• toogle many googlers

    Google now lets TechCrunch pretend we don't exist

    With a name like SearchWiki, you know it's going to be clever, yet stupid. Google has spent ten years and I don't know how many hundred million dollars refining a rocket-science algorithm for ranking Internet search results. Now, a few Google coders have whipped up a feature that lets you boost or cut the scores of individual websites from your own future searches. For example, grudge-o-matic TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington can click his own posts to the top of any Google search he performs. With one more click, he can remove Valleywag entirely from his life. That frees us to post as many photos of Big Mike's girlfriends as we want. Everybody wins! Personal note to Google engineer Amay: Next time you make a video, try to go longer than seven seconds without saying "cool."

    11:40 AM on Fri Nov 21 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    459 views, 10 comments

    Most discussed sample032: Finally I'll be able to ignore search results from the tech support website (its name escapes me) that requires registration more »

  • virtual worlds

    Second Life's death knell

    Google has shut down Lively, a service where people log on to chat and explore 3D virtual spaces, after a few short months. The MBAs of Silicon Valley have a pat phrase for the arrival of a competitor on the scene: They say it "validates their space." What does it say, then, that Lively is gone? It means that Second Life, the best known of these unreal universes, is doomed, too. More »

    10:40 AM on Thu Nov 20 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    6,903 views, 29 comments

    Most discussed That-Username-is-Already-Taken: If Google shut down Knol, Would Wikipedia need to worry? What about their social network (whose name I can't even remember) more »

  • the olds

    Vint Cerf's dream of porn in space comes true

    NASA deemed successful a month-long test of image transfers to and from the Epoxi space probe, currently 20 million miles away somewhere near Mars. Alleged Internet inventor Vint Cerf helped NASA design the enabling technology, known as Delay Tolerant Networking, a decade ago. (I know: What does that guy do now?) More »

    3:20 PM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    664 views, 4 comments

    Most discussed Incognito: So, uh, what happens in space stays in space? Can you get sticky keyboards in zero gravity? I really don't more »

  • your privacy is an illusion

    Google CEO has no time for your privacy

    Is Google becoming the king of the Web? Well, duh — that happened about five years ago, before anyone really noticed. But activist groups, now and again, worry about whether Google knows too much about us. Yesterday, Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson quizzes Google CEO Eric Schmidt about whether his company is doing enough to guard our privacy. More »

    2:20 PM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    999 views, 6 comments

    Most discussed ShreemayiDexamenus: I don't understand why anyone expects Google to protect your privacy on search. They are not a utility. They are more »

  • rumormonger

    Google CEO pulled over for driving with a cell phone

    No man is above the law — not even multibillionaire Google CEO Eric Schmidt. At least that's what we hear from a well-placed tipster, who says Schmidt recently confessed to having been pulled over by the cops last month in Los Angeles for talking on his cell phone while driving. (California law recently changed to require the use of a headset.) Oh, but it gets worse for Schmidt. More »

    1:20 PM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    10,953 views, 18 comments

    Most discussed MissVolare: Don't dial & drive: like the CHP needs more crap laws, besides "driving while minority," to enforce. I've started asking more »

  • exits

    Is Yahoo done with search?

    Among the many windmills Jerry Yang tilted at in his brief career as Yahoo's CEO was his devotion to Web search. It veered on an obsession for him. It played into his decision to resist Microsoft's offers to shower him with cash, first for his whole company, then for just its search business. Is it a coincidence, then, that Yahoo's top search engineer has left a day after Yang stepped down? A tipster tells us Sean Suchter resigned yesterday, and speculates that he may be joining Microsoft. More »

    10:20 AM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    10,399 views, 14 comments

    Most discussed CurtisHippomedon: Am I to believe Yahoo doesn't have an iron clad NDA with its employees preventing them for working for the more »

  • The Human Stain

    Googlers take turns insulting P&G marketers

    Nothing, it seems, can stop Google — except the overweening hubris of its employees. Every time Googlers venture outside the Googleplex to demonstrate their charitable embrace of the digitally unfortunate, they end up just reinforcing their snobby superiority. So it went with the search giant's job-swap program with starchy old-media marketer Procter & Gamble. More »

    11:20 PM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    5,959 views, 9 comments

    Most discussed Mouser_UK: how does a 50's era TV ad apply at all to todays market i'me sure we all laugh or wince more »

  • stocks

    Why founders win

    Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like to talk about their hopes of "changing the world." Yes, of course: Changing the world from one in which they are poor to one in which they are fabulously wealthy. The question in the air is whether the founders of companies do a better job at creating wealth, for themselves and their investors, than professional managers. With Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang's plans to step down as CEO, it would seem like a losing time for founders. But Yang is an exceptional case; he took his hands off the steering wheel when Yahoo had a mere five employees, and never really ran anything until he stepped in as CEO last June. Most founders of successful startups eagerly seize power, and have to be forcibly dislodged from the driver's seat. The best never let go. Just take a long-term look at the stock market, and you'll see why. More »

    Feature

    11:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,008 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed TinaTyndareus: There's something to be said about being in the right place at the right time. No such thing as luck. more »