Do Google searches for “facebook” mirror African Internet growth trends?

Google Trends Interest over time allows us to view search trends for specific geographic areas by month. Since Facebook use is synonymous with Internet use in the majority of African countries, we’ve attempted to use search interest for the network to make conjectures about the stage of African Internet growth in each African nation. We’ve …

Google, Yahoo Sued Over ‘Sponsored’ Ads

Law360, New York (May 06, 2013, 10:13 PM ET) — Search giants Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. were sued in California federal court by a car replacement part business accusing them of allowing so-called sponsored advertisements for unrelated firms and competitors to appear next to results for its name that allegedly misdirect potential customers to …

Google’s Eric Schmidt warns on China’s attempts to control the internet

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, has described China as “the most egregious” example of a nation attempting to control the internet, as he hinted at expanding the company’s multimillion-pound transition fund towards British publishers to boost revenues from digital. In an interview with the Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger at the Big Tent Activate …

Prominent Google executive disagrees with company requiring use of real names

In the face of increasing government-led crackdowns on social media, Google should not force Internet users to reveal their real names for some services, including its Google+ social network, said Vint Cerf, a senior Google executive known as a “father of the Internet.”   In an interview with Reuters, Cerf acknowledged that the search giant’s …

Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks

The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce …

Google looks to ditch passwords for good with NFC-based replacement

Google engineers are testing new tools that could replace passwords as the primary way of authenticating identity on the web. Google is currently running a pilot that uses a YubiKey cryptographic card developed by Yubico — a start-up operated out of Sweden and the US, which has produced a two-factor authentication fob that can emit encrypted …