Google, Technology | featured news

Yahoo named Henrique de Castro, a Google ad executive, as its new chief operating officer, deepening Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's stamp on the company.

Google wants smartphones and wearable computers to be integrated instead of intrusive, allowing us to ask them to do things without ever lifting a finger... If people are discussing the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies over dinner, for instance, phones will be able to hear that and present a map, she said. Or when you meet someone, your glasses could show you the person’s LinkedIn profile and your last e-mail exchange. “It’s the integration of the digital and physical worlds so no longer are they two relatively separate spheres where you have to make the connection between them,” Ms. Maes said.

Google Inc.'s head of operations in Brazil was detained by the country's federal police Wednesday after the company failed to heed a judge's order to take down YouTube videos that the court ruled violate Brazilian electoral law....

California took the fast lane to the future on Tuesday when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that lets self-driving cars onto public roads. Brown rode to the signing ceremony at Google Inc headquarters in the passenger seat of a vehicle that steered itself, a Prius modified by Google. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and State Sen. Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill, were along for the ride. An engineer for the technology company, Chris Urmson, sat in the driver's seat, but the car drove itself.

A German court has dismissed Apple Inc.'s claim that Samsung Electronics and Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility infringed patents used in touch-screen devices. The Mannheim state court's ruling Friday follows similar decisions in Britain and the Netherlands.

Thank Google Glass for giving us some new insights about Diane von Furstenberg. Last week the 62-year-old designer sent Google’s high-tech spectacles down the runway during her Spring 2013 runway show. Models wore white and pink glasses that filmed as they walked, and the footage was used in the video above, along with excerpts von Furstenberg shot herself.

Google objected to Taiwanese PC maker Acer's development of a smartphone that is powered by a rival mobile operating system, the launch of which was delayed this week.

Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protests in the Middle East... "We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."

YouTube is being reprogrammed for the iPhone and iPad amid the latest fallout from the growing hostility between Google and Apple. The changes are being made because Google Inc. and Apple Inc. didn't renew a five-year licensing agreement that established YouTube's video service as one of the built-in applications in the operating system that runs the iPhone and iPad.

Hidden behind Google's search box are a slew of shortcuts leading to so-called "OneBox" results that provide awesome tools and display helpful information quickly and directly. You might think you know them all, but a few are more hidden than others.