Google's +1 is a Buzzkill

The new service will continue where Buzz left off.

Google (GOOG) today released the '+1' Social product that has been rumored for many months.  While it isn't a Facebook competitor, it will offer a way for Google to populate the Internet with its own 'like' buttons, the way Facebook and Twitter have.

Until now, that focus has belonged to Buzz, which coincidentally was in the news today.  Google settled with the FTC over Google's MORE

Google gives Kansas City Gigabit Internet

The first US city that will be the beneficiary of Google 1Gbps fiber to the home is announced.

They might not have a playoff contender, but  Kansas City now has something significant to hang its hat on.  It will soon have the fastest Internet in the US, if not the planet.

Google (GOOG) announced today that it had selected Kansas City as the first community of its rollout of 1Gbps fiber to home. MORE

Google reaches agreement with FTC over Buzz

Google has agreed to receive an independent review of their privacy procedures once every two years as well as a user opt-in requirement before privacy changes are enacted.

In a blog post today, Google (GOOG) outlined an agreement with the FTC over privacy concernes connected to the release of Google Buzz in February of  2010.  Specifically, if users took no action to change defaults, Google disclosed on users' Google profile a MORE

Amazon Android tablet to be called ScratchPad? (Update: unlikely)

The company has registered a set of domain names which seem to point in that direction.

This week, Amazon's (AMZN) legal department began registering lots of domains around the "scratchpad" moniker.  Here's a small sample:

http://whois.domaintools.com/amazonscratchpad.com http://whois.domaintools.com/amazonmwsscratchpad.com http://whois.domaintools.com/mws-scratchpad.com http://whois.domaintools.com/mwscratchpad.com http://whois.domaintools.com/mwsscratchpad.com

'MWS' prefix refers to Marketplace Web Service so the name could also refer to a web app that uses Amazon's services.

Update: TheNextWeb thinks this is the case, saying

The Amazon Scratchpad apps have long been available to developers as tools MORE

It is time to stop thinking of Google as a Search company

Google's "castle" has long been thought of as search.  But the company does so much more, and in fact its mobile platform may be the real common thread.

In a post last week entitled The Freight Train That Is Android, Benchmark Capital General Partner Bill Gurly explains the unprecedented success of Android as a defense, or "moat" around Google's (GOOG) castle.

One of Warren Buffet's most famous quotes is that, "In business, I look MORE

Google Instant search: Coming to an retail website near you

The Instant search technology makes searching for products quicker and easier.

If you are a business that offers products on the web, you want your customers to find what they are looking for quickly.  Google (GOOG) is obviously an expert at such things and has today released an update to its co-opted search engine for retail websites, Google Commerce Search 3.0:

The features are already active on some of Google's partner sites, MORE

IDC: Android global market share at 40% in 2011...

Double the nearest competitor.

Google's (GOOG) Android continues to see high smartphone market share projections from analysts.  Today's comes from IDC who has Android pegged at 39.5% for 2011 while its nearest competitor, the recently cancelled Symbian, drops to just 20.9%.  Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and RIM's (RIMM) BlackBerry both come in at around 15% with Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile/7 and others grabbing the remaining 9% of the market.

I'm willing to buy their MORE

Amazon reveals its Cloud Music Player first

The site will allow web and Android users to stream up to 2GB of music to any device.

Amazon (AMZN) just beat Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) to the Music Cloud with the announcement of their Cloud Player.

Both Apple and Google have been rumored for years to be working on Cloud Music services.  Both companies have picked up start ups - Google picked up Simplify Media while Apple nabbed Lala.

For some MORE

Java's founder goes Google

James Gosling joins Google as it fights Oracle over Java patents.

Google (GOOG) has picked up a major player in the history of Java in James Gosling today.

Gosling left Sun/Oracle (ORCL) in April, saying on his blog,

"As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good. The hardest part is no longer being with all the MORE

The Blackberry PlayBook will run Android apps

First reported by Gleacher & Company analyst Mark McKechnie last year, RIM's Playbook will be able to run apps made for Google's mobile OS.

In December, Gleacher's Mark McKechnie reported that RIM (RIMM) was making its QNX Playbook compatible with Android apps, which currently number over 200,000.

Our checks suggest RIMM is planning to offer Android apps compatibility which would be a HUGE win IF it worked properly. We are skeptical, however, as even MORE