search competition.

Google is seeking the lifting of a temporary court order which has prevented it from updating its Google Street View service in Switzerland for more than a year.

Google has launched a special service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialling a phone number and leaving a voicemail, as Internet access remains cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.

Google's Street View technology is going indoors for the first time - into some of the world's most famous art galleries.

Facebook rolled out an all-in-one messaging service that for the first time allows its half-billion members to communicate with people outside the social network, intensifying a battle with Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for users' Internet time.

Internet search leader Google is not building a social network to compete with Facebook, a company executive reiterated on Thursday, despite an intensifying rivalry between the two leading Internet groups.

The European Union (EU) wants stronger privacy rules to give Internet users more control over how social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google use their personal information.

Google admitted for the first time its Street View cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed - including complete emails and passwords - potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries.

Google is actively negotiating with three television networks that have blocked access to their websites on Google TV, a source familiar with the matter said.

Sony is making its biggest push yet into so-called connected televisions, unveiling a line of Google-enhanced sets that aim to fuse TV and Web content together in the living room.

Logitech showed off on Wednesday its set-top box for the soon-to-be-launched Google TV, the first glimpse of what the Web search giant's television-streaming product will look like.

Google's legal chief called for pressure on governments that censor the Internet, such as China and Turkey, arguing that their blocking access to websites not only violates human rights but unfairly restrains U.S. trade.

Google will launch its service to bring the Web to TV screens in the United States this autumn and worldwide next year, its chief executive said, as it extends its reach from the desktop to the living room.

Google is set to unveil a new feature to its Gmail service that aims to separate a user's important emails from the ones that do not get read often.

Google has acquired Angstro, a startup that sorts news and information across social networks like Facebook, a spokesman for the leading Web search provider said on Sunday.

Google is planning to launch an online music downloading service tied to its search engine, the Wall Street Journal reported, a move that would pit it against Apple and its popular iTunes site.

Australian police have been asked to investigate Internet giant Google over possible breaches of telecommunications privacy laws, the attorney general said on Sunday.

Google is urging its employees to dump Microsoft Windows in favour of Mac OS and Linux citing security concerns, say reports.

Google will sell its Nexus One smartphone to the UK market through Vodafone's shops,

Google's Street View service, which has recently been dramatically expanded, has again driven into controversy by publishing photographs of the entrances to several secret British military bases.

Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt urged the mobile industry to embrace the mobile Web instead of seeing Google as the enemy, in his first speech to the world’s biggest wireless industry fair.

Google’s threat to leave the Chinese market following a hacking attempt on its servers could create a big headache for its cellphone partners, especially Motorola.

Google plans to attack Microsoft's core business by taking on the software giant's globally dominant Windows operating system for personal computers.

Google’s controversial Street View concept is going off-road. The three-wheeled, pedal-powered Google Trike will capture street-level images at places where the car-borne camera cannot go, such as historic landmarks.

England's Highways Agency has made its traffic data available to Google for use within the new Google Maps traffic feature.

Google is betting it can revolutionise wireless Internet service on mobile phones the way that it transformed the search business on PCs.

Taylor Wimpey subsidiary Taylor Woodrow has transferred all its employees onto Google Apps Premier Edition in a move to introduce more mobility and flexibility to the company’s communications, in a move that the company says will save £1m in IT costs.