Tag: BUZZ

Yesterday, Google announced that it had reached a settlement in a class-action privacy lawsuit targeting its Buzz social networking service. But instead of issuing another boring old press release, the company was mandated to reveal the settlement details in an e-mail addressed to those whom the lawsuit concerns most -- its Gmail users. "Google rarely contacts Gmail users via e-mail, but we ...

Google News got a major overhaul last night, and, as you'd expect, the site's major changes revolve around user autonomy. The news aggregation site now lets you choose to view stories in headline or section view, and, with the help of a drop-down menu, more easily shares stories on Facebook, Twitter, Buzz or Reader. The revamped version of Google News will also provide more local news and events, ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... When free services like Twitter and Google crash, users may caterwaul and whine, but the sites don't immediately suffer from significant revenue loss. Outages certainly penalize online retailers, though. Amazon endured a rare three-hour crash yesterday, leading to a 7.8-percent drop in shares by the market's Tuesday close. Based on ...

We love the various features that the Google Apps labs add to our favorite Web tools. The latest one, which can be found in the labs settings in Gmail, automatically embeds a map in your e-mails and Buzz messages, if they contain a recognizable real-world address. Until now, checking an address in Google Maps required copying the address, opening maps, pasting it in the search box and hitting ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... After 12 suicide attempts, an undercover expose and a public statement from Apple, Foxconn factory officials finally vowed to take meaningful steps in addressing the tragic and surreal phenomenon. The Chinese gadget factory will reportedly implement 20-percent pay raises for its employees, who start out earning $130-per-month to ...

AT&T's Buzz (not to be confused with Google Buzz or Yahoo! Buzz) was officially launched today, after getting its initial teaser announcement in January. Buzz.com (as we'll be calling it to differentiate it from the other Buzzes) attempts to leverage AT&T's vast Yellow Pages database, subscriber pool, and large wireless network in order to create a money-making, location-based, social ...

When Google launched Buzz, the service immediately became a lightning rod for criticism from privacy advocates. Many people ended up having their list of most frequent Gmail contacts exposed to the entire Web. One of those people included Andrew McLaughlin, the Deputy White House CTO. This would, of course, be of little concern to anyone, except that McLaughlin's list of most frequently ...

Google may be relatively new to the social networking scene, but the company is proving to be a quick study. After the undeniable debacle that was the Buzz launch, Google moved quickly to clean up the mess it had made by automatically connecting users to their most frequent contacts. Now, the company is planning to completely reboot its privacy settings, and, starting today, will be asking ...

Share Facebook is taking a break from the constant, user-infuriating redesigns to add an honest-to-goodness new feature -- location updates (which will probably be user-infuriating, anyway). Location awareness is all the rage for social networks as GPS has become a standard feature on most smartphones. Twitter, Google Buzz, Google Latitude, and Foursquare have all tightly interwoven these ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Last year, a Roman Catholic bishop urged believers to give up text messaging for Lent, and, this Ash Wednesday, other religious leaders are expanding on that suggestion. Instead of encouraging church members to avoid chocolate or other trivialities, a group of English bishops has asked that Anglicans engage in a complete ...

Google Buzz may still be in its infancy, but it already has one obvious leg up on its competition: speed of evolution. Facebook may seem to have an endless line of facelifts, but its response to user criticism is slow at best. Twitter, on the other hand, has been slow to roll out new features and tweak the interface, often announcing changes months in advance. Meanwhile, Buzz has been out for ...

Share There's plenty of excitement around Google's new Buzz social networking tool right now, but, as is the case with any new technology, there are also concerns. Questions have arisen regarding whether it will prove distracting rather than useful (especially when it's integrated into your inbox), and of what the privacy implications will be. Some concern has been expressed over how Buzz ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Google's new social networking system Buzz is already getting heat from competitors. Microsoft, which just so happens to have a deal in place with Facebook, released a statement deriding Buzz because "Busy people do not want another social network." Thanks for clearing that up, Microsoft. [From: Tech Crunch] Twitter is slowly ...

Share Google just announced Google Buzz, a new system for sharing (and commenting on) updates and media both privately and publicly. A social network similar to Facebook and Twitter, Buzz seems to be fully integrated into many of Google's services; you'll be able to access it via Gmail, Google's redesigned mobile homepage, a new dedicated Buzz app, and an updated version of the Google Maps app. ...

Even with talks of a potential buy out from Microsoft and it's imminent demise circulating Yahoo! is continuing to roll out new services and update its products at an almost frantic pace. The company has opened up its search services to third party developers, updated it's corporate focused Zimbra mail server platform, launched a live webcam site, updated it's Yahoo! Video service, picked up ...