Google, Technology | featured news

Microsoft is skewering Google again with scathing ads that say as much about the dramatic shift in the technology industry's competitive landscape as they do about the animosity between the two rivals.

After last years' talk of Facebook wanting to acquire WhatsApp, a new report states that Google is interested in buying the popular messenger service. According to DigitalTrends, which is quoting inside sources, WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google. The report states that the deal started four or five weeks ago and adds that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

Google's futuristic Glass headgear will be available before year's end. The device may well be the final step before human-machine interaction moves under our skin — but its wearers may trigger some undesired social reactions from friends and family members, and it may not go over too well at your local watering hole, either.

Regulators in Google's largest European markets are taking joint action to try and force the company to overhaul its privacy policy.

After having its hand slapped for information collection and exposure mishaps -- from Buzz to, most recently, Wi-Spy -- Google is wary of running afoul of regulators over privacy mistakes. Liz Gannes at AllThingsD reports that company sources tell her this fear was part of the reason for the company's unpopular decision to pull the plug on Google Reader: [T]he shutdown wasn’t just a matter of company culture and bigger priorities, sources said.

Google Glass, the tech giant's Internet-connected headset, isn't on the market yet. But that hasn't stopped one lawmaker from trying to keep the eyewear off the highways in his state.

Just in case you’re not convinced yet that 2013 is the year of the smart watch, a new report says that Google is developing one of its own to compete against Samsung’s confirmed device and Apple’s rumored iWatch. According to the Financial Times, Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is working on a wearable connected companion for Android smartphone.

When it comes to internet users, China is all now, but India is going to be bigger in the long run, said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman.

The search giant says it inadvertently removed Digg, in its entirety, from its search engine... Digg, which bears little to no resemblance to the site it once was, is still alive and kicking as a curated collection of top news stories from around the Web -- just not in Google's world. If you queried Google for Digg links earlier this morning, you found that the search giant had no recollection that Digg ever existed. Seriously. As Martin MacDonald, an online marketing specialist, observed in a blog post, Digg disappeared altogether from Google's index.

Google Drive, the search giant’s cloud-based storage service for documents and other files, experienced a “service disruption” this morning according to the company’s status page. Google Inc. issued an update shortly after 11 a.m., indicating a problem “affecting a significant subset of users” who were unable to access Google Drive.